by Liz Schulte
Olivia squeezed her eyes closed, and a tear trickled down her cheek. She reached out and took Quintus’s hand with her free hand, and to my shock, I didn’t even want to kill him. The silence in the room broke completely. Loud protests filled the air, and people began to stand and jeer. The little man, Ezra, tried to quiet them, but he was ignored. The people here didn’t know Olivia, they didn’t care about me, but they loved Quintus.
“Enough!” Ezra shouted, losing his calm authoritative pretense. The seven people in the chairs surrounding the stage stood up and moved to stand behind the four elders on the stage. “As you wish, Quintus.” He waved his hand in the air, and a brass box the size of a small room appeared with similar etchings as those at the warehouse.
The three of us stepped forward as one.
The room began to shake and shift like there was an earthquake. Olivia tightened her grip on mine. “I told you not to come,” she whispered.
Before I could reply she was torn from my hands.
“You dare attack your people?” Ezra wrapped an arm over her neck and held a glowing hand over her chest threateningly. He backed her toward the animaphagist doors.
“If you would like to see an attack on your people, by all means keep a hold of her,” I growled.
“I am not scared of you, jinni,” he jeered.
“That’s your first mistake.” I stalked toward him, ready to snap his little neck. The room continued to shake, then flexed like it couldn’t contain the power within its walls.
“Holden, don’t. It’s my destiny,” Olivia said, not even struggling against Ezra.
“I am your destiny.” I grabbed Ezra’s glowing hand and, ignoring the pain that ripped through me, twisted it until I heard a loud snap. His good hand released Olivia to attack me. My fist connected with his jaw at the same time he sent a bolt of light into me that lifted me from the ground. Olivia screamed and thrashed her way toward me, but was intercepted by James. I collected my energy and let the smoke form. A moment later I was behind Ezra. “Two can play at that game.” I sent pain into him using all the rage I had buried from when she broke our connection.
Ezra screamed, but didn’t buckle. He flung around and pushed me back into two waiting elders.
Ezra strode to Olivia, wresting her from James. “You are the root of all this discord. You will die first.”
I looked for Quintus, but he was confined by someone from the group of seven. His plan didn’t work quite the way he anticipated.
“Ezra, you can’t intend on executing her still,” James protested. Large cracks spread up the walls of the room.
“She has caused nothing but problems. She has disrupted the balance.”
“I too want to change my vote,” the blond elder said, not letting go of me.
“Can’t you see she is a danger to us all, to our whole way of life? She has to go. There is no other choice.” As Ezra finished his sentence, he flung Olivia into the room. The door slammed shut.
I tore myself from the hands grasping me, trying to hold me with light. I heard someone scream, “No—,” but I was already moving. I yanked on the handle, but it didn’t budge. The entire auditorium rumbled. Chaos erupted around me and I fell to my knees in front of the door. Walls began to crumble, people scrambled and fell into one another, and the room shuddered as a blinding light filled it.
THIRTY FOUR
My body was at war with itself, and it was a bloody battle. The tearing, ripping, and severing taking place beneath my skin was like no other torture. It was as if I was being pulled apart, like my skin was stretching until it could go no further, ‘til it cracked and split apart—only it wasn’t my skin. It was something infinitely worse. My very being was shredding, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I couldn’t cry out. I burned and wished for death, but the slow methodical pull on me, never relinquished, never eased. I couldn’t believe they did this to people just for retiring.
Maybe if I stopped fighting it, it would cease. Maybe if I let go and accepted my fate, it wouldn’t hurt so much—but Holden wasn’t supposed to be here. If I left now, what would happen to him? Would they kill him? I couldn’t die. He needed me. I forced my eyes open, but it wasn’t any different than having my eyes closed. The darkness around me was void of all light and devoured any that I could produce. I curled into a ball and fought to think. If letting my light out resulted in that much agony, maybe pulling it in would have the opposite effect. It was worth a shot. I used every ounce of strength and focus. The pain flagged slightly, but it still chewed at me.
