I noted several things as I laid on the ground, staring above. One, the ground had stopped shaking. Two, I was definitely going to bruise from the fall. And three, something about the look in Ari's eyes brought a nervous case of butterflies swarming in my insides.
My eyes fluttered shut, and for a moment I simply reveled in the feel of his heated skin against mine. It was the first time I realized that he could touch me, unlike Kayden, and not spark my fire. Ari could be someone I could kiss, could hug, could spend the night curled against for comfort. But Kayden, I could not.
Kayden. Why was I thinking about him in a time like this? He was part of the reason I was in this mess. One of the very real reasons why I was fighting against everyone, trying to understand my place in the shattered picture of my life. The very photo he shattered for me. It made no sense to wonder about him while I was laying flat on my back, waiting to catch up with the world.
Waves of sound started to filter back into my ears, and bit by bit the rest of the world came to join my injured senses. I let my eyes flicker back open in time to see Ari still repeating the same phrase, only this time it had sound accompanied to it.
"Essallie, tell me you're okay." He sounded anxious, bordering on hysterical.
I cracked a smile, ignoring the pain that came with showing my happiness. "Still think you're pissing on my pity party?"
Ari stared at me for a moment, caught between emotions. A nervous laugh slipped by as he started to speak. "Not even close."
I started to sit up but quickly found the pain from the fall was still very much present. So I kept my head on the ground for a little longer.
"Tell me what you see," I said to Ari. "Where the door was."
Taking his eyes off of me, he looked at where the door stood. From the floor I watched his eyes widen, his expression mystified. "Did you-?" I waited for him to finish. "Did you do that on purpose?"
Using him for support, I carefully moved up into a sitting position. Just as I had been placing the pendant into the door, my hand had come in contact with the gold and ignited into a smoldering frenzy. That's what had caused the explosion. My fire had burned everything as if it were the body of a Vens attacking me, and it showed.
What was left standing of the door consisted of spirals left untouched by my fire. The gold had been reduced to burnt honey colored flakes, swirling around the room like leaves on a blustery fall afternoon. And in the center of the half-fire carved door rested my pendant, completely untouched.
Ari helped me up to my feet, one hand locked tightly around my waist while the other held one of my hands. We shuffled forward, coming within inches of the frame. Using my free hand, I reached out and plucked the pendant free from its notch.
There was a sudden jolt within the room, like a fresh heartbeat on a monitor. The door refilled itself, turning into the golden solid it had first looked like, but with a black knob in place of the red.
I didn't miss a beat. Grasping the knob and giving it a twist, I pushed the door open to reveal an elevator interior. Ari moved us inside, pressing the only button on the control panel and watching the door close us in. The elevator gave a little groan before finally moving along, gradually moving upward.
"I swear, they pull a Sailor Moon and I will so be done with this crap," I grumbled, wincing as I slid down the wall and onto the floor. "No elevator shenanigans."
Ari stood alongside me, staring ahead at the door with an expressionless face. I clasped my necklace back on just as the elevator came to a stop, the door sliding open. My heart began to pound inside my ribcage, floundering against the tiny space like a bird trying to fly free from its cage. This was it.
Looking out past the door, my heartbeat stopped.
CHAPTER SEVEN
BE AFRAID
You would think, after turning into a bomb and imitation earthquakes, I would have came to the easy part in this moment.
Not a chance.
Staring forward, a new hallway stretched out before us, its walls and floors the same glossy black with minimal lighting. A bright burst of light lay ahead, just cresting over the floor where the hallway vanished.
I got up onto my legs, shaking and swearing at the same time. Every part of me ached, sleep sounded like a sweet treat to the levels of pain I had already endured.
"Ari, please tell me it was difficult like this for you," I bit my lip, swallowing down a small gasp of pain. Patches of purplish marks littered my body, the after-effects of using huge bursts of power at a time. I looked and felt like a walking, bleeding bruise.
He extended a hand to steady me before shaking his head. "Not like this. But the bookkeeper said everyone's task in getting here would be different."
