Exalted (27 page)

                                                         
***
                    

 
When they awoke a
few hours later, Lille was there with steak and pasta. Julia couldn't eat, but
Cayne devoured his portion. He forced her to swallow a few bites of what any
other day would have been delicious linguini, although it clearly wasn't
necessary. The power inside of her sustained her body whether she was
well-nourished or not.

After he finished off the steak, Cayne pulled her into his
lap and kissed her gently—once, twice, three times before breaking away and
looking at her, wide-eyed, breathing hard.

“I love you, Julia.”

“I love you, too.”

He frowned, and Julia could see him struggling to express
something.

“What is it?” she asked, holding his hand.

He shook his head. “Don't do it,” he said fiercely. “If you
don't want to, Julia... Just don't come. Lille and I—we'll go. We can handle
it.”

He probably would have kept going, but Julia shoved him in
the chest. “OMG, Cayne, please. Of course I'm coming! I'm the Big Kahuna now,
remember?”

 
His voice, when he
replied, was barely audible, and so very sweet. “I'm scared.”

“I'm not,” she lied.

They walked hand in hand up the stairs into the cleaned-up
cellar, where the Authorities stood in a line to greet them—nothing but warmth
and thankfulness and serenity that made Julia feel almost good.

Outside the small, square windows set near the ceiling, she
could see the sky was dark and full of stars.

“How was the dinner?” Lille asked her.

“It was good, thanks.”

He nodded distractedly, blinking at something over her
shoulder, and Julia knew he was doing his calculation thing. A second later, he
blinked back at her. “You guys have some time.” So they wandered outside, where
the air was dry and cold, and the vineyard seemed to go on forever, and Julia
realized she didn't even like thinking about that concept, because forever was
just too long for anything that wasn't perfect.

Would she and Cayne manage to have perfect, or even good,
together?
 

They picked a spot close to the door, but out of sight.
Cayne sank down to the ground with her in his lap, and she wrapped her arms
around his neck and allowed a few quiet tears.

“I have all this power,” she said, “and I know I can do a
bunch of new stuff I couldn't do before. But what about you?”

“I'm his son, remember?” He gave her a roguish smile, and
Julia's heart ached. “Also, I'm hardly new to fighting.”

 
She nodded, closed
her eyes, and thought of everyone they'd fought, from Samyaza to Adam and Dizzy
to Methuselah. Jacquie, too, and Nathan, and maybe at one point all of the
Chosen, depending on how she looked at it. But none of them were as scary as
The Adversary.

Cayne distracted her with kisses, first on her cheeks, then
her wrists, her arms, her hands, her shoulders. He kissed her lips, as the moon
climbed higher in the sky.

The ground was cool and bumpy, so he draped her across his
lap, and the more afraid she felt, the harder she kissed him, until eventually
he was lying on the ground.

Then they were making out in the dirt, and the grapes
crisscrossed over their heads, making dark squiggles in the starry sky. Julia
was reckless and crazy, trying to bruise Cayne's lips, clinging to him with all
the strength of her fingers.

She was on top of him, kissing his neck, feeling alive down
to her toes, when a powerful explosion rocked the sky above them and they
wrenched apart.

“Was that a plane?” Her high voice sounded tiny in the
stillness of the vineyard.

Cayne was frowning, staring at the sky; it lit up like a
summer storm, lightning crisscrossing, weaving its way into a big,
bright...net.

The hairs on her arms lifted in prescient knowing. A few
seconds later, Lille stormed out the cellar door, his vast wings writhing in
the wind.

Julia and Cayne got up at once, still clinging to each
other as they raced toward him.

“That wasn't a plane, was it?” Julia said.

Lille shook his head. “That was The Adversary. He's making
his move."

Julia shuddered at that thought, and the warmth inside her
chest, put there by Cayne's kisses, turned to ice as Lille said, “Cayne, you
ready? You and I are going in early.”

Chapter Thirty-Seven

She and Cayne couldn't stop kissing goodbye. After the
first, second, and third time, neither of them could let the other go. Cayne
whispered one more time, “Remember, you don't have to do this,” and Julia knew
he was scared for her, which made her scared for him.

