As much as discovering she was still in the palace had been a shock, it was also a relief. Because when that lighthouse came down, anybody near it was going down, too.
RAPHAEL
THE NOW
Raphael heaved for breath, his hands and knees bleeding as he crawled along the sharp rocks, trying to find dry ground.
He could hear Micah calling for Lily. So much for sneaking up on this lighthouse. Although, he supposed if there was anybody in there, they’d already have heard them. Could Lily really be somewhere inside that giant shadow? He’d been certain she was in that tower near the beach. It seemed his homing elixir still needed some work.
He hadn’t had a single vision of Lily since he’d seen her scream and that’d been ages ago. Why would they suddenly go blank now?
The stars were even brighter out here, lighting a shadowy path ahead of him. He strained his eyes and realized there was no sand on this beach. Just a large pile of rocks with a lighthouse looming in the middle. He blinked up at the tall structure, certain for a moment that it was swaying. Rubbing his eyes, he decided it was just the moving of the clouds making it look like the lighthouse was losing its grip on the rocks.
“Lily!” he heard Micah call again.
He lay down on his stomach and concentrated on slowing his breath. He was alive and that was all that mattered. Micah had made it, too. But how had Azrael, Pip, and Griffen fared? That sea had been merciless.
Now that he’d caught his breath, the world around him was becoming clearer and he rolled onto his back and tried to assess the extent of his injuries. It didn’t feel like any bones were broken and the cuts on his hands and knees were only superficial.
Something wasn’t right, though. Something was missing.
His elixirs!
He felt around his body and inside his sodden jacket, but the elixirs were missing.
This was a real blow. Unlike his companions, his powers didn’t come from within. He couldn’t lead a whisper like Micah or heal a person with his hands like Azrael. And he couldn’t find more of what he needed along the way, like Pip could. His elixirs were distilled from carefully grown ingredients in his apothecary. Without them he was… just an ordinary man.
He’d never been an ordinary man before. Always the son of the Alchemist or brother of the Queen, and then finally the Alchemist himself. But it seemed he was destined to meet Lily as Raphael alone. That was if he was going to meet her at all. This lighthouse seemed deserted. Had this been some kind of elaborate trick to trap them here?
“Raphael!” He turned his head and saw Azrael on the rocks, not far away.
Scrambling until he found himself upright, he went to her.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She nodded. “I’m okay.” Her dark hair was plastered to her pale face. Even in the dim light, he could see that her lips had turned blue.
“Let me help you up.” He reached out his hands and Azrael took them, hauling herself to her feet.
Her dress was soaking and water pooled on the rocks at her feet. It was amazing all that fabric hadn’t pulled her under the water. She was even luckier than he’d been to have survived.
“I heard Micah,” she said. “But I haven’t heard Griffen or Pip yet.”
A strange animal made a sound in the distance and Raphael felt Azrael tighten her grip on his hands.
“It’s okay,” he said, letting go of her hands to put an arm around her shoulder. To his surprise, she leaned into him. “We’re okay.”
“What animal could survive out here?” she asked.
“I don’t know.” He really didn’t. He’d never heard an animal make a sound like that before.
A shadow came stumbling across the rocks toward them and Raphael released his grip on Azrael to position his body in front of her. Whatever that was, it was going to need to get past him first.
“It’s just me!” hissed Micah as she stepped into the moonlight and her face illuminated. She looked even more of a mess than Azrael, with a large cut on her forehead and her shirt torn to shreds.
“Are you okay?” asked Raphael, rushing forward.
“I’ve been worse.” She pressed her palm to her forehead and winced. “You both okay?”
They nodded their responses.
“Where are Pip and Griffen?”
“We don’t know,” said Azrael. “But I hope they’re nowhere near whatever creature is making that awful noise.”
“We need to look for them.” Micah’s hand fell to her side as a familiar look of determination crossed her face. This wasn’t a woman who gave up easily, no matter how dire the odds. “They might need our help.”
