The Halo of Amaris

by Jade Brieanne

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Just like everything else so far in Jon’s short experience of weird things that happened when you meet homicidal angels, once he passed beyond the red gate, his journey through multiple realms in one day was nothing he would have expected.

  He expected a race through the clouds, or that a strike of lightning would disintegrate his body, or maybe the four horsemen of the Apocalypse would trumpet his arrival to the tune of punches and black eyes. In all honesty, his luck with extra-terrestrials was bordering on piss-poor so far.

  However, none of that happened—no flashes of bright lights, no horns blaring, no unidentified flying objects. Just a blink, followed by a really weird, tingly sensation—like his entire body had fallen asleep—a strong rush of wind across his face, and suddenly he was somewhere else. His disappointment over how dull it had been was pretty high, actually.

  His hands landed on the soft velvet of a Victorian armchair, and an older woman greeted him with a friendly smile. “Brandy?”

  He blinked once. “No, I’m Jon.”

  Her smile dimmed a notch as her eyes slid down to the tray balanced on her hand. “No, sir. Brandy.”

  Three footed glasses with amber liquid swirling in them sat on the tray. It was the first positive temptation he’d seen in days. “Oh, hell yes, I want brandy.”

  His hands wrapped around the glass. “Sweet mother of Jesus, you are everything I’ve ever wanted,” he muttered before he downed the contents in one swallow. Jon put the glass down as the drink burned in his chest.

  He looked around for his friends and expelled his breath in a rush when he saw them sitting to his right—Aiden deathly still with his hands clenching the chair, and Jin blowing her hair out of her face.

  Jon watched the same woman with the friendly smile breeze over to them and offer the same drink. Aiden declined with a wild shake of his head, but Jin mirrored Jon’s actions by snatching the glass off the tray and swallowing every last drop. Aiden’s glare on her was red hot but she rolled her eyes and ignored him.

  As she lowered the glass, Jon hissed at her. She didn’t hear him, so he hissed louder. She answered him with a raised brow.

  “Where are we?” he whispered under his breath.

  “Now what would make you think I know the answer to that?” Jin waved her hand, trying to get the woman’s attention for another glass. Aiden snatched her hand down and waved the server off. Watching the woman walk away, Jin gave up with a pout.

  “Perfect. We can use Narnia as a placeholder for now,” Jon muttered as he watched them argue without words.

  His gaze shifted a few chairs down to where Key was sitting. He opened his mouth to repeat the same question to the obvious expert in kooky shit, but paused when two stained-glass French doors at the end of the large room whooshed open.

  He watched as three people entered and walked to the center of the room. The serving woman provided them a cursory glance before heading to the bar to fix them a drink.

  It was an interesting group, if stuffy, overdressed people turned your head. Standing there were two men and a woman, all clothed in white and gold. The men wore white suits with intricate designs of gold on the lapels and down the sleeves. The woman’s outfit was the most elaborate. Her dress was high collared and form- fitting, flowing over her curves before stopping right above her knee. It was covered in gold beading and lace, and on her feet was a pair of shoes that looked impossible to walk in. He imagined her toes pinched and jammed in the shoes and he grimaced. It was ridiculous. They looked ridiculous. Like a group of overstated, gaudy circus clowns. However, Jon liked to wear thermal shirts year-round, and his favorite dress shirt had a hole in it, so he didn’t have much to say when it came to fashion sense.

  The group’s sudden appearance shifted the mood in the room, dropping the temperature a few degrees. Inspecting and calculated stares were sent in their direction before those stares shifted from the humans to the three angels. Key, Tahir, and Rooke returned the looks unwaveringly, and Jon decided to hold his breath for a confrontation.

  The standoff ended, to his disappointment, when one of the men, with close- cropped, dark hair, broke out into an effortless smile, his arms opening up. “You did good.”

  The tension broke.

  The three angels bolted from their seats, throwing themselves into the strangers’ arms, laughing. There was a moment when they touched foreheads, and Jon guessed it was some kind of weird angel-hello.

