3. Where Did Nova Go?
Where Did Nova Go?
JP
“Six o’clock,” Moni screams, and I turn on automatic, releasing a water arrow without hesitation, and smile when I hear the death cries of the last demon.
“That’s the last of them,” Matthew, Levi’s father and the Dean of the school, calls out as we turn down another hallway in the Admin building.
I feel as if we’re on another level in Hell.
Shit, I can’t even tell if all the battle scars on our clothing are from Hell or new from what we’ve just been through.
Thankfully, it doesn’t look as though anyone is hurt.
Then again, I haven’t had time to sit down and do a damn head count, but I’m tired and need a small break.
The man holding Rez pulls her closer to him, and I blanch at her coloring; she looks so pale and limp that I wonder if she’s even alive. Tuning into her thoughts, I find nothing there; it’s as if they are fuzzy and elusive, which worries me.
“This way,” Matthew says, opening the portal with a stone and beckoning us forward.
“Why a portal?” Knox glares at the silver-swirling depths in front of us before reaching down and grabbing Reaper as he whines, trying to get to Rez.
“That was the fourth time in the last ten minutes that demons have attacked us in these halls,” Matthew starts.
“The second time would have been bad luck, the third a coincidence, so there’s no doubt, we’re being hunted.
Or someone in this party is being hunted,” he implies, looking pointedly at Rez.
“So, into the portal. We’re going to our safe house,” he commands, leaving no room for argument.
Knox nods in understanding and leads the way with a wiggly Reaper.
Everyone follows, and I jump in, second to last, while Matthew falls in behind me, bringing up the rear.
As I enter the room through the portal, the first thing I realize is that I have no freaking clue where we are.
I’ve never been in this room; it smells different, and I feel like my ears need to pop, so we must be higher up than what I’m used to.
“Does anyone else feel like they’re high? Like feeling better than coffee?” Moni asks, lazily spinning around like she’s physically high off butterbee honey.
“No, dear, that’s just the altitude; you’ll get used to it in a few moments.
How about you sit down and drink some coffee?
You’ll feel better,” Matthew advises her.
He would know how to calm her down as much as I would, since he’s the one who took us in after Mom died, and I’m beyond grateful to him for that.
“Oh! Great idea. Thanks!” She perks up before pulling out a reserve of her emergency coffee from her S.I.N. box. Is that her last cup? She can’t have much more left.
Continuing my observation around the room, I spot a fireplace, a couple of sitting chairs and sofas, a decent-size table with eight chairs, and one narrow six-foot-long window, all in a circular room with books filling the walls.
As the others move about the room, my attention falls on Rez.
The man holding Rez seems familiar, but I can’t place where I’ve seen him.
As I observe him, I notice how his eyebrows furrow with concern, and he has a slight pout as he gathers Rez tightly to his chest when he sits down on the sofa with her plastered to him. Who does he think he is?
I attempt to catch any stray thoughts if he’s foolish enough to let his shields down, but the only ones I catch are ‘should have protected you’ and ‘I’m here now.
’ It doesn’t give me much, but it does answer the question: he won’t hurt her, and she’s safe in his care.
Then again, I guess using my eyes could have answered that.
No one who wanted to hurt Rez would be smoothing out her hair.
I would almost find it entertaining that he doesn’t lay her on the sofa so that our group can take care of her if not for the fact that it’s sending Zeke, Knox, and Ryker into a tailspin.
For now, I move to the window, accepting that Rez is in good hands as the three of them salivate at the chance to take this man down if he moves one step out of line with our woman.
Looking out, my jaw goes slack as goosebumps erupt across my skin, and I grow nauseated.
The white, mountainous landscape would be gorgeous if it weren’t for the black and red patches of foul snow spreading far across the landscape.
It’s normal for mountains to have snow and for fights to happen, and of course, for blood to spill, but like everything, the circle of life happens.
We’re supposed to be absorbed and reused back into the magic, or at least that’s what we’ve been taught. But here…
Fuck. Are we in the Plagued Mountains? I honestly thought this place was made up. A fictional place, not even close to Nova or another bedtime story to scare the shit out of us. Or worse, a legend about two mountain passes over.
This place has been cursed. I don’t remember when, how, or even why it was cursed, but when souls first died here, they were never released, and they festered and rotted and became bitter about their sentence of—well—purgatory.
