Into The Light (The Fallen Shadows) Page 22

  The light hit Katharine’s eyes like the celestial sun had burst through the Church. She blinked rapidly trying to force her eyes to adjust quickly. Ash, unaffected by the change in lighting, was examining a circular object that looked like a woman’s ring. It was gold with a cracked red ruby sitting inside a triangular setting.

  The gold was sparkling as though someone had taken a jar of glitter and dipped the ring inside. It looked antique; similar to a ring she had seen during a family trip to Maine when she was 13-years-old.

  Ash held the ring above his head to get a better look at it. He looked puzzled and his mouth formed an arch Katharine had never seen on someone’s face before. His eyes widened as he lowered the ring back to eye level. Cupping the ring tightly in his hand, Ash felt back against the first row of pews and let out a giant sigh.

  She had only seen him look that concerned once, when she had completed her ascension and was lying motionless on the ground of the garden. The ring he held had more meaning to him than Katharine had realized. She wondered if it belonged to Angelina. It would have made sense considering how tightly he held onto it and how deep his sadness ventured inside him when he’d talk about her.

  Katharine gave him a few moments before she started toward him fully prepared to be a shoulder for him to cry on, should he need one. She took four steps before the sound of an explosion fell upon the Church. The sound of glass shattering and wood snapping in pieces soared through the rafters and sent the chandeliers into a vibrant dance or colors. Ash shot up like the pew he’d been sitting on had released a spring. He shoved the ring inside his pocket and quickly removed one of the arrows from his bag and nocked it.

  Katharine had been startled into a motionless frenzy. Her heart beat loudly inside her chest. Her hands shook uncontrollably. She wanted to flee, to run screaming from the church and find a way back home where she belonged.

  “Wait here, I am going to go see what that was,” Ash said moving slowly toward the room from which they had just come, his bow and arrow leading him as he went.

  Ash was strong and prepared for whatever lay before him. Katharine, although changed by the new life before her, still felt like the teenager who wanted to become a successful lawyer. She wasn’t cut out for a battle that could save the world, she was cut out for reading, studying and being a good student. Everything she’d been avoiding thinking about, her life in Meadowbrook, the reality of her new life, and Molli’s death all came flooding back to her as though the explosion were the walls in her mind crumbling down.

  As Ash disappeared into the darkness, Katharine thought for a split second about turning around and running out the door. She saw herself running through the streets of San Francisco crying out for help. She visualized what it would feel like to wrap her arms around her father again, to feel the strength of his arms covering her body in a gentle loving embrace. She heard the sound of her mother’s voice calling her inside for dinner after a long day of playing outside with Molli. If I run now I can still get back in time for my finals. I can still graduate with the rest of my class.

  With everything she allowed herself to see, she would not allow herself to see what might become of Ash were she to turn her back on him.

  Despite the undying urge to flee, Katharine took a seat in the second row of pews and waited nervously for Ash’s return.

  It had been far too long and Ash still hadn’t returned. Katharine was beginning to grow uncomfortably leery about what might have happened to him. Suddenly she heard gut wrenching screams bellowing from somewhere within the church. Her heart sank as the screaming continued, she knew from whom they were coming. Oh God, Ash! She leapt to her feet and ran toward the dark room but could not find the strength to go inside. She had no weapons, no fighting skills and no knowledge as to what was causing Ash to scream in pain.

  She drew herself back and began to cry out calling to the Heavens in the hope that Chance would hear her and send someone to help. “Chance! Please if you can hear me, we need help!” She continued to scream until she became hoarse and could only whisper prayers for help.

  Suddenly a terrifying truth fell over her, she no longer heard Ash screaming. She no longer heard anything.

  As Katharine’s heart fell out of her chest the church doors flew open to a welcomed site, Davon rushed in led by his arrow. He was covered in dirt and blood and he was lacking a large amount of arrows. Katharine never thought she would be so happy to see him. She leapt out with her arms outstretched and wrapped them tightly around his neck, a gesture that he was not very pleased with.