  Aiden cleared his throat loudly as the group continued to behave as if they didn’t exist. “I don’t mean to interrupt your little shit-and-giggle fest over there, but could someone explain where the hell we are?”

  The tallest of the three—broad-shouldered, with toasted-almond skin and a wide nose—looked over first. His smile was slow, as if he were reading them, measuring them with careful, methodical consideration. But his mouth had an eager, astonished tilt, as if their existence sailed past simplicity and right into the inexplicable. “That was rude of us, wasn’t it? Please accept our apologies, it’s just that time works very differently up here, and we haven’t seen these three in quite some time.” The man gave Tahir’s hair one last playful ruffle before striding over with his hand extended. Aiden glanced from the proffered handshake to his face before carefully extending his own hand and accepting the friendly gesture.

  “My name is Seff, from the clan Mycenaean. It really is a pleasure to meet you all.” The man extracted his hand and smiled. “You are all probably a bit tired from the trip here, I presume?”

  “Tired,” Jon said flatly. “That’s a weird word for not dead.”

  The other male standing behind Seff laughed, a small dimple appearing as he grinned. “It’s such a complex thing—traveling and protection. Security must be strict. It’s for everyone’s safety. First time I traveled the Arcus, I didn’t speak to a soul up here for three months. They had to drag me out of my room.”

  He called over the third stranger, a woman with long, raven hair flowing down her back and over her shoulders. She was shorter than the two men by a head and her eyes were warm, but the angle of her grin spoke of something else. When she reached his side, the man spoke with a touch of pride. “I’m Parker from the clan Eloah, and this is Bon Baji from the clan Melek. We are the Four Nobles of Caeli.”

  “Four?” Jin asked with a raised brow, counting heads with her fingers.

  Baji’s eyes sparkled as she looked Jin over with undisguised interest. She sauntered to her on petite feet, coming impossibly close and peering at her.

  Jin recoiled into her chair at the sudden interest and the woman’s proximity. Baji extended a tiny hand and ran it from Jin’s forehead to the tip of her nose before fanning out to her cheekbones. Jin frowned and reached to smack her hand away but Baji was quicker, withdrawing her hand and snatching it to her chest with a Cheshire-cat smile.

  “It’s so much different seeing her alive. She looks…she even sounds...” She tilted her head. “Hikarat hatov.”

  One of Aiden’s brows rose and he leaned toward Jon. “What is she saying?”

  “How the hell am I supposed to know?”

  “Isn’t your mother Jewish?”

  “Doesn’t mean I know what the hell she’s saying.”

  “She is saying,” Parker interrupted as he took a step toward Aiden and Jon, “that she is grateful.”

  Bon Baji smiled. “I am grateful she is alive.”

  Seff joined Baji, squatting down with his fingers steepled under his chin. “We all are.”

  Parker huffed. “Do you two need to stare at her like that? Are you trying to scare her?”

  Bon Baji rolled her eyes. “After what she’s experienced, you think this is going to scare her?”

  “Still, staring at her like kids in a candy shop isn’t…necessary,” Parker said. He turned to Jin, his face passive and more relaxed than his rabid, touchy-feely friends. “I apologize. This is a…big day for us. And to answer at least one of your questions, Ahn,
our elder, is somewhere around here. We will make formal introductions at some point.” He took a step back and called the server forward. “Ms. Dodson, could you please escort our guests to the east wing?” Turning, he motioned toward the door. “If you will all follow Ms. Dodson, we’ve got rooms prepared for you, food for you to eat…”

  Jon stood; his eyes level with the six non-humans standing in front of him. “Let’s rearrange that. How about you explain first, and then you can indulge in whatever hospitality you want.”

  Parker stopped short and the smile slid off his face. “You’re mistaken. This isn’t up for debate,” he said as he locked eyes with Jon.

  “Are we prisoners?” Jin asked, her gaze moving from Parker to Jon and back to Parker again. “Are we not allowed to leave?”

  Key tilted his head. “Prisoners? Absolutely not. It’s just that your body is going to shut down if you don’t lie down or get something into your system. The Arcus borrows the energy to sustain itself from those inside it. The only reason you haven’t fainted is because first you were with us and now because you’re here. Don’t you feel tired? I’m only half human, and I can feel it down to my bones.” Key walked over to Jin and squatted in front of her, taking her hands into his with a small smile. “I said I’d take care of you and I meant that. I need you to trust me.”