“You’re right,” he said. They’d come here together and they needed to stick together.
They clambered over the rocks, making their way closer to the noise, scanning the shoreline for any sign of their friends.
“Griffen!” called Micah. “Pip!”
“Don’t you think we should be quiet?” asked Raphael.
“If we were going to be attacked, don’t you think it would’ve happened by now?” said Micah.
“Over there.” Azrael pointed to a moving shadow in the shallows of the water.
Waves were crashing into whatever it was, but in the darkness, it was hard to make out what they were dealing with until they could get closer.
“Is that a bear?” asked Micah. “I’ve never seen a bear before.”
“It’s not a bear.” Azrael’s voice had a strange tone that Raphael hadn’t heard her use before.
“A dragon?” asked Micah.
“They’re not real.” Raphael winced as he stepped on a particularly sharp rock.
“They might be,” said Micah.
“It’s Pip,” said Azrael. “Pip’s making the noise.”
The clouds moved across the sky, sending moonbeams pouring to the rocks and Raphael’s heart sank to see that Azrael was right. Pip was standing in the shallows bent over a dark shape in the water, which was unmistakably Griffen.
Ignoring the pain in his feet, Raphael ran forward, splashing through the water with Azrael and Micah beside him until they reached their friends.
“Help me!” Pip was trying to drag Griffen’s enormous frame from the water. “Please, help me.”
Raphael glanced at Micah and saw she’d reached the same conclusion as he had. They were too late. But that didn’t mean they could leave Griffen there. If the roles were reversed, he wouldn’t leave them.
“Micah, you take one arm and I’ll take the other,” he said. “Pip, Azrael, you take one of his legs each. We’ll carry him in.”
Griffen was even heavier than Raphael had expected it was possible for a person to be. He could only hope they were strong enough. But if motivation counted as strength, then they had that in abundance.
Pip’s howling had ceased and now she was sobbing, begging Azrael to tell her if she was going to be able to save him.
“I’ll try,” said Azrael.
“You have to save him,” said Pip. “You have to!”
“If it’s possible to save him, then I will,” said Azrael.
Raphael corrected his grip on Griffen’s arm to support him under his shoulder, impressed that Micah was able to keep up on her side.
“He saved me,” howled Pip. “I went under the water and couldn’t get back up. My dress was heavy and it was dragging me down. But then I felt Griffen there, bringing me back up to the surface. I grabbed onto him. I couldn’t breathe. And he held me up, so my face was out of the water. Then. Then. Then…”
“It’s okay, Pip,” soothed Azrael. “You don’t need to tell us now.”
“Then he went under!” sobbed Pip. “And a big wave swept me in to shore. I tried to get back out to him, but the waves were so strong. And then. Then. Then…”
“Oh, Pip,” said Azrael, as they got to a rock that was flatter than the rest, and laid Griffen down.
Pip knelt down next to Griffen and planted kisses on his cheeks. “
Come back to me, Griffen. Please, come back.”
“Can you save him?” Raphael asked Azrael in a hushed voice.
The fear in her face gave him the answer without the need for the slight shrug of her shoulders and she knelt down beside Pip.
“Pip, I don’t know if I can save him,” she said, checking his neck for a pulse and shaking her head as she moved her fingers around.
“But you saved Micah!” wailed Pip.
“Micah was still breathing,” said Azrael, bending forward and holding her ear to Griffen’s mouth.
“Let her work.” Raphael reached for Pip, but she shrugged him away, too distressed to receive any comfort.
“He’s too far gone.” Azrael looked up at Pip, her face crumpling. “I’m so sorry.”
“You have to try!” Pip clutched at the front of Azrael’s sodden dress. “Please, we’ve all seen you work your magic. You can do it.”
“Pip, it’s too late.” Azrael covered Pip’s hands with her own and held them. “His body’s cold. He’s gone.”