  Davon showed emotion toward his fellow Guides and his elders but showing emotion toward a Tracker wasn’t in his nature. Still, Katharine pulled him in tight; her arms curled around his back just barely able to connect near his spine. Davon’s arms remained at his side as Katharine nearly wept into his shoulder. His eyebrows arched downward as he pulled the Tracker off him.

  “Where is Ash?” Davon asked once he had pulled himself free from Katharine’s tight embrace. Before receiving a response from Katharine he knew that something had happened to his partner. Katharine’s eyes welled up with water forming deep within the tear ducts behind her eyes. She said nothing but pointed toward the room where she’d last seen her Guide.

  Roughly Davon grabbed Katharine’s arm, nearly knocking her to her knees under the force of his strength, he dragged her toward the darkness. His fingers curled around her forearm and pulled tighter as his strides became wider than Katharine was able to move. She felt her skin burning from his grip and tried to shake loose but he was too strong. They approached the darkness from the room where Ash disappeared without slowing to check it out before forcing the terrified Tracker inside.

  The silhouettes Katharine had seen earlier remain prominent. The desk still surrounded by smaller tables and the large object Katharine collided with stood tall in front of the door. Davon examined it, far more intensely than Ash had. He ran his hand along the edges of the box and began to pull back on the broken pieces of wood. It came loose in his hand without much effort. He tossed it aside and continued to break away the rest of the pieces of charred wood.

  Once a large enough space had been cleared away Katharine saw that the box was no box at all. Peering her head inside the opening Katharine could see that there was a set of stairs descending down into a dark abyss.

  The stairs circled around a wall made entirely of grey stone with small hanging lanterns dimly lighting the way. Davon pulled an arrow from the bag upon his back and motioned with his head that Katharine should follow him as he began down the stairway. It gave her comfort that he was with her. Davon knew his job and didn’t get distracted easily, but there was nothing inviting about those stairs.

  Katharine felt as though she were walking on death row as they descended further. The stairs, made of the same stone that comprised the wall beside them, were cold under her feet; even with the protection of her shoes Katharine could feel the cold touching her feet. Had it not been for their shoes hitting the stone they would have been followed by an eerie silence.

  As they reached the end of the stairs Katharine began to smell burning flesh; it was the same horrid scent she had smelled just before her ascension, only this time the smell was overwhelming. She choked and gagged as though she were standing in the middle of a cloud of cigarette smoke.

  Davon stopped and grabbed her arm abruptly. “Be quiet. There are probably a group of Descended down there and they’ll be on us in seconds if you don’t stop that racket,” he said forcefully. She whispered sorry but her voice was so low he could not hear her.

  As her foot touched the bottom step Katharine’s mind immediately went to Ash. Even though she knew it would mean he was in pain, Katharine wished to hear Ash screaming again; at least she would know he was alive.

  The pathway at the bottom of the stairs reminded her of a movie she had seen earlier that year about a dragon that lived beneath the earth in a cave built of stone. Much like the movie, the pathway laid ou
t before them was made entirely of black stone that glistened as the flames from the lanterns reflected off them.

  A gust of cold air hit her face like the first breath of winter. It surged through her body as though someone stood over her pouring buckets of ice-cold water on her. She looked at Davon half expecting to see him shuttering but he appeared unaffected by the frigidness of the air. His mind was on the mission and nothing further. He could catch fire and not even notice. Katharine was amazed by his concentration and hard as she tried to copy it she couldn’t stop her body from shaking or her teeth from chattering.

  Despite her new powers, Katharine was still human and therefore no amount of concentration would save her from the freezing cold air of that pathway.

  In the distance they could hear the muffled sounds of conversation. It was a rushed conversation and in a language Katharine could not understand. She heard two female voices mixed in with a few snarls, the sounds that confirmed that at the end of the pathway were the Descended. As they made their way down the long pathway Katharine began to see a light bellowing out from a room just off to the side of where the path seemed to end. Although she could not see nor hear what was inside she knew it was that last place she’d want to be.

