“But the Blessed Haven and the rest of heaven will be safe, right?” I asked.
“I don’t know…” Marcus said slowly. “What if it isn’t? What if this putseveryone’ssoul at risk?”
“Or heaven itself,” Charlie commented. “We think the Ancestral Lands are a safe place of rest for Elementai souls, but what if the Ancestral Lands aren’t there anymore once this war of gods is done? What if it’s destroyed, along with the Blessed Haven and the rest of the heavenly planes of reality?”
I felt sick at the thought. I didn’t want to consider this an actual threat, so I turned to Kallie and asked, “Fae know about interdimensional realms. Do you think our theory has any weight to it?”
My gut sank as I watched her chew her lip thoughtfully. “It’s possible,” she theorized. “The afterlife is another dimension, one we can only access after we die, when our souls ascend. There was war in Edinmyre long ago, in the ancestral home of the fae, and that’s in another dimension. The fae afterlife exists in a part of Edinmyre itself, though one that’s inaccessible to those who haven’t yet died. Why can’t war exist in the heavens, too?”
“If there’s war in heaven, can your soul die in the afterlife? And if it does, do you just… cease to exist?” Marcus wondered aloud.
Ancestors, nobody wanted to consider that. The chapel went deathly silent at the idea.
I couldn’t take the quiet, so I blurted, “What are the gods fighting about?”
“It’s gotta be something big, to put the afterlife at risk,” Marcus worried.
“Yes, butwhy? Why are we here?” I said desperately. I needed an answer; some sort of direction that explained what my life meant and why it mattered, and leaving the answer up to fate wasn’t good enough.
“It doesn’t matter what the meaning of life is. It’s useless to sit here and debate about it when there’s people out there that need us,” Charlie insisted. “If we don’t do something to stop this, we’re just as bad as the Warden. And I swear to the ancestors, I’m not going to lose myself because of this. I won’t become a monster because I’ve lost hope and don’t understand what any of this means.”
“I’ll be damned before I become the Warden,” I snarled. Ihatedhim. I despised him so badly, with every inch of my being.
“Thenhelp me,” Charlie pleaded. “This isn’t just about the Elves. This is a multi-realm war, on earth and possibly in the afterlife. Just dying doesn’t solve anyone’s problem, especially if the war is still going on in heaven, too. I can’t give up.Wecan’t give up. So don’t turn your back on me now, Ava, because I don’t think I can take it.”
My form went completely rigid, and a coldness crept over my skin as I heard him beg. Kallie shivered, while Marcus looked away.
Charlie was right. If I didn’t do something to prevent the suffering of millions of people, whether they’d end up in heaven or not in the end, I was a monster. I might as well start calling myself Doctor Taurus, and I’d rather be in hell before I ended up like the Warden.
Or let Charlie down. That was a stupid consequence of being in love with somebody you couldn’t have.
Charlie’s jaw tightened. “Either way, this all begins with the Elves. We have to start somewhere if we’re going to stop this. Only question is, where do we begin?”
“The Warden took forty Elves from Forevermore,” I said. “Twenty of them are here, and the rest are at the adult penitentiary on the other side of the island,” I said. “What does the Warden want to do with them?”
“We know the Warden was looking for demigods to experiment on,” Kallie suggested. “Maybe he wants to use the Elves for the same purpose.”
“But it’s been three months. Shouldn’t he have done that by now?” I asked.
“Maybe he started with the adults,” Charlie mentioned. “And he’s just now moving on to us.”
That was a scary idea. I twisted a lock of hair around my finger. “We can’t know for sure. There’s no way of telling what he’s been up to.”
“We know what he’s been up to,” Kallie murmured, and I glanced up at her. She and Marcus shared a gaze that seemed… private, in a way.
“Before you guys showed up, Kallie and I had a minute to talk,” Marcus said. “All summer, the Warden was pillaging Forevermore, looking for intel on demigods. He didn’t get far— the Elves burned the records they had before they left the city— but from what I found out, the Warden is a big deal with the Celestials. The angels love him. He’s a big part of the Celestial Church. He’s even one of their Deacons on their ruling council.”
“If that’s true and he has so much power with the angels, why did he take a job at a reform school for supernaturals? Seems below his paygrade,” I questioned.
“Because he’s looking for demigods, and he knows if they exist, they’ll end up here,” Marcus said firmly. “He’s not the only one who wants them. The Celestial Church is after them, too.”
I shivered as I recalled how the angel professors had called the Wardenmy lordafter I’d overheard their conversation about experimenting on inmates.
“And how’d you manage to get access to this information?” I asked suspiciously.
“Doesn’t matter,” Marcus said shortly.
“Doesn’t matter?” Kallie asked.
