by Liz Schulte
“Maybe a little.” I pulled her closer. “You’re the only one I care about, the only person I’ll ever care about. It doesn't matter what you are or how opposed it is to what I am. Truth be told, Liv, we probably aren’t going to make it out of this. I admit nothing about our past has changed, but it doesn’t really matter when our futures are this short.”
Olivia wrapped her arms around me, burying her head in my chest. I felt her opening back up. Slowly she lit up my mind, burning away all the pain of the last four years. I once again felt whole.
“I’m glad we got to have this,” she said, her head still pressed into me.
Cradling her face, I tilted her head towards me. “Me too.” I leaned in to complete the bond when the door opened. Juliet strolled in, all drama and entrance.
“Well, isn’t this cozy,” she said in a saccharine voice.
Olivia looked up and her face glowed. Happiness and surprise filled my mind, and her hope surrounded me. I sent out a warning to her, but it was overshadowed by her joy at seeing her best friend. She pulled away and went to embrace Juliet before I could stop her.
“Jules!” she exclaimed as Juliet hit her across the face with the back of her hand, sending her stumbling back. I stepped between them, knocking Juliet back with my fist.
“If you touch her again, you’ll lose the arm.”
Her eyes narrowed, but she kept a safe distance from me. “I'm glad to see the two of you getting along so well. I was worried you wouldn't. You obviously remember your dear sweet Holden, Livi? But do you remember how you ignored me to chase after him like a fool? I bet you didn’t know he was a jinni. And you a guardian, how delicious. How scandalous.”
Olivia looked at her blankly, a hand pressed to her bruised cheek. Juliet frowned at the lack of reaction. “Perhaps you do know.” Juliet looked back and forth between the two of us, then started laughing. “He’s a pretty good fuck though, once you get past the icy exterior. You never shared that tidbit with me, Livi. Then again, you never were a kiss and tell sort of girl. I bet he rocked your world. He definitely shook mine for hours.” She watched Olivia intently.
Olivia didn't have a good poker face. She narrowed her eyes at me, betrayal splattered all over her. .
“Who was better, Holden? Me or her? I don’t really have to ask though, do I? Just look at her, all pent up and repressed. I do feel sorry for you, what a boring target she must have made. Did you have to listen to her drone on and on for hours about her stupid, insignificant life and her brain-numbing art?”
Olivia gasped and shook her head in denial.
Juliet’s smiled broadened. “Yep, if it weren’t for me, Olivia would have had no life to speak of. Come on, you’re a connoisseur of women, which one of us was more to your tastes?”
“Her, always her.”
Olivia stared at me darkly, once again completely closed from me.
“Oh this, this is glorious.” Juliet laughed, clasping her hands together. “The two of you are in love, aren’t you? I mean Holden could just be a whore—how many women is it you’ve slept with since Olivia died?”
I chose to ignore her question; Olivia’s eyes continued to bore into me.
“But this makes more sense. You were trying to fill a void. I've been looking for a weakness in you, Holden. Something you were not perfect at, something I could exploit and here it was right in front of me all the time. And now I don’t even have to exploit you.” She flipped her hair back with sheer glee. “I can have the demon outside come in and send you straight back to Hell and finally be rid of you for good. Then I’ll watch him tear Olivia apart. Who knew today would be such a wonderful day? You took care of Danica for me, and now I can kill my two most annoying birds with one stone named Gaius. The region and revenge will be mine.”
Juliet stuck her head out of the cell door. “Gaius! I have something for you.” A large sluggish looking demon came in the room. Olivia still stood behind me frozen. “Gaius, if you send this jinni back to Hell, you can have this guardian for free.”
Gaius eyed Olivia. “Pretty. What did he do?”
“Fraternized with guardians. He’s a traitor to his race.” Gaius looked at me with dead eyes then back to Olivia.
“Do we have a deal?” Juliet asked, her back to me.
