Chapter 39 Phin #2
“Take it please. Though, how will you do both?”
I’ll manage. I can change my size enough to accommodate most of him and fit the rest between my teeth.
I flinched at that visual, but said nothing. After a quick bump of her head for both my mother and I, Ramsey was gone.
“What’s happened that we can leave now?” my mother asked.
“There’s an eclipse,” Tap explained. “And unfortunately, the portal only works during such an event.”
“Alright then. There are many hands here.” Hailon’s dad took charge. “Load up the bedsheets with what you want to take right now. Between us we can surely carry the important things. The rest can wait until another day.”
There was a hasty conversation about dousing fires, which items were most precious and whether or not to take the food as everyone dispersed to their own cabins. I stayed with my parents while Tap went to help Greta’s mother, as she was the only one without a partner.
My parents both kept looking over their shoulders as they grabbed up the things most important to them.
“I can’t believe you’re really here,” Mom sighed as she tucked away some interesting-looking yarn work.
“Me neither.”
My father’s smile turned into a smirk. “Tell me the truth, sweetheart, are you and that demon—” Mom lightly slapped his arm.
“Dueriel! You leave her alone! There’s plenty of time for that conversation later.”
“It’s okay,” I laughed, tears springing into my eyes again at the familiar banter. I could almost picture us standing in the kitchen of our little cabin in the woods outside of Aymonroux instead of this little hut in Purgatory. “He saved me from the church in Vincara.”
Mom gasped. “Saved you?”
“Father Morton was working with Armaros. I don’t know for how long, though. If not for my tincture, he might have captured me.”
They both stared at me, horrified. “I don’t even know what to say about that. I’m so sorry. We trusted him. We left you there!” My father was getting louder, and I put my hand on his arm to stop the tirade that I knew was inevitable at some point. But we didn’t have time for that now.
“I don’t think he was the whole time. It’s complicated. But Tap took me to the crossroads to keep me hidden. Safe.”
“The crossroads? That’s actually quite genius.” Dad looked impressed. “Explains why he knows so much about portals.”
“We’re mate bonded.”
They both stopped cold and turned to look at me.
“Truly?” Mom gasped.
“Yes.”
She sagged, clearly teary-eyed herself as she came over and crushed me to her chest. “Oh, Phin! That’s such wonderful news! Unexpected, but fantastic. We only ever hoped for you to be safe, clearly, we should have dreamed bigger!”
“You were going to tell me you were part demon eventually, right?”
“I was, I swear it. We thought it was safer you didn’t know.
They’ve hunted all Nephilim for a very long time, my heart, Armaros isn’t the first to have designs on using or eliminating angels with parentage they didn’t care for.
If they’d known about me …” She shook her head. “How did you figure that out?”
“Ramsey. She said she didn’t even realize I didn’t know.”
“I’m sorry, Phin. For all of it. Nothing went the way we expected.”
That was an understatement. I wanted to tell her it was okay, but something held me back. Instead, I just nodded and helped her collect a few more things.
After we left their temporary little home for what I hoped was the last time, we split up to help the others. The cooking meat was packed up, and the fire doused with water from the well, and the houses were tidied and secured the best they could be until we made it back another time.
Once everyone had what they needed, we started walking toward the portal, Tap and I both carrying bundles as well. All told, there really wasn’t as much as there could have been.
Everyone was quiet. The weight of the air itself didn’t help, but there was deep reflection and anxiety in them all.
Leaving this strange life that wasn’t really one at all, and returning to one where you hadn’t existed for years to lifetimes was kind of like that.
Never mind the fact that they hadn’t aged while stuck here.
There was certainly going to be quite a lot to untangle down the line.
Tap took the lead as we approached the portal.
“Everyone hold tight to one another. If we make a chain, it may simplify things.” He glanced around.
“I’ll pull us through to Revalia. I want to say it will be eight different doors to get us there, so it will be uncomfortable for a bit.
And it’s winter, so the weather is very different there.
I apologize, this will probably be uncomfortable for several reasons. ”
“I hate portals,” Hailon’s father complained, already pale. “But it’ll be worth it.”
“I’ll make it as painless as I can. Everyone got a good grip? Good. Here we go.” He smiled at me, going first, and I brought up the rear, a whole world between us.
As I stepped out of the portal in d’Arcan, the cold was an unwelcome shock. There was a slim slice of black still over the sun, but it seemed we’d left Purgatory just in time—the eclipse was ending.
Ramsey scuttled out the doors the second they opened and ran between me and my mother. Calla’s shocked face softened the moment she scanned the whole group in the courtyard before her.
“Saints,” she breathed. “Please, come inside.”
Everyone shuffled forward, Tap hanging back to wait for me.
“Ready for this part, Feather?”
“I’m nervous,” I replied honestly, squeezing his hand as he laced his fingers through mine.
“Me too. But excited, as well. They’ve all been dearly missed.”
Everything warmed considerably as the doors closed behind us and we followed everyone into the dining room.
At first, the silence was overwhelming. Then came the chaos.
A plate breaking was the first noise, the next was sniffles.
Chairs scraped the floor, then came full-on sobs.
Exclamations and shouts took over, and then all the air disappeared again while everyone froze, afraid to move lest the moment break.
As the group moved toward the center of the room and stopped, I was able to see that Ramsey had indeed collected everyone.
Hailon stood from where she’d been sitting at the dining table, Seir supporting her by the shoulders.
Calla had gone to Rylan’s side, and he had his hand around her waist. Greta’s hand was over her mouth, Vassago a steady presence at her side.
Merry and Grace were watching from near the kitchen door, clutching one another and both of them openly crying already.