Eventually Lille nudged Cayne and looked up at the glowing
web in the sky like,
come on, man
, and it was really time.

Watching the two of them fly off was awful. Julia kept
waiting for the sizzling in the sky to disappear, or rather, un-light itself,
but in the few minutes she stood there, that didn't happen. The big web in the
sky still glowed, a vast network of lightning bolts that never stopped
flashing.

She couldn't stand to think of Cayne flying up there with
the net. She couldn't stand to think about what he would be doing in Bel Air.
Lucky for her, she didn't have to, because Julia noticed a cloud of dust
driving toward her. A few minutes later, Carlin and Drew were jumping out of
the Land Rover.

Her emotions were all over the place as she hugged them,
and it took work to keep her voice steady. “I'm so glad y'all made it back! How
is everything?”

“They're already headed to Bel Air,” Drew said.

Carlin nodded. “We got them pumped up,” she said, lifting
up her hands to mime cheering.
 

“The Nephilim were so scary,” she continued. Julia must
have thrown her a look, because as soon as she said it, she shook her head.
“Not like Cayne! And Andre was so cute!”

Julia regretted that she'd never officially met Cayne's
friend, but she sent good vibes to him as Carlin squeezed her neck. He, Nathan,
and several Authorities were leading the remaining Chosen to Bel Air via
chartered buses.

 
Carlin linked her
arm through Julia's and looked up at the net, like it was no big deal. Like
they saw it every day. “Cayne will be fine,” she insisted—and it warmed Julia's
heart that Carlin knew what was on her mind and wanted to make her feel better.
That was what Meredith would be doing if she were there. “He is so strong,” Car
continued. “So are you. You can do this!”

Julia nodded.

The plan was playing out in her head as Carlin and Drew led
her back inside, and Noelle handed her what looked like some kind of freaky,
sleeveless cat suit.

“Put this on,” he told her. “It's fire resistant and will
keep you cool if you get overheated.” He pulled at his own shirt, like she
needed a demo, then nodded toward the stairs.
 

Julia's head pounded as Carlin and Drew went downstairs
with her. Seeing the little room where she and Cayne had napped not an hour
before made her even more unhappy. How close was Cayne now?

She gritted her teeth, releasing Carlin's hand so she could
go into the small bathroom.
He'll be fine.
She chanted it over and over
as she changed into the scandalously tight black spandex. She wondered where
Noelle had gotten it, and then she decided she really didn't want to know.

She pulled on her hot pink All-Stars and quickly tied them,
and then she reached into the pocket of the blue jeans she'd pulled off and
grabbed Meredith's sparkly hair band.

After she pulled her hair back, she stood in front of the
mirror for a long time, feeling the weight of all the world—and Heaven, too. It
shouldn't be like this, she thought as her vision blurred. Things on Earth were
hard enough without The Adversary making everything so much worse. And she, an
orphan, unwanted for so much of her life, was supposed to save everyone.

That little bit of anger helped her wrangle up a good MAD,
so when she went back out into the little room where Carlin and Drew waited,
she was able to force some bravado. “Time to kick some devil ass!”

Carlin cheered, and Drew gave her a high-five. As they
walked back upstairs, he surprised her by saying, "I could tell I liked
you the moment you got in that van, outside the museum. You were defiant, like
now. Julia?” Carlin, ever nosey, turned around to hear what Drew was saying,
and Julia watched his face turn serious.

“I saw something...but you have to trust me.” Her heart
rolled over. “I can't tell you what it is. I've got this to say, though: Don't
hold back. Do what you feel.”

He nodded once, his dark brown eyes telling her he was
sorry he couldn't explain more.

Julia wanted to scream at him, to demand that he explain
what the heck that meant, but she trusted Drew. If he said he couldn't tell
her, he couldn't tell her.

