Enchanting Wilder

by Cassie Graham

  What I am inside, I can’t be with you around.

  You’re an angel—you’re my angel, Declan. You have relationships upstairs to keep and missions I can’t be a part of. Taking over Beneath would mean nothing but trouble for you. I’m only holding you back.

  I know you’re probably pissed at me right now, scowling at the paper, willing it to set fire. Don’t be mad, though. Keep this. Remind yourself of the good I see in you. In the sacrifice I’m making because I know of the greatness you already have. Keep this as a constant reminder of the honest-to-God love I feel for you. Because I do, Declan. I love you so much. As I’m writing these words, my walls are being built up, brick by brick. I’ll never love anyone again the way I have loved you. I have to let you go.

  With everything I am, the good and the bad,

  McKenna

  A hot tear rolls down my face as I crumple the paper in my shaky hands. When I realize what I did, I quickly iron out the wrinkles and smooth the paper over the sheets.

  How could she do this? How could she do this to us? Everything we’ve overcome.

  Broken and alone, I rub my hand down my face, cleaning the traces of her exit away.

  I quickly throw the covers off me and make my way to the bathroom, getting dressed in a flurry of fabric.

  Mind dirty with every possibility of where she could be, I hope and pray she hasn’t made her way to Beneath yet. It takes demon blood to open the gate, and being a half-angel won’t get her in. My only hope is she’s out there somewhere, looking to drain some poor bastard.

  I race through the main house, passing mom, dad, Abigail and Cole. I don’t have time to talk to them.

  Like a mad man on a mission, I bang loudly on Kai’s door with my fists. “Kai! I need to talk to you!”

  I knock and knock and knock but nothing. The other side of his door is dead silent.

  “What the hell’s going on?” Wood opens his door, rubbing his eyes. His pajama bottoms hang low on his hips and he hikes them up.

  I turn to him wild-eyed, pulling at my hair. “She’s gone.”

  He immediately stands up straighter. “McKenna?” he asks. “Why?”

  “She’s going to Beneath to take over. She wants to leave us behind.” I shake my head, pacing the door. “We have to find her.”

  “Calm down, brother,” Wood says.

  Calm down? How can I calm down? She may think it’s a simple acceptance and she’ll be ruler. It’s not. Her becoming the new Maker means The Leaders will officially know of her true identity. The Leaders may all be Strix, but they’re also angels, like Sally. If McKenna, who was under their rule, turns to the darkness, that’ll cause an all-out war between angels and demons. She’s about to tip the already wishy-washy scales, and the favor won’t be in her court. They won’t be in anyone’s court.

  “We have to find her,” I say in a panic. I should have told her all of that.

  I don’t think she knows what’ll happen if The Leaders find her. We didn’t give ourselves enough time to bring them to our side. Help them understand our plan.

  “Get Kai and Candy. You guys need to pack your things. I’ll meet you in The Sting.”

  Running back to the guest house, I load my duffle bag with random clothes and rush inside to tell mom, dad and the Sawyers what’s happening.

  All agreeing it’s best to seek out McKenna, I give them a quick goodbye and head outside.

  Wood, Kai and Candy are already waiting in the car. I throw my bag in the trunk and fall heavily into the driver’s seat. “Where were you, Kai?” I ask a little harsher than I intended. “I came to your room earlier and you didn’t answer.”

  In the rearview mirror, Kai bites his lip. “Sorry, man. I was outside, walking around the house. I just needed to get some air. Candy and I have been trying to channel McKenna all morning. Unfortunately, she’s cut us off.”

  I grit my teeth and start the ignition, the engine’s roar bouncing off the houses in the neighborhood. “Keep trying,” I say, shifting into second gear, my foot practically going through the floorboard as I push the clutch.

  “Head to the entrance of Beneath, Declan,” Kai says. “It’s our best hope right now.”

  I nod and take another look in the rearview mirror as I turn from the Sawyer’s street. McKenna could have left hours ago. If she did somehow find a demon to gain entrance, she’s long gone by now.

  I really hope she wasn’t that lucky…or unlucky.

