Japheem screamed and spun away, blood spraying out and coursing down his feathers. Silea aimed for his chest, the ground quaking when she pulled the trigger. Zakia and I staggered to maintain our footing. Rock was bashing down upon those waves smashing into the cliffs, and the spray was rising so high that it came over the side.
“No!” Japheem cried. Gold links were spreading about his legs. His sword vanished, and the anemoi did as well. “You will never do this to me again! I will not return to the Ripper caves!” But the links were moving up and up, from his knees to his thighs. He beat his bloody wings fast and lifted from the ground. Muddy fire shot out from his hands in an arc. Everyone threw themselves to the ground or lifted up into the air, Zakia shielding me as the blue and yellow went over our heads.
“Where’s Japheem?” Silea shouted. We all looked up, and then scrambled to our feet since he was missing.
“There!” Evanyi cried. She pointed out to the ocean. Japheem was flying weakly over the waves, sunlight striking the gold as the links moved up his body to ensnare him in a net. Flickering into dark smoke, it lasted only a split second and didn’t release him from his bindings.
“Adriel,” I whispered, and ran to him. He put his hand to my cheek and checked me over from head to toe. Then he kissed my forehead and we watched Japheem plummet down to the sea.
The water welcomed him in, splitting apart in froth to admit the hard strike of the golden bundle. A tiny arm and hand flashed in the light far in the distance, the links wrapping up it inexorably. Then a wave rolled over. When it smoothed, he was gone. Silea said, “Should we get a boat to search? He can’t drown.”
“No,” Collan said. “I doubt we’ll ever find him. The currents will bear him away.”
Zakia kicked the lopped portion of the wing on the ground. “Yuck.” He kicked it again and sent it over the side to the water. “Whoops. Hope you didn’t need that for anything, Silea.”
“Is it over?” I whispered to Adriel.
“It’s over,” Adriel said. His wings burst back into view and covered me. I tipped his forehead to mine and rested against him, the soft feathers melting along my arms with the warm sweetness of his soul. The others spoke all around us, of getting cars and checking out of hotels, loading the Rippers into the truck when it came, seeing if Radeo needed to go to the hospital. Someone gasped about the collapsed cliffs and Adriel lifted one wing a little so we could peek out at it.
“I think you changed the topography of this region,” I said. The caves where the Rippers had lived were gone.
Cadmon looked in at us and smiled. “Hi!” He laughed when Adriel drew his wing back down for privacy.
I was going home. It was almost beyond belief. The Rippers hadn’t gotten to keep me as their own after all. “He branded me,” I whispered about my wrist.
Adriel kissed the scar and tucked my hand in his. “It doesn’t mean anything.”
“You came. I can’t believe you came. I hope you’re not going to get in any trouble with the Thronos over this,” I said, pressing my face to his chest. He rested his head upon mine.
“If they come to make trouble, I’ll fight them,” Adriel said.
“Your own authority? But Adriel-”
“I changed the world for her,” Adriel whispered into my hair. “I would end it for you.”
Chapter Seventeen: The Celebration
“Do I have to wear the blindfold?” I asked.
“You have to wear the blindfold,” Grandpa Jack said. The mail truck was rumbling along beneath us. It was disconcerting to not be able to see anything as we drove through Spooner. He had taken a few random loops around to throw off my sense of direction. That hadn’t been necessary. I would have been just as lost without that.
He had no idea that I’d been abducted, and I planned to keep it that way. Twice in my absence he’d called the house from Caylan and I hadn’t answered. I attributed it to a nasty stomach virus that nailed me to the toilet upstairs and a flight away from the rotary phone. Then I mentioned how a cell phone would have solved the problem, which distracted him sufficiently into grumbling about the cell phone generation and its ridiculous need to always be connected. He needed a cell phone about as much as he needed a hole in his head.
“You excited about your birthday?” he asked when the mail truck turned again.
“Yes,” I said. I was still astonished to be having it back where I belonged, instead of as a slave of the Rippers. Barasho, Makala, and Zofia had been taken to the Ripper caves without incident, and interred there for eternity with so many others of their kind.
