Down in Flames (The Earthwalker Trilogy Book 3)

by Jennifer Siddoway

  I nodded in agreement, taking another sip of the scalding liquid. “Can you blame him? We had no idea if you were ever going to wake up and he was drowning in medical bills, just trying to keep you alive.”

  She sighed and stuffed one of her hands into the pocket of her pea coat. “No, I suppose not.”

  I chuckled, crossing my arms in front of my chest and said, “You know, I spent all this time mourning your loss after they put you in the hospital. I wanted you back so badly, I would have given anything to make you wake up. Then, after Aidan found me, I was furious. Now that you’re here, I wish that you were gone so I could clean up the pieces you left behind.”

  Mom’s face went red with anger as she spat at me, “Watch your tongue!”

  Her ruby aura quelled within itself and swirled uncertainly, which only fueled the pent-up rage that I’d been holding in as I turned to her and challenged, “Or what? You made me what I am.”

  “I also left that decision up to you. I knew that what I had done to you was wrong, I knew it the minute we found out I was pregnant.”

  We continued down the sidewalk until it came to a traffic light and she got a thoughtful expression on her face. “Do you mind if I show you something?”

  I shrugged, looking down at the lid of my drink. It was weird to try and mend the emotional bond between us. I was hurt. Even though I understood on some level that she’d been coerced, and possibly even tricked, into making that deal in the first place, I still hadn’t completely forgiven her. How could I? She killed Anna, or at least arranged it, which was so much worse than any betrayal of me. I couldn’t look at her the same. She would never be the infallible authority figure that most children viewed their parents as. I saw her as a woman who had a cruel upbringing, but that didn’t justify the choices she’d made. Michele – as the woman who bore me would hence be known as – made a lot of terrible mistakes. I didn’t trust her.

  “I guess not,” I told her carefully.

  Mom smiled, tilting her head back towards the car. “Then come with me!”

  It was eerily quiet as she drove, farther and farther out of town, across the bay down to Fairhope. It was a beautiful, antiquated little town that prided itself on the picturesque ambiance of the city streets. It was less than an hour from our house back in Mobile, yet we’d never once come here on family vacation.

  We drove silently down the streets, in between the neatly manicured lawns and little shops that lined the city block. I gazed out the window lazily and wondered where she was taking me. Eventually, she parked in a tiny parking lot just beyond the coast by North Beach Park and Fairhope Municipal Pier.

  “Where are you taking me?” I asked her curiously as we stepped out onto the sandy lot.

  “To a place that means a lot to me,” she responded thoughtfully.

  With an expressive sigh, she closed the car door and removed both her shoes, which were not intended for walking in the sand. I followed suit, carrying my latte in one hand, and stepped over to the asphalt. Deep, raspy voices started whispering inside my head with every step I took. There were so many at first it was just white noise and indistinguishable in the background. I shook my head, tuning them out, when one spoke clearly above the others. “She isn’t supposed to be here yet.”

  Yet?

  The whispers gusted by like wind, growing softer and then fading into nothing. What is going on? The demons don’t want me being here, afraid I might figure out something about this place before it’s time. All that did was make me more curious and determined to figure out this beach’s secret. Waist high grass was bunched up around the wooden fence. Salt and sun from years of exposure had aged the wood beautifully. It was odd, something about being here, and Mom’s reaction, gave the sandy shore a ghostly feel.

  It had rained recently and the sand was still damp from the summer downpour. The sky overhead was calm, but gray and foreboding as I gazed out into the stormy sea. I rolled up the hem of my jeans before stepping into the sand behind her.

  There were no footprints on the shoreline anywhere; the rain had washed them all away. It was her and me. My feet sank into the sand and as I trudged along the path, following her down the abandoned beach.

  Suddenly, I had a sense of Deja-vu and I knew exactly where we were. The smell of salt in the air was sour and laced with brimstone. “Oh my God, is this where I think it is?”

