When this first started I felt alone, like the universe had abandoned me, but now I had support from the most unlikely places. It was impossible not to feel humbled by the rallying war cries behind me as they gained traction.
Lilith smiled, as if she knew what I was thinking. She knew what it was like to feel alone and misunderstood. Her eyes flashed like green flame and then we watched her absorb into the earth and be consumed by the ground that held her. She was made of clay and soil, so it only made sense that she’d be able to travel by those means as well.
As soon as she disappeared, there was a chaotic flash of light dancing in the castle ruins. Like a moth to a flame, I heard the angels chasing after it and go in search of where the fairy magic had been cast.
Before we left, I broke off three more branches from surrounding trees. They weren’t from the tree we came for, but they were from the Garden, and they were magical. One by one, I handed them to Nate and he looked at me like I was crazy. “You’re taking more?”
“Yes, I’m going to need some decoys,” I responded instantly. “What better trees to use than the ones growing next to it?”
“Alright, fine. How do we get back?” Nathan asked, looking around nervously. Blood streamed down his cheek from the gash beside his temple and smeared across his face. The cut was deep and would leave a jagged scar he’d carry with him for the rest of his life. He had seen battle and lived to tell about it – a proper war wound. With the dirt and sweat adding to the macabre scene, he looked alarmingly dangerous. I needed to get him home so we could clean it properly and maybe even get some stitches.
“I don’t like this place and the harpies could come back,” he told me nervously as he looked up toward the sky.
“Me neither,” I agreed. “Let’s get out of here.”
We crossed the bridge back into the swampy forest, limping all the way and carrying our hard-earned prize. The true branch of the enchanted Tree was in my grasp and the others tucked away neatly in our backpacks.
We trudged through the marshland until we found the base of a hill with the rocky crevasse that opened to the cave. “This is it!” I laughed out encouragingly. Nate didn’t respond. His body could barely maintain an upright position while following me through the foliage. “Hang on, bud! We’re almost there.”
I reached for him and supported his weight as we crawled back through the magic portal. Mystic energy caught hold and pulled us through to the other side, landing us back in the desert cave. Nathan groaned and I helped him carefully to the ground, letting him rest for a moment before we teleported.
I grabbed the water bottle from my bag and poured some over the bloody gash on his forehead. He flinched at the contact, but didn’t complain. There was more gauze in the medical bag, so I pulled it out and handed it to him so he’d have something to stem the blood.
“Okay, are you ready?” I asked him nervously. “I’m going to teleport us back to the safe house so that we can take care of you.”
He nodded and I put my arms around him in a warm embrace, gripping the branch behind. I breathed out carefully through my nose and cleared my mind to see the place that we were going. A quiet little farm house on the outskirts of Mobile that had served as our temporary refuge. With all my concentration, I imagined the vintage furniture and oaky smell that came from a wood burning fireplace. I could see it clearly in my mind and felt a powerful yearning to be there, to take us to that place. Through force of will I pulled us across the Mortal Realm and reappeared in the center of a rustic living room. Nate and the branch were both cradled in my arms when we landed on the carpet and breathed out a gasping cough.
“Wynn? Nate?” Dad called out in astonishment. “What’s going on?”
He came rushing over from the couch where he was sitting and knelt beside us wide-eyed. Nathan whimpered on the ground and I panted breathlessly, “We’re going to need the medical kit.”
Dad swore when he saw the blood, and went directly for the cupboard. “How bad is it?”
“It’s nothing,” Nate insisted as he removed his backpack and limped over to the couch. “I’ll be fine.”
Our father came back with all the medical supplies and laid them out on the coffee table. “Tell me what happened.”
“It was going really well, I got the branch and Nate was fighting them off beautifully. I’m not sure how the tables turned, but one of them cut him with his sword,” I whispered nervously. “I’ve never seen a blade like that before, so I don’t know what it means, or if modern medicine can even heal it. We might have to call Caleb.”
