Page 48 of Falling for Famine
I crawled out of bed, quickly redressed, and then grabbed the phone on the nearby dresser. I wanted to get my daily call into Felix before we talked world-ending stuff. I didn’t want to be emotional or forget to call. Felix might’ve told me not to keep calling every day, but he was dreaming if he believed I’d listen to him.
My colorful cuties were bopping around my head as I made my way down the hall and dialed Felix’s number. But it wasn’t his voice that picked up.
“Hello, Nomi. Don’t speak or I’ll make sure your lovely old man pays for it,” the man who answered said, leaving me to suck in a surprised breath.
My heart picked up and my pulse was so loud I nearly missed his next bit of instruction.
“You’re going to see a symbol appear on the wall ahead of you. It’ll glow. When it does, you’ll drop the phone, touch it, and it’ll bring you directly to me. If you don’t, I’ll kill him. Don’t test me, Nomi. I don’t have the time or patience for it, and a mortal like him is nothing for me to kill.”
A cry got lodged in my throat and tears burned pathways down my cheeks. I still didn’t speak. I couldn’t. Felix was in danger, and the voice on the phone sounded the same way my father always did just before he’d beat me. It brought all those old, horrible memories careening to the surface, locking up my limbs in terror.
Like he said, a glowing symbol appeared on the wall in front of me. Without waiting, I dropped the phone and touched my hand to it. My stomach dropped out, and it felt as if I’d fallen straight through the floor. But then I was standing in our bakery café.
Felix was already in front of me, his expression dark and angry. His much-smaller frame stood as if he were six-feet tall and covered in muscle. His protective aura radiated all around him. It was the same aura he wore the day my father chased me down the street, screaming profanities and threatening to kill me once he got his hands on me.
Felix had always been my hero, and that was what worried me the most as he faced down the tall man whose violent red stare didn’t leave any room for misinterpretation. He’d kill whoever and whatever he had to in order to get what he wanted.
“You demonic bastard,” Felix growled, looking over his shoulder at me. “You shouldn’t have come, baby girl. You should’ve stayed where it was safe. I don’t know what kind of monster he is, but he wants you.”
I hugged him, then gave my favorite human in the whole wide world a kiss. “There are letters for you in my room under the bed. Live for a very long time, Old Man. I mean it,” I growled at him, tears rushing down my face. “If you don’t, I’ll find a way to come back and haunt you.”
I hadn’t once seen Felix cry when Mary died. I didn’t think he could, but he was now. The sadness was bleeding out of him like a dam had been broken. He didn’t hide one bit of his grief as I tried to move away.
“No, baby girl,” he whispered, grabbing my wrist. “Let this old man protect you one last time.”
My lip quivered as I shook my head, but it was too late. He’d rushed around me, grabbed his rolling pin, and gave a loud war cry as he dashed for our enemy. It wasn’t even a good weapon against a human, but Felix didn’t care. He’d fight with every last breath.
He was the hero I always wished I could be for him.
I rushed after him, but I was too late. The tall man with dark hair and piercing red eyes thrust his black wing out. It had feathers like a bird, but the way they acted, it landed like a weapon. It struck Felix right in the chest and sent him flying back. His body hit the ground, and I screamed.
When I tried to go to him, I was intercepted by our attacker. I glared up at him, curled a fist, and slammed it right into his chest. It didn’t do a lick of damage. His smile was all devil as he grabbed my arm and yanked hard. I hit his chest, and my blood went ice cold.
“I like the fight in you. You’ll make a good bride,” he whispered, then his hand was around my throat.
It felt as though he’d ripped out my insides and dragged them right through the floor. Pain rocketed through every limb and seared me from the inside out.
I fell through the floor like before, tumbling weightlessly, but then I was left standing in a space surrounded by the shadows that crowded me the first time I was attacked. I was on a piece of earth encircled by high walls of fire and slow-moving lava. Stairs ascended to a throne, and my dark-haired captor was behind me, leaning in.
“Welcome to my fiery kingdom, Nomi. You can call me Lucifer.”
Chapter Nineteen
Limos
“Our Counter Souls both died and gained our powers afterward.”
Anger like I’d never thought myself capable of fractured my ability to think before acting. After hearing about what occurred with Thanatos and Zelus’s mortals, it became painfully clear what they were insinuating about mine. They didn’t need to say the words or further explain. I understood perfectly what they were suggesting I do.
Kill Nomi and bring her soul to Death’s realm to wait out these supposed powers.
But under what certainty? The fact that it happened with theirs didn’t guarantee mine would follow the same path. Did they truly think I’d consider it? Neither of them would’ve killed theirs either. Their hands were forced. It was on pure luck they hadn’t lost them.
I wouldn’t risk my Nomi over a possibility. I’d fight the world instead. If they refused to help, I wouldn’t waste my breath on them. I’d find Ares. She wouldn’t hesitate to protect my mortal alongside hers, even if it was against an army of angels and demons or a Fallen Brother.
But when Nomi’s pale blue eyes rose, seeing what few did, she didn’t hesitate to whisper the words I needed most to hear. She didn’t question or refuse me. My little wisp gave me everything I needed.
How could they ever think I’d do anything but keep her? I’d find a way, and it wouldn’t be by taking the life she worked so hard to keep.
