Atlas (The Atlas Series)

by Becca C. Smith

  “It will hurt Demons and Angels though, buying enough time for you to escape. And with your control, you could do some serious damage.” Kala saw that he was toning down the “gush” factor for her sake.

  “What’s next?” Kala asked. The longer she trained with Talan the longer she wouldn’t have to deal with her mission.

  Talan was on to her. “Kala, you saw what would happen after the countdown is over. The Atlas is given four days as a courtesy, not a luxury. You have to think of it as a suspension of time. The repercussions of Jack existing with you is put on hold essentially, but at the second the four days are up, the Universe tries to right itself.”

  Kala had seen, but she didn’t want to acknowledge that it was true.

  The destruction of everything.

  It was hard to ignore.

  Talan waved his hand over the counter and Kala’s sniper rifle appeared. Normally, Kala felt comforted by her guns, but this time it made her stomach twist in a giant knot. The rifle itself could shoot accurately from over a mile away. Maybe if Kala were far enough away from Jack it would be easier…

  Kala’s head pounded just imagining it.

  “I don’t think I can,” Kala repeated her fears out loud.

  “You always have a choice, Kala,” Talan said softly, “but he’ll die anyway. You’re indecision will be for nothing and billions of people will die because of it.”

  Kala thought he sounded like he was talking to someone about to jump off a ledge, gentle but forceful. The more she thought about it, the more she realized he was trying to do the opposite. Talan was trying to talk Kala into jumping off the ledge. He’d provided Kala with her gun and he wanted her to shoot.

  “I don’t know where he is,” Kala mumbled lamely and she wished she hadn’t.

  Suddenly her entire world shifted.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Before Kala could move, her surroundings changed: she was standing on the roof of Union Station in the center of D.C. with the sniper rifle in her hands.

  “Holy crap!” Kala flattened herself on the roof, placing her gun next to her to try and hide it. “A little warning would have been nice.” Kala was furious that Talan would drop her and her rifle onto a national monument with thousands of people moving in and out all day. Nothing says terrorist like a single shooter with a sniper rifle on top of a building in Washington D.C.! Kala wanted to scream.

  Talan stood beside her, not bothering to try and hide himself. “No one can see you. I’m hiding us from view,” Talan said this as if Kala should have known better.

  Not quite trusting that this information was true, Kala stayed where she was. “Why here anyway?”

  Talan pointed to the grass and brick-worked courtyard in front of the station. There were several benches and fountains creating warm and inviting images for people exiting the station. Kala got to her knees and peered over the side.

  And there was Jack.

  From this vantage point she could easily see him sitting on a bench. He was reading a newspaper, but Kala knew better. Jack was waiting for someone. She could tell by the way he held the paper, just low enough that he could keep his eyes on his surroundings. Every few seconds or so, Kala watched as Jack glanced in a different direction so no one could take him by surprise.

  It was a clear, clean shot.

  “He’ll never feel a thing. You can do it quickly, painlessly.” Talan leaned down on his knees to be level with Kala. “I know this is the hardest thing you’ll ever do, but you know it’s right.”

  Kala moved away from him. “The more you try and convince me, the less I want to do this. In fact, you know what?” Kala stood up and started to walk away, leaving her gun behind. “I’m leaving.”

  Talan was by her side in seconds, his eyes soft, pleading. “Kala, I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say to make the consequences clear to you.”

  “I know the freaking consequences, okay? I’m not stupid! Killing someone you love may be easy for you, but it’s not for me. It’s not in me!” Kala knew she was being unfair to Talan, but she didn’t care.

  But like always, Talan didn’t show an ounce of hurt from Kala’s words. She could tell he wanted to reach out and hold her, but he was respecting her wishes of a no touch zone. “Kala, it’s time and you know it.”

  The way Talan said it made her skin crawl, mainly because Kala knew he was right. There were no words she could say, everything would sound insincere and trite. She never thought of herself as a murderer though she had killed people before on missions. Her rational mind told her that killing Jack was another mission, but it was still murder. Plain and simple: killing Jack would make her a monster.

