Page 48 of When Monsters Fight
There was only one Shem, and he was gone. “I’ll have some food sent up for you.”
He made a noncommittal sound, and I forced myself to walk away. I couldn’t get tangled up in his emotional turmoil. My heart was bruised and tired, and Gabriel understood that. He didn’t push. He didn’t ask for anything.Gabriel was the calm in the eye of the storm, and that’s where I needed to stay for now.
I joined the others below deck to find Jilyana passing around bowls of soup. Soup and stew were the staples of our journey so far. Filling and easy to prepare.
“No Kabiel?” Gabriel asked as I took the vacant spot beside him at the table.
“No. But he’ll let us know if he needs relieving.”
I took the bowl Jilyana offered, aware of Gabriel’s hot, probing gaze on the side of my face.
He didn’t push me for more information, though. Although I was sure he’d ask me what had been said later.
Nothing got past Gabriel, not when it came to me, and there was comfort in that. Comfort in not always having to find the words. In having someone who simply felt what you did.
What would this have felt like with the bond in place? What kind of connection would we have had if we’d opened ourselves to it?
Why did it even matter?
“Eat up,” Gabriel said. “I’ll take some food up to Kabiel.”
He filled a bowl and clomped up the steps.
“It’s different here,” Yomiel said. “The devolution is slower.”
“It’s because we’re close to Rue,” Asbeel said. “Rue, the relics, and the residual power.”
“We’re close now, aren’t we?” Jilyana said. “I felt something today. A prickle of awareness.”
She’d finally sensed it too. “Yes. We’re close. I think late tonight or early tomorrow.”
“Then we should be ready to set down anchor,” Kokabel said.
“And feed blood to the waves,” Matarel added. “The relicwill be far below us. We must hope we can convince a Gehennan to aid us.”
“To think that there’s a whole world down there,” Jilyana said. “A world where the inhabitants breathe water.”
It was a fantastical thought, but then I was sure the humans of my world would have said the same thing if someone told them that celestials existed and that we were about to be invaded by monsters. Anything was fantastical until it happened, and then…then it quickly become the norm. Mundane. Life.
I drank my soup, barely tasting it as nerves spawned in my belly.
We’d been supremely lucky so far. With Thanatos, the village of Gehennans in the sixth circle, and Prometheus and Lorcan’s help, we’d gotten this far—so close to the relic that I could almost see it in my mind’s eye. So close that I could almost feel the weight of it in my hands.
So close…
But everything could be thwarted if the Gehennans of this realm refused to help us.
And that…that scared the shit out of me.
Chapter 25
GABRIEL
Kabiel’s wings flex as I approach, a clear protective sign, which means that whatever was said between him and Rue is enough to put him on the defensive.
I hold out the bowl. “You should eat.”
“Set it to one side and say what you came to say.”