We rattled up to some stop and the turn signal started to click. “Grandpa Jack, I have absolutely no idea where we are. You don’t have to take extra measures.”
“That turn was necessary. Maybe.”
An envelope had been in the mailbox yesterday, addressed to me and with no return address. The elegant white card inside said I was invited to my birthday party, and to be ready at one. There was no other information. It had taken me the whole morning to figure out what to wear when I had no idea where I was going or who would be there. I’d settled on a white sheath dress that I hadn’t worn since Bellangame. It was a little too fancy for school up here, but I seriously doubted that my party was going to be at Spooner High School.
I smoothed my hands down the dress and hoped the blindfold wasn’t smearing my mascara. If we were headed to the miniature golf place behind the athletic store, I was overdressed. “Can’t you give me a hint of where we’re going?”
“Sure,” Grandpa Jack said. “Your birthday party.”
“That’s not helpful, Grandpa Jack.”
“It wasn’t meant to be. We’re almost there anyway.”
Maybe we were turning so much because we were on Sutter, and he wasn’t pulling to stoplights at all but rest areas to throw me off further. But the mail truck never turned onto the deep dip into the Gap. That I would have recognized beyond a shadow of a doubt. The road was going up now, but only for a short while.
We stopped. Grandpa Jack told me to sit tight while he got out. I waited obediently and smoothed my dress once more. My door opened and he said, “Take my hands and step on out.”
“Still blindfolded?”
“Still blindfolded.”
It was a warm and windy day, the sun thrusting itself through the Spooner canopy in determination to light the ground. I held onto his arm and got out unsteadily. The door slammed shut and he walked me forward. I was going so slowly that he said in a huff, “Just like your gramma, you know that? She hated being blindfolded. Hated, hated it. Clutched onto me like she expected I was going to walk her straight into a tree. You put some trust in your grandpa.”
“I trust you. I just want to see where I’m going,” I declared. I had the sense that something was moving in front of us.
He led me on after a brief pause. It smelled like barbecue. So we were in the parking lot at Forks and Spooners. Even that didn’t bother me, since celebrating my eighteenth birthday in a booth under a deer rump was so much better than how it could have gone.
Again we stopped, and Grandpa Jack said, “You want to do the honors?”
“Sure,” Adriel said. The blindfold was undone, and he whisked it away.
“Surprise!” everyone shouted, and music began to play. Cameras flashed. We were at the Graystone home. It had been done up majestically. Balloons surrounded the walkway through the lawn, great big bunches in red and white and silver. Streamers in red wound up the trunks of the trees, and from many of the branches hung silver whirls. Nash was pulling on one while Savannah and Kitts swatted his arms to make him stop.
There were eighty people on the lawn, friends from Spooner High, the Coopers and the Graystones, even the Kreelings were there. Tables were set out, one piled with gifts and three more with food and drinks. It was catered, men and women in red coats and black pants winding through the crowds with trays of hors d’oeuvres. Smoke lifted from two large barbecues, and more people wer
e sitting at tables covered in red and white cloths. A clown twisted balloons into an animal for an eager boy, who shouted, “Effent! Effent! You making me a effent!”
“Happy birthday,” Adriel whispered in my ear.
“Her face! Did you see her face?” London laughed. “What were you expecting?”
“A booth with six people at Forks and Spooners,” I said.
“No, that’s going to be my eighteenth birthday party next year!” Nash said enthusiastically. “We’re pounding sparkling water, Jessa, so The Burping Buddies can sing Happy Birthday to you in fine form.” Diego and Easton clinked their bottles and drank deeply. Nash held his bottle out to Adriel with the intentions of making him a member of the group. Politely, Adriel declined.
“Forever kindergarten,” Savannah sighed.
“Oh, you love it deep down,” Nash said, and Savannah didn’t jump to disagree.
