I look at Gretel, “Okay, let’s do this.”
Three
Mona looks down, “I don’t know what happened. His eyes met mine and my heart felt like it exploded.” She smiles and twitches her head a bit. “It’s silly.” She looks up, “We haven’t even had sex yet.”
I scowl, “Why not?”
She swallows hard, “Wrong time of the month to get married. Came yesterday when we got here. Stella found me some old rags. I’m wearing them and basically blocking it out.”
“Wow.”
Her face twists up, “Even worse, he didn’t care. He still wanted to you know, and I was like uhhhh, what? No. Hell no. He actually said, if it’s your first time you will bleed anyway. I was stunned, I think I still am. Boys are gross, even Fae boys.”
It makes me laugh. She laughs with me. My chest aches, “I’m so sorry I missed it.”
She shrugs, “Rayne, the fact I managed to fall in love quickly, while hell is breaking loose and the world is falling apart, is a miracle. My parents are dead. Your parents are evil. You have dueling daggers in your heart, fighting for the chance to be the most important man to you. Michelle is a skeezy bitch who has screwed us over. And we’re in England at a castle, with no proper female hygiene products, and the world is ending.”
I shudder, making her laugh again. “The world is ending, Rayne. Sneak out there and pick a guy and love him for all the time that’s left.”
I nod. If only she knew how hard that actually was. Childish and immature Rayne wants to pick Wyatt. She wants to be in that young, freshman love that is so passionate, it blinds everything around it. Romantic Rayne wants to love Count Dracula and be his and let him consume her entire being with his ancient love.
I wish it were the same as it is for her. I wish I just saw one and knew.
She takes my hand in hers, “Now go and kill everything you can. Me, Gill, and Michelle are going to stay here with Stella and start scavenging for food and stuff. We have to actually build a life here, I’m afraid.”
My eyes lower, “I think it’s actually hitting me. The future we wanted and worked for, it’s gone, isn’t it?”
She nods, “School doesn’t matter. The world is on fire and no one is going to survive it. Not even you and not even me. You need to fix the things you can and forget the rest. Save Wyatt, kill your dad, and come back here to us. We will plot the antichrist thingy together.”
“Okay.”
She smiles again, “He isn’t gay, right?”
I laugh, “He isn’t gay. Just like Michelle isn’t a guy, not really. He’s fae, they’re different. Maybe they’re like flexible and think sex is sex, like prisoners. Not like prisoners, I mean uhm. Well, he met Constantine and never batted an eyelash at him. I think he’s just a nice guy who the evil fae queen used to lure my mom and other women to the fae land and bargain their lives away.”
She frowns, “Like prisoners? What the hell was that? No. And Michelle is a bitch.”
I laugh, “Michelle is angry. Her soul is tarnished, and I don’t know if we will ever get her back.”
She hugs me, “Be safe, okay?”
“Okay.”
I get up abruptly and leave the room. If I hugged her any longer, I would stay there. My chicken-shit tendencies, as my father called them, are starting to act up. For whatever reason, I have made him bigger than Lillith in my mind.
Constantine was boarding his helicopter when I got in the yard, “We will fly to my jet; the pilot is waiting there for us now. He says the tarmac is alright, for now.”
I climb into the helicopter next to Gretel because there is a lack of seating. She scowls at me, “We’ve spent so much time researching. We can’t figure out where he would have taken him, but we know the horsemen are in Asia. They have been moving east. The only place the last one has to visit is America. From the sounds of things, one quarter of the world will be gone. That’s over two billion people dead.”
I can feel that number rolling around inside of me. “What can I do against them? How am I strong enough to fight them?”
“You have the light.”
“What?”
Her eyes glow; I can see something lurking in them that she doesn’t want me to see. “You have the light of the world, Rayne. I know you do. You killed Lillith, you have it. The light can kill the dark.”
I roll my eyes, “Great. That explains so much. Lucky thing you researched a ton.”
