Horns and Halos, page 27
Draki’s voice came from behind me as he said, “I see you’ve not improved on your tactics, Kasim.”
“Not everyone can seduce someone into making a deal like you.”
Draki laughed and stepped up to my side. “I suppose my charm and beauty are gifts then.”
“Not all of us could be His favorite.”
The look on Draki’s face twisted. “And you see that it didn’t get me much further in life than you.”
“You’ve yourself to blame for that.”
I heard a growl then and quickly swept the streets to see if anyone else was seeing any of this, or worse, hearing it. But it was like we were in a bubble. No one even gave us a passing glance.
“And I see that you still want what others have,” Draki countered angrily.
“What brings you to the faith city?” Kasim inquired in a huff.
“I assure you, it was not my desire to come here. I am merely assisting the young lady,” he informed while gesturing to me.
Kasim and Draki both looked at me. Between the fixed attentions of two devils was not exactly where I wanted to be. I shrunk a bit on the spot before miraculously gaining more confidence. Draki was to protect me and put my best interest first and foremost. I wasn’t in any danger, nothing that I couldn’t get out of anyway.
Pointing to the two of them, I warned, “Don’t drag me into the middle of this. I have better things to do with my time.”
“Why did you come to the faith city?” Kasim asked.
“To find a home,” I admitted, ignoring the short, stifled laugh coming from Draki.
Kasim didn’t look entertained in the slightest. He shook his head with a look in his eyes that I didn’t like. It looked a lot like pity. “You’ve come to the wrong place for that.”
“Why is that?”
“Because home is a place that you humans feel safe at. You’ll find out soon enough that you won’t find that here. There’s a darkness wrapped up in this place.”
I stared at him like I was waiting for him to start cackling at me for being naïve. But he only returned the look with an expression I never expected of a devil. It was almost sympathetic.
Slowly, I realized that he wasn’t lying to me. The more this reality sank in, the more I felt wronged. I felt like I had finally reached my goal only to find that it was built on lies. And the more that this thought filled my mind, the more that I found myself thinking that Draki’s proposal to build my own city was looking better and better. However, I already had a debt that I needed to pay and struggled with delivering in that department. What was I going to do when there would be more added to that price?
“I’ll be the judge of whether or not I call this place home,” I muttered and turned to walk back to the inn. I had enough of the city for one day. I wanted to go back and get lost in work so I didn’t have to think about everything that had been dumped on me.
“You’ll find that your verdict won’t stray far from mine. I see your type more than I’d care to admit. Fun to play with for a little while, but you either turn away from the truth or fall victim to it,” Kasim warned.
“I refuse to do either of those.” I didn’t know if I said it because I simply wanted to defy him, or if it was because I didn’t want to believe that those were the only two options I had.
Draki was suddenly in front of me, and I stopped and sighed while looking at everything but him. “What do you want?”
He pointed to the shop behind me. “Didn’t you want to look around in there?”
“I did. But I don’t find myself wanting to look at clothes right now. I feel drained, and I just want to go back to the inn and put in some extra time or help out around the place.”
“You mean you’re going back to distract yourself.”
“Yes, Draki. I’m going to busy myself so I don’t have to think. I’m tired of thinking. I’m tired of searching. I’m tired. Everything I struggled for ... I thought that I was going to be able to make a home for myself, and I’ve been told that I can’t achieve that. I don’t know what to believe, and I’m just too tired to think about it.”
“Then I suppose the only thing to do is to show you.”
“Show me what?”
“The secret that this city hides. I’ll show you the ugly truth that I know you won’t allow yourself to live with. I’ve come to know you in many ways, Sia. And this will never be your home because you won’t be able to wash away the stains this place has.”
I felt like crying. Hugging myself, I quietly asked, “And you’d have me leave it all and build my own village where the freedom and well-being of those living there is bought with a sacrifice?”
He gave me a look that said I wasn’t wrong. “Everything in this life comes at a price, my dear. The more you fight it, the more the world will try to remind you of it.”
“I refuse to believe that is the only way we can live in this world.”
“Then you fight the inevitable. Stop being so stubborn and let’s leave this place.”
“Why are you pushing for me to leave?”
“Because there are things in this life that can’t be unseen, there are things that can’t be unheard, and there is a haunting anguish that comes with hidden things coming into the light. I’m trying to save you the torment.”
I went to walk around him while saying, “You like seeing me suffer.”
He grabbed my arm, stopping me in my tracks. “When I’m the one tormenting, yes. This, however, is a different breed of evil. I’m trying to help you.”
My eyes searched his. “I just want a place to call home.”
Kasim spoke up as he walked closer to us. “Let her see this place for what it is. If it scars her, it’s her own fault, not yours.”
“You won’t walk away from this until you see that it will never be what you want it to be?” Draki asked.
“For now, Draki, I just want to go back to the inn and prepare my mind for work.”
He let go of my arm with a sigh and looked me over. “And what of clothes? Were you not out here to try to find some suitable attire for yourself and that boy?”
