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Now the moment had arrived, nerves gripped me. Here we all were—a disgraced angel, a supernatural hunter, an evil warlock turned good, and a wizard, standing at the edge of a cliff ready to dive into the Hellmouth.
Ronin had a hold of my hand and gave me a firm squeeze of reassurance. “What was it you said to me? ‘It’s only a little jump’?”
I flipped him off with my middle finger. “A lot has happened since then. I’m not so angel powered anymore.”
“Suddenly it’s quite daunting, isn’t it?” he said, wiggling his eyebrows up and down.
I gave him a playful shove in the shoulder. “Shut up. Let’s just get this over with already.” I bent down and grabbed a handful of loose stones from the dusty floor. When I stood back up and saw Ronin’s questioning stare, I said, “We need to break the surface of the water. Otherwise it’ll be like hitting concrete unless we dive properly.”
“I get that,” he said. “But those stones are going to hit the speed and get through the Hellmouth. Don’t you think being showered in stones is a bit of a warning to them down there that someone is coming?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “The thought of hitting demons on the head with stones makes me want to find every last one and throw them all in.”
He grinned at me and then looked to his right, where Lucia and Caesar were stood holding hands. “You guys ready?”
Lucia nodded.
Caesar gulped, then whispered, “Yes.”
“Great,” I said, taking a deep breath. “On the count of three. One. Two...” I threw the stones into the river “...Three.”
We all stepped off the cliff at the same time. The sudden rush of falling through the air brought back vivid memories of when I’d fallen from Heaven. My instincts to release my wings and stop my tumbling descent became almost too much to bear. I dared to look down and saw the stones had hit the water already, ripples splaying out over the otherwise peaceful surface.
As the dark green water rushed closer and closer, I closed my eyes and squeezed Ronin’s hand with everything I had. We hit the water. I couldn’t help but gasp as the shock of its icy depths hit my body. Doing this at night definitely wasn’t the cleverest idea.
Completely submerged in the cold river, my downward travel slowed almost instantly. When nothing happened, I began to wonder if we’d not reached the required depth. My lungs started burning, screaming for oxygen. I opened my eyes but could see nothing, not even the end of my nose. If it wasn’t for the feel of Ronin’s large hand still wrapped around mine, panic would have consumed me in an instant.
Then I felt it. A slight pull. Then a strong tug. All of a sudden, we were hurtling down through the bitterly cold waters at a frightening speed. I couldn’t help it. I opened my mouth to scream but all that happened was I sucked in a lungful of water. My chest felt like it wanted to explode. My lungs were still desperate for oxygen, my heart raced at an insane speed. I wanted to take in a breath but all there was around me was water.
“Calm down, Makeysha. You’re going to be fine.”
Ronin’s voice echoed around my mind. Instantly, my limbs stopped moving and my soul calmed to a quiet serenity. The worry of slowly turning human was beginning to affect me in more ways than I wanted to admit. How was I going to survive the deepest parts of Hell if I couldn’t even handle being underwater for a minute?
A rod of fear struck my heart. “Ronin, we didn’t sort out our aura’s being accepted into the Hellmouth! We’re going to die.”
“No, we’re not. Have some faith. Mind over matter.”
“This isn’t mind over matter, it’s the laws of magic!”
“Makeysha, if you believe we’ll be fine, then we’ll be fine. Trust me.”
Trust me. Trust me. How could will overcome the basic rules of dark magic? Wanda had told us herself that she wasn’t sure she could get us through the Hellmouth. Now, here we were, throwing all caution to the wind and leaping to our deaths, hoping it would work on nothing short of prayers.
We fell out of the water like sliding down a ride at a water park. I’d never been so grateful to hit a hard floor. I coughed and spluttered as I emptied my lungs of all the water I’d involuntarily swallowed. Opening my eyes, I looked around me as I took in breath after breath of sweet, fresh air. The bottom of the river was the ceiling, its murky waters shimmering above us. It seemed like we were in some sort of cave.
“You ok?” Ronin said, wrapping an arm around me.
I looked at him, never more thankful to have him by my side. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I don’t know what came over me.”
“You don’t need to apologise.” He leaned forwards and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “I’m just glad I’m here for you.”