Still, tears welled in her eyes, and more than anything in
the world, she wanted to ask if they would be okay. She literally had to bite
her lip to keep from begging Drew to tell her: if she and Cayne would be okay,
if he and Car would be okay. They were both flying to The Adversary's mansion
with a group of Authorities; Julia worried that meant they would be in more
danger; wouldn't the Authorities attract more Adversarial notice? Then she
realized they were all in danger. Duh.

As she hugged them goodbye, standing between rows of
barrels on the main floor, she couldn't keep the tears from flowing. Noelle was
waiting behind her, and behind him were the last remaining Authorities at the
vineyard.

“We're leaving first,” one of them said, probably answering
an inquisitive look from Carlin.

“One more round of hugs,” Drew murmured.

He crushed Julia against him, and Carlin put her arms
around them both, and for a second it was just them: Julia and her friends.
The
friends that made it this far
.

She felt like her heart might stop as they walked out the
door, and it slammed shut.

Julia turned to Noelle, and her stomach dipped. Did anybody
realize she was getting left here with just Noelle? How did she even know if
Noelle was trustworthy?

His mouth ticked up into a small smile, and Julia had the
urge to run as he stepped toward her, placing two hard hands on her shoulders.

“Julia. You are a brave girl.” His brown eyes bored into
hers, making her heart beat too hard. “Are you ready to do what must be done?”

A single tear slid down her cheek as she realized what
Noelle was saying. He was an Authority, wasn't he? An angel. And that look in
his eyes—that knowing look.

She could barely make her head move, but somehow she
nodded.

Noelle's flawless face was stark. Emotionless. “Your
bravery is worthy of praise, Julia. The Alpha would thank you, I'm sure, if he
were here.”

If he was here, Julia thought desperately, wouldn't he be
doing this instead of her?

Noelle just blinked, and when he took his hands off her
shoulders, it felt like something stabbed her in the back. Julia crumpled to
her knees, screaming as agony ripped through her
 
shoulder blades and reverberated through her
arms. The pain was so horrible, she didn't think at all, just drooped against
the cool, hard floor and tried to breathe. When, at last, the pain began to
ease, she realized there was something on her back. Or maybe that was Noelle.
Was Noelle pressing down on her?

Oh, God. What was going on? Noelle's face was in front of
her. He was speaking, and his hand was on her cheek.

“...Julia?”

She shot up like a cannonball, and it was all she could do
to hold onto her power. She wanted to let go. She was sick of being scared; she
wanted to be the one in control.

When she spoke, her voice was twisted in pain and power,
and it didn't even sound like her. “WHAT WAS THAT?”

“Julia, those are your wings.”

“I HAVE WINGS?”

Noelle nodded. “I think Lille told you it was a
possibility.”

Julia craned her neck to see them, and when she did, she felt a shot of
nausea. They were white—fluffy and white. She'd had visions that featured these
wings.

Somehow that really drove things home for her. Made it all
feel real, in a dizzy, sick, stage-fright kind of way. Before she'd even known
she was a Candidate, she'd been on this course. Headed here. She thought about
Rosa. About Meredith, that first day in her room at the compound. She thought
about meeting Cayne. She thought about Gotcha Day, the day of her adoption with
Suzanne and Harry. Suzanne and Harry who would die for picking her.
 

She'd dreamed of having white wings. She'd dreamed of a lot of other
things that were seared into her memory, and as Noelle ran over the plan one
more time, every single one of them weighed heavy on her soul.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

The sky was a world unto itself: cloudless, crystalline
perfection. The stars were lasers, burning all around her, the sky a colorful
map below her feet. Julia felt like an angel in a snow globe.

Her wings ached as cold wind whipped around them, but they
were easy to control, incredibly intuitive, and she didn't feel a single bite
of fear. Not of falling, anyway. If she weren't on her way to stop the
apocalypse, she would have enjoyed herself immensely.

Above her, spread all across the sky, was an electrifying
maze—the barrier between herself and those perfect stars: the net The Alpha had
created, that for some terrifying reason she could now see.

From their spot sailing through the sky, it didn't look
like anything Celestial was happening. A few times, Julia thought the net
seemed to droop a little in a certain spot, forming a subtle funnel kind of
shape, but that was only from certain angles.