Chapter Fifteen #2
I rocked back like he slapped me. “Wait, what? He what? And you— What?!”
“I’m sorry, but there’s no time to explain.” Ronin lifted me yelping onto my feet and steered me toward Samael. “You three need to take off. Now.”
“Wait, no— Stop!” I threw my hands up. “I’m not going anywhere without an explanation, and if you don’t have time, make time.” I spun on Dora. “How do I know any of this is real and she’s actually my sister?”
“This may help.” Samael raised his hand. Holding it out to Dora, he chanted something in Hebrew that made my ears ring.
White light shot from the palm of his hand. It surrounded Dora, enveloping her so completely, she disappeared inside of it.
“Dora?” I cried. “Dora!”
“Char?”
I stopped breathing. Char? Did she just say—?
“Char, is that you?” Dora squinted as the light faded, peering through brightness to find me. “Char?”
“Dora?”
Her vision cleared. “Char!” She jumped forward, crushing me in a bear hug.
I pushed her back. “Wait, wait, wait. I’m not being fooled by any more illusions! If you’re really Dora, tell me the name of the dog we had when we were little?”
Dora just smiled, grabbing my shoulders in turn. “Marshmallow.”
“What did Mom give us for every special occasion?”
“Butterflies,” she replied without hesitation. “Butterfly everything and anything.”
“What was our house called?”
“The Hunter Hobbit House.” Dora laughed. “Is that enough? Can we hug now?”
“Not yet.” I held her back when she tried. “On your twelfth birthday, Mom and Dad threw you a birthday party at Happy Fun Land and you peed in the ballpit.”
Her cheeks reddened, especially when Ronin barked out a laugh. “Char!”
“What did I do?” I demanded.
“Char, are you serious right now?” she hissed. “There are a million people here!”
I was immovable. “What did I do to cover for you, Dora?”
She grumbled, ducking her head and squishing her nose in a way that was so Dora, I knew it was her before she responded.
“You lied and told everyone you were the one who peed yourself, even though you were sixteen and your classmates didn’t let you hear the end of it for the rest of the school year.
You just kept covering for me and saying it was you—”
I crushed her to my chest, crying into her hair. “Yeah,” I croaked. “We can hug now.”
And we did. Hugging, and crying, and unleashing weeks upon months of grief, pain, fear, and loneliness.
We didn’t stop until Ronin tapped my shoulder.
“I don’t want to interrupt you guys, but you really do have to go.
Normally, Lucifer wouldn’t send his servants into Ignavia to get you both back, but all of hell’s gone fucking insane since the announcement of the Hallow Hunt.
No one’s pretending there are rules anymore.
” He nodded at Samael. “The only thing left to do now is get you both away and far from his reach as soon as possible.”
Ronin grasped our shoulders and steered us over to the angel.
“But, wait, hold on.” I wriggled out of his grasp.
“Sorry, but no explanation isn’t going to cut it this time, Belphe.
Why?” I demanded. “Why fake Dora’s death?
Why put me through all of that for six weeks?
” Anger was creeping back fast. “Do you have any idea what I’ve been through? I thought I murdered my own sister!”
“I’m sorry.”
I’m pretty sure Ronin said sorry more times today than he had in his whole life combined.
“I didn’t want any of this to go down the way it did, but I had to act fast when I realized Radu was whisking you both away to Pomaris.
I needed to keep you both far away from Lucifer and out of his clutches if I was going to get you two out of hell the second Samael arrived.
” He shook his head, his face showing something I’d been looking for for six weeks.
Remorse. “When I saw you three about to enter the tunnel, I knew I was out of time. I couldn’t explain, I just had to improvise and...
” Ronin looked around. “This is how it all turned out.”
“But...” My voice shook. “Why couldn’t you tell me after your performance? Why let me waste away for a month and a half, hating myself and... hating you.”
He looked away, jaw clenching. “I didn’t want that. I hated every minute of you being in pain, but Lucifer knows that I’m a master of dark illusion magic, too. If he sensed even a hint that he was being played, it’d be all over. Your very real grief... made him believe.”
I sniffed, turning to Dora. She held my hand just as tight as I held her.
“I... I don’t know, Ronin, I just...” I ducked my head, scrubbing my tears.
“Why did you have to go to these extremes? I had my own plan. I was going to find his stupid fucking hallows and give Lucifer what he wanted. He promised he’d return us both to earth if we did and—”
“He was going to break that promise, Charlie.”
It wasn’t Ronin who spoke that time. It was Dora.
