Page 5 of When Monsters Fight
Chapter 3
Iwashed my face and used the herbal concoction that Mira had created to clean my teeth. A new sense of urgency permeated every fiber of my being. Purpose. Direction. Focus. Our goal was so close now that I could taste it and the dangers that stood between us, and it, seemed trivial.
The study had emptied out except for Bastian who was busy folding the blankets and setting them to one side. “Sarq and Gabriel went to speak to Baraqel about base zero and the journey ahead, and Erelim is briefing the reapers. Bee is helping Mira get the humans organized. I doubt they’ll be happy to know they’ve got to leave this place and go back out there.”
“This place might not be safe once we open the convergence. They’ve got to go.”
“I know. Mira and Bee will explain it to them. But…we agreed that we won’t force people to leave if they decide to stay. If they want to stay, then they’ll be staying here without watcher or reaper protection. Either way, we leave at dawn tomorrow.”
Choice…something that had been taken from us for too long. “I don’t want to lose lives, but…people deserve the right to decide how they want to live.”
Bastian bridged the distance between us and cupped my shoulders. “I wish I could stay with you.”
I wanted nothing more than to have him with me, but he was safer here than in Gehenna. There was no doubt in my mind on that, and I needed him safe. Alive. “I’ll be back before you know it, and I’ll find you. I’ll always find you.”
Bastian nodded, but there was darkness in his eyes, and it made my chest tight. But I didn’t want to ask him about it. I didn’t want to probe, because I didn’t want to hear the answers—words that would remind me of his fast-approaching fate. Remind me how little time we had together, and how this…this being apart would eat into that.
Shem was dead.
Bastian was dying.
I couldn’t save them, but I could save our world by freeing Lucifer and maybe…maybe she’d help me find a way to keep Bastian.
I placed my palm on his cheek. “I’m going to speak to Jilyana. You should prepare everyone for the journey to base zero.”
He gently gripped my wrist then turned his head to kiss my palm. “I love you, Rue.”
It sounded like goodbye, and the fog of numbness that had shrouded my heart lifted because I didn’t like his tone. Not one bit.
I pushed up on my toes and crushed my lips to his in a hard, brief kiss. “You get to that base, and you wait for me. No heroics, Bastian. Yes, the people need you to get them to safety, but promise me you won’t die for someone else’sstupidity. Promise me you’ll be waiting for me when I get back.” I squeezed his nape. “Promise me.”
He leaned in and rested his forehead against mine. “I swear it.”
It would have to be enough.
I foundJilyana standing by the altar staring up at the stained-glass windows which were bathed in morning sunlight. The room was a kaleidoscope of color that spilled over worn dark wood floors and bathed the whitewashed walls.
There was a tranquility about this place that calmed the turmoil in my chest for a beat, but then she looked my way with red-rimmed puffy eyes, and her pain echoed inside me.
“I can’t believe that he’s gone,” she said softly. “I only just got him back and?—”
Irritation sharpened my tone. “You got him back?Youdidn’t get anything, Jilyana. He was mine.”
She stared at me in wide-eyed horror. “Oh, no. I didn’t mean it like that. I just…I meant that I only just found him again and…” She sighed in exasperation. “I’m not explaining myself very well.”
I needed her help. I should back off. But the woman inside me who’d lost the man she loved refused to be silenced. “I’m not stupid, Jilyana. I saw the way you looked at him. Maybe you thought that in time you’d be able to win him back.” She blinked sharply, the nuances in her expression telling me that I’d hit the nail on the head. “But you’d have been wasting your time. Shem was mine. You had your chance, and you fucked it up. You broke him, so put your tears away and focuson redemption.”
She tucked her chin in for several beats, making it impossible to read her expression. “You’re right. Maybe I did hope. Maybe I…It doesn’t matter now. He’s gone, and we have to focus on keeping these people safe and maybe finding another way to fix the relic.” She looked up, her gaze soft with regret. “I want to help. That’s all I want now.”
“Good, because there’s been a development. I know where the fourth piece of the relic is, and I need you to help me get it.”
Her eyes lit up. “Where? Where is it?”
“It’s in Gehenna.” I filled her in on my dream, leaving out Lucifer altogether and simply telling her that I’d seen the location. “There’s a doorway to Gehenna somewhere close by. Either in the church or around it somewhere. We need to find it.”
Her brow furrowed. “How do you know that?”
“The knowledge came to me in the dream.” Which wasn’t a lie.
