Embrace, Entice, Emblaze (82 page)

downed it. Salvatore, who couldn’t manage and left his coffee

untouched, gave me a nod of respect. I suppose it takes an Italian to understand that kind of dedication to the bean.

When we walked out of the coffee shop, I felt something shift.

A distinctive alteration. The air was thinner, the gravity unstable. I slowed, struggling to understand the change. Salvatore walked on, none the wiser. My senses were everywhere. I half expected to look around and be surrounded by exiles.

“Linc!” I called out.

He only had time to spin around and face me before he stalled.

Everything
stilled.

A kind of amplified noiselessness surrounded me. It reminded

me of putting a seashell to my ear. My heavy, frantic breathing echoed like a tornado. I felt hurt each time my stomach rose up into my chest and plummeted back down to my gut.
Not
good.

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“Lincoln!” I yelled again, but it was futile.

No one else reacted when the sands started to roll in. I wondered if I was losing my mind, if somehow the memories of my time in

the desert had driven me completely insane. I watched, unable to walk or run, though I wasn’t sure if the inability was enforced by another or just human nature. The dust storm settled and cleared my view of a man who had not been standing in front of me a

moment before.

I fought for feeling in my legs. I needed to be sure I could move them if it came to a fight. The thing about angels is, you just never know. Especially, I suspected, when it came to this one.

“Hello, Nox,” I said.

“Hello, Violet,” he said, keeping a clear distance from me.

I knew it wasn’t that he was scared of me, more that I repulsed him somehow.

“You have been busy since we last met. Are you enjoying your

new path?”

I remembered how he had asked me about Phoenix when I’d

embraced. “You knew this would happen. You knew that Phoenix

would turn on me, didn’t you?” I responded, suddenly angry that angels had the power to play these games, that they seemed to enjoy manipulating humans like pawns on a chessboard.

He raised his chin before adjusting his silver cuff links. His suit was different from the one he’d worn last time. This one was more like a tuxedo, with tapered, shiny seams. His shoulder- length, sandy- blond hair was slicked back.

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“I did not put any of it into effect, if that is what you are suggesting.”

“Right, like I’d believe that!” I wanted to call out to Lincoln again. It was sickening to know he was so close and yet so far.

“Do you think it matters what you believe? Do you think it

could change the reasoning or fact of any situation? I have presented many paths to you, Violet. I will present many more. I do not find value in lying to you.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about Phoenix?”

He ran a hand over his jawline, the way men do after they’ve

shaved. He just seemed intrigued. “You discovered it at the right time, in the right way. That is all you need to know.”

“Great.” I’d forgotten how annoying my angel guides were.

“Where are we, anyway?” I asked, looking around. I could still see Lincoln, maybe ten yards away, and Salvatore nearby, but they were completely unaware of me. Nox wasn’t exactly here either. When I looked closely, his feet, still in those patent- leather black shoes, were in the sand of his desert. He was here but not at the same time, and behind him, something was moving. Clear swirls of something inde-finable, almost translucent, that blurred like drifting sunspots.

“We are exactly where we were a moment ago.”

“Nox. How are we talking to each other and why can’t anyone

else see us?”

“Realms are just layers. There are many layers; any one layer is at any time close to another. Right now, your realm and my realm are like a pair of fragile curtains blowing in the breeze through an open window, moving just enough that at one point, they touch.” 334

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“Our realms are overlapping,” I said, trying to understand.

“Very good. For a time, in this place, the realms are touching.”

“You can do that?”

“It is not without difficulties, and I had to pay a price,” he said, now unhappy. Why Nox had bothered to pay anything in order to

see me made me very nervous.

“Why can no one else see?” I asked as I silently willed Lincoln to find me.

“Time has been altered. It would not be good if everyone

else could see these things. I can see them because I am a guide, linked to both realities as much as any angel— elect or malign— is now permitted.”

“And me?”

He nodded, showing some vague form of fascination. “I admit,

I did not know if you would be able to see me. It is part of the reason for my journey.”

“So it was a test?”

“Yes. And no.”

“Why? I thought you guys knew everything.”

“We do,” he said shortly.

“Everything but that which comes from above you,” I said,

remembering what Griffin had explained to me once before.

“How’s your conscience, Violet?” Nox sneered, now angry.

“Why did you come here?” I retorted quickly, knowing to stand

my ground. I hadn’t meant to anger him, but now that I had, I

decided it would be a bad idea to back down.

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Nox tilted his head to the side, examining me, but also looking beyond, momentarily, to the city and its people. He was acutely aware of his surroundings, though he didn’t want to show it. He was fascinated by humanity. No, he was enthralled by possessions.

“I have a question and a message.”

“Let me guess, question first.”

He smiled. “Are you ready to take his life?”

I wet my lips, unnerved to once again be in a desert with an

angel of dark. “I thought I would only be returning him? If I kill Phoenix’s physical form, his spirit still goes back to the angel realm, doesn’t it?”

“Little girl, I am not asking you about your exile. I am asking about the one who mirrors your soul.”

I gasped. “It’s true, then? We are soul mates?”

“You didn’t need me to tell you that. Now give me my answer.