  As I maneuver my way through the crowded, icy downtown streets of Summerson, the grey, dismal sky above us is an ominous irony to the events of this morning.

  How could I not have seen this coming?

  I could have helped her. Stayed by her side as she maneuvered her way through this new journey in her life. We could have gone to The Leaders as a team and helped them see her new way of ruling.

  “Stop it,” Wood says, his eyebrows creased in worry.

  I turn back to the road. “Stop what?”

  “Tormenting yourself about what you could have done. If McKenna was going to leave, you couldn’t have stopped her and you know it.”

  “I could have,” I say, but even I don’t believe the words myself. McKenna is the strongest person I know. Once she sets her mind to something, she’s going to do it no matter what anyone says.

  “You couldn’t,” Candy says from the back seat. “I know she left without a goodbye, and I’m pissed, too. But, if she did it, she did it for good reason. You have to know that.”

  I’m not so sure.

  Making a right turn toward Gallows Hill, my eyes sting with the words she left me in the note.

  I never got to tell her I loved her, too. Though I do, so damn much.

  I pull to a stop at a red light and Kai gasps.

  My eyes dart to the rearview mirror. “What is it?”

  Kai struggles, his eyes closed, the wrinkles around his eyes more profound than I’ve ever seen them before. “I—I see her. She’s let me in.”

  “What?” I swerve the car, pulling to the side of the road to park. “What do you see?”

  Kai shakes his head, his hands grabbing at the jeans on his legs. “I can’t really tell. She keeps pulling to let me in, but someone’s blocking her.”

  “Maker?” Wood and I ask in unison.

  Kai gasps, his eyes opening with a snap. Unlike his normal brown color, the irises are completely white. “It’s…shit,” he curses for the first time. “I know who it is.”

  “Who?” we all ask.

  “It’s The Leaders. They have McKenna.”

  I unbuckle my seat with lightning fast speed and hop out of the car. “Is she here?” I look to the cross in the middle of the park, there’s nothing there but snow and wilted, dead grass.

  Candy and Wood lead Kai out of the car and into the park just away from the entrance to Beneath. “She is. I can’t see exactly where.”

  “Push through, Kai,” I encourage. “You have a stronger link with her than any of us do.”

  Kai sways to one side. “That’s it. Link hands with me.”

  My eyes narrow and I think we’re all in shock, none of us move.

  “Link hands with me, dammit. By myself, I can’t do much, but with each and every one of us, we can break the wall The Leaders have around her and find out where she is.”

  I immediately grab for Wood’s hand, who takes quick hold of Candy. Candy grabs onto Kai, and I finish the link by taking hold of Kai, too. “What do we do?”

  “Think of McKenna. Only McKenna. Think of your happiest memory and shove it inside our circle.”

  The day after we decided to leave Summerson pops into my head. We’d just stopped at a hotel for the evening and I decided to take her to dinner alone without the rest of the group. I’d been itching to get away with her, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity. We were in the middle of dinner when she had spilled ketchup on her shirt, and the red in her cheeks matched the stain. With embarrassment all over her face, instead of making fun of her the
way I would someone else, I simply wiped the red residue from her shirt and popped my finger in my mouth saying, “Tastes better that way anyway.”

  McKenna blushed, bit her lip.

  That was the exact moment I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. I didn’t know I loved her at the time—that came later. Love is a hard thing to grasp, but I knew in that second she was the only one I wanted for the rest of my life.

  I bottle that memory up inside me and push it with all my might into the circle, and as I do that, Kai, Wood and Candy do the same, a ball of red light emanating in front of us.

  “Holy crap,” Wood says.

  “Don’t let go!” Kai demands. “It’s working! We just have to keep going. Send her every good emotion you have. Make her feel what you feel.”

  The words she said to me in her letter echo through my mind, her love for me and the freight train that I am. How she knew I’d leave her for my angel duties. But what she didn’t know is no matter the duty, Godly or Pursuer, I never intended on leaving. She’s a part of me. Nothing would ever change that. Even if that meant going to Beneath with her. Our lives are entwined. I want forever with her, no matter the circumstances.

