Jeremy’s eyes darted to Za’in, but he was still occupied with Asher. “Kit…what did you do…” he whispered brokenly.
“Jeremy, hurry!”
“It was always us, Kit…” His expression went flat.
Kayla tried to move towards him, but she was weighed down by the five people holding on to her. “Jeremy…oh Christ, I don’t know how this happened! But, please, just come with us! We need you. I…I…”
His eyes were wet and shining, but his stare was cold. “You’ve made your choice, Kayla.” He took a step backwards.
The room shuddered, and a pulsating flare of energy between her hands moved her almost like an aftershock. She felt Asher grab her ankle and kick himself free of Za’in for a moment. Kayla knew that if she didn’t let this rising force rule her now, it would be too late. The heat between her hands coursed through her, and she almost didn’t care if she ignited. She fixed her swiftly blurring eyes on Jeremy, determined to let him be her last sight, if that was what this had to come to. Her voice rang out over the roar of the world crashing down on their heads. “Damn it, Jeremy! Whether you trapped me or saved me, you’re still what I wanted—” There was a strange and sudden silence, and she didn’t know if anyone could testify that her last words were “I love you.”
13
There were endlessly repeating shadows on the wall, in the form of circles enclosing tri-pointed knots. Kayla’s eyes rested wearily on the dark shapes, her body weightless and her head heavy. She didn’t know where she was, and she had lost the desire to investigate her surroundings. It was hard to say how much time she had spent here in this place, but in between fits of sleep the shadows always returned, cast in various shades and hues.
Kayla knew she wasn’t alone. There was always someone with her, but she felt as though there was a screen between the two of them that couldn’t be penetrated without at least the effort required to turn her head and face her companion. It didn’t seem worth it. Sometimes she knew that she was touched or spoken to, but her inner burdens pushed the external world far into the distance.
A sudden warmth brought feeling back to her flesh, and a sense of substance returned to her body. The film was removed from the world she viewed with her opened eyes. Kayla was then aware of the discomfort that came from lying on her side for so long, but when she moved to turn, she could feel a gentle pressure along her shoulder and down her back. This hold was comforting, awakening, but she knew she wasn’t in Jeremy’s embrace.
Kayla’s body stiffened. “Please…let me go.”
She was immediately released. “You don’t know how relieved I am that you’re speaking again.” Asher’s voice moved from behind her, and soon she saw him sitting at the edge of the bed. He was back in his desert garments, but his head wrap was replaced with a bandage that wound around his brow. The skin surrounding Asher’s eyes was dark, his features drawn, and his beard unkempt. He rubbed his cut and bruised face before he offered her a little smile, which she noticed was expressed more in his eyes than his mouth. “What you did back there…your father would have been proud.”
Kayla looked away, shifting her soft focus back to the shadows on the wall. “I wish I could honestly believe that, but I don’t know the nature of the ghost I’m chasing. So many of my actions are an attempt to be close to something that is constantly changing in form.” The words were spilling out, and her tongue felt loose. “I wanted to find you, and I knew there was something wrong about that place. The Sebastian that lifted me up wasn’t the only Sebastian there. I know that. But still, I don’t feel right. And Jeremy—” Her voice broke. “We cornered him. And then I left him there, as that tower was on its way down…” Her aching limbs pulled her eyes to her palms, but they were smooth and unmarred.
Asher took her hands in his, and she watched her fingers splay out with the tender squeeze of his scarred and sun-browned fists. “Kayla, it was either that tower falling, or you.” He knelt at her bedside, holding her eyes in his steady gaze. “I know all the information you have collected has been second-hand. I will do what I can to prove that what I say is true, although there are things that I pray you will never have to witness. I know you want to see with open eyes, so I will try not to shelter you…even if it is my first instinct, even if it was the job he charged me with.” She could tell that it was a struggle for him to keep his voice even and his features still.
