“They’re literal fucking horses,” I grumble quietly to myself, noting I’m almost across the bridge now. “And he wants me to ride one. To be an apocalypse-heralding horseback rider. Is that job not already taken?”
“It is not. The Council does not seem to have a plan for the stewardship of the horses after they’ve arrived.”
I don’t know if it was the sarcasm or the rhetorical question that was lost on him, but I still bite back, “I wasn’t talking to you.”
“…There is nobody else here.”
“Exactly.” Finally, I’m blessed with the last step off the bridge, and Imake room for him on the rocky ledge to join me.
He pauses, looking over me with an annoyingly innocent look of curiosity. “Do you talk to yourself often?”
“Lately? Yes.” I sigh, grabbing his arm to plead with him in all sincerity. “Please, Abaddon,do notget me an apocalypse horse. That’s just asking for trouble, and I have enough on my plate as it is. An earthly horse will be more than fine.”
“Noted.” He nods quickly. “I will see to it.”
His eyes slip down to my hand, and I release his arm, averting my gaze. “Great. Arabians are my favorite, but I’m not picky. Now, where do we go from here?”
To avoid fueling any further absurdity, I decide not to talk for the rest of the walk.
The hole in the cavern wall spits us out onto a viewing ledge with a sad rope strung along wooden posts to poorly barricade the edge. When I walk up to it, it reveals a small canyon below us with a pitch-black river at the bottom. I can just barely see another walkway along the walls, only a few feet above the water level.
Abaddon leads us down a set of stairs carved into the canyon walls, likely five stories worth of height to descend, and we finally make it to the narrow walkway.
My legs are aching from all the climbing and walking, not to mention the damage I inflicted on them this morning. The next time he offers to air taxi me, I might just let him…
After a few minutes, we suddenly divert off the pathway to a?—
Cave.
Seriously? All this for an empty fucking cave?
“Why did we have to come all the way down here for this?”I put my hands on my hips, leaning my weight to one side, as I stare down the angel. God, I am socrankytoday. I can hardly bear it.
“We needed better isolation.” He walks toward a large boulder, taking a seat on it with his legs crossed. “We’re going to uncover what you can do. We’ll start by seeing if you have access to the Aether—what your specialty is, if anything.”
“And how am I supposed to do that?” I don’t think I have the patience for two more months of mind-numbing meditation.
“Semyaza will guide you.” He nods toward the cavern opening. I turn around, but nothing is there—then I hear the sound of beating wings. “Considering he taught all of his half-breed children to do the same, he has plenty of experience in the area.”
There’s a softthudoutside the cave, echoed by approaching bootsteps.
“Even the Academy doesn’t know how to train non-angels,” Abaddon continues. “You won’t find a better teacher.”
The man finally reveals himself in the doorway, stopping as he grins ear to ear. “You flatter me, brother.”
My eyes dart to the King in disbelief. “So it’s true? You’re related?”
Faintly, he smiles, followed by a slow nod. “The Decay to my Destruction.”
“The Destruction to my Decay,” Semyaza echoes back, walking up to me with his hand extended. Cautiously, I accept, shaking his hand as he grins down at me. “Shall we get started?”
It’s strangely quiet in my soul without my shadow.
I search and search, but it’s nowhere to be found.
Instead of ignoring all the tethers I bump into, I’m learning to navigate them. They’re everywhere, tenfold in intensity and number than I remember before, as if the floodgates have opened. Some are weak, gray, inactive; some are bold and demanding. Like synapses in a brain, they all connect in an intricate, malleable web.
And somewhere, beyond all of that, is the mythical Aether.