  A monster that saved the planet, but a monster nonetheless.

  Kala didn’t make eye contact with Talan as she walked back to her rifle. She went into military-mode and began setting up her rifle stand on the cement ledge, locking the scope onto the rifle. Lining it up with the park bench, she looked through the scope.

  It took her a few seconds to put Jack’s head in her crosshairs, but when he was, Kala wanted to vomit. A single shot to the head and the world would be saved, but Jack would be dead. All she had to do was pull the trigger. It would be so simple.

  Kala just had to squeeze.

  One little squeeze.

  It would all be over.

  Jack turned his head.

  Through the scope it seemed like he was looking straight at Kala.

  His eyes.

  His gentle, kind eyes.

  Before Kala could think, she stood up and left the rifle behind.

  “Kala, wait,” Talan called after her.

  Kala whirled around and had the lighter lit before Talan had stood up. “It may not kill you, but it will hurt. Don’t follow me.”

  Kala didn’t wait for Talan’s response. She knew if he wanted to he could pop up right in front of her and teleport her to the moon. But she had to do something. She had to see Jack, to talk to him, to tell him what she saw, anything.

  After a few seconds of searching, Kala found the exit from the roof and rushed down to the service entrance of Union Station. Feeling like a zombie, Kala kept moving forward, hurrying her steps as she thought of talking to Jack. Barely noticing anything, Kala pushed her way through the beautiful latticed architecture of the station’s main hall, through the throng of people and through the double exit doors.

  Seeing Jack on the bench with his fake newspaper disguise made her heart jump into her throat. Kala wanted nothing more than to hold on to Jack and never let go. She hurried over to him, but Jack saw her a hundred feet before she arrived and was waiting with open arms.

  They didn’t need to say a word as Kala and Jack embraced. Emotion threatened to choke her as she felt his arms wrap around her. How could she have ever considered killing this man? Kala started to doubt everything. Maybe Talan was evil, showing her a future that wasn’t real? How could she know if he was an Angel or a Demon? She was simply taking his word for it. Showing her how to do magic could have been a way to discover how powerful she was. But she knew that wasn’t true. If Talan was evil he could have killed her a hundred times over. The fact that he hadn’t stopped her from seeing Jack also proved that Talan was giving Kala time with the one she loved. Kala decided not to think about any of it. She just stood there, in Jack’s arms, soaking in every second of it.

  Jack leaned down and whispered in her ear, “I was so worried. I thought someone might have…” He left that sentence unfinished.

  Kala finished it for him, “Killed me? It is me we’re talking about here.”

  Kala suddenly saw the person Jack had been waiting to meet arrive.

  Penny.

  “Now!” Penny said with authority.

  Jack looked down at Kala, anguish in his eyes.

  Now meant kill, Kala had no doubt.

  “Jack,” was all that Kala could utter.

  Jack’s arms stayed locked around Kala and Kala’s around him. He was struggling as hard as she
had been.

  Penny pleaded, “Jack, you have to.”

  Kala turned her gaze to Penny. “You and Talan are like a broken record: Jack kill Kala, Kala kill Jack. Shut up already!”

  Penny’s eyes widened. Kala had never seen her so scared, so shocked. “Did you say Talan?”

  Kala remembered that maybe she was supposed to keep the whole Grigori thing a secret. Oops! Since she couldn’t successfully backtrack, Kala decided to stay silent instead.

  “Impossible! The Grigori have been banished for all of time.” Penny looked like she was on the verge of panic. “And why would Talan tell you to kill Jack?”

  Both Jack and Penny picked up on the reasoning behind that in about two seconds.

  Surprisingly, Jack leaned down and kissed Kala’s forehead. There was a strange kind of relief in his eyes. “I’m your mission.” He made it a statement of fact.

  “She’s the potential, Jack. She has to die.” Penny was becoming a little too scary for Kala’s taste.

  Jack and Kala looked at each other; Kala could read Jack’s thoughts like they were her own. He wasn’t going to kill her, and she wasn’t going to kill him. But they did need to occupy Penny while they made their escape.