  My love, like a freight train she thinks I am, it barrels into the circle, shoving into the red wisps of light.

  “I see her! She’s just outside the entrance of Beneath. They have it spelled, that’s why we can’t see.” Kai breaks his connection with me and I do the same to Wood. “Let’s go,” Kai says, his eyes back to their normal color, walking with purpose to the top of the hill.

  “How are we supposed to penetrate the spell?” Candy asks, the wind picking up.

  “Feel that?” he asks, pointing around us. “They’re trying to block us out, but we’re all her family. We all have a connection to her. They can’t stop us.”

  The invisible force field around the cross is strong, I can’t walk through it but I can see it. I pound on the outside, feeling like an animal in a cage.

  “Let us in, you assholes!” I shout, feeling valiant. If they’re angels, too, I can do something about it. Witch angels, apparently, but I can level with them.

  Sally, McKenna and Candy’s Spirit Guide, materializes in front of us. “You must stop,” she says with melancholy. “A verdict has been reached. The Leaders know of McKenna and her past, and they are to take her to Lazarus.”

  The Leaders’ prison? Like hell that’ll happen.

  “No.” I shake my head. “Help us get in there. I can talk to them.”

  Sally crosses her arms. “I’m sorry, friend, but I cannot. What’s done is done. They see her as a threat. She’s the child of the most powerful demon in the world.”

  “But, you don’t see her like that,” I say. “You have to help me. You have to make them see.”

  She looks down at the ground.

  “Please, Sally. I’m begging you.”

  “Are they willing to hear her out?” Wood asks, stepping closer to me.

  “I’m afraid not,” Sally says. “They sometimes can’t see beyond their ridiculous prejudice.”

  Candy sniffles, and I wrap my arm around her. “Listen, Sally. I’m going to find a way to her. I know where Lazarus is and how to get in. God knows of McKenna’s presence. He won’t allow this to happen.”

  Sally’s eyes drift back to me. “Heaven is a democracy, Declan. God doesn’t have complete say anymore. He birthed too many angels for that.”

  “I don’t believe that. He is King.”

  “He might be King, but his servants are conniving. There isn’t anything I can do.”

  I let go of Candy to stand in front of Sally. “Quit acting like you’re a helpless child. I know of your strength and I know of your sway. You returned my memories, remember?”

  She nods, tears dripping from her eyes.

  “Help us get her back. If they kill McKenna, it’ll be an all out war in her name. That’ll be more bloodshed than any mortal war this world has ever seen.”

  Sally wavers, my words swaying her. She plays with the hem of her shirt, not saying anything.

  “Well?” I test.

  She blinks at me, her mouth turned down. “O…okay.”

  “Yes?” I double check, feeling a little more confident.

  “Yes.” Sally smiles and raises her hands high into the air. “Patefasio!”

  Instantaneously, the concealed barrier dissolves and The Leaders, dressed in all white robes, turn to us. Fifteen or so of them surround McKenna, closing in on her.

  I’m the first to reach the circle. “Leaders, I ask you to let McKenna go and release her to me.” I sound authoritative, but I’m pretty much talking out of my ass. I have no say in what they do but I can sure as hell try.

  One of The Leaders, a woman with jet black hair and coal black eyes, turns to me. “Under what grounds?”

  “I am Aget, and by the order of God, I say you hand her over to me.”

  The group of Leaders laugh. “Aget? The Good angel?” one of them scoffs. “Oh the great and powerful Aget. You’ve been gone for years now. You have no rule over us.”

  I straighten up my back, attempting to look as big as possible. “That may be true, but did God approve this little field trip of yours? You know of McKenna’s origin. You take her or kill her, there will be a war on your hands.”

  A man with drooping skin and sagging eyelids steps forward and, for the first time since we got here, I get a glimpse of McKenna. She sighs at the sight of me, but then instantly goes back to a look of panic as the group closes in on her again, filling the gap of the old man.

  With both hands under the arms of his robe, the man walks to me, his long black boots coming far too close to mine. “A war, you say? Why do you know these things? Are you a traitor?”

