Chapter 36 #2
I raise an eyebrow, curious about how much she knows.
Kae seems to have trusted her with a lot of sensitive information.
And if I need to get Kae out of the literal pit she’s fallen in, I might need Jackie’s help…
But would she want her best friend put in danger?
… Well, she is the one who directed me here. After she… begged me to stay...
“Fuck!” I groan, frustrated, running an erratic hand through my hair. I feel like ripping it out, growing it back, and ripping it out again. And I’m pacing, I realize. I don’t know when I started pacing, but I stop in my tracks, turning to Jackie. “How much do you want the truth?”
“How much do I want the truth?” She repeats me, flabbergasted.
“You must know nothing about me, Malak. Kae is as much a sister to me as my own blood. I will go to the ends of the Earth to keep an abusive asshole from getting his hands on that untraumatized, sweet soul. So, to answer your question, I want to know everything. Everything. Right now, too. And then you’re fucking taking me to her, where I’ll kill the bastard myself if I have to. ”
I don’t have clearance for this, but considering everything I’m doing for the Council, I’m sure it won’t even matter. I still need the shirt I have on, though, so I shouldn’t rip it...
Well.
Here we go again.
JACKIE
Malak sighs, “Please try to trust me for five seconds.”
“Why? What are you doing?” My eyes widen as he starts to slip his t-shirt off. “Who the hell do you think you are—HOLY SHIT!”
The motherfucking angel shrugs, his glimmering white wings fluttering all over the place in the process. “Accurate assessment, actually.”
“Those are… You’re…” Stunned, I drop to the couch. “I just pulled a gun on an angel.”
“You sure did.”
“I’m going to Hell, aren’t I?”
“Mmm, I think you’ll be pardoned for that. The circumstances were appropriate enough. Plus, it’s not like you could have really, truly killed me.”
My eyes cut to him, my mouth gaping open.
This is insanity.
And yet… it also makes sense.
I’ve been plagued for months, trying to figure out what’s going on with Kae, and I could never put the pieces together.
Her dreams, her very sudden departure, the strange warnings in her letters, going to Israel…
But most of all, Kae’s fucking dreams. Is that where this started?
She must have known, somehow, that something supernatural was happening.
“Were Kae’s nightmares real? She told you about them, right? Is the world ending?”
He hesitates. “Well… Yes, actually. It is. Sorry.”
I lean my head all the way back on the couch, staring at the ceiling. Crazily enough, this actually explains everything. Better than anything else I’ve come up with. “And she’s kept this big secret from me this whole time.”
More telling hesitation from him.
More profuse swearing from me.
“You know, this is already a lot to take in,” Malak eyes me, his wings folding in like he’s a fucking pigeon. “Maybe we should take it one step at a time.”
“You can take that patronizing tone of yours and stick it up your asshole,” I snap, venomous. “Is Kae a prophet?”
“Eh…” He trails off, rubbing his neck again. It must be a nervous tell. Good to know. “Not… not necessarily, no. ‘Prophet’ is a loaded word nowadays, and she’s nothing like any Intuit I know. She’s quite unique, really. An exception.”
I rub my hands down my face, pulling on my cheeks. I’m not familiar enough with the Christian lore to know what questions to ask, let alone the right words to use. “Just explain.”
Malak’s wings disappear in a flash of light, baffling me yet again, before he slips his shirt back on. As if it never even happened, he slides down onto the couch next to me.
I involuntarily scrunch my nose, trying not to cough. Whatever vanilla-floral cologne he’s wearing, it’s way too strong. He smells like a flower shop, and not in a good way.
“Kae is the key to opening the Abyss,” he starts.
“Which, not coincidentally, is where she’s been.
I originally came here and convinced her to go there.
We became… we were… a bit more than friends.
But I cannot give her what she deserves in a relationship, so we just became just friends, and I helped train her. ”
Hearing his thoughts on their little situationship is not at all my priority in this conversation. “Malak. Focus. What is the Abyss? And what were you training her to do?”
“The Abyss is a… special kind of Hell. Not really, but it feels like it. It’s… it’s this underground city where a bunch of mutant soldiers are waiting for Armageddon so they can help the angels take out the bad guys, but first they need Kae, in specific, to let them loose.”
“Uh-huh.” I’m not impressed with his answer, my tone flat and accusatory. “And how was she supposed to do that? What kind of training did you give her?”
“Let’s see.” He lifts his fingers to count things off like they’re accomplishments.
“We’ve done weightlifting, hand-to-hand combat, sword fighting, challenge and obstacle courses, shooting and throwing all sorts of weapons, various metaphysical things involving the soul that are hard to describe, and how to direct pure extracorporeal energy into an impact point without it being a superheavy neutron star that could collapse into a black hole.
.. I don’t think she’s made any progress on that last one yet. ”
I stare blankly at him. “What the fuck.”
“You’ve said that already. Anyway, now that she has access to the power that will let her actually open the Abyss, she decided to become its queen by marrying Abaddon.
And you’re entirely right. I was so caught up in the strange, confusing way I felt about them being together that I didn’t even think it could have been… forced.”
I clear my throat. This is a lot, and I need a goal to focus on. “Okay, so we go there and get her out.”
He scoffs. “Easier said than done. We can’t just sneak in and give her a ride home. Did you not get the part where her fiancé is literally the king of the sub-realm she’s staying in? ”
“No shit, really? You don’t say!” I mock surprise, then scowl. “I don’t care who the fuck he is. I’ll march right up to this Abyss of his and demand he let me see Kae. Then, I’ll convince her she needs to escape with me.”
“And if Abaddon decides to kill you?”
“Kae would never forgive him. If he knows her at all, he would know that’s a shit idea.” I shrug. “I’m aware of the risk. I’m still willing to bet my life on it. To get her out of there.”
Malak leans back, pondering. “You know, it’s incredibly stupid and reckless, but there’s a chance it might actually work.”
“Go on. I’m listening.”
“Well, archangels have an uncanny ability to tell when someone’s lying, so we lie by omission.
We’ll base everything on partial truths.
I’ll say the last thing Kae told me was that she was worried about you and wanted you safe, which is true.
And the best way for me to ensure your safety is to get you off Earth, right? It’s plausible deniability.”
I’ll have to delve deep into Method Acting, but I think I can do it.
Besides, what do I really stand to lose?
I’ll have to leave my mom and sister for a while, but they’re busy, anyway.
And it’s nothing Kae hasn’t already done.
The self-sacrificing little bitch must have known it’d be dangerous when she left; that’s the only reason she would have intentionally lied to me about it.
She really thought I could enjoy my boring, easy life while she’s out there risking hers for the whole world. Ha! I’m going to give her an earful for that when I see her again.
I lean towards Malak. “Yeah, and isn’t it so unfortunate how you accidentally mentioned Kae just got engaged? There’s no way I, as the ever-supportive best friend that I am, would let her get married without my help.”
“Yes. Brilliant. I’m fairly certain Abaddon will want their wedding as soon as possible, before the red horse arrives, so he can hurry up and crown her Queen. He even…” Malak suddenly loses his enthusiasm, clearing his throat. “He announced their engagement to everyone already.”
“Everyone?” I cross my arms, leveling him a glare that says, ‘Certainly not everyone if I didn’t know about it.’
His eyes shut. “Everyone in our society. Please, spare me the trouble of explaining angel bureaucracy today.”
Fine. All that’s important to me is getting Kae out of that abusive relationship, by whatever means necessary. I’ll cross the other bridges whenever I come to them.
“When do we leave, angel boy?”