The Four Horsemen (The Light Series) (12 page)

The lady tears her
gaze from Constantine as he stands. Her eyes dart to me, “You must be Rayne.”

I nod.

“You have come to aid
us in our quest to end the angels reign over the world?”

I nod. I don’t know why.

She smiles,
“Excellent.” She looks at Lillith, “You have kept your side of the agreement.
Our covenant is fulfilled.”

My mother smiles at
me, “Thank you, milady.”

I have a bad feeling.
It’s just there suddenly. Liana and Ezara flash an image into my mind. It is
the face Lillith is making now. It was the same then. She is leaving me here.
She has betrayed me, and I don’t know how to stop her. I could jump at her and
punch her in the face, but I don’t have enough anger.

I look at Constantine.
He is entranced in the lady still. That’s just great.
Perfect
timing for him to become a smitten schoolboy.
At least he’s occupying
the lady.

My mother smiles,
“Rayne, do it now. Do what you have come here for.”

I scowl, “You have to
come with me, out of the gates.” She nods towards the priestess. I shake my
head, “What?” I look at the lady, “I need to take Lillith from the gates to end
this.”

The
lady ignores me
,
she is lost in
Constantine
.

Suddenly, the man with
no eyes from the
dream,
walks from the back of the room.
He limps a bit, but I can see his eyes are white, as they were in the dream. He
puts a finger to his lips, “They cannot see me, child. Just you.”

I don’t move. He
whispers loudly, “The weapon is not what you think it is. The one who is your
enemy is not the one you think it is. You must hurry.”

I nod once and flash a
look at my mother. She gives me an expectant nod toward the lady again. I have
no idea how I’m supposed to know anything she is hinting at. The man with the
white eyes smiles at me, “Love is a weapon; did you know that, Rayne? Sacrifice
of love is the ultimate weapon.”

I feel like we are
frozen in time. The room is still. The eyes of everyone are upon me. The lady
priestess is lost in Constantine and Mona and the beautiful man are swooning at
each other.

The man with the white
eyes gives me a look, “Sacrifice your love and kill her.”

I look at my mother,
“Will you leave with me?”

She gives me a
desperate look before shaking her head. “I have to find forgiveness, Rayne.”

From
my father?
Of course.
She
has a plan. She looks at the priestess, “Will you excuse me, milady?”

The priestess nods
once, still not taking her eyes from Constantine. Lillith looks at
me,
there is something in her eyes. She seems like she
regrets her choice or the fact she never filled me in on the decision she is
making. “Good luck, Rayne.” She turns and leaves the room.

I’m confused and want
to run after her, but I don’t know what to do.

I grab Constantine’s
hand. He looks at me like he has come out of a trance. “What happened?”

I
shake my head
,
“She left.
We
have to go.”

The priestess looks
confused, “She is free to go, of course. You must stay.”

“I thought she was
here, hiding from Lucifer.”

She frowns, “Did no
one tell you your role in all of this?”

I shake my head, “I
eat the sin and save the world, it’s pretty simple.”

She laughs, “No child,
you free the Earth from the humans who are trying to kill her. Lillith had the
light but when she gave birth to you, the light left her. It went into you. We
didn’t know it would do that.”

I sigh and look at
Constantine. He shakes his head, “That’s not possible.”

The priestess smiles
at him, “She is the weapon that was made. She was forged to save us, forged by
God to help us from his mistake.”

The man with the white
eyes whispers again, “Pull the dagger, Rayne. Kill her.”

I scowl at him, “I
have no dagger.” I wish he would shut up.

The priestess smiles,
not realizing I am not talking to her. “Of course not, we will wait for the
humans to suffer through the last horseman, and then we shall take you to the
place you were birthed the first time.”

The man with the white
eyes shouts at me, making me jump. “PULL THE DAGGER, RAYNE!”

I look at Constantine
and suddenly I see it. The dagger.
Of course.

He looks at me, trying
hard not to look at the lady. I bite my lip, “Do you love me?”

Constantine nods,
“More than anything.”

“Pull your name from
my heart.”

He looks disgusted,
“What?”

“Ellie, the dagger you
put in Ellie.”

The lady scowls, “What
is an Ellie?”

