“He didn’t send them all. But how?”
His auburn brows bunch together, creating multiple wrinkles on his slightly aged face. The face of a war general, a warrior himself, with blue eyes that occasionally flare with an inner red fire when he’s unstable. “My best guess.” He nods as if to himself and cups the back of his neck with his hand. “He vastly changed the number of souls on those levels before Judgment Day. He moved them so that not all had the chance to be reborn.”
“Can he do that?”
“Doesn’t matter now. He did.”
“That still doesn’t account for the disturbance of the fissures.”
“The remaining three levels will come in the last days of the war, yes?”
“Yes, so the unequated or unaccounted souls are free from the bindings of the contract. Free to do Lucifer’s bidding. He manipulated the terms to suit.” He shrugs. “It’s more than likely he combed over the terms until he found a way to work around it and fix the end in his favor.”
“So the disturbance is…” The words don’t leave my lips, yet somehow they lie there on the tip of my tongue, acting like acid, rotting away at my calm.
“What I suspect is that demons from hell have breached the surface of the earth. They are roaming free and killing any humans they come across—working to cull the numbers before the final war and tip the scales even further in Lucifer’s favor. If they haven’t redeemed themselves, they return from whence they came.”
“Holy fuck.”
“You said it.”
“We need to reach out to Orán and Tíarnach and pull them back. What if they’re out there facing them alone?”
“I was able to reach Tíarnach. He was the first one to figure out something was amiss.”
“What about Orán?”
“You’re his twin. Find him and warn him. Your connection to him will be stronger than mine if I try.”
Dread bottoms out in my stomach because in all my searching over the past few years, I’ve been unable to locate him. He hasn’t checked in. Not a fucking word or thought to send my way to let me know he’s out there. The why of it, I’m unsure. At first, I reasoned that my powers hadn’t yet been strong enough or that he’d been at a great distance, but now…
I want to know where the fuck he is and make sure he’s okay.
Our souls are joined. It’s always been so. It should be easy enough with the powers I hold to reach him now, but even as I try, I’m greeted by only silence.
Surely, I would know if he was in danger or if something happened to him.
Wouldn’t I?
Orán! Answer me!
Chapter Sixteen
Grey Matters
Orán
I continue to shield my presence as I follow the woman with the stallion that’s not entirely of this world.
I don’t know who she is, but the essence drifting from her is… different. More than human. Less than ethereal. Something altogether other.
If I’m not mistaken, the horse belongs to Mardoch—a hybrid creation. I suspect it can sense me… and my mount, Nexzursus. Or Nexus, as I call him. He unsettles most creatures, and Mardoch’s offspring is no exception.
It tosses its head and quickens its pace whenever I draw near. The woman, however, gives no sign she’s aware of us.
Still, I can’t be certain. At times, she will stop abruptly and look around, dark colors instantly filling her aura as if a sudden bout of anxiety overcomes her. However, she never looks my way, and soon after, it dissipates.
One thing above all is clear.
