Jumping up and smoothing out her dress, Sophie turned away, "Ah, I'm sorry, I just..." Her voice trailed off and she felt her cheeks burn.
Adam cleared his throat and got to his feet, "No, it's fine. It's definitely fine."
"Thank you," Sophie told him quietly, trying very hard not to look at him, "I know that probably wasn't easy to say."
"It was nothing." She peeked up at him and saw he wore a big, goofy grin. "I have an idea," he told her as the two walked back out onto the path and headed back from where they had come, "Something that might make you feel better, but it will have to wait for tomorrow."
Sophie yawned, "What is it?"
"I think we should try getting your powers back."
Chapter 13
“This is hopeless!" Sophie declared, crossing her arms as she turned to the others, "I can't do it. I'm not like you guys; I don't have any fireballs or fangs," she peered around at the group of assorted astral beings and pointed at herself as if speaking to a child, "I-am-hu-man."
"You're just trying too hard," Verrine smiled encouragingly, though her eyes read more anxious than anything, "We haven't been working that long, you can't expect to get it right away."
Sophie frowned; they had been standing in the same spot out in the courtyard for hours and she had failed to produce a single extraordinary occurrence. Fears of not being what they thought were slowly creeping back despite the conversation she'd had with Adam the night before. She looked over at him, standing a bit farther behind the rest with Mona at his side, and he offered her a grin.
"Would you like to try again or take a break for a bit?" Pru's calming voice asked. She and Reym had joined them when they announced they would be trying to coax Sophie's powers out of her. The night before, Sophie had been excited about the prospect and looking forward to having a way to defend herself, but now it seemed impossible. Even so, she had to at least try.
She turned back to where the candle stood alone in the middle of the courtyard. "Again," she told Pru and focused solely on the wick. Her head was already throbbing, but she refused to let that steal her attention. It was a simple task: light the candle. It's made to burn, she told herself, you'll be helping it fulfill its purpose. She could feel sweat bead on her forehead and her muscles ached from tensing. She tried not to breath, afraid she'd wreck any sort of concentration she'd achieved. She narrowed her eyes to slits, she felt the heat of flames running through her and imagined the wick springing to life with fire, she could see, just there, the tiniest wisp of smoke trailing up from the candle.
Sophie gasped, opening her eyes wide, relaxing her muscles, and took a step toward the candle. It had been there, hadn't it? The smoke? A hint of fire? She took another step, craned her neck. Was it really?
"God!" Sophie exploded and stomped her feet. The wick was still untouched, without charring.
"No, we usually don't get help from there," Verrine joked as she put a hand on Sophie's shoulder.
"This doesn't seem right," Mona spoke up. When they all looked to her, she hesitated, "What I mean is, I've seen Sophie use her powers before and she didn't conjure fire. Not really."
"She used to be able to conjure fire," Verrine challenged, thrusting her hands onto her hips.
"Yeah, sure," Mona took in a deep breath and cocked her head, "But that was a different body. What she has done, in this body, is something else. And it wasn't like she knew she could do it, it was all on emotion," she addressed Sophie directly, "Do you remember, in the alley, you wanted to help me?"
"Yeah," Sophie thought back to when she and Mona in danger. She had used some powerful, white light to repel her attacker, the same light she'd used on Eric, "I was scared."
"So fear—that's an emotion," Mona spoke faster as the idea came to her, "Maybe you don't need to focus on the result, but on a strong emotion."
Verrine huffed, "Do you want us to scare her?"
"Uh, no," Mona stared daggers at the demon, "Some emotion that she's feeling now. Just something strong."
At that moment Sophie felt frustrated and hopeless; two things she suspected wouldn't even light a match, but, beneath that, she held onto something that spilled over from the previous night. She glanced at Adam then back to the candle.
Sophie closed her eyes and remembered when she lunged at Adam. Embarrassment hit her first and a fluttery tickle ran through her that she pushed past. That wasn't what she'd wanted. She remembered his words, how he'd told her his story—it was what he had to give to her, he'd said. That filled her with gratitude. And then the way he'd held her when they laid in the grass, the look on his face, the warmth that she'd felt, and—
"Soph!"