  “Yes,” she informed me quietly. “I woke up right over there with his signet on my arm. It hurt like hell. Wynn, I’m so sorry.”

  “Nice,” I clipped out angrily. “Why would you bring me here? How could you do this to your own daughter?”

  “I have apologized repeatedly! It was a horrible selfish decision, but once I saw you were a demon everything changed. I was scared and didn’t know what was best for you. I didn’t know what you would want. Is it so crazy to think you might want to go live in the Demonic Realm? I honestly thought that might be a good place for you, it might be what you wanted in the long run. You’d be with other demons and not have to hide what you really are. If you did choose that, Aidan would have protected you. He would have kept you hidden and the Council would have never laid a finger on you. I know right now you hate him, but Aidan can be pleasant company. After a while he might grow on you,” she attempted feebly. “He's charming a-and he likes you. Would it have really been that terrible to stay with him? He would have treated you like a queen and you would want for nothing. I didn’t see it as selling you to a Demon Lord; I thought I was giving you the chance to rule – all you had to do was want it. All you had to do was accept him in your life and let him be yours. Is that so crazy?”

  My patience was all but gone at this point and I exploded. “YES! It's crazy! The fact that we're having this conversation is crazy! I don't want your sloppy seconds. That's disgusting. You're angry at me for not wanting your ‘gift’? I never wanted to be a demon, and I never asked for this. You don't get to decide what I want in life.”

  “All I’m saying is that choosing him, and choosing to have that life would have been a viable option for you. Much more so than it was for me.”

  “I used to think people were afraid of you because you were Romani, but the truth is much simpler than that. You’re a jerk. You don’t care about anyone but yourself.”

  “That isn’t true! I love you.”

  “Oh, you love me now? Where was that maternal instinct earlier when you were selling me to a Demon Lord? When was it that you finally felt remorse and decided to open your heart to the child you bore?”

  “That’s ridiculous, I love all my children.”

  “Not true,” I argued with her dismissively. “You took care of Elyse out of guilt and obligation after her mother died, but she wasn’t yours. I was gone before you even had me. Nate on the other hand, was your favorite because he was yours. So don’t claim to be a martyr here because I know the truth. You have a heart of stone.”

  Her mouth fell open at my outburst. “Do you really believe that?”

  I nodded stubbornly.

  “Then you should know that even stone can chip away and bleat,” she muttered simply. “It's not unshapeable. I’m not going to defend my mistakes to you because I know they’re indefensible. What I did to Anna – that was unforgivable. What I did to you was even worse. I can never make it right, but this is me standing before you, begging for forgiveness and a second chance.”

  “You wanna make this up to me?” I asked her suspiciously.

  She swallowed hard and nodded fervently. Her jet-black hair ruffled softly in the breeze, offset by the cool gray sky. “Yes. That’s why I brought you here. Here, on this exact spot where I made the deal with Aidan in the first place, I am promising you that I will make it right.”

  I shook my head and sighed. “Don’t you see? It’s too late. People are dead because of that deal you made. Anna and Elyse, you can’t make it up to them. Elyse is dead because you brought Aidan into our lives.”

  “I never meant for Anna or your sister
to get hurt,” she insisted desperately. I heard her voice quiver as she said it, while she wrung her hands in pleading. “I just wanted Will. I was hoping he would leave her, but I had no idea Aidan had a more permanent solution in mind.”

  I snorted. “That’s what you get for messing around with Demons in the first place.” She looked properly chastised for a moment and silence fell between us. “If you’re really serious about this and want to make it right, then help me defeat Aidan.”

  Fear crept into her eyes as she stared at me across the sand. “That won’t be easy,” she said.

  My eyes narrowed when I looked back at her. “I never thought it would be. If we’re going to do this though, then you’ve got to be all in. I don’t expect you to cherry pick when and where that happens so it’s convenient for your schedule. This is what I need. Now are you going to help me, or not?”

