“Trent?”
He shrugs. “I like it.”
I look at the boy. “Do you like that name?”
He nods. “Why don’t you sit down, Trent.”
He nods again and sits on the mattress. Samael and I sit across from him.
“Trent, I’m Sam and this Kayla,” says Samael.
He just sits there, quietly.
“Is there anything special that you can do? Like, can you guess what I’m thinking
right now?” I ask.
He shakes his head.
“Take it easy on the kid, Kayla,” says Samael.
Samael faces the boy. “Is there anything you like to do for fun?”
“Fun?” asks the boy.
“Yeah, something that makes you feel… Hmm… How do I explain it?”
“Show him what fun is,” I say.
Samael stands up and asks the boy to stand with him. He then extends his hands and
asks the boy to hold his hands as tight as he can and starts to spin him around the
room. Trent laughs and laughs. Even after Samael stops, he is still laughing. He
makes sure that Trent is not feeling dizzy before he lets go and then he tells Trent,
“That is fun,” he says. “Is there anything else that makes you feel like that?”
Trent nods.
“Can you tell us what?” I ask.
Trent nods. “Opening doors.”
I give him a confused look.
“Doors like that one?” Samael points at the door.
Trent shakes his head. “Door that are like puzzles.”
We both know that he is talking about wards.
Samael looks at me and whispers for me to change the subject.
Trent surprises us when he speaks again, “More fun?” he asks.
“Sorry bud,” says Samael. “We need to start training you before Ezra gets back.”
Trent looks disappointed, but stays quiet.
Samael and I look from one another. “Do you even know where to start?” I ask.
He shakes his head and when I look up, I see Ezra standing at the door.
“Time to go, child!” he orders Trent.
Trent walks over to him. “My name is Trent.”
Crap
.
Ezra looks at us and he seems furious.
“We’ll talk about this later.”
“I don’t want to go,” says Trent.
Ezra doesn’t even say anything. He picks up Trent and walks away. We can hear Trent
crying and screaming and I have to hold Samael back to keep him from going after them
and doing something stupid.
Samael calms down… eventually. He looks at me and we are still in shock. “We need
to get Trent away from Ezra,” he says. I know that even though he just met Trent
he is already attached. It didn’t help that he was vulnerable and craving human contact,
all of which amplified the way he feels toward Trent.
I nod. I wouldn’t leave Trent or anyone else alone with a demon.
“Samael,” I look at him and I have never seen him so worried. “Do you want to explain
how this happened? Because no matter what happened while we were stuck in those illusions,
I know we didn’t have a kid, yet, he looks just like us.”
“Don’t worry,” says Samael. I don’t exactly know how, but I’m pretty sure he was
created by Lilith.”
“What makes you think that?” I ask.
He bites his lip and looks away and it’s obvious that he doesn’t want to talk about
this.
“I need to know, Samael.”
He nods.
“What do you know about Lilith?” he asks.
“Just what I said before, that she is the mother of succubi.”
He nods.
“There are bits and pieces of truth to the stories we hear about Lilith. My dad knew
her,” he says.
“He did?” I ask, surprised, imagining how long ago that was.
He sighs. “He wrote about her in a journal he left behind last time I saw him. I
guess things he thought I would find useful some day.”
“So what did it say?”
“He wrote about how she was born in the wrong time. She was always ahead of her time
and because of that, she was cursed in the way that hurt her the most. He didn’t
go into details, other than say that she has an obsession with being a motherly figure.”
I gasp.
“Do you think she was the one I overheard talk to Ezra a while back?”
He shrugs. “Considering where we are, anything is possible.”
“But you have no idea how he was created?”
He shakes his head. “And please don’t try to get into Ezra’s head to find the answer.
We need to get out of here and take Trent with us, so don’t piss him off before we
do.”
“I wasn’t planning on it.” I pause. “Do you think we can get Trent to break the
wards?”
“And then do what, Kayla?”
“Come here,” I say to him as I walk over to the window.
“Do you see the ones I healed?” I ask.
He nods. “Have they been there ever since you healed them?”
“They have and I think they can help. I think they are protecting us. Maybe if we
can get out of here, they can get us into the Otherworld.”
“There are a lot of what ifs in your plan. I don’t like it.”
“This is all we got.”
“I don’t know,” he says as he paces back and forth. The room, which is already small,
seems to get even smaller as Samael moves around.
“I can get into their heads again… try to talk to them and see if they can help.”
“I’ll do it,” he says. “If you want me to go along with this plan, I have to know
they’re loyal… I have to see it for myself.”
“Go for it.”
Samael stares at them for what feels like forever. When he finally turns around and
looks at me, he seems like he is in shock.
“What?” I ask.
“They’re going to help.”
“You’re hiding something,” I say.
He nods. “You did a whole lot more than heal them, which means that we need to get
you out of here as soon as possible.”
“What do you mean? What else did I do?”
He lets out a laugh like he can’t believe this is happening.