  One of my eyes twitches and I stand my ground. “In your eyes, I’m sure I am. But McKenna, she may be half-demon, but she is good. You know of the work she’s done as a Strix to help the world. You’re just going to vanquish her because of the blood that runs through her veins? You’re supposed to be forgiving creatures. The Leaders have been governing for as long as humans have walked this Earth. Are you to kill so easily without hearing what McKenna has to say?”

  The old man thinks for a long minute, his eyes boring holes into my face. “You present a good point, Aget. She has done well for our coven, and though she has demon blood running through her veins, a tiger can change its stripes.”

  I breathe a sigh of relief and I hear Kai, Wood and Candy do the same.

  The ground beneath us begins to open, rattling our bodies. As the entrance to Beneath opens, Maker steps out in her long, red flowing dress, a black staff in hand.

  The Leaders all stare at Maker with unbelieving eyes, but they don’t budge from McKenna.

  “Ah, ah, ah,” Maker chastises, wagging her finger. “You are to let my daughter go now.”

  The woman with the jet black hair steps up. “And why would we do that, demon?” she spits, disdain clear in her tone. “You are nothing but a tick, stuck to the underside of this world. Go back to where you came from.”

  Maker laughs. “Say what you want, but you know I could take you out with the snap of my fingers. Allow her freedom and I will take pity on your little motorcycle group of idiots.”

  The Leaders gasp and Sally gives me a hard stare, pushing me to jump in.

  “Everyone listen up,” I say, commanding their attention. Before my fall to Earth, I was able to command thousands of soldiers. Gathering a group of holier than thou witch-slash-angels and one bigheaded demon-slash-witch shouldn’t be too hard. “Let McKenna speak. She is the reason we’re here and unless anyone can read her mind, you need to let her explain herself.”

  The Leaders step to the side, and McKenna pushes her hair out of her face, taking a good look at me. A broad smile on her face, she bites her lip and then looks down at the ground.

  Unable to stop myself, I walk through the group of white-coated douchebags and take her hand, bringing it
to my lips.

  Her eyes shine with unshed tears as she looks back up to me and I smile. “It’s your time, Mighty. What are you going to do with it?”

  With Declan’s hand in mine, and a heart full of love from my family, I gulp and look to the scary, white-robed Leaders. “Yes, I was born with demon blood, and yes, I’m also half-angel, but what you don’t know is my heart. For centuries, I was forced to stay in Limbo where my mother kept me and my brother,” I say, looking to Kai and then scowling at Maker. “We were forced to live out our days in solitude, hoping for someone to let us out of our cage. When forced with that sort of torture, do you know what happens to the soul?”

  Everyone stays quiet, so I continue, “It looks for hope. It yearns for something better than what it’s been given. And when a demon has faith, it holds onto its humanity.”

  “A demon with humanity?” the older Leader heckles. “That’s unheard of.”

  I shrug a shoulder. “Unheard of, yes. Unlikely? No. Myself and my brother are prime examples of it. When Kai was brought out of Limbo, he regained his humanity and found a way to help keep me from harm’s way. Even though he didn’t know I was his sister, or that we were connected in any way, he sought me out and kept me safe.”

  “And because the Sawyers took McKenna in and showed her another way of life,” Sally adds, “her humanity latched itself onto her demon side, blanketing it with mercy and compassion.”

  “I can still do all the things a demon can do. I can use Manifestation. What Kai and me have is something that can change our entire world. We have the ability to take control over Beneath for the better. It’s going to take time, and I’m going to need help.”

  “Uh, hello?” Maker snaps her fingers, looking a little like a valley girl. “I might be dying, but I won’t let you do that to what I’ve created. There’s a balance in this world.”

  I tilt my head. “You cannot live forever, Maker. Yes, there’s a balance that needs to be maintained, but I’m going to tip those scales the moment I have the opportunity.”

  Maker’s eyes go wide because she knows I’ll do as I say. She didn’t think I’d latch onto my humanity when I found out the truth. Just like the demon, Mrs. Carlson thought. But I’m holding on for dear life, the lure of the darkness only adding to my empathy. I refuse to be her.