I pulled in tighter. Maybe I could wait them out. I don’t know how long I stayed tucked into a fetal position, but somewhere very far away I felt something shift in me. Then it was like familiar hands lifted me from the ground and crushed me into a wonderful, hard, safe hug. I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t see, but I could feel. The pain eased and my mind cleared. I let the strength wrap around me and I surrendered to it. What sounded like my own voice in my mind told me I would be okay. I needed to hold on.
“Uriel,” my voice rang in my head, but I didn’t think the words.
“Welcome back,” Uriel’s voice echoed.
“Is it time?”
“Whenever you are ready.”
My skin steeled and confidence coursed beneath it. I trusted this part of myself to keep me safe. The relief was instant. I drifted through time and space with no concept of what was passing. I became aware that I was now standing, but it wasn’t important. I wasn’t in control any longer. A warm blanket of white noise covered me until I couldn’t see or hear anything. It wasn’t possible to resist it, so I surrendered. If this was death, it wasn’t so bad. Why had I been fighting against it for so long? My body eased, starting in my fingertips and traveling up my arms through my shoulders into my body and down to my toes. I went toward to the light with the last hope that Holden would be okay without me.
THIRTY FIVE
When Ezra threw Olivia into the room, Jace’s face lit in victory. I fought against him to get to Holden, who had already fallen to his knees. Why hadn’t the animaphagist worked? Juliet entered before I left, yet no one was reacting.
“What have you done?” I said to Jace.
His vice-like grip on me didn’t weaken. “I have saved us all,” he said. “Ezra will not escape punishment for killing a wrongly accused girl when there was dissent among the elders. His time is through.”
“Let me go.”
“I cannot let you ruin this, Quintus. I have done too much, sacrificed too much to not see it through to the end.”
Jace brought forth a holding chair and forced me into it. Struggling was pointless. I watched the room disintegrate. The jinni hadn’t moved. He knelt outside, staring at the door. His face wasn’t void of emotion as it so often was. Instead it was pinched in fear, grief, and barely breathing hope. He didn’t seem to be aware the building was crumbling around him. He didn’t budge when a light very like the one that saved us all in the warehouse filled the room until I couldn’t see. When it faded, all the guardians trying to escape were stunned and motionless, but the jinni hadn’t moved an inch or changed his expression.
“Stop,” whispered a warm, comforting voice. Despite the chaos and noise, every person heard and obeyed. “Please take your seats.”
The guardians all made their way through the rubble back to the galley. The elders looked at each other, but didn’t speak. Holden was the only one who showed no response to the voice as he continued to stare at the door. A loud groan came from next to me on the stage. Jace fell to his knees, choking. His skin rippled and streaks of black and red spread through him, darkening and lightening, shooting and creeping. He clutched his head and cried out again. At first I thought he might be under attack. Perhaps the voice was punishing him for setting Olivia up, but as his body shimmered and convulsed I understood. Ezra never was the traitor.
“Why?” My voice was low, yet it carried throughout the room. “Why did you kill them?”
�
��What did you do, Quintus?” he gasped.
A man with a smooth inhuman face and bright blue eyes stepped forward and watched with curiosity as black and red lines gnawed at Jace’s light. The stranger turned his head to me and blinked. The chair I was trapped in disappeared. An angel, an actual angel. I didn’t know what to do so I stared. “I too am curious, Quintus,” he said. “Please explain.”
I shook my head to clear the rush of thoughts. “Jace has been draining guardians of their abilities. Olivia and Holden found the animaphagist and the jinni he had been working with. I put her in the room, hoping it would drain his power through the connection he set up with her and reveal the traitor to us all. I wasn’t positive it would work—I thought it hadn’t.”
“Clever.”
“Olivia.” I looked to the room then back to the angel.
