by SJ West
“And like I told you the last hundred times you tried to find out, it’s none of your business.”
“Oh, come on, Helena, at least tell me if you’re planning to tear their little souls out of their bodies for yourself somehow.”
“No, I don’t intend to do that. Is your curiosity satisfied?”
“Not really,” he grumbles. “But I guess it’s the best I can hope for from you. I really don’t understand why you refuse to tell me. It’s not like I’ll shout it from the rooftops. If you haven’t noticed, I don’t have a lot of confidantes. I actually can’t think of one besides you.”
“The less anyone knows about my plans, the better,” I tell him, becoming irritated with his incessant prodding. “I just came up to check on you. I need to get back to Anna and the others. I would hate for them to get bored because I wasn’t being a good hostess.”
“What’s that in your hand?” Levi asks, looking pointedly at the picture frame I’m holding.
“Just something to make Anna cry when I tell her that her city is now underwater. The gesture might even make her think that I care about her,” I reply, showing him the photo of Lucifer and his insufferable wife.
“Well, if you need some backup, you know where I am. I wouldn’t mind playing with Malcolm in Hell if you plan on a good old-fashioned torture scenario.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I say, wondering why Levi would think I needed his help to do anything in my own home.
I phase out of his office and return to my rooms. I have one of the servants bring up the doctor who has attended to the needs of the Solarin family for years. When I ask her for what I want, she looks at me in confusion.
“Are you pregnant, Your Grace?” the doctor inquires, glancing at my flat stomach.
“Oh, heavens no,” I reassure her with a small laugh. “It’s not for me. It’s for a friend.”
“Is she having complications with her pregnancy? I would only give a patient such medication if they were having problems.”
“She’s an extremely private person,” I explain. “I’m not sure she’ll seek out medical help when the time is right, so I wanted to be as prepared as possible for every eventuality. Can you get me what I need?”
“Yes,” the doctor answers hesitantly. “But this is a very unusual request. If you weren’t the empress, I would probably refuse to help.”
“I completely understand and would respect your judgment if you decide not to lend me your aid. It’s only that I fear for the life of my friend and her babies. I simply want to help them as much as possible in case something unforeseen occurs.”
“Well, like I said, if you weren’t the empress, I would decline this request, but you are my empress, and I trust your judgment in this matter. When do you need the medicine?”
“As soon as possible, if it’s not too much trouble.”
“I can have it ready in about ten minutes, if you don’t mind waiting.”
“That’s fine. I have to wait on a delivery of some supplies I’m taking to them anyway. And can you tell me how to administer the medication when it’s needed?”
“It’s in a liquid form, so all she’ll need to do is drink it.”
“Wonderful. Thank you so much for your assistance in this matter. If there’s ever anything I can do for you, just let me know.”
“Thank you, Your Grace. I’ll go get what you need and be back shortly.”
The doctor teleports herself out of the room, and I sigh in contentment.
My plans are going along so smoothly it’s almost as if destiny itself is smiling down on me. I’ll have everything I need soon.
The thought makes me smile.
Chapter 8
(Anna’s Point of View)
As soon as Helena leaves, I hear a big yawn come from the direction of the bed. I turn around to find Lucas slowly sitting up and rubbing the sleep from his eyes with fisted hands.
“Mommy?” he says drowsily, dropping his hands onto his lap and opening his eyes to search for me.
I quickly walk over to the bed and sit on its edge. Lucas throws himself into my welcoming embrace, tightly wrapping his arms around my neck. I greedily accept his hug. I feel sure we both need the comfort of each other’s love now more than ever. I’m still not sure why the babies decided to bring Lucas to Hell with us. Perhaps they didn’t realize that by phasing me, they would inadvertently phase him here, too, since I was holding him at the time. Hopefully my son won’t become too curious about the reason behind why he was even allowed to enter Hell. I’m sure if he had been wholly human, he wouldn’t have been permitted into Helena’s realm of existence, but since he carries the soul of an archangel, the rule of exclusion doesn’t apply to him.
“Can we go home now?” he asks, innocent of the reality of our situation. I’m not sure how honest I should be with him, but I know lying isn’t the way to go.
“Not yet,” I say, kissing his forehead, “but we’ll be able to go home real soon, sweetie.”
Lucas pulls away to look me in the eyes. “You can’t take us home, can you?”
It may have been a question, but I can see he already knows the answer.
“No,” I reply, shaking my head with a deep sense of regret. “But your daddy is trying his best to reach us. I’m sure he’ll find where we are soon, and we’ll all be able to go back home together.”
“Daddy’s here?” Lucas’ demeanor instantly perks up, and his eyes glow with a new sense of hope. “He’ll rescue us for sure. He won’t let anything stop him.”
“I want you to understand that we’re not in any danger here,” I say. “Helena won’t hurt us.”
“Just being here is hurting us,” Lucas tells me with more wisdom than a six year old should have about such things.
“What do you mean by that?” I ask, wondering what clarity he has received about our situation that I haven’t.
“Do you remember my friend, Gabriel? The one who stayed with me in the Garden of Eden?”
