Chapter 14 #2
“Don’t mind them though,” she continued with a wave of her hand. “They’re all a little pumped. We’ve been awaiting Everest’s arrival to our side for a thousand years.”
I nodded, then cleared my throat. “So, then . . . Everest . . . is he going to be okay?”
“Yes, he just needs to rest and sleep it off. Riah and Pippa are going to bring him to a room downstairs so Myrtle can watch over him.” She glanced around our group.
“It took Lucifer and I quite some time to figure out how to do what we just did without harming him, but alas, Lilith provided us with that opportunity quite nicely. Who would’ve thought she’d give us an assist like that? ”
Tegan snickered. I shook my head. That was such a Tegan thing to say.
“You burned her out of him, didn’t you?” Savannah asked softly.
Valathame nodded. “Lilith can no longer reach him. At least not any more than she could reach any of you.”
Tegan glanced to Savannah, then to Valathame. “And what about the rest of her bloodline?”
“Auryn and her descendants were born in the Garden of Eden—intentionally, so that Heaven’s light could prevent their minds from her toxins.”
“That’s convenient.”
“Yes. Yes, it was.” Valathame cackled, then stopped short and half-turned. “Celina, let them.”
Frankie turned toward Valathame with a pout. “But—” Light flashed and sparkled behind her, taking Everest and every remaining angel aside from Auryn with him.
“See?” Valathame waved them forward. “I promise he is in good hands. Let them. We have important things to handle.”
Frankie’s face fell. She stared at the spot Everest had just been.
Auryn wrapped her arms around her shoulders and led her over to us.
By the time they stopped beside Valathame, neither of them had visible angel wings.
Both of them had the same wavy strawberry blonde hair, freckles on their cheekbones, tanned skin, and the same exact body frame.
Auryn was nearly identical to her mother except for the eyes—Wait.
“Why the face, Tenn?” Frankie gestured at me. “It’s still me.”
“What? Oh, no. No, I was just—Michael said, well, the eyes . . .”
“Ah.” Valathame chuckled. “Auryn’s glamour was forced off of her, so you’re seeing the true her despite not being related. And Celina, well, as he said, those re-born to mortal forms would hold their mortal appearance for some time.”
Tegan raised one finger. “How long?”
“No idea.” Valathame grinned. “Reincarnating angels into mortal bodies is rather new for us. We’re still learning. Actually, Raziel was the first to be re-born, but he has retained his Malachi appearance for centuries.”
“But you only just gave his memories back,” Tegan said.
Valathame narrowed her eyes and pointed to my soulmate. “I like the way you think. We’ll brainstorm about this later, ‘kay?”
Tegan absolutely beamed. “Once Bettina is back? I think better with her around.”
“Of course, who is Sherlock without her Watson?”
Frankie scowled, then shook her head. “This is weird, the juggling two sets of memories—”
“That will get easier. Ask the others, the mind needs a moment to settle in together.”
Frankie let out a deep breath, then scrubbed her face with her hands. “My heart is the one that needs a moment.”
“My heart hasn’t been this happy in a long, long time, Mother.”
“You’re a mom.” I scowled. “That’s so weird.”
She snort-laughed. “Think that’s wild? I’m a great-grandmother.”
Valathame looked to the imaginary watch on her wrist. “Yes, on that note. Auryn, where is your son?”
“On his way still.” Auryn rolled her eyes and pulled her phone out. “When you sent him to Salem to retrieve the page from Mom, I did not think he’d take this long to return.”
“That is because you were raised as a child with your mother around who taught you to swing first, caution second. Meanwhile, your father used fear-based trauma as a method for raising your son until caution became his middle name.”
Frankie cackled, then covered her mouth with her hand.
Auryn’s jaw dropped.
Bentley chuckled as he stepped up beside Tegan. “Perhaps we can do something about how long he’s taking?”
“Hold on, hold on, hold on!” Warner shouted from the back of the group. “Are we not gonna talk about what just happened? Ya girl’s got wings, dudes. And Lennox got Marked—”
A bunch of us gasped at the same time and spun to face her.
She grimaced and held her arm up. “Thank you, by the way?”
“You’re very welcome, darling.” Valathame winked at her, then reached for Bentley’s arm. When she raised it, we saw the prophecy from before again. “When the Angel of Tides rings his drum—”
“Ohhhhhhhh.” Frankie smacked her own forehead and giggled. “Now I get it. That’s funny.”
“I don’t,” Thiago mumbled. “Neither does Royce.”
There were several more mumbled me eithers from behind me.
Frankie pointed to herself. “While you all met me as Francelina Proctor, this is my second life. My first life I was born Celina, and I am the Angel of Tides.”