  “Alright, I’m in, but I sure hope you know what the hell you’re doing. We’re going to need a plan, and a good one, to make that happen.”

  I smiled knowingly, pleased with my own ingenuity. “I already have one. I have to collect a few things first, but it would be rude to go gallivanting off again so close to Ryan’s wedding – especially if I get killed. That would totally spoil the mood. It’ll have to wait until afterwards.”

  Mom grinned. “Well, let me know how I can be of assistance.”

  “You know I will. Are you heading back to Nadia’s?”

  “Yeah, I’ve got a shift tonight and I need to make it back in time for dinner service.”

  “Mmm,” I confirmed, disinterested, throwing my cup into the garbage. I turned on my heel and started walking away from her. “Thanks for the coffee. I need to be heading back myself.”

  “Don’t you want me to drive you?”

  I didn’t want to leave on bad terms, but it was the best I could muster. I wasn’t in the mood to be coddling her ego at the moment. I looked back over my shoulder at her and grinned. “Nah, I got it.”

  I teleported back to the hotel room and stepped out onto the carpet.

  “Oh, thank God! You’re back,” Dad exhaled in relief. “I was worried she might try something.”

  I chuckled, embracing him briefly on my tip-toes. “You don’t need to worry about that. I’ve got the whole thing covered.”

  Nathan grinned as he leaned up against the wall and asked, “What happens now? Are you going after Aidan?”

  The skin around my eyes crinkled as I smiled at him nervously. “Unfortunately, I can’t yet. There’s no way to kill him until I’ve got a branch from the tree.”

  Our father sighed, shuffling back towards the kitchenette of the suite that we’d been staying in. Since we were going to be here a couple of days, I’d been sure to find a nice one that had some of the amenities of home – making coffee for example, was a must. “The one you were telling us about earlier? The … Tree of Life?” he clarified.

  “Yep. One way or another, I’ve got to make it to the Garden of Eden and bring a piece of it back. It’s the only way I can strip Lucifer of his immortality and kill him once and for all.”

  He hung his head over the pot of coffee sitting on the counter and sighed. “This is all crazy. You know that, don’t you?”

  I chuckled at him softly, sitting down on the double bed that was closest to them. “Yeah, I remember what it was like finding out about this stuff too. After a while, I accepted it. Right now, I really need to focus on what’s important. Aidan has been building up an army and he’s planning to invade Earth. One day, he’s going to find a way to make that happen and the world as we know it will be destroyed. It’ll be overrun with demons and mankind will be enslaved. I can’t let that happen.”

  “And how exactly do you plan on finding this Garden to begin with? The only place where it’s written about is in scripture. If it existed, why hasn’t someone found it after all these years?”

  “Because only the sons and daughters of Lilith can be granted access through the portal. And those are hard to come by.”

  “Fairies,” Nate exclaimed. We gazed at each other in silent communication, knowing exactly what the other was thinking. A slow grin spread across his face as the realization hit him. Dad stared at him confused for a moment before Nate elaborated further. “She’s right, Wynn and I could go and retrieve the branch together!”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Wynn might be a demon, but she’s also a Whelan. We both have Blood of the Fae, the portal should open to us.”

  “Oh, no! You’re not going anywhere!” Dad informed him adamantly. “I not sending both of you on a suicide mission. You’re staying here with me.”

  “So, what then? You’re going to send Wynn by herself? That hardly seems fair. We’ve got a better chance of pulling this off if she and I go in as a team.”

  Dad groaned in frustration and slapped his hand against the counter. His aura swelled out wildly and became streaked with orange as his frustration grew. “Dammit! I don’t want to lose another one of you, do you understand? I can’t bury another child. It kills me having to sit here alone and watch my children risk their lives and there’s nothing I can to do save or protect them.”

  For a moment, we were quiet and I wrapped my arms around him in a hug. “I love you, Dad. And I know this is going to suck, but you’ve got to have faith in us right now, okay.”