I smile at her, trying
to stay patient when I am ready to run after my mother. “I am an Ellie. Once
upon a time, I was called Ellie. I loved a man with my whole heart and I gave
it to him. Then I was born again, I fell in love with another man, and I gave
him my whole heart, not knowing it belonged to another man from another life.
To save the world, I had to give up the first man and sacrifice my love for
him. Sacrifice is the only way to save the world.”

She looks confused but
Constantine looks devastated. He shakes his head, “No. Why, my love?”

I can feel the tears
in my eyes, but my heart is empty of the pain. He tears open his own shirt and
suddenly the word—the name Ellie, is there. It shines in the light of the
crystal palace. He grabs my hands, “You take mine.”

I can’t. The tears
blind me, but I feel him push my hand into his chest. I feel the hilt of the
dagger in my hand. I cry out, “Please, no. Take mine.”

His face is one of
agonizing betrayal. He shakes his head, shoving me back. He screams as I am
freed from his chest,
me and the dagger
.

I turn, holding the
trembling blade in my hand. The priestess cries out, “You cannot have that in
here! There are no weapons in the garden! How have you brought that here?”

I sniffle, “I cannot
help you. I have to help my people.”

Her blue eyes go wide,
“We are your people. You were born here in the garden, we loved you first.”

I shake my head, “I
can’t help you. What do I do? How do I stop her? How do I stop the horsemen?”

Her lip twists into a
hateful look. So much for Constantine’s theory on them being positive all the
time.

“Swear you will stay
here to be with us and help us, and I will tell your friends how to save the
humans. But the light must stay here with us.”

I shake my head, “What
can you do with the light? What good is it if the whole world is burned and
destroyed?”

She
laughs,
it’s almost a cackle. She looks at the others like her. They laugh nervously,
staring at my blade. “The angels stand no chance against it. It opens the
heavens and takes everyone home.”

I look at Constantine,
“I’m going after her.”

He nods. I look at
Mona, “You coming?”

She doesn’t move. She
doesn’t look at me. She and the man are lost in each other’s stare.

The lady snarls, “You
make that deal with me, or I will kill them both.”

I shake my head, “No,
you won’t. You don’t commit sins and they are innocent.”

She steps closer to
me, “You misunderstand. I believe my cause is just.”

My hand flies, all on
it’s own. I don’t have the strength or the care to stop myself. The white-eyed
man laughs in an evil tone that sounds like a cackle. The priestess gags and
chokes as the silver blade slides into her abdomen. I hear gasps and people
crying out, but they do not move on me. The man next to Constantine, the
beautiful man, turns his face from Mona finally. He smiles, “Goodbye, mother.”
His bright-blue eyes flicker to me, “Thank you, savior. You will find your
mother at the gate, if your hurry. Then we can both be free of the horrors they
bring.”

I
look at Constantine
,
my heart is pounding
.
The lady drops to her knees, blue blood spills from her lips as if it were ink.

Constantine grabs my
hand, “FLY NOW!”

I open my mouth to
argue but my feet move back. I pull the dagger from her stomach as I back away.

I look down at my feet
as they turn. A single tear drops from Constantine’s left eye. He offers me
something that resembles a smile, “A deal made beyond the gate is a deal
sealed. You promised you would fly.”

My feet drag me to the
window. I cry out, “
NOOOOOO
!” My wings rip from my
back. I scream, forcing them hurts even more. I fling myself from the window
and instantly start to fly. I soar over the town until I see her. I lower in my
flight as if on autopilot.

As I get on top of my
fleeing mother, I kick my feet out hitting her in the shoulder. She lands hard
to the ground. I can barely keep control of myself. Liana and Ezara are there
in my mind.

Lillith stumbles as I
land on my feet. I hold the dagger out, feeling the blue blood of the dying
lady slither down the blade and hilt.

Lillith looks at the
blood “You did it. I was trying to tell you, she is an evil queen. She wants
the world for herself. Her motives are driven by her hatred of mankind and God.
They tricked me, using the man you saw there. He was so beautiful, I believed
he loved me…”

I hold the blade up,
“SHUT UP! SHUT UP!” I feel like I am going crazy. Tears pour from my face, “You
left me. You let him kill me, not once, not twice, not even three times, but
four. You let them torture me, your own child. You let them hurt me over and
over, and you never came for me.” I lower the blade, “You never came for me.”

She starts to cry, “He
tricked me, Liana. He tricked me into believing we could save you. But it
wasn’t true and my heart was broken. I loved you. I swear I did.”

“THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE
DIED FOR ME!

