Page 15 of Reaper Unhinged
Celestia greeted me at the Beyond’s reception desk. Her face was empty of expression, as usual, mercury eyes fixed straight ahead. The forest around us flickered and wavered like a picture on an old television with bad reception.
“Welcome, S-Seraphina D-Dawn. How may I-I assist you today?”
Fuck, had she just stuttered? “I need to speak with Dominion Cassius.”
Silence.
“Celestia?”
“How m-may I-I help you, Sera—”
I stared at her frozen form. And then she flickered too. Oh, fuck. This was bad. This had to be a power issue.
“Celestia, can you hear me?”
“Seraphina Dawn.” She said my name in a drawn-out way, her voice warped and deep. The forest flickered and went dark for a moment before coming back online.
“I need to see Cassius. Celestia, send an urgent message. Can you do that? Do it now.”
For a moment, nothing happened, and then her mercury eyes began to flicker, rainbow ripples moving across the surface of the orbs. She was doing something.
And then the forest vanished, and I was standing in absolute darkness. My breath came out in shallow gasps as I waited for my eyes to adjust, to see something, but there was nothing but the blanket of oblivion pressing in on me.
“Celestia?” My voice sounded reedy and warped. “Celestia, let me out of here. Now.”
A blinding white light split the dark, widening a fraction. I rushed toward it, afraid it would close at any moment, and then I was squeezing through the gap and falling into light.
* * *
It tooka moment for my eyes to adjust to the brightness. I was in a corridor that ended in a set of double doors. A red light blinked above it in warning. This was some kind of access route to the reception and into the Beyond proper. I’d asked Celestia to let me out, but she’d let me in.
There was no going back now. I strode down the corridor and tried the door. It opened without resistance.
Fuck. This place was totally falling apart.
I made to step through, then stopped as Azazel’s voice filled my head. His words from a week ago. He’d said we couldn’t go into the Beyond properly as it would burn us up because we weren’t pure celestial, but…Uriel had lived in the Beyond, and he was definitely not pure celestial. Unless the celestials lied about whether they could be possessed or not.
Fuck.
Okay, think.
If I didn’t go forward, I’d have to go back into the darkness and be trapped there. There was no guarantee that I’d find my way out of the portal. If I went back, then I’d be leaving without answers. Time was ticking by too fast. What if Cassius had met the same fate as Uriel when he’d demanded answers?
No, I had to go forward.
And what if you burn up and die?
You have to try.
The thought pierced through everything else.
Just do it.
I stepped through the door quickly. No fire raced over my skin. No power cut me down. Nothing. Relief flooded me. Thank fuck. Right, so I was in another corridor, wider than the last, and there was an intersection up ahead. The lights flickered, giving the place a broken, creepy vibe, and silence reigned.
Where was everyone?
Only one way to find out. I set off, taking a left then a right, past signs written in a language I couldn’t understand, the written version of Enochian probably. Light spilled out from what looked like an elevator. Yeah, not going in there with the power on the fritz.