He smiled. “Soon. Carry on with whatever you were going to do.” The angel stepped back.
Jace moaned as I half lifted, half dragged him to the elders’ feet. “Here is your traitor.”
They stepped back in horror as a jagged black streak climbed his face.
“A jinni wouldn’t cause such a reaction.” James frowned studying him.
“She was connected to him through runes, the same runes he used to try to prevent me from coming here today.”
“Jace?” James asked.
“Help me,” he begged.
“Why?” I asked again. “Why would you do it?”
Jace gasped. “I did it for everyone. You were here, Quintus. You have witnessed what they are like.” He looked to the high elders. “You ignored the missing guardians. You sent more to me like lambs to the slaughter. You made this possible.” He coughed and choked. “We needed change, but I couldn’t be elevated from my position. I spoke to Ezra about it several times. I was a low elder and would always remain one, so I had to increase my power. I had to be strong enough to bring an end to their reign. I sacrificed a few for the good of everyone. I did it for all of you.”
“What about Olivia? Why her?”
He closed his eyes. “When you brought her to me, I had never seen power like hers. I knew I had to be much stronger. I couldn’t kill enough guardians to gain her power. I needed her. You were never supposed to have been captured, my friend. I wanted her. With her strength I could have taken over. I would have done a better job than any of them—and she didn’t want to be here anyway.”
“You murdered people, Jace. Guardians and humans. You sent the jinni on killing sprees.” I shook my head.
“Not murder, no. Acceptable losses. This is a war. Juliet had to distract Olivia and Holden. They were catching on too quickly. I needed more time.” The last word was a mere hiss and his eyes flashed. “I couldn’t bear it another moment.” He groaned against a fresh ripple of black that began to spider across his cheek.
“But demons. You gave them to demons.”
“No, I had nothing to do with that. The jinn did it on their own.”
Holden appeared beside me, his face now blank and detached. He lifted Jace from the floor. “You did this to her.”
Another stain popped onto Jace’s neck, feeding the black that crept through his veins, taking root in him.
“Help me, please … please,” Jace pled in vain.
Everyone stared in silence.
“I can help him,” Olivia’s voice echoed in the room.
THIRTY SIX
The entire room moved back. I nearly dropped the guardian Jace when I saw Olivia, my relief was so overwhelming. We stared at each other, but something was different. She looked foreign somehow, not quite right. Her face was smoother and her eyes more pronounced, but it was the stillness that stood out the most. A blue-eyed man stepped forward and embraced her, but she did not lift her arms to return the gesture.
“Welcome back,” he said in a too familiar voice. He didn’t look like the man from the bar, but his voice and the eyes were the same.
“Uriel,” I mumbled to myself—and the bastard had the nerve to wink at me.
Olivia looked around the room almost blankly. Jace’s hands clawed at my arm, but I ignored him and watched her.
She looked at the angel and gave him a sharp, efficient nod. “Uriel.”
He nodded back in much the same way. “How are you feeling?”
“Like myself again.” Her voice was cold, but its sound was like wind rustling through leaves, unimaginably soft and inviting. Her eyes lingered on the huddled group of elders. A small smile that wasn’t friendly lifted the corner of her mouth. “Shall we?” she asked.
Uriel turned his gaze to the elders and tilted his head. “You, you, you, you, you and you,” he said, pointing to six of the ones that were on the outside ring, “may step back.”
Olivia drifted forward and inspected each person remaining as if they were some strange species. “Have a seat,” she said, and five identical chairs appeared behind each remaining elder. In unison their knees buckled and they slammed into their seats. She walked over to me, but her eyes never strayed in my direction. She put her hands on Jace’s shoulders and pushed him back to the floor. I released my hold and she walked him to his chair. “I know you are in pain,” she said. “Let me help you.”
Jace was white with fear and his eyes didn’t meet hers.
“Do you understand why what you did was wrong?” She leaned in close and his mouth moved next to her ear. She listened with a serious expression then laid her hand on his head. Starting from his scalp and traveling down, he flaked into a pile of ash.
