Page 11 of When Monsters Fight
“Do you think I should tell everyone…everything?”
Bee sighed. “No.” She walked over to the boarded-up window and parked her ass on the sill. “I admit, when we found Patrick, I thought…I wondered, but, Rue, this isn’t about one person’s life. This is about everyone. About the whole fucking world. If we do tell them and the Dominion get hold of us, then they’ll find out about Lucifer and the doorway and the fragments. Everything. We can’t take that risk, and Patrick…Even if we’d told him, he’d still have been faced with the same two options. Patrick was done. We can sit here speculating and pointing fingers and wondering what if, but it won’t change the fact that he’s gone, and we still have a bunch of people out there waiting for us to save them.” She walked over and took my hands in hers. “We can protect them from the monsters out there, but only they can fight the monsters within.”
Bee and her wisdom would forever be my anchor. “I love you, you know that?”
“Yeah.” She grabbed my face and planted a sloppy kiss on my forehead. “Love you too. Now let’s get out there and get this show on the road. Kabiel and his troop arrived a few minutes ago, and everyone’s a little freaked out.”
I stared at her in shock. “Why didn’t you lead with that?”
She shrugged. “You needed a moment. Now you’ve had it.”
I grabbed the relic bundle and followed her out of the door. Yep, Bee always seemed to know what I needed to hear, and I loved her for it.
The naveof the church was lined not only with pews but with people staring at Kabiel and his team. My injection of celestial power had removed most of their spider-like appearance, but compared to the watchers that these people were used to, Kabiel and his team were still monstrous.
They stood in a lose arrowhead formation with Kabiel at the tip, wings tucked tightly against his back. His two spider legs were also contracted close to his body so that all his weight was on his feet. Bare feet, larger than normal and covered in thick crimson skin.
If they minded being the center of attention, they didn’t show it. In fact, they all looked perfectly at ease eating up space with their larger-than-life frames, deep in conversation with Gabriel, Erelim, and Bastian.
I approached the group, and they broke off their chat and turned to me.
“Kabiel, I was going to come find you once we’d located the door.”
“Now you don’t need to,” he said with a tense smile. “We can leave as soon as you open it.”
He was worried that the effects of the Morningstar power would wear off, and I wasn’t about to question him. He understood his body better than me.
“I was just telling Kabiel about our most recent loss,” Gabriel said smoothly.
“I’m very sorry to hear what happened,” Kabiel said. “But we cannot hold off much longer.”
“I know. We’re going to find the door now, but we can’t activate it or pass through it until everyone has left, just in case doing so drops the wards on this place.”
Bastian sucked in a breath. “It’s all happening so fast now.”
Erelim placed a hand on Bastian’s shoulder. “The quicker they leave, the quicker they can return. Time will move fast once we’re on the road.”
But Bastian’s gaze, locked with mine, filled with shadows of fear and doubt. There was nothing more I could say or do to assuage his reservations, and if I tried, I was afraid that I might become infected by his doubts.
No. I needed to act now.
I searched the crowd for Jilyana and found her standing closest to the altar. “I have the relic pieces.” I passed her the bundle.
She hugged it to her chest and closed her eyes. “Yes, I feel the power.”
“Can you use it to find the convergence?”
She walked the short distance to the altar and fixed me with a triumphant look. “I knew there was a reason I was drawn to this spot. The door is here. Right here, and now I can feel how strong the energy is.” She reached out with trembling fingers to touch the altar. “We have to move this somehow.”
Bastian joined her at the altar and began to examine it.
“There’s a seam here, but that doesn’t mean it can be moved.” He gave the structure a shove. “It also doesn’t mean that it can’t.” He ran his fingers over the surface of the altar, then along the edge of the counter and beneath. “Ah…I think…”
Click.
A soft rumbling sound filled the air, and the altar slid back to reveal a three-by-three aperture and a set of steps.
“Yes!” Jilyana hugged the relic bundle to her chest. “It’s down there.” She slipped down the steps before I could stop her.
