I found the Portal Master in one of the training gyms. There was a small rectangle window in the door that let me peer into the concrete room. When I spotted Aurelia, there was so much bright blue magic swirling around her I gasped. Sensing me, she spun and smiled. The magic dissipated to nothing as she waved me inside.
“Whoa, what was that?” I asked, forgetting all about the awkward talk we were going to have and instead focusing on the badass amount of magic I’d just seen swirling around her like a tornado.
She smiled sheepishly. “I admit I’ve always wanted wings. I’m experimenting with levitation by manipulating energy.”
“That’s amazing.”
She grinned, but then the smile fell from her face. “Thanks for coming to see me. I wanted to talk to you about last night.”
A stone sank in my stomach, and I cleared my throat.
“Tatum, the fact that the leader of the Avalon guardians threw himself in front of a level ten demon to save you is… well, you should be very honored,” she started off saying.
Heat crept up my cheeks as embarrassment consumed me. I hadn’t really thought of it as an honor. I also didn’t thank him for saving me from that spear. I’d been too in shock of seeing a giant flying cat to act normal.
Facepalm, Tatum.
Aurelia placed one hand on each of my shoulders. “Drea told me what he said to you. What your mission is.”
Aurum’s words came back to me then.Destroy the Netherworld and free the lost souls Apollyon has trapped there.
“I had no idea souls were trapped in the Netherworld, and I have even less of an idea how to destroy an entire realm,” I shared honestly.
“It’s a herculean task, but the angels of Avalon wouldn’t give you a purpose you aren’t equipped to handle,” Aurelia said solemnly.
I frowned. “I don’t even know what it means. How do I free them? Where do I free them to?”
Aurelia squeezed my shoulders. “That’s for you to figure out, and I have no doubt Aurum will guide you on that path. That is his job as a guardian after all.”
The heaviness of my mission was too much for me, and I realized that I didn’t want to keep secrets anymore, they just weighed me down even more. Pulling the note my mother had left me from my pocket, I handed it to her. “I want you to read this.”
I needed another person to know that Apollyon was out to consume my soul in an effort to free himself and take over Earth. It was too heavy for me to carry alone, and I trusted Aurelia.
She frowned as she opened the letter, and when she glanced down at it, she gasped. “It’s your mother’s handwriting.”
Wow. How close were they?
I nodded.
She scanned the pages, and I watched as all manner of emotions crossed her face. Her eyes widened in shock, her lips turned into a frown, and her free hand reached up to clutch her necklace. It felt oddly comforting to see another person be as surprised as I’d been when this information was dropped on me. When she finally finished reading, she lowered the letter and pulled me into a hug.
“Oh, Tatum.” Her voice was thick with emotion.
Aurelia’s motherly instinct level was an eleven, and I imagined that this was what my own mother would have been like had she been here to raise me. My throat constricted with emotion as I held on to her and just soaked in the comfort.
I’m not alone. I don’t have to go through this alone.
When we finally pulled apart, I gave her a small smile.
“This explains a lot.” Aurelia handed the letter back to me. “And reinforces what I was going to tell you, which is that I would like for you to have another hunter with you at all times whether on or off the campus.”
“A bodyguard?” I thought of Dash and how he’d followed me to the bank.
Aurelia shrugged. “Yeah, I take the safety of my students very seriously, and now that I know Apollyon will do anything to get you to go to the Netherworld, I’m not taking any chances.”
“Okay,” I told her. I wasn’t interested in putting up a fight, and if my Lumen babysitter was Drea, Dash, or any of the others from our team, it wouldn’t be so bad.
Aurelia visibly relaxed at my acceptance. “I know you want to go and save your mom, and I promised I would help, but—”