Magnus was the most terrifying one, standing silent with his mouth open as he stopped moving halfway between Grace and the table.
In the end, he was the one who broke first.
“Rowan?”
“Magnus.” Greta’s mother breathed his name, then bent in half on a half-laugh, half-sob before standing straight again just in time for him to charge forward and slam into her with a hug so fierce it shook the room.
“Oh, sweet saints. You’re found. You’re here.
” The mountainous man gave in to silent tears as he squeezed his sister.
That broke the tension, and the others shuffled forward cautiously. Tap squeezed my fingers again and leaned down to kiss my forehead.
“You’re a marvel, Feather. You did this.”
I shook my head. “No. I hesitated. I got caught.”
He exhaled through his nose. “Perhaps, but you were brave enough, strong enough, to take on that angel all by yourself, knowing what could happen.” His eyes turned to me, serious and bright red. “You will never risk yourself like that ever again, Phin. Never.”
“I have absolutely no plans to do so,” I promised.
My parents joined us, giving the others some space.
We sat at one of the long tables and Grace came over almost immediately to deliver a plate of snacks and a pot of tea.
Then she was gone again, doing the same with some of the others who had broken away from the group to reunite with their loved ones.
Calla was timid with her parents, but Rylan was bridging the gap with his overtures to make them comfortable.
Hailon and her parents were seated at one end of the long family table, with Seir standing protectively behind her chair.
Greta was standing in front of her mother, who Magnus had finally released, their hands loosely clasped down by their waists for a moment before they embraced one another.
“Thank you,” my father said earnestly, his eyes on Tap.
“No thanks are needed. Finding your daughter has been the biggest gift of my life.”
Dad cracked a grin. “Obviously I have no ill feelings about demons like many of my kin, but this is truly something else.” He smiled, kissing my mother’s fingers, gazing down at her adoringly like he always had.
“Four princes of Hell in one room? Several stone kin from the original twelve families?” He shook his head, long white hair shifting along his back. “Nobody would believe it.”
“Should I be worried that you’re going to tell someone such sensitive information?” Tap asked in return. I could see the tiny lift at the corner of his mouth, but my father didn’t.
“No! Of course not. We’re friends, are we not?”
Tap chuckled. “Yes, I believe so.” His expression grew serious. “What will you tell your council?”
My father grunted. “The truth. All of it. And if they ever want to see their numbers increase instead of the entire race crumbling to dust as they likely deserve, they’ll take it to heart.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“The reason the angel population is suffering is because I wasn’t at my post.”
Tap’s head tilted. “Could you elaborate on that? I thought you were an archivist.”
“I am.” He glanced at my mother, and she smiled, giving him a gentle nod and a comforting pat on the hand. “I’m assuming, as friends, I can trust you with some sensitive information the same as you trust me?”
Tap smiled. “Fair is fair. Please, I welcome it.”
My father, clearly nervous about whatever he was about to say, shifted in his seat and cleared his throat.
When he spoke again, it was at a volume barely heard above the other chatter in the room.
“My true Voice talent is quite literally speaking angels into existence. Much of my time in the archives was spent evaluating and filing the life records of all incoming souls. Once I used my Voice to approve them, they got their wings, work and housing assignments … whatever they needed to officially become an angel. Without me, without my Voice, that process doesn’t happen.
” I inhaled and openly stared at my father.
I’d been with him, all that time, and never knew any of that was happening.
“And, relatively soon, there will only be the oldest of our kind left. And I can only assume eventually, even they will fade and perish.” He shook his head slowly. “Nothing is truly forever.”
Tap stared, stunned at that revelation. “Nobody else knows your true talent?”
He smirked. “No. My lovely wife aside, of course. And Him, naturally, but He’s been gone so long .
..” He shook his head and turned to me. “I was trying to apprentice you, in a way, Phin. So that you’d be familiar with the archives in the event your talent worked like mine.
” His smile appeared, but it was sad. “But in truth, I’m glad that’s not what happened.
You’d only have been more valuable to them. ”
“In the end, Brookes and Armaros and their purist-mentality co-conspirators caused the very outcome they were trying to avoid?” Tap’s smile broadened as he tapped his finger against the table. “That’s almost poetic, actually.”
“Truly.” My father sighed and sipped at his tall mug of ale. The weight of his talent was clear in the way his gaze went distant.
“He was looking for a ledger, when we saw him in Vincara. The kind that might have record of all Voice talents ever gifted.”
Radueriel shook his head with a smirk and patted his vest pocket suggestively. “Who would be foolish enough to lose track of a ledger with that much power?”
A loud caw and the beat of wings interrupted our conversation.
Belmont had flown in and perched on one of the beams in the center of the dining room, his good eye turned to where Greta sat across from her mother.
A man rushed in behind the bird, one with regal posture and a vicious scar across his face.
He was moving so quickly his momentum was barely slowed when he grabbed onto the door frame and swung himself into the room.
Greta brightened and gave a little wave when she saw him, and I had the honor of watching her mother turn, her whole face crumpling as she took the man in. She sobbed into her hands for a moment. The man was not all that different from Magnus in his reaction.
“Rowan?” He called her name like he was trying to figure out if this was real or not. She popped up out of her chair and threw herself into his arms, and several of us instantly started to cry. It was impossible not to feel or respond to all the heavy emotions floating around the room.
“Look what your talent and heart have done, Phin. What good you bring to this world. I’m so proud of you.” My dad pulled me in for a hug, and I disappeared into his warmth, suddenly just a little girl again, riding the absolute euphoria of having pleased her father.
For a moment, nothing else mattered.