Verrine's voice jolted her out of the memory. She opened her eyes onto the candle, or what was left of it, and saw a small flame flickering on a puddle of wax just before it went out. She spun, "Did I?"
Verrine was nodding with her mouth open in a wide grin, "Yes, you did!" then she grabbed her friend and smashed her to her chest.
Sophie hugged her back, catching Adam's eye as she did so. She tried to look meaningfully at him and as Verrine pulled away, Sophie mouthed a 'thank you' to him.
"Um, why don't you work on that with Pru and Reym," Verrine told her, "And Mona can help with moral support, apparently. I will be right back."
As Pru, Reym and Mona gathered around her, Verrine stepped back and, when they looked busy, she turned to Adam without a word, took him by his sleeve, and pulled him from the courtyard to the covered walkway that surrounded it. Stepping behind a column, she frowned and narrowed her eyes at him, "So, no ties, huh?"
"What are you talking about?" Adam distractedly tried to peer around the column to watch Sophie.
The demon huffed, "I'm talking about last night, in the garden."
He glanced at her, "Oh, that. Spying, were you?"
"I knew you'd be there, and I wanted to talk to you after I met with the guards, but I wasn't expecting to see both of you."
His eyes widened, "What do you see?"
"Was there something I shouldn't have seen?" she was quick to snap back at him.
He shook his head and went back to watching the others.
Verrine tried to make eye contact with him, "So what happened then? What was that?" Adam craned his neck to watch Sophie more clearly, seemingly ignoring her, but she growled and grabbed his chin, forcing him to look at her, "What are you thinking?"
Adam moved her hand from his face but finally gave her his attention, "Why are you so upset? You were the one who wanted her to know everything."
Verrine looked as though she could spit fire, "No. Not if you're still planning to leave."
"It's not like..." Adam looked at the ground and shuffled the dirt with his foot, "It's harmless."
"Harmless?" Verrine's voice rose then came back down to a shrewd whisper, "How can you say that?"
"Verrine..."
"You say you want to protect her. Do you realize that this—all of this—happened when she thought you were dead?" Adam pleaded with her to not continue, but she did, "And it turns out you weren't dead."
"That's not fair, I—"
"No," she held her hand up to his face, "I don't want to hear it. You said yourself that Sophie has a chance at a different life. We might disagree about what's better, but I can't make that decision for you. What I can do is protect my friend, so I just need to know one thing: are you going to tell her the truth?"
Adam looked around Verrine and the column. Reym stood beside Sophie and was guiding her arm in an arcing motion. He recognized the look in the demon guard's green eyes.
"Because I'll tell her the truth," Verrine had risen up on her toes and had her face inches from his.
"No," Adam whispered then took a deep breath as Verrine too relaxed, "No, please. I can't do that to her."
Verrine narrowed her eyes and balled her fists by her sides, "Then don't." She turned on her heel and stormed back to Sophie. He followed a few moments later.
Carabia the
n came running toward their group from the far gate of the wall. Buer was trailing behind her, slower, but with a much longer stride. The tiny demon looked very pleased as she skipped up to the others, "Recruits ready!" she announced, dropping into the typical salute with a little hop.
Buer dragged himself up beside her and rested his hands on his knees taking in big puffs of air. He began to slide down onto one knee as well until Sophie begged them to stop. He looked visibly relieved as he straightened himself and took one big hand and brushed at his fiery beard, "Thanks, milady. This one's impossible to keep up with."
"Nonetheless, we make a fabulous team, you should have seen us out there, we got so many of the old troops, and they are ready and on their way here, should be ready in a few days."
Carabia's voice was high and squeaky and she bounced from one foot to the other as she spoke, but Sophie had caught most of what she said, "Troops?"
"Great," Verrine looked about, "Where's Thanatos? He needs to get quarters ready for them."
