Qiel knew he should be terrified, scared out of his mind to see water like fingers twisting through the cracks in the walls, raining down from the domed ceiling. But now he laughed, for it was becoming clear to him that the water was not here to harm him. He was the one bringing it here, and it was his to move however he wished.
With the final pull, the once-heavy chains came apart, snapping from his wrists as if made of dry parchment. The ground boiled under him, white water rushing in, lifting him up as the room filled.
Then, real dread grabbed hold of him. I do not know how to swim. I really am going to drown.
Thin rays of light pierced his dark cell from above, and as he struggled against the ceiling, he took one last breath and then sank under. He began to panic.
I am sorry, Mother. I have failed both of us.
More light filled the room as the far wall began to crumble under the weight of the water. Qiel watched this and began to hope again. The wall could fall, and he could be set free, but will it happen in enough time? The breath he had drawn was now stale, and his lungs burned with the effort it took to hold it. He burst and let it go, breathing in a lungful of water.
To his great surprise, it didn’t hurt like he thought it would. He could breathe it. It was different, but breathing out and in a few times, he realized he was still alive—he would be fine.
The stones of the wall began to move farther apart and then fell away. He could see, as the waters poured out, that he was high up above the ground; his cell hadn’t been subterranean, as he had supposed. He had been imprisoned in a tower.
Far below, in the oppressive light of the Arabian Desert sun, he could see one of the guards gaping in astonishment from the pile of rubble below and then upward to him as he stood on the edge of the ruined tower. Water poured from his broken cell and he coughed up what remained of it in his lungs. Twisting tentacles of water hung in the air at his sides, and as he lifted one arm, the tentacle reacted to his movement.
Qiel now felt this new power surging through him, and he heard the crashing of many powerful waves resounding in his head. As they broke over his mind, he and the water launched out of the tower into the air and down to the earth, crashing and breaking over the sands in a tide of irresistible power. The rush of the waters delivered Qiel into the wide open, crushing the lone guard under its weight. The waters then receded, absorbed into the dry sands that greedily received them.
He realized then that he had changed completely. He had become what his mother long feared he would become—one of the Sons of El.
Soaked, Qiel slowly stood to his feet and looked around him, blinking his eyes.
I’m free.
He turned and ran.
CHAPTER XIII
Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho—Present Day
MY READING OF THE Book of Kreios was interrupted by the arrival of the very angel who bore that name. It wasn’t as if trumpets sounded or the world ended or anything. He walked into the library and sat down opposite me, near the fire, and regarded me.
I peeked at him over the top of his Book. “Oh. Hi.” I swallowed hard, feeling a bit like a kid caught doing something she knew was wrong. I wanted to run to him and hug him, but I didn’t. By the time I had thought it through, the opportunity had passed. Something didn’t feel right about it.
As he sat there, his fingertips made a tent before him, and he studied me. “I am glad you are well, Airel.” There was considerable weight in this statement, as if there were more to it than just little old me and my well-being. He nodded toward the Book as I closed it and placed it on my lap. “Has my Book shown you something new?”
“Yes, I was reading up on—”
“Please.” He raised a hand in objection. “Do not tell me.”
“Why not?” I was flustered.
He sighed, heavy. “Because there are things in my Book that I do not desire to be made plain. Ignorance is sometimes requisite for a sound mind to continue to remain sound.”
“What do you mean, don’t tell you—why not?” My tone was a little disrespectful, and I didn’t mean for my words to pop out of my mouth like that.
The expression on his face immediately made me regret it. “I do not want to know about everything that is to come. What my Book reveals to you is for you, and is not for me. Keep close to your heart what it shows you, Airel, and do not tell a soul what you have seen and been allowed to imagine there. Some of us may not be as strong as you are.”
What does that mean?
Just then, Ellie walked into the library, her eyes puffy and red like she’d been crying. Crying hard. “Hello, Dad.”
Kreios stood. “Daughter. Are you well?”
She took a halting breath and glanced my way for a split second. “As well as I should be, I suppose. And you?”
Kreios grunted, obviously ill at ease. “The same.”
I sat looking back and forth between them for what felt like an eternity, the tension of awkwardness in the room growing by the second. There was obviously something each of them was carrying, something they had chosen to keep to themselves, something they desperately needed help with—and further, something they each stubbornly tried to carry on with, going solo. “Can I get anyone anything?” I asked as I stood, the Book of Kreios in my hands.
“Not hungry,” they said in unison without acknowledging me.
That feeling of a storm about to break washed over me and I shifted my feet, not sure what to do or say.
“Maybe you should go, Airel,” Ellie said, her eyes now glued to the floor.
I shook my head in a reflexive twitch of disbelief. “Uh…okay, I guess.” I started walking away, and my annoyance got the better of me. “Hey, maybe you guys should go down to the dojo to talk. You know, so you don’t like, break anything up here that’s . . .” I cleared my throat. “Rare and … and, you know, irreplaceable.” I swallowed; I needed air badly. “Uh, should I take your car, then?” I asked her.
“Keys are in it,” she said. “I’ll see you back in town.”
“Later tonight?”
“You know that’s kinda irrelevant up here,” she said.