“He can’t be gone,” said Pip.
Raphael looked away, her grief too raw and deep for him to witness. He knew what it felt like to lose someone. Not a lover, perhaps. But he knew what it felt like to lose a parent. How would he feel if the reason for his visions of Lily going blank was because the worst had happened to her?
Just the thought of that sent arrows of pain into his heart and he’d never even had the chance to meet her. Poor, Pip.
“Do you see that?” asked Micah, tugging at his sleeve and pointing to the ocean.
He followed the direction he was pointing. “Just water. Why? What are you looking at?”
“You can’t see… that.” Micah’s face was contorted and she clutched his sleeve as if asking for his protection for the first time since they’d set out on this quest.
He looked again. “Micah, I really can’t see anything. What is it?”
“Never mind.” She shook her head, her eyes still glued to something he couldn’t see.
“Can you at least try to bring him back?” Pip begged Azrael, clearly not able to let Griffen go.
Azrael nodded, letting go of Pip, so she could place her hands on Griffen’s chest.
“Micah, can you whisper?” asked Pip.
Even in the moonlight, Raphael could see the tears flood Micah’s eyes as she dragged her gaze from the ocean to look at Pip.
“I can whisper,” she said.
Then Pip directed her gaze at Raphael.
“I lost my elixirs in the ocean,” he said, before she could ask. “But I can whisper with Micah.”
Pip nodded. “Thank you.”
Micah slipped her cold hand into Raphael’s and together they whispered into the night, their words rising to the sky and Raphael imagined them finding Griffen’s soul and dragging it back down to them.
Azrael worked on Griffen, her hands shaking from cold and the futility of the task they’d been set to achieve.
How long they spent trying, Raphael didn’t know, but after some time, Azrael’s hands came to a stop and Micah and Raphael fell silent.
“He’s at peace,” said Azrael.
And that was when Pip’s howling began once more. For Griffen may be at peace, but it was obvious that never again would the woman who loved him be able to find peace again.
AZRAEL
THE NOW
It was with a heavy heart that Azrael removed her hands from Griffen. Pip’s wailing didn’t help. But how could she explain to her that healing didn’t work like that? Not everyone could be healed, just because you wanted them to be. Especially people who’d crossed so far over into death.
If death could be cheated so easily, then it had no meaning. And if death had no meaning, then life itself was also meaningless. And that, Azrael knew was untrue.
Life was full of meaning, even if sometimes it wasn’t obvious. She only had to look at her own life to see the truth in that. Terrible things had happened to her. And she’d not only survived it, but those experiences had made her who she was—a person who was able to help others. A healer.
And although she couldn’t help Griffen, in time she’d be able to help Pip. If she let her, of course. And judging by the way Pip’s pale irises were flashing at her in the moonlight, it seemed that it was going to take a while before Azrael was allowed anywhere near her.
Pip was going to want to blame someone to avoid having to shoulder all the responsibility herself. And there was no doubt that someone was going to be Azrael. The Angel of death, as Enid had pointed out to her not so long ago. But if it helped Pip to blame her, then she was willing to accept that for now.
Azrael went to Micah and Raphael, who stood shivering on a nearby rock.
“We need to get warm,” said Azrael, knowing she had no strength to heal anybody who fell prey to the cold. She barely had enough strength left for herself. “Do you think there’s anybody in the lighthouse?”
“There’s a woman on the balcony,” said Micah. “She’s been watching us.”
Azrael tilted her face toward the night sky but couldn’t see who Micah was talking about.
“I can’t see her,” said Raphael, squinting.
“She’s right there,” said Micah.
Azrael blinked. Her eyes must be too tired to see what Micah could see.
“Please help us!” called Micah, waving her arms frantically at the lighthouse.
“If she was going to help us, she’d have come down by now,” said Raphael.
“Then let’s try to get inside to talk to her,” said Micah.
