Rise of the Fallen (9 page)

“Can we please go outside? I can't breathe in here …” I said as the room spun around me.

“Emilie, are you okay?”

I felt myself collapse in his arms.

“Zacharia, I swear to God if she dies I will murder you.”

As Soul carried me out I felt the air clear; I opened my eyes slowly.

Soul was smiling nervously down at me, I saw the dim, yellowing light of the sun slowly rising in the sky and heard the loud chirp of crickets around us.

“Do you want me to put you down?”

I wanted to answer but I couldn't. Soul took my silence as a yes and placed me gently on my feet, holding my elbow to keep me upright. When he was certain that I wasn't about to fall again he let go of me. I looked around at the sky and the trees and took a few deep breaths. I wasn't actually afraid of him but a strange thought hit me as

– Zacharia was nowhere to be seen.

“Where's Zacharia?” I asked softly.

He looked at me strangely for a moment before shaking his head dismissively, “That doesn't matter.”

I blinked before realising how that question could have upset him. I slightly worried that he might have changed his mind about protecting me.

I stared out at the sky; the sun was getting brighter and it looked as though it was past dawn, probably time enough to start going to school. At school I would finally get to see Cael again. I missed the way he worried about me. I missed how he tried to protect me from the world as though I was a new soul, not the old and experienced one that I am. He was right to worry though, so I guess I could hardly call him irrational.

“Can we go to school yet?” I asked, still staring out at the rising sun.

“Sure. Do you want to get changed first?” Soul asked helpfully.

I ran upstairs and changed into the clothes that I wore the day I
burned the house down. Running back down the stairs, I almost gave myself a heart attack as I stumbled on the last few steps. Soul looked amused as he opened the front door for me.

As we got into the car he asked me a question, “Are you going to come back?”

I shook my head. He sighed and backed the car out of the driveway.

“Cael probably wouldn't like it if I came back,” I said, hoping to make things better but failing. Soul clenched his fist on the steering wheel.

“So he matters more then me?” he asked bitterly.

I cringed at the tone of his voice, which was threatening but at the same time slightly pathetic. We sat quietly for a moment and my curiosity led me to think about where Zacharia could be. I looked over at Soul – his eyes were glued to the road. He was capable of making someone “disappear”, but I still trusted him a little. There was something about Soul that made me sure that he would not be the one to end my life – that was one positive point I suppose.

“So … heard from Dorian lately?” Soul's quiet voice brought me out of my thoughts.

I immediately pulled my phone out of my pocket and checked. Sure enough, there was a new text message from Dorian.

“How'd you know?” I asked softly, opening it.

“I didn't – lucky guess,” Soul smirked.

I read the message silently to myself.
Enjoying your time with Soul? D.

I sat silently staring at the screen until it went dark.

“What does it say?” Soul enquired.

I held the phone up to his face. Soul laughed loudly and took the phone from my hands and started texting a reply.

“Should you be doing that while you're driving?”

He just laughed. “Oh please, it's not like I'll die if I crash.”

I looked at him in exasperation. “That's not the point, Soul! You could hurt someone else.”

He rolled his eyes. “So?”

I shook my head in disgust and stared out the window. We were moving quickly, probably over the speed limit.

“You think too much,” Soul said, passing the phone back to me. “What did you say to Dorian?” I put the phone back in my jacket pocket.

Soul chuckled mischievously, “Never you mind.”

I sighed and kept looking out the window, smiling slightly as I saw the school parking lot coming up. Cael was leaning against a tree close to the administration block. As Soul pulled into a car park I grinned and ran out of his car, jumping into Cael's open arms. As we hugged I heard Soul mutter something under his breath.

Cael laughed quietly but his voice was strained, “Emilie … what were you thinking?”

CHAPTER 8

“Well, I wasn't thinking,” I said truthfully, refusing to let him go.

I felt him smile. “That makes a lot of sense then, doesn't it?”

I nodded and continued hugging him. I vaguely felt Soul's eyes on me.

