Chapter 14
Another haunting howl rose in the air and I followed the sound until the prickle of power stinging my skin made me pause.
“Lils…”
At the sound of my name, I looked back.
Olivia’s wide eyes locked onto the realm spread out in front of us. She swallowed and looked like she had to force herself to look at me. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea to go venturing off in unfamiliar places right now.”
“All I do is venture off into unfamiliar places, Olivia.” Unable to stop the smile, I shrugged. “Dante finds me and hauls me to the school. I end up in Heaven, Purgatory, Hell, the Enchanted Forest surrounded by unicorn shifters. The other realms might feel slighted if I start showing caution now.”
“Well, we can’t have that, can we?” Olivia snorted. Warily, she followed me as I ventured down the hill astride the cliff.
Uni hopped along at my side, clearly pleased with herself. I glanced down in time to see her fluffy white butt peel away from us as she made a beeline for a small clearing to my right, a field covered with beautiful white flowers. I drew in the scent through my nose, sighing at the heavenly aroma.
I like this place, I decided.
Uni must have agreed with my assessment because she rolled in them, catlike, before pouncing up and chomping on the nearest with sharp white teeth.
“So. We’re here because your baby wanted a snack,” Olivia said. “Cute.”
“Leave my girl alone.” I nudged Olivia, the glow from ahead drawing my attention. Giving in, I walked through grass slightly damp with dew. Soon, the ground started to rise, the incline gradual at first, but soon it was sharp, the slick grass making the climb tricker than I’d expected.
I was winded by the time I reached the crest, but that wasn’t what knocked the breath out of me.
A fat, full moon hung in the sky, so large and glorious and bright, it illuminated everything with a cool, gentle light.
“Wow,” Olivia murmured behind me, finally catching up.
I nodded as a wolf howled from somewhere, the beautiful melancholy of his song hitting me square in the chest. Other wolves lifted their voices in unison.
They sounded like they were mourning.
As if she knew my thoughts, Olivia took my hand and squeezed gently.
“There’s a city,” I said, moving closer to the cliff’s edge so I could see it better. The wind kicked up, tugging at my hair. Instinctively, I spread my wings and reveled in the feel of air stroking my feathers.
“You’re scaring me with your wings all spread out like that,” Olivia said, joining me. “You still can’t fly.”
“I know.” I didn’t close my wings, though. “I can’t help it. It’s like this part of me, deep inside, knows I belong in the sky.”
“You’ll get there.” Olivia lowered herself to the ground, stretching her legs out in front of her. “Man, this place is beautiful. How did we get here?”
Uni hopped between us, pausing long enough to nuzzle Olivia.
“Ask her,” I suggested, pointing at the fluffy creature cuddling against my best friend. “I was following her.”
Uni slid me a sidelong glance that looked far too intelligent for my liking. “You’re getting creepy, giving me those… people-like looks.”
Olivia laughed, the sound warm and rich and deep.
Dropping down next to her, wings still spread, I sighed. “I don’t get any respect.”
Uni abandoned her and came to me, a pearlescent bit of flower still clinging to the fur near her mouth. I brushed it off before tapping my lap. She hopped up and got comfortable, nestling close. “Have a nice snack?”
Through the bond, I felt her warm happiness, her equivalent of a yes.
“I thought she was a carnivore,” Olivia murmured as I stroked the Uni-Hare’s back.
“So did I.” Uni butted the side of her head against my hand in a demand for more attention. Rubbing her between the ears and around her horn, I lifted my face to a strong breeze, longing to leap into the sky and let my wings carry me off.
“You’re dying to use those wings, aren’t you?”
Looking at Olivia, I smiled. “Yeah. It’s so strange. I’ve lived my life without them and now I can’t even remember what it was like. The need to fly leaves this… visceral ache inside. It’s driving me crazy.”
“Your two angels will get you ready soon, I’m sure.” She hesitated, then asked, “Do they know? About the others, I mean.”
The others. A stone lodged in my chest. “I don’t know. I’m sure they’ve figured out something after the way things went at that so-called council meeting. But the specifics… No.
Things have been crazy since then. Purgatory collapsed around us and…” I searched for the words to explain those moments, but the memories were a tangle of fear, adrenaline and desperation. “There hasn’t been a decent moment—there’s only been shitty moments and even shittier moments.”
“Something tells me you’re going to have to choose a shitty moment, Lily, and make the most of it.”
Nodding, I drew my legs up and crossed them, then pulled Uni up into my arms so I could cuddle her. It was for me as much as her and when she rubbed her cheek against mine, I buried my face into her fur.
“I’m scared, Olivia. Sam and Azra are a mess.
I think they might be half-crazy from their time in a cage—or worse.
Cole is stuck in a cage I put him in. And the others…
Save for Kaito, they’re all trapped in a coma.
Lucifer is always one step ahead of me. No matter how strong I get, he’s one step away.
This time, he almost succeeded in taking them from me. ”
“Please.” Olivia scoffed, her tone sharp and scathing.
She looked at me, jabbing a finger at my chest. “He didn’t win, Lils.
Don’t give him the credit of doing so. Your Virtues are still alive, aren’t they?
He wanted them dead, or under his power, but neither of those things happened.
They’re stronger than he thought and they’re fighting.
You are stronger than he thought and you already rescued your fallen angels.
You can’t tell me he’s going to be happy about that. ”
“But—”
“Stop.” She leaned forward, nose-to-nose with me. “He failed. They’re all supposed to be dead—that would have made it easier for him to kill you, or control you. That was his plan and you stopped him. Stop selling yourself short.”
I couldn’t help it. Maybe she had faith in me, but what little I had was fading. “I don’t know how to save them, Olivia. And I failed you—”
Olivia shot to her feet and stomped away. “Quit that, Lily. You didn’t fail me. I made my own choice. Respect me enough to respect that fact.”
The anger in her voice had me gaping.
She turned and caught sight of me. With a brow coolly lifted, she asked, “What? Does me having free will not fit into your grand scheme of being a martyr, Champion and savior to all?”
I blushed.
Olivia laughed, the sound sharp. But when she spoke, the anger was gone. “Lily, I adore you but you can be so…difficult. I guess it comes with the Princess of Hell and Champion, but let me tell you, it’s annoying.”
I shot her a dark look, but it didn’t do anything to help the disgruntled sensation inside.
Olivia laughed again and there was real humor in her voice.
“The look on your face, Lils.” She came to me and hugged me tight.
I hugged her just as tightly in turn, reluctantly breaking the embrace when she nudged me away.
She rested her hands on my shoulders, a faint half smile still on her face.
But her eyes were somber. “Lils, listen. I believe that everything happens for a reason. I was meant to have a soul, yeah. But I was also meant to lose it.”
Her eyes didn’t hold the serenity they’d once held, the difference notable as a piece of her had burned out, but there was still a strange sense of peace in its place.
A rightness that I couldn’t deny.
She felt that this was how things were meant to be and she’d accepted them.
I envied that. I hugged her again before pulling away.
Walking back to the cliff, I studied the city off in the distance.
The structure was modern, no doubt, but it was unlike any city I’d ever seen, the design of the buildings more…
artistic somehow. The night sky was clear, even with all the shit Calamity was doing to the realms. Part of me wanted to tear off into the trees, find somewhere here to hide, to revel in the cool, quiet dark and listen to the wolf’s song that echoed around us.
“You have a lot more faith in the universe than I do,” I said as Olivia came to join me. “The universe just keeps fucking me over again and again, and for an encore, it turns around and does the same to anyone I care about.”
“Oh, it’s not the universe I have faith in.” She hooked her arm through mine. “I have faith in you.”