Page 42 of Heart Shaped Wreckage
“Why, death, dear. Good luck.” She curled up against Heath’s side and placed her face against his shoulder.
I let the stones glow, and a portal opened up.
I stepped through.
I had no choice.
18
LANDON
Why in the world did the stones bring me to this place?
As I stepped through the portal, I found myself in the middle of stone ruins and a full moon in the sky above. The stones glowed brightly as they cast shadows upon the large and broken grey stones. What was this place?
I held the stones high so their light would be cast as widely as I could. It was foolish, but I couldn’t see shit.
Dandelion? I had a familiar, and I could barely remember anything about him. He was a crow, and that was it. Did he miss me? He had too, didn’t he? A witch and their familiar were closely bound, but I couldn’t hear his voice. I just knew he was, and he was mine. We must have loved each other.
I had to concentrate. I couldn’t worry about what may or may not have been. I had a job to do, or Heath was going to die. I had to hurry, but I was so scared.
How did any of this even begin? It felt like a long time ago, but I knew it had only been a few days. We were trying to see if anyone knew who I was. We had failed it that arena, but somehow wound up in a fucking Indiana Jones movie with anangel trying to kill us, and now… Now, I was here to face him alone.
Heath, the fallen angel, a being so much more powerful than I, couldn’t defeat him.
No. But my magic had swept him away. I didn’t have to beat him – I just needed to get close enough to pull out a feather.
How was I gonna do that?
If I got close to him – and I was sure he was quite annoyed with me, already, but if I got that close, I would be destroyed if that’s what he chose. He was far more powerful than I had ever dreamed anyone could ever be.
Angels were real. Demons were real. Demons really were fallen angels. Well, maybe not all, but at least some of them. Did I know this before? I guess I assumed they were, at least to some extent. For something to be real, you don’t have to experience it with your own eyes. Someone used to say that to me a long time ago. But I couldn’t remember who – but she felt like a mother. Not my real mother, but motherly and maybe a little scary.
I needed to focus. I had just been standing here, lost in my fear for too long. Heath was depending on me. I wouldn’t, I couldn’t fail him.
Ancient, crumbling stone steps stood in front of me. I glanced around at the fallen walls to either side of me. Vines had taken root and run up and over the structures. They must have been magnificent in their day, whenever that was, wherever this was.
I tried the first step, and it didn’t fall apart underneath my feet. I guess I had to go up? Up was closer to heaven and angels, right? If I were smart, I’d run away. But I knew I would not leave Heath. I don’t think I could if I tried. I owed him, but it was much more than that. I had fallen for him, and I had no idea if that was a mistake or not.
It didn’t matter. None of it mattered. At this point, I was here willing to face off with an angel to pluck a feather from his assholiness, and take it back to heal the only person that actually mattered to me. Heathmattered. His demonic nature was just a part of him. But in my heart, maybe not my mind, I knew that he was the most human being I had ever met – no matter if he bled golden ichor or not.
I climbed the stairs and made it to the top without dying – so I considered that a win. The golden light guided me. It didn’t actually tell me where to go – but I could feel it pulling me in the direction I needed, as if I already knew.
Magic was weird. But I was magic. It was a part of my makeup, my very fibers of being. Magic users were either born or taught, and I was pretty sure that magic had always been a part of my life. Maybe I couldn’t remember my past – but it felt true. It was true.
I turned to the right and found myself going underneath an old stone archway and into a ruined building. Large columns stood to the sides of the wide walkway in various states of falling apart. Only one stood proud and strong halfway down. The others looked like jagged teeth.
Shadows danced against the stone walls as I made my way down what was once a corridor. I turned again – this time to the left and found myself in another walkway that was identical to the one I had just left. But these columns stood taller than the others.
It felt like with each passage, I was changing time. The stone walls in this passageway stood upright instead of being broken remnants of what they once were.
What was this place?
I made it to the end and turned right.
Yes, this was getting weirder. A ceiling, walls, and complete columns flanked me on every side. This was not a ruin. This was a temple, and this part of it had survived somehow.
Magic. It was still imbued with magic. Maybe I could turn that into an advantage if I could just figure out a way to tap into it.