“What are you looking at, demon?” Cael asked Soul in a cold voice, though he was still hugging me warmly.

“She's my girlfriend. Take your hands off her,” Soul practically growled.

Being controlling was definitely Soul's worst trait, and it was beginning to bother me.

“I'm not letting her go and I don't care if she said yes – she didn't mean it and we're leaving.”

I pulled back a little before I spoke. “Oh, where are we going?”

“Victoria or Perth, I haven't decided yet,” Cael smiled.

“Emilie, aren't you even going to speak up for yourself? You love
me
remember,” Soul said in disbelief.

“How could she love
you
? It's not as though you've been completely truthful with her from the start. Why don't you just tell her everything that you've been hiding?” Cael said, drawing me closer.

“Fine, I work for Lilith and her instructions come from Samael. I work with so many demons I'm not even going to try and tell you all
their names. My main job is to look after the elementals that work for us,” Soul said.

“By ‘work for us', you mean the elementals that you capture and force to do your bidding,” Cael said bitterly.

I interrupted Cael and looked at Soul in confusion, “But I already knew most of that, Soul.”

“Tell her the next part, Soul.” Cael's hand travelled down my arm to rest around my wrist.

“Alright.” Soul's eyes met mine. “We want
you
Emilie. We want you to join us. We didn't need Cael, as we already had Zacharia.”

I felt anger rule my emotions and my temperature climb. Cael let go of my wrist and took a step back.

“I told you he wasn't to be trusted. It's completely up to you if you want to leave with me,” Cael whispered to me.

Soul looked at me in disbelief, “Don't you think that if I didn't care for you, you would already be with Lilith right now? I love you and I fell for you. It's not allowed but it happened, and I am being completely honest right now.”

Even if he had fallen for me, how long would that last? How long would it take for him to tire of me and hand me over to Lilith?

“I don't care, Soul. Anything I said to you before doesn't matter now. It's over. I want to leave with Cael.”

I almost willed myself to calm down so my temperature wouldn't peak and erupt in flames. I reached out, brushing my hand against Cael's. He took it instantly.

“You can't be serious,” Soul said, his voice rising.

“She is serious. Just leave us alone,” Cael said, pulling me back in the direction of the school stairs.

“Fine. You have no idea what you're doing, Emilie. I'd never even considered
making
you return to Lilith. But I suppose I don't have a choice. You are nothing to me anymore,” Soul said. His voice was
perfectly smooth but I could see he was hurt.

At that comment Cael strode swiftly back to Soul.

“Stay away from her,” he growled at Soul.

“You're not going to hurt me. You're harmless,” he said, laughing and shaking his head.

“I am not weak,” Cael retorted.

“Stop,” I said as I saw a few cars pull into the parking lot.

Cael stopped arguing and his stance relaxed as he grabbed my hand and led me away. I heard Soul's car door slam and turned around to see him driving back down the street. I almost ran to keep up with Cael.

“Why are we walking so fast, Cael?”

Cael slowed down a little but we still moved at a relatively fast pace. It was far too easy to resist the urge to turn around and look behind us; I had absolutely no desire to know where Soul went or who might be watching us. We walked along the discoloured grey concrete path, occasionally passing neglected gardens of oversized bushes and wild flowers, speckled with dark chunks of tree bark and litter. Cael was silent but I could see a smile on his face.

His sandy blond hair blew away from his face as he walked; his eyes seemed brighter than usual and held an emotion that I assumed was happiness. We reached the oval steps and sat down. His blue jeans were baggy and I noticed he was wearing his black Converse shoes and the black t-shirt that I had bought him for his birthday last year. Neither of us spoke but I felt myself noticing more things about Cael than I had previously. It was a little odd.

Cael seemed almost perfect, his eyes glittered in the morning light and his hair shone golden. He was leaning back on his elbows, although I was sure that the hard concrete stairs were uncomfortable. He was looking out at the oval, watching as everything came to life. Birds flew down from the trees and a stray neighbourhood cat lurked
just beyond the fence line. Cael seemed so carefree and relaxed, which was definitely a change from usual.

