If anything, he pressed me closer.
“Kai,” Jacqueline’s voice said. I couldn’t see her because she was behind me.
“Stop moving,” Kai barked. I wasn’t sure who he was addressing but there were lots of supernaturals in the room. Most of them moved soundlessly. Over his shoulder, I caught sight of Max coming to a halt. Behind him, Durin and Yolanda lingered.
“Are you deaf or something?” I whisper-screamed. “I said get away from me.” My voice became wet as I continued to lock onto the salt-and-pepper Nephilim. Where did he get off acting like I was his prize when all this time he was meant to be with somebody else?
“Blue,” he said, his tone soothing.
I scratched at his arm. “Shut up! Just shut up and get out!”
I bit my tongue this time to stop the tears of frustration from coming. There was just no way in hell I was going to cry about this. No bloody way.
“Let go of her,” Basil said. Orange light flared.
“Why don’t we all calm down,” Jacqueline said.
“Get out!” I screamed.
“Not until we get this sorted.”
He had rocks in his head. I was so done with this. I turned and looked at Durin right in the eyes. If I had been a shifter, it would have been a direct challenge to his dominance. It could be grounds to put me flat on my ass. But I was human and I was desperate. Besides, Durin owed me a favour after I’d saved his life.
“Please make him leave.”
Kai tensed around me. He turned so that he was facing Durin. Behind him, Jacqueline, Nanna, and Nora were all perched beside the door. Sophie and Diana were on the couch. Their mouths hung open in shock.
“She doesn’t know what she’s saying,” Kai said.
“Screw you,” I shot back. Every shifter in the room got to their feet. I twisted around to watch Durin and Yolanda. Max flanked them. Trey fell in behind Max. Even Charles, who was holding his baby sister on his hip, fell into line.
Durin’s gaze lowered to mine. “Are you sure, lass?” he asked. Kai made a strangled sound. I couldn’t breathe he was squishing me so hard.
“Yes.”
“No,” Kai barked.
Something sizzled in the air around us. I had to shield my eyes as Kai’s angelfire saturated my skin. Durin seemed to grow to twice his natural size. The room began to vibrate with a primal energy that I assumed was the pack mentality fusing into a physical manifestation of their power.
“Anyone who isn’t pack or under pack protection has ten seconds to depart the Reserve,” Durin said. He started counting down. At the five-second mark, Kai still hadn’t moved.
“Blue,” he whispered. If he continued to stay, he would risk starting a war with the shifters.
“Kai!” Max bellowed. They shared a tense exchange. If Kai didn’t leave, Max would have no choice but to attack his best friend.
“Two seconds,” Durin called.
“This isn’t over,” Kai snapped at me before he set me down. I heaved a sigh of relief when he teleported away. I wasn’t the only one. Salt-and-Pepper Nephilim disappeared with him. I saw flashes of golden light outside. There had been more Nephilim guards outside the door. One of them turned to look at me. I shook my head at Curtis who smiled and then rolled his eyes. I would have been okay if he stayed. But when yours truly did this crazy stuff, it wasn’t the best idea to hang around. When all the Nephilim besides Astrid were gone, I rolled over onto my back and passed out.
They just wouldn’t let me rest. I groaned as bright light pierced my eyelids. Cold wind kissed my cheeks. I opened my eyes and found myself standing outside the cavern where the seraphim had Lucifer in stasis. Raphael stood to my left. Michael was on my right.
“Umm,” I said. “Is this a dream or a nightmare?”
“Neither,” Michael said. I zipped my lips.
In front of me, Lucifer lay comatose. Sleeping Beauty. I really didn’t want this fairy tale to end in a happily ever after for him.
“He remains contained,” Raphael observed.
They grew quiet, their expressions grave. Like a child, my reactions mimicked theirs. I had no words for the apprehension that fisted my heart. “What’s wrong?”
Raphael sighed. The world around us shimmered and we were inside the garden in Seraphina. “You spoke Angelical,” he said.
Michael cleared his throat. “That’s not necessarily true. You tried to speak Angelical.”
“Either way, it caused a ripple,” Raphael said. “Your pronunciation was quite…interesting.”
I snorted. Raphael cupped my chin. He lifted my head up to meet his eyes. I immediately lowered mine. I felt a light pressure in my mind. “It seems intact.”
“You cannot do that again,” Michael warned me. “You were very lucky this time. Those words were not meant for mortal ears.”
“I’m not entirely mortal though, am I?”
Their silence said it all. “I cannot press how important it is,” Michael said.
“Okay, okay. I won’t use any more Angelical words.”
As Raphael put me back under, a thought drifted through to me. It was laced with foreboding. I wasn’t sure which of the two of them it came from but the gist of it was blaring. I was human. I had free will. If I did use another Angelical word, there was no way they could stop me. And that, more than anything, was the reason why they had taken me to check that Lucifer was still contained. They thought that the Angelical word was the key to releasing him.
There was shrieking all around me. Thankfully the shrieking was of the small-child variety and not the demon variety. The only problem was that it was a lot of shrieking. From many different children. Why?
I was in my bed at Basil’s. After a couple of minutes, my disorientation subsided. My stomach growled. It was a relief. After the visual of the ghouls