Dad nodded stiffly, pulling out the hydrogen peroxide and pouring it over the open wound. “Then you’d better get him over here. NATE! Don’t you dare lose consciousness on me, you hear?”
Nathan nodded sleepily at his command and laid his head back against the pillow. “I won’t.”
While they were talking, I pulled the phone out of my pocket and dialed Caleb’s number. He picked up on the second ring with a note of confusion, “Wynn?”
When I heard his voice on the other line, my smile triggered like a reflex. “Caleb? Hey, I’m sorry to bother you, but we’ve kind of got a situation over here. I need your help.”
“It doesn’t look or feel magical to me,” Caleb told us after he arrived, appraising the cut with excruciating detail. “You should be fine to just bandage it. That will leave a wicked scar though.”
I gave him the address over the phone and he came over right away. Lacey, Ryan and Charley had all come over too, slowly turning the house into a war room, the central hub of my army’s planning. I called them after we got back and one by one cars started to arrive. I’d put a silence barrier around the property so no demons could overhear us talking. Nathan chuckled at Caleb’s assessment, wincing as he tried to make a joke, “Awesome, he was my favorite Disney character.”
Caleb and I both laughed, trying to make light of the situation, but tensions were high and Dad was not pleased that one of his children had been put in danger. We all sat around the table, with me at the head, telling them all about our journey and bringing them up to speed. Lacey bustled around the kitchen, trying to release some nervous energy and make herself useful at the same time.
Charlene admired the wooden stick I was holding and watched me handle it with awe. It looked positively ordinary, much more so then I expected. If I had not taken it myself, I never would have believed that this was the magic tool that was going to bring down Aidan.
“What are you going to do with it?” Ryan asked me curiously.
I shrugged, carefully plucking off the blossoms and putting them in a glass vase on the counter. “I don’t know. It doesn’t look like much, does it? Like an ordinary piece of wood. I guess we try to keep it safe until the time comes for me to use it.” I flipped the twig around and plucked the last plain, white flower from the bunch of leaves. “It’s so beautiful, I love the simplicity,” I muttered.
Charley grinned, curling up beside me in one of the chairs. “That’s what makes it brilliant.”
Ryan kissed her on the cheek, then swung his leg around the side of the couch and headed off towards the kitchen. “I’m getting some water, do you want some too, babe?”
“Mmm,” she hummed softly in acknowledgment.
“Charley, what is it?”
She waited until Ryan was out of earshot and then leaned in to whisper. “You need to hide that thing and now. Word will have gotten out about the security breach and there will be a hefty price on your head. That branch is priceless and one of the only weapons that will kill an immortal being. All of the three factions will be coming to try and steal it.”
I nodded stiffly.
“They’re all going to want it, Wynn. Angels, Fairies, Demons … every single one of them.”
“I have a plan for that,” I assured her instantly, pulling out the other branches that were tucked away inside Nathan’s backpack. “They aren’t the tree we need, but they are magical and they’re from the Garden
too – it might throw some of the bounty hunters off.”
“Fake copies,” she responded approvingly, gently touching their metallic bark. “I like it. We’re going to have to sell it though, and treat it like the real deal.”
I grinned, leaning back against the armrest and set my head against the pillow. “You read my mind.”
She smiled at me thinly, as Ryan came back into the living room with a cup of ice water in each hand. “I thought you were only getting one,” Ryan grumbled in complaint, glancing down at the four branches on the table. “Did I miss anything?”
“We’re going to create some decoys,” I explained. “The real one stays with me.”
“O-kay, who’s going to carry them?”
My brow furrowed when I looked down at the one in my hand as I continued the shucking of twigs and flowers so that it was down to the wooden shaft. “I haven’t decided yet.”
“One of them should go with Charley,” Lacey vented. “She’s better equipped to defend herself in case anything goes down.”
“I’ll take one,” Caleb offered. “For the same reason as Charley – I can defend it better.”
