Chapter 38
W e had fallen asleep for about an hour or so, but my need for the bathroom jostled the bed enough to wake him up. Nick hadn’t blinked an eye when I’d gone into depth about all the vile things I’d conjured up for the numerous people we both equally disliked. Months ago, if I had spoken like this, I would have been awarded with a lecture. Right now, it felt like some kind of high being able to speak so effortlessly and strongly about the things I wanted and could do if given the chance.
Just because I couldn’t do those things when I wanted to didn’t mean I was any less capable. Dimitri was a piece of entitled worthless shit for making me even consider I was anything less than who I actually was. I also knew from watching Nick and pushing him through his issues, that people don’t always rebound so easily, so I would have setbacks.
I did tell him once: Let yourself fall apart while you still have people surrounding you who care.
Nick drew circles along my back, sending a happy tingle down my spine. He had been telling me all about Beetee finally speaking to Daya. He told me about his severe panic attack which caused him to have to calm me down after he’d finished speaking about it. He’d let me in on his conversation with his father and the amount of kisses he’d received from that admission had him batting me away. I had told him how Lilith had offered me my dagger, or at least a new version of it that was tempting. Fuck had that been a tempting offer. Nick had laughed, claiming that it was unsurprising that Lilith had seemingly been demoted to one of Dimitri’s minions.
“Is it awful to say that I miss my dagger? I mean even if you were to say it is, I would still admit that I miss it.”
Nick let out a small laugh. “For one, no it’s not awful. It was a part of you and it probably always will be, even if it doesn’t technically exist anymore.”
“She presented it to me and I don’t know, I knew it wasn’t the same but that dagger was nothing without me and I guess I just missed something to tether myself to. Things feel different when all the power has someplace to go besides just inside yourself.”
Nick hummed, considering my words. “With all the power you have, I can see how that makes sense.”
We talked and laughed about so much until a small silence settled over us.
“Is Natalia looking into your memories?”
My raven-haired angel sighed. “Oh yeah, sorry, I thought I’d said it earlier. She is. I told her to take her time. If she can’t find anything, I can say we all tried.”
“She’ll find something. She always does.”
He hugged me closer. “It’s in a few days.”
His words caught me off guard. “What is?”
“The ceremony. Ariel’s fucked up attempt to rule over all of us.”
I let out a low whistle. “I can’t believe that’s still happening. What was the point of searching for where Jonah’s powers might be, just to figure it out and still have literally nothing to show for it.”
Nick pinched my side. “That trip to the library wasn’t all bad.”
I pinched him back. “I must really be rubbing off on you if you are making sex jokes, while your entire realm is in turmoil with an egoistic leader at the helm.”
He readjusted himself in bed, making sure to keep me close to him. “Ariel has me running all over the place. He surprisingly let me off the hook for my Animus Seeking duties just so I could be around if he needed me. You should see the fucking spectacle that he’s created on the lawn since he decided that an inside ceremony just wasn’t grand enough.” I didn’t have to look up at him to know he had rolled his eyes.
“Does Ariel expect me to just stay in here forever, until I fucking wither away from epic boredom? Like does he think that I’m going to stand by him if shit hits the fan again? I can give you that answer right now. Absolutely fucking not.”
“Dani, I don’t know. The man has only spoken to me in monosyllables and gotten others to communicate to me on his behalf. The only time we’ve spoken for longer than a minute was when he sarcastically congratulated me on neutralizing a threat and doing something right, while in the same breath making sure to point out that I had to make so many mistakes to do it.” He kissed my hair, burying his face in my curls. “I’ll figure something out, I promise.” He remained like that, taking in a deep breath as if he was inhaling my scent.
“I miss everyone and oddly or maybe not so oddly enough…I miss Elise.”
Nick ran a hand through his hair. His bare chest rumbling with laughter. “Bored of me already.”
I pushed away from his chest, propping myself up on my elbow so I could look down at him. My curls shifted over, cascading down my shoulder. “Don’t be jealous. I’ve spent time with your best friend and not enough with my own. You men are great and all, especially your dad, but...”
“It’s not the same. I get it. And I’ll tell you right now, they miss you too.” He shifted so that he was using his elbows to prop himself up. “Ariel banned Elise, Beetee and nearly everyone else to Oculus and I don’t know what exactly you did to Morgan, but I’m pretty sure she’s run her mouth to Ariel?—”
“Hmm, I don’t know about that. I think if she cried to Ariel about what I did, we would have definitely heard about it by now.” I snickered, remembering the way her eyes had bulged while I tightened my grip on her neck.