I grabbed Juliet from behind, snapping her neck for the second time that day. The demon charged faster than I would have believed he could move. I knew it was hopeless in this small of a space, but if I had even a slight chance of freeing us, I would try it. I dodged his first attempts to grab me, smashing his knee with the sole of my boot.
Olivia tossed me a knife, and I slashed the demon on his next near grab, but the room was too small and his reach too long. He caught me. The room began going dark, as I plunged the blade in his chest. I heard Olivia shout before everything turned white.
THIRTY FOUR
I knelt in my cell, praying over and over again that the elders were on their way. They should hear my prayers. I knew of no symbols that could block a prayer and yet no one came. Maybe it was too dangerous, maybe we were an acceptable loss. I didn’t like to think like that, but if it came down to the safety of the whole then I understood. I tried to relay the information I had, so they would be better prepared. How I hoped they were hearing me.
Three shots echoed through the building and my stomach sank. Had they shot Olivia? Were they hurting her now? How did they plan on killing us? Worry and uselessness blanketed me. Silence surrounded and tortured me. Why wasn’t I more careful? Why did I come in here? Because of me, we were both going to die.
I heard raised voices of a man and a woman, but I couldn’t understand what they were saying. I focused on the muffled sounds, but they were too far away to make out anything.
I stalked around the cell, frustrated, and tried praying again.
“Ezra, if you can hear me, I have hope that you are coming to rescue us, but I understand if you do not. You told me to pull back, and I disobeyed a direct order. I did not want to send Olivia among the jinn and thought I could stop it, but I only managed to get both of us caught.” I rubbed a spot just above my eyebrow trying to decide what to say next.
“I know it’s a little late for confessions, but I have made so many mistakes with regard to Olivia. She saw me before her time, I let her fall in love with a jinni, I told her about her choice and death. And her training—well, it hasn’t gone as smoothly as it should have either. I think I liked her too much. I was never sure what I was feeling, but I loved being around her. The life and energy surrounding her was intoxicating. She doesn’t deserve this fate. Even if you leave me here, please save her. I think she will be the best thing to ever happen to our people.”
A woman yelled something that sounded like “Gaius,” then there was loud shuffling, followed by more muffled talking.
“I know you weren’t sure about her, but Olivia being sent to us is a blessing. I have been a loyal and faithful follower my entire life. I have never asked for anything, but please save her. Please save her.” I kept echoing the last word in my mind, hoping the repetition would make it so, as I slumped against a wall and let myself slide to the floor. A white glow under my door caught my eye. I watched as it continued to grow and spread, seeping into my cell through the cracks until it filled the room. It was like Olivia’s glow. The elders were here. They’d come. They’d answered my prayer!
I stood up excitedly, but no one appeared. The light grew brighter and brighter until I couldn’t even see the door. Though I had no idea what was happening, I basked in the glory that we were not left for dead. I heard screams and choked cries from outside the door. They were definitely here. It was only a matter of time now.
A few minutes later, the light began to recede. I beat on my door and yelled, “I’m here.”
There was no response, no rustle, no noise whatsoever. It was like the whole world had disappeared, and I was left alone locked in a cell. I continued yelling into the silence, hoping someone, anyone would h
ear me. Finally I heard movement outside my door and an unfamiliar voice.
“Who are you?” a woman’s voice came from the other side.
“Quintus. Who are you?”
“Where is everyone? What happened here?”
“I don’t know. Who are you? Are you a jinni?”
“No. I’m a friend. Is Olivia here?”
“She was—I don’t know anymore. Are you a guardian?”
“No. Just a second. Let me find some keys.”
I waited, heart pounding with both worry and hope. After what felt like hours, the sound of the key in the lock made me step back from the door. I had no idea what to expect. The door opened to reveal a catlike woman with golden skin. Holding a gun trained on my head, she looked me up and down with strange, honey-colored, vertically contracting eyes.
“You must be Femi,” I said when I remembered the name of the new friend Olivia had mentioned.
She nodded and lowered the gun. “Where’s Olivia?”
