47. Chapter 47
Chapter forty-seven
Iknow the minute Micah leaves Elysium. It’s as if the world itself wails inside me and then goes silent.
I rift to the lighthouse, desperate to talk to Gabriella and Silas, desperate to plead with them to help me protect Micah.
I check every room, frustrated that neither of them is anywhere to be found.
Utterly at a loss, I rift back to the house and find them sitting at the kitchen island, the fireplace fired up, flames of orange and blue licking at the glass.
“Cellphones are underrated,” I say, rifting to the island.
Gabriella exposes the tattoo on her wrist. “That’s why we have these. You need one. We need to be able to communicate.”
“Agreed,” Silas says, remarkably serious at present, and I suspect he’s not happy about Micah leaving him here. “We can’t keep you safe if we can’t find you.”
“That’s not going to happen,” I say in instant rejection. “We all know the serpent is coming for me. I don’t want him coming for either of you.”
“At the very least, we need to link up, Ember,” Gabriella argues. “We need to be connected. Your fire. My water. I can halt your destruction if you turn. Not that I think you will.”
“If I did, and I knew you could halt my destruction, I’d find you and I’d kill you. No tattoo. No tracking spells. Nothing.”
“You’re not going to turn,” she argues. “We balance each other. A link is necessary.”
“I’m all in, too,” Silas says. “You turn naughty, I’ll turn nasty. I’ll come for you.”
“No to both of you. When we leave Elysium, we can use cellphones. Right now, I need you both to go to the Underbelly with me.”
“Why the fuck would we go to the Underbelly?” Silas demands.
“I don’t know what Micah told you, but he went after Jeremy.”
They exchange a look that tells me they didn’t know, but Silas dismisses my concern for both of them. “He’s powerful, Ember. Whatever he is or isn’t doing, Micah can handle himself.”
“Jeremy is powerful, too. That’s the problem.”
“You underestimate Micah,” Silas argues. “He’s faster, stronger, and better than any of us can imagine being. He’s an ancient Crystal Seer. You’ve never seen him in action.”
“I did,” I say. “When he saved me and we almost died. Jeremy bound his powers.”
“That’s impossible,” Gabriella says dismissively. “Demons can’t bind a Crystal Seer’s powers.”
“And yet, he did. Not only did I witness it, Micah told me it happened, and he said he’s been working on a way to prevent it.”
“Why didn’t he tell us that?” Gabriella asks, looking dumbfounded and concerned.
“I don’t know,” I say. “Maybe he worried you wouldn’t stay behind with me if you knew.
I’ll know if he’s in trouble, but we have to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice and fight for our lives and his.
That means I have to have perfect control.
We all need to believe that I’m strong enough to fight off the serpent if I leave this place.
And we have to hope like hell that at my full power, Jeremy can’t bind my powers. ”
“What do you mean by you’ll know if Micah is in trouble?” Silas asks.
“We’re linked in some way. I don’t know how.”
Gabriella’s gaze rockets to Silas. “I told you.”
My brows dip. “You told him what?”
Gabriella hesitates and then confesses. “I knew there was something unique between you two, but I’ve never been around two Crystal Seers at once. I thought it was that. Maybe it is?”
I have the strange pinch of disappointment at this suggestion, as if what I share with Micah is somehow diminished, but I shake it off.
I focus on protecting him right now. “I only know we’re connected.
And I know Micah can’t fight Jeremy without us, without me, and the best place for me to prepare for this, for us to prepare for what’s before us, is the Underbelly.
I cannot allow myself the luxury of fear when I go after Jeremy.
I need to be confident, and we need to be a well-oiled machine.
That takes practice and time we may not have. ”
They share another look before they both straighten with determination. “I’m in,” Silas declares. “Let’s go make the Underbelly our bitch.”
“Me too,” Gabriella says.
Magic has memory, I’ve discovered, as I knew exactly how to return to the Underbelly without Micah, and when I hold my hands out to Silas and Gabriella and we’re all connected, I rift us there.