The black and red patches that overlay the white crisp snow are their death markers and are said to spread diseases to make us sick and kill us with an unknown disease.
It’s said those spirits will rise up, shatter their barrier, and conquer their enemy one day. If that’s not scary enough, we’re right in the middle of it?
I turn to Matthew, wide-eyed, and demand an answer, hoping to get a good explanation.
“Why are we in the Plagued Mountains?”
“What?” Zeke snaps. “Why the fuck would we be there? It’s a death sentence. That can’t be right,” he blurts as he takes my place, allowing me to move closer to Matthew.
“Don’t worry, we are protected here. I wouldn’t dare put anyone in this room in harm's way,” he reassures me, squeezing my shoulder.
“Now, let’s try to figure out what’s going on.
First,” he says, turning to Rez and the man on the sofa, “Where have you been, Delvin, and what do you have to do with Miss Taylor?”
The gentleman doesn’t stop brushing Rez’s hair but just looks up at us as he states matter-of-factly, “I’m Nerezza’s father, and where I’ve been is none of your business, Matthew.”
You could knock over everyone in the room. I know we all speculated down in the Gatekeepers’ house, but to have him reveal it like that…and for him to deny a Leader of Nova…is another experience.
“Okay, that’s great,” Dr. Steinbeck says, just rolling with it and completely not picking up the dangerous aura Delvin is giving off.
How come this guy is so brilliant but misses out on all the social clues?
I guess we’re lucky Ryker got his smarts from him, but the common sense from Lilith.
“So she’s a supe; a mage. So why didn’t her blood test show the markers as a mage?
” Dr. Steinbeck asks, dragging a chair closer to the sofa and pulling a pad from his pocket.
You can take the doctor out of the office, but you can’t take the doctor out of Steinbeck, that’s for sure.
“That’s simple,” Delvin states, and Steinbeck's eyes light up like a child's on Christmas morning. “Because she isn’t one.” And… there goes his spark.
“What? That’s impossible,” Steinbeck refutes.
“No, it’s improbable, not impossible, as you state.”
They go back and forth as to why, as my wrist starts itching and burning. Not thinking, I start to rub it and jump slightly when I hear Dad in my head.
‘JP?’ Lucif—Dad calls out. ‘Are you there?’
‘Yes, I’m here,’ I reply, touching my tattoo in shock. We can communicate long-distance with this? I might have to tattoo everyone in our group so we can do this. Moni perks up and notices my behavior.
“Oh, are you talking to Dad?” she asks as she floats over, which catches Matthew's attention. Fuck. I wasn’t ready to tell him about this yet, and apparently, she doesn’t have a problem calling Lucifer “dad”.
“What’s going on with you two?” he inquires, glancing between the two of us. Noticing how I’m holding my wrist, he reaches out to grab it. “Are you okay? Did you get hurt? We can heal that.”
Pulling my hand away, he looks down and freezes as he sees Lucifer's initials on me. Multiple emotions and thoughts flicker through him, leaving me sucker punched with his most powerful one: sadness. It’s fleeting, but it hits hard for that brief second.
“Never mind, I see you’re busy,” he says quickly, joining Dr. Steinbeck with Delvin. I go to open my mouth to say something… fuck anything… but Dad engages once again.
‘Did you make it back to Purgatory okay?’ he asks. I can hear the deep concern in his voice as he continues, not even waiting for an answer. ‘They have multiple traps for you and Seeker Demons waiting to track down your group.’
‘Yes, we saw the main trap laid out for us, but we were able to reroute the portal to school. A few demons attacked there, but we are currently with Matthew and Dr. Steinbeck in a safe house,” I assure him.
I bite my cheek as I debate asking what I want to, “How’s it going in Hell? ” but he answers my question anyway.
‘The portals are back open now, so we’ve finally calmed down most of the Demon population.
But now we need to figure out where Asmodeus is getting his power from and how he managed to power down the portals in the first place.
Then it’s getting his followers under control or cleaning house, probably the latter if Lilith has her say. ”
Remembering how it was on Level Two of Lust and what Ryker had explained to us, I decided to point Dad in that direction. That level was spilling over into levels One and Three, which, according to Ryker, shouldn’t be happening, and the princes' power shouldn’t be that strong.