Forsaken (Academy of the Fallen #4) Page 2

  She actually rolls her eyes at me and I shake my head.

  “Look, I’m trying to find ways out of here, and by here, I mean Hell and not just this house. There are wards blocking a lot of what we can do but he’s gone from time to time and we can maybe try something then. In the meantime, just do what he says. Maybe he’ll get tired of us and let us go back.”

  She steps back and looks around. She then walks back to the window and just stares at the fire. Even from inside, we can hear the lost souls screaming from far away. It all comes from a dark area, way ahead of where we are.

  “What is over there?” she asks.

  “The Otherworld.”

  She turns to look at me then smiles like she just realized something.

  “What am I missing?” I ask.

  “We need to get out of this building and get into the Otherworld. That is our way out.”

  I laugh. “I doubt that. I’m not going to try and leave here to be trapped somewhere else.”

  “Once we’re there, Hunter can go get us out.”

  I’m really laughing now. “Right!”

  She gives me a pissed off look. “It happened before.”

  “I’ve heard rumors, but I find it hard to believe that Hunter got you out of the Otherworld.”

  “He did,” she says in a firm tone and I realize she is serious.

  “Huh.”

  “Are you in or out?”

  “I’m in, but this is not as easy as you’re making it out to be. For one thing, those lost souls are going to be on us like human girls are on me.” I smirk, messing around with her and it’s actually fun that I managed to piss her off even more. “Look, we can’t try anything until Ezra is gone and we should probably do as he says until we figure out the wards.”

  “I’m not taking instructions from a demon!”

  “All he wants is for us to learn what the other knows about being nephilim. That could actually help us.”

  She gives me a doubtful look but doesn’t say anything.

  She looks around again, taking in the room and her gaze stops where the mattress is. She looks disgusted and she should be. This place is dirty as hell… no pun intended.

  “And where do you sleep?” she asked.

  “Hmm, right here.”

  “I don’t think so. It’s bad enough we are trapped in Hell. I’m not going to be trapped in the same room with you 24-7!”

  THREE

  HUNTER

  We meet Chase outside the Academy and I tell him about Irene’s visit. Chase had been traveling back and forth between the Academy and Kayla’s house, keeping everyone updated on everything.

  “How is Kim?” I ask.

  He shrugs. She is adjusting well, but she still wants to help find Kayla.

  “She’s better off where she is.”

  “I agree. She also helps keep Kayla’s adoptive parents somewhat sane with everything that’s going on.”

  I nod.

  The small talk doesn’t last long and I’m glad.

  “Ready?” asks Xavier.

  He transports us to the first location on the paper that Irene gave us.

  There is snow everywhere and I’m only wearing jeans, boots, and a black shirt. I’m shivering so much I can barely keep the dagger still. This should be fun.

  Xavier looks at me and realizes that unlike him and Chase, I feel everything.

  “Let’s just hurry up and get moving,” I say.

  We move through a dark and cold forest. The trees are covered in snow. There is a clear path surrounded by trees on both sides and luckily, the snow on the ground is no more than an inch deep, so we can still move relatively fast. Xavier still moves slow, careful with every step so he’ll be able to sense any demons before they can sense us. Me, I can’t get there fast enough. In spite of the freezing cold, the hilt of the dagger burns against my skin as if it’s hungry for demons’ blood.

  At the other end of the path, there is a cabin. There are no signs that anyone has been here in a long time. Still, we approach carefully. Knowing that adrenaline rush should get rid of this freezing cold, I hope there are at least some demons around, but we soon confirm there is nothing. Chase goes through the door and into the house and within minutes, Xavier is transporting us to the second location.

  This is also a wooded area, but luckily, without the snow. As soon as I take one step forward, I know Kayla is close by. I can feel her. This cabin is right in the middle of the woods. Xavier and I walk in slowly. Xavier can sense that one of the fallen was here recently. Right now, there’s no sound, but I can feel her. I’m holding on to her dagger, my heart pounding, and as soon as Xavier nods, meaning that he doesn’t feel any demons here, I rush through the house opening every door, until I get to the last door at the end of the hallway. Unlike the other doors, this one is metal, and there are wards keeping me from opening the door. I slam against the door, trying to break in, but my arm gets burned. The door is hot as if on fire, but there is smoke and no smell of anything burning.

  I face Xavier and his eyes are wide open.

  “She is in there!” I tell him.

  He nods. “In a way, yes, but you won’t be able to open it.”

  “Why the hell not?”

  “It’s best if you don’t know.”

  “Tell me!” I yell.

  He sighs. “She is in that room, but she isn’t.”

  “He took her to the Otherworld, didn’t he? I’m going to get her back. I did it before. Chase helped me then. We can do it again.”

  I start to walk out. “HUNTER, STOP! She’s not in the Otherworld. That room is a portal to a place far worse than that.”

  I tighten my grip around Kayla’s dagger… the only thing I have of hers. “WHERE DID HE TAKE HER?”

  “Hunter…” he hesitates.

  I lower my voice, “Please, just tell me,” I beg.

  Xavier looks me in the eyes and I know the answer before he says it.

