Chapter 8 Completely Devastating
Completely Devastating
My mug smacked the table with a thud.
Winifred had swatted Soren on the shoulder and shooed him away again, giving me a moment to process the information overload—and to finish my tea.
I stood with my backpack dangling from one hand while the other hand raked through my ponytail.
“I didn’t come here to be some kind of chosen one,” I breathed out. “Whatever you expect from me, I can’t do it. I don’t have time for this.”
Soren clucked his tongue. His jaw ticked side to side again.
“You don’t have a choice, Princess. This is who you are.” He nodded at my chest.
That’s when the screen door creaked open and slammed shut.
The three of us turned to see the girl from the ice cream parlor saunter through the archway, her smile doing something awful with that scar on her face.
“Wonderful! She’s here,” Veda Ambani yelled. “I’ll take over!”
Veda bounded across the room and grabbed my wrist, then turned to Soren with a snarl. “This part was supposed to be my job, you little brat. You’re the Guardian. I’m the Messenger.”
I yanked my wrist out of her tight grip, but she turned on me with her disarming smile.
I probably grimaced again, but that didn’t seem to faze her.
“Let me show you around the inn, and I can explain evvverrrythinggg from the letter.” Her emphasis on everything was the only reason I didn’t jerk away when she grabbed my arm again and led me toward the brown door that Soren had stormed in through earlier.
Though I didn’t pull out of her grip, I didn’t budge much either. It wasn’t entirely of my own volition but because a cold hand had wrapped around my other arm, holding me firmly in place.
Soren’s icy fingers slid against my skin, burning everything in their trail. His hand was large enough to dwarf my bicep in its grip, and that grip was iron. He didn’t squeeze, but there was absolutely no way I would be able to break free—no give.
I was shackled, caught in a trap.
In some tug-of-war between Soren and Veda, there was nowhere to run. Fortunately, there was no actual tugging—just some glares before Soren finally said in that rough growl, “I need to get her back to the station in ten minutes or her Moderator-boyfriend is going to come knocking on our door.”
Not my boyfriend. And not reeeeally a Mod.
Veda hissed, “As the Messenger, I have some private intel to deliver to my charge. So, if you’ll unhand her…”
“As the Guardian, my job is to protect her. Everything regarding her is my business.”
I looked up at him, and he only offered me a small flicker of a glance before resuming his stare-down with Veda.
“Alright, you two,” Winifred cut in. “Let go of the poor girl.”
Both hands released me instantaneously.
I sighed in relief and took a step backward to get out from between them.
Note to self: Get on Winifred’s good side. She has all the power.
“Soren, why don’t we give the girls just a minute of privacy?” Winifred had gravitated toward the archway, “And you can contact Adriel. Check if he can set up a deterrence to give us a few extra minutes.”
Veda cheered with a, “Yes!” under her breath, and I looked up at Soren to see his reaction.
As expected, he scowled.
Then he leaned down, his scent crowding in on me again, before his hot breath moved in to strangle the life out of me.
He whispered against the side of my face, “I’ll be back for you soon.”
“Ignore him,” Veda said with a whole roll of her eyes.
Easier said than done.
My entire body had gone stiff, but I think I might have nodded—at him, not her.
Neither of us spoke again until the door clacked shut behind Soren and Winifred.
“I’m-the-one-that-wrote-that-extra-bit-at-the-bottom-of-the-letter,” Veda said all in one breath. Then, slower, “You didn’t tell them about it, did you?”
Extra bit?
My mouth slowly swallowed the shape of an ‘O’.
The Azazel bit. The most crucial bit.
I shook my head.
Veda let out a, “Phew.” Then she cracked her neck—gross. “So, we have a deal, right?”
“Uh…a deal?”
“You join the Guild of Sharona and help us take down the Dark One, and I help you kill Azazel.”
My eyes widened. I should’ve seen that coming. The note basically spelled it out.
But still.
“How do you know that I want to kill Azazel?”
“Pshh. It’s my job to know these things. That and you talk really loudly at the range. Pretty much your entire team knows.”
I winced.
“My team?”
“There is a group of us at the guild assigned to keep you safe and…help you…” Veda hesitated again before whispering, “Meet your destiny.”
“And how do I know you can help me, or even will help me, with what I want? Couldn’t this be a ploy to get me to bring your, um, Anointed back?”
She pointed to her face. “This is proof that I hate Azazel as much as you, if not more.”