  Kala reached into her pocket while still in Jack’s embrace and sparked the lighter. Jack’s eyebrows furrowed in curiosity. Kala tried to prepare him for what he was about to see. “Get ready for a shock.”

  Faster than she expected, Kala sucked in the fire and shot it out of her hand, completely engulfing Penny in a cocoon of fire.

  Penny screeched in anger — but not anguish: Penny knew what this meant and she was pissed. Meanwhile, people around the courtyard panicked and screamed when seeing Penny on fire.

  Jack was definitely shocked, but he was a soldier first and knew when an opportunity to retreat presented itself. He grabbed Kala’s hand and they ran to Union Station. There was no talking between them as Jack bought the tickets. Kala didn’t hear where they were headed, just as long as they were headed out of there. Their hands never left each other’s as Jack led the way to the departing train. Kala figured that at least no one would wonder why they were running since the train was about to leave the station.

  Finally, they leapt onto the train and were in one of the main cabins just as the platform loudspeakers announced that no more passengers could board. Kala plopped down on an empty booth; Jack slid in beside her.

  “I was just on one of these things yesterday,” Kala observed.

  “We won’t be on long. This train is to Alexandria. It’s a twenty-minute ride and there’s a train going there every half hour. We’ll be hard to track.” Jack wouldn’t let go of Kala’s hand.

  Kala didn’t mind, though she had tried to brush a stray hair out of her face and found that Jack wasn’t budging. She couldn’t imagine what was going on in his head.

  Jack obviously knew he was the target, but there was so much he didn’t know.

  Kala could tell that her Grigori slip meant nothing to Jack. Penny, however, seemed to know who Talan was, and she definitely looked scared. It gave Kala a smug satisfaction that Talan scared Penny. Kala felt a strange sort of loyalty to her new Angel friend. Of course, she had abandoned him and threatened to light him on fire, but Kala knew that Talan forgave her. There probably wasn’t anything Kala could do to truly anger Talan. Still, she wondered why he hadn’t popped up to take her away.

  Kala sighed in defeat when it hit her.

  Talan was giving her the time to kill Jack because he believed she would eventually cave in and go through with it. He was probably watching her somehow, like an annoying stalker-spy.

  “Is that true?” Jack spoke. “Killing me is your missin?”

  Kala looked up at Jack sitting next to her, his eyes were full of fear and worry.

  She nodded. “I didn’t want to tell you, but I’ll never do it. You don’t have to worry.”

  “Kala, you have to. If it means saving the world, my life is worth nothing,” Jack said in a deadly serious tone.

  “I’m working on a way out of this,” Kala lied. There was still a tiny part of Kala’s brain that thought of what Asmodeus had said about some ritual to summon Atlas by killing her. If she could pull it off without actually dying... Maybe if she was able to trick Atlas into taking the power back, then Jack would be safe. After all, the only reason why the earth ended in Talan’s vision was because she was the Atlas and Jack wasn’t. They couldn’t exist together in the same space. If a god became a god again, maybe that problem would cease to be.

  “There is no way.” Jack seemed convinced. “I won’t kill you either… if you’re worried.”

  “I’m not.” Kala squeezed Jack’s hand for emphasis, but internally, there was a part of her that wasn’t as confident as she pretended to be. Jack had trained all his life to become an Atlas, he was a true believer, and he looked like he had considered killing her. Maybe Kala had imagined it. A part of her wasn’t sure.

  Relief flooded Jack’s face. Regardless of whether or not he had been tempted to take Kala out, Jack had chosen not to, and Kala’s words of faith obviously made him feel better.

  “Where are we going?” Kala needed to know if Jack had a plan.

  “There’s an apartment in Alexandria that I use for emergencies. No one knows about it. Not even Penny.” Jack lifted their clasped hands and kissed Kala’s as if taking comfort from her presence.

  “Emergencies?” Kala inquired with curiosity.