  Jon scoffed loudly, and Key shot him the nastiest glare ever.

  “Occupy your time by not conjuring up your talent for stupidity, Fido.”

  Jon shivered in anger. “I swear to whatever god exists up here that if you refer to me as another form of canine again, I’m going to lodge my foot so far up your ass that you won’t be able to take a shit without asking me first.”

  Key stood and stormed towards Jon, hell bent. “You don’t have the reach or the inclination to do something so brave, you expendable, incompetent sack of dog guts.”

  “Not again,” Tahir groaned from where she was talking with Ms. Dodson.

  “You know what, Key? I’ve had it up to here with your shit. We’re not asking for much. Just answers. And if you being silent about everything wasn’t enough, we almost die, again, because you didn’t want to tell us about the murder-death-kill trolls who live under the bridge!”

  “Under the—?” Parker inhaled sharply. “Wait…the Nonpareils? But how?”

  Jon scarcely heard the question as he jabbed a finger in the middle of Key’s forehead. “You haven’t been honest with us, not even once, and you want us to trust you? Fuck you.”

  Key smacked Jon’s finger away and leaned closer, face flushed. “I’m the only thing keeping you alive, you ungrateful bastard!”

  “Listen to yourself. Do you honestly think that? Are you that hyped up on your own bullshit?”

  “You want to test me? Because we can go at this all night, buddy, all night l—”

  “Are you two going to kiss?”

  The argument rolled to a complete stop as Jon whipped his head around to look at Baji, who was trying her hardest to hide her smirk behind her small hands. She held her hands out as Jon shot daggers at her. “What? I’m just asking. I couldn’t tell if that was a fight or a proposition. I haven’t seen Key this worked up since… Actually, I’ve never seen it. Huh.”

  Tahir snorted loudly. “Tell me about it.” She looped her arm around Rooke’s shoulder and pulled him away from the others. “They should probably just jump each other’s bones already,” she said as she walked out of the room.

  “Stay out of it!” Jon and Key both snarled at Tahir’s retreating back before turning away from each other in a huff.

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Jin pushed the heavy wooden door open and stopped at the threshold. She felt heavy again, like all of the energy she had was seeping out, flowing down her body and into the floorboards.

  The very nice floorboards.

  Parker was serious about things not being up for debate. They were quickly led from the parlor and to separate bedrooms.

  Jin thought the house was nice—tertiary colors, furniture with elegant rose fabric in an understated pattern, a painting framed in gold spanning an entire wall, and sculpted busts. Her and Aiden’s room had an upholstered sleigh bed centered on a large, plush rug, and a gigantic fireplace that took up most of one wall. The room was filled with furniture she could never afford. She felt a little wary about touching it. It was all very nice—maybe even a little decadent—but the room could have been in any expensive hotel, anywhere. Everything was so normal. It scared her.

  This wasn’t the type of vacation she dreamed of taking with Aiden. She’d imagined Trinidad and Tobago, visiting during Carnival, seeing the costumes and the beautiful women. She imagined herself hammering away at a steel drum while Aiden laughed from the balcony of their hotel. Sleeping in and late nights, bare feet and short-shorts, strolls on the beach, and drinks in pineapples.

  Looking around the bedroom, she wondered what she had inadvertently signed up for by actually staying alive. To be thrust into some kind of perverse cyclonic hell where one minute she was dead and the next she wasn’t?

  The clock struck the hour and she was too distracted to listen to the number of chimes. She glanced down at the bed with its normal sheets and like any normal person she wanted to go to sleep. Was there such a thing as extra-dimensional jetlag?

  The door creaked open, and Aiden walked in carrying a set of clean clothes— normal-looking clothes—and a tray balanced between his hip and forearm with—tada!—normal-looking food. She cleared her throat and ducked her head as he closed the door behind him.

