Soul Savers: Faith Part 13

Now I understood why Dorian had been so broody during his last months with us. He'd carried the weight of the world on his young shoulders. My heart broke with what he must have felt every time we were attacked, every time we saw a Norman die, every time one of our own was injured or killed. He'd been led to believe he could stop it all, and the sense of responsibility must have crushed him. He had to have been working up the courage to make his move from the moment he watched Lucas kill his Mimi, but his love for his father and me had held him back. His worry for us and the sister I'd been pregnant with had been the catalyst for him to make his move. And all that time I hadn't known. I hadn't been able to help him. I could have stopped him if I'd had any idea.

My blood boiled at the turmoil he'd been suffering. At what he was going through now. He was so young. Too young! How dare that f.u.c.king b.i.t.c.h plant lies in his head! I almost wished she'd come back to life so I could kill her again.

Especially because Dorian's sacrifice would all be for nothing.

He hadn't broken the curse. The Summoned wouldn't help us win any war. There was no sister of his to do this for. No Amadis. No humanity.

"It's time for you to leave," Noah said. "I can't-"

His words were lost as two Demons swooped into the cave's entrance, grabbed him in their claws, and carried him away. Tristan and I ran to the edge of the opening.

"Noah!" I yelled, opening my wings to take off after them.

"You can't follow them."

The female voice came from below us, where a dark-haired woman dressed in a bikini with a sarong wrapped around her waist stood on the beach. She disappeared and reappeared on the ledge right before us, only her toes hanging on. Tristan and I both stepped backward, and I had to control the urge to wrinkle my nose at the sight of her. Her skin was a sickly pale gray with blisters and boils oozing yellow pus on her arms and chest. Her face might have been pretty with better coloring, except for the irregularly shaped, yellowish-orange irises of her eyes. She made the disgusted face I'd been holding back from making myself.

"I know. I'm atrocious," she admitted. "But if you think this is bad, you should have seen what I looked like when I first took this body. I'll get her back to normal soon enough."

For the briefest moment while she spoke, I caught a glimpse of her true self-with oily, mottled skin, horns, and a tail. Her eyes changed, too, from the weird, spiky irises to none at all. No whites or pupils, only fire. Another zombie possessed by a Demon.

"Where are they taking Noah?" Tristan demanded.

The whites of the Demon-woman's eyes bled back in, and the fires returned to the freaky irises. "To h.e.l.l, where he belongs. And you've overstayed your welcome down there ... for now."

I shook my head. "No."

I didn't believe that. I still held hope for Noah. He'd promised Dorian he'd fight for us, which meant he wanted to convert.

"Or maybe they took him to Lucas. I don't know, and I don't care," she said. "I'm just glad it's all almost over. My lord and master will be here soon, and you will die. The boy is all Lucas needs."

"What?" I gasped.

Tristan's huge wings came out as he advanced on her.

"What does that mean?" he growled.

Her ugly eyes filled with fear as his wings curved in toward her, but her full mouth curved into a smirk. "That boy is all Lucas needs to drop the veil and open the Gates to h.e.l.l. Everything else is done and ready for my lord Satan."

Chapter 14.

Tristan shoved the Demon-woman against the cave wall, and his wing curved around, the feathers pressed against her throat. But the feathers weren't soft and light, giving at the pressure. Their edges had become hard and razor-sharp, drawing a thin line of black blood.

"Where's our son?" he demanded, his voice frightening even me.

"Almost home," she sneered.

"Is he with Lucas?"

She didn't answer. Tristan pressed his feathers harder into her skin. The line of blood grew thicker, dripping downward in several places.

"Where. Are. They?" he roared.

"I don't know. On their way to Hades? Maybe in h.e.l.l by now, talking to our lord. Making preparations." She gurgled out a laugh. "It doesn't matter. You can't stop it. But it's not too late to change your minds about who the true G.o.d is."

Tristan's wing swished outward, slicing across the Demon's neck. The body slumped against the wall and slid down to the floor, while a black smoke emerged from it. The Demon gathered into its natural shape and flew out of the cave, then disappeared.

I ran outside and leapt to the beach below, where I spewed out a string of profanities while pacing back and forth. Tristan landed on the beach, too, but he stood perfectly still, his wings out wide, his arms crossed over his chest, and his eyes staring out at the water as black waves crashed onto the gray sand. The peculiarly shaped cliffs cast dark shadows over us.