Her eyes were grave looking back at me. Grave, but steady. “That weird spell he put on me messed me up, but it didn’t give me amnesia. I remember what happened before he sent me to Abaddon Academy to be a constant reminder of what you’d lose if you betrayed him.”
Dora’s lips twisted. “He was pissing himself laughing at the stupid mortal bitch who actually believed he could get my soul back. My soul was sacrificed to dark magic, Char. It was a price that was paid, and there are no returns for stuff like that. It’s gone,” she stated clearly, driving the dagger deeper into my heart.
“Lucifer knew that, and he absolutely loved that you didn’t.
I’m sorry, sis, but the only thing he was going to do after you made him the All Hallows was kill you, me, and Mom.
That way none of us—the Avos witch descendants—could figure out a way to take the power back. ”
I dropped my face in my hands, weeping into my palms. Ronin tried to tell me— No, the whole freaking world told me when they named Satan the Father of Lies.
Of course, I couldn’t trust him. I never could.
I almost marched myself and my family to their deaths because I wanted to believe I was in control.
“It’s okay, Charlotte.” Ronin slowly, then firmly drew me into his arms. “I know you’re feeling right now like you were fooled and taken advantage of, but you weren’t. You outsmarted Lucifer again.”
“How can you say that?” I cried into his chest. “I didn’t outsmart anyone!”
“Sure, you did. You seduced the prince of sloth and got him dancing to your tune until he summoned an angel to hell to get you both back home where you belong,” he dropped. “How much smarter can you get? That winged fucker didn’t see that coming.”
I snorted, a little giggle escaping me. “I don’t know about seducing but...” I tipped my head, giving him the smile I swore he’d never see again. “Thank you.”
“Do you love me yet?”
I giggled again, even as I rolled my eyes. “You really are shameless to the very end.”
“Hmm. That wasn’t a yes, so let’s see if this does it.
” Ronin reached in his pocket and pulled out a small vial of clear liquid.
“Permanent glamour potion”—he held it out to Dora—“and it’s for you.
No one can make you mortal again, but I can make you look like a mortal.
No red eyes. No black tinge to your skin.
Your glamour will make you look and age like everyone else, but underneath, you’ll still be a hot, young demon brimming with dark magic—so not a bad trade off. ”
Dora didn’t smile at the joke. Taking the vial, she gazed at it with an expression I couldn’t read. “But I won’t be able to... give birth, will I?”
Ronin’s teasing grin faded. “No,” he replied, skipping the sugar-coating. “Demons don’t reproduce. Nothing can change that. Not even magic. Life can’t come from the dead.”
She sniffed, her face hidden behind a curtain of hair.
“It’s okay. I understand.” She said that, but her hand shook as she stuffed the vial in the pocket of her black maxi dress.
“Thank you, Ro-Ro, for all of it. Everything.” When she raised her head again, she was smiling.
“I’ll let you two say goodbye in private. ”
Goodbye?
“Is this really it?” I whispered. “I leave now and never see you again?”
Ronin’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “That’s the plan.
That day in your bedroom, after the mutt and I rescued you from Lucifer’s ritual, the only thing you asked of me was that I help you without asking for anything in return.
So, that’s what I did,” he confessed, widening my eyes.
“The sub bond, pretending I didn’t believe in the hallows, and all-around being an asshole.
I did all that to keep up the ruse for Lucifer’s spies.
Being too interested in the hallows, or too in love with you, might’ve made Lucifer see me as a threat.
I didn’t want him scheming to separate me from you, until I could separate you from him. ”
My breaths shortened with every word. “I can barely take this in, Ronin. This was your plan? All this time, and everything you said about me being yours and belonging to you,” I said. “And the whole time, you were planning for me to leave.”
“Uhhh.” Ronin shrugged his mouth. “Actually, the plan was for Samael to take your sister and only her back to earth. My original plan absolutely included you staying here with me forever.”
Of course it did.
“But that day in the hall,” Ronin continued, his teasing tone fading, “when you smiled that head-tilting, eyes-sparkling, nose-wrinkling smile... I knew I could do it. I knew I could let you go because that smile gave me everything I needed for the rest of my afterlife.”
I warmed under my Peter Pan collar. My heart was racing so fast, I was in danger of fainting again.
“Just one question,” I said softly. “Santino... was killing him an illusion too?”
“Of course,” Ronin replied. “I didn’t kill him in that tunnel, I just trapped him inside.”
My fuzzy, rosy feelings vanished in a blink. “What?! Is he still there?”