  “She’s in Hell.”

  I swallow the lump in my throat.

  “We need that door down,” I say.

  “It won’t matter. The door is warded and the portal won’t open for just anyone.”

  “Fine, we’ll get a demon to open it.”

  “It won’t work, Hunter. I’m sorry. This house belongs to him… only he and his offspring can open that portal.”

  “Benjamin—” I say.

  “Even if Irene finds him, it’s unlikely that he’ll help,” says Xavier.

  “I’ll make sure he does.” I turn around and punch the wall, knowing that in reality, I don’t stand a chance against him. “Is there any other way?”

  “Not that I know of,” Xavier says, “but she is nephilim and if Samael is with her, they may be able to find their way back. There are no measurements of what kind of power nephilim have. Anything is possible.”

  “Yeah, right.” I say, shaking my head, “you seem to forget that Samael was the one who took her there!”

  FOUR

  KAYLA

  I feel tired and I don’t understand why. Samael did say that our Nephilim instinct kicked in, but I really have no clue what it all means. Right now, I just sit alone in the room and try not to fall asleep.

  We didn’t exactly agree on the sleeping situation. We went back and forth and eventually, when we could feel Ezra was gone, Samael said he was going to take a look around.

  He has been gone for a while now and I decide that I have to do something. I sit on the mattress, which is practically the only clean thing in the room. I close my eyes and try to get into Hunter’s head. I hope and pray that maybe I can communicate with him that way. I get nothing. I think about him, his hair, his eyes, the feel of his hands on mine, still nothing. I try and try and I’m now even more exhausted, but I don’t stop until I feel Samael’s hand on my shoulders.

  “Take a break before you pass out,” he says.

  I open my eyes and sigh.

  “I have bad news,” he says.

  I ro
ll my eyes at him. “You mean, worse than being in Hell?”

  “Haha. I’m glad I still manage to amuse you, even in Hell. But… the bad news is that the wards seem impossible to get through,” he pauses. “I’m assuming you didn’t get through to Hunter either.”

  I shake my head.

  “You should rest.”

  “I thought you said there were human things we didn’t need because of our Nephilim instincts taking over while we are here.”

  “You still need rest. The fallen need rest and so do we. Now that you are aware, we can take turns staying awake in case Ezra comes back. It would be good for at least one of us to be alert.”

  I nod.

  “Go ahead. I’ll get some sleep when you wake up.”

  “Well, I can’t sleep with you in the same room, watching me.”

  He rolls his eyes. “Not that I would be watching you, but whatever, I’ll stay right outside the door.”

  “Good.”

  He walks out and I lay down, looking around. I hate this place and the fact that it’s so dirty makes me wonder if there are bugs in Hell. I haven’t seen any yet so hopefully that is a good sign. Well, as good as it gets anyway.

  For the first time since I woke up, I look down at me. I look clean, but I feel filthy. I just wish I could take a long shower and go to my own bed, in my own world. I look at my arms and see bruises. I almost get up to ask Samael how they got there, but I’m too tired to move. I decide to ask him as soon as I’m up again.

  I close my eyes and fall asleep right away.

  I can see Hunter. He’s in my room, but he can’t get to me. Next to my body is the demon. He’s in human form, but I can sense that disgusting essence that demons have. Close to him, there is someone whose face I can’t see. That someone picks me up but I still can’t see his face. I scream and I hear the demon laugh. I look at Hunter and the look on his face is of pure terror. I try to get away from the one who’s carrying me, but I can’t move. I can’t feel anything from my neck down.

  “Wait!” orders the demon. “I want her to watch this.”

  The one carrying me stops and the demon smiles at me before he starts to walk toward Hunter. I want to scream, but the sound doesn’t come out. Like me, Hunter can’t move. He stands there with his eyes locked on mine as the demon transforms into this six-foot tall creature, with black hardened skin. His eyes are bright yellow, and even though his nails are long enough to stab someone, he grabs my dagger from the dresser and launches toward Hunter, piercing his heart with it. Hunter is immortal, but just like my dagger is the one thing that can kill demons, it can also destroy Hunter and I know this because I can feel that he is gone. At that moment, I can move again, but I don’t want to. All I can do is scream and scream…

  “KAYLA!”

  I wake up from that nightmare with tears running down my face. I can feel his arms go around me, but it’s not Hunter, it’s Samael, and I push him away.

  “Don’t!” I warn him.

  He stands up and steps away.

  “Sorry, I—I was just trying to help.”

  This is the first time I see Samael with a lost look on his face. I take a deep breath, dry the tears with my hands, and look at the ring that Hunter gave me. I only look at it for a split second but it’s enough to take me right back to that moment and remember the look in his eyes as he promised me to be my protector and to find a way for us to be together. That instantly calms me down.

  When I look back at Samael, he turns around and starts to walk out of the room with a hurt look on his face and I stop him.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you. I just—I have a lot of nightmares, well, I hadn’t had them for a while, but,” I take a deep breath again. “Hunter always woke me up from them.”

  He nods in understanding but he still has that hurt look on his face and for some reason, I can’t stand to look into his eyes.

