My fingers brushed over the pendant around my neck. Gifted by the same angel, the very one that created me. A man I've never met, or at the very least can't even recall. Small waves of sadness brought my shoulders to a slump, and I couldn't help but wish I could meet the person responsible for making me.
"So this is what we're going to do," Ari's voice broke through my melancholy rift, and I instantly straightened up. "We've only got to go to the shop directly alongside the apothecary's- it's easy enough, but we're better off being safe than sorry. That's why you're dressed up."
I did a double take over his current outfit. "You don't look like you're wearing any special trinkets."
"Didn't anyone ever tell you?" Ari had come closer, leaning in until I could feel his breath on the side of my neck. "There's always more than meets the eye."
I pulled back and shook my head, clearing the sneaky thoughts of seeing more than meets my eyes on him out of my head. This wasn't a time to let my hormones play battlefield with my heart. Not when both my life was at stake.
Giving Serena a grateful smile, I started for the door. "Thank you, again. You didn't have to help me."
"Of course not," she said matter-of-factly, striding past me and opening the door. "But I did. Guess you could say I carry a wounded soul for what's good in this world."
Ari went out first, giving Serena a curt nod with both hands tucked in his pockets. Before I stepped out with him, I stopped in the doorway, my toes brushing the bottom of the frame in hesitation.
My eyes locked with hers as I grasped one of her hands. "Be careful, please."
She made no motion to pull her hand away from mine, but the strained look in her face said she wanted to. Still, she did her best to smile and nod. "I should be saying that to you, if there really is someone aiming to pierce your heart."
I laughed darkly. "The more I learn about myself, the more I see someone has always been out for my heart, immortal or not."
She peeked around the frame, her face beginning to pull into an emotionless stare. "You should go," she said. "Before he leaves you behind." Her hand pulled free from mine to push at my back, forcing me out into the sun-blessed field around her home.
Ari had already started through the waist-high grass, moving through without a look over his shoulder. I hurried to catch up but continued to lag behind, unable to stop looking back at the little grey home covered in bright flowers. My stomach twisted at the thought of something happening to the beautiful woman inside that house, captured or tortured or killed, all because she had kept me hidden.
"Get up alongside me," Ari's voice floated back to me. I snapped up to see he had already put twice the distance between us. "Unless you're aiming to become demon fodder once we hit the main road."
Sneering at his back, I grabbed two handfuls of my skirts to hike up and jogged up to his side. Heat pricked at the back of my neck, the sun glaring vengefully from above. With no wind to keep me cool, the combination of heavy fabric and cloudless sky made it feel like we were standing on Mercury.
I dropped my skirt to wipe the sweat off my forehead with my arm. It came back drenched. "You do know I've already walked the streets around here, and I'm not exactly dead, am I?"
He shook his head while pushing up the sleeves of his jacket to his elbows. "Luck, my dear, no more or less. I have a feeling this time we won't be so lucky, not with two Nephilim paired together."
I pinched the bridge of my nose, breathing deep from my mouth. All of this demon-warding crap was going to drive me insane. What happened to school and college and my psychotic mother being the most stressful things in my life? This calling, if I could even call it that, had taken all of my life and tossed it into a landfill, then told me to start from scratch. Not exactly something to be happy about, unless you're an axe murder and trying to avoid capture, I guess.
But this wasn't just about me anymore. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that Ari had a family, too. He probably made just as many sacrifices as I had, if not more. Sneaking a quick look at him, I guessed he had to be around my age, one or two years older, tops.
"I bet your family misses you," I thought aloud, staring forward as the street got closer. "Any brothers or sisters?"
"My family's dead."
The harshness of his words left me off guard. I knew it wasn't right to poke at someone's past, especially when the dead were involved, but the curiosity overwhelmed me. "How did they die?"
A solid minute passed before he answered. Still, the tension in his voice was thick enough to cut steel. "Mom died in a car crash. Dad was murdered. No siblings."
