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Evangeline
I ran through a dimly lit tunnel, the torches flickering as I passed them. Something evil chased me and fear weakened my legs. Every which way I turned, vines with thorns like the design on the cloak blocked my path. Then they faded.
“My love, wake up.” A smooth, velvety voice spoke to me with such tenderness as his knuckles caressed my cheek, but I couldn’t see his face. I knew that voice. “Two halves of the same soul,” he said.
I extended my arm out to touch him, but no one was there.
“Joleen, run.” The same voice repeated over and over and followed me as I turned the corner. But who was Joleen? I sprinted, desperate to escape … but from whom?
This must be a dream, unless it was my past. Did angels have a past life? If so, it sucked that I couldn’t see this being who seemed to care for me. A bright light glowed and I stumbled. My legs suddenly felt like dead weight and I couldn’t move.
I screamed with every breath in my lungs. No one came to my rescue. Alone, so alone. I dropped to a crouch in the darkness and sobbed. Without warning, I sank into the ground, passing through soil, and then endless falling … falling … falling.
My body tossed and turned and my wings failed to open as I nose-dived in a dizzy spin. Instead of smacking to the ground, my body jerked as a blast of white light engulfed me.
“Evangeline. Wake up,” said a muffled male’s voice. A hand patted my cheek. “Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.”
Not the voice in my dream, but he sounded like … I fluttered my eyes open and when his face cleared, Gorgo had crouched in human form beside me. I jolted upright to sit and wrung my fingers around his neck and squeezed.
“I’m going to kill you.” I snarled as I released my wings to stretch them, and to confirm I had both of them attached to my body. Good. No one had chopped them off. But I had no doubt this asshole had been involved with the ambush.
“I come in peace. I swear it,” he said in a strangled voice. “I saved you.”
At those words, I released him and backed away to assess my surroundings. Jagged ceiling. Rocky walls. Streambed. The chamber where Zander and I …
My throat hurt and my chest burned. I wanted the thing between the rib cage out, that thing that gave me gut-wrenching pain. So much human emotion flooded through me at once.
I tried to recall what all had happened in the cavern, but some parts became hazy. Like what happened to Tank and Otis? Were they taken like Zander? Or tossed off the mountain? What happened to Dawn and Snow? Did one of them betray us?
Gorgo rose to his full height and rubbed his throat. Behind him, ten of his soldiers in their demon forms walked about the cavern assessing, but they stayed clear away from the streambed where I stood. They all looked alike, but I recognized Sam because of his crooked nose.
I folded in the layers of my feathers but I kept my wings half open. “How did you find me?”
“I went to the pub to meet Asher, and a baldheaded demon in his human form bragged about what they had done. I knew you were in trouble, so I came here fast as I could. I fed you a remedy. You had been poisoned.”
“I’m going to slice that baldheaded demon’s skull open.” I squeezed my fists. “How did you know I had been poisoned?”
“Because that’s what Asmodeus does. The poison can’t kill an angel like you but will keep you paralyzed.”
I paced about the streambed rubbing my temples, feeling so alone. What to do next?
“Will you be informing the OA of your situation?” Gorgo walked away from the water but kept close to me. “I could still use your help in bringing down my brother.”
My thoughts wandered and I didn’t know what Gorgo rambled about. I recalled wanting to get to the water, but for what? Why did I feel the need to search there?
“Why are there so many apples?” Gorgo picked up one near a cluster of rocks, then another by a small boulder.
My heart warmed. Otis loved apples and … Splashes. Two of them. Had I dreamed that or had it really happened after I was poisoned?
“Tank. Otis!” My cry bounced off the high jagged ceiling.
I stared into the spring, but its surface only reflected my own face. Gorgo furrowed his brow, looking at me like I had gone insane. Just as I was about to say something, bubbles rose to the surface near where the water trickled down the rocky wall.
The bubbles had to have come from Otis or Tank. Or maybe both. I’m coming, my friends. Hold on.
I tucked in my wings and dove in. Swimming toward the bubbles, my pulse raced with hope and desperation. Please be here. Please be alive. Where are you?
I swam in circles in the dark water. Nothing but rocky walls. And then … my heart swelled. There.
