Page 6 of When Monsters Fight
She nodded. “Yes, this place has a strange energy to it. I’ve felt it ever since I got here.” She glanced at the altar. “It’s strongest here. In this area.”
“You think the doorway is here?” I stared at the area around the altar, half expecting a door to materialize.
“I don’t know…I think…I think the relic piece inside me is sensing something. The feeling might be amplified if I had the other pieces. I assume you know where they are, otherwise, you wouldn’t be trying to find the fourth piece.”
The plan had been to find the doorway then get the other two relic pieces, but if the doorway couldn’t be found without them, then… “I’ll ask Sarq to get them. Meanwhile, I need your help with something else.”
“Anything, name it.”
“I need you to help me evolve Kabiel and some of the devolved.”
Chapter 4
BEE
The church is connected to a small cottage area with a kitchen and a dining room. I guess someone lived and worked here once. It’s a tranquil looking space, which is why we chose this spot for our meeting, but right now, it’s filled with sparks of anxiety and fear as voices rise to be heard above one another, everyone speaking at once.
We anticipated this reaction to our news and are ready for it.
“Enough!” Mira snaps. “Listen to me. Hey!”
A child begins to cry, and Sissy steps forward. “Stop it! Stop it, all of you. You’re frightening the children.”
But it isn’t just the children that are frightened, and that’s the problem. It was one thing running from the mall to come here because everyone knew this was the safe zone. They knew we needed one big trip to get to a new home, but now…now we’re telling them that this home is no longer safe. They’ve barely gotten their feet under the table, and we’re yanking them away, telling them that we have another journey ahead of us. A three-day trek through monster-infested territory with no known safe zones except the possibility of sanctuary at the end.
A possibility only, because we aren’t sure whether base zero will even let us in, let alone house all of us.
We are offering these people a promise we may not be able to keep, and they know it.
“What if this base turns us away?” Henry asks. “What if they don’t have room for more people? Resources are scarce.”
I’m ready for this question. “We’ll be bringing watchers with us, which means protection, and scouts to get more resources. We’ll also be bringing news from Gabriel and hope for an end to all of this.”
“Ifwe make it,” Sissy says. “It’s about three days on foot. You said we don’t even know if there’ll be places to rest safely overnight.”
“The watchers will find us places,” Mira says with confidence.
“You can’t be sure of that,” Patrick says. His eyes are dull and his tone flat. “You can’t be certain of anything going forward though, can you? Our hope…Shem…He’s gone.”
“Rue will find a way to fix it,” Mira says. “She can still find the relic pieces and?—”
“And what?” Patrick’s tone is now filled with challenge. “What can she do, huh?”
This is the moment when the truth should be revealed about Rue’s ability, Lucifer, all of it. But we’ve agreed on caution. On keeping this information to ourselves in case the Dominion get their hands on us. We can’t risk them finding out our plans, but damn, it’s difficult to stay quiet.
“She’ll do her best,” Mira says firmly, hands on hips.
“You want us to simply hope?” Sissy argues.
“Why not?” Mira retorts. “It’s gotten us this far.”
Everyone starts to speak at once again, and Mira’s shoulders droop. She’s exhausted, and I’m not surprised.
I’m done with this. They need to be given their options. Bluntly. “Enough! These are the facts, and you can do with them what you want.” Silence greets me, so I continue. “Rue is going after the fourth piece of the relic.Thatis non-negotiable. To do that, she has to open a doorway, a convergence that’s housed somewhere in this church. Once she does that, then this place may not be safe any longer. We don’t know for sure, but it seems logical based on the information that we have. So you can either come with us to a place we know is secure and hope they let us in, or you can stay here alone and hope that it remains inaccessible to monsters. The choice is yours. No one will force you to leave here if you don’t want to.”
Silence greets me once more, but this time it’s heavy with the weight of responsibility. Responsibility that I’ve handed back to everyone by giving them this choice. The choice of what to do with their lives.
“We leave at dawn. If you want to come, then pack your things and meet me by the doors when the sun comes up.”
