“I can’t go home. The coming darkness you keep talking about? That’s gonna affect everyone. I can’t just go back to my life and not do anything.” Her words tripped over each other as they streamed out. “I can’t stand behind the counter at Smoky Badger Liquor’s, or some other dead-end job, and worry. Worry about the end of the world. About you trying to fix everything. Besides, I won’t really be safe until this plays out. Nothing is the same.I’mnot the same.” She reached over and threaded her fingers through mine. I let her. Then she said more cheerfully, “I’m like your partner now,Lethal Weaponstyle, though I’m not sure if you’re Riggs or Murtoch.”
I could have asked her to explain what she was talking about, but something else pulled at my thoughts. Greasy tendrils of guilt and sadness entwined in my gut. “I’m sorry about Travis.”
“Sorry about what? That he is a ginormous pain in the ass? Because I’ve known that a hell of a lot longer than you.”
“Emma, you must understand, the Propheros, he must be sacrificed to save the world from darkness. That is the destiny of the Propheros.”
Emma stopped walking to look at me. Her expression was unreadable, but it seemed like she was trying to decide something. I instantly regretted telling her, terrified she would march off and I would never see her again. I was going to aide in the death of her friend. Civilians did not always understand the measures it took to protect our plane of existence, but I had bet on the odds that she would. Or maybe I was being selfish in not wanting to be burdened alone with this knowledge. Another failing on my part. Now, there were more than I could count.
Finally, she said before marching on with purpose, “He’s not dead yet. Maybe if we work together it won’t come to that.”
I didn’t reply. What could I say? Prophecy was the powerful river dragging all of us to the inevitable. The Propheros was destined to sacrifice his life to protect this world. There was absolutely no other way. I wished to spare Emma the pain of this knowledge, which was why I didn’t say anything to disagree with her after explaining Travis’s fate. If I examined my avoidance, I might have found I was really trying to spare myself the pain because I so very much wanted to believe her.
Another block and Emma brought us to the parked jeep. She knocked on the window and Travis jerked up from the reclined driver’s seat like a flailing puppet who’d been woken by a blasting cannon. I got into the back of the car. Now that the soul eater was no more, I did not need to keep vigilant in the front seat. Sophie was dozing in the back of the car under a pile of coats. The stuffed bunny had fallen from her grasp and onto the floor. I picked it up and tucked it into her arms once more.
Her dreams would never be the same now that’d she known a real monster. I couldn’t protect her from the knowledge there was true darkness lurking at the edges of her world. And I was finding I couldn’t protect Emma from myself, though I claimed I would. If she knew I was the real monster, she wouldn’t look at me with such adoration or reach to touch me so easily.
Between the drugs still lingering in my system, and my walk in the cold, I was too tired to think about what this meant.
From the passenger seat, Emma said, “Gang’s back together, now let’s get Sophie to her family and meet Calan’s Masters.”
Grateful for Emma’s strength, my eyes slammed shut of their own accord and I fell into a deep sleep next to Sophie.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
We were parked a distance from the firehouse but could plainly see Sophie walk up the steps to the front door. We watched her open the front door, cast a last look at us over her shoulder, then she disappeared inside. Through a lit window, we watched two firemen cross the room to greet her.
“She’ll be alright,” I said, more for myself.
Emma nodded. “They’ll get her home. I’m sure her family is frantically looking for her.”
Travis snorted behind the wheel. “If they aren’t locked up in a mental ward by now.” His words were bitter and dark.
I swallowed hard.
Emma’s body was twisted to better watch the firehouse. She caught the look on my face. “Hey, they are alive. If it weren’t for you, everyone would have died.”
“We never should have gone there. We could have avoided unnecessary loss of life if we hadn’t stopped driving.”
Travis’s shoulders sagged in the driver’s seat and Emma turned her head away but not before I saw her face. I realized too late that I’d made it sound as though it were their fault. They were the reason we had to stop, and why we stayed in a motel.
“I didn’t mean—”
Emma interrupted brusquely. “Where are we going?”
Travis turned the key over and the engine thrummed to life cutting off any insufficient apologies I had. I closed my eyes, silently cursing myself. Around Emma and Travis, I was clumsy and foolish.
It struck me hard that I shouldn’t be indulging in self-conscious feelings. My guiding light was the mission, and I realized in that moment how much I had let my judgment be swayed by these two people. It unsettled me. I had been gone from the Temple for too long, but now my powers were restored and everything was going to return to its natural order.
I quietly said to myself, “Home.”
#
A half hour later, bundled in heavy clothes, we tromped through the woods far away from the spying eyes of the modern world. We were still many hours from the safe house, but it wasn’t necessary anymore. We just needed a safe, remote place. Neither Travis nor Emma said anything since I misspoke in the car, which created a leaden weight on my heart, but had also given me time to think. The scent of pine was heavy in the cold air. The dark sky began to lighten, and birds chirped excitedly. Travis had pulled off the road, parking Emma’s car out of sight from the road behind a large boulder where tree limbs hung low, adding to the coverage.
The longer the silence stretched out, the more I recognized how much I’d let them compromise my mission. What would my Masters say when they heard of the troubles I’d encountered? I could claim it was the fault of Emma and Travis for influencing me, but I was the one who decided to listen, and I shouldn’t have. I shifted my shoulders back, owning up to my grave mistakes. I should not have been so malleable to these civilians. It was time I stop considering Travis and Emma’s wants and desires and focus solely on the mission.
Suddenly, I was excited to go home. I could return to life free from complications. It wasn’t my place to think, or compromise. It was to simply follow the guidance of my Masters, in service of the mission. Protect the Light.
