“So how is it that I intended to return as a mortal but I’m still able to visit the afterlife between waking hours. Mortals aren’t supposed to be able to do that, right?”
“Because that is your gift, Maggie,” she said, noticeably frank. “We all have one and it’s there whether we choose to accept it or not.”
I fell silent for several minutes, registering everything she had just told me. It was a lot to understand, to piece together. So much of it had happened with my direct involvement and I couldn’t recall a single word said about it. Once again, I internally harangued myself for not having the ability to recall my past. Somehow it didn’t make it any easier knowing I had intentionally put myself in this position.
“What a mess,” I muttered.
Ezra heard and replied, “Could be worse. Your mother taught me that when I first met her. Your mother taught me a lot of things.”
“That’s right…You said that you were in a rough crowd before meeting my mother, before she tutored you and changed your way of thinking.”
She smiled mischievously down at me. “I’m an Alterum, Maggie. I’m not perfect.”
That quirk of fate made us giggle for a few seconds before we fell silent.
We were now somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean with no sign of land in sight. Moving as fast as my human body would allow, we seemed to be making good time judging from how quickly we had reached the Atlantic seaboard from New Orleans. Still, it wasn’t fast enough. A supersonic jet wouldn’t be fast enough.
Ezra must have sensed my impatience because she said, “Eran’s the best warrior in history. Keep that in mind, Maggie.”
“I know,” I said, still nervous. “But I also know that he’s in trouble.”
“How?” she tested me.
“Because this morning…in the hallway at school…my radar went off more painful than it has ever been…and Eran didn’t come to my rescue.”
She nodded pensively in return.
“He’s in trouble, Ezra. I’m certain of it.”
She didn’t say another word until we reached land. The sky was clear on this side of the Atlantic but there was a chill to the air. I knew Ezra must have been emitting heat somehow in order to maintain my body temperature while at this altitude but it seemed unable to compete with late winter weather in Western Europe.
“We’ll be there soon,” she reassured me.
My teeth chattered a little but I was able to respond with a quick one word. “Good.”
Our flight path took us over towns and roadways, rivers and rolling hills until we reached a mountain range covered in snow, exposed rock faces, and towering over deep valleys of emerald pastures and evergreen forests. We dipped lower then, lining up with the mountain peaks, a seemingly more stealth route.
“Where…Where…are we?” I asked through my teeth.
“The Bavarian Alps,” she replied.
It felt surreal. I had just been in New Orleans this morning and was now in the Bavarian Alps. I had read about them, seen pictures, and discussed them in classes but none of it had prepared me for their rugged beauty. Flying passed a waterfall of water so clear it could have been liquefied crystals I wondered how something as terrible as a prison for sinful immortals could be found here.
Yet, strategically, I couldn’t think of a better place to build it. I had seen no roads, the rock appearing to be impervious to any attempted gouging, and certainly I had seen no people in these rugged mountains. I was thankful for those with me now. It would have been impossible to find this place.
Just as we flew over a peak Ezra pointed her shoulders slightly downward and we began to descend, following the others in front of us. A moment later we were diving straight downward against the face of the mountain. Nearly midway, they slowly turned up so that our feet were pointed towards the ground and we faced a small opening, a cave carved into the side of the mountain.
It was small, dark, and inconspicuous, a perfect entrance to a prison intending to be obscured.
We each floated to the edge and settled on to the ground.
Standing silent, instinctually, we listened for any sign of danger.
After several seconds, there was nothing but the sound of the wind softly howling through the cave ahead of us.
Then the sound of grating metal filled the air. Each of them around me withdrew their weapons in unison, the sound an eerie reminder of why we were here.
My sword had never left my hand.
“We’ll go in together in pairs,” said Ezra. “Maggie and Ms. Beedinwigg, you two will go in last.”
Ezra and Rufus paired up and stepped into the cave, being swallowed by the darkness within three steps. Campion and Felix followed. Finally, it was just me and Ms. Beedinwigg on the outside peering in. She looked at me firmly. “You are the most important one here. Do not sacrifice yourself.”