Nothing past that was said until our feet hit pavement. "I'm sorry," I whispered.
He shrugged, the move as fluid as water. "Life happens. People aren't kidding when they say to live it to the fullest."
We walked down the left hand side of the street, inching closer to the heaven-high white tower looming on the horizon. My mind started to run circles around itself, wondering just how much Ari had seen and gone through before he stuck himself with me, something I still couldn't comprehend.
"Ari?" I looked at him from the corner of my eyes. "Why did you come looking for me?"
He met my gaze, his expression softening slightly. "I wish I knew." His shoulders rose and fell again. "My Watcher had told me to find you, and help in any way I can, but she never explained why."
I frowned in thought. "Lilix is your Watcher?"
Shock crossed his face, and he smacked a hand to his forehead in a bought of nervous laughter. "Heavens no! Demons can't be Watchers, only mortals."
"I don't see any mortals with us." To prove my point, I looked around.
"She wouldn't be here," he said, something changing in his eyes. A glimpse of sadness, deep and haunting, filled his eyes. "It's a long story."
"Well, no offense, but we're not exactly short on time here." I pointed to the building in the distance. "That monster of a tower isn't exactly getting any closer right now."
"Not now." His words were firm, but not sharp. "Another time, maybe. We're starting to get into more populated areas." We passed a corner home and turned onto a new street. Ari reached out to pull me closer, sparing me a quick glance. "You have the earrings on?"
I nodded, twisting my head from side to side so he could see the large stones on each ear. I had expected them to feel heavy and weighted, but instead they were light and airy, almost as if I didn't have them on at all.
Moving down the street, I kept close to his side, trying my best to sneakily use him for support. The sweltering heat had drained me, the dress not helping the situation one bit. I barely noticed the placement of his fingers on my waist.
People started springing up left and right, just like they had when I made my way down these streets before. One moment it was only three bodies, then twelve, then thirty and more. The closer we inched to the center of town, the more demons and supernaturals we came across.
I kept my eyes squinted, ready to fight on cue. The burning sensation in my veins lay tightly coiled in my chest, like a protective barrier around my heart. An all-too familiar itching started to grow in my palms, accompanied by the dull ache in my fingertips.
But the fight never came. Every time someone walked close along my path, something distracted them or they got confused and walked away. A woman covered in quills seemed to be walking right up to me, until she got within five feet of me. Like magic, she blinked in confusion, turned right and walked out of my path. I was stunned.
Ari must have seen the surprised look on my face, for he started to laugh. "Did you not think they'd work?"
I dimly shook my head. "Who the hell's ever heard of magical repelling earrings?"
"No one, that's the point." He acknowledged the heart pendant around my neck. "Our gifts are unique. Others might create their own versions, imitations, but the power bound in ours far exceeds any other. Yours work twice as well because they came from the same angel."
The same angel? My mystery father, Mic
hael? I absentmindedly reached up to touch one of the earrings. "How do you know that?"
"The Nephilim that got these was a son of Michael."
"I have a sibling?" The thought of having another brother never crossed my mind. When I thought of a brother, Jayson was always the first and only to come to mind.
"Had," Ari corrected me. "Remember, the last Nephilim lived over three hundred years ago." A humorous grin graced his lips. "We're like the canned meat Spam. Supposedly real, no real evidence to support the claims."
I bit back a laugh, passing a half-mermaid half-faerie person. Against the clear blue day, I could make out the tower looming off into the endless sky above. It was much closer now, maybe only another two or three blocks. My thoughts shifted from imagining a dinosaur in a pond to the task at hand.
"So how is this all going to work?" I started adding up some pieces in my head, from getting there to reading whatever we were going to read, then leaving. All of it had to be done with minimal exposure to people, just in case someone unwanted was lurking nearby, like another Vens.