“I don’t know. They captured her when she came to look for me. I haven’t seen her since.”
“What about Holden?”
I frowned. “I haven’t seen him. Is he behind this?”
“No. He came to look for Liv.”
I shook my head, but the gun shots came to mind. He could have rescued her and taken her away. Maybe she was already safe while I was worried about it. “I’m sorry, I really don’t know anything. I’ve been in this cell. I heard a man and woman arguing, and there was a temporary bright light—since then nothing.”
“The light . . . Was that your people?”
“If it was, why did they leave me? Have you checked the cells?”
She shook her head and turned to walk out of the cell, keys in hand. I followed closely behind. Bodies of jinn littered the floor of the warehouse. I looked at Femi and wondered what on earth she had done to them.
She glanced back at me. “They were like this when I got here.”
I systematically opened each door down the line while Femi stood guard. Every room came up empty, so we moved to the other side. As we moved down the row and passed the only room standing open, I saw Olivia lying motionless and lightless on the floor inside. Her hand rested on Holden’s similarly still form, while the blonde jinni was crumpled with a twisted neck a few feet away from them.
“Found them.” I swallowed hard and looked back at Femi.
She raised an eyebrow and peered around me into the room. “What happened?”
“I have no idea.”
“Wait—is she glowing?” Femi leaned into the cell.
I looked closer and she was right. Olivia did have a small, yet steady, halo around her. She was alive. “Check the rest of the warehouse; I will try to help her.
THIRTY FIVE
“Olivia, wake up. Olivia.” Someone was shaking me from somewhere far away. My head rattled with each shake. I tried to worm my way out of the grasp, but it was too strong. “Olivia, open your eyes,” the voice commanded.
I obeyed and discovered Quintus leaning over me, worry creasing his face. I sat up and the room wobbled. It felt like the worst hangover I ever had.
“Ugh.” I pressed my hands to my skull to try to push back the throbbing energy.
“What’s happened?” I was so very confused. Looking around the room, Juliet lay dead on the floor, the demon had turned to dust, and Holden sat against the wall with a dazed expression.
“Olivia, focus. Try to remember, okay?” Quintus was agitated and jittery. I’d never seen him like this. His eyes darted around the room, like it was the first sign of the apocalypse. Femi appeared in the door way. Quintus raised an eyebrow, and she nodded.
“Are they dead?” I asked.
“Whatever that was, definitely is.” He pointed to the ash. “I imagine the jinn will all heal in time, so you need to be quick. Tell me what happened.”
It was beginning to come back to me. I remembered the demon lunging towards Holden. I remembered all my intentions melting away and one thought taking over. I had to stop it. I ignored Quintus’s urging to tell him what happened and crawled to Holden, my legs not feeling strong enough to walk.
“Holden?”
He stared at me for too long, not talking, not blinking, just staring and touching his own face as if it was foreign to him. “I’m okay,” he said, amazement thick in his voice. “I feel … different.” Holden’s emotions were making me dizzy. I had to close my mind to him once again, so I could work through the fog that hovered in my own head.
“What happened?” Quintus repeated, obviously not sharing the hazy dream like trance Holden and I had fallen into.
“I don’t . . . I don’t know. A demon grabbed Holden, and I threw myself at them. After that, I don’t remember anything.”
Quintus looked at Holden then back at me. He pressed against the wall and slid slowly down until he was on the ground with his elbows against his knees.
“Quintus?”
He looked up, his eyes gleaming. “This is bad, Firefly.”
Quintus’s reaction scared me. What exactly was so bad? I’d saved Holden; I couldn’t let them have him. “What is?”
“What do you remember?” Quintus asked Holden, ignoring me.
“Olivia screamed and threw her arms around me when the demon touched me. Next thing I knew, I was covered in light and all I could hear was white noise.”
Quintus looked back at me for confirmation.
“I told you . . . I don’t remember anything after jumping towards Holden until you woke me up.”
