Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
We’d expected to be sailing for four days, but barely three days after we’d set sail, land was in sight. The relic and the gate were close. My stomach fizzed with excitement and apprehension. What were these Ioness creatures like? How many of them would we be up against?
No one would say it, but we were all exhausted. The last week had taken a toll on us, and even the past two days on the ship hadn’t been enough to recharge us.
But once Lucifer had all the relic pieces, we’d pass the baton to her. The last leg of this race would be hers, and we could go to base zero and wait for her to restore the balance.
“I can see them in the water,” Asbeel said from the bow. “Those creatures that wanted to eat us are following the ship.”
“Of course they are,” Gabriel said. “They’re hoping we’ll die and end up in the water so they can feast.”
But that wasn’t the impression I’d gotten. “I think, if they have a choice, they’d like their circle to go back to the way it was. To be populated. To have the status quo restored. Eating us would be a consolation prize.”
Silence fell, the only sound the whoosh of the sea as the strip of land grew closer. Kabiel hadn’t bothered taking the helm. We were headed in the right direction, after all. Instead, he stood beside me, arms crossed, watching the rapidly incoming shoreline.
“We’ll have to drop the anchor soon,” Kokabel said. “We’ll fly the rest of the way.”
There was a small boat tied to the side of the ship, but I didn’t relish being so close to the waves, despite the strange tentacle woman’s promise.
“I see a light,” Yomiel said from the air. “I don’t see any creatures, but the land has many small hills. The light comes from within.”
“We’re close enough,” Kabiel said. “Release the anchor.”
The rattle of chains as the anchor was released was followed by a loud splash as it hit the water. The ship came to a halt, bobbing in place as we gathered our party.
Jilyana held on to the backpack, but Gabriel took the bat.
“I’ll carry Rue,” Gabriel said to Kabiel. “You need your talons free to fight if need be.”
But I could fight too. “Jilyana and I can fight as well. We can blast any threat that stands between us and the relic.”
“Then I’ll make sure we stay close to you,” Asbeel said, holding his arms out to Jilyana.
We took to the air and approached the land in a V formation with Kabiel at the helm.
I caught the streamlined dark shapes of the siren creatures in the water swimming toward land, but they stopped where the water grew shallow, heads bobbing above the surface to watch as we arched through the sky aiming for the beach.
This high up, it was easy to spot the glow on land. It peeked out from between jutting mounds of rock.
My blood heated, chest burning with awareness even though the door to the power was closed.
This fragment was powerful, and so far, the terrain was clear. No Ioness guarding it. The tentacle woman must have old intel.
We flew over the rocks, and a glowing crater was visible. The relic was in it. It had to be.
We landed beside the crater, which was surrounded by the rocky mountains.
“I don’t see any threat,” Jilyana said. “But we should hurry.”
“Agreed,” Gabriel said. “I’ll take Rue down and—”
The ground trembled, and the sand shifted to swallow our boots. I grabbed hold of Gabriel as we both lost our balance. His wings flared to catch us and keep us upright.
Jilyana cried out from behind me, and Asbeel called her name.
The rocks around us shook and began to rise, and my pulse hammered in my throat because the rocks weren’t rocks: They were huge shells. Shells set on top of massive crab-like creatures.
“I think we just found the Ioness,” Kabiel called out. “Gabriel, get Rue and Jilyana to the relic. We’ll hold them off.”
I turned, wild-eyed, searching for Jilyana.
She was a few feet away in Asbeel’s arms.
I reached for her, but my path was interrupted as a jet of light lanced out of the crater. It bounced off an Ioness’s shell and hit Kokabel in the chest.
He was thrown several feet away and landed on his ass.
His chest was charred, and he coughed up blood, hand going to the wound.
“Kokabel!” Yomiel rushed forward but was intercepted by another jet of light. It hit another Ioness and missed Kabiel by a mere foot.
“It’s the relic!” Jilyana said. “It’s protecting itself. We have to get to it. We have to show it that it belongs with us.”
The Ioness roared and advanced as more streams of light exploded out of the crater.
“Evade!” Kabiel yelled. “Get Rue and Jilyana to the relic!”
Gabriel dropped the bat, then grabbed me with one arm and Jilyana with the other before diving into the crater with us.
His wings shot out, catching air. We swerved to avoid a blast of light, then again to avoid another, rising then diving to avoid being hit.
But this was the relic.
This was a connection to the Morningstar.
It was awake somehow.
Alive somehow.
Which meant I could connect to it.
I opened the channel and allowed the Morningstar power to fill me. “Drop me.”
“What?” Gabriel asked incredulously.
“Drop me into the light.”
“That’s insane.”
“It’s the only way. Do it. Do it now!”
“Do it!” Jilyana urged. “She’s right. It needs to feel her. It needs to feel what we represent to know we’re not a threat.”
“Fuck!” Gabriel kissed my temple. “If you die…”
“Then find me in the afterlife.” We flew toward the center of the crater. “Drop me! Now!”
He released me with a curse.
The light swallowed me whole.
I was no longer falling.
I was no longer afraid.
This was peace and bliss.
This was home.
The light filled me, reading me. Finding its haven through me. It communicated without words, telling me that it had waited so long, that it was so lonely and was ready to go home.
“Rue? Rue, can you hear me?” Gabriel pulled me out of the light. “Rue, wake up!”
My eyes snapped open to find everyone standing around me. Jilyana clung to Asbeel, and Yomiel braced Kokabel, whose abdomen was no longer wounded. Kabiel was unharmed too. Good. This was good.
“You got it.” Kabiel’s gaze dropped to my chest, where I clutched the relic from the crater.
I’d found it.
The light and then… “What…what happened?”
“You fell into the light, then you floated out of it, clutching the relic. It glowed for a little while and so…so did you.”
It had spoken to me. It had been alive but now…now that consciousness was gone. Where had it gone?
“We have to move,” Kabiel said. “The Ioness seem to have backed off, but who knows, they might change their minds.”
He was right. They’d been somehow controlled by the relic for decades. Protecting it. Now they were free, and we could very well be food to them. “The gate? We need to find it.”
“Already did,” Yomiel said. “It’s a portal. A vortex suspended in the air.”
“Take me to it.”
Gabriel helped me up, and we hurried past the stationary Ioness and across the sand. Several heads bobbed far from shore, dark hair gleaming in the moonlight.
“They’re watching,” Kabiel said. “No food for you today…hopefully.”
The sand gave way to a stretch of rocky land, and there in the distance was the dark blue shimmer of the portal.
The channel to the Morningstar was still open a crack and the closer we got, the more the power writhed and thrummed.
“I feel something,” Jilyana said. “It’s through the portal.”
“Another relic piece?” Asbeel asked.
“No.” I stepped closer to the vortex. “Not another relic, but the being that they belong to.”
Everyone gathered round, and Gabriel took my hand.
This was it. The moment of truth.
We stepped through the portal together. The world tipped, and when it righted itself, we were on stone floors surrounded by thick metal iron bars.
“Don’t move!” A male in armor jabbed his spear at us through the bars.
Two others joined in, jabbing at us to keep us away.
No. No more. I was done. Rage born of exhaustion bubbled up inside me. “Enough! Back the fuck up. Now! Where is she? Where is Lucifer?”
The door at the far end of the room swung open, and Lucifer filled the frame, her chest heaving as if she’d run.
Her gaze settled on me and lit up in triumph. “Let them out. We have work to do.”