“Fair point. Still though, moving you out of The Skies would be a risk and trying to bring them here would be another one.”
I bit my lower lip, closing my eyes and then peeking over at him by just opening one. “What about your portal key? Did Ariel confiscate it when we came back?”
He eyed me suspiciously. “Surprisingly no. He probably thinks we’ll be good little angels now that we’ve been to Hell and back.”
I walked my fingers over his chest and up to his lips, tapping my index finger against them. “Then he doesn’t know me very well, now does he?”
“Dani…”
I moved quickly, maneuvering myself so I was straddling his waist. I leaned down to speak against his mouth. “Men like Ariel will never trust you. No matter how hard you work or how much you plead. You’ve proven you’re a threat to his authority and he will make you work until the day you die thinking you will ever have a chance of getting him off your back. In his mind you’ve done a million and one things wrong.” I gave him a peck on the lips. “Why not add another to the list?”
I pushed open the door of Natalia’s home, feeling an overwhelming sense of contentment. This place felt safe. It was nothing like the feel of being in Nick’s arms, but it was a close second. Nick stood close behind me, his sword strapped to his back like the showoff that he was.
Noise came from around the corner where the kitchen sat. A pair of black combat boots caught my eye and a familiar nonchalant snort made my ears perk up.
“About time you sprung out of that place.” Elise tilted her head to the side, her black hair following her movements.
The last time I had seen Elise was at Nick’s house. We had said a few words, but it wasn’t enough. Everyone had been so frazzled about what happened and Nick had been so adamant on my healing that we’d left without so much as a goodbye.
Everything in me knew she would hate it, but my feet were already moving. I didn’t hesitate when I threw my arms around her, pulling her into a hug, I felt her arms stiffen and her spine go ramrod straight. The air was sucked out of the room and the silence that surrounded us was awkward to say the least.
I didn’t really care.
Her arms didn’t move to hug me back, but she did place her hands on my forearms, pushing me back. She furrowed her dark brows. “You could have just said you missed me. I would have preferred it.” Her lips quirked up into a small smirk.
“You should be happy someone wants to show you that much affection,” Reese said, coming down the stairs. He looked over to me. “I’m guessing you got everything worked out?”
Once he was at the bottom of the stairs, I realized he was holding a sleeping Axel in his arms. I looked from the napping hellhound to him. Reese rolled his eyes as if saying don’t say a fucking word.
“Yeah, basically. It helped that I had a little luck on my side, huh?” I reached into my back pocket, pulling out his arrowhead. Reese smiled at me. “I’m sure you’ll be wanting it back.”
He shook his head, slightly jostling Axel. “Keep it. Well, keep it for now .”
“Oh, Blondie, giving gifts so people will like you? That’s so sad,” Elise taunted.
Reese narrowed his eyes. “You’re just mad because I’m stealing all your people to the side of team Reese. Even your fucking dog likes me more than you.”
“Ha, right.” Elise whistled, her eyes flashing a red so quickly that you wouldn’t have noticed if you weren’t paying attention. “Axel, come here.”
Axel yawned and shuffled out of Reese’s hold, causing the blonde angel to bend down a bit so he could scamper over to his mother. Elise leaned down so he could jump into her embrace, licking at her face. The dog nestled into her arms comfortably. She smirked over at Reese, who crossed his arms over his chest.
“I’m just going to safely assume Ariel has no idea you’re here?” Reese asked.
“Not exactly,” Nick answered, shrugging.
“Rebellious little angel. Who would have thought having a demon girlfriend would make you such a renegade.” Elise placed Axel down right as he let out a little bark, as if agreeing with her.
Nick looked over to me, his mouth gaping open. “Well, I…”
Elise laughed. “Oh, no, pretty boy. That’s a compliment. I only give out very few, so I would consider yourself lucky.”
I nodded, letting him know she was right. My smile towards him faltered a bit when I caught her grey eyes falling towards the scars at my arm and my exposed thigh. I had changed my clothes before we left, but I wasn’t ashamed of what had happened to me. I wasn’t going to hide the evidence that my time with Dimitri had really occurred.
Her eyes locked onto mine and her expression wasn’t one of pity or empathy. “Dimitri is a real piece of work.”
“Yeah, that’s one way to phrase it.”
