Legions (21 page)

“It’s like it’s chained
from the inside out.” I whispered. I ran across the hall to check
on Cyril and Arie’s door, which flew right open. Spinning back
around, Cyril and Arie were up the stairs signaling the all-clear
for the downstairs of the home.

I shook my head at them and
pointed at our door.

“I think it’s chained up.”
I whispered to them.

Completely perplexed, they
went over to the door and had the same success as us –
none.

“That’s weird.” Arie
muttered.

“Yeah, tell me about it.”
Athen said. “I think we should bust it down. I don’t think anyone’s
here.”

“I agree.” Seconded
Arie.

“I’ll let you take that
one.” I said to Athen. “ I don’t want to give myself a concussion.
Plus, you need the practice.” Trying to stifle a nervous laugh, I
patted his butt.

Backing up only a foot he
rammed into the door, breaking it into thousands of tiny splinters,
inviting us all to stare at an extremely disturbing sight. Athen
backed up, grabbing me as if to shield me from the
images.

Silver chains were dripping
from the ceiling, windows, and across all the doors. There were
pictures of Athen and Lilith hanging from the links, along with
splashes of red spattered on the walls, our bed, and the pictures
themselves. I hoped with everything that it wasn’t blood canvassing
our room but knowing who we were dealing with, only secured that
thought.

“Wow, this is pretty
creepy.” I tried my best to sound unaffected, but it wasn’t coming
across that way. My voice was barely able to complete a sentence
without cracking.

Feeling the tiny twinges of
jealousy begin to rise in my abdomen, I knew I was falling right
into the hands of the demons. This is what they wanted, and I was
determined to be stronger than that. Following Athen into our
bedroom, I did my best not to acknowledge the images that were
glaring at me from all directions.

Athen’s finger ran along
the chains, stopping only to rip off the picture dangling directly
in front of him. Trying not to let the sadness begin to infiltrate
my entire being, I looked away before taking the two figures in
completely. What I did see implied a closeness - one that I wasn’t
willing to accept.

Hearing the chains clank
loudly, I looked over at Cyril and Arie who were dismantling the
pieces of silver as fast as they could. I began doing the same as
quickly as possible and avoided the areas where the photographs
hung. The rage was building quickly inside of me, and I knew I
needed a place to let it all out and quickly.

“So is it animal or human
blood?” I asked not sure why I picked that topic to distract myself
with.

“It’s not human.” Was all
Cyril said, knowing neither answer he gave would be a good
one.

Running down the stairs to
get cleaning supplies, I vowed revenge like no other on Lilith.
Remembering what my family had told me about the semi-purgatory
realm where our kind, good or evil, could be sent, I made it a
personal mission to make sure she was going to be sent there. I
only had to figure out how.

Chapter 24

Not having our quick trip
to Whistler begin how we had expected, we decided to spend the rest
of our time up here training exclusively. I had managed to avoid my
friends back in the village, the last couple of days, to recuperate
from being accosted in our home. However, one of the things that
Cyril and Arie had wanted us to practice needed someone who I knew
or had a past with. Apparently, shapeshifting was easier when your
victim was more trusting. I wasn’t looking forward to betraying
Karen’s trust in that way, but no longer had a choice. These things
couldn’t wait a second more.

Standing in the gondola
line, the backpack I was wearing began to feel like a ton of bricks
had been placed on my shoulders. Our goal was to hike from the top
of the mountain back away so that both Athen and I could work on
the things we were most likely to need in the near future. I had
learned so many things while he was away, that I was actually
excited to finally learn some of these last few items with him
present. There was still snow at the top of the mountain so we were
all dressed from head to toe in snow gear.

As we made our way to the
gondola awaiting our entrance, I tripped over the post that held us
all in line, bringing Athen and Cyril to a roar of
laughter.

“So predictable.” Cyril
said, patting my shoulder. “Good thing you’re a little more
graceful when fighting.”

“Don’t jinx it.” I scolded
him.

The doors of the gondola
slammed shut with a thud, leading to the jerking motion as the
cables started hauling us up the mountain to our training grounds.
As our ascent began, the cold slowly began trickling in through the
crevices of the metal doors that were holding us in. Leaving the
village behind, I began snuggling into Athen as the normally
mammoth hotels became smaller and smaller with every minute
traveled. So much had happened since the last time we were here
together. My role in this life was beginning to become clearer, and
my strength was beginning to become stronger and stronger,
especially as I held onto Athen.

Still faulting myself for
feeling I wasn’t as emotionally strong as he had been for all of
those decades, I hoped that I could somehow make it up to him and
begin to forgive myself.

The windows were completely
fogged up by the time our 30 minute gondola ride spilled us onto
our final destination. I was relieved to be breathing in the cold,
fresh air of the mountain rather than the stale air of the
gondola.

“Okay, up this way.” Cyril
pointed towards the side slope where no one seemed to be headed,
for good reason. The mountainside was extremely steep and
icy.

What seemed like forever as
we slid down the hill that Cyril had his eyes on, made me thankful
when we arrived at our destination. There was a little plateau
where we would be able to practice our attacks and plenty of trees
at the far end if we wanted to give a go on our climbing and flying
skills.

“Well, this is certainly
beautiful.” I muttered to Athen, dumping my backpack off. “Are you
ready?”

“The question is, are you
ready?” He said, winking at me but not before embracing me in his
arms, shooting into the sky. My heart began pounding outside of my
chest, realizing how high Athen had me in the air. We were flying.
He was flying.