We are running out of time.”

“But I don’t understand. I…I would never hurt Lincoln.”

“And yet, your decision says you would. Darkness and lessons

lie ahead. I will be watching closely to see where that will of yours takes you.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes.”

“Well, where’s Uri? Is he here too?” I asked, not sure if I wanted him to be or not.

“In his way. He sent the message. He is anchoring the realms

so that I can move between.” He smiled deliberately. “We tossed a 336

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coin. He lost.” Nox looked disdainful for a moment and I thought he wouldn’t tell me what Uri’s message was, but then he spoke. “I am supposed to remind you of his words about surrender. Good- bye.” I couldn’t remember what they were.

The sands picked up again and I knew I only had seconds. “Nox!

Wait! I need to know what happened that day, that night, in the desert! Please!”

I heard him laugh but that was all.

The world around me started moving. Lincoln rushed toward

me. “What? Is it the senses? I can’t feel anything.” He was looking around on full alert.

I couldn’t answer him. I couldn’t do anything. The angel realm, or whatever it was, the desert that the guides came from, had just overlapped with my reality. I didn’t know if I would ever have the same feeling of gravity after experiencing the strange sensation of being in two places and yet neither at the same time.

“Violet!” Lincoln said, shaking my shoulders. “Snap out of it!” I blinked. “Sorry.” I was about to tell him what had happened.

Was about to explain how he’d just stopped, how time had stopped, when a familiar feeling came over me. This time it wasn’t only me.

“Violet. I can sense it. There’s an exile here.”

I nodded. “It’s the same one I sensed when we arrived.” I was

speaking on autopilot. I knew I should be on top of it, but all I could think about was Nox, how I’d just missed my chance to find out. I wanted to scream. No, I wanted to hit someone.

My eyes darted everywhere, but all I could see was a man in a

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dirty brown robe walking down the other side of the street. When he was directly opposite us, he turned toward us and stopped. I waited for him to look up. He didn’t.

In the blink of an eye, he was gone. “Did he just disappear?” I asked, letting my frustration get the better of me. “Jesus.”

“No, but just as old.” I spun around. Rudyard had come up

beside me. To say he looked pale didn’t cover it.

“You sensed him?” I asked.

“We all did and you were right, Violet. He is very old indeed.

And he is very, very powerful.”

“What is he? He didn’t feel like a normal exile— something was

off,” Lincoln said.

“I have no idea. We are in an ancient place. There are things here we cannot begin to comprehend,” Rudyard said.

“Yeah, well, no offense, but the sooner we get out of here, the better. I’ve had it with being everyone’s plaything,” I said, running my hands through my hair and starting to put up my walls. Lincoln looked at me, a question in his eyes. He knew he’d missed something.

With everything that had been happening, I’d been letting

everyone down more and more— new friends, people to confide in, Lincoln. It was all making me lax and that just wasn’t good enough.

Things were pushing at the edges, scary things were playing

games with me, and I was letting it all spiral out of control.

Something had to give.

Lincoln put a hand on my shoulder. I stepped away, breaking

contact. I knew he was doing it to show he was there for me, but 338

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right now I was too confused. I needed to get back some control.

When his hand dropped away, he didn’t say anything, and part of me wanted to holler and invoke teenager change- of- mind rights.

But I didn’t; I just turned away.

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chapter
twenty- seven

“On reaching the mountaintop we came to a church…I saw a

slightly raised place about the size of a normal tomb. I asked
about it and the holy man replied, ‘Holy Moses was buried here
by Angels.’”

WRITINGs of eGeRIa

Azeem and his other Grigori drove us out in once- were- white four-wheel- drives now covered in dirt and desert dust to a place called Mount Nebo, about twenty minutes from Madaba.

Th e whole journey, my mind bounced between the moments.

How
can
all
of
this
be
happening? Am I losing my mind? When will
Phoenix fi nally kill me?

And through it all, the growing feeling that something very

signifi cant was about to happen. I was missing something.

It was beyond me, beyond Phoenix and Lincoln. It was beyond

us all.

Since I’d arrived in Jordan and sensed that exile, I’d known it.

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Just as I knew the day I stood on top of that cliff that my life was about to change forever, so too I knew the man in those robes was another cliff.

I struggled to breathe through an ever- tightening chest, and my eyes stung with a detonation of pure fear. What the hell was going on?

Spence was sitting beside me. I was glad Lincoln had decided to travel in the lead car. He’d gone into warrior mode and wanted to be up front just in case. I was happy to ride with Spence, Zoe, Salvatore, and Azeem and just tune out for a while. I was especially glad Magda was in the other car— I couldn’t deal with her death stares right now.

When we pulled to a stop, Azeem jumped out and held the door

open. “Welcome to Mount Nebo, the final resting place of Moses,” he said.

I was the last out.

“We must walk from here,” Azeem said, taking my hand to help

me from the car. “The others have already begun.”

I looked up to see a hill. Lincoln and the first carload were

already on foot and halfway to the top. There was a road leading up, but we were on the wrong side of some fairly serious gates and I was betting “open sesame” wouldn’t work.

Spence, Zoe, and Salvatore marched on, keen to catch up to the