We stepped out of the elevator, slowly walking down the hallway. I did my best to use Ari for support without completely collapsing on him.
"So what," I huffed out, forcing my jelly legs to stay straight. "What did you face?"
"A field of dead flowers and tombstones." He stared ahead, refusing to meet my gaze. I noticed the twitch in his mouth, the lock of his set jaw, and the stone-cold bitterness in his eyes. There was definitely more than he was letting on.
"Did you burn the flowers?" I asked innocently.
He didn't reply.
Continuing forward in silence, I tried not to mull over all his open-ended answers he'd given me. Flowers, family, his Watcher, it all sounded like he was hiding a deeper end, a darker meaning tucked behind his words. Had his Watcher been killed by his family? Family killed by his Watcher? Maybe they had all died in a tragic event, and Ari had never ascended either. If that were true, it would almost be like kismet; two half-angels with timers glued to their chests and no bomb squad to help diffuse them.
Ari gave me a little shake, nodding forward to the hall. The light was getting bigger, growing outward and spread towards us. Small waves of heats rolled past us. It was a warning, like the tide pulling out before a tsunami rolls in.
I pushed off his side and came to a stand on my own, both hands out in front of me. Fire instantly sparked on my palms, racing in rivulets around my arms and blazing off my shoulders. In another five seconds the light would engulf us, and whatever else came along with it.
"You ready?" I asked, looking over at him. He nodded; he was already standing the same way as me, white fire covering him from the neck down like a suit of protection.
Five...
I grounded my feet a little better as a roar began to drown out all noise.
Four...
My heart began to pick up its pace once more, the beat mimicking an erratic twitch.
Three...
A glow shined from my chest and ears; both the pendant and earrings were blazing.
Two...
Ari said something, and I turned my head to see him mouthing something to me that I couldn't hear over the roar.
One...
Eyes closed, I screamed.
"Petrified?"
I opened my eyes, instantly confused. The white light was gone, so was the hallway. Instead I was standing in the middle of a quaint, homey little office. Cream colored walls went well with the worn-in mint carpet, and small photos of various children lined the walls.
"Really must have done a number on you," the voice, a girl, said again. "Most people start demanding where they are by this point."
Following the sound of her voice, my eyes guided me to the long desk at the end of the small room. Like everything else, it was worn in, small scratches and random flecks of paint staining the cherry wood. Behind it was a re-stitched leather chair, a petite older woman smiling pleasantly as she sat in it.
My eyes nearly bugged out of my head.
"Just what the hell is going on?" I managed at last, ungluing my tongue from the roof of my mouth. Taking a quick look around I added, "And where's Ari?"
The older woman gave a dainty little shrug, still smiling. At first glance, she seemed harmless enough; her clothes were circa 1920's, soft peach and carnation pink weaved together to make her dress and matching hat.
"Don't know who you mean, dear," she said airily. In her hands rested a tea cup and saucer, steam steadily rising from the decorated porcelain. She made a gesture to the chairs in front of the desk. "Please, have a seat."
I stared down to the three chairs lined in front of the desk, each one vastly different; the furthest to the left a plain folding chair, the middle a rich and plush red leather recliner, and the furthest to the right a white sofa embroidered with light gold stitching.
Arms crossed over my chest, I started to shake my head. "I prefer to stand, thanks."
"We cannot start until you pick one, Essallie." She took a small sip of her tea. "Please, take your seat."
I let out a heavy sigh and quickly sat on the folding chair, watching the clock tick the seconds away on the wall above the desk.
Another minute passed before the old woman spoke again. "Are you sure that's your seat?"
"Well it certainly didn't have my name on it, but I can fix that if you give me a Sharpie."
"What I mean to say," the woman said carefully, her voice freakishly even-toned. "Are you comfortable in that seat?"
I narrowed my eyes, ignoring all urges to fidget in my seat. "Yes, I'm fine."
"You're lying," she said in a sing-song voice.