I nodded, glancing down at the final decoy branch. “There’s still one left. Who should it go to?”
“Me,” a woman’s voice spoke out from kitchen hallway. We all turned and saw Mom standing there with her arms crossed, listening to our conversation.
Of course, someone would have called her, I grumbled silently. Dad or Nadia probably told her about what happened and she drove all the way from New Orleans.
“I’m the best decoy of them all, Aidan would believe it.”
No one dared to argue. We all stared at the four branches, thinking about what this would lead to.
“There is a catch,” I began nervously. They all leaned in, hanging on every word. “Nadia say’s the power of the branch can only be used once, because it’s been severed from the original tree. I only get one shot at this.”
Ryan nodded. “Well, that’s good to know at least.”
I grabbed the real branch, took a pocket knife from my boot and began to whittle it into what I hoped would be a stake. Charley, Caleb, and my mom all grabbed theirs and started doing the same.
Caleb sat down next to me at the table with a silver branch and knife in his hands. He smiled, breaking off the smaller twigs and smoothing out the knots and shaping of its contour.
In my head, I could hear the demon voices whispering – the underworld was going crazy. Somehow word must have gotten back to them about what the rest of us were planning.
“So, what now? You’re going to chase him down or provoke him to draw them out?” Nathan asked.
“I don’t have to do a thing, he’ll come to me,” I responded confidently. “I’ve felt his minions looming for quite a while – they’ll come. A war is coming, soon and I’m going to need fighters. None of you are obligated to be a part of this, but I am grateful for your help.”
“It’s my fight, too,” Charley reminded me.
The rest of them hummed in acknowledgement and I pursed my lips in thought. “There is one more person who could help us. Though it would be kind of a long shot.”
“Who is it?”
“…Maya.”
The table fell silent as her name was mentioned, all of them staring at me like I had broken a horrible taboo. Mom was the first to speak, she glanced over at me and asked, “Who is Maya?”
“A fallen angel that tried to kill us two years ago,” Ryan snapped.
Trying to calm the situation, Caleb turned to her and said, “Don’t worry, she’s locked up in Verdovis. We don’t have to worry about her any time soon.”
“I can’t believe you would even mention her,” Ryan scolded. “She’s violent and crazy, and no good would ever come of it.”
I put my hands up defensibly and said, “Okay, you’re right! I shouldn’t have said anything.”
Lacey set off into the kitchen, making those who wanted it some herbal tea and setting it down on the kitchen table. She wanted to be included in any way possible, even if that meant giving support to us from the background. I sipped gratefully on the lemon and citrus beverage and started whittling the branch like it was a work of art. Each pass of the knife was deliberate and laid with care, the wood was precious and I couldn’t risk wasting a single ounce.
We all worked in peace for several hours until four rudimentary wooden stakes were laid out on the table in front of us. I cast a tracking spell on them by rubbing a few drops of my blood into the objects’ surface. Then the right incantation, turning them into a psychic extensions of our bodies. It was a little trick Mom had shown me so I’d know if they were attacked.
One by one the others left, with strict instructions to keep it safe and hidden in their house. Nate was sent to bed early so he could recover from his wounds and Mom was given permission to stay the night – with a strict warning to behave. Eventually, it was just Caleb and me alone in the dining room, cleaning up some of the wooden shavings and putting the chairs and things back where they belonged.
After brushing off my hands I turned to him and sighed, my heart fluttering inside my chest. “Um, thank you for coming. I didn’t know what to think after Nate got hit – it wouldn’t stop bleeding and you were the only person I could think of.”
He smiled, setting a wash rag on the counter. My hands were feeling sweaty. “Sure thing. Nate’s a good kid, I don’t want him to get hurt any more than you do.”
I laughed and stuck my hands into my pockets. God, Wynn, knock it off.
“Well, I appreciate it.”