She shakes her head, “I
could not. I had fallen, my soul was tarnished.”

“Oh bullshit! You
could have sacrificed yourself and spared me! God would have forgiven you!”

She backs away from
me, and in the bushes I can see the gate. She turns and runs for it, but I
manage to grab her arm.

She turns, desperate,
“We can still win this, you and me. You and me can still win this and be
together, just like you always wanted.”

I shove her, “The
difference between you and me, Lillith, is I already died four times for you. I
already proved I have what it takes inside of me to sacrifice. I just
sacrificed hundreds of years worth of love and devotion. I just sacrificed a
friendship worth more to me than you ever could be. I have given all I have to
him and you and God and the people.” I step closer to her, seeing something on
the shores of the riverbank that she does not. She lifts a hand to strike me
but the twitchy redhead upon the shore with the white dress grabs Lillith’s arm
first. She tilts Lillith’s head to the side, and in her singsong voice she
whispers, “She is ready to give herself to you, sister.”

I don’t think. I don’t
let myself. I just swing once, hard. The blade that used to hold my name in
someone’s heart, slices the throat of the woman I only ever wanted to have love
me.

I drop to my knees,
sobbing and broken as something inside of me snaps. A great and powerful pain
erupts. Me and the other four girls all feel the same loss. It cripples me. She
looks at me from the puddle of blood and smiles, “I forgive you.” The
nixie drag
her from the gate. I pull my arm back and swing,
separating her head from her shoulders. She becomes a pile of feathers, white
feathers. I drop into them, like I am falling into a pile of leaves, and sob.

I close my eyes and
beg God to just do the rest for me. I haven’t got an ounce of whatever I need
left in me.

Fingers stroke my
cheeks; they’re hers. I would know the softness of them anywhere. Not to
mention, the air around me smells like her. I smile into the stroke but
suddenly the memory of slaying my mother comes back. On some level, I feel sick
for calling Lillith my mother when I have Willow. I open my eyes, seeing her
beautiful face and force a smile on my lips.

Willow shakes her
head, “My Nene, you don’t have to pretend with me. Cry, let it out.”

Tears fill my eyes,
“All I do is cry. I cry every day now.”

She smiles softly,
“It’s a release, my love. It’s a way for us to rid ourselves of the pain and
sorrow we are stuck with. Let it out, it blocks your chi.”

I snort, sniffling and
wiping my tears away. She smiles, “She forgives you, Rayne. That’s the
important thing.”

I feel anger claiming
my face, “I don’t care about her. I don’t care if she forgives me. I don’t want
it. I’ve never done a thing to her.”

Willow cocks a
delicate eyebrow, “You killed her.”

I scoff, venomously,
“Then we are nearly even. I only owe her three more deaths and loads of
torture.”

Willow puts her hands
up, “This isn’t healthy. What abut the Rayne who never held a grudge?”

I sneer, “She’s in
here with the rest of us. It’s quite the party.”

“The others are there
too?”

I nod.

She smiles, “Then the
dead have claimed you. You sleep with your sisters,
your
past lives. The dead who wish to keep your soul for you.
Embrace
them
,
do not hate them
. Do not hate Lillith.
She was lost when she made her mistakes.”

I stand up
abruptly,
ready to fight with cruel words and savage
thoughts.

Instead, I am dropped
from the ceiling onto my bed. I jolt upward, coming awake from my dream in a
gasp.

Wyatt wraps his thick
arms around me again, “It’s okay, Rayne. It’s okay.”

I start to cry again,
“Mona!”

He looks sick, “Where
is she? She and Constantine never made it out. The nixie only had you. She told
me she had a message for you and left you with me.”

I shake my head, “I
have to free them. I have to find them. I don’t even know how. I doubt the
garden will show itself to me.” I turn to him, “What did the nixie say?”

“That the blood of
Lillith will satisfy the devils or draw them.”

I swallow hard, “What
does that even mean?”

He shakes his head, “I
got something cleaned up while you were gone. Want to go see them?” He gets up
and grabs the picture that Willow and Fitz live in.”

I hold his hand and
touch the star.

We are there
instantly.

Willow smiles at
me,
her eyes are filled with tears. “Are you okay?”

I shake my head,
stumbling towards her, “I left them there. I can’t get them back. Mona doesn’t
even know that I left her there. And Constantine cut my love from his heart to
free me, so I could kill Lillith. It’s all a mess.”

