Guardians(26)
Everyone in the room stands still. My heart races and my palms go cold.
“If any of us raise our hand after you ask the question, you’re gonna just let everything drop?”
“Yes.”
“Fine. What’s the question?”
“If anyone in this room thinks Emmy wouldn’t risk her life to save them?”
The silence is so loud it practically buzzes. Marcus waits. No one raises their hands.
Marcus asks the question again. And again, no one raises their hand.
“Then explain this to me: How come the girl with no wings and no powers is willing to die for us but we’re running like hell when it’s time to save her?”
Marcus waits earnestly for a response. No one had anything to say. Marcus then confesses to the group softly:
“I know this is going to be beyond difficult. But I’m not asking my team to follow me into battle; I’m asking my family.”
Jay is the first to respond.
“I got you. For real.”
The others nod silently.
“Thank you,” Marcus replies.
“Um…I don’t want to ruin this ‘all for one and one for all’ moment but who is Linden? And what did Kairo do to him?” I ask.
They all look at each other. Rio is the first to speak.
“Linden was a Traveler Angel. He wasn’t very good at it. He was always failing to report to the Council because he’d get caught up with his true passion, painting. His paintings were so genius, he was commissioned by all of the Original Paras and basically every Angel in the Light.”
“Kairo heard of Linden’s work. He asked Linden to paint him. Linden refused. He said he would rather die than do it. Kairo was livid. He sent Demons to capture Linden and bring him to the castle.”
“He killed Linden?” I ask, unable to hold back.
“No,” Miku says.
“He cut off Linden’s arms and legs. He then placed him in a dungeon with full sets of paints and brushes to taunt him. Kairo force-fed Linden a mixture to take away his short-term memory. So everyday he wakes up thinking he can paint, then he witnesses the horror of his mutilated body. He screams and cries every time like it was the first time.”
“Oh Omnis, why would he do that?” I beg.
“Kairo isn’t turned on by pain alone. He likes to get inside your head and make you wish
you were dead,” Miku explains.
“It’s been said if you stand still on a windy day and you hear the wind howling, that’s Linden calling out ‘Kill me, kill me’ over and over again,” Rio adds.
“He’s sadistic,” I say, mostly to myself.
“Lucy made him, so…yes, he is,” Ameana concludes.
“This is the guy we’re going after? Marcus, we can’t. If he gets any of you, he’ll torture you guys for eternity.”
“Emmy, he won’t get us,” Marcus promises.
“Has anyone ever tried to find Linden?”
“No one has made it inside the castle.”
“How many years has it been?” I ask.
“Not years. Cycles.”
“Cycles?”
My heart sinks. I don’t want to know anymore about Kairo. I just want everything to be still. I want to somehow make this all go away. I sit down on the bed and shut my eyes. The picture of the mangled painter flashes in my head.
We can’t go up against that kind of lunatic. How do you defeat a psychotic demon that the Angels aren’t allowed to kill?
I’m so deep inside my head I don’t realize that the team has left Marcus and I in the room alone. He sits down next to me.
“Look at me,” he asks gently.
I shake my head “no.”
He reaches out and slowly turns my head to face him. A fresh stream of warm tears flows down my face.
“He’s gonna torture you,” I sob.
He pulls me into his chest. I sob against him. He strokes my hair and kisses my forehead.
We’re quiet for several minutes. The only sound is my crying.
“I can’t let you do it. I can’t let you guys face Kairo.”
“Hey, look at me,” he asks again.
I reluctantly look into my Angel’s face.
“Nothing Kairo does to me will ever compare to what your absence does to me.”
“But Marcus—”
“Emmy, the first few weeks I came to Earth and I tried to stay away from you, those were my days of torture.”
“I can’t handle you guys dying for me.”
“It’s an Angel’s honor to give up their lives for courageous humans.”
“I’m not courageous. Courageous humans don’t cry into their boyfriend’s chests.”
“They do. And then they dry their eyes and get ready to battle,” he says, as he dries my tears with tissues from the box by the bed.