Chapter 14~~~ Burning with revenge
Razakiel's POV
Smoke drift away in black swirls upon the slight breeze. The small particles float apart, seeking out a new home; somewhere to rejoin the earth and bring life once more. The crackle of the flames is barely audible over the desperate pleas escaping Carli; Ahreal the only one keeping her upright as her legs buckle unable to hold her up under the immense weight of her grief. Ahreal's face is like stone, the distress from earlier washed away in the face of her wrath. They'll die for this; she'd promise before setting the torch on pyre. Watching the two women grieve from a few paces back, Luc's hand in my hand, I have no doubt that they will. But who exactly was she blaming for his death I'm not sure; Nicholas? The demons? Lucifer himself? Or me?
"Hey, it wasn't your fault. And she doesn't blame you." Luc murmurs from beside me leaning closer so her shoulder rest gently against my arm, glancing down at the broken angel by my side a sense of understanding settles over me.
"It wasn't your fault either, Luc." Her body tenses at my words and I feel her pulling away from me in her head before she even starts to move, "No." and I tug her to my side, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
"Zak," she struggles with the new position.
"No Luc. I'm serious it's not your fault. Nicholas killed him. It's his fault not yours." Her eyes remain focused on the two figures before the flames, but I feel I flicker of doubt in her and a anger replaces it and she wrenches herself from my arms.
"How do you expect me to believe that when you're still blaming yourself completely? Don't even try to deny it Zak, I can tell when you're lying remember."
"I would never lie to you Luc." I sigh, wishing she would just understand, then realization hits me, "How do you know how I feel?"
"I… uh, I'm not entirely sure, when you put your arm around me I just kind of knew. It's gone now though." With a slight hesitation she steps towards me her eyes never leaving mine, even as she gently takes my hand in hers and lifts my arm back around her shoulders. I don't realize I was holding my breath the entire time until she smiles and all the air escapes my lungs in a rush. The tinkling laugh that escapes her lips leave me wide eyed.
"It…"
"Zak! Luc! We have to stop him we have to stop Lucifer. The angels are after Luc; I wasn't going to help you. I was going to make you give her to them so they would never know about you. Now it's too late for that. The two of you have to run. You have to stop him and his two demons from destroying the world. You're the only ones capable of doing so. Carli will help you. She has a few talents as well, but you need to leave immediately they are already on their way. They're already on their way. If you need help, Issa will call me. I'll do what I can. And if find Nicholas call me immediately! I will tear that worthless Cain to pieces with my bare hands." As her mother spoke, Issa slowly pulled herself together.
"We all have to shield ourselves and each other, or they'll be able to follow us. And we have to go on foot, because they have trackers that can follow an angel's flight." Carli said, her voice strengthening in the process. She looks at her mother for reassurance.
"Exactly. Now go." She points out into the trees, her eyes focused in the direction like she expects someone to appear any moment. "I'll wait till they are here before I take off; hopefully they'll follow thinking your all with me. It will gain you a bit of time. Go!" We take off running in the direction she pointed, shields up and ready, trees blurring together around us as we run for our lives.
I keep Luc and Carli in front of me not letting them escape my sight as we dashed through the crowded trees attempting to follow the small animal trails. As the light starts to fade out of the day our pace steadily slows until eventually, we come to a stop amongst trees, a bit broader and packed together. As we stand starring at each other in the midst of an emerald sea, shrouded in the darkness of the fading light, and the knowledge of hopeless odds, glaring smiles of relief spring across our features one by one and soft laughter comes out between our lips.
"Well, ladies, I guess we survived once again. Maybe we'll even live to see another day. Shall we attempt to find somewhere more suitable to sleep for the night?" I ask them my gaze shifting between the two before coming to rest upon Luc, her face lit up by a smile.
"Well, there must be somewhere around here and with enough space for us to at least lie down." Carli replies, closing her eyes for a moment, all motion ceasing as she becomes the center of some unseen force. After minutes of her listening to the forests around us, Carli's eyes finally snap open. "There's a small creek not too far away, with a bit of clearing beside it. Shall we?" she asks leading us further into the trees.
Weaving our way between the forest giants as we follow Carli, the darkness enshrouds us. A darkness so complete finding where to safely place our feet becomes almost impossible and I feel fear tickling into my veins, though I personally have not been afraid of darkness as she has. Before I have a chance to reach out and help her through the dark fears, a steady glow builds around us until a perfect globe of light floats above Luc's head. Stunned both Carli and I stop dead in our tracks and Luc almost walks into Carli before she realizes the girl has stopped in front of her.
"What?" she asks confusion written in her face; she glances around as if waiting from something to jump out at any moment.
"I know, we've been both developing new abilities recently, but you are aware you just conjured up a mini sun out of thin air correct?"
"Yeah, it was dark." She said quietly her gaze falling to her feet as if ashamed. "I remembered what you said about Luci…" her gaze darted to our surroundings, "about how my father, can project so I thought perhaps I should try in the event that I could so as well, and, well clearly I can." She finished indicating the ball of light floating above her. Lifting my eyes to Carli's in the moment of silence following Luc's offhand explanation, I take a step forward as Carli shrugs and turns to continue leading us to our destination. Luc turns back to me questions in her eyes.
"Ah, well, usually, projectors use the light around them to create images or projections that look real. They don't usually or well ever their own light out of darkness." She takes a step towards me and reaches out her hand to take mine. Instantly the ball of lighter increases twice the size it was and without thinking I yank Luc behind me. A short bubble of laughter leapt from her lips at my actions and I couldn't stop my answering grin from forming as I realized the ball of light had followed her behind me and was absolutely no danger to her.
"Hurry guys it's kind of dark up here." Carli up from ahead.
"Sorry." We both managed to call back at the same time. As we move to follow Carli once more, Luc releases my hand and the light falls back to its original intensity.
The tinkling trickle of water running steadily along its bed, between crumbling rocks and eroding earth, entered our ears minutes later and Carli's pace quickened at the sound until we almost ran the last few meters. Flooding with the unearthly light of Luc's globe, the crystalline water shimmered in the temporary glow, sending fragments of light into the dark world beyond our small space attempting to reveal its hidden secrets to the world.
Without waiting for further instructions from Carli, I sink to the ground, leaning my back against one of the broad tree trunks and let my eyes fall closed.
"Zak you can't sleep like that." Luc as she moves a few paces back into the trees, taking her light with her.
"Where are you going Luc?" I call, but she doesn't respond and as the light becomes ever so distant, fear filter in my veins and I move to my feet. The light begins to make its way back towards us and the slightest hint of relief begins to relax my tense frame. Luc emerges from the woods like a savior returning to her people, a broad smile on her lips and a rustling mound of branches and leaves in her arm. Ignoring our raised brows and questioning gazes., she simply drops a pile by my tree, takes a branch with long thick leaves still attached and begins sweeping the rocks from the ground around us. Seeing her intentions, I step up to take the branch and finish the job for her, so she can begin laying down her leaves and mosses in an attempt at a makeshift bed for the three of us.
"There. Now we might actually get some sleep." She says after she's done. Refusing to meet my gaze and admit her real reason for delaying sleep to make a more comfortable sleeping space. And I refuse to ruin her mood by pointing out that she was still going to face her fears and lay down to sleep at some point, though as if she can easily read my mind as I can her, her gaze meets mine and terror fills it as she realizes the time has come for sleep. I give her a gentle smile, take her hand and move us over to where Carli is already making comfortable amongst the leaves and before she can hesitate, I tighten my grip on her hand, drag her down beside me and shut off the light she created as easily as if I had projected it myself.