“I was looking at clothes for Elijah and myself, yes. But I don’t have enough money to buy anything, and it will be some time before I will. It’s pointless to get my heart set on something that may not be there by the time my purse is full enough to shop. I was only looking over a few places to see who had the best quality clothes for the best price.”
“I see,” he said. “Very well, then. Head back.”
“Are you not going to follow?”
Kasim smirked and said, “I believe he wants to linger behind to have a word with me.”
“Fine,” I whispered and started to walk off.
“Would you rather I walk you back?” Draki asked.
I stumbled over my footwork and my thoughts. “I ... don’t think I’ll need your help. I should be able to find my way back on my own.”
“That isn’t what I asked. Do you want me to walk you back?”
My heart did a flip, my stomach knotted, and I felt a smile wanting to claim my lips. “I know that you only leave me when you have something important to tend to or you are remaining unseen for my protection. I’ll be fine.”
“Sia ...”
“Yes?”
“Do you want to be alone right now?”
The way he looked at me wasn’t the usual way I had grown accustomed to. I wasn’t sure if I was being pitied, or if he was upholding his end of the bargain, or if he was genuinely concerned about me, but the longer he looked at me the more I realized that I didn’t want to be alone. I had so few people that I could trust in my life, I was in a new place, and I wanted—more than anything in the world—to just have someone hold me and tell me everything was going to be all right. I just wanted to hear it, even if it was a lie because I had enough of struggling and battles and pain. For a moment, I wanted to be free of everything tormenting me and I wanted to feel free of worry. I looked away before I started to cry. It was easier to mask everything when I wasn’t staring at someone that could pick apart everything that made me who I was by simply looking into my eyes.
“I’ll be fi—”
“Admit that you want me,” he commanded.
I was taken aback by his statement and swallowed whatever I was going to say. My heartbeat fumbled, and I felt my chest tighten as a rush of heat traveled from my head to my toes, burning my skin as I nervously reached up to play with my braids. “I-I-I don’t ...”
He waltzed over to me like he was on a mission. When he was practically toe-to-toe with me, he spoke in the softest voice I had ever heard him produce. “Tell me that you don’t want to be alone, Sia, and I’ll walk with you back to the inn in silence.”
My mouth said it before I could stop myself. “Please walk with me,” I whispered.
He held out the crook of his arm and looked back at Kasim. “We’ll meet up again. I’ve my duties to attend to. You understand?”
Kasim bowed. “Of course. You and I will meet up again soon enough.”
“Oh, we shall.”
By the time we made it back to the inn, I had worked up an appetite and headed straight for the kitchen to fetch a snack before I would start working. While we waited around, I told Elijah about the shops that I had looked at and told him that when we got enough money, we should both get ourselves a few outfits and split the cost of any supplies we thought we would need. I didn’t tell him about how I wasn’t sure if we could call this home or not. I even left out that I had run into another devil. I didn’t exactly have a chance to speak too freely with him due to the fact that I knew we were being watched. The last thing I wanted to do was tell anyone that the place we had all deemed as the safest place on Earth was actually not as safe as we thought. I most certainly didn’t want to express these truths while being secretly watched by everyone not knowing how they’d take the news. For all we knew, these people could be hiding a special kind of crazy and kill us to keep the truth from getting out to the rest of the people in the city. For now, it was best to be careful and only talk to Elijah about those things when we were absolutely sure that no one was listening. In the middle of the kitchen, a couple of hours before the dinner rush, was not that time.
About an hour after the diner had closed up, Dara, Elijah, and I finished up talking about our hourly pay and the daily duties that would be expected of us. With our evening shift over and negotiations handled, he and I walked to our rooms.
Once in the halls, I whispered as quietly as I could, “I found out a few things. We need to talk.”
“Maybe we can find some time to ourselves and talk about it tomorrow? I think I found out a few things too,” he whispered back.
I nodded faintly and said, “Sleep well, Elijah,” as we parted ways in the hall.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Sia. Goodnight.”
As I shut the door, I noticed a package on the bed. It was hard to tell with the lamps not lit. There wasn’t any point in lighting them now, right before bed. So I plucked it off of the quilt and took it over to the window. After drawing back the curtains to let in the moonlight and illumination from the street lamps, I turned the package over in my hands curiously. The paper crinkled in my grasp as I started to undo the twine that was wrapped and knotted around it. Slowly, I opened it to reveal a set of jeans, a creamy white blouse with a pattern of small, red poppies, and a coral-colored dress with a brown, braided, leather belt.
I looked around the room like I would find the culprit for dropping off the package. But there was no one. There was only the faint scent of spice and ash coming from the pile of new outfits.
Chapter 28:
What is Expected of You
Over breakfast the next morning, Dara told us that we would be going to the cathedral. She informed us that we would meet with Grand Master Arland, take care of the initial paperwork, and be set up with a private tutor to teach us the ways of the city and how everything worked. Honestly, it was a lot to take in, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go and get it taken care of as soon as possible or hide in my bathroom until they gave up looking for me.