I looked behind him to see Lucia and Caesar surveying their surroundings, water dripping from their clothes and hair. Caesar took his glasses off and shook them.
The cave we were in couldn’t have been much bigger than a standard living room in a house. There was nothing in here but jagged rocks as walls and a sandy coloured dusty floor.
“Now what?” I said.
“We have to find the door,” Lucia said.
“What door?”
“The door to the Hellmouth. This is like a reception room.”
I stumbled to my feet and snorted. “Some welcoming room this is.” I tripped over a pile of stones and laughed. “So much for hitting demons on the head.”
“It’s the thought that counts,” Ronin replied.
Caesar and Lucia started feeling the rough walls with their hands, looking for this mysterious door. Minutes ticked by. Feeling Ronin’s skin against mine as we waited for our aides to find the door started to consume my thoughts.
I started stroking my hand up and down his arm. When he gazed at me with those amber eyes of his, desire started to pool deep inside me. The longer we looked at each other, the greater our yearning became. Before I knew it, both of his arms were around me, pressing me against him. Then his mouth was on mine, claiming me, teasing me, promising me delectable pleasures I so deeply wanted.
“Found it!” Caesar yelled.
The wizard’s voice broke through our connection like a knife through hot butter. When a rush of hot, stale air whirled around us, I realised this was it; the first test of our faith. We would either burn up and die, or we would survive and go on with our quest.
A narrow doorway had opened up in the walls, wide enough, just, for each of us one at a time.
“I suggest,” Lucia said. “That one of us goes first, followed by one of you, then the other one of us, followed by the other one of you. To help disguise your auras.”
I nodded. “Good idea.”
“Ladies first,” Caesar said.
“Age before beauty,” Lucia quipped back.
I raised my eyebrows, wondering what was going on. Up until the last couple of hours, she’d been nothing but a silent servant, only answering questions when spoken to. Now she was offering ideas and responding with witty remarks. Was whatever I did to her wearing off?
Caesar grinned at her and positioned himself at the open doorway. “Who’s going first?”
“I will,” Ronin said, boldly stepping forwards. He kissed the back of my hand and said, “Remember—we will be fine.”
“Says the guy who thought it was all a load of nonsense.”
“You believed in it so much you convinced me. Come on, beautiful. Don’t let me down now.”
My heart swelled when he called me beautiful. Cheesy I know, but that simple name/compliment made me feel all warm and cosy inside.
“I won’t,” I said.
Ronin stood behind Caesar. Lucia took her place behind Ronin and then held her hand out for me. I grasped hold of her small hand. The second I touched her warm skin, my world changed. Everything around me was ripped away, leaving me stood in the middle of a tornado of power. Panic swarmed me. I stared straight ahead, fixed on one point, desperate to see something of stability outside of the moving reality around me.
Just as I debated stepping into the whirlwind, everything stopped moving. A large grey room surrounded me, but I was alone. As I glanced around, I realised this was more than a room. This was like being inside a cathedral. Huge, vaulted ceilings loomed above me with thick towering stone pillars supporting the roof. A grey stone flag floor beneath my feet shone with layers of polish.
Then I realised there were no seats, no windows, and no doors. It was nothing but an empty shell of some kind of building.
“Makeysha.”
A female voice, laced with authority, had me spinning around on my heels to see where it had come from. I did a full three-sixty, seeing nothing, but when I returned to my original position, three young women stared back at me.
I jumped back in surprise. “Oh!”
“Do not be alarmed, child,” said the woman on the far left. Her white hair seemed to glow as she spoke.
These women were all identical, right down to their sapphire blue eye colour, except for their hair. One had white hair, another had black hair, and the third had grey hair. All of them were dressed in forest green tunics, cinched around the middle with a simple brown leather plaited belt. Their feet were bare.
“What is...where am I?” I said.
“We are The Fates,” said the woman in the middle, with the grey hair. “We felt we needed to speak with you, Makeysha. Don’t worry. No one knows you are here. Time has frozen for your friends whilst we meet.”
“I am Aurora,” said the white haired one. “These are my sisters, Freya, and Selene.”
I offered a small smile but felt way out of my depth. Their power oozed into the air around them. It flowed from them like an aura for a human. I’d never been around such supremacy—even God didn’t emanate power like this.