“Oh my God, Athen. I can’t
believe you remember how to do this. It’s beautiful.” I said,
squeezing onto him as hard as I possibly could. “Are you sure you
remember how to land?” I asked him, only somewhat teasing
him.

“Do you want to find out
now or just keep going?” His eyes were twinkling with the mischief
that I’d missed so much over the last few months.

“No, I could get used to
this.”

“That’s good because it’s
gonna be your turn soon.” He said, coyly.

“So did Cy and Arie already
know that you could do this?” I asked, in complete awe of my
surroundings and the strength that I felt in Athen’s arms as we
were sailing with the wind.

“Yeah, they knew it. It was
a surprise for you. Let’s go to that tree over there.” He said, and
before realizing it, we had already landed at the very top. Feeling
the branches swaying, I knew we shouldn’t both be up
top.

Letting go of Athen, I made
my way from treetop to treetop. My concentration was completely
focused on making my landings as graceful as possible. I wanted him
to be proud of the progress that I had made while he was gone;
since, apparently, this was truly a train Ana session, not
Athen.

Athen was now directly
behind me. I spun around seeking his approval and saw far more than
that in his eyes.

“Beautiful, my angel. Ana,
you’re amazing to be able to do that already. You should be so
proud of yourself.” He flew over to the limb I was balancing on,
hugging me with the pride I was hoping for during the many times I
tried when he wasn’t around. Images of me practicing without him at
the Bog at Butchart Gardens and up on top of a cliff began filling
my mind, thankful that those images were no longer my reality. I
had Athen here with me now, and I wasn’t going to miss a second of
his smile as I did my best to learn.

“Thanks. But after you
flying all around with me, I feel like I’m way behind the
times.”

“Honey, there’s a big
difference between what I went through and what you went through.
You’ve got to trust us when we tell you that you’re doing amazing.
I was basically gone for days compared to your decades.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too, but you
aren’t getting out of it. You wanna give it a try? Babysteps
maybe?” He said laughing.

The anticipation began
building deep inside as I thought about all of the freedom this
could mean. My hope was that the fear that was riding alongside it
wouldn’t win. Looking into Athen’s eyes, I knew I’d be fine. If I
were to fall, he would catch me. That I was sure of.

“Okay. I’m ready.” Nodding
my head trying to convince myself more than Athen, he grabbed me
and hugged me tightly as we sailed down to the snow patch that was
still hiding under the shade of the trees. I didn’t want to let go;
catching that feeling, he didn’t let go either.

“If you aren’t ready, you
don’t have to do this.” He whispered, the breath catching my hair
like the many nights I knew I hadn’t been alone.

“Nope, I got
it.”

Waiting for him to let me
go, I got my nerve up. It had to happen sooner or later. Not
expecting him to let go quite so quickly, my breath got caught in
my throat, and before I knew it, the instruction had begun, yet
again.

“So everything that you’ve
learned about feeling where you want to be, or what you want to do
is applied directly the same, except that you can’t break
concentration – at all. If you think of it with your climbing and
jumping abilities now, you focus on a target, and you mentally end
your journey before it has even begun. If it is the treetop that
you are stopping at then that is where it is. You have stopped
before you started, essentially. Imagine never having an end point.
Theoretically you could keep going, right?”

“You’re trying tell me that
if I didn’t tell myself the stopping point was the top of the tree,
I would keep going?” There was no way I could hide my skepticism,
but I also knew that it was exactly what he was telling
me.

“Yeah, you’re creating your
own limits. You’re the only one who can change that. You can create
your boundaries, your stopping points, or whatever will get you to
where you need to go. The speed will come. Don’t even think about
that right now.”

“What about stopping, like
landing? That seems like it would be a little dicey, but pretty
important.”

Arie and Cyril were making
their way over to where Athen and I were standing. I was grateful
for the idea of more people to possibly catch me when I fell from
whatever mishap I was about to get myself into.

“Don’t be worried, Ana!
You’re gonna do awesome!” I was extremely thankful for Arie’s
exuberance because I wasn’t feeling it at all.

“When you’re ready to land
picture yourself a few feet above the ground as a stopping point.
It makes for an easier landing.” Cyril did his best dive bomb
motion to drive home the point, with a smile of course.

I was worried if I took my
hands out of my pockets, it would be a complete giveaway for how
nervous I was, but I still needed them to get where I was going.
I’d done so much practicing in front of Arie and Cyril that I began
to feel a little sheepish in front of Athen, especially with how
graceful he already was with everything.

“You’re gonna rock it, Ana.
I promise.” Athen said, winking at me.

And with that, I was off. I
pointed myself away from the trees, arms stretched, and adrenaline
pumping, reaching for a nothingness that was sure to hold my body
weight. Feeling the energy build through my body I sprung into the
air, the promise of flight close enough to let the fear slowly
drain from my system. I was above the earth, and there was no tree
for me to cling onto for my next landing. I looked over to the left
and felt my entire body shift to the direction that I was looking.
I continued ascending higher and higher matching my height equal to
when I scaled the conifers. The pride in my ability was beginning
to swell inside of me.

The freedom of what this
meant kept me going, and before I knew it, Athen was by my side,
following my every move as we floated through the sky with what
felt like lightning speed but was only a fraction of our potential.
Afraid to reach for him, I only smiled as we glided along the tree
line.

“I told you my angel could
fly.”

“Only this time, I’m not
harnessed onto the zipline, right?” I was Afraid to say too much
and lose my ability to control where my body was flying.

“Yeah, exactly.” He said,
laughing. “Who knew this would all be happening so quickly
though?”