"I'll find him!" Carabia offered, quickly bounding off toward the castle.
"And I'll just wait here," Buer wandered over to a stone bench and dropped down with a heavy thud.
"Why do we need troops?" Sophie asked cautiously, but loudly.
Verrine turned with an uneasy smile, "Yes, that. Let's talk, okay?" Pru and Reym stayed behind and Verrine guided Sophie toward the castle, Mona and Adam not far behind. "So, since the strigori have the book now, we're fairly certain something is going to come of all of this."
"But we're safe here." She realized as the words came out they sounded childish and pithy.
"We are as long as Agrippa isn't around. But if they can resurrect him we may have a problem. He knows how to get here and much of his magic originates from these very walls. His powers will be comparable to ours. By now they've formed their own army; we can't afford to not have one."
Sophie knitted her brow. She didn’t want an army to be a necessity, "But why would they come? They have the book and getting Agrippa back was their whole plan, so if they can do that, what's the point?"
Verrine looked uncomfortably back at the other two. Mona set her face hard and continued for her, "It's you. Agrippa wants you. I don't know why, but it's more than the fact you'd be able to read the book and resurrect him."
"So you're raising an army to keep him out,” her stomach flipped, “To protect me?"
"Yes," Verrine was quick to grab her arm and answer, "And our whole kingdom. Agrippa is an enemy of the entire realm. He wants Meririm's power. He wants to take over. We will stop him, and if it must come to war, it must."
Sophie looked down at the ground, "It just seems like this is something that could be solved differently. Like, maybe we can go to them first, stop them from coming here. The four of us, we can stop them before they start. We can get the book back and—"
"No," Verrine shook her head, "No, we, well—you won't be fighting."
"That doesn't seem right—"
"The demons we are enlisting, they're willing to die for this kingdom," she looked earnestly back at Sophie.
"Shouldn't I be as well?" Sophie answered quickly.
"Don't talk like that," Verrine furrowed her brow and pouted, "It's different with them—this is what they do. You just melted a candle today, so let's not get too ahead of ourselves."
“I don’t want to be useless,” Sophie told her, shaking off her hands and rounding on them. She felt nervous and sick to her stomach. It was a too familiar feeling, “I don’t want anyone to die because of me.”
***
"Sophie?" The feminine voice roused her from her sleep and she blinked into the darkened room. She didn't know how long she'd been asleep, but could feel the eerie silence of the rest of the castle weighing down on her, and she listened hard for other sounds. When none came, she pushed herself to a seated position on the bed, feeling more exhausted than usual, and looked about for the voice.
"Princess," the voice sounded from the corner of the room, "Welcome back."
Sophie contemplated running, but her fear and an overwhelming fatigue held her to the spot.
"Don't worry, I'm not here to harm you," the voice cooed, somehow reading Sophie's mind, then let out a little laugh, "I couldn't if I wanted to." From the corner, a woman stepped, still half-drenched in shadows, pale-skinned, and tall with long, spiraling, yellow hair falling to her wide hips. She wore a satiny dress, formal with a high collar and full sleeves, and the room echoed with each of her steps. As she came closer, she appeared doll-like with smooth, almost glassy skin and stiff movements.
"What do you want?" Sophie spoke slowly, mentally preparing herself to use her powers, though unsure whether she would be able to muster them.
"What do I want?" the woman smiled gently, stepping completely from the shadows, "This isn't about what I want. This is about what you want."
Sophie drew in a quick breath and covered her mouth, but couldn't tear her gaze away from the milky, white eye the stranger had just revealed. In contrast to the other, sparkling blue one, it stood out with a watery sheen, unnatural and unblinking, and frightened her to her core. And yet something eerily familiar struck her. She’d seen this eye before, and its owner had...helped her? Her mind raced around itself, uneasiness setting in.
"Tell me, dear, how are you feeling?" The woman ignored Sophie's reaction.
