“It’s not over yet.”
Anya grows pale and her stomach fills with dread. “What do you mean, Da?”
“It’s all over the news. India, China, Mexico, California, and more. This is happening in all the largest cities of the world. No country is immune, Anya. We need to move and regroup.”
Around her, the voices fade away. Anya needs a minute to think, a second that isn’t in chaos and she wishes just for a moment that she could travel away as her mother did, free to move through time and space, and just be. An image of a cave fills her mind and she looks at Vorn.
Vorn watches as the hope fades from Anya’s eyes and he does what any Drow would do. He wraps an arm around her waist pulling her back against the strength of his body and disappears. Anya feels him, hears his thought the moment he thinks it, and she doesn’t fight him. Instead, she sighs and spins in his embrace to bury herself if the serenity of his arms. Trembling she holds on tight, willing him to take her to the cave in her mind and give her the moment she needs.
Sebastian watches them leave and turns to those watching. “Take us to the Fae.”
The five angels and him, disappear leaving Keane and the Guild to do what they can.
Caius laughs with barely concealed glee. Those on the ground have no idea he is amongst them. Silently he follows Anya, intending to push her until his final goal is achieved.
Chapter 33
Anya savors the security of his arms around her. She whispers to his mind of a place, by the sea on the Cliffs of Moher. Over the pounding, crashing noise of the surf, they make their way along the treacherous cliffs. A memory floods her mind and she sees a glow in the cliff face beckoning them. Anya pushes inside the dim cave driven by the need to find out who she is. When they finally emerge inside a small cavern, Anya cannot believe her eyes as she sees what once was.
Beautiful beyond compare, her mother glows with the silver light of heaven. Her large pink pearlescent wings were spread out behind her, helping to balance her pregnant form. Long, red hair clings to her sweat covered forehead and her eyes showed the fear of a mother, not a demon.
“Anya, are you well?” Vorn asks as he glances around the darkened cavern. Anya jumps at the sound of his voice and her vision fades, taking with it the image of her mother. Tears fill her eyes and she wonders at how this can be.
“I’m okay. Thank you for helping me,” she whispers in a hoarse voice. “I need a minute, to think and process.”
“I understand, Anya, we can stay as long as you wish.” Vorn is Drow, moving through darkened caverns is not a problem. Most Drow live in dark caverns and caves. His vision is altered to allow for these conditions. Another gift is the faerie lights. He stoops down and lifts a handful of pebbles up and blows across them. Instantly they fill with purple light, he stands and tosses them straight up at the ceiling above, where they stick and fill the cavern with a soft light.
Anya gasps in delight and smiles at him. “You are amazing, Vorn. You never cease to astonish me.” Vorn bows and grins back at her.
“I was thinking the same thing,” Caius chuckles, as he steps from behind them. Before Vorn can move to protect her, Caius strikes at the big Drow’s throat. He leaps on top of Vorn and a motion of his arm casts the cavern back into inky blackness.
“Run!” Vorn yells to her mind, but Anya is struck by another vision of her mother.
This time, a cold breeze brushes away the fear. Lailah is sitting on a rock near a river when they come for her. Glancing up she stands to face those who would betray her. The first glint of wings in the sunlight captures her attention and Lailah sighs. If she is going to die, she will do so her own way. Her memories of loving him and being loved by him are all she has left. Lailah holds onto those images in her mind. She sends him her love, all of it and opens her eyes to face her executioners as they land buffeting her with the force of their wings.
“Lailah, you’ve been judged,” a female voice announces with a laugh. Shock flickers across her face before they attack.
The moment their swords slice into her mother’s flesh, Anya’s scream rolls off the cavern walls and she falls to her knees.
She watches with tears flowing down her cheeks as her mother’s body is lifted up by Caius.
“No,” Anya murmurs. Her mother was alive when he took her! Anya’s eyes start to glow, flashing from dark to light as the rage builds inside of her. Vorn reaches from the ground and grasps her hand in his.
“It’s true. Your mother lived for weeks after that, but don’t worry, I harvested every ounce of her.” Caius’s voice echoes in the cavern and he allows the light to return. “Lailah refused to do the one thing I asked her to do.” Anya is sobbing and annoying him. “Listen, this is the best part, Anya. All she had to do was open a gate and I would have let her live. She chose unwisely. We looked everywhere for you, I wasted years searching.”
Anya listens and begins to calm down as the images are pushed away.
“It matters little now, Anya. You will be given a similar choice.
