Ethereal Underground (Ethereal Underground Trilogy) (17 page)

Annalise only shook her head.

“Your soul was different. It was so strong and alive. Your face, it was so…beautiful. I could not take your life.”

Her words were touching, but it didn’t make him feel any better. If his death would have saved Jedzia, he would gladly die ten times over. She reached out to put a hand on his face. Her hand was smooth and warm. Ash reached up to hold her hand. She looked at him with a puzzled face; it was as if she were trying hard to find an answer. He wanted so badly to kiss her. She needed a good kissing, and Ash was certain he was the person for the job. He had never seen anyone so beautiful before. When she was near him; he felt calmer. When she touched him; he felt stronger. He leaned in closer to test the waters. His lips got within a few inches of her face when her hand started to tremble. Ash pulled her hand off of his cheek and kissed the back of her hand instead. She wasn’t ready for any other type of kiss just yet.

“My life has cost a lot. So I must repay the debt. As soon as we, or I, catch up on some sleep, I am going to gather supplies and find Endarial,” he told her.

“Do you think you can take them? They are stronger than you.”

Ash didn’t care. “I underestimated them twice, I won’t do that again. Plus, I will have the element of surprise on my side this time. I really doubt they expect me to seek them out.”

Annalise agreed, but his words seemed to make her face light up with remembrance, “Back at the fight- that man Jaron. He said something strange to Endarial. They were speaking like they knew each other.”

Ash gave her a baffled look. That was impossible. Neither Jaron nor any of the other keepers for that matter had ever met a fallen. But then, Jedzia did mention he was hiding something. Could it be possible that he was working with the fallen?

“That’s odd, I don’t know why…” he decided to change the subject. “What are you going to do Anna?” he asked. She must have misunderstood what Jaron was talking about. Jaron couldn’t be working with them.

“Maybe if I kill a fallen also, the Elders will let me come back home,” she thought aloud. 

Ash turned to look at her with concern. “You have never fought though?”

“I have my affinity to protect me and we can learn to fight with water together. You can also teach me, I am a quick study.” She got excited and sat up straighter.

Ash didn’t want her anywhere near danger, but just the thought of being away from her panicked him. The longer they were connected the stronger the pull had on him. The emotions he felt from her were stronger now and he was able to sort them out easier. Still, he wasn’t in the mood to argue with her tonight. The sleepless nights were catching up with him.

“Maybe…”

Ash ran his hands along the rough patches of sand that lined the shores of the water.  Scattered among them were millions of tiny pieces of shell from the aquatic life that had once prospered in the bodies of water on Cabalin. They were all broken and dead now, the force of the moons above caused the tide to kiss the shore roughly. It broke the shells up and disintegrated the remains. This was one of the things that had caused the land to be so coveted. Ash reached down to pick up a broken shell in his hands. He rubbed his fingers over the rough edges. “These are all the dead remains of the aquatic life for thousands of years, all the sand is crushed up bone and shell,” he said gently. He could feel Annalise scoot a bit closer and take a bit of sand in her hands. She let the small pieces fall back to the ground.

“Do you remember my world being prosperous?” he asked curiously. She looked up at him and paused for a moment to think.

“I did not pay much attention to Cabalin at first. I was so focused on my duties as a seraph, but it is forbidden to hang among the mortal world for pleasure and enjoyment.”

Ash understood those types of restrictions all t
oo well. “Did you ever try?” he teased.

She looked
down to the ground and ran her hand along the grains of sand. “No,” she said meekly. “I always wanted to experience mortal love and life, but it is not the way of the seraph. I would watch mortals sometimes from my home though.”

“What? Not even once? How old are you anyway?” A
sh couldn’t believe it. If the seraph world had been so freely within his reach, he wouldn’t have been able to go long without his curiosity getting the best of him.

“I am about…1500 mortal years. Though we don’t keep time as you do.”

Ash let his jaw drop as the numbers came out of her perfect mouth. She sure didn’t look 1500 years old, but it was an advantage of being a seraph he supposed.

“And your kind they live forever?”

“We can, but we have our weaknesses just as everyone else.”

“How old is Finlay?”

“He was created before me.”

“And you are created, not born?” he asked. Annalise looked confused by his questions.

“I- I do not know. I am not allowed to know such things. I am only a reaper seraph. ”

“Do seraphs look the same as mortals all over, are you anatomically correct? I mean, you don’t have twenty toes or anything, do you?”

Annalise gasped and put her hand to her mouth in shock. “You Ash, are too bold, but I can feel how curious you are about my race, and not intending to be rude, so yes we are similar to your humanoid forms, but we have wings.

“May I see them?” Ash sat up in anticipation. His heart was beating wildly the more he thought about it. A majority of the shock had faded away. The fact that a legend was sitting right here in front of him.

Annalise smiled at him, glad that he wasn’t afraid of their differences but intrigued.

“Okay.” She stood up slowly and pulled her hair over one shoulder. Ash raised up with her as she turned around to show her back. With her hair out of the way, he could see two small slits in the back of her dress. He watched her tap on the golden bangle around her wrist, and then mysteriously two large white wings stretched out from the slits. They were white and soft looking, and made her look even more magical.

“They complete you,” he said. He reached out to stroke one of the wings and reveled at how strong they felt beneath his fingertips. She tapped her bangle once more, making them retract.  He wanted to ask her what happened to them, but he was certain that he had asked enough questions for one night. She turned around to show a pinkish blush on her cheeks. He could tell that she liked his touch.

