I can’t…I can’t seem to read them.” He rubbed his eyes and studied the symbols again before shaking his head. “Strange, almost as if they don’t want to be read.”
“Was the divine about when the circles were disbanded and the souls were recalled?”
“I don’t know,” Uriel said. “I didn’t even know the divine was gone until recently.”
Of course, he was a lower circle celestial, not privy to that information. “No worries. Let’s just get this over with. If this power source is here, then there will be some kind of clue or energy signature we may be able to pick up on.”
I was clutching at straws, and we were technically going in blind with no plan, but it made me feel better to say words that made it seem like we knew what the fuck we were doing.
I pulled a dagger from my holster and stepped through the arch. Fog closed in around me, damp and cold. The chill seeped through my clothes to kiss my skin. The world here was gray, black, and muted. We were in an open space, and trees were visible through the fog. This was a path of some kind, made of white pebbles.
“Stay on the path,” Uri said. “I think the path is safe.”
Made sense. The fog was thinnest here, but it hovered thickly on either side of us as if eager for us to come closer so it could smother us.
“What if the power source isn’t on the path?” Keon asked.
He had a point, but my gut told me to stick to the pebbled track. “There has to be some clue.”
Whispers filled the air, and then the hairs on my arms stood to attention. We weren’t alone.
“Who’s there?” Uri demanded.
One of them, a lilting female voice said.
Here? a male voice replied.
Again.
It’s been a while.
Too long, the woman said.
Then maybe we should play our song?
Foreboding bloomed in my stomach just as the haunting notes of a melody rose up in the air. The foreboding morphed into panic, then terror as primal instinct blared a warning.
Keon stared at me, shaking his head. His mouth moved, forming words I couldn’t hear.
“Don’t listen!” I cried out.
He covered his ears, and behind him, so did Uri. The tune was muted now, barely there.
I jerked my head in a let’s-move gesture. Keon nodded, but Uri was a few paces behind him, expression dazed. His hands slowly slipped from his ears.
“Uriel. Don’t—”
He dove off the path and into the fog.
“No!” I made to run after him, but Keon grabbed me around the waist, pulling me to his chest.
He yanked my wrist, forcing me to unplug one ear. “It’s stopped. Although I don’t think it was for us anyway.”
“They wanted him.”
“Yes.”
“We have to go after him.”
“No.”
Had I heard him right? “What?”
“We came here for the power source. We have to stay on mission.” He grabbed my hand and tugged me away from the edge of the trail.
“No.” I twisted my hand out of his grip. “We don’t leave a man behind.”
“We don’t have time to go chasing after him and whatever has him,” Keon said. “In case you’ve forgotten, we’re on the clock. Tick. Fucking tock.”
He was right, of course. We had to put the greater good first. I had to focus on the mission.
You’d let your friend die? Tut, tut.
I shook my head slightly. That voice…
“We leave now,” Keon said.
I couldn’t let my friend die. “And if I’d been taken, what then?”
Keon’s jaw ticked.
“You’d have taken the time to come after me, wouldn’t you?” I took a step away from him and toward the edge of the path. “You’d have tried to save me.”
“Fee, don’t do this.” Keon bared his fangs and advanced on me.
I turned and ran into the fog.
“Uri? Uri, where are you?” I ran through the fog, boots crunching on stuff I couldn’t see.
“Fee!” Keon was hot on my heels. “Damn you, woman.”
Crap, if he caught me, he’d drag me back to the path. This was my only shot at finding Uriel and getting him out. I wouldn’t lose him. I couldn’t.
“Uriel!”
A strange silence descended on me, pressing down on me, its weight a palpable force pushing me to my knees.
“What?” My voice was a gasp. I couldn’t breathe. “Keon…” The word was a vise trying to squeeze the life out of me. I was going to die. “Please, God…”
The pressure eased suddenly, and air rushed into my lungs. I fell forward, hands braced on the earth, gasping in lungsful of sweet air. Oh, God. I… Fuck.