Kayla’s head cleared and her breaths came easier. She held on to Asher’s hands tightly. At this moment they were all that was keeping her from going adrift again. “You can’t hide your hatred for them. They’ve done something terrible, haven’t they?”
She was interrupted by Kittie’s squeal, beginning somewhere out of sight and ending in her arms. “Kaaaylaaa! You’re awake, you’re awake!” The small girl jumped onto the bed and crawled close to her, knocking her hands out of Asher’s grip. Kittie’s usually bright face was red and tear-streaked, her eyelids swollen. “Do you think he’ll ever forgive me? I did such a bad thing. I didn’t think it would end this way!” She burst into tears, sobbing against Kayla’s chest.
“He’s alive then…” Kayla murmured, remembering Kittie’s ability to watch events happening elsewhere. She sat up against the wall and pulled Kittie’s face to hers. “You’ve seen him?”
Kittie sniffled and frowned, eyeing Asher suspiciously. “He can do anything he wants to Za’in, but I’m not gonna give him any information he can use to hurt Jeremy.”
Asher sighed heavily. “We’ve been over this. It’s not the boy I’m after. But as long as he keeps acting the Arch, I—”
“I know!” Kittie slumped against Kayla’s shoulder. “I can’t see him, okay? He’s not gone, not completely. Maybe he’s blocking me out, or — no, there’s no way…”
“What is it?” Kayla straightened herself, pulling Kittie up with her.
“Well, he could have finally given in to Za’in. Jeremy’s tattoo never seemed to work right, and that was just chalked up to him being a Saros kid, but I think he was always just too stubborn, you know? If he handed himself over to Za’in completely, he’s out of my reach. But he wouldn’t do that, he wouldn’t! He’s just blocking me, right?” Kayla had no answers to offer, and Kittie’s words dissolved again into weeping.
Kayla clenched her fists and rested her head back against the wall, her eyes closed tightly. Jeremy didn’t die in the tower. That’s what mattered. She didn’t want to hear any more, and she didn’t want to think about what Kittie’s words might mean for the future. She set her jaw and didn’t move again until the little girl had sobbed herself to sleep in her lap.
When Kittie was finally quiet, Asher moved closer, clasping Kayla’s hand once more. “Do you know where you brought us?” he asked gently.
She shook her head, her brow furrowing with the effort to yank herself back into the present again.
“This place…many had searched for it, but here it was, hiding in plain sight. It was one of the nine spots where the Angels first fell to earth.”
Kayla opened her eyes, his statement prompting her to really look around for the first time. There wasn’t much to the room beyond the worn mattress covered with a poncho — only a window and crucifix adorned the dusty space that enclosed her. Outside, she could see a concrete wall, cut with openings shaped as the repeating circles and knots she had known earlier as cast shadows.
“I know, it looks like an ordinary enough place. For quite a few years before the Eclipse, it was a modest church. Although it’s abandoned now, it’s still very much intact. Perhaps we can thank Za’in for that. This is where he rang in the New Year, after all…” Asher’s eyes dropped for a moment, his brow tensing and releasing as he struggled to push back his sudden sarcasm. “I apologize. I’m not going to make you ask. Whatever he told you, the catastrophes that tore the world apart almost eighteen years ago were not an act of nature. He brought this down on us and he’s ready to initiate the next stage of his plan with the coming Eclipse. God is dead, Kayla, bu
t he thought he was the next best thing. As one of the Nephilim, alive for centuries, he felt superior. The failings of humanity were all he could see in people. If only he could kill the humanity in himself, and in everyone around him, then some great new era could begin. He excludes nothing from his methods — magic, religion, science — anything to serve his purposes. What went on here? I can’t say that I have it all figured out. But this was a place of high spiritual power and, according to his calculations, the Eclipse was the beginning of a Saros cycle that was identical to the one at the time of the Fall. Both of these factors determined the time and place of his actions. And then, all he needed was Kiera…”
Kayla clutched at her locket with the hand that wasn’t lost in Asher’s grip. “My mother…” She hung her head, laughing bitterly. “Everyone is a part of this, huh? What did he do to her?”