I winced. Again.
“He did that to you?” I hated the revulsion in my voice.
“This and he killed nearly my entire family in front of me.” Veda shrugged, but her eyes burned with an intensity that didn’t match the nonchalant gesture and tone of her voice. “So, yeah, I’m in. But only if you join the guild.”
“Why do I have to join this guild?” I slung my bag back onto the chair so that I could cross my arms. “Let’s just kill Azazel. It’s something we both want.”
Veda’s smile softened her warm brown eyes. “Because the only thing I believe in more than my hatred for Azazel Ofer is the love that the Creator has for humanity.”
“Times up, ladies,” Soren’s voice pulled both mine and Veda’s attention to the archway where he leaned against the wall. He stood there, completely relaxed, except for his ridiculous jaw flexing.
Back and forth.
Side to side.
The movement was minimal but powerful all at the same time.
Side to side.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
It was as if he directed the ticking of the clock. He directed every second that passed in the room around him.
With his black hair threatening to fall into his black, hooded eyes, I knew that was his color:
Black.
He was beautiful in the way that the black of night could hide all the mysteries of a murder or nightmares or nothingness. Even the timbre of his voice was black.
“Eliana,” he said my name in black, “I’m taking you back to Central Station.
Zade will be there around the time we arrive.
You have four days to get ready.” He straightened and allowed me just long enough to part my lips with the question rising in the back of my mouth before continuing.
“If you’re not back on your own, I’ll come take you myself. ”
“Again,” Veda sighed, clearly exasperated. “Ignore him. He’s like a 12-year-old boy with a crush and zero communication skills.”
I may have been born an emotional firestorm, but I had an IQ high enough to calculate who would win in a brawl between the two of them.
Veda was taller than I, but only by a few inches.
She was more fit, her body a cage of feminine muscles sculpted over time and with careful dedication.
Soren dwarfed her in every dimension, though.
He wasn’t as bulky as Zade, but his muscles were so prominent that you knew that’s all he was.
He was pure strength, a knife with only sharp edges.
And he was freaking tall.
I gave Veda a quick smile and nod, then snatched up my backpack and followed Soren.
Soren’s grunt of approval was the only sound he made until we reached the West Line station.
I had to jog to keep up with his ludicrous strides.
For every three that I managed, he used a single step.
The scariest part was that he was moving so smoothly, a leisurely stroll, while I booked it with muscles burning.
I was so focused on matching his pace that I didn’t notice he’d stopped until I crashed into him. The man was a marble slab. The visibility of his muscles paled in comparison to the actual physical presence of them smacking into you. Technically, I smacked into them, but their rebuttal was violent.
I stumbled backward, and my hands flew out to try to save my tailbone from the impending doom, but then Soren’s arm shot out and caught me. His monster palm swallowed up my elbow with the ease of a bite-sized snack.
“Can you stop doing that?” he grumbled as he righted me for the second time that day. “You get yourself hurt, and I’m going to have to punish you.” That second part wasn’t grumbled at all, and if I’d been looking up, I probably would have seen a smirk.
I huffed and shimmied away from him with my eyes on his large, black-and-gray running shoes.
They were his.
“Well, next time, don’t—” my own choked sound interrupted me when I realized. “What did you just say?”
Punish me?
I strained through a swallow, and my tongue darted out against my lips. I focused on his jaw. Though deadly, it was less likely to haunt me into eternity than his eyes. They were the epitome of void, as if he had been born in it: The Void.
“The train’s leaving soon,” he said without bothering to answer me. “Adriel will monitor you until we can see that you’re with your boyfriend.” That last word had been dipped in venom and rolled through glass and gravel.
I stepped back, still blinking in confusion.
He wasn’t looking at me this time. He was eyeing the Mods at the entrance. His hood was pulled over his head again, but he nodded at them.
“You’re not coming to Central Station?” I asked. Anyone would’ve easily noticed the slight tinge of disappointment in my question. I blamed it more on surprise or simply the unexpected turn of events.
“We don’t control every Mod in The Tower,” he said, finally looking down. “And my face is all over the news now.”
I’d only caught flashes of grins and smirks up until that point. I was nowhere near ready for the half-smile that came next.
Devastating.
Completely devastating.
“Miss me already, Xiao Ying?”
My mouth must have been hanging open because it snapped shut, and any air I’d been taking in was cut off.
“No! I just…No,” I full-on guffawed.