Authors: Alivia Anders
my Mother's closet.
"Leo, what is this place?" I craned my neck as far as I
could to see the delicate pictures that laid out on the ceiling. It
showed broad-winged angels floating over gusts of air to a city
made of tal towers and sparkling gold. Only the bottom half of the
ceiling was shrouded in black, a demon etched into the far corner
with horns protruding from his malevolent smile. It looked like a
place crafted in the limbo of the world, caught between the
darkness of Earth and the precious promise of Heaven.
"Charon," he said. "Home to mythical, the unreal. Your real
home."
The second he said it, it instantly felt true. While the house
I grew up in felt natural, it never felt real, not like this. This felt
natural. A warm that had nothing to do with my powers spread
through my body. I was
home
.
I walked in front of Leo and grabbed him by the shoulders.
"I want to see it. I want to see it al." Then as an afterthought.
"Please."
He laughed and nodded in the same movement. "Where
would you like to start?"
"Anywhere. Bookshops, bakeries, anything."
He seemed to think about it for a moment. "I think I know
where we should start." His gaze almost looked sad, as if what he
where we should start." His gaze almost looked sad, as if what he
was going to say would disappoint me. "There's a tavern just down
the main road-"
"Okay," I said. A congratulatory sloshing? "I'm down for
drinking until the room tap dances."
"-which is right next to an apothecary. The Alchemist who
owns it is married to a lovely woman who knows every history of
every kind of person to walk through here," he ignored my
interruption and finished. He scratched his head absentmindedly.
"They'l probably know where to start looking for anything,
considering you're probably the only Nephilim in the past three-
hundred years."
I gave a curt nod. "Lead the way, captain."
He turned and started to walk forward only to stop and
spin around rapidly. Any space between us rapidly evaporated,
right along with my breath. "Are you glad you trusted me?"
"Absolutely," I blurted out without shame. A smile spread
across my cheeks faster than I could have imagined possible. It felt
like every fiber of my being was singing in joy at the promise of
understanding just what I was and where I belonged.
Leo extended his arm to me with a little mock-polite bow.
I took his hand and, realizing I was probably breaking some
cardinal rule about holding hands with other people's boyfriends,
dropped it.
"No, it's okay," he said with a smile but the shock of his
words read in his eyes. Every mental alarm in my head sounded off
that it was a bad idea. These new surroundings were realy starting
to scramble my brain with what was right and wrong. This time he
to scramble my brain with what was right and wrong. This time he
reached out and took my hand, holding it firmly in his grasp as I did
my best not to blush or read into it.
We took our time walking down the street, Leo stopping
to let me stare in a shel-shocked awe of everything around me.
The city looked exactly as it had on the glass ceiling; towers of
white spiraled into the clouds farther than the eye could see.
Smaler brick-and-mortar houses were crafted of the same
blemished white marble I had seen inside of the library, coils of
golden-twisted metal lacing along the outer frame like imitation
vines. Paved tawny colored cobblestones led down a wide
expanse of road that ended in a cul-de-sac lined with several smal
shops.
It felt weird staring at everything but it was something I
wanted to record to memory in case I never saw it again. Witches
and wizards, goblins and centaurs, faeries and more walked past
us at any given moment, each one different from the first and the
last. I half expected to pinch myself and wake up from a daydream
in school.
"What are you doing?" Leo asked as he watched me pinch
myself for the third and fourth time.
"Trying to see if I'm going to wake up," I answered truthfuly.
"This just feels so..."
"Impossible? Imaginary?"
"Yes."
"Wel, is the fire you create impossible? Is that imaginary?"
"Impossible, yes," I said with a laugh. "Scientificaly
speaking, anyway. Imaginary?" I thought back to the first night I
felt the heat in my fingers, how I had thought I'd burnt them on the
bonfire. How fast everything had changed from there. "No."
Leo smiled at me and gave my shoulder a nudge with his
own. "Let's head inside. His wife is going to love seeing you."
Inside the shop it was darker, a thin cloud of smoke
hovering against the ceiling. The upper half of al four wals held
shelves sporting different bottles of color, shape, and size while the
lower half had tables spread every few feet draped in ornate fabric
and scrols of parchment. At the back nestled between two tables
stood a desk just as elegant as everything else, an old man twirling
the ends of his white mustache while he gazed into a mirror
standing behind it.
"Excuse me," I started off.
"Shh shh shh shh
shhhhhhhhh
." The old man held up a
finger in protest, eyes never leaving the mirror. His fingers drifted
from the mustache to his bald scalp to the tips of his sharply
pointed ears. "The sign outside said I was out to lunch. You'l have
to come back later."
"We're not here for a remedy," Leo spoke beside me.
"We're here to see your wife, Lorena."
The man puled his face away from the mirror and I let out
a little gasp. Bronze colored scales covered the center of his face
from the top of his eyebrows just under the chin. Cat-like eyes with
violet irises blinked back at us as he regarded us with curiosity.
"My Lorena? Heavens, what did the woman do now?" He
roled his eyes and gave a haughty little sigh. "LORENA! SOME
roled his eyes and gave a haughty little sigh. "LORENA! SOME
KIDS ARE HERE TO SEE YOU!"
Curtains behind the desk parted as a smal, brittle looking
woman gently inched out, a curious expression drawn on her face.