Over the course of the next seven days, the three of us spend every night in the Underbelly, and the list of demons I face, defeat, and check off a training kill list is long and plentiful.
We develop a plan to work together that’s all about precision.
In one scenario, Silas lures the demons out.
Gabriella then shoots water at them that I turn to fire.
The demons die. In others, we engage in combat, practicing knife skills and even the talent of throwing stars, learning how each of us moves and how we think.
When it’s said and done, we end every session at the cove, where, for some reason, I can feel Micah the strongest. Some nights I even sleep here, just to know he’s alive and well.
On this particular night, Silas heads to the lighthouse ahead of us, in need of a bottle of soto for a wicked arm wound, leaving me and Gabriella on our own at the cove. It’s a bright night, stars twinkling, their beauty rivaling the diamonds in the cove, the moon glowing bright white.
“Do you feel him?” Gabriella asks, sitting with me on the edge of the embankment, our feet in the warm water, a red sunshine breaking over the horizon.
Last night was the seventh night, the blood-red sunset followed by pitch dark, and for just a moment, I hadn’t been able to feel Micah. It had been terrifying.
I wonder if he felt the same, if he knew why he lost me, if only for a minute.
I shake myself back to the moment, to the question and answer. “I feel him. He’s okay. I keep thinking that maybe Jeremy knows why he’s there. That he plans to kill him before I come out of hiding. Maybe he’s hiding until I show myself.”
“Maybe. It makes sense. Can you tell Micah to come home?”
“No. I can only talk to him when he’s in the same world with me.”
“That’s how the inked magic works, too, but you two don’t have an inked spell, right?”
“No. Just this path to each other. Do you know that when Micah rescued me, Jeremy kept pushing into my head, and Micah was able to push him out?”
A puzzled look flickers across her face. “And yet, his powers were bound?”
“Yes. I guess it’s the Crystal Seer link you mentioned.”
“I don’t know if that’s real. I was speculating.”
“Either way, I think he needs me with him. I’m worried.”
She squeezes my hand. “I know. He’ll be okay, and we’re doing everything we can to be ready to fight with him.” She twists around to face me. “I’ve been researching demons that can bind a Crystal Seer’s powers.”
“And?”
“Jeremy has to be an Archdemon, equal to an Archangel.”
“That doesn’t sound good. How do we fight an Archdemon?”
“That’s the problem. He cannot be defeated without the aid of an Archangel.”
My mind goes to the man with the red wings, who hasn’t visited me since Micah left, but I don’t really think he’s Michael. That idea feels off. “There has to be another answer,” I argue. “I’m the Aza. I must be able to defeat him. Otherwise, my coming of age wouldn’t be such a huge thing, right?”
“Every book said an Archdemon can only be killed by an Archangel.”
“There has to be a way. Because based on what you just said, even if I find my way to Micah and fight by his side, we’re doomed.
” I shake my head. “No. No, Jeremy wants me for a reason. I have power we don’t know of yet, and I can kill him.
I know I can. I just don’t know if I can kill him before I declare my allegiance to the light, but maybe I can at least wound him. ”
“Then you have to try. I think after another week of training you’ll be strong enough to go to the Diviner. Silas agrees. Maybe you can get to Micah and the Diviner before Jeremy gets to him or you.”
“Agreed. One week from today, we go after Micah.”
The morning of the next blood sunset, one day before we join Micah, I wake early despite the late night and rift to the edge of the forest. Micah once told me that I have to own the forest to be safe in the forest, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.
I draw a deep breath and walk forward, the trees whisper and part, clearing a path for me.
I spent the entire morning in the forest, and not one animal came for me.
I’m ready, I think.
That night, we all agree to wait until after the blood sunset to enter the Underbelly.
We gather on the overlook and wait for it to happen.
There is dread inside me for that moment the link between me and Micah will be stripped away.
I watch as the blood-red streaks the sky and curl my fingers in my palms, waiting for it…
And then, it’s upon me, the emptiness in my mind is terrifying.
It’s as if I’m being sucked into the abyss of white noise, with pitch black all around me.
