She grumbles, tightening the strap of her black duffle bag over her shoulder and turning away from me. Sighing in defeat I decide to poke her some other day.
I can’t even turn to Grace for answers becausemy own sister,my same surname person, made a pact to keep the siren’sprecious secrets to herself years before I came into the picture.Family betrayals sting the worst.
Taking another deep breath, everyone turns to me, and only when it’s clear I will not interrupt again, do we jump at the count of three. Well,theyjump. I don’t have any plans on willingly jumping off a fucking cliff and into a deep-water body.
I contemplate whether to wait here or make a run for it when suddenly I’m pushed from behind. I scream all the way down, cursing every bad word in my vocabulary at whoever committed the highest form of treachery.
How did I not realize someone stayed behind to make sure I jumped? I get my answer about who whenHarveyjumps a second after me and swims deeper into the water.Wait till I get my hands on this piece of shit I call my best friend.
When I open my eyes again, I’m standing on solid ground and bone dry, except I can’t see shit because of a thick fog surrounding me. I sense Harvey a step away and jump on his back to choke him with my arms and curse the traitorous cliff-pushing bastard.
Angel struggles to drag me away from my hysterical best friend, who doesn’t even try to get out of my chokehold because he’s too busy laughing like a constipated cow.Like I said, Family betrayals sting the worst.
Angel holds me against him tightly and whispers soothing words in my ear so I can forget about knocking out Harvey’s teeth. Angel is smart enough to not let me loose while he asks Seiji to clear the fog.
“Uh, I would only there’s a tiny problem.”
Hazel stalks through the fog and grabs Seiji by his collar, “Do not tell me our Divines aren’t working.”
“I wish I could.” He clicks his fingers several times, but nothing happens.
“This is all because of Anxo.”
“Wait, what—What did I do?”
“You didn’t let me take mytenthdagger. I told you it’s bad luck to have an odd number of weapons.”
“So why didn’t you just toss another one out?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Conquer; why would I do that?”
Without our powers, Seiji can’t clear the fog, and even when our senses are still as sharp as ever, we can’t see through the blockage. Forming a human chain, we start walking blindly in a direction, hoping to find a way out of this temporary blindness.
“Nothing has changed. We still have to find him in a limited time frame, so be sharp and depend on your senses. It’ll be fine; we trained for something like this.” Angel encourages us as we start moving through the fog, and I sense his relief when it gets thinner the longer we walk to the potential end of it.
Once the fog ultimately elevates, I look around to scan the mysterious realm. Looking at it now, I can’t believe how anyone can convince you to stay in this place for eternity.
Everything is black. The sky? Black. The soil? Black. Guess the color of the trees? Surprise-surprise, it’s black. The only color in this realm is where people live in bright, colorful houses and small parks.
The magic pulsing in this realm is so strong that it makes them forget theiractual home. The entire realm is empty except for the far-off hill, where we spot a couple of sheds. One of those is where our target is hiding.
On our trek up the mountain, Angel counts heads every three seconds to ensure we don’t get separated. I have the utmost faith in myself that I’d be the person running in circles trying to find the people I came with if he didn’t hold my hand.
Being directionally challenged is a serious struggle.
CHAPTER 31
Knock-Knock little Death’s here
Nevaeh
Isquint to peek inside a window on the rustic two-floor log house at the tip of the not-really-there mountain. This realm is straight out of a horror movie, where things behind you disappear into the dark abyss of nothing at every turn.
The thick layer of dust on the window makes it difficult to study the layout, and since my Divine is currently taking a nap, it’s more complicated to sense a presence inside. Thankfully, our Divine is stronger than most, so taking on a warlock without his precious magic will be a piece of cake.
Hazel blocks my view inside the unkempt house and comes to stand before me, staring at me expectantly. I have no clue what the crazy siren wants until she waves a pair of thick fingerless gloves in front of my face and rolls her eyes.
So much attitude from such an innocent face.