  14

  GONE

  Davon and Katharine approached the brightly lit room with caution; leading with his arrow. The Guide entered the room first. A fire burned bright blue in a man-made fire pit on the floor at the very back of the room. There wasn’t much to the room other than a few broken boxes scattered sporadically along the floor. Three large columns lined in a row shot up through the ceiling and looked as if they should have been visible in the church above them.

  The columns were painted with bright hues of yellow paint and drawings of creatures far more frightening than even the Descended themselves with fangs that hung down like swords hanging off a chandelier, red bloody flesh covered in tar and yellow eyes that peered out from the column with such intensity it made Katharine’s skin crawl.

  The walls were covered in blood drawn markings that Katharine did not recognize. The markings varied in shape, some were triangles with extended edges, circles that attached together through their edges and “C” shapes with horizontal lines shooting through them. Underneath a cluster of “C” shaped markings the wall was glowing with a reddish hue.

  The markings reminded her of a tattoo she’d seen on a group of boys who accidentally came across Meadowbrook on their way to Boulder a few summers earlier. They were covered with black tattoos in different shapes and sizes. One of the boys housed a tattoo on his neck that read, “I love Mom.” Katharine couldn’t imagine his mom was too pleased that he had branded himself in her honor for all eternity.

  Despite her initial aversion to the tattoos Katharine and Molli often discussed getting matching tattoos of their own once they graduated. Of course, now getting anything with her best friend would be impossible. Her heart ached for Molli in that moment but she was glad that she would never again feel the kind of fear that Katharine felt as she followed Davon deeper inside the room.

  “Warding spells,” Davon said, nodding at the symbols.

  “Warding spells for what?” Katharine inquired.

  “They are meant to block celestial communication,” Davon’s voice lowered as he continued, “in other words we are on our own.”

  Alone. The word terrified Katharine. Even though she knew Davon was a strong warrior and had come out of every fight on the winning end, the idea that they could not call for help should they run into real trouble was unsettling.

  The intensity of burning flesh began to creep up into Katharine’s nose. She could hear the whisperings of Descended increasing in volume. She concentrated on the sound hoping to hear a hint of Ash beneath the madness. Come on Ash please make a sound. She had been so defiant of what he wanted her to do and the sound of his voice once irritated her but now she imagined hearing him make even the slightest of sounds would be enough.

  As they drew closer to the burning flames in the back of the room the cold air that had followed them from the pathway melted away to allow the warmth of the fire to enter Katharine’s body. She welcomed the sensation and breathed in the warmness of the air as though taking her last few breaths.

  Davon began to examine the remainder of the room, although Katharine could see nothing else of value besides the warmth of the fire. She knelt down in front of the flames and rubbed her hands together in an attempt to rid them of any lingering cold. The warmth pressed against her skin wrapping it like an extended hug from a lover.

  “Well now isn’t this interesting,” a voice said from behind them. The voice was female, not one Katharine recognized, but she heard a very distinct confidence embedded within the female’s tone.

  Although Katharine did not recognize the voice and had been taken aback by its clarity, the Descended’s words were hard to understand beneath the growls, Davon clearly did. As the voice spoke Davon’s face ignited with a fire in his eyes that Ash’s Tracker had never seen before. He turned to peer upon the face of someone he knew quite well and with a moment of hesitation, afraid of what she would see, Katharine did the same.

  The voice belonged to a girl, no older than Katharine, with thick black hair that fell gently over her face as she moved toward them in a stalking motion. She was dressed in a sheer white shirt that revealed the purple laced bra underneath cloaked with a brown leather jacket that was full of buckles and buttons as though it had been tailored by multiple designers, each of which had a far different vision than the next.