I’m screaming in my head, reaching for the path between us, and then it’s back, only what I find is not good.
Pain rips through me, every part of me. I double over.
My mind produces an image of Micah, a blade in his belly.
“Micah is in trouble,” I bite out. “He’s—hurt.
” I push through the pain, push through the fear, and straighten.
“We have to go now.” I don’t wait on them.
I rift away from them, seeking the exit to Elysium, and I can feel them with me, neither of them questioning what I feel.
I reappear at the exact spot I’d exited the store, sandwiched between Silas and Gabriella.
We enter the store single file, me as our leader, and I don’t stop to speak to the storekeeper, exiting the other side, reaching for Micah, but he won’t answer.
The night has fallen, heavy and ominous.
I can feel the darkness clawing at me, and not that of the empty path where Micah will not join me.
I can feel Jeremy, and I shove him away, reaching for Sara, desperate to ensure she’s still with me.
With sweet relief, I feel her move inside me, feel her ready for battle, and in my mind’s eye, I can see her fur standing on end.
I wonder if she’s been suppressed for such a long time that we’re both trained to find silence, not each other.
In that moment, I vow to make an active effort to invite her presence.
Sara, I whisper in my mind. I need you today.
A wave of awareness rushes over me. She approves. She likes that she’s needed. And I wonder if I’d have been nearly as lonely in my human life if she’d been unbound?
Silas and Gabriella join me, and the idea that I have friends and warriors to fight with drives home how not alone I am anymore.
Now is the time to fight for them and with them and focus on the battle ahead.
“Jeremy is here,” I say, telling them what I sense to be true.
“He knows I’m here. War is upon us.” I offer them each my hand, confident in my assets, no longer dependent on the house, and the minute I have them both in my grip, I launch us forward, tracking Micah, my magic seeking his magic.
We reappear in a giant parking lot outside a warehouse, a team of about ten Nephilim battling a much larger group of demons, I guess to be thirty thick.
Braylon has rejoined our circle and he, Silas and Gabriella rush into the battle, and moments later, I watch Silas save Celine’s life, slicing through the throat of a demon in human form and taking his head.
Several demons rush at Silas, and I throw flames at them, ending them.
Celine gapes at me like I’m the demon, but she’s quickly drawn back into battle.
I throw more fire, and the demons scatter and run.
I can feel Micah, and I rift to the edge of the parking lot bordering a forest, just as he takes out not one but two lower-level demons, easily turning them to ash, but there is blood gushing from his side.
He’s hurt, but he whirls on me, furious at the sight of me. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
His blades disappear, and he grabs my arms. “Jeremy is here. Go, now. Go back to—”
“There she is.” Jeremy’s voice lifts in the air, the hair at the nape of my neck lifting, his presence cutting me deeply.
I bristle as the serpent inside me slithers and tries to reclaim me, trying to make Sara submit, only to discover my magic thrusting it away, caging it in some deep part of me.
I am not that weak anymore, and Jeremy is about to discover the hellfire that awaits him now.
Micah shoves me to the side and holds out his hand, revealing an asset I didn’t know him to possess: some sort of energy rocketing from him toward Jeremy.
Jeremy absorbs the impact in his chest, flying in the air several feet and bouncing off a tree.
Sara howls inside me, her presence strengthening my magic in some unexplainable way.
I lift my hand, a ball of flames rising above it, but Micah has rifted, now standing in front of Jeremy, engaging with him. If I hit Jeremy, I hit Micah.
A cluster of at least six demons rushes at Micah from behind, and again, I can’t use my fire for fear of burning Micah.
Instead, I reach for my stars, and by the time the first three are ash, I’m behind the other three.
They’ve turned to me, full attention on surviving, not attacking.
I use my blade with precision, having learned its magic is as effective at turning demons to ash as a star.
With the demons gone, I whip around to find Jeremy and Micah are no longer by the tree but battling one-on-one, each with a sword in hand, and I watch in horror as they each plant their blades in the belly of the other.