She shakes her head,
kissing my hair, “It’s okay, Nene. Lillith is dead. That’s half the battle. We
can get Mona and Constantine back.
They’re safe
,
the fae won’t hurt them
. They are nonviolent people.”

I sigh, “I don’t know
what to do. The nixie said Lillith’s blood would satisfy the horsemen? How do I
end them with her blood?”

She looks at Fitz who
smiles, “We don’t know. You have to have Lillith’s blood.”

I scowl, “Why does
everyone keep saying that? I didn’t exactly collect a jar of it as she was
bleeding out. She died and became feathers, nothing more than feathers.”

Fitz looks shocked,
“She became feathers?”

I nod.

“Did you keep any?”

I reach into my pants
pocket and pull a handful of feathers. He points at them, “They might work. Did
you clean the knife?”

I look at Wyatt. He shakes
his hands, “The nixie gave it to me,
it
was coated in
their sea-water slime.”

“That will seal the
blood to the blade. The
nixie know
what they’re
doing.”

I look at Willow,
“What are they doing?”

She scowls, “Getting
vengeance. They have long been the only witches to believe in Lillith. We tried
to tell them, they wouldn’t listen to it. Lillith used them to gain access into
the garden. She used them as her go-to people. She made them swear to always
aid her. They have spent their lives watching over you, protecting you. They
would do anything for you.”

Wyatt gives me a look,
“We have always documented them as part of the other versions of you.”

Fitz nods, “The
witches have never helped you before this though. The
nixie
have
, but none of the others, and they don’t help each other. Not
normally. They warred before, the witch wars, and that was it. They all went
their separate ways, controlling their separate types of magic.”

I sigh, “None of this
is useful.”

Fitz gives me a look,
“I’m trying to help you understand hundreds, thousands of years of history.”

I can see the
disappointed look in Willow’s eyes. I look down, “I just mean, how do I get the
horsemen and how do I kill them? I’m tired, that’s all.”

Wyatt offers me his
hand, “Let’s go sleep.”

I scowl, “I can’t
sleep until the dead take me, don’t you see? I don’t…just… just—just
sleep. I never rest. I need the blood of Lillith? What does that even mean?” I
can feel something building inside of me, “I don’t ever get a minute’s fucking
peace from this mess! I just want to be done with it all! I want to go to
school and become something other than a poor sin eater! But now I can’t. The
whole world is gone. It burned up. My college is probably ash. I’m tired of
being homeless and owning nothing and having no one! I have no parents and no
home, and my mom is a ghost in a goddamned painting and everyone wants to kill
me. Do you have any idea the level of stress I am constantly being bombarded
with?”

Wyatt gives me a grin.
I scowl, “Fuck you, Wyatt.” I press the star, the one that takes me back to
Fitz’s painting. I stand in the room, looking at the painting. The rage is
still there, making my breaths laborious and my heart pound. I pull my dagger
and stab into the painting, dragging the knife down it. A scream rips from my
lips as I do it.

I feel my heart
again,
I have taken away the one way in which I might see
them again. I have destroyed it.

Panic sets in, how
will Wyatt get out?

“NO!” I grab the
destroyed canvas, pulling the jagged edges together. I slap it on the floor,
pressing the edges together but they won’t meet again. The canvas is too tight.
I hold it with my trembling fingers, pressing the star.

I bend over the edges
of the picture, lying on top of it. I don’t even cry, even though I’ve trapped
Wyatt in there. He will press the other star and end up in Boston on the side
of the road and alone.
On the side of the road in a, no
doubt, destroyed city.
I close my eyes and hold it. If I hold it maybe I
can heal it. Maybe he can come back to me.

Michelle comes into
the room, looking exhausted, “Hey, you’re back.”

I nod. She looks
around, “
Where’s Wyatt and Mona and Mr. Sexy pants
?”

I sigh, “Shit.
Goddamned shit.”

She
flops onto the bed
,
“Don’t panic.
Just start at the beginning of shit and go from there.”

I look down, “We went
to the garden and there was a man. Mona got stuck staring at him and
Constantine a lady. I murdered the lady and then went to my mom. I killed her
with the nixie and they brought me here. Then Wyatt got stuck in that painting,
and I ripped it so he’s stuck in there, or he might be in Boston.”