“You wear those scars proudly. Their reasoning for being on your skin sucks fucking dick, but we move on. You take your moments to deal, but then you get back up and you continue to be just as powerful as he wanted you to be, but—” she narrowed her eyes at me. “You don’t do it for him or his agenda, you do it in spite of him. You do it for you.”
I pressed my lips together, a crying laugh threatening to erupt. “What is with everyone being so profound lately? Like seriously, what the fuck?”
“I think they’ve spent way too much time with the High Priestess.” We all jumped when Zane’s voice echoed around us. He appeared at the top of the stairs, shaking his head. “I would really love it if any of you would find some way to announce your presence rather than loitering in her majesty's foyer as if you hold residence here.”
“Some of us do, oh large one.” Elise tipped her head up to speak to him.
Zane sneered at her. “The High Priestess allows you to seek shelter here, this is not…”
A throat cleared and Natalia came up beside him. “Oh calm down. You know you have a soft spot for the snake shifter and do not even try to deny it.”
The large Enchanter kept his face neutral, not giving into Natalia’s teasing. The sound of children laughing had me blinking in confusion. Axel wagged his tail and ran around us, bounding up the stairs. Another sound, a familiar male laugh, had me rearing my head back.
“Is that my father?” Nick asked, as if he read my mind.
Natalia nodded. “Yes. They’ve all been here for quite some time.”
“They?” Nick and I both said in unison. Natalia winked at us and turned to walk down the hall, Zane following at her heels.
We all trailed behind them, letting Natalia lead us into a sitting room that was covered in gold wallpaper. A large chandelier hung from the ceiling and a large circular window brought light into the room that bounced against the golden walls beautifully.
A collective silence filtered through the room when I took in every person that looked back at me. Garrett and Leah sat closely on one of the couches, while their children played with Axel at their feet. Beetee and her moms stood near the windowsill, huddled closely with Daya and Alex. Maurice Cassial came into my view when he walked over to us. He looked from his son to me and smiled. He patted Nick’s shoulder like there was some silent conversation between them.
I felt a warm hand against mine and fingers threading through my own. Mr. Cassial looked down at where we held hands and he chuckled, more to himself than to anyone else.
“You’re all here?” I asked, my voice smaller than I wanted.
“Where else would we be?” Leah answered, giving me an encouraging smile.
“You can’t scare us away,” Beetee chimed in.
Maurice smiled. “Whatever happens we’re with you. When all Hell breaks loose, we’re with you.”
“Plus, I personally am always going to fight on the side with two hybrids, especially when one is a snake shifter.” Alex gave me a thumbs up, getting a sigh from her mother, before she walked over and sat on the couch.
Elise pushed past us to sit on the arm of one of the couches. “Ah, let’s not forget that Dani wields some shadowy fireball of light that could melt all our flesh off.” She blinked innocently at Nick. “You would know about that wouldn’t you, since she nearly melts yours off every time you make her com…”
“Oh my god, please shut up!” Nick shouted, but not before Daya let out a choked cough at the same time Reese held his stomach trying not to keel over in roaring laughter.
Nick shot him an unamused look. Reese held up his hands. “I’m sorry. The grumpy psycho and I don’t get along much, but that was funny.”
I squeezed Nick’s hand and leaned up to kiss him on the cheek. “He likes my burns.”
Alex made a gagging sound before kicking her feet up and resting them on the coffee table.
Nick let out a slow breath, regaining his composure. “Are you all here about Ariel?”
“Well, Ariel and anything else that needs to happen with the Dimitri situation.” Maurice leaned over the back of the couch, resting his elbows against the top.
I tentatively touched the scars on my arm. That was going to be a nervous habit, I could tell. “Well, Dimitri…”
“We know he got dealt with, but Lilith was there, right?” One of Beetee’s moms, Louise, asked.
“Yeah.”
“Is she going to be a problem?” Daya inquired, her whiskey eyes staring at me patiently.
I thought this over. I wasn’t really sure how to answer the question since Dimitri had been the real issue. Lilith was an afterthought since she had been pushed down several pegs when Dimitri had decided he would be calling the shots. “I wouldn’t think so. Dimitri was the one they all wanted to look up to, not her. It would be pretty hard for her to get the same sort of loyalty she had previously after Dimitri became her handler.”
“No one to do her bidding, means no play time for the queen of darkness,” Elise added.
“I suggest we stay vigilant but not let the idea of her threaten our lives,” Garrett said, but he spoke while he gazed at his children. “Besides, with the way your leader is handling things, if she did come and propose a fight, I don’t know how this realm would fare.”
“So, are you suggesting we all fight Ariel head on?” I asked.
