CHAPTER FOUR
Arael stood panting on a jutting mass of rock that protruded from the tunnel from which she’d just emerged. Footsteps pounded and shouts echoed from the chamber.
Someone was chasing her.
A lake of boiling lava rolled and hissed below her, lighting the cavern with an orange glow. She looked to her right to see Akira on an adjacent cliff, her auburn hair matted with sweat and blood and a barely conscious Uriah on her shoulder.
Arael could tell he was hurt, even though he was the least bloody of the three.
Uriah’s eyes widened when he caught sight of Arael. He tried to raise his head, but it swiftly lolled back onto Akira’s shoulder.
Akira nodded to Arael in what looked to be some kind of salute—the first time she ever remembered Akira looking at her with anything less than contempt.
Arael glanced around, just then realizing where they were—the perimeter of the Void. Unlike the inner sanctum, Akira could transport from there.
“Go! Get him out of here!” Arael shouted as voices grew closer from the tunnel behind her.
Akira gave Arael one last apologetic look before she and Uriah disappeared.
Camryn bolted upright on her cot. Flashes of memory came to her like this sometimes, like shards of shrapnel extracted from her mind. Most of the time, they were just flashes—moments frozen in time—nothing useful, but they pulled Camryn’s heart to a screeching halt every time.
This memory left her feeling sick. He’d looked so bad. She looked around for Ethan, to reassure herself that he was alright, but he was nowhere in sight. Neither was Akira.
Camryn planted her black and white converse on the floor and started to push herself to her feet, but her mother stepped in front of her, a worried expression on her face. Lindsay lowered herself onto the cot beside Camryn. “He’s fine,” her mother said, patting her knee. “He’s in the bathroom.”
Camryn breathed out a laugh and relaxed back against the wall beside her mother. Lindsay put an arm around her daughter and squeezed her close. Camryn closed her eyes, allowing herself revel in the comfort of her mother’s arms.
“So that was pretty cool what you did earlier, huh?”
Camryn shrugged. “I guess…”
Her mother pursed her lips, as if looking for the right words. “Remember last week when I called you from Franklin after that first earthquake?”
“Um.” Camryn did remember. “Yeah.”
“I was so mad at myself for leaving you alone. I just knew that you needed me and I wasn’t there. I was packing a bag as I dialed your number.”
Camryn remembered the frantic phone call, her mother’s bewildered voice on the other end of the line when Camryn answered with relative calm.
“And then I talked to you and you were fine.” Lindsay shrugged. “Rational even…”
Camryn smiled against her mom’s shoulder.
“It was because of him, wasn’t it?”
Camryn swallowed hard. There was only one him she could be referring to. “He was with me, yes.”
Lindsay nodded. “That’s what I thought.”
They were silent for a minute before her mother straightened. “I’m glad he’s here then,” she said as Ethan and Akira emerged together from the darkened corridor. “Even if it’s just to help you see how incredibly strong you really are.”
Camryn choked back the tears that threatened. First Ethan, now her mom...
“Where have you two been?” Michael snapped.
“Nowhere,” Akira said.
“Nothing,” Ethan said at the same time.
Michael frowned.
Camryn cocked her head at them.
“Smooth,” Akira whispered before heading over to join Michael by the door.
Lindsay smiled at Ethan’s embarrassed expression as she patted Camryn’s knee one more time. “I’ll let you two talk.”
Camryn tried to smile as her mother walked away, but one look into Ethan’s stormy eyes reminded her of the terrible memory that had just been expunged from her mind.
Him…exhausted and defeated on Akira’s arm.
Herself and Akira, bloody and wounded.
“That was nothing,” Ethan gestured toward Akira, apparently misinterpreting Camryn’s expression.
Camryn twisted her hands in front of her. “What? Oh…” she waved him off. “I know.”
Ethan’s face relaxed, but he seemed to waver. “Well, what’s wrong then?”
How to answer that? She didn’t have anything new to share. Not even a real memory. Only a picture of him, clinging to life in the Void.
“Maybe we should do what Harriet says,” Camryn said, first to Ethan, then turning to Michael. “Maybe we could just go and talk to her—”
“Camryn,” Michael said with forced patience, “You aren’t going to go to the Embassy and just sit down and have a conversation with this woman. If we go—and that a big if—it will be to dispose of the threat. Not to completely and irrevocably destroy this mission.”
