4. SOPHIE
There were two things Sophie learnt in her short time in Heaven. One, hellhounds weren’t as vicious as they had been chalked up to be. Two, angels of the Tienthan, Aerial Legion of the Godlands, weren’t that bad either.
For now, at least, Sophie thought as she sat on the stone steps of her courtyard. Her arms wrapped around her knees as she watched the starry night sky above. The hellhound – Calypso, Sophie learnt – snoozed away softly by her side. His snoot lay gently on top of her feet to keep them warm.
After her embarrassing outburst and case of mistaken identity, Acheron had insisted that she rest in her room. He was sent to help her. It was by the will of the Fates, he explained. He had heard her cry for help and he answered. He was her guardian angel. It all sounded suspicious. Make-believe. Nonsensical. Guardian angels didn’t exist, they failed to save Kaine’s mother. They … Sophie scrunched her eyes shut, stopping her thoughts from the deadly spiral they craved to turn down. She didn’t want to be thinking about him. Them.
Like a Band-Aid to a bullet wound, her scrunched eyes failed to staunch the bleeding that came flooding in the form of uncontrollable tears. The thought of the friends she’d left behind in Faery. Of her mother who would be worried sick. She couldn’t shake the sadness that manifested in her chest each time she met Acheron’s gaze. He was a different person, sure. But the small similarities he shared with Kaine were enough to make her heart wrench in pain. It was an irrational feeling; she knew that much.
Acheron must have felt it. Must have caught on to the small wince that she failed to mask each time their eyes met. He quickly left her to her own devices to rest and recover. “Nothing will harm you here,” he had said before he left. “Cal will protect you always.”
Cal, short for Calypso. The name of the hellhound she woke up to, cuddling up against her. While technically he was a hellhound, he wasn’t raised in the Shadow Realm. Acheron had found him in Faery while he was on a mission many years ago. They’d bonded and Acheron had said he had no other choice but to bring him back to the Godlands. He had made a promise to an old friend to raise the pup to be a strong and kind warrior.
Strong, kind and warrior were words she would not use to describe Cal – that much was certain. He was like a puppy despite being almost nine years old. Each time Sophie would move or make a noise, Cal would be at her feet, tongue out, waiting for pats or with a ball in his mouth waiting for her to throw it. When sobs of pain racked her entire body, Cal would nuzzle his way through her arms to lick her tears away. Despite his hellhoundish features – short black fur and flaming tail – he was very sweet. Especially with his pointed ears, with one that constantly flopped.
Sophie looked up to the night sky again. There, the moon spun graciously among the dancing stars. Perhaps, Sophie thought, there was one more thing she had learnt in her short time here.
Sophie gulped.
There wasn’t a place where she truly belonged.
In Sotera, she’d always yearned for more. In Faery, she got what she asked for and paid the ultimate price. Here in the Godlands, among gods and angels she was but a mess. The clarity of it made her chest sink into deep, dark waters and tonight, she was drowning.
Her throat restricted.
She couldn’t see.
She couldn’t breathe.
But she knew exactly where she was.
The soft lining of a rotting coffin closed in on her. The coffin that was meant for her. And the worst part? No one knew she was inside.
You did this to him, a multilayered voice echoed accusingly in her ears.
“I didn’t mean it I swear, I didn’t mean it!” Sophie sobbed.
The air in her lungs burned.
She slammed her hands against the coffin, hoping a nail would come loose.
The wood barely croaked out of place. It was pointless, until . . .
Sophie barrelled out of the coffin door that had vanished, landing on a mound of something soft and sticky.
She knew what it was. Who it was.
She’d had this dream a thousand times over.
Before her lay Camrine with his short red hair, but his beautiful green eyes did not shine. They were milky white, fresh from the clutches of death.
“I’m so sorry. Please, please forgive me,” Sophie sobbed as an invisible force took control of her wrists and slammed the short spear repeatedly into Cam’s lifeless chest.
This was the worst part.
His body jerked with every movement. The crunching sound of the blade against his bones would haunt her for an eternity. But still, she could not stop it.
No matter how hard she tried, she never could.