Constantine scoffs, “Stop being petulant. We have to end this the way it started. It started with the light.”
“Whatever.”
The ride is bumpy and the landscape is terrifying. Burned-out houses and destroyed farms. When we get to the city, I am stunned. London is on fire. Cars line the freeways, trying to leave, but they are not moving. People are walking, carrying everything they have left in the world. For most, it is children in their arms.
The roads are burned and bombed. The buildings are in ruin. One day the people in the future who survive this will look back and hate us for what we have done. We wrecked everything. For what? So my father could rule the world? It doesn’t even make sense. Why did God even build the world? What is the point?
I am taken by the dead on the jet, my sisters claim me. I wake in a room somewhere. It’s cold and there is no power. I am alone. The room is dirty and gross, like a seedy motel. When I leave, I realize that’s exactly what it is. I am standing in a parking lot of a deserted motel. The sign is laying on the ground. It’s cold and damp.
“Constantine?” I don’t shout. I’m scared of what is in the grey air around me.
He’s there instantly, “My love. We have to go. They found a trail.”
I shake my head, ”How long was I out?”
“Five days.”
I close my eyes, “Why do they take me when you need me?”
He winks at me, “You aren’t eating, Rayne. You need rest.”
I look at him, “Let’s go. I’m sure I can find food along the way.” He smiles, “They are this way.” We walk a block, and I find the thing I need. I follow it, the smell. It cramps my stomach. I’ve been too many weeks without food.
When I find the source of the smell, I am surprised. He’s young. He smiles at me, and I can see the evil in his eyes.
“What are you looking at?” he asks with serious attitude. He is alone on the side of the road, outside of a destroyed gas station.
I smile back at him, “Have you been bad?”
He shakes his head, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Get lost.”
“I only come to those who have been evil, but you’re what—fifteen?”
He laughs but doesn’t answer me. He pulls a knife, “Let me show you just how old I am.”
I grab him by the collar. He sinks his knife into my side. I grab his face, planting my lips on his and sucking greedily. The taste is divine. It’s coconut cream pie and fries and gravy. It’s food I snuck, all the while pretending to love the roasted seaweed Willow made me eat. He tastes like a cheat day. When he drops, I pull the dirty blade from my side and drop it to the ground, next to his dead body. I need more.
Constantine calls me, “You can eat more later, come on.”
I shake my head, “I’m starving.”
“I know. Let’s go. Wyatt is waiting.”
I stumble after him, not happy about not eating more. It’s addictive. Once I start eating again, I can’t stop. Constantine mutters at me, “You always do this. You go long periods without food and then you eat everyone in sight.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do. You did it as Ellie all the time. I would find you face deep in the embrace of dead people after you had starved yourself for months.”
I bite my lip. I know he’s right. I can vaguely recall it.
“Where are we going?”
He points at the hotel district we are heading for, “Wyatt was down here. They caught his scent, his real scent.” He looks at me, “You should be able to feel him when we get close enough.”
I nod, “It worked that way last time. He could track me, and I could sense him tracking me.”
He smirks, “Lucky you got handfasted again.”
I sigh, “The dead wanted me to do it so I could bring the dagger into the garden, I know it. They wanted me to sacrifice his love in the garden and kill Lillith. They never wanted it to be you.”
He gives me a sideways look, “Yeah, but you did.”
“I didn’t know I had to pull a dagger from your heart to kill my mom.”
He doesn’t say anything for a minute. I don’t know what to say. I feel awful about loving two men. Awful!
He gives me a pained glance, “But you were happy it was me and not him.”
I can’t lie to him. I nod, “I don’t know that I love him more than you, but I know I love him differently. I know I love you and him. I wish I could change that.”
“You wish you could just love him?” The tone in his voice stabs at my heart.
I shake my head, “No. I wish I could love you both as friends. I wish I didn’t love anyone romantically. It will make it easier in the end.”
“The end of what?”
I feel sick, “Me.” He doesn’t get a chance to respond. I feel it instantly, “He’s here.”