"I can't remember the name of the place," he admitted sheepishly. "But I do know what it looks like. There's a brass plate above the door with some inscription in Latin. That's where we want to go."
I started to picture a place like Leo's bookshop; small on the outside, huge and swallowing on the inside. If it was as large as I thought, things could get messy if we were ambushed.
A sudden, unexplainable fear seized at my gut. My breath quickened in my throat, the sound of my heart mimicking helicopter blades. "What if he wasn't my Watcher?" I stared up at Ari, all of my strength replaced with ice cold fear. "What if he died in vain?"
Ari gradually came to a stop, bringing me with him. Turning to face me, he placed his hands on my upper arms. They were warm, almost comforting in a way.
"Listen to me," he said gently, the emotion in his eyes matching the soft tone of his voice. "If he was, he was. If he wasn't, then you still have time to find yours before it's too late. Either way, I promise you, he didn't die in vain. You said he protected you, right?" He asked, watching me nod. "Then there isn't a single chance he died in vain. But I'm telling you, the more you dwell on this, the more you're tarnishing his memory."
Slowly he moved his hands away, instead reaching down and taking my hand into both of his. "You need to live. You're strong enough to do this, all of this."
My voice quivered. "I don't think I'm strong enough for any of this."
"Yes you are," he countered. He let my hand drop back to my side. "It's there, buried under everything. All you have to do is unearth it."
I watched him for several minutes, waiting to see his eyes change. He said the same things everyone else had, but unlike everyone else, there wasn't a trace of doubt in his words or gaze. Every inch of him believed I could, and would, be strong enough for whatever we would unearth.
Giving him a slight nod, we continued forward. Ari reached out for me again, but I shook him off. I needed a couple minutes of no-contact to get my act together.
Walking directly behind him, we turned onto the main street of Charon. It still looked as perfect and pristine as always, photograph worthy. Weaving through the crowds and pockets of people, it didn't take us long to get to the end of the street.
Immediately I locked onto the building of the apothecary. For the first time I noticed the outside had a large wooden sign, carved into the shape of a vial and painted purple. Funny how excitement can make you so narrow-minded in a moment of curiosity.
Eyes off the purple sign, I looked at the building next to it. This one was very narrow, but spiraled tall and high like a vanilla soft-serve ice cream cone. At the top of the door frame sat a small, worn in brass plate, just like Ari had said, but that was the only noticeable mark on the building. Opening the door, he motioned for me to follow.
Inside, the room looked as big as I had imagined. The first room was basic; only one piece of furniture, a desk, stood in the middle of the room. Glossy black ceiling and walls gave the room an eerie feeling, like we were suspended in the middle of a waterfall at night. I inched closer to Ari, ignoring the fear slithering in my gut.
As we approached the desk closer, the top of a balding man's head came into view. Upon closer investigation we saw his whole body, all two and a half feet of it. The man was dressed in a small, old-fashioned tux, and had a monocle wedged into his face just over his left eye.
The original fear quickly turned to a fit of giggles after seeing this. Only two minutes inside and already I didn't know what to make of it.
Ari nudged my side. I couldn't tell if his eyes were glaring at me or if it was the glossy walls reflecting in his eyes.
"You have to state your name," he said, whispering with a snap.
"Why me?"
"Because I'm not Essallie Hanley, you are, dunce."
"No need for insults, Arihead," I fired back at him. I turned my attention to the man in front of me, took a breath, and started to say my name. "Essal-"
"Left hall, second floor," the man cut me off, replying with a lazy drone. I took a quick glance around the room before pursing my lips. His directions wouldn't have been so complicated, if there had actually been a hall to go down.
I gazed over my shoulder at Ari, but he only shrugged. Facing the desk once more, I tried to speak. "What hall-"
"If you are a true Nephilim, your little bauble will guide you," the man cut me off again, tone just as lazy and uninterested as before.
"And if not?" I demanded, hands on hips.
"Impossible," he replied, bored. "Otherwise you couldn't have entered."