“What about Pip?” asked Azrael. Pip had draped herself over Griffen’s body and didn’t look like she was going to move any time soon. “We can’t leave her here.”
“Can you stay with her for the moment?” asked Micah. “Raphael and I will walk around the lighthouse and see if we can find a way in.”
“I’m not sure I’m the best person to stay with her,” said Azrael.
“You’re the very best person to stay with her,” said Raphael.
Azrael nodded. “Find a way in and call out to me when you do. I’ll try to convince her to leave Griffen and come inside.”
She sat down and watched them climb over the rocks toward the lighthouse, drawing her knees up to her chest to try to get warm, but it was impossible in these wet clothes. Her gaze was pulled upward again to the balcony, trying to see the woman Micah had been pointing at, deciding it was either a shadow or the woman was no longer there. Whichever way, she didn’t have a good feeling about this.
“Pip,” she called out. “Say your goodbyes, then we need to find shelter.”
“Azrael.” Pip’s voice had risen to an excited pitch. “Come here.”
“I’m cold, Pip.” Azrael sighed. “And tired. I’m sad that he’s gone, but there’s nothing more I can do for him.”
“He moved, Azrael. His chest. It moved.” Pip was on her knees now, leaning over Griffen, her ear pressed to his mouth. “I think he’s breathing.”
“He’s not breathing, Pip.”
“Azrael, come here right now!”
Azrael’s eyebrows shot up, surprised to see the bossy side of Pip having returned so soon. She must really believe Griffen had come back to her.
She got to her feet, wincing at the sharpness of the rocks, wondering if she’d ever see her soft leather shoes again, and clambered over to Pip.
“Put your hand here.” Pip placed Azrael’s palm on Griffen’s cold chest. “He’s breathing. I can feel it.”
As soon as Azrael made contact with Griffen, his eyes sprang open and he drew in an enormous gasp of air.
Azrael had to steady herself as her heart rate spiked and she drew in a gasp of her own. Pip hadn’t imagined it. Griffen was alive!
“You did it, Azrael!” Pip held her hands to her mouth. “You really did it!”
“Help me turn him to his side,” said Azrael, trying to lift and roll this huge man over.
With some e
ffort and a little help from Griffen himself, they managed to turn him and he coughed, expelling saltwater from deep in his lungs.
“Griffen!” said Pip. “I knew you wouldn’t leave me. I knew it.”
Griffen rolled onto his back once more and blinked up at Pip. His face was gray, his lips blue, but still he held love in his eyes.
“It was you who didn’t leave me,” he said.
“This isn’t possible,” said Azrael, more to herself than to anyone else. He’d been too far gone. But clearly, she’d been wrong. Because here he was, breathing, and coughing and talking to the woman he loved.
“Azrael did it,” said Pip. “She brought you back. And Micah and Raphael whispered for you. It’s a miracle!”
Pip reached out for Azrael and wrapped her arms around her. Azrael resisted her reflex to pull away and instead accepted Pip’s embrace, which was so much warmer than the blame she’d thought she was going to wear.
It seemed Griffen wasn’t meant to die just yet. Perhaps the universe had bigger things planned for him.
A rumbling sound caught her attention and she let go of Pip to look up at the lighthouse, which had unmistakably started to sway.
MICAH
THE NOW
“Did you hear that?” asked Micah. “A rumbling sound.”
“It’s just the waves,” said Raphael, although she noticed he looked up at the lighthouse rather than out to the ocean.
“Is it moving?” She put her hand on the cold stone exterior.
“I thought that earlier,” he said. “But if feels steady enough.”
Micah nodded. Maybe it was normal for it to sway? It wasn’t like they had anywhere to take cover if this thing did decide to come down. Better to press on with trying to find a way in. She was sure they’d walked almost the full way around the lighthouse already.
“We should’ve gone the other way around,” said Raphael.
The Kingdoms of Evernow Box Set Page 109