I gasped. Everyone else gasped. Except Tegan and Bentley, naturally.
“The rings his drum line is a little inside joke between me and God—”
“Excuse me, what?” Savannah hissed. “No, ma’am, we don’t just be droppin’ that name in there all casual.”
Auryn grinned at her. “At least the caution didn’t carry through.”
Frankie and Valathame giggled, but I missed the joke.
But then Frankie let out a sigh and pressed one hand to her chest. “Everest and I met when we were your age, genuine teenagers, over a millennia ago. We were married for centuries before I died at the end of the Nephilim War.”
“OH.” Savannah smacked her thigh. “That’s what that dream meant! That night you almost died in your dream, until Everest came and pulled you out . . . that moment you kept apologizing—”
“Yes,” Frankie answered softly. Her cheeks flushed. “The first eighteen years I was fine as Frankie, but as soon as Everest re-entered my life . . . It’s like it was too much for my soul to bear. Our history was too strong to stay quiet. It caused quite a few problems, actually.”
“When he wakes, could you tell him that?” Auryn pursed her lips. “You have no idea how hard it was to keep him from you those years. It was awful.”
“It was adorable.” Valathame’s eyes sparkled with emotion.
Mei-Ling slid in beside me, her neon-orange hair disheveled and splattered with demon blood. Her eyes were wide and sad. “Frankie?”
Frankie’s eyes watered. “Mei-Ling,” she whispered, then lunged for her, wrapping her in a big hug.
“So are you still my Frankie?” Mei-Ling asked over her shoulder without pulling back.
But Frankie did pull back, though not far. She kept her hands on her shoulders. “I will always be your Frankie. You are my best friend. I have not forgotten a single moment of our lives together. I just have so much more to tell you now.”
Mei-Ling giggled. “Do I have bestie competition? Some badass angel chick gonna come push me out?”
Frankie’s face fell. She shook her head.
“I was born in Heaven—it’s a long story, one I’m not even technically allowed to discuss—but when I finally was allowed to live here permanently, and not just visit, the first person I met that wasn’t related to me .
. . was Everest. He was my best friend. He was my everything, and given who his mother was .
. . I did not trust anyone else to get close to him.
Only a select fellow angels. I was wildly protective of him. ”
Valathame whistled and shook her head. “Wait ‘til you hear those stories.”
Frankie grinned at that. “I had friends, believe me I did. But none I would’ve called my best friend. And then I had Auryn and that protective side of me became—”
“Unbearable. Intolerable. An absolute menace—”
“Yes, thanks.” Frankie rolled her eyes at Valathame. “You’re one to talk.”
“Takes one to know one?”
Tegan flinched. Her eyes widened. “I KNEW IT.”
Valathame pressed her finger over Tegan’s lips, stopping her from speaking. “You keep that to yourself for now, you hear?”
Tegan nodded. She would. I knew my soulmate enough to know she was a fucking vault when it came to secrets. There were things she wouldn’t even tell me if it wasn’t safe. Most of the time I didn’t even want to know what Tegan knew. I’d learned ignorance could really be bliss.
“Anyways . . .” she looked back to Mei-Ling and smiled, her pink eyes glassy, “this may be my second life, but you are my first best friend. And Tai, you are still a brother to me, okay?”
“I’m still older,” Tai said from behind me.
Frankie grinned and shook her head. “You got it, buddy.”
Willow raised her hand. “Do we call you Frankie or Celina?”
She frowned, then turned to me. “I think maybe you do it the right way. Those that knew me as Celina may call me that . . . but for you all, I gotta say I’m quite fond of the name Frankie—”
“FRANKS!”
We all jumped and turned toward the back door of Coven Headquarters in time to see Frankie’s Uncle Kyle and Aunt Kimmy walking toward us. We all looked back and forth between them and Frankie, unsure of what we were supposed to say to them.
“Uncle Kyle !” She gasped. Her eyes widened. “You are such an ass!”
I flinched but Uncle Kyle cackled and clapped his hands. He skipped toward us with the biggest, goofiest grin on his face. Aunt Kimmy’s face was flushed, and she was wiping tears from her eyes.
I cleared my throat. “Uh, do they know?”
“Do they know?” Frankie shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Y’all. I’d like you to officially meet . . . my parents.”
Tegan clapped her hands in appreciation. “Really, spectacular undercover work. I think I've learned a few things these last few months—”
“No, no.” I snapped my fingers in my soulmate’s face. “No more undercover work for you, got it?”
She sighed and rolled her eyes, but her cheeks were an adorable pink.
Mei-Ling and Tai were scowling so hard it was actually funny. Though I was also confused. I glanced to the others and found everyone but Bentley looking somewhat confused.