“He used her as long as he could. In some ways it was easy — Kiera was devout. But she had reason to be a believer; maybe she was more Angel than woman. He wanted her. And if he couldn’t have her, then her energy would become just another mark on his body and another barb on his weapon…”
“Did he kill her?” Kayla’s hair hid her down-turned face.
“Kiera had the strength to do what I couldn’t. She gave her life to save Michael’s.” Asher’s voice was thick with emotion.
Kayla raised her head and saw his face turned from her. She leaned against his side, unsure if it was an attempt to comfort him or to soothe herself. “Tell me about her.”
His muscles tightened, but she could see a smile beneath his closed lids. “She wore her hair long, like you, except it was very dark. You have her eyes, too. I met her here, outside. She would sit in the banyan trees and pray to God. I was just a child, but she was almost a woman: a strange mixture of learned maturity and naïve wonder. I’d come here with my friends to simply waste time — playing ball, skateboarding — but she always looked like she was having more fun than I was, just sitting there, dreaming. Sometimes I would come back alone to talk to her. She had one foot in some eternal realm, but she also burned with a sense of urgency and desires to accomplish important things. She considered becoming a nun, only because sainthood wasn’t a real job, although she thought it should be. She was ready to go to university, and because she knew she could heal, she had half-hearted plans to become a nurse, but that didn’t satisfy her spiritual needs.”
Asher was silent for a moment. “I know some of these things won’t make sense to you; so much has changed since the Eclipse. But I wasn’t the only one that saw Kiera sit in trees or lay in the grass. She called him Sebastian too. He told her she was special and that wasn’t a lie. He told her that she could use her powers to help others, that she could mother a world that accepted her fully. Her beloved stars would be within reach, and maybe she would feel more comfortable in her own skin if she could just spread out her wings. Soon, I found myself spending more time sitting in the banyan alone. Then everything changed. But I can’t feel too much bitterness. Without Za’in, I never would have met Michael.”
As she leaned against Asher’s form, Kayla could sense the weariness he kept inside beginning to come to the surface. “You don’t have to tell me everything now,” she whispered, “I’m still very tired and weak.”
He looked down at her quietly for a while before speaking again. “It’s true you’re tired. Thank you…you won’t need to spare me again. We have one more day of rest before we must move. We’ll speak more tomorrow.”
Kayla settled back down into bed, her movements slowed by her aching body and her care to not disturb Kittie. “Asher, I’m sorry that I helped fight you off, that day on the shore.”
He stopped in the doorway, his back to her. “Don’t be. You didn’t recognize me. And you were protecting…the one you love.”
A pained silence was all she could offer. She wondered how much Jeremy knew about everything Asher had revealed.
“Za’in knows your feelings. If you see Saros again, he will have orders to use them against you.”
Her sight became unfocused and she grounded herself by stroking Kittie’s hair. “There must be something wrong with me…to miss them both like this.”
“It’s the burden that those with a heart carry. You can’t let your emotions rule you, but don’t cut them off. Your feelings are not a sin against any of us.”
Kayla called out to Asher one more time before he closed the door behind him. “I know if you didn’t come to rescue me, something terrible would have happened to me there.”
He didn’t reply until she looked up again to meet his gaze. “It may make me sound like less of a hero, but I had to stop that from happening because of what it would have done to me.”
When the door shut, Kayla closed her eyes. As her dreams swallowed her consciousness, she imagined a world where those were Jeremy’s words.
14
The inside of the banyan tree was rotted away, but it was still standing. Kayla crawled into its trunk and looked up at the canopy above. She was no longer able to sleep on that old mattress. The only dreams it allowed were more awful versions of what happened in that tower, so she had wriggled out of Kittie’s small arms and walked the halls. The plan of the church was based on boxed-in circles, and she enjoyed wandering through the open corridors, watching her shadow pass through those of the tri-pointed knots. When she reached the back yard, she knew immediately which tree was the one Asher had mentioned. As soon as she touched its bark, she was sure she could rest there.