I growled. She was right. And I hated that. “Fine.” I put the Book down on the table and walked out of the library. I went down the torch-lit hallway toward the staircase that ascended into the clearing with the old door lying in the dirt, turned the knob, and reentered the real world. My mind wanted to place those words in quotes inside my head because I wasn’t so sure how real it actually was to me anymore.
I turned the key in Ellie’s Toyota FJ and the engine came to life. It could get me back into town in about five hours.
As I drove down the lumpy dirt road toward the highway, I thought, El, why is life so freaking hard? I made a fist and banged on the steering wheel and said, “Drama. Yay.” Yeah, I totally needed more of that.
***
ELLIE WAS THE FIRST to be seated. “So, Father, how have you really been?”
Kreios remained standing in his library. “I assume El instructed you to show her my Book once again?”
“Yes, Father. I wouldn’t have done it if otherwise.”
He grunted. “Because you know the risks in regard to free will.” He placed his Book back up where it belonged, on the mantel above the fireplace.
Ellie resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him. “Yes, of course. Will you please sit down with me and talk?”
Kreios considered this for a moment, and then sat across from her.
Ellie leaned forward. “I wanted to thank you for what you did in South Africa.”
Kreios looked at her. “You are welcome.” He appeared to think about his next words. “It was …what else could I have done?”
Ellie agreed with a wag of her head. “Well, thank you anyway. I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t …”
“Speak no more of it, Ur—Ellie.”
“I’m really sorry…”
“Please, daughter.” Pain showed plainly on his face. “There is no
need. All has been forgiven.”
“But Father,” she said, her voice desperate, “after Ke’elei … after Qiel … after everything I have done, there must be some need I can fill, something I can do, some way I can show how much I regret—”
“Ellie …” Kreios closed his eyes. “It is enough, what you’ve been doing for Airel.”
“But still,” she said softly. “I thought if I could protect Airel, if I could instruct her, keep her from being overtaken by the Brotherhood, I could undo the damage I caused and …”
Kreios stood and came to her and cradled her face in his hands. “Daughter. Ellie. Uriel. Look at me.”
She did, reluctantly.
“I love you. And that is all that matters.”
She fell into his arms and wept. She felt like a child again, held by her father. She closed her eyes, wishing this moment would never end.
CHAPTER XIV
Boise, Idaho—Present Day
FOR WHATEVER REASON, WHEN I got back into the city limits of Boise, I didn’t feel like going home. Mom wasn’t expecting me for another day or two and I was unsettled.
Was it dishonest, what I was thinking of doing? Technically, yeah. “Which means yes,” She interjected, prompting a vicious roll of the eyes from yours truly.
“Nice of you to show up,” I shot back, but She didn’t respond. Figures, I thought.
I spent a little while driving aimlessly around the city. I turned up Reserve into the foothills toward Table Rock, but it was after dark and the gate that led up to the mesa was closed and it was cold out, so I turned around and let the headlights drift me back down toward Boise.
I wasn’t sure how or why exactly, but eventually I ended up parked alongside the curb on the street near Michael’s foster parents’ house. I wasn’t sure what I was doing. It was late, way past my curfew, and I couldn’t have reasonably expected to be able to see him. What was I going to do? Throw pebbles at his bedroom window? Wake him up with “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks” in a mind-contorting Shakespearean role reversal?
I felt pathetic, sitting there behind the wheel of that car. I couldn’t get my mind off myself and how my life had slipped so far out of my grasp, how my plans for my future had missed the mark by such an appalling measure. That’s when She piped up again. “It’s not about you. Get ready, Airel. The time is coming soon when you will have to prove what you believe with action, with deed. Go beyond the words. Get ready.”
I was trying to take in this new information and decipher the meaning when I saw a shadow in the rearview mirror. My eyes darted toward it, and my heart started racing. Then, right outside the driver’s side door, I felt a presence. Before I could turn and look, there was a tap tap on the glass and I tried to inhale all the air inside the car, gasping in fright.
I turned to see Michael standing there, a playful smirk spreading over his face as the realization that he had scared the daylights out of me dawned on him. “Michael. What the—” I opened the door a little harder than necessary, banging in into his knees.
“Ow,” he said.
“Oh, did I do that?” I got out and stood in the dark predawn street with my boyfriend. “So sorry,” I teased. I wasn’t sure what kind of mood he would be in, so I waited to see how he would respond.
“Airel, what are you doing here?” His voice was low, flat.
Quick. Come up with something. “Me? What are you doing, prowling the streets like a criminal?” It sounded good in my head.
“Really, Airel? I live here now, remember?” He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked over his shoulder toward his new house, where his now so-called family slept. “I don’t know what to say anymore, Airel. You didn’t text me all day—you never do anymore.”
I shrugged. “I was with Ellie. Kreios is back, if you care to know.”
“Yeah, I care to know. Why would you say that?” His eyes were dark and I shivered.
I looked around. Fog was rolling in, as was common at this time of year in the wee hours, and the streetlamp in the distance was bathing this river of mist in a chemist’s pallid yellow. “Come on, get in. At least we can talk without freezing to death.” I jerked my head, motioning to the passenger side of the FJ.