“Yes,” I say hesitantly. “What about him?”
“He showed up in my dreams and said we needed to get out of here quick.”
“Did he explain why?”
“He said the longer we stay here, the more power Helena will gain over us. It was something about her draining energy from our souls.”
Well, this certainly put a new spin on things. I remembered Lucifer telling me something similar once, but I can’t say I feel any different. Surely if Helena is gaining a foothold on our souls just by us being here, I would have noticed a change.
“We won’t have to stay here much longer,” I say confidently. “Your daddy will make sure of that.”
Lucas doesn’t say anything. He just puts his arms back around me again, seeking comfort only a parent can give.
Almost an hour passes by before Helena returns with a basket full of food to share with us. She makes a small black dining table with three matching chairs appear in the room so we can eat together. While Helena is serving us our meal, she tells me about Levi’s plans to invite some of my citizens to live in Nimbo.
“And why would he do that?” I ask, suspicious of Levi’s uncharacteristic offer of goodwill.
“To help Catherine, of course,” Helena replies, handing me a white container with my food and a bottle full of water. “Drink up. You haven’t had any water for hours. I’ve heard the human body needs lots of fluids to stay hydrated.”
While she hands Lucas his meal, I open the bottle and practically drink all of the water in one gulp. I hadn’t realized how thirsty I was until I had something to drink in my hands.
“Here you go, my little angel,” Helena tells Lucas. “I also had the cooks in Nimbo make you a chocolate cake for dessert. You like chocolate, right?”
“Why are you being so nice?” he asks, eyeing her suspiciously. “You’re not a good person. Why are you acting like you are?”
She looks taken aback by his blunt questions. “You’re my guests. I may be evil, but I do hav
e manners.”
“I think you want something from us,” Lucas says wisely. “That’s what I was told.”
“Oh really?” Helena asks, intrigued by his statement. “And who told you that?”
“Gabriel.”
I wince slightly because I’m not sure what will come out of Helena’s mouth next. She knows I don’t want Lucas to know that he’s actually Gabe reincarnated. I want my son to be able to live his life without thinking about the sad, albeit noble, way his first life ended. It would do no one any good for him to know the truth.
“How exactly did you come by this information from Gabriel?” she replies, sounding even more interested.
“He told me in my dreams.”
“I see.” Helena stares at Lucas for a moment, as if she’s trying to decide something about him. Instead of shying away from her gaze, my son stares back at her just as intensely.
“You should eat,” she tells him, being the first to break their eye contact. She sits down in her chair at the round table and opens her container of food. “A growing boy needs his food.”
The meal Helena has brought to us consists of roasted lamb with asparagus tips, herbed potato slices, and a buttered roll. As I begin to eat the food, I quickly discover that I’m starving. Every mouthful of food tastes like the best thing I’ve ever eaten for some reason. It doesn’t take long before I’ve devoured everything that she brought me. Helena notices when I’ve completed my meal, because she pulls out another container with the same food in it and sets it down in front of me.
“Since you’re eating for three, I thought you might end up needing a little extra food,” she explains.
“Thank you,” I say, considering her thoughtfulness very uncharacteristic. I don’t say it out loud, but my expression must voice my thoughts for me.
“I am capable of thinking about the needs of others,” she informs me, almost sounding offended by my surprise, “especially when it’s my pregnant sister.”
“Does that make you my aunt?” Lucas asks, looking perplexed by such a possibility.
“No,” I’m quick to respond. “Helena is not your aunt. We’re not real sisters.”
I glance in Helena’s direction and notice she’s using her fork to toy with the food in her container as she considers my continued refusal to acknowledge our connection. For a moment, I’m sorry for protesting so vigorously that she and I aren’t related. After seeing her remembrance of Lucifer’s rejection, I feel an overwhelming sense of guilt for rejecting her, too.
“At least,” I begin, “not in the way you think of sisters.”
Helena lifts her gaze from her food to watch me, waiting for me to say more.
“Lucifer made our souls from his,” I tell Lucas. “Because of that, we are kind of like sisters.”
In my peripheral vision, I can see a small, pleased smile appear on Helena’s face, relieving a little bit of my guilt. Even though we’re the complete opposite of one another, I feel bad for making her feel as though she means nothing to me. I’m not sure if it’s just my hormones causing me to pity her or if it’s the way she seems to be reaching out to me that’s doing it. I know I have to watch my back where she’s concerned, but Helena seems broken in many ways. Considering how Lucifer treated her, it’s no wonder she’s so screwed up.
After we finish our entrees, she places a container on the table. Through the clear material, I can immediately see a chocolate cake. When she lifts the lid, the intoxicating aroma of the sweet confection seems to fill the room, making me ravenous to satisfy my sweet tooth. Playing the part of the perfect hostess, Helena cuts three slices of cake and places them on small white porcelain plates for each of us. She even brought extra utensils for us to use. I pierce the cake with my fork as Helena hands a fresh one to Lucas for him to use. When I bring the first bite of cake up to my mouth, I notice that both of them seem to be frozen into place, staring at one another. As Helena was handing Lucas his fork, the tips of their fingers apparently touched. I’ve seen this far-off look on my son’s face before, and I know he’s having a vision of the future. But I’m not sure why Helena seems to be frozen into place, too.
