Aurelia tapped the drawing of Tartarus once more. “Here. We send everything we’ve got to Tartarus and surround Tatum with the biggest Lumen army this world has ever seen.”
Chills raced up my arms as cheers and cries of war broke out in the room. Gage reached out and laced his hand with mine. Drea pulled my other hand into hers and squeezed. I might be the only one who could free the souls, but I wasn’t in this alone. Being a Lumen meant you were a part of something bigger.
“Okay, you’ve been given your orders!” Aurelia barked. “We infiltrate Tartarus in twelve hours. Get some sleep.”
The sound of chairs screeching as Lumens stood from their seats ricocheted around the room.
Aurelia stepped over to Gage, Drea, and me. “Hang back, I want to go over something else with you guys.” She looked at Gage and winked, and he nodded.
Okay, that was weird.
I anxiously waited as the Lumens left the room and then finally we were alone. The four of us.
“What is it?” I asked Aurelia.
She pulled up a chair and sat before me. “Aurum came to see me. He told me about the curse. How you can’t kill Apollyon without dying, and the same goes for Harley.”
Oh. That.
“Right, I’m working on a plan for that,” I started. “I was thinking maybe I create a portal somewhere or—”
“Gage, Aurum, and I have devised a plan,” she said.
I looked over at Gage in surprise, and he gave me a light smile.
“Aurum and Aurelia were waiting for me the second I stepped back into the sanctuary,” he said.
The man wasted no time. He came back from getting Lumen powers and hit the ground running.
“What’s the plan?” I asked.
“Cael said he gave me some really powerful strength marks,” Gage said.
Okay… but didn’t we all get strength marks? That seems like a pretty basic ability for Lumens, so I wasn’t sure why he was bringing it up.
Seeing the confusion on my face, Gage grinned and engaged some of his angel marks. The white swirled on both biceps as he made his way to the desk at the front of the room. Making a fist, he swung down at the desktop, and the furniture immediately cracked in two. He then reached down and grabbed one of the desk’s metal legs, easily snapping it off. Holding it up he bent the metal into a pretzel shape.
Whoa. Yeah, I get it now.
“Pretty powerful strength marks” was an understatement.
“Gage,” Aurelia scolded, frowning at him.
Whoops.
I had to rub my mouth to keep a smile from appearing. Gage had just destroyed a piece of Lumen Academy property just to show off his new ability.
He winced and then shot Aurelia a bashful look. “Sorry. I’ll pay for it.”
He was probably the richest Lumen in the building. A Lumen with a Shade’s inheritance.
Aurelia shook her head, chuckling, and rolled her eyes.
“Okay, I get it now. You’re super-duper powerful.” I lowered my voice and winked at Gage: “Super sexy by the way.” And then I went back to addressing everyone again: “But what’s the plan?”
Gage swallowed hard. “You know the cell in the armory that you put me in after Apollyon forced me to shift?”
Not exactly something I wanted to bring back up anytime soon.