  Her legs were hidden under the skinny blue jeans that hugged the tiny curves of her legs and allowed the black boots to slip on over the jeans. Her light green eyes sparkled with a golden tone that Katharine had seen in the vision she’d had just before she and Ash entered Rosehill Church hours earlier.

  “It’s the girl from my vision,” Katharine whispered leaning toward Davon’s ear to make sure he was the only one who heard her, but he was far too fixated on the girl to hear anything.

  The fire in his eyes went unchanged as the arrow settled into the outstretched bow waiting for release and pointing directly at the girl’s heart. They looked at one another the way tainted lovers would after one was found being unfaithful.

  There was a jealousy in Davon’s eyes that was unsettling and left Katharine wondering what their connection was. She wanted to speak up and alleviate her curiosity but the words refused to leave her tongue. They danced around on the tip of it like they were preparing to leap into a springing pirouette but never took the dive.

  “Where is he?” Davon finally spoke, his voice shaking with anger as he moved in a challenging motion toward the unfazed girl whose name had not yet been released to Katharine’s ears. The girl remained silent only smiling ferociously as though she knew a terrible secret that she planned to use against them. Even with a heavenly weapon placed inches from her body the girl’s confidence never wavered. She strode around Davon and Katharine like a shark circling its unsuspecting victims. “I asked you a question.” The Guide who had saved Katharine from herself was in no mood to play games and demanded answers.

  He means Ash. Katharine couldn’t believe in her own naivety that she didn’t realize that this girl, who could have been one of her classmates, was the one who took Ash. Since that night in the quarry Katharine had become quite familiar with the way the Descended looked and acted and this girl had none of the typical characteristics.

  She was beautiful with a slender frame and flawless skin that girls in Meadowbrook would have killed for. There were no claws growing out of her fingers or toes nor was her face mangled in anyway, in fact she was so beautiful Katharine knew that she would give her a run for her money at Carnegie.

  “He’s safe. Not entirely unharmed but safe,” the girl said almost bored. She removed her focus from Davon to Katharine. The gaze was that of a jealous girlfriend sizing up the competition. She snarled as she examined every inch of Katharine’s body. “So
this is his new one huh?”

  She moved to step toward Katharine but before she was able to take a single step Davon placed himself in between the girls raising his arrow so that it’s point lined directly between her eyes. “That is close enough, Angelina.”

  Katharine’s heart fluttered and nearly stopped as the word flew out of Davon’s mouth. Angelina. It couldn’t be Ash’s Angelina. She has no memory and was returned to a normal human life. Besides if she were involved with the Descended Chance would have known about it and said something.

  As if she were trying to convince herself that she hadn’t heard what Davon just said Katharine repeated over and over again, it’s not the same Angelina, but no amount of attempted convincing would change what was staring her right in the face.

  The girl she had seen in her vision was Angelina; the beautiful girl standing atop the rubble was the Tracker who had caused Ash so much grief and pain. The Tracker who came before her, the girl who’d often been referred to as the love of Ash’s life, was now once again standing in Davon’s way.

  Katharine had never been in love, truly in love, but she knew that no matter how bad a breakup could be if you truly love someone you don’t turn your back on him or her. She refused to believe that Angelina had gone to the dark side and was now leading the Descended in a revolt against Heaven and the Guides.

  “I don’t understand. You’re Ash’s Angelina?” Katharine asked as if she had no control over what her mouth did anymore. She had no intention of saying a thing but her lips made other plans for her.

  Angelina glided across the floor to the open fire pit just behind where Davon stood ready for a fight. Her movements were fluid and effortless as though she had no concerns that her life was in any danger. She knelt down beside the flames and began waving her hand above them sending the blue flames swaying back and forth in a repetitive motion. They climbed up her fingers and made their way over the back of her hand until it was completely engulfed by the flames but the former Tracker did not flinch. Instead, she watched the flames slide their way up her forearm before she pursed her lips together, took a deep breath and blew the fire out with one large burst of air.