She moved to the next person in line, James. He did not flinch, but a bead of nervous sweat trickled down his temple. This Olivia was calm and terrifying, but at least she was alive. I could accept that. “You may go,” she said, looking at him.
He swallowed hard and stood up. “Thank you.” His voice cracked slightly.
Her unblinking stare was redirected to him. “There is no need to thank me. You did nothing to warrant punishment. See it stays that way.” She looked at the woman elder next. “Constance, do you have anything to say?”
The woman squeaked then cleared her throat. “I didn’t know—”
“That I was an angel? Should that have made a difference?”
Constance’s throat bobbed up and down as she gulped. “But you did consort with jinn.”
“Have you been in an animaphagist?”
Constance shook her head with wide eyes.
Olivia stepped over to stand between the remaining two people, leaving Constance gaping at her. “Phillip, would you care to tell me what happened? Ezra?”
When neither of them responded, she glanced over at Uriel and shrugged in a very Olivia type manner—the first human gesture she had made. Uriel nodded and she reached out to both of them.
“Wait,” sputtered Phillip.
She stilled and looked at him.
“It was Ezra’s idea to make an example of you. He said that regardless of whether or not you did everything you were accused of, you had shunned our ways and our rules. If we let you off, then we would have an uprising. We couldn’t let it stand and maintain authority.”
Olivia’s head tilted to the side, but she didn’t look the least bit fazed. I was less forgiving. “Why was I not treated as an elder?” she asked.
“Because once again we were overlooked and ignored. We had not been praying for an additional elder and we didn’t want you.” Ezra’s eyes flashed at her. “It is bad enough we were abandoned here like we were nothing and forced to shepherd these vile, corruptible, ignorant humans.” He spat out the word as if it were a profanity. “But then to be given a new elder with no respect for our ways. Were we not angels just like you? What made you so much better than us? Why should you get to stay in Heaven while we are forced to live on earth in our purgatory? All for humans, too. They are not worthy of saving. Let hell have them. Bring us home.”
“Did you alert hell to my presence before the change?”
“Yes.” He looked at her coldly, and I h
ad the urge to hold his heart in my hand.
“And how long did you know about the disappearances?”
“From the first. I kept them from the others.”
“Why?
“I saw an opportunity.”
Uriel frowned as if he didn’t understand. “But it is your station, what you were made to do. You have never lived in Heaven. How could you want anything different? What did you hope to accomplish by sabotaging her? How would that have changed your situation?”
Ezra’s jaw tightened. “You will kill us regardless of what we say. Why should we tell you anything?”
I cleared my throat, and all of them turned toward me. “If I had to guess, I’d say he wanted to start a war.”
Olivia’s eyes met mine, but there was nothing familiar swimming in them, no sparks of recognition or a connection hiding beneath. “Because they would lose the battle—”
“And get to go home.” I completed her sentence with a smile. “If they could have declared war on the jinn, we would have defeated them—eventually. But they had to have a reason to declare a war. Your people aren’t fighters by nature. I imagine he let the disappearances go until the public started noticing them.”
Quintus picked up my train of thought. “But it wasn’t moving fast enough for you, was it, Ezra? You tried to get me to send Olivia undercover with the jinn. This was always your plan. It would have worked whether or not she succeeded. If the jinn caught her and killed her, she would have been made into a martyr. If she infiltrated them, she could be a traitor.
It was so simple how Ezra directed everything that the pieces fell together in my mind as I took back over. “Then Olivia came to live with me on her own accord, so you had to modify your plan. You decided to put her on trial and fuel the outrage. The jinn not only turned a guardian, but an elder no less.”
“It is a good story, but how do you know?” Uriel asked me.
“Pride, envy, wrath—all kind of my areas of expertise.”
“Pride.” Olivia sighed. “It gets so many of them.”