“Your eyes look as big as that plate, Sia. You’re worrying over nothing. Don’t fret over it so much. Once we go there, you’ll see that it’s nothing more than getting acquainted with the appropriate people so you two can know more about the place you’ve chosen to call home.” Soon after that, Dara went to fetch us an extra helping of food while I pondered over everything we had been told.
Elijah nudged me. “She’s right, ya know?”
I nodded. But the more that I thought about it, the more that I realized that after she called Saint Augustine home, I didn’t feel like that was the right word to describe the place. I frowned as that thought engulfed my mind. “I know. I—I just don’t like that whenever I try to think of this as home ...” I looked at him with a sad expression. “I can’t.”
His lips thinned out into a straight line, and he rubbed me on the back. “Home for me is wherever you are, Sia.”
I smiled. “Even if that means that you’ll have to fight off demons or devils every night for the rest of your life?”
There was a short pause, but it felt like an eternity. Finally, he said, “If I’m by your side, then, yes.”
“Elijah, I couldn’t do that to you.”
He kissed my forehead. The action was too quick to dodge, and I found myself closing my eyes as I memorized the press of his lips against my skin. “You aren’t doing anything to me, Sia. That’s the beauty of choice. I choose to go where you go. May that be here, across a thousand deserts, or into a land of eternal night. My home is still with you.”
Dara came out of the kitchen with two piping hot plates, and she placed them in front of us saying, “Dig in. We don’t want to keep the Grand Master waiting.”
The cathedral felt like it was a living, breathing entity. Any moment now, I was sure it would take in a lungful of air, howl into the afternoon sky, and devour the quiet city below. The closer that we got, the more nervous I became.
Dara wanted to make a few stops along the way to get us better acquainted with the area and to familiarize ourselves with the local shops and the people that ran them. When the bells began to toll with their thick, hollow song, we were a few blocks away. It was the perfect spot to feel the ringing tremble through my entire being as we made our way up the long, daunting flight of steps.
Overhead, an unkindness of jet-black ravens cawed and fluttered away from the bell tower. The whole scene felt ominous. The only addition that could have made it more poetic than creepy would have been a collection of black-dressed people with matching umbrellas standing out in the rain in front of it.
When we reached the main doors, the shadow that embraced us from the enormous building made the early afternoon air feel chilled. I hoped that inside the building there would be a reprieve from the strange cold that overtook me.
The massive wooden doors creaked eerily as they slowly swung open, and men wearing deep, brown robes came rushing out in two perfect rows. Their quiet humming kept in tune with the song of the bells.
A single male wearing a creamy white robe and swinging a silver, ornately designed incense burner bowed to us and several others that were collected around the top of the steps. Without a word, he motioned for us all to follow, turned, and headed back through the main doors. We all quietly trailed behind him.
Inside, wordless singing echoed through the massive building, and I could feel it all over my body. My heart began to race. Between the ringing of the bells and the singing, I felt like I was taking in too much. Worried that I might offend the wrong person, I refrained from making it too painfully obvious that my senses were overloaded. Thankfully, the tolls of the bells stopped not too long after we had entered.
We had barely made it halfway across the red carpet lining the cathedral’s floor when we came to a stop. Someone was blocking our path, though, from the way he held himself he wasn’t just anyone. The male leading us bowed to the man standing in front of him and then shuffled off to the side.
The one that was now before us wore robes of red and white that had thick, bold, golden trimmings. In one hand, he had a bright, yellow staff with odd symbols and markings swirling along the length of it, in the other he held a black, leather book with gold letters on the binding. He had soft, hazel eyes and deep, brown hair that was cut short and combed back. As I looked at him, I couldn’t find a line or crease on his face that would depict an age above his mid-twenties. I was so focused on studying him that Elijah nudging me with his elbow gave my heart a new rhythm to beat to.
Whispering, he said, “I feel a bit anxious and out of place here.”
“You and I both,” I replied under my breath as I attempted to ignore the zing of energy that raced through my entire being.
He could still hear me, though, and he chuckled lightly. “Good to know I’m not alone.”
I silently agreed. This is not how I wanted to spend my day. I wanted to get whatever paperwork I needed to do out of the way and go back to the inn. The longer that I stayed in this city, the more uneasy I became. The more that I explored, the more darkness I discovered. There was a secret buried deep within these walls, and I wasn’t sure this was something I could easily escape. Of all the places I had been to, I knew what lay in wait around the corner with all of them. It was devils and packs. Here, though? This wasn’t the same. I could feel that this was the calm before the storm. Did I really want to be here when that storm hit, or should I cut and run before it was too late?
“Greetings, Grand Master Arland,” the surrounding group of people stated in robotic unison, their lifeless voices setting me on edge.
“Please separate to your appropriate groups. Newcomers, please, follow me,” the Grand Master instructed with a smile pointed in our direction.
Guess they know who the newcomers are.