“If you do, it will be sooner than you think,” Reese said, pressing his tongue into his cheek.
“What do you mean?” Nick stepped closer to his best friend.
“Earlier today, I got an invitation to his ceremony. The date was for tomorrow.” Natalia gave us a sympathetic look.
I looked over at Nick. “I thought you said it was in a few days?”
Nick ran a hand through his hair roughly. “That’s the last I heard. Like I said, the man hasn’t really spoken to me much.”
“Better to keep you out of the loop.” Maurice ran a finger over his mustache, letting out a humorless laugh.
“So are we ambushing this thing or…” Reese offered, glancing around the room.
“Get a grip, Blondie. You’re starting to sound like me.” Elise blew him a kiss before jumping off the arm of the couch. Her grey eyes scanned me and before I knew it, she was grabbing my arm and yanking me out of the room, shouting, “I’ll bring her right back!”
She looked behind her to make sure no one followed us out before she spoke in a low voice, “are you completely sure Dimitri is no longer a problem?”
I blinked at her, immediately thrown off guard. “You saw him, Elise.”
She gave me an incredulous look. “I know what I saw. I’m not asking you what I fucking saw. I’m asking you what you know and how you feel. I’m asking what you fucking think.”
I reached up and ran the pads of my fingertips over my scars. “Nick killed him. That’s what happened.”
Elise pinched the bridge of her nose as if she was annoyed. “The entire reason I’m asking you and not your boyfriend is because he would tell me exactly that. He got to throw down and beat the shit out of Dimitri, which great, good for fucking him, but just because the entitled piece of shit is unmoving doesn’t mean he’s dead. He looked it and I’d be really fucking surprised if he wasn’t, but…”
“But what?”
“Ugh, pretty boy should have cut off his fucking head, that’s what.”
“Elise… ah !” I felt a sting in my arm. I thought I might have accidentally scratched myself, but my hand wasn’t anywhere near my scars anymore. We both looked at the raised skin on my bicep and noticed that nothing was red, the scar tissue wasn’t pulsing, it all looked so normal. I placed my palm against my arm and felt heat there as if it was simmering on the inside.
“Dani, what is going on?” Elise questioned.
“Nothing, it’s probably just remnants of what he did. Case closed.”
“You are fucking delusional if you think—” I gripped her arm, harder than I intended but I didn’t let up.
“It’s fucking nothing, so for the love of Satan can you just shut up.”
She opened her mouth to argue with me, but the door opened. Zane stepped out, walking past us in a rush.
Elise shrugged away from me. “I really don’t like playing the good guy Dani, but I shouldn’t be the one to tell you to be honest here.”
“I am . We both know that Nick and everyone else would dive straight back into Hell, so no, Dimitri is dead. This is over .”
I heard stomping behind me, looking back and seeing Zane walking by. I looked down seeing that he was holding the leather-bound notebook that belonged to Jonah. I brushed past Elise to follow him back inside the room.
“Dani, we aren’t done,” Elise argued, but I shushed her, watching Zane walk over to Natalia and hand the book to her.
Nick looked me over when I stood next to him, silently asking me if I was alright. I gave him a small smile focusing back on Natalia.
“Nicholas, I’ve been doing some thinking about this book and I’ve replayed what I know about Jonah over and over again in my head.” The High Priestess ran her fingertips gently down the front of the notebook.
Maurice came up next to this son, bumping shoulders with him as if he was curious about where this conversation would go.
Nick raised an eyebrow. “Did you figure out a way to release the magic? I know you had said you didn’t want to mess with what this book held…”
Natalia shook her head. “My decision still stands true. I will not involve my magic with something that I am fully aware is set in its own ways. There is some magic that likes to be seen when it’s ready.” She peeked over at me but then focused back on Nick.
“Nicholas, what is this all about?” Maurice asked his son.
Without looking at his father, Nick answered, “Jonah’s magic.”
“You know where it is?” Daya asked, placing a hand over her chest.
“If the magic wants to be ready any time soon, that would be fucking fantastic.” Reese rolled his eyes, leaning against the back of the couch.
Natalia rubbed her lips together. She patted her palm against the book. “Sometimes it just needs to be in the hands of the right person. I didn’t need my magic to see something so glaringly obvious.” She looked at Nick. “If Ariel wasn’t so eager I would do this more delicately, but it seems that isn’t an option.”
My angelic boyfriend’s eyes widened when the High Priestess turned slightly and handed the book to his father.