Dark-haired Cooper children ran past, all of them intent on a bounce house over at the side of the lawn. Lotus yelled, “Hey! Say happy birthday to Jessa at least!” They screeched to a stop, whirled around, and shouted, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESSA!” at the top of their lungs. Then they sped on, kicked off their shoes, and vanished within to jump. Poking his head around the corner of the bounce house, a baffled Cadmon looked through the mesh to the delighted chaos inside.
“This is a BBG song,” I called to Lotus about the new song starting up.
“Triplets shouldn’t sing love songs together. That’s weird,” Lotus tutted, looking like an old lady rather than a twelve-year-old.
Taurin and Drina were talking on the balcony above. They waved to me and returned to their conversation, Drina laughing and Taurin’s arm slipping around her waist. She leaned into him and I said, “Just a friends stage, huh?”
“I think they’re headed to another married stage soon,” Adriel said. “He’s coming home with little presents for her almost daily now and that’s a pretty strong sign of it. If she starts making his favorite lasagna, that’s an even stronger indicator. Kishi checks the grocery list all the time to see if Drina is adding the ingredients.”
“I’m happy for them,” I said.
“I know. Your soul glowed brighter to hear that.” His eyes went up to trail across the sky.
“Are you looking for something?”
“Just making sure,” Adriel said. When I looked up in concern, he shook his head. “It’s the smoke of the barbecues. I wish we could have sent him to the Ripper caves.”
Our surroundings were full of people and music and laughter, yet a chill pierced through me. He took my hand and brought it to his lips. “Forgive me for scaring you. I know he’s gone. I just . . . I just keep checking.”
Even I still did that when going outside, bracing myself for a telltale streak of dark smoke. Yet Japheem was deep within the sea, being brushed along and never to be found. Not to hurt anyone ever again, and his sick family of Rippers was torn apart for good. He was gone, they were all gone, and I was here with Adriel.
“I’m glad that I picked the orchestra room to change in,” I said.
“I might have seen a little more than I let on,” Adriel said. Blood rose to my cheeks in reflex and he chuckled.
We walked around the party to visit with everyone. Radeo was in a wheelchair while his back mended, and had stationed himself next to a table with bowls of guacamole and corn chips. To the side were Evanyi and Collan, shaking their heads to a server with a tray. Silea was setting a gift down on the table. “Thank you,” I called.
“You’re welcome.”
“I like your dress.” Her blue dress with a flared skirt was simple and elegant, and a little at odds with her heavy muscles. Around her neck was a silver chain. From it hung a pendant of a single wing, its feathers delicately etched. “Interesting necklace.”
Silea fingered the wing. “The Council judged me to have passed the trial of the fallen angel, even though I’m too young for the formal test. So I am one step closer to becoming a kreolos hunter.”
Was this a time for congratulations? I had no idea. “You must be very happy.”
“Happy,” she repeated. “Being a kreolos hunter is not happy work.”
Floundering to regain my footing, I said, “I’m sure it’s a relief to have one trial out of the way.”
“No,” Silea said with some pity. “For every Ripper I send into the caves, for every vampire I stake or zombie I decapitate, many more roam free. This is not work where one often encounters relief either.”
“Then why do it?” I asked in frustration. Everyone around us was having fun and this girl was thinking about decapitation and staking and caves.
“Someone must,” Silea said. “They cannot be allowed free rein to prey upon human society.” Radeo called that the chicken was ready and she pushed between us to the barbecues.
“Everything I say to her is wrong,” I said. It was frustrating, since I didn’t particularly care for any of the Kreeling hunters except her.
“It isn’t wrong,” Adriel said. “Just understand that she has been raised from birth for this life, and can’t imagine any other way.”
“Is that what you see in her soul?”
“Yes. You don’t understand her world any more than she understands yours. But that wasn’t entirely honest what she said about not being happy to have completed a trial. She does take some pride in that.”
Even if she didn’t like me that much, I was happy that she’d been given the wing. She deserved it, despite letting Zakia fall. “What are the trials like when they’re formally given? Do you know?”