I looked over my shoulder to Ari for the second time. My fingers wrapped around the pendant on my chest. "He said my necklace will guide me. But it doesn't even feel hot."
"Give it a second?" He suggested, putting his hands out in a 'I don't know' sort of gesture.
I sighed bitterly; this was ridiculous. Who in their right mind thought it would be cool to make all these rules and stipulations up in a magical world? I had a good mind to give them a foot right where the sun don't shine.
Neck tilted, I stared at the glossy wall to my left. The longer I looked at it, the more the eerie feeling began to crawl over my skin. I had just started to turn away when an idea popped in my head.
I walked over, stood in front of the wall, and reached out to touch it. My hand went through and I gasped as a bitter, shocking cold raced up my arm, spreading across my body. Pushing past the cold, I raised my other hand to the wall and plunged it forward, the effect instantly making me feel like I'd been standing outside on a glacier, naked.
I could hear my teeth chattering over everything, muffling out the rapid pounding of my heart, the words I hissed under my breath, and anything else around me. My lungs began to feel tired, overworked. My eyes began to shut. Thoughts of sleep prodded my mind, telling me it would be better to give in and give up, to let the cold swallow me whole.
A final shuddering breath was inhaled, and I closed my mouth. I focused on the beacon of warmth circling in my chest, fighting to stay alive under the confines of my self-imposed barrier. With one thought, I let the fire loose.
Flames rippled off my skin, engulfing me in a giant blue blaze. Like giving a great sigh, it all released off my body, spirals of the potent flame racing down my limbs and attacking any location it could. Whispers trailed around me like smoke lingering in a parlor room, telling me to let the whole place burn.
I took a sharp exhale, flinging my eyes open. A brilliant firework display of fire seared at the cold covering me, sounds of buckling metal and pressured space resonating through the room. The wall shattered, fragments of the glossy wall flinging in every direction.
Arms back at my sides, I tempered the flames down to just my hands. I made sure to give Ari my slyest glance possible.
"Well? We don't have all day," I teased him before turning back and walking down the hall. His awkward combination of awe and shock expressed on his
face would be one I'd cherish for a long time.
About a quarter of a mile into the hall, I came to a stop. Behind me came the sound of Ari's cowboy boots clip-clopping on the ground as he caught up, his grumbles coming to a hush when he stopped alongside me. A bright gold door stood in front of us, symbols and swirls of inky black decorating the door with a classy look. The only difference was the knob, which was colored a bright fire-engine red.
"Any idea what to do?" I asked, not taking my eyes off the knob.
Beside me, I heard Ari snicker. He tried his best impersonation of me. "Well whatever you do, don't take all day."
I elbowed him, forcing myself not to pout. Something about the door told me that you didn't want to touch that knob, and it wasn't the red paint. The same uneasiness that had come from the glossy walls returned.
Tentatively I walked forward, keeping on the balls of my feet. A dull rumble began to grow, steadily building from background noise to full-on earthquake shaking. It seemed that with each step, the room became more intense, more determined to shake me loose.
When I finally reached close enough to touch the door, I froze. Blistering heat blew off the door in waves, and I knew just from it that trying to touch the door would end in one hell of a painful burn.
I planted my feet apart on the quaking ground in an attempt to steady myself, but it failed. The shaking was too strong, and I collapsed onto my knees, every inch of my body vibrating with the rumbling inside the room.
I barely heard Ari shouting my name over the shaking. Turning to my side, I watched him grab the golden chain around his neck and pull out a brass key. He then shouted something else, but I couldn't make it out.
Dropping to his knees, he tried to scramble over to me before he flung his hand at my chest. I screamed and tried to pull away, until I saw he wasn't being weird. In his hand was my pendant, burning as hot as my own personal sun.
He pressed his lips up to my ear and screamed. "Press it into the center notch!"
Obumbrate (The Illumine Series) Page 9