“Dispose of the threat? Do you even hear yourself right now? We’re not assassins, Michael.”
Michael turned away from her. “It doesn’t matter anyway. What you’re suggesting is exactly what Raphael and the others are doing. We just have to be patient.”
“Well, what’s taking them so long?” Camryn shouted.
“I don’t know!” Michael shouted back. “I’ve been trying to contact him, but—”
Michael froze, a petrified look crossing his face. He shuddered twice as if he’d been shot with a thousand-volt current of electricity.
“What’s wrong with him?” Elizabeth’s mousy voice squeaked from her spot on the floor.
“What?” Ronan stood. “What is it?”
“It’s Raphael,” Michael managed to say.
Everyone straightened, passing questioning glances around the room.
“I—I don’t know what’s happened.” Michael stammered. “He’s gone. I’ve lost my connection to him.”
“I thought you said he hasn’t contacted you,” Ronan said.
Michael looked at him, dazed, before shaking the uncertainty from his head. “Th-the qanima bond is a very tangible thing. I can always feel him on the other end. But now…” Michael looked up, desperation etched in every crevice of his face. “Nothing.”
Camryn and Ethan exchanged a look. They both knew the excruciating loss associated with having one’s qanima bond severed like an injured limb.
“He’s just gone?” Akira asked.
Michael’s look of utter devastation answered for him.
“Is he hurt? Did they capture him?” Ronan asked.
“I don’t know!” Michael shouted, more out of pain than anger this time.
A few silent moments passed before Ronan spoke again. “What are we going to do?”
“I—I don’t know.” The look on Michael’s face took Camryn back to the valley of the Alborz, a bloody and weak Michael standing before her as Dagon and his demons dragged him through the portal, the hopelessness on his face the moment he realized she had been the one to betray him matched his grim expression now.
Ethan walked over and put a hand on Michael’s shoulder. “You have to find him.”
“No.” Camryn insisted. “He can’t leave us here.”
Ethan’s eyes found hers. “Akira and Ronan are still here. We’re not alone.”
“But—”
“Camryn, listen, I remember waking up after that first battle and finding you gone. There was no force in the universe that could have stopped me from tracking you down.” He offered Michael a sympathetic look. “He doesn’t want to leave us. And he will try to ignore the pull for as long as he can, but eventually…it will be too consuming. He has to go.”
“I can’t,” Michael whispered. He looked as torn as the bond that had just been ripped from him. Then, horror crossing his face, he almost fell into the chair next to him.
“Does this mean…”
Camryn understood his hesitation to finish the thought: “Does this mean he’s been exiled?” It was too sickening.
No way,” Ethan said. “That could only happen by the weapon of another Righteous angel. That’s not possible, is it?” Ethan glanced between Ronan and Akira.
Michael stood abruptly, his senses returning to him. “Ethan’s right. I have to go.” He pulled his Halo from his breast pocket and tossed it to Akira. “You’re in charge until I get back.”
Camryn crossed her arms over her chest and looked away. Michael was leaving them defenseless and leaving Apollyon’s messenger in charge. Great.
“I will be back.” Michael said to the group. “Until then, for the love of the Creator, listen to your parents. And you all,” he said directly to the three adults, “Don’t let them leave this room.”
Lindsay nodded. James puffed his chest as if he’d just receive his first secret agent mission, and Elizabeth looked as if she’d burst into tears if anyone so much as looked at her.
To Michael’s credit, he did hesitate a moment before vanishing from the room.
“Okay,” Camryn said as soon as Michael had gone, “We can’t really just stay here indefinitely, can we? That can’t be what Elohim wants.”
Ronan pulled a dagger out of the air and inspected it in the beam of light shining in through the window. “I agree. It seems we’re just wasting time here.”
“I don’t know,” Lindsay looked uncertain. “Michael did say—”
“Yes,” Akira said. “Michael said we stay put. That’s what we’re doing.”
“Let’s talk about this for a minute,” Ethan said. “I think Camryn is right.”
“Of course you do,” Akira mumbled.
“You said so yourself, Akira, whatever our mission is, it isn’t inside this church.” Ethan’s gray eyes found Camryn’s. “She’s only given us till dawn. If they aren’t back by then, we make a new plan.”
THAT’S ALL FOR NOW! THANKS FOR READING. THE REST OF THE STORY WILL BE AVAILABLE EARLY 2022.