It was odd how well she knew me when I had only just met her.
I looked back towards the mouth of the cave. Somewhere inside was the only man I had ever loved. If it came down to sacrificing myself there was nothing that would stop me.
I took the first step and she came up behind me so that we entered the darkness together.
The light inside had been a minor concern for me, not knowing how we would be able to fight without seeing, but it was erased with each step farther in. Oddly, we could see the walls, the rock path where we stepped, the ceiling and its varying heights of stalactites. I couldn’t identify where the light came from and could only assume that it came from all around us. Every rock inside glowed, dimly but it glowed.
We headed deeper into the cave, coming across alternate corridors that led us in varying directions. Ezra, who seemed to have an innate sense for the direction each led, knew which one to take and guided us farther into the mountain’s core.
“We’re getting close,” I said quietly.
The group stopped and turned in my direction.
“How do you know?” asked Ms. Beedinwigg.
“Just as Eran can sense my emotions, I can sense his,” I explained to her. “I figured you already knew that.”
“Nope, that’s something I hadn’t come across yet.”
“What are his emotions?” asked Felix, tentatively.
“Right now…” I drew in a shaky breath. “He’s angry.”
There were no comments on my announcement but I could guarantee we were each thinking the same thing: If Eran was angry, that meant trouble ahead.
We started walking again, each one lifting their weapon a little higher.
No more than a hundred feet farther in it started to happen.
The pain began at the base of my neck, along my hairline. It rapidly intensified, stretching beyond my neck to run through my spine. Within seconds it was shooting out to ever nerve ending in my body. For a split second, I wondered if I’d just been struck by lightning. Then I thought nothing at all. My awareness was completely immersed on the pain now absorbed in every part of my body. My radar, meant to warn me against danger, to protect me from it, had become the source of my danger.
Control it, said the voice in my head. You’ve done it before. Concentrate. Do it before they find you because if you feel them, they feel you.
I was on the ground now, my knees digging into the sharp, rocky earth, hands on my back attempting to comfort me. My breath was caught in my chest, my body was shaking uncontrollably. I think I released a moan.
Then something broke through the pain.
Someone was giggling.
The laughter was at my expense and that meant one thing.
A Fallen One was watching me.
Focusing on it, using it as a distraction from the pain, I lifted my head.
There, directly in front of us was Sarai, her face beaming, unable to contain her enthusiasm over my pain. Behind her stood Achan who couldn’t hold back his grin either.
The sight of them gave me the strength to overcome the pain and stand up, though it was a struggle.
In the midst of my alarm sounding off, my senses magnified and I could hear everyone’s heart beat quicken, a commotion of celebration coming through the walls, and most of all I could feel Eran seething with rage.
“Leave her alone,” I heard Felix growl.
Ezra put a hand on his arm to steady his emotions, knowing an angry fighter was a dead one.
“It’s not…” I took a deep, stifled breath. “It’s not them… causing the pain.”
“You’re right, Magdalene,” she said, drawing out my name and finishing with a sneer. “It’s not me…It’s not Achan…It’s everyone. They’re all here, for the most part. Some left,” she admitted without care, “after we released them-”
“You did release them,” I stated, furious to almost a dizzying level.
“Them? Who’s them?” asked Felix, bewildered.
I could barely gather the control to tell him, sapped of energy, filled with terror for the first time in my life. I felt my lips quiver when I answered him. “The Elsics. They released the Elsics.”
Horror moved across their expression, to Sarai and Achan’s satisfaction.
“We did,” she replied plainly. “Achan killed the guards, I opened the gates. But don’t worry your pretty little head,” she mocked. “The majority of them are here, ready for the grand finale.”
Grand finale, I thought. Those were the same words Abaddon had used in my past lives when he’d planned a destructive climactic ending.
“Abaddon…” I sighed, realizing for the first time why we were here. Sarai’s next words confirmed it.
She nodded, her sneer turning to a proud grin as she declared, “Eran’s pitiful diminutive army imprisoned him here to rot but I wasn’t about to let my father live through that.”