Quintus became paler and paler, the more we tried to explain what we remembered. His mouth pursed into an unnatural frown. Femi stood uneasily in the doorway, checking over her shoulder every few seconds. “How did you do it?” Quintus whispered.
“I don’t know what I did.”
“You disrupted the natural order. The repercussions—I don’t even know.” He laughed in a way I had never heard Quintus laugh, defeated, bitter even. “It’s bad, really bad. We have to leave, now.”
“I don’t understand what I did.”
Holden looked just as perplexed as I felt, but there was something different about him, something I couldn't quite place.
“Olivia, you, for lack of a better word, stole Holden’s soul. You reached into purgatory and yanked him out. By all rights, his soul belonged to Hell. It wasn’t yours to take. Now his soul has been returned to his body. No one will be happy about this on either side.”
“I think he's saying a major shit storm is about to rain down,” Femi piped up. "So we need to get the hell out of here."
“What are we going to do?” I looked back and forth between them.
“First thing we need to do is get out of here before the jinn start waking up,” Femi said from the doorway.
“Seconded,” Holden said, looking more together. He stood up, pulling me with him because he wouldn’t relinquish my hand. "Better yet, we should kill the jinn. It will buy us more time."
Quintus also stood up and gave Holden a threatening look as if to say, You’ve done enough. "We aren't killing anyone." Quintus said.
"I'm with Holden," Femi said. "It’s smarter to kill them than to leave them to pursue us."
"We aren't killing anyone,” Quintus repeated. “Hasn't enough blood been shed? We need to leave and come up with a plan. There’s no time for killing sprees."
Everyone looked at me as if I should cast my vote. I didn't know what to do. Holden and Femi's logic made sense to me, but I felt Quintus's desire for peace. "Let's just go," I said.
Quintus smiled and pulled my hand away from Holden, dragging me out of the door behind him. Holden casually followed behind us, but I could feel jealousy and anger radiating from his mind at the mere sight of Quintus touching me. Femi pulled up the back, gun still in hand, eyes darting around the room. I removed my hand from Quintus's, not knowing what else to do. We maneuvered our way through the fallen bodies of the jinn toward the warehouse’s door. "How di
d you get out?" I asked Quintus.
"I got him," Femi said. "When Holden didn't meet me like he promised, I came here. But everyone was like this. I found Quintus beating on his door and the two of you out cold."
"So this is you not taking sides, Femi?" I tried to muster up a smile.
"Yeah, I've never been good at neutral," she said with her own grin.
“So I did all of this?” I asked, surveying the bodies.
“I think so,” Quintus said. "Why did you come here?"
"To save you."
"You weren't supposed to do that."
“Maybe she wouldn't have, had you told her everything,” Holden said snidely. I chose to ignore my irritation at the notion that they’d both kept things from me. We’d hash that out later; I was too tired now.
Quintus glared at him. “Well, had you not started this fiasco, she wouldn't have been in danger to begin with. Who was your informant, Holden?”
“I didn’t have an informant, Quintus. I knew nothing about this before you told me about it, and you damn well know it. I came here looking for Liv.”
“The two of you were together the whole time?” Quintus looked at me. Jealousy looked foreign in his eyes, but it was unmistakably there, while Holden smiled devilishly at him. I stood dumbly in the center.
Quintus tried to dismiss him. "Thanks for your help, Holden, but you are free to leave now. You’ve caused enough trouble."
"I think we should stay together," I countered. "Until we know what’s going on, we shouldn't make any rash decisions."
"Don't worry, Liv, I'm not going anywhere." Holden stared directly at Quintus, practically daring him to challenge.
I looked at Femi who shrugged. "Hell, I'll stick around for a while."
"Great," I said weakly. As we walked out of the warehouse, I surveyed our motley crew: Holden, the jinni with so much blood on his hands they may have been permanently stained, Femi, the bounty hunter who wasn’t supposed to take sides, Quintus, the lighthouse on a rocky shore, and me, the guardian who messed up everything. And thus it ends. And thus it really begins!