  “Look, I’m wide awake now. You should get some sleep.”

  He nods. “Stay in the room though. You won’t want to accidently run into Ezra out there if he returns. I don’t want you alone with him.”

  “I can handle myself.”

  He sounds irritated now. “Look, I’m sure you can, but please, don’t. We have a better chance to get out of here if there are still two of us around.”

  “Fine!”

  I get up, walk toward the door, and stand against it.

  “You can sit on the mattress. I don’t mind and I don’t bite.”

  “I’m okay,” I say.

  He shrugs and lies down on the mattress, facing the wall, away from me. Seconds later, I can hear him snoring and I roll my eyes at him.

  I stand there and even standing I start to doze off, and then I hear a loud noise that sounds like a door slamming.

  I check to make sure Samael is still sleeping. When I hear him snore again, I crack the door open and sneak toward the end of the hallway where the noise came from. I stand near a closed door and I can hear two voices, a male and a female.

  “I assume if you’re summoning me that you have everything ready,” she says.

  “Of course I have. Just as we agreed.”

  “Very well, Ezra. I must say I’m impressed. I never thought a plan of creating him would work, not until you got both Nephilim.”

  There is silence in the room and I think of rushing back, wondering if they are maybe ready to go, but then, she speaks again.

  “Do you have a plan in place to teach him all that he needs to know to help us?”

  “Of course. That is why the Nephilim are still here. What we got from them will only take us so far. Once their knowledge is passed on, they will be able to return to their useless lives.”

  “Ah, Ezra, and you believe they will teach him everything?”

  “They have to. The girl has attachments to the human world and the boy and I already made a deal. They have to help or they will never get what they want. Trust me, there’s a reason I’m allowing them to live after this is all said and done.”

  “Very well,” she says. “I will be seeing you again soon.”

  Knowing she is about to leave, I rush back to the room.

  FIVE

  I close the door with more strength than I should have. Samael jumps awake and stares at me.

  “Where were you?”

  “Pssst. He is here.”

  “Again, where were you?”

  “Down the hall,” I whisper as I walk closer to him.

  I stand near the mattress where he sits.

  “Do you ever listen?” he asks in a frustrated tone.

  “Not to you. Anyway, he was talking to a woman.”

  “And?”

  “He was talking about us.”

  He gives me a concerned look and I feel a pressure in my head. I automatically block him out.

  “We are not doing this. Stay out of my head and I’ll stay out of yours. If you want to know something, you ask me.”

  “Fine. What were they saying?” he whispers.

  “He was talking about us teaching someone what we know about being a Nephilim.”

  He gives me a puzzled look then laughs. “Someone who? We can teach them all day. They won’t be able to do anything unless this person is Nephilim.”

  “I don’t know. He mentioned someone he created. Do you know what that means?”

  He shrugs. “Demons are freaking insane. Someone he created… he probably means one of his sons. For all we know he’ll be bringing Benjamin around to be taught how to be a Nephilim. Yeah, this should get interesting.” He laughs.

  I shiver just at the thought of seeing Benjamin again.

  “There was something else he said…”

  “What?” he asks.

  “He mentioned that he made some kind of deal with you. What was all that about?”

  He shrugs. “I have no idea. He probably knew you were listening and wanted to mess with you.”

  I study him and I know there is something off about the way he sou
nds.

  “You’re lying.”

  He shakes his head. “You’re being paranoid. Look, I don’t know what he is talking about, okay? Just let it go.”

  He lays back down, turns around and goes back to sleep right away.

  At this point, I don’t trust him at all, but he is my way out of here, so I have no choice but to let it go.

  I walk over to the window and sit on the windowsill. Outside, there is nothing but mud, grass, and fires. I stare at the destruction outside, the angry fires at random spots that light up the way to the vast darkness of the Otherworld far ahead. I remember how awful that place was and how I didn’t think there could be a place worse than that. How wrong was I? At least if I was stuck there, I knew there was hope of Hunter and Chase finding me and taking me back. I hate changes, I hate the unknown, and I’m getting this gut feeling that this is probably where I will be stuck forever. I wonder how everyone is back at home. I wonder if the academies are safe and even if time there passes like it does here. I can’t bear the thought of getting back one day, if I even get back, and finding out that years have passed and that everyone I know is older—that I’m older—and that the only years I could ever get to spend with Hunter were wasted with me being stuck here. I know I should think that would be preferable than not being able to go back at all, but I can’t. I just have to hope I can go back soon and that things will be the same.

  I look down and stare at my ring, the one Hunter gave me, and once again, I think about the promise he made.

  I have to fight. I have to go back to him.

  I close my eyes for a split second and when I open my eyes and turn around, I find Samael sitting up and staring at me.

  “What?” I ask.

  “Hunter gave you that ring, didn’t he?”

  “Who else would have?” I snap back.

  “Why don’t you just cut your losses now? Things will never work between you and him. Not for the long term anyway.”

  “Well, I’ll take whatever time I can get.”

  Something changes in the way he looks at me.

  “I’m just trying to help you out. You’ll end up getting hurt in the end and the longer you wait, the tougher it’ll be.”