“You may have noticed how things have seemed to be going rather perfectly for you,” Freya said, her grey hair bouncing around her shoulders as she spoke. “This is not coincidental. It is our doing.”
“We believe the Universe needs righting,” said Selene. Her black hair glimmered as she talked, reminding me of a raven in flight and how its feathers gleam when the sun shone down on it. “And we believe you are the one to do it.”
My mouth dropped open. “Wait, what?”
“This is a lot to take in. We appreciate that,” said Aurora. “But we cannot continue to allow God to hide, Lucifer to destroy, and everything in between to die. We allowed for Lucifer’s creatures. We even wrote them into the circle of life. They have helped establish a balance, surprisingly.”
“But,” continued Freya. “We cannot allow for either God or Lucifer to attain their aim of ascension. Not only are they not worthy, they do not possess the depth of character for such responsibility.”
“Given your tenacity and belief in yourself,” said Selene. “We all agreed that you would be the ideal candidate to aid us in our task.”
“But...but if you have the power to bring me here, weave Lucifer’s creatures into the fabric of nature, put things in place...why can’t you fix all of this yourselves?” I asked, totally confused.
“There is only so much meddling we can do,” Aurora said. “And whatever we do interfere with has to be put into place centuries before it happens. There is only so much we can do. Sometimes the finer details slip through the net, and that’s where you come in.”
“So you knew all of this was going to happen and you did nothing to stop it?”
“We couldn’t. We don’t just sit around here with idle hands, Makeysha,” Freya said. “We have constant work to do for the present and the future. To then take the past into account as well makes everything a lot more difficult. One tiny change two hundred years ago can wipe out an entire family or change the beliefs of a whole culture. It is not something to be taken lightly.”
“By the time we realised what had happened in Heaven,” said Selene. “The daggers were already free. We knew Lucifer’s plans. We all agreed instead of affecting the past, we would affect the future. So we put things into motion to bring you and your soulmate into the equation.”
“But,” said Aurora. “There are glitches, such as your need to complete the bond before he dies. He is strong, but even his human shell has its limits. We have given you as much time as we possibly can.”
Irritation sparked inside me. I couldn’t help the flow of words that spilled from my mouth next. “Basically, what you’re telling me is you’ve done half a job and you want me to pick up the pieces you couldn’t be bothered to think about. In the meantime, you’ve endangered my life, my soulmates life, and the lives of millions of people because if we fail, Lucifer will kill them all.”
“We have not done half a job,” Freya said. Her blue eyes flashed with intense anger. “We have broken rules, Universal laws, to get this far. The least you could do is respect our position.”
“I do understand that you have things going on I don’t understand, but whilst you’ve tried to make things easy, you’ve also made them almost impossible at the same time. We need to be immortal to survive whatever is in Hell but if we do that, we won’t even get to the first dagger because we’ll be too busy humping each other’s brains out. You really have created quite a conundrum.”
The three sisters all exchanged a look. To me, it looked blank, but I’m sure something was being spoken between them.
“We cannot alter what it takes for soulmates to be completely bonded,” Selene said. “There has to be a physical coupling for the two souls to fully reconnect.” She held her hands out in front of her. In the blink of an eye, a uniquely decorated stone font appeared in between us. “This is where souls are created.” She waved her hand over the empty space inside it. “When they are born, they are a physical entity.”
Silence fell over us as she worked her hands back and forth over the font. A bright blue light started to glow from inside it, spilling out over the thick edge. Her sisters then joined her, all of them moving their hands over it. Then Freya reached in and pulled out a bright blue pulsing ball of energy. It was huge, at least the size of a car wheel.
Selene took hold of one side and Aurora the other. Gently, they started pulling. Just when I thought nothing was going to happen, a tear appeared at the top of the ball. As they continued straining against it, the tear grew into a rip, then into a total fracture of the once perfect ball.
When the last part was severed, a wave of energy burst through the air, knocking me off my feet. The sisters hadn’t moved, except for their hair being slightly disturbed as if they were in a gentle breeze. I jumped back to my feet, watching in awe as two halves of a soul sat on the sister’s hands.
“Touch it,” said Selene, offering me her half.