"Stay back," Sophie held out a hand. She wanted to run, but her limbs felt heavy and she couldn't seem to leave the bed. She shouted for Verrine, knowing she was just on the opposite side of the wall. Nothing happened. "Verrine!" she called again, panic rising in her.
The woman sighed, "I believe she is not coming."
"Adam!" Sophie yelled, straining her vocal cords, "Mona!"
She shook her head, her curls staying neatly in place.
Sophie glared at the stranger, "What did you do to them?"
"Darling, I came to talk about you, not them." With a few more steps she had come up the foot of Sophie's bed and perched on the edge.
"Tell me what you've done with them!"
"It's not them you should be so worried about," the woman glanced downward at Sophie with a satisfied look.
Sophie looked in the same direction as the woman to see she was not truly herself at all. Instead, she was looking down on her own still-sleeping form, the body she possessed and controlled a transparent shell, attached to the original at the hips. Just as she wondered if she were dead, her solid body shifted, independent, and rolled onto its side through the translucent arm Sophie used to hold herself up. With wild eyes, she looked back to the woman, "What is this?"
"Temporary," she crossed a leg over the other and delicately placed her hands in her lap.
"Is everyone else like this? Are they all right?"
"There you go again," the woman rolled her eye, the other unmoving and unreadable, and sighed. "But that's it, isn't it?" In a quick, stilted motion, she leaned toward Sophie, "You worry about them, not yourself." With a little sniff, she spoke to herself, "How novel."
Sophie wrinkled her nose and leaned away from her.
“You know, death is relative,” the woman looked away from her, “One of your little friends has completely fooled death, and that boy you think is your brother who’s supposed to be dead is standing outside right this very moment.”
“What?” Sophie instinctively tried to stand but could not.
"Out there, in the hall. Our bond has been weakened by time, so I had to use some of his energy to get to you, so you're welcome for that. He is angry, isn’t he?" she smiled, “But I suppose that is to be expected. You play nice now, darling.” She raised an arm and gave a short little wave.
Sophie woke with a start, sitting straight up. She frantically grabbed at the blankets, throwing them away from her, and happily saw that she was a single, intact, opaque version of herself. She paused, listening. It was quiet again, but not like it had been in the...dream? Sophie swung her legs over the bed with ease. Yes, it
must have been a dream, she told herself, standing and wiggling her toes and fingers to be sure every inch of her body was functioning properly. It had been frightfully real; the room she stood in had been perfectly replicated, the memory of the woman's face and milky eye sharp as Reym's arrowheads. She lingered by the bed, glancing back once just to be sure she hadn't left any part of her body behind, then went for the door. The only way to really know, she supposed, would be to check.
The hall was quiet and empty, lit at long intervals by dim torches, and she padded silently with bare feet down the stones. Opposed to what the woman had said, no one stood in wait for her. Guards did not even patrol this part of the castle as it was closed off in the center, Verrine had explained, and that only added to the quiet. Sophie passed by the doors of Verrine, Mona, and Adam, and only his was unlatched. She contemplated prodding it open and peeking inside, but quickly pushed past the idea as well as the door.
At the hall's end, a generous walk from the bedchambers, was an open room with a small fire in its center much like the larger foyer downstairs. She stepped into the warm glow of the space and surveyed it, but it too was empty. It was both a relief and a disappointment; so much had been left unanswered on the Transcendental Plane.
She turned back but noticed the hall had become much darker, even with the glow of the fire behind her thrown into it. The torches, it seemed, were being snuffed out, in succession, darkening the end of the hall and allowing the shadows to creep closer and closer to her.
Sophie stepped back from the darkness instinctually, but her back met with another body that had most definitely not been there before. She gasped just as the fire went out and the room was plunged into darkness.
"Hello again."
The voice, one she knew she should recognize with joy, instantly shot dread into her heart. She jumped away and turned, but could not see him in the dark. Then, her body was lifted in a swift motion and thrown. Sophie slammed into the wall, the wind knocked from her, and gasped for breath as she slid to the ground.
The Nephilim: Book One Page 14