“She’ll be set into a controlled environment with no way out, given weapons, and told to track down whatever vampires or zombies lurk there. They won’t bother with Rippers again since she has been deemed sufficiently trained in those. Not all of the test-takers come out of the trials alive. If she does, she’ll receive pendants for those kills. Three of them, one for each type, will make her a kreolos. Now come! This isn’t what you want to be talking about and I don’t have to see your soul to know that.”
I forgot about checking for trails of smoke in the sky in the enjoyment of the party. We ate barbecued chicken at the tables, which I did with a knife and fork so I wouldn’t get sauce all over my face like some others were doing. Afterwards, The Burping Buddies performed the promised serenade, for which I clapped dutifully. London scowled at them and said, “I guess it’s better than armpit farts.”
“Wow, you really shouldn’t have said that!” I exclaimed. Nash’s hand was snaking up his sleeve. He pumped his arm and started squeaking. London and Savannah moaned.
The wind was blowing through, scattering napkins and tilting the balloons. It even plucked cards from the tops of the gifts, and Kishi called to Adriel to help gather them and weigh everything down. Savannah and London decided to tie their hair back into ponytails, since they were tired of the wind tossing it everywhere.
As The Burping Buddies renamed their band The Farting Friends and got underway with practice, Zakia appeared at my side and said, “Is this what passes for music education in your time?”
“Budget cuts,” I explained.
“I see.” He watched them in amusement.
“How’s Mercy?”
“She passed this morning at dawn. I didn’t expect to feel so sad. But I do.” I tucked my hand into his and entwined our fingers. “I wish she hadn’t wasted all of those years being afraid of us. We missed out on each other’s lives for that, and now hers has ended. I hope our parents were the first people she saw in the next world. She was such a daddy’s girl as a child. That’s how I want to remember Mercy, the way her eyes lit up whenever our pop walked through the door.”
“Were you a momma’s boy or a daddy’s boy?”
Zakia’s smile was sad. “Neither. They were just some random old people who happened to live in our house and kept making me take baths. No, I thought my big brothers hung the stars in the heavens. It must have been so annoying for them to always have
me trailing behind. But I don’t remember a single one of the lot ever speaking a cross word to me. It was just come on, Embry, keep up! And when I couldn’t, one would swing me up onto his shoulders and I’d ride up there at the top of the world.”
No one ever could have spoken crossly to a little Zakia, not with his smile and sweet disposition. “Thank you for coming to get me in Santa Cruz.”
“It had nothing to do with you. It was just an excuse to fly with an angel,” Zakia teased. “An ancient, grumpy fallen angel with half a mind to drop me. And since they only have half a brain to start with . . .”
“Don’t start,” I said.
“But Taurin didn’t drop me, to his credit. Of course I came for you, Jessa. Once we realized that you had the keys, nothing could have stopped any of us. Even the Kreelings were excited, in their own subdued way. It’s so hard to catch Rippers and to have such a strong lead almost never presents itself. So in a way,” he paused thoughtfully, “in a way, you should be thankful that boy nailed you with strawberry yogurt in the hallway at Spooner High. It was the only reason you had the keys on your person.”
“I’ll be sure to drop him a thank-you note,” I said.
Zakia laughed and removed a jewelry box from his pocket, which he pressed at me. “Happy birthday, Jessa.”
“Zakia!” I opened the lid to a sterling silver cuff bracelet with turquoise chunks along it. When I pulled it out, he took it away and slid it onto my wrist. I gasped, “This is beautiful. Wherever did you get it?”
“My family made jewelry long ago, back when I was human. I’ve kept some of it all of these years and I thought you might like this piece. You do like it?” His eyes bore a hint of anxiety.
“I love it. Thank you,” I said sincerely. “You can’t see into my soul like an angel, but it’s genuine.”
“I don’t need the cheat sheet. I trust you.” Zakia inclined his head to the snack tables. “Some of those cookies are calling our names.”
Earth/Sky (Earth/Sky Trilogy) Page 33