“You okay, kid? Don't worry about Soul. He can't do anything; he
won't
do anything,” Cael said reassuringly.

He leaned over and wrapped his arms around my shoulders. I hugged him back.

“I'm not worried about that,” I said.

“Then what are you worried about?”

“Nothing, I'm not worried at all,” I smiled, and hugged my knees as I stared out over the oval.

The vibrant green grass seemed to sparkle as the small droplets of dew caught the light of the sun. Cael leaned back on his elbows.

It was such a beautiful and peaceful day; I found it difficult to remember the situation I found myself in. For a moment the fear for my life and the lives of others melted away – but even in the tranquillity of the oval I couldn't quieten my thoughts.

Quite frankly, I was more afraid of Dorian than Soul. For some reason Soul seemed harmless; perhaps because he had never threatened me before. Or maybe it was because I knew that he wouldn't hurt me, just yet. I could have thought about this for much longer if Cael's voice hadn't interrupted.

“Your phone is beeping, Emilie,” Cael said, looking over at me in a completely relaxed manner.

I jumped slightly, pulling the phone from my pocket. Flipping it open I read the message:
I thought I might divulge something rather important to you, Emilie. It was not the wisest of decisions to upset Soul. He is rather put out with you at the moment and I personally have never witnessed him in a mood like this before. His disregard for others and his rage make me somewhat proud of him. I will see you soon, Emilie. D.
Dorian's message came over in three separate texts making me laugh.

Cael looked at me.

“Dorian …” I said.

I was half expecting him to show some disappointment or anger, but he seemed calm.

“I figured that he would try and talk to you. It wouldn't surprise me if he and Soul were close acquaintances.”

I had absolutely nothing to say to that. Cael surprises me when he comes out with things like that. I wondered how long he'd been thinking about it before he finally said something.

“What's wrong?” Cael's voice was gentle.

“Nothing.”

We were both silent and, once again, the only sounds that I could hear came from the trees and the birds.

“I met someone,” Cael said suddenly, staring at me with a smile on his face.

“What do you mean?”

He laughed, “She's an elemental. She's only young but she's beginning to recover her previous life, or rather, how she died.” Cael seemed excited about it.

“How old is she now?” I asked.

“She's nearly thirteen years old. She's an earth elemental.” Cael was still smiling.

“Young …” I commented, laughing.

“Just young in this form, she told me that she was over four hundred years before she died last time.”

I nodded in silent recognition.

“I asked her to join us,” Cael said.

My eyes snapped up to meet his in an instant. “But she's just a child! We can't afford to be worrying about her!”

Cael spoke over me, dismissing my complaint, “We're picking her up in two days, just before we leave.”

“What about her human parents? I doubt they would let her go,”
I said brusquely.

This was going to ruin everything. I could barely take care of myself, let alone help raise an elemental child in a ‘normal' environment.

“Her human parents were killed by a demon two weeks ago. They were possessed by demons and killed themselves by swallowing some sort of poison. She was watching the entire time,” Cael looked at me as though I were some heartless fiend. “The bodies are still in the house and the neighbours will be asking questions soon.”

I sighed, “Okay, we can't just leave her.”

He smiled and leaned over to hug me. “Her name is Holly. She's powerful so you don't need to worry about protecting her. She's smart too, she'll basically raise herself, once she remembers everything about who she was, that is.”

I sighed and nodded in agreement, but this time Cael didn't say a word.

I was relieved that he remained quiet, I was far too anxious to deal with anything else. I looked out at the sky. The good weather was slowly fading.

The sky darkened, with dull grey clouds covering almost every inch, drowning out all natural light. Cael stood up suddenly and stared up, the wind started to build up into a strong gust. It blew hundreds of leaves from the trees in mere seconds. When nearly all of the trees were bare a loud rumble of thunder crashed in the distance. Cael jumped and grabbed my arm, pulling me up. In seconds the entire oval was engulfed in a thick blanket of silver rain that fell like heavy bullets, drop after drop striking the soft ground below in quick succession.