A rainbow arced across the turquoise pool. I paused on the black lava bank, breathing in the ice and moss and magic.
Behind the falls, faint flickers of green and yellow and red poked through. Even with the obstructed view, I knew what they were—the Empyrean symbols for the Watchers—exactly like the ones in my mom’s lair at Natural Bridges.
Gaia hopped onto a boulder, sitting still as the stone. The bottom tips of her wings grazed the ground.
The waterfall beat against the pool’s surface, but it might as well have been my shoulders. “I killed a man.”
Kicking a thigh-high boot over a knee, she tucked her fist under her chin. “I know.”
“And you’re okay with that?” Hot shame crept up my neck. “I’m a murderer.”
Soft light radiated from her, painting her square face, her wide jaw, her slightly upturned nose, in an otherworldly glow.
“Isn’t that against some heavenly law? It’s against mortal law for sure.” I glared at the waterfall, at the shining glyphs behind it, at the empty space where my mom’s should’ve been burning bright. “Will I turn into a demon? Will I be sent to the Fall?”
We’ve all done things we’re not proud of. The cavern pulsed with the words. I heard them in my heart, my soul, my mind just as much as my ears. It doesn’t make you evil.
I scuffed the sole of my shoe on the ground. “You’ve killed people?”
She slid down the stone, coming to join me at my side. Her arm grazed mine.
“I convinced an entire elven kingdom to fight in a war I fear we will never win. Hundreds died—soldiers and innocents alike. So, guilty as charged.” The tips of her wings shuddered. “And it’s only going to happen again.”
“It’s inevitable, isn’t it? This war,” I said, pacing the waterline, my shoes sinking into the dark sand.
Gaia didn’t answer, standing tall and straight like a chiseled, porcelain statue.
“I mean, there has to be an alternative to more violence,” I pondered out loud as I walked back and forth, back and forth, following the crescent shape of the pool.
I twisted the sleeves of my shirt, the fabric drooping and soiled. Orange and black wisps of ink peeked out of the cuff.
Finally, the angel decided to speak. “I have one too.”
Chin snapping up, I met her stare. That wasn’t what I was expecting her to say. Her eyes flicked to my wrist. Green flames danced playfully behind her pupils, in place of irises.
“You have a tattoo?” My mouth hung open longer than I’d intended, but the shock was real.
Rolling up the gossamer sleeve of her forest-green tunic, she held out her arm to show a grayscale dragon, permanently in flight below her inner elbow.
“I have a few, actually. And this one—” She pulled up the platinum strands of loose hair that weren’t braided along the crown of her head, and revealed a small anchor, blotchy ink and uneven lines on the back of her neck. “Lost a bet to a sailor one night.”
Despite it all, a ghost of a smile danced over my lips. “No kidding…”
Letting down her hair, she bumped my shoulder with hers, broad and plush. “Your mother used to come here when she’d visit. When she wasn’t off calming a tempest or rounding up mischievous river sprites or redirecting selkies back into the wild depths of the sea.” Her gaze locked onto the shoreline, as if the memory was dancing before her eyes. “We’d sit on this beach, split a bottle of wine, dip our toes in the water, and gossip about the seraphim.”
I filled my lungs with air, and for the first time in a long, long time it didn’t feel stabbing, heavy. Haunting.
“I miss her.” Emotion softened her rolling accent. “And while Mira’s not here anymore”—she turned to me then—“you are.”
Spoken as if that meant something, as if the fate of the realm wasn’t truly doomed.
“I heard that.” Her laugh was a shift of the earth, deep and rumbling.
My cheeks flushed. I really needed to tighten my mental shield. If that was even possible; Gaia was looking at me like it wasn’t, or at least, that’d it be really, really hard.
It was funny, I’d wished the Voices away for so long. But now that I had hers in my head again, I felt healed, whole—even if the whole telepathy thing was extremely intrusive.
She pursed her full lips, but it wasn’t enough to stifle her smile. “With you, Mortal Earth stands a chance. We can fortify the realm. We can restore the wards.”