  He wiped a tear from the side of his face and smiled weakly. I couldn’t imagine how difficult it must have been for him, but he was trying the best he could. “Okay, so where am I sending you?”

  I smiled at him impishly and pulled out the burner cell phone from my pocket saying, “There’s only one other person I know of that has been to the Garden – Nadia.”

  Nathan nodded solemnly. “Then you’d better call her.”

  The phone rang cheerily in my hand while I was waiting for her to answer. Eventually, she picked up on the other end. “Hello?”

  “Aunt Nadia, it’s me,” I spoke into the receiver calmly.

  Our aunt’s voice suddenly became bright and excited when she heard me speak. I could almost feel her relief and gratitude through the phone. “Wynn! Oh, darling, it’s so good to hear from you. I’ve been worried sick.”

  Even though they weren’t technically related, she had been kind enough to let our mother move in with her in her town house in New Orleans after the separation from Dad. She owned a new age shop in the heart of the French Quarter, which was oddly appropriate with her fairy lineage. Nadia had a kind heart and wasn’t willing to give up on the people she loved, no matter how badly they messed up.

  “I wish I was calling under different circumstances,” I confessed. “Mom was actually here. She came to check on me.”

  “Well, I suppose that’s nice to hear. How can I help?”

  For the next twenty minutes, I told her everything about Aidan’s plan and how I was going to bring him down. I told her about the army, the weakened ley lines, and how he was planning to invade – I told her everything. By the time I was finished, Nadia understood why I had to make it to the Garden.

  My old journal was handy with drawings, scripture, and even printed images I’d collected. The pages were crinkled and well used, with dog-eared pages marking areas I returned to frequently. I’d even added post-it insertions as new information was acquired: the tree, the cherubim who guarded it, and Lilith, who were all still living in the Garden. It was the most accurate and complete account I could come up with.

  Since my return from the Demon Realm, I had been adding to it in large portions. One thing I could not remember was Aidan’s map. It’s like a spell had been cast over the surrounding area that blocked it from being absorbed into my long-term memory.

  I’m such an idiot, why didn’t I copy it when I was down there?

  The only thing I needed to worry about next was the Garden. Demons held a claim there too, since the snake was integral to the place’s history, it was the one place where Angels, Fairies, Humans and Demons all mysti
cally intertwined.

  “How do I make this happen?” I asked her plainly.

  The whole time that I was talking to her, I paced back and forth across the room. Eventually, I just lay down on the fold out couch, with the phone pressed against my ear.

  Nadia sighed and said, “Don’t over think it, the location is actually referenced quite clearly if you’re looking for it. The beginning of human civilization, where Adam and Eve began after being kicked out. Where the Tigris and Euphrates river meet, or did, seven thousand years ago.”

  I sat up instantly and said, “You mean Iraq?”

  “That would be the one,” she confirmed.

  “I’ve never been to the Middle East. I don’t even have a passport!”

  Of course, it would be in a foreign country. Of course, I wouldn’t know anything about it. This was a complete logistical nightmare.

  Right from the beginning, I knew wherever we were going I would have to fly because we needed to save my powers for the fight against the cherubim. Another limitation was that I could only teleport to a place I had been before, and was familiar with, otherwise there was a chance my mark could be off and I’d end up a hundred miles off course in the middle of nowhere. It was safer to get plane tickets and use those powers when I needed them most.

  “Then you’d better get one,” she shot back instantly. “Now listen carefully…”

  Nadia explained in excruciating detail the way she’d found it originally. The ancient cave revealed itself to those the Earth itself deemed worthy, anyone else would simply walk past not realizing what they encountered. I wrote down everything and thanked her profusely.

  She and I hung up the phone and I returned to my family triumphant. “Okay, you’d better go pack your bag. We’ve got a long flight ahead of us.”

  Chapter Seven

  Into Eden

  ML

  “I still can't believe we're doing this,” Nathan said from the seat beside me on our international fight. “What do you think it's going to be like?”