Lines of both laughter and worry creased into her skin and time
hovering over potions had hunched her shoulders into a permanent
hump. But her eyes stil shined like two commanding orbs of opal
that could rip the truth right out of your lips.
"Kids? I don't recal anyone making an appointment." She
smacked the back of the man's head as a bel rang behind us.
"Next time lock the door."
I shifted uncomfortably in my shoes, exchanging a pleading
look with Leo. I wasn't ready to show them my power, not with
Kayden's warning stil swirling around my head.
"Lorena, we came to see you on the word of my father,
Artemis? We own the library just down the street," Leo spoke in a
silky-smooth tone, making sure to inch closer to her. I watched him
bat his eyelashes, one tiny step away from pleading on his hands
and knees. "Remember?"
"Cut the flirtatious crap," Lorena cut him off. She shooed at
him as if he were no more than a stray that had snuck in off the
streets. "Wealthy business boy, that's al you are. Leave us be and
play your pranks on someone else."
"But this isn't a-"
A hand shoved right into his face and cut him off. "
Leave
.
Before I find that useless father of yours and give him a good crack
on the skul." Her tiny frame inched back behind the curtain as she
went off on a rant under her breath.
went off on a rant under her breath.
"You heard the lady," the old man chimed in as he
shrugged with a bored expression glazing over his eyes. "Now
could you leave? I realy don't want to sleep on the couch tonight
and the longer you stay the more likely that's going to happen."
Leo and I turned to look at each other. I could feel the
defeat in his saddened resolve of a stare, his lips clenched tight in a
bitterly depressive smile. To come so close only to be shuffled
aside by the very woman holding the secrets I needed...fire blazed
over my knuckles.
Jingle bels sounded from the doorway the same time
someone cleared their throat. I looked over to see a wilowy
shaped figure hiding under a maroon cloak beckoning us closer.
Crimson fingernails longer than her actual fingers reached out from
the cloak, the skin on the hand a sickly lime green.
"Folow me,
Nephilim
, and bring your little friend too." A
girlish chipper voice sounded from under the hood before turning
around and abruptly leaving the shop.
The fire vanished from my knuckles and I grabbed Leo's
hand, yanking him back out onto the street before the door could
shut behind the cloaked woman. Crowds of people pushed up and
down the street to the point where I could barely make out
anyone. The tip of a maroon hood caught my eye as it entered a
pub halfway up the street. I instantly sprinted down the way,
praying Leo wouldn't trip and take us both down in one fel swoop.
While the outside of the pub looked regal and designed for
a couture world the inside resembled any regular run-of-the-mil
drinking hot spot. A couple unsavory looking creatures sat at the
drinking hot spot. A couple unsavory looking creatures sat at the
counter, a lizard tale sticking out of the back of one of the guy's
pants 'accidentaly' getting a little too friendly with a waitress that
walked too much.
Leo inched a little closer to me, his shoulders set in a rigid
stance. "I don't like the looks of this place."
I thought back to the bars I'd seen in New York City,
memories of vomiting and outside brawls coming back to mind.
Judging by how this bar stil had its floors polished and no
shattered glass to be seen it looked marvelous to me.
I offered him a sweet smile. "It's not bad. Almost has a
type of rustic charm to it." A green hand waved at a booth across
the room, the hood stil hiding her face. "Come on." This person
already knew what I was, so it was time to see just how deep the
waters were. I let Leo slide into the far end of the booth, his
uncomfortable behavior stil beyond obvious. Last thing we needed
was a brawl against Lizard Tale and his groupies from the counter.
The hooded figure seated across from us giggled. "Good to
know you can track a faerie."
"I'd thank your cape for that, not for any skils you think I
may have," I said. Arms crossed against my chest I made sure to
give my best look of revulsion. "What did you cal me before?"
"Do you realy want me to say it aloud in here?" The hood
leaned closer and pressed both hands onto the table. "Around al
these ears?"
Kayden's warning played in my head again. I leaned back
in my seat and glared into the hood as Leo shifted closer beside
in my seat and glared into the hood as Leo shifted closer beside
me. "Okay, let's just say what you said earlier was right. What do
you know about it?"
"Give me your arm," the hood instructed. I instantly drew it
closer to my chest.
"How about we see who the hel you are for starters," I
growled. The heat of my fire swirled in my chest, ready to spread
at any given moment I let my guard down. "Or you can keep
pushing me and watch this whole place go up in flames."
Leo's horrified expression came into view from the edge of
the table. But I caught the faintest touch of a smile grace his lips as
his eyes flashed with a hidden delight. "Essalie, you're not serious.
You wouldn't."
I cracked my knuckles, watching the sparks jut off in
different directions. Smal scorch marks littered the table between
us and I did my best attempt at a wicked smile. "Want to bet your
life on it?"
"Okay okay," the hooded figure held out both hands like a
white flag. Her long fingernails puled back the hood in a single
graceful move, revealing a beautiful face. Her skin was of the same
lime green as her hands save for a large navy blue blemish that
covered one of her caramel colored eyes and part of her cheek.
Ears nearly twice as long as her head extended back into thin
points, most of them hidden in the thick caramel colored curly mass
of hair that rested on a shoulder in a half-pony tail. "My name is
Serena. Satisfied?"
"Much," I said with little enthusiasm. Part of me wished she
had kept the hood on. I suddenly felt very plain compared to her