“Should have simply killed him when they had the chance,” Achan added from behind, chuckling.
“But that’s not the only reason you came here,” I said, already piecing together her plan. “You left a trail for us. You led us here for another reason.”
“To kill you,” she confirmed, flatly. “Of course, I did release the Elsics on the presumption they might do it for me. Something told me, however, that they would take their time with you. Tease you, taunt you. Keep an eye on you.” She inhaled, excited. “And they did, didn’t they? I can see it in your face.”
She was right. I thought back to the Elsic feather left in the cemetery, the one who attacked me in the shed, the dozen waiting in the fog just off my balcony. They had been around me all along.
“Then Eran’s loyal confidant, Magnus, went missing. I found him in the rocks…” she whispered as if she were confiding a secret. “And I kept him there, appearing only when he gained the courage to escape, and he’d scamper back into his hiding place. And then Eran arrived,” she went on coyly. “Eran, ever the brave savior, came in search of his loyal confidante, Magnus. Alas, Magnus fled. Slipped out from under my nose as I dealt with Eran. Gone was the little troll only to leave Eran himself to be caught.”
“Magnus left Eran?” Campion fumed.
“He did. But that’s not the most intriguing part.” She smiled wickedly before continuing. “Magnus’s disappearance brought Eran to us. And now Eran’s disappearance brought you to us. You, the last of the messengers…here, surrounded by your enemies. The final battle…”
“Well, rumor had it one was coming,” I said trying to appear indifferent. I would not give her the pleasure of interpreting my responses as fearful even if I did feel a hint of it.
“Unfortunately, the battle won’t be much of one.” She pinched her lips together in a frown. “There’s so few of you and so many of us I’m afraid it’ll be over so quickly.” She twisted around then and said to Achan, “Would you like to call in the cavalry?”
Achan spun around into a crouch, preparing to take flight and announce our arrival, but Rufus didn’t give him the chance.
The behemoth Irish man I knew to be heavy and languid sprang lithely over Sarai and landed with a thud on Achan’s back. Felix and Ezra were at his side instantly, pummeling every side of Achan’s body.
Campion, Ms. Beedinwigg, and I took on Sarai.
She saw us coming and immediately used the only supernatural power she’d brought with her. “Campion, I’ve missed you,” she said in a rush. Despite the insincerity of her words, Campion collapsed to the ground, tears already flowing, groveling like someone begging for his lover to return.
“Fight it, Campion,” I urged. “You aren’t in love with her.”
She smiled impishly, already drawing her sword. “He doesn’t know that…”
I spun to face her, doing my best to restrain the anger swelling in me. My senses were still heightened and I could hear Eran grunting against his restraints. He was close by and that gave me hope.
Yet, it wasn’t my sword that wounded Sarai. Ms. Beedinwigg spun across the ground, fluidly slicing her sai through the air. It connected with Sarai’s torso, leaving a gash across her waist, blood quickly flowing from the cut.
Sarai released a raspy growl and heaved her own sword up to plunge it forward.
My senses, still heightened, allowed me to see where it would land…directly in Ms. Beedinwigg’s back. I leapt forward, coming down on Sarai. Her distraction in countering Ms. Beedinwigg left her an open target. She was completely vulnerable, allowing me the opportunity to strike where it would do the most damage.
The tip of my sword slid across her neck in a single swipe, taking with it the chance that she could ever again use her voice to debilitate another man in her presence.
“You’ll never convince anyone else they are in love with you ever again,” I told her, standing over her body which now lay sprawled on the ground.
Chocking against the blood filling her airways, she could only convey her wrath through action. She sat up, reaching for me, her blade extending out in hopes of connecting with any part of my body that would take me to eternal death with her.
“You missed,” I told her as she closed her eyes for the very last time.
Stepping away, I turned my attention to Achan. He was now in pieces strewn across the cave’s opening.
Ezra, Felix, and Rufus stood in a cluster, now turning towards us. They were winded but alive.
“Achan’s claim to distinction is his strength,” I said. “Nice job.” I stopped and shook my head in amazement. “I didn’t know you all were good fighters.”