Page 2 of When Monsters Fight
Her visage rippled, and the room around me began to fade. “Something’s happening. I think I’m waking up.”
She gripped my shoulders, the contact sending a shiver of power through me. “The fact that you are here means you are close to a convergence of power. Find it, and you will find a way to me.”
“Convergence of power? What does that mean?”
Her grip on me faded, and so did the room around me, but hopeful, bright eyes remained fixed on me.
“Find me…”
I woke gasping for air, my heart pounding in my throat so hard I thought it might choke me.
“Rue! Rue, you’re okay. It was just a nightmare,” Bastian said.
He put his arm around me, coaxing me to lean against his chest. The contact grounded me, and my errant pulse calmed.
“I’ll get some water,” Bee said, scrambling to her feet across the dimly lit room.
I shook my head and held up my hand to stall her. “No…Wait…I’m fine. Not a nightmare. A revelation.”
“What?” Sarq looked confused.
The yawning chasm of darkness that Shem’s death had left inside me housed a pinprick of light because now we had real hope. “I know where the final piece of the relic is.”
“What?” Bastian asked. “Where?”
“In Gehenna. Guys, we’re going to Hell.”
Chapter 2
If the church housed a doorway to Gehenna but also sat on an overlap of powerlines, which the watchers called a crossing, it would explain why this place was so special. Why it warded off monsters and hid from celestial eyes.
We were so close to finishing this. So close to fixing our world. “Okay, so we find this doorway, but first we need to locate the relic pieces Shem said he hid here.”
“They’re in the basement,” Sarq said. “We have them hidden behind protective runes. I can get them once we know where we’re taking them.”
Good idea. Best to keep them hidden until we needed them.
“We’ll have to tell Jilyana,” Bee said. “She’s housing a relic fragment inside her, remember, and she’ll need to go to Gehenna too.”
“But weonlytell her that the fourth relic is in Gehenna,” Gabriel said quickly. “The fact that Rue can piece it together or that we’re taking the fragments toLucifer must be kept secret until we have the final piece and it’s time to head to Lucifer.”
Bee frowned at me. “You don’t trust her?”
“I want to trust her, Bee, but I need time to be sure. Best to err on the side of caution and only tell her everything when we have to.”
Bee nodded. “Okay. We keep that piece of information between us. But then, how do we convince her that she needs to come with us?”
“I doubt she’ll need convincing,” Sarq said. “If it’s a choice between remaining here with the other watchers or being with Rue…”
He had a good point. “We begin the search for a doorway into Gehenna tomorrow. The place isn’t huge, and it shouldn’t take too long to find it.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Penemue said. “It could be a mere fracture right now. The fact that the other relic pieces are here could be what allowed you to connect to it and to Lucifer. We’ll have to comb the grounds, and we can use Jilyana as a dousing rod. She houses a relic shard, and it’ll be drawn to the convergence.”
“That’s a solid plan,” Sarq said.
“There is something else we must consider, “Gabriel said. “Fractures work both ways.”
It took me a moment to grasp what he was insinuating, and then my stomach dropped. “Our people aren’t safe here.”