"We have to go to Hades," I declared. He didn't respond. "We have to go to Hades, get our son back, and ... and ..."

I floundered for our next step, not knowing what to do after that. There wasn't much left to life on this Earth, but it didn't matter. As long as we had Dorian back and the three of us were together, we'd figure out the rest. Right now, all we had to focus on was getting to Dorian.

"It might be too late," Tristan finally said through a clenched jaw.

I stopped pacing in front of him and stared at him with lowered brows. "No, it's not! Don't say that! As long as the veil hasn't been ripped down, we have time. We're going to go to Hades and get him back before it is too late."

"We'll be severely outnumbered. It's just the two of us."

"And it will always be just the two of us. We're all we have now. He's our son, Tristan."

He finally looked over at me, the gold in his eyes glinting. "I know. I'm ready. I just want to be sure you are."

I spread my arms out wide and turned side to side. "Look at our lives. At the world. We have nothing more to lose, do we?"

"We could lose each other."

My arms dropped to my sides, and my teeth gnashed at the thought of losing Tristan again. I forced my tight throat to swallow.

"We just can't let that happen," I said firmly.

He gave me a sharp nod. "Then Hades it is."

We were about to launch when three winged women suddenly appeared in front of us. Although our last encounter had been rocky, I should have been happy to see my family again, but annoyance was all I felt.

"No," Ca.s.sandra ordered. "You cannot go to Hades."

And that was why.

They'd obviously been watching us through the veil and now felt the need to stick their noses into our business. Why now, when nothing mattered? They hadn't done a thing before, when they could have made a difference. They'd sat back and watched the world crumble without so much as a word to give me some kind of guidance. And now they suddenly had something to say? Orders to give?

"We have to stop Dorian." I placed my fists on my hips. "Make him see the mistake he's making."

They disappeared.

"He is not making a mistake." Rina's voice came from behind me, and I spun around. She sat up on the ledge of what had been Noah's cavern. Her voice came softly, but easily heard. "Dorian is doing what he needs to do."

"He's doing what he thinks he needs to do because of Kali. But she lied to him. This is not what he needs to do."

"But it is, honey." Mom stood on the edge of one of the stone cliffs that jutted out into the water. The sun behind her created a glow around her body and wings.

"Why? Because his soul means nothing compared to all of the Summoned sons?" I threw my hands in the air and let out a growl of frustration. "Well, guess what. He won't be breaking the curse. He won't be saving the brothers. He won't be doing anything except giving himself to Lucas, who will then drop the veil and open the Gates to h.e.l.l. Is that what you guys really want?"

Ca.s.sandra appeared to my right, hovering inches above the water as the waves slid in under her feet. "You cannot prevent Dorian from doing what he needs to do. You must allow him to go. But you will stop Lucas."

I turned and squinted at her, confused. To stop Lucas, we had to stop Dorian.

"What do you mean?" Tristan asked, his voice steady but with that steely undertone that meant his patience ran thin.

"You must trust us," Ca.s.sandra said, turning her full gaze on him. "You must believe in us, in the Angels, in your G.o.d. You must have faith that He has a plan and make His will your way. Dorian is following His will. You must not stop him."

"So letting Lucas rip down the veil is also G.o.d's will?" I scoffed. They were unbelievable. "You said this whole apocalypse wasn't G.o.d's doing, but now it is His will? He wants Satan's chains to break so he can come to Earth? Because that's what Lucas is going to do."

"You will not let it come to that," Rina said, now on the beach, standing behind Tristan.

"Exactly," I said, "which is why we need to go to Hades. Now."

"Not now," Ca.s.sandra said. "Not yet. You need your army."

I fisted my hands in my hair and dropped my head back to stare at the sky as a frustrated chuckle escaped me. After exhaling a sharp breath, I lifted my head to look at her.

"There is no army," I said, straining to keep my voice low and calm when all I wanted to do was scream at her. "They're gone. When are you going to realize and accept it? The Amadis are gone. Any still alive have given themselves over. Any humans left are serving the Daemoni, too. We don't have an army anymore, Ca.s.sandra. This is it." I waved my hands between Tristan and me. "This is our army now."

"Do you give up on your people so easily?" Mom asked, still perched on the cliff above us. "On Owen and Charlotte? Vanessa and Sheree? Blossom and Jax?"