Caleb nodded slowly, crossing his arms in front of his chest and leaning back against the kitchen counter. “What happened after you left my apartment anyways? The last time I saw you, you were in pretty bad shape yourself. Then all of a sudden, you’re running off on some secret mission without telling me?”
My cheeks felt hot from anger and embarrassment as I stared back at him stubbornly. “I did tell you what my plan was,” I reminded him. “And I don’t need your permission to enact it. I didn’t tell you because it wasn’t necessary. You and I aren’t together anymore, we can’t stay up late plotting this while you’ve got a girlfriend waiting back at home – that’s too confusing. It wouldn’t be fair to her, and it wouldn’t be fair to me, so I left you out of it. I’m sorry if that hurts your feelings, but I thought it was for the best.”
His jaw tensed for a moment as he listened to my explanation and then let out a tired sigh. I watched hungrily as he wet his lips with his tongue and felt my breathing hitch. I wanted to kiss him, I wanted to yell at him, I wanted a lot of things and they were all melding into one another to the point where I couldn’t decide where one ended and the other began.
“You’re right,” he agreed after a moment of silence. “That would have complicated things. I’m glad that you came back alright.”
I nodded stiffly as Caleb headed for the front door.
When he got to the threshold he paused and put his hand against the doorframe, speaking to me across his shoulder. “You know, just because we’re not together doesn’t mean I stopped caring. What we had, it doesn’t just go away. I still love you, I’ll always love you, but things are different now – I understand that.”
A quiver inside my chest broke through as I was trying not to cry, so I swallowed hard and told him, “Goodnight, Caleb.”
“Goodnight, Wynn.”
After the door fell shut behind him, I went up to my room and started getting ready for bed. I’d hung crystals from the window along with sage and other trinkets that would protect the farm house we were staying in from scrying. Anything and everything I could think of to help us disappear was cast on that tiny bit of property. The last thing I needed was for an unfriendly demon to teleport into my bedroom in the middle of the night. The lavender walls and mismatched furniture gave an odd feeling of comfort in this uncertain time. As I laid my head against the pillow, the wooden stake was taped to t
he torso of my body. There was no way a demon, or anyone else for that matter, could take it from me without a struggle.
I closed my eyes and fell asleep, with the sinking feeling I had inadvertently turned every single one of them into bait.
Chapter Ten
Hell or High Water
ML
Cleo batted playfully at my heel as I sat on the back patio, looking out across the trees and acres of green that surrounded our temporary home. I scratched her belly and smiled, cooing at her adorable antics as she chased a fly up some of the railing and flopped back down again, purring at my feet. “Oh, you’re the cutest kitty ever! You get that fly,” I told her.
The cat pranced off to the lawn and I leaned back on my hands, watching her with parental adoration. It was the first time I’d really had to breathe and enjoy it, since my return to the Mortal Realm.
I was enjoying the rest while I could, because soon that may not be an option for me. I was about to go inside when I heard the sound of beating wings and a mystic orb appeared on the grass in front of me. Its swirling vapors created a portal to the Angelic Realm and puffs of silky cloud came floating across the lawn. It expanded with a flash and Elyse stepped out of it, her blonde hair flowing and eyes fiercely blue. White robes billowed out around her with radiant light circling around her face as a sign of the Messenger class of angel.
“Hi, Elyse. It’s good to see you,” I greeted her with a smile. “What’s going on?”
Elyse frowned. “Actually, I’m here because I need your help,” she told me solemnly. “It’s about Kevin.”
“Kevin?” I asked her in surprise.
Elyse nodded, the blonde curls of her golden crown bobbing as she did so. “A siren has got a hold of him and he’s trapped in a downward spiral.”
Confused, I raised an eyebrow. “A siren? You mean like a mermaid?”
“It’s a demon,” she informed me. “They’re different than ones you hear about in mythology. One thing they do have in common though is luring unsuspecting victims to their deaths. This demon variant feeds on human despair, singing songs that suck you deeper into the depths of your depression.”
Down in Flames Page 13