I gingerly reached forwards, not sure if I would be blasted with some sort of electrical shock or hit with energy I couldn’t withstand. When my fingertips touched the soul, I was surprised to find it hard. Its edges were blurred, almost fuzzy, as it vibrated with energy.
“Now watch,” said Aurora.
The two sisters approached one another, step by step, holding their halves with both hands. When they were toe to toe, they pushed the two halves against one another, but no matter how hard they tried, the two pieces would not glue themselves back together despite them fitting perfectly, as they had only moments ago.
“What’s happening?” I asked.
“Whilst the two halves fit together physically, they no longer have a spiritual connection. They need a living existence to develop that,” Freya said.
“And when there is a spiritual connection,” Selene continued. “There needs to be a physical connection to complete it—more than just a mere touch or a deep kiss. The connection needs to be strong enough as if it’s us piecing them back together.”
“Whilst I appreciate you showing me this, it doesn’t help me at all. The fact remains that once we complete the soulmate bond, we’re going to be at it until I end up pregnant. From what I understand anyway. Am I wrong?”
“No, you’re not,” Aurora said. “Soulmates are a very special thing. Once we cast two halves out into the world, we don’t interfere with them. We don’t make it so that every soul finds their other half. If we did, there would be nothing unique about them because everyone would experience it. When two souls reconnect, that’s something amazing, it’s powerful, and with power comes desire. A product of that desire is the birth of something new.”
“A child,” I said.
“It’s evolution,” Freya said. “The human race cannot afford to stand still. Offspring of soulmates are merely a leap forwards in the evolutionary chain. Each child will be different and have its own powers. When they reproduce, be it with a regular human or a creature, something else will be born—something different. And so it goes on.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Creatures...and humans can breed?”
“Yes,” the sisters said, all in chorus.
“And not all soulmates are angels?”
“No,” they all said.
“But so far,” Selene said. “No human has found their soulmate, nor have they reproduced with anything but humans. Lucifer sees humans as beneath him and as a result, the creatures have only, naturally, reproduced with each other, despite his forbidding it. It’s only natural to want your children to be the best they can be. Breeding with a species below you isn’t forwarding your kind.”
My frustration was growing. I still didn’t understand, despite the fantastic show of watching a soul being created, what exactly I was doing here. “Why have you brought me here? I don’t understand.”
“We wanted to make you aware that you are on a higher path here. We have plans for you. Things will work out and you will be ok,” Aurora said. “However, that doesn’t mean you can blindly go into battle thinking we’re going to save you if you die. It doesn’t work like that.”
“Don’t think you’re invincible,” Freya said. “Not unless you complete the soulmate bond.”
“That isn’t going to happen,” I said. “I’m literally about to walk into Hell.”
Selene cleared her throat. “We could...alter what happened earlier. We could put you back to that moment in time so you can complete your bond. Nothing would be altered by doing that.”
“Yes, it would,” I said, wanting to scream in annoyance. “Because if we do that, we won’t be in the Hellmouth, we’ll be in bed. Time travel ideas make me very nervous.”
“It’s not time travel,” Aurora said. “It’s a correction of course. We need you to survive these tasks. As much as you want to believe in yourself, that alone is not going to save you. We can...ensure that once your bond is complete, you are able to leave the bedroom to carry on with your duties.”
“And how are you going to do that?” I said, frowning.
Freya pointed to the half-soul in Aurora’s hands. “By ensuring that your reconnection produces something immediately.”
I stumbled back in shock. “You mean...pregnant. I’m going to be pregnant after my first time with my soulmate and going into the realms of Hell?”
“It’s a lot to take in,” Selene said. “We know that. But the power from your unborn child will help you in retrieving the daggers.”
Nervous laughter erupted out of me. “This is insane. And how on earth can a foetus help me when it won’t even be fertilised at that point?”
Aurora offered me a small smile. “When female angels are impregnated, they progress through the stages of pregnancy three times faster than that of a human female.”
“Of course they do,” I said, shaking my head. “And what if I say no?”
“We cannot force you,” Freya said. “But we also cannot save you if you find yourself in a tricky predicament. We’re offering a level of protection here for you. One that solves all the major problems you are currently facing.”
“But it doesn’t, does it? Because if I manage to survive and get the daggers, I have to deal with Wanda and her army of cross-breeds that want to prove a point to Lucifer. And you want me to do that whilst I’m knocked up?”