My stomach clenched as though she'd just punched me, and I blinked against the tears forming at the mention of their names. I'd been trying so hard to block them out, to not think about them, to not wonder what happened to them. I didn't want the visuals that came to mind, the ones I'd watched on repeat while in h.e.l.l-their horrific deaths while they'd been trying to help the Normans. And now the loss and despair all flooded over me, and I gasped at the pain in my heart.

"They're ... gone," I whispered.

"Don't give up on them." Mom's voice was distant, m.u.f.fled by the pounding in my ears. "They're still out there."

I shook my head and scrubbed at the tears on my cheeks. "I watched them die a thousand times."

"Then you witnessed lies," Ca.s.sandra said, still hovering above the water. "They are out there. Other Amadis are out there. They need you, Alexis. As does humanity. They will fight for you, with you. Find them. Build your army. Then you will go to Hades."

I wanted to believe her. I truly did. I wanted nothing more than for the world to be saved and restored. But even if what she said was true-which I highly doubted-we didn't have time to wait.

"That will take too long. It'll be too late," I protested. "Dorian-"

"Dorian is doing what he needs to do."

"Ugh! Stop saying that!" I stomped my foot in the sand like a child.

Mom suddenly appeared right in front of me, her eyes narrowed.

"Stop dismissing us," she said, her voice taking on her mom tone. "You were angry at us for not providing direction before, and here we are, providing direction. Giving you the answers you claimed to want. Telling you what to do. But you fight us every time."

I huffed out a breath. "Because I never know if you're telling me the truth or not. Or setting me up for failure again. Especially because your direction is ridiculous. What you want me to do is absurd. You act like you have no idea what's going on in this world."

"Do we?" Mom asked pointedly. "Or do you? Do you really know what's going on, Alexis, or do you think maybe we have a fuller view? Maybe we have a little more insight. Maybe we're trying to steer you the right way because we have a broader perspective."

I glared at her and frowned. "Char was right about where I get my stubbornness."

Rina dropped down to stand by Mom. "We only interfere when we need to. We are here. What does that tell you, darling?"

"We are here to help you, Alexis," Ca.s.sandra said, closing in on me, too, "but it is up to you to accept it."

I scowled and looked sideways at Tristan. He held up his hands and gave me that man look-that I'm-not-getting-in-the-middle-of-a-bunch-of-women expression. My scowl deepened. Some help he was.

"How do we have time for this?" I demanded. "There's a ticking clock! In fact, Dorian's probably already at Hades, and it's only a matter of time before Lucas drops the veil."

"He is not with Lucas yet," Ca.s.sandra said, and for the first time in I didn't know how long, she actually said something I wanted to hear. Something that gave me true hope. "He is with a neutral party, receiving objective counsel. He has many difficult decisions ahead of him. Before you ask, no, we do not know where. Just know that he is safe. When he does go to Lucas, there will be signs. Watch for them. The veil will not fall and the Gates will not open the moment Dorian meets Lucas. There will be time. You will still be able to stop Lucas from proceeding. First, you need your army."

And my hopes fell with the word when, rather than if.

"There's n.o.body left," I whispered once again as the heaviness of their loss pressed down on me.

"We've spent the last several weeks scouring Europe," Tristan said, finally speaking up. He must have grown tired of the circles we made with this exasperating conversation. "Everywhere we've seen is the same-gray and lifeless. The only human life we've found is possessed by Demons or serving the Daemoni."

"You must look closer," Rina said. "Others are here."

"They're just not out in the open," Mom added. "They don't know that it's safe to come to the surface, and it's not in many places. You will have to search for them, but they are there."

"I can't even find their mind signatures, though," I said. "There's n.o.body but Daemoni."

"Then you're not looking in the right places or hard enough."

My jaw dropped slightly, leaving my mouth agape. Tristan and I had flown all over Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Vienna, the Czech Republic, Greece, pretty much the rest of western Europe and a good portion of northern Africa. If we hadn't found signs of life in any of those places, where else were we supposed to look?

"Search and you will find," Ca.s.sandra said. "Build your army. The war is not over."

With that, the three of them disappeared.

My hands balled into fists, I stomped my foot again, and a scream of complete frustration rose from deep within and erupted like a volcano out of my mouth.

"At least tell us where to look!" I yelled upward, but no answer came.

I glanced over at Tristan. He stared at me with his arms over his broad chest and a brow lifted. I frowned, embarra.s.sed by my behavior.

"They infuriate me," I muttered in explanation.