"Dammit woman, who the hell are you and what the hell do you want?" I shot up from my chair, fists clenched at my sides, my knuckles covered in fire. "I just went through my own personal hell and back, lost the person who came with me, and now I'm supposed to just shrug it all off to sit down and chat with you over a cup of tea? Who do you think you are?"
Her expression never wavered, the calm composure keeping steady through every cuss word I could fling at her. She spoke when it looked like I had nothing more to spout at her.
"I've offended you, I see." The corners of her thin mouth pulled downward. "My apologies, Essallie. I can see I'm still reveling in the fun of having done this to Ari not too long ago." Setting her tea on the desk, she shakily rose from her seat in a polite gesture before motioning for me to sit again. "Please, pick a seat that you think suits you best, then we can begin and I can explain everything to you."
I watched her through narrowed eyes, thinking. What if this was just another ploy to get me to play her mind games?
Keeping the fire burning on my hands, I made my intentions clear. "Here's how we'll do this. I'll sit, you'll tell me your name, we'll do whatever it is your inner Wicked Witch wants to do, then I'll leave."
She nodded, sitting back into the worn leather with a grateful sigh. I moved across the room and sat on the white sofa, uncaring if I added any potential dirt or blood or sweat to the clean cushions.
Tea cup back in her hand, she hummed a little tune before a quick sip of the liquid. Delicate porcelain hiding her lips, she spoke in a sweet-yet-soft tone.
"My name is Louise." Her honey colored eyes held the distance of an old soul, matching the deep creases in her face and soft but frazzled mound of curls mounted on the top of her head. "I have been the
Arcanum
since the first Nephilim was born."
"Arca-what?"
"It stands for secret, dear." She held her hand into the air, a spoonful of sugar materializing in her palm. It went into her tea, stirring itself. "You'll find most things connecting to Nephilim have Latin-worded roots. However, that is not why you are here. You are here for the list."
I nodded, inwardly grateful she had cut a good chunk of chatter out to get right to the point. "Ari brought me here, said that the list would confirm if the person I suspect to have been my Watcher was true."
Louise nodded, rings of her curls rustling on her head. "He didn't lie, the list will tell you exactly who was or is your Watcher." Tea cup on the desk again, she opened a drawer and pulled out a large, white leather bound book. It pages were a deep cream, aged from thousands of years of repeated usage.
Flipping the book open, she cradled it within her lap, leaving me only to see the top gold trim of the book. Ironically, the same gold trim that matched the sofa. So that was why she wanted to know my choice; she had to have been testing me, but how I had no idea.
"Hrmm, well, that's curious." Louise glanced up at me over the book, a smile sneaking on her lips. "I'm surprised you're here to know about your Watcher. There is so much more we could have discussed if we had more time..."
I ignored her tease, leaning on the edge of the cushions with trepidation. "Do you have the name?"
Golden honey eyes met mine. "Leo Skripper."
It all rushed up to meet me; the first time Leo and I had met, the bonfire, our day in Charon, the night of his death. Like someone spreading a deck of cards before me, I witnessed each moment with him in glimpses just as they vanished under one another. His fluttering eyelids was the last memory to stack on the deck.
I took a deep breath, my chest heavy. Inside I had known all along that he was the one, and Kayden's words had only solidified that thought in my brain. Now I had proof, real and tangible proof that my clock was running out, and soon I would go up in a display of flames brighter than the sun. It may have only meant I had a time limit on my time with Jayson, but knowing that made everything okay. I would make the best of what I had, and maybe even give Kayden his twisted wish of killing me himself.
"So that's it," I finally said, a sad smile on my lips. I made sure to tuck away all thoughts of Jayson aside, just for the moment. They would be revisited in private, when I knew the sound of my sobs wouldn't be heard by anyone but myself. "I am to die."
The sorrow on her face said more than enough. "Yes, my angel. You will burn before you can gain the key to your kingdom. Was there anything else you wanted to know?"
Images of wings, arched high and wide over a sun-blushed horizon, came to mind. "My father," I said quietly. "Will I see him before..?"