“The one who used to be an angel, well… he has his abilities back, and other seems
to have abilities as well. You single handedly managed to start a new breed of them.”
I give him a puzzled look. “A new breed of what?”
“Angels. They are calling themselves the Forsaken.”
I’m the one laughing now. “Right!” I peak outside and shake my head. “Why would
you even make this up?”
“I’m not, Kayla. You did this. Get into his head… he’ll tell you.”
“What about their wings? They have no wings.”
“Do you really think they would be crazy enough to show them in Hell?”
I shake my head. “So, it’s settled then. We’ll get Trent to take down the wards
and we’ll be out of here, right?
He nods. “We need to find a way to get ahead of Ezra and leave before he realizes
what we’re trying to do.
“I can handle that part,” I say.
“How?”
“Close your eyes,” I say.
He does and I put up wards around the room.
“Do you feel it?” I ask.
He nods and opens his eyes, looking at me with admiration and pride.
“Okay, you can stop looking at me like that.”
He laughs. “Kayla, we need to figure out what to do about Trent once we are out of
here. We can’t let the Academies get their hands on him.”
I nod. “We’ll figure it out once we’re out of here. I can only handle one problem
at a time. Besides, we have no clue what’s going on out there in the real world,
or even in the academies.”
Samael pauses and bites his lip, something I notice he always does when not sure whether
he should say something or not.
“Spill it,” I say.
He sighs. “If something happens to me, don’t leave him behind. Somehow, he’s a part
of us, and even if he wasn’t, I know how it is to be raised in that world. Please
don’t let that happen to him,” he begs.
I take a deep breath. “First, nothing is going to happen to you—”
“I’m serious, Kayla.”
“Me too,” I say. “We’re all getting out of here. Together.”
When Ezra returns later on, he is still beyond mad. He barges into the room and orders
Samael and I to stand up.
We do and I stare right at him and smile. He looks from me to Samael.
“I’m just going to say this once and it goes for both of you. You have one task only
and that is to train the kid. DO NOT name him… DO NOT play with him… teach him what
you know and that is it. If you get caught doing anything besides that, there will
be consequences.”
I let out a laugh. “What consequences could possibly be worse than being stuck here
for this long?” As soon as I ask, I wish I hadn’t.
“We all know that you have people you care about in the human world. I suggest you
don’t test me on this.”
I shut up after that and Samael doesn’t say anything at all. Seconds later, Ezra
is gone from the room.
Exhausted, I lay down on the mattress and Samael lies down next to me.
We both stare at the ceiling. “We can’t take too long to do this,” I say.
“Yeah, I don’t think I can let him take Trent away again, especially not in the way
he did today.”
I gasp when I feel Samael’s hand on top of mine, but I don’t pull away. I don’t think
Samael can handle any more of anything and if holding hands helps him keep his mind
straight; there is no harm in that. When I feel his fingertips caress the top of
my hand, I close my eyes and start to relax for the first time in years.
***
“Rise and shine, Nephilim!”
I wake up startled and see Ezra standing by the door. I look over and see that Samael
is still sleeping. I poke his arm. “Samael!”
He quickly gets up and still disoriented from just being woken up, he asks what is
going on, right before he lays eyes on Ezra.
Ezra smirks. “Maybe if I waited a little longer I wouldn’t even need Lilith.” He
turns around to leave and as he walks out, he says, “Get up and be ready for training.”
I slowly get up and I start to look around. Something is off… there is something
missing…
“What is wrong?” asks Samael.
“I don’t know.”
I move my hand up to brush my hair off my face and I feel like my heart skips a beat.
“Where is my ring?”
“Huh?”
“My ring! The one Hunter gave me! Where is it?”
Before he can even answer, I move toward the mattress, order him to get up and I start
to look around it. I move the mattress and it’s not there… it’s nowhere to be found.”
I turn to look back at Samael and he stands there just watching me. “Well, are you
just going to stand there?” I ask frantically.
“This room is not that big, Kayla. Where would I even look? The demon probably took
it.”
I get up and move toward the door, determined to find Ezra and my ring, but Samael
blocks me.
“Move!”
“You are not going after him, Kayla. It’s just a ring, okay? Let it go! Too much
time was wasted. Just let it go and move on!”
“Why do you hate Hunter so much?” I ask.
Trent shows up at the door.
His expression is emotionless and his eyes are cold to the point where even in Hell,
it makes me shiver as if I’m freezing. Just like that, my problems no longer matter.
Samael turns around and his tone softens.
“Hi Trent,” says Samael.
Trent doesn’t respond. It is as if he doesn’t remember that is his name.
I can see Samael is furious at Ezra. I walk over to Trent and kneel down on the floor.
“Trent?” I say.
Nothing. His eyes are empty.
Samael approaches us and looks Trent in his eyes and right away, I can tell what he
is doing. I can feel what he is doing just by watching him. He’s giving Trent back
his memories from the other day. Samael is smiling at Trent as he does so and Trent
laughs as the memories rush back to him.