He walked around, and we both jumped in. As the doors closed, he met me in the middle of the car, both hands around my face, pulling me toward him, kissing me full on the lips passionately. I was so shocked at his forwardness that I wasn’t sure what to do. I kissed him back for a second or two, and enjoyed it, but as his hands fell to my shoulders and pulled me in tighter, I began to feel unsafe.
“Michael,” I mumbled into his face. I pushed against him, but he wasn’t catching the hint. “Michael,” I mumbled again, but it got me nowhere. His hands started moving around from my arms to my chest, so I bit him. Hard.
“Ow.” He withdrew, touching his lip.
“Michael. Get control of yourself,” I said, feeling alarmed. “What are you doing? We were talking and you—I mean, what is wrong with you?”
He was angry with me. “First you stalk me in the middle of the night, and then when I try to give you what I think you’re after, you freaking bite me. Aw. There’s blood. What’s wrong with me—what’s wrong with you?”
“Me?” I could see that there was something different about him. A little less man, a little more boy, and a bunch of excuses for a crutch. I used to love the way he would change from hard-muscled man to cute, innocent boy with only a smile, but now I wondered what I was missing. The man I loved, the boy I had fallen for was not sitting across from me right now. He repelled me a little.
“Michael,” I said, “what’s happened to you lately?”
He turned away. “I don’t know. Things are not good.” His voice was inarticulate—it was dead monotone. “Not like I need a perfect life, but I can’t shake this …” He trailed off and wouldn’t turn my way.
It was true then. What I had been feeling about him—and yet had been unable to materialize even in my feelings—was true; my intuition was correct. He was changing, and not for the better. I wondered if maybe he wasn’t dealing with the loss of his dad so well, if maybe his foster family wasn’t providing him with all he needed right now.
Or maybe it was something else entirely.
“What do you mean, ‘not good’?” I said. “Are you okay at home? Did they do something to you?” The hair on my arms stood up, and I could feel She come to full attention in the back of my mind. The words “Get ready” kept echoing inside me, and I felt like I was about to face down some demonic behemoth once more. But this is Michael…
Still staring out the window into the cold darkness, he shook his head. “No, nothing like that.” Now his eyes caught mine, and they were like knives. “When I say, ‘not good’, I mean with you. I feel like you’re a million miles away. We’ve been through so much, and now you’re just … I don’t know. This is stupid.”
As I touched his arm, I tried to hold back the tears that wanted to overflow. “Michael, I love you with all my heart. I know it’s been hard and things are a mess, but it’ll get better. We’ll get through this—together.”
His eyes narrowed, the rags of hate and pain so clear in the windows to his soul that it hurt me and I had to turn away. “Airel, you don’t have a clue, do you?” His voice was low and threatening.
I shivered again and my gut balled up into what felt like a stone. “What are you even talking about? What did I do, Michael? Can you tell me that? I mean,” I paused and swallowed hard. “Do you love me anymore? Do you still feel anything for me?” My voice cracked. Then the question I’d hoped I would never have to ask slipped from my mouth. “Did you ever?”
He laughed, using the back of his hand to wipe blood from his lower lip. I was struck sick by how much like Stanley Alexander he looked in that moment. “You asking me a thing like that is one of the reasons. After all we have seen, after my father—”
“Michael … I’m really confused right now, babe.”
Tears spilled down my cheeks. I wanted so badly to skip backward, start this conversation all over and give more of myself to him so he understood how I felt. I needed him to feel me, to break past whatever wall he’d built so I could get inside to where my Michael was.
His eyes were moist around the edges, and his voice was thick with emotion. “Airel, it’s probably best that you don’t come around anymore.”
I could have spoken the words before he said them. I knew what he was going to say, but it still didn’t shock me any less to hear him say it. I was speechless.
He opened his door. “I’m going to do the honorable thing now and leave.” He stood, turned back toward me, and leaned in. “That’s what you wanted, right?” I watched as his face contorted from simple pain into animal rage. He drew back, opened the door as wide as possible, and then slammed it so hard I thought the glass would shatter. He stared at me through the window, breathing hard and pointing down the road in front of me. I saw it in his eyes. It was as if I’d ripped his heart out and then spit in his face, and after all we’d been through together. I wanted to go to him, make him understand somehow, but how could I when I didn’t even understand what had just happened?
I started the car and left.
Michael Alexander had broken up with me.
CHAPTER XV
I HAD DRIVEN ALL the way out to Ontario, right on the other side of the Idaho-Oregon border, by the time I came to my senses. I turned around on the first overpass, crossed back over the Snake River, and pulled the FJ into the Idaho welcome center rest area. I got out and walked to the bluff that overlooked the river, the empty snow-covered corn fields stretching out in late autumnal slumber just beyond.
Time didn’t register. I couldn’t even remember how I’d ended up over here or where I’d driven all night. I was only a half an hour from Boise, but somewhere in the night I lost track; all I could hear was Michael telling me to leave. I was numb and wordless as my mind replayed our conversation over and over again.
The Airel Saga Box Set: Young Adult Paranormal Romance Page 76