  This was the first time they’d been alone since her adventures in foolish bravery, and to be honest, she was terrified to hear what Aiden had to say. Still, whatever it was, she deserved it.

  “I looked around a bit. They have a gym and a pool here. There’s no one else except for the servants, although I don’t want to call them that. This is heaven, right? Nobody wants to be called a servant in heaven. Helpers. The helpers are the only ones here.”

  Aiden was always adept at surprising her. Today was apparently no different.

  He set the tray down on the spiral-legged table in the corner before laying the clothes on a chest at the foot of the bed. “She said there would also be towels…” he mused as he walked over to the tall dresser and began pulling out drawers. “Aha,” he said as he pulled out the bottom one. “Towels…in heaven. Go figure.”

  Jin fingered the damask pattern of the duvet on the bed. “This isn’t heaven, Aiden. We aren’t dead.”

  He laughed, a stark contrast to his furrowed brows and angry frown from before. “At this point, I don’t know what we are.”

  Jin sighed and plopped down hard on the bed. “All your life, you get told that life is a love story. Your life is a love story, and happily ever after gets drummed into your head. You’ll meet someone, you’ll fall in love, have kids, get a house that has a stupid white fence with a lawn that you have to mow on Saturdays. What they don’t tell you is that one day you'll discover a secret and have to testify in court and your life suddenly isn't your own anymore. The white fence is an apartment that you're caged in and there is no lawn on Saturdays, just schedules and watching your back and sleeplessness because now you’re terrified of the dark. There isn't a happily ever after. You die and you die and you die.” Jin dug the heels of her hands into her eyes and exhaled before sliding her hands down her face. “How do I explain all of this?”

  Aiden chewed on his bottom lip before joining her on the bed. He reached for her hand, his fingers moving in slow strokes over her knuckles. “You don’t,” he said simply. “Hell, don’t even think about it. I’m not. I’m kind of shelving it, you know? I had to, because if I start to think, if I start to break all of this down into something less than bizarre, try to get into theories and whys, I’d go crazy. And with your life at stake, the last thing I need to be is crazy right now.”

  She rolled her eyes at his last sentence. “Head on swivel, huh?”

  “Twen
ty-four-seven, baby.” Aiden chuckled and fell back against the mattress, pulling Jin to lay down beside him. “It would go a bit smoother if you didn’t feel the need to jump in front of danger every time you saw it.”

  She could feel the tension his words didn’t show as he curled his hand around hers. “Sorry,” she mumbled.

  “Don’t apologize for things you’re not sorry for.”

  “I’m not sorry I did it. I can’t be. I’m sorry that I worried you. I’m sorry I put us in this situation to begin with. That because of me, we are going through this.”

  “And don’t apologize for things you can’t control.”

  With her free hand she scrubbed at her face tiredly. “What do we do now?”

  Silence stretched across the room before Aiden asked softly. “Do you remember the card game?”

  Jin rolled her head to the side. “The card game?”

  “It was your sixth month away from home and you called because a thunderstorm was scaring you.”

  Jin snorted. “I wouldn’t do something so ridiculous.”

  “But you did, and I came over with a deck of cards. I taught you how to play blackjack.”

  The memory of a deck of cards, burnt popcorn, and beer jumped out at her. “Oh! You mean the night you swindled me out of all of my money? Is that what you call teaching me blackjack?” Jin smacked him lightly on his arm. “You probably had all of that planned. You’re despicable.” She laughed as she remembered her inability to count cards as she lost hand after hand.

  “I fell in love with you that night.”

  She laugh tapered off as she gazed at Aiden, searching his profile for any signs he was joking. She didn’t find any. “Then?”

  He nodded ever so slightly. He laced his fingers with hers and squeezed. “Whether you believe me or not, you are scared of thunderstorms. It isn’t a jump-out-of-your-skin kind of terror, more of an uneasiness whenever thunder would boom outside your apartment. That was the night I realized how far I would go to protect you, because all I wanted to do was wrap myself around you. That it’d gone from simply doing my job to investing myself in you. Fears and happiness, that sort of thing.” He paused for a moment, looking up at the ceiling. “It’s how I knew you mattered.”