  Jack explained, “A part of my training growing up was about Demons and Angels tracking me. As long as the fact that I was the Atlas was hidden I’d be safe, but I wanted a couple places just in case, like the place in the forest where I was going to take you before Asmodeus grabbed you. Somewhere where no one would look for me.”

  Kala didn’t want to burst Jack’s bubble about his place being safe. She knew Talan could show up at any minute. Once an Angel or Demon had Kala’s signature they could find her anywhere. The more time Kala spent away from Talan, the less angry she was with him. She knew the vision he showed her was true. She just didn’t care. But Kala didn’t really want to bring up Talan at the moment. She was just grateful that Asmodeus hadn’t figured out where she was yet. It was definitely a yet. Kala had no doubt the Demon would use any means necessary to find her.

  “You’ve had so much time to prepare for this.” Kala felt jealous. Jack knew exactly what had been in store for him. He’d had years to prepare. Kala was thrown into this mess without a life preserver and expected to swim like an Olympian.

  “I’m sorry this is happening. I really am.” Jack finally released his grip on her hand and reached up to touch her face. “I love you, Kala.”

  Kala grabbed the back of Jack’s head and pulled him into the most intense kiss they ever had. Every part of her tingled from his touch. No one made her feel like Jack did. The more they kissed the more Kala wanted. If she could have ripped his clothes off right then and there, she would have, and from the way Jack grabbed her waist, he felt the same. It was as if all the pent-up frustrations from last three craptastic days were suddenly being released into this one kiss.

  “Excuse me, but the train has stopped.” A voice jolted them out of the moment.

  A very disapproving passenger was the culprit and he gave the two of them a dirty look as he exited the train car.

  Jack smiled shyly and took Kala’s hand once more. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Kala smiled back and let Jack lead her once more.

  It took them less than a half hour to reach their destination: a small apartment complex. Kala was reminded of Jack’s brownstone only because of the older brickwork and black trim of the windows. The building was three stories high and looked like it was built in the late 1800’s. It had the same warmth as Jack’s apartment, making it feel like home. Once they were inside, Kala smiled at the décor. It was very similar to Jack’s apartment, old-fashioned furniture with a pleasant worn-in look that always screamed cozy to Kala.
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br />   “I think I have some food in here.” Jack let go of Kala’s hand to search the cupboards. “Mac and cheese?” He poked his head out from the cupboard door.

  “That actually sounds amazing.” Kala couldn’t remember the last time she ate, but she was starving.

  “Agreed.” Jack started boiling the water for their nutritious meal.

  Kala walked over to him and he pulled her in for an embrace. She rested her head on Jack’s chest while his hands wrapped around her small frame.

  He kissed the top of her head. “We’re in serious trouble, aren’t we.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Yeah.” Kala didn’t know what else to say.

  “So what’s your plan? You said you had one.” Jack pulled away to dump the macaroni noodles into the boiling water.

  Kala told him about what Asmodeus had said.

  “Do you think you could pull it off, tricking Atlas? Do you think dying by ritual is the only way to contact him?”

  Kala was happy Jack hadn’t dismissed the plan altogether. If she were being honest with herself, they were grasping at straws. But maybe Jack wanted to grasp at the same straws. Maybe together they could pull it off.

  “I need to talk to Asmodeus again,” Kala admitted. She couldn’t believe those words had actually come out of her mouth. If she met with him it would have to be soon because when the countdown was up, Asmodeus planned on killing her by performing whatever the stupid ritual was. The whole thing made her head hurt.

  “No way.” Jack fell immediately into protective mode. “He’s a Demon, Kala. You have no defense against a Demon. Remember the Compound?”

  “Remember Penny?” Kala hated being snarky, and she didn’t really want to go into her training sessions with Roberta and Talan. Especially Talan. Talking about him in front of Jack seemed wrong. She felt guilty, like she had somehow cheated on Jack or something. Grumbling to herself, Kala wished she could punch Talan at the moment.

  “You think fire would hurt a Demon?” Jack was unconvinced of Kala’s newly learned powers, though he had seen them firsthand. Apparently scorching Penny wasn’t impressive enough for him.