Michelle starts to
laugh, “Okay, that sounds like a lot of shit. I don’t even know what that
means. What’s the guy Mona found like?”

I shake my head
blankly, pretty much dead inside or at least lost in the panic attack I’m
having silently.

She nudges me. I lift
my head, screaming at her, “I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU ALL WANT FROM ME!”

She slaps me hard, and
grabs me, “I’m so sorry, Rayne. That was an accident. I didn’t mean to.”

I burst into tears. “I
killed my mom, I didn’t even know her. I don’t think she loved me and I killed
her.”

She wraps around me,
pulling me into her, “No. Don’t cry. You have Willow.”

I cry harder, “Willow
is dead too. Everyone is leaving me.”

“Not me. I’m not
leaving you.”

I sniffle, “I don’t
know what to do next or where to go. I’m fucking tired.”

She starts to laugh,
“I know, babe. I’m tired too.”

I pull her back, “You
haven’t done shit!”

She scoffs, “I’ve been
reading with Stella every day and every night. I’m beat.”

I laugh, rolling my
eyes. “Death by orgasm doesn’t count,
ya
ho.”

She smiles, “Trust me,
that’s not all we do. We mostly research the old Van Helsing books. We got
this, Rayne. You tell me what’s next—we got this.”

I wipe my face, “I
have to find the horsemen. They will come for Lillith’s blood. I don’t know
what that means.”

She looks around the
room, “Let’s see if we can’t get Stella and Wyatt’s douche mom to see if they
know.”

I hold her to me, “No.
I don’t want to tell Stella that Constantine’s gone; she’ll murder me. They’re
the last of their family. And Wyatt’s mom is the devil in heels.”

Michelle looks
confused. “Well, how should we get the horsemen to come to us?”

I nod to the window,
“Go outside.” It’s the instinct I have. If we go outside, maybe they’ll come
for us.

She looks hesitant,
“Maybe we should get help.”

I shake my head, “Just
come with me, please?”

She nods, “Okay.”

We slip to the far
side of the castle and leave. The weather is cold and dark.

“Have you noticed how
dark it is all the time?”

I shake my head,
looking about the vast gardens and grassy landscape.

“This place looks like
Jane Austen movies, huh?”

I start ignoring her,
looking around.

“What are we looking
for?”

I almost shout at her,
but I realize she is the last person with me. She is it. My oldest friend is my
last friend. I’ve betrayed and abandoned everyone else.

I shake my head, “If I
had to guess, I would say they are huge and smelly and undead sort of. I think
of them as the ‘
Ringwraiths
’ from Lord of the Rings.”

She makes a face,
“Great. You sure you don’t want to go get Constantine first?”

I sigh, “I want him to
come, I just don’t think he will.”

I can’t tell her about
the thing I asked him to do. It kills me inside. At least all the devastation
has brought back my feelings.

I have to go to
Boston. I have to find Wyatt. I look at Michelle, “Is your phone here?”

She gives me a look,
“Where else would it be?” She pulls it from her boobs, of course. I take it and
press Wyatt’s name. She has sent him messages in the last two days. They were
in the house together texting while I was in the garden? I don’t know how to
feel about that, it doesn’t even make sense. It can’t matter right now, and
yet, it does. Instead of messaging him, I scroll up as she looks around the
massive yard for the huge horsemen to arrive any second.

She has sent him
random things.

Asking how he’s doing
at 1 am or asking him if he gets lonely at 10 pm. He always responds. It’s out
of character. He hates her, doesn’t he? He always acts like he does. She
betrayed me.

God,
focus, Rayne.
Send him a message and see if he’s okay.
See if he’s in Boston. See if he made it out. He is your husband for god’s
sake.

Instead, I press out
of the message app. I dial his number quickly and hang up after the first ring.
I pass her back the phone.

“No answer?”

I shake my head. I see
her the
way Mona does suddenly. Why would she text
him? Him… the one person I love.
Me, just me.

“What now.”

I swallow my hatred
and anger, “You go on inside. I’m going to take a stroll and see if I can’t
stir up some dust.”

She opens her mouth,
but I shake my head before she can argue, “Trust me. Go back and keep Stella
company. She is going to need it when she finds out her brother is in the
garden.”

She smiles, but I can
see the pain in her eyes. She knows I don’t trust her. “She knows already,
Rayne. She knew he would never get out. She cried the first day you were gone,
but she told me on the second day that she knew he was never coming back.”