“I don’t want to give away any spoilers,” Selene said, giving me a sly smile. “But Lucia will deal with Wanda.”
“So the option is yours,” Aurora said. “You have the opportunity to go back a couple of hours, seal your bond, be with child, and continue onwards fearless and immortal. Or, you can carry on as you are, face almost certain death, but trust the notion that belief in yourself will be enough to carry you through three realms of Hell and fighting carnal urges to mate with and save the life of your soulmate.”
I didn’t know what to say, do, or think. I felt like I needed a panel of people around me to bounce all of this crazy off of, just to give me some sense of direction. Whilst their offer seemed like the best deal all round, I really didn’t want to be getting pregnant the first time I slept with my soulmate. Meant to be or not, we still needed time to get to know each other. And the fact that this baby would be appearing in three months time really did not sit well with me.
“My dear,” Freya said, approaching me slowly. “Let me show you something.”
She held her hands out and motioned for me to give her mine. I hesitated. Was she going to manipulate my decision one way or the other?
“Do not be afraid,” she said. “I am the middle ground of my sisters. Hence my grey hair. I see things from both sides.”
I quickly glanced at Aurora and Selene. They were stood either side of the font, holding the two halves of the soul in their hands, watching me intently. I looked back at Freya and decided to hell with it. They weren’t trying to hurt me.
Giving Freya my hands, I gasped when her searing hot skin touched mine. She pushed my hands together then clasped her hands over mine like a case. The heat from her touch intensified. My skin burned, heat propelled up my arms, through my shoulders, and then poured down through the rest of my body. Sweat broke out on my forehead. Yet, I felt no pain. Just intense heat.
Seconds later, my mind flooded with images. Images of death and destruction, Lucifer and his horrid demons flooding the earth like a plague, wiping out every living thing they set eyes upon. Everything was ablaze, the skies as far as the eye could see were orange with fire, tinges of grey swirling in the background from smoke. Buildings were destroyed, people scattered into pieces, animals tortured and crying their last woes of death.
Twisted metal from houses, cars, shops, were covered in blood. Limbs, heads, glass, children’s toys covered in dirt—it was a scene of utter chaos and devastation. Then it flickered, rushing forwards in time. The warped scenery still remained, but in the middle of it stood Lucifer with his hands around God’s neck, forcing him to take in the destruction of his beloved earth and humans.
Lucifer looked different. Every muscle on him throbbed with power. His eyes burned red. Everything about him shouted raw power. God saw the wreckage around him and cried out in anguish. Tears fell from his golden eyes, but they were tears of blood, leaving streaks of red pain down his pale face. Lucifer put a silver blade to God’s throat, whispered something into his ear, and then with one swift, quick cut...
“No!” I screamed, wrenching my hands from Freya’s. “Why are you showing me this? I don’t want to see that.”
I shook my head as if it would dispel the horrific things I’d just seen from my mind. It was then that I realised tears were streaming down my face.
“I am sorry if this shocked you,” Freya said. “But this is what will come to be if Lucifer achieves his aim.”
“But he won’t. I have four of the daggers already. I don’t have to go into Hell.”
“Yes, you do. You know as well as we do that if he has three, he will stop at nothing to retrieve the remaining four. If, however, he loses all seven, and the support of the First Creations, then that will put him in quite a predicament.”
“Why does he need the First Creations anyway? He has the means to collect the daggers himself.”
“Because the First Creations are his link to his followers. Sure, he has his demons, but that’s not the same—he created them. He needs the support of real living beings, generations of families, to back him and follow him.”
I remembered my conversation with God. “No believers, no power,” I said. “So will his power be waning already since I have four of the First Creations on side?”
Freya nodded. “Yes. He’s worried, Makeysha. He’s frightened.”
“That makes him desperate,” I said. “And a desperate archangel is a dangerous one.”
“But one that you can handle. If—”
“I’m immortal. I get it.” I sighed and shook my head. “Fine. I’ll do it. Send me back.”
Freya raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yes. But do it now before I change my mind.”
Selene lifted her half of the soul into the air and gave me a smile. Then, all three sisters clicked their fingers in unison, and my world changed again.