Synergy (See #3)(20)

My father glanced at his side to her. The wind was forcefully blowing her hair behind her, but she didn’t squint her eyes; instead, she stared calmly at the demon. The evil image it had displayed vanished, and beauty returned. I could swear I could see compassion in its eyes. Monroe stepped forward and whispered words that I knew to be Latin. The angel scowled at her, then vanished into thin air.

My chest was rising and falling so fast that I hurt. The panic hurt. My father’s image turned to me. I saw sympathy in his eyes. He let his hand rest on my shoulder. He didn’t say a word or show me anything, but I heard him loud and clear. He was telling me to go, that my time to leave had come.

“How?” I whispered as I caught my breath. No answer came, just the thought that it would be soon; my escape, my fate was