Kayla’s head bobbed sleepily, and then she couldn’t tell if she was down in the trunk or up in the branches. It was hard to remember what color her hair was, or what clothes she was wearing. But she knew she saw Sebastian, and although he was dressed in black as usual, there was something different about his style.
“Good evening, Kiera. What are the stars saying to you tonight?” Her heart jumped at hearing that friendly and soothing voice again.
“Mintaka is laughing at me,” spoke a voice that wasn’t hers. “He says I don’t have any time to waste. I don’t know what he means, but I’m glad to see him. It gets harder to see stars out here, but Orion’s belt is always around.”
Sebastian smiled, sliding his hands into his pockets. “I really must take you south sometime, so you can see Alpha Centauri.”
“Would you?” Kiera asked, not looking down. “I never get to go anywhere. Maybe that’s what Mintaka means.”
“Perhaps he thinks you should start thinking of your future. Like what we discussed yesterday.”
Kiera frowned. “I don’t know about that. You sound like a cult leader sometimes, Sebastian.”
Kayla was able to recognize the slight tightening of his face that could only mean he was controlling his anger. It was almost imperceptible, but she had become acquainted with it. Kiera didn’t notice.
“Isn’t that what they always say about someone that comes with new ideas? When the world changes, you’ll hear no one say that,” he murmured.
“Will the change be good?”
“Nothing better.”
Kiera laughed. “Well, I got nothing better to do!”
As she jumped down from the tree, Sebastian’s smile was just how Kayla remembered it best. They walked together, and Kayla could feel her legs moving, but she clenched up against their momentum. Her vision blurred as she fought, and although her wrists and ankles felt anchored to the ground, her head was pulled to dizzying heights.
When Kayla’s eyes cleared again, she could see her hands passing over some cards laid out on a silk cloth. Her fingernails were painted a dark color. “The King of Swords, reversed,” announced Kiera’s voice from her own throat. “You don’t want to know what that means,” she laughed.
Sebastian sat across from her on a carpeted floor. He was looking down at a small screen, his smile cast in its artificial light. “I always want to know,” he said absently, lost in his own research.
“ ‘This card indicates destruction, separation, s
udden change. A cunning and manipulative man that disdains any form of weakness. His strong will to succeed by any means possible may lead to supremely evil acts. Absolute dominion and abuse of power.’ ” she recited. “You know that card is supposed to represent you, right?”
He was still absorbed in his work. “Is that what you think of me?”
Kiera laughed again, her words playful. “Yes, Sebastian equals ‘supremely evil.’ ” He made a little dismissive noise, and she was quiet. When she spoke again, her voice was sober. “You do disdain weakness. And you are working to bring a sudden change.”
He looked up at her, and Kayla could see something stirring restlessly in his dark eyes. He turned off his device and gently pushed it aside. “This is a world where it is acceptable for a worthless human to throw rocks at an Angel dreaming in a tree.”
Kiera flushed, turning her head away.
“This is a world where your talents go unrewarded. A damned nurse, Kiera? You hunger to be a saint. But there’s no insurance plan with that, is there? You have to be practical in times like these, while every day there are more people on the streets, or going off to war…clean air or clean water or clean anything is growing more scarce. You’re just one more storm or act of violence away from being taken out, and you know you’ll have to stop dreaming. In a world like this, dreams are just delusions.”
“That’s no reason to tear it all down,” she whispered, bracing herself against the air between them.
“It’s more than enough reason to create something new in its place.” He looked down at his exposed arms, covered in patterns of dark intersecting lines, knotted forms and symbols. “Aren’t you lonely in this kind of world? I know I have been.”
The tears standing in her eyes kept reality safely indistinct. “But you have your students! They look up to you. And we’re never really alone—” Her voice ended in a sob, and she drew her legs up to run to the window. She needed to see the stars.
Dominion of the Star (Descendants of the Fallen Book 1) Page 10