“My turn,” she said. She was trying to change the subject, and Ash enjoyed watching her squirm.

“Why are you not with the keepers, Jedzia talked as if you were in trouble, like I am.”

Ash shrugged, he didn’t want to go into depth with the seraph. He wanted her to think of him as better than he actually was. There wasn’t any use in dwelling on his past and he didn’t want to scare her so he simply said, “Keepers are not allowed to frequent the lower layers, I did so. No big deal.”

“It is not because of the redhead I have seen you with because you love her?” she probed.  She started to walk along the sand; so Ash kept up.

“Arie? No, she is like a sister to me. Nothing going on there.” He hated how vague all his answers sounded, so he elaborated a bit. “From the things I gather, love isn’t something you seraphs have. Think of it this way, we mortals love deeply, and hate just as strongly.  I haven’t experienced romantic love, but I know what I feel for Arie
isn’t that. On Cabalin, if you love someone you become married. It’s a huge drawn out process that I think is a waste of time. The female’s parents receive lots of gifts and there is a ceremony that involves permanent family marks on the back of the couple’s hands.” He grabbed Annalise’s hand and pointed to the back of it to show where the marks went before continuing.

“Keepers, such as me, are only allowed to marry other keepers with permission. Citizens are only allowed to marry within their layer or class. A marriage is forever.”

Annalise stared at the back of her hands with excitement in her eyes. Ash traced a small pattern onto the back of her hand. Her skin felt soft beneath his rough fingertips. “How wondrous,” she told him. She was lost in a trance, a dream inside her head that Ash couldn’t see.

He only shrugged; he didn’t see anyt
hing exciting about love.

“Whatever has happened to us,
” she said “It has changed us both. I can feel strong human emotions, as well as your emotions.”

Ash nodded, he had felt the same from her. An emotional connection that grew stronger the longer they were together.

Ash let out a big yawn and stretched his hands above his head. When morning came, he wanted to be out of sight. Even though this would be the last place the fallen or keepers would look for them. They would be searching in the underground for them.

“The tide comes up high throughout the night. We need to move back.” He took her hand and led her out farther away from water.

Annalise looked around at the vast empty beach, her eyes taking in the astonishing sight.

“I will keep an eye out, you rest.”

As much as he wanted to keep his eyes open and finish the conversation, sleep was calling his name. He hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep in so long and having Annalise near him seemed to calm down the energy that had been raging inside. He trusted her to watch over him. Without another word, he laid his head back down on the sand and closed his heavy eyes.

Chapter Seven

Annalise

Just as the bright sun was rising, Annalise found herself
standing on the secluded beach, occasionally casting her eyes back on Ash to make sure he was safe and then up at the beautiful shining stars before they had gone. The ones she had always dreamed of seeing. Now, her dreams were being fulfilled and she was able to not only see the sky but explore the world and meet other races of creatures. Even though it was exciting, she had to sacrifice all she had lived for in order to do so. A part of her felt as if this was a new beginning, that she was growing as a person and standing up for herself. She would show the seraphs that they had always underestimated her and looked upon her as a baby, and they were wrong. Still, another part of her yearned for familiarity, the duty that had been her life for as long as she could remember. She had so longed to return home, ever since this adventure had begun, and now she was not even sure she could go back. Annalise raised her hand to her chest and closed her eyes. Fighting off the tears was difficult as she felt the wave of sadness coming from inside of her. She pressed her bangle to let out her wings. It made her feel a little less alone.

This boy, the one sleeping so soundly only a few feet away from her, had turned her world upside down. He had caused her to be cast out from her people and she should hate him for that, should kill him this moment as requested and go back to her counterpart. She could feel her powers rising as she thought of it, how easy it could be to accomplish her orders. Letting out a sigh, she shook her head, knowing she could not do it. She was never one for force or death, avoiding it at all costs. There was still something about him that made her want to make sure he survived, work with him to fix this mess that had been made. Perhaps the seraphs would let her
come back home once things were back in order…if only she could get more information.

“Something on your mind?” she heard Ash ask from behind her in a weary voice.

Annalise turned to him and gave him a forced smile, “Yes. Lots of things. I think perhaps we should go search for information.”

“And where do you suggest we start?”

“I do not know,” she started and let out a sigh. She covered her face with her hands and tried to hide her emotions from him, even though she knew he could feel them as she could feel his. It wasn’t only the fear of the unknown ahead of them that made her doubt herself, but the sadness of leaving behind this one bit of respite they had found. She had enjoyed their one on one time, even though it had been short, and she feared that it might never come again. Still, she wasn’t so sure why she wanted to spend one on one time with the mortal. They had only just met, and in that short time, they had messed each other’s lives up completely. She still wasn’t sure he wasn’t using some sort of alchemy on her. This odd sense of feeling that flowed back and forth between them was not normal.

When he didn’t have something cocky to say back to her, she raised her head to eye him suspiciously. Annalise
could feel the uncertainty from him, and guessed that he was unsure about involving any of his other friends. She did not blame him for that of course, he had essentially been the cause of Jedzia’s death and she wasn’t sure what all that meant for him. But she did know that she could not imagine losing a loved one without warning like that. There had to be someone to help them.

“We shall go see Finlay,” she announced suddenly, the second his face popped into her head, “He knows the ins and outs of corruption and he will find us the fallen.”