A few seconds pass before both of them are able to move again. Lucas gasps in shock as he comes out of his trance-like state, and I see Helena’s face transform into a mask of unmitigated rage. I watch in horror as she swings her free arm back as far as she can and aims her open palm toward my son’s face. For me, the action is almost like it’s happening in slow motion, even though it isn’t.
A well of protectiveness quickly rises from the pit of my stomach, and I react on emotional instinct without having to involve my brain in what happens next. Before Helena’s hand can reach Lucas, I use my telekinetic powers to lift her off the floor and toss her body hard up against the nearest wall. I immediately stand from my chair, causing it to fall back onto the floor.
“Don’t you ever,” I say heatedly, barely able to control my fury as I look at her, “raise your hand to my son again! If you lay one finger on him in anger, I swear to you I will move both Heaven and Earth to find a way to end your existence. Is that understood?”
Helena gasps for air as she lies on her side on the floor, attempting to recover from being slammed against the wall with so much force. Slowly, she pushes herself up into a sitting position. The stunned look on her face doesn’t remain there for long. It’s soon replaced by the anger I witnessed earlier as she stands to her feet.
Helena’s heated gaze remains on Lucas. He swiftly gets out of his chair and comes to stand beside me. I place a protective arm around his shoulders and bring him in as close as I can to my side.
“What you saw will never happen!” Helena tells him viciously. “I am not that weak!”
“I can’t help what I see,” Lucas says in a small voice.
“It will never happen!” she yells again, even more hysterically. “Do you hear me?”
I have no idea what they’re talking about, but I do know Helena is about to lose control of her anger, and that isn’t a good thing for anyone.
“You need to calm down, Helena,” I say, tempering my own emotions to get a handle on the situation before things dissolve into madness. “Lucas’ visions don’t always come true. They’re just possible futures. Whatever he saw may or may not happen.”
“It won’t!”
“Since it was something that concerned you, then you’re the only one who can stop it from taking place. Don’t blame my son because of his gift. He can’t control what he sees, and he certainly can’t control what you decide to do in your life.”
“Don’t ever touch me again,” Helena snarls at Lucas. Her dead-eyed stare tells me she’s close to making sure he never sees anything, much less the future, ever again.
“Trust me, I won’t,” he says, shivering slightly as he makes his promise to the mad- woman standing in front of us.
“Maybe you should leave for a little while,” I suggest to Helena, not wanting to take a chance on her losing what common sense she has left and harming Lucas. If she does, I know it won’t end well for any of us, and I have three children counting on me to diffuse the situation before things get out of hand. I can’t afford to lose my own temper and place their lives in jeopardy by trying to protect them. The smart move is to get Helena away from us for a while, at least until she has her emotions under control. The steady, murderous gaze she is directing toward my son worries me. It’s almost as if she blames him for whatever it was that she saw while touching him.
Thankfully, she vanishes from the room, and I breathe a sigh of relief. The tension has been neutralized for now, but I have no way of knowing what kind of mood Helena will be in when she returns. The more I know about what happened, the better I can prepare for the worst.
I pick my chair up off the floor and sit back down in it. I take Lucas’ little hands into my own and ask, “What did you see? What made her so mad?”
Lucas takes a deep breath, as if to steady his nerves before he speaks.
>
“I saw her running down a dark hallway,” he tells me, a far-off look in his eyes as he remembers his vision.
“Okay,” I say, feeling confused as to why this would anger Helena so much. “Was anyone else with her?”
He becomes thoughtful for a moment before saying, “No. She was alone, but she was crying really hard and looked scared.”
Well, that definitely wasn’t what I expected to hear. “Do you know why she was so upset?”
Lucas shakes his head. “I don’t know. It was almost like she was running away from something.”
“And you couldn’t tell what it was?”
Lucas shakes his head again.
I bring him into my arms. “It’s okay. Like I told Helena, you can’t help what you see.”
“I’ve never done that before,” he whispers, sounding frightened.
I pull back to look into his eyes.
“Done what exactly?” I ask.
“Shared a vision with someone else,” he answers. “I didn’t even know I could do that.”
“Maybe your powers are growing stronger as you get older,” I suggest.
“I wish I could control them better.”
“That might come in time, too, sweetie. You’re growing up, even though I would rather you stayed my little man instead.”
“I’ll always be your little man,” Lucas promises, placing his arms back around my neck. “I won’t ever leave you, Mommy.”
I hug my son back and don’t make a reply. It’s a child’s pledge. I know at some point Lucas will need to become the man he’s meant to be. His future lies outside the safety of my arms, but like most parents, all I want for my son is for him to have a happy and fulfilling life. I know I won’t be able to protect Lucas forever, and in order for him to grow, I will eventually have to let go so he can find his place in the world. No parent should hold on to their children so tightly they’re unable to discover who they’re meant to be. At some point, you have to trust that you raised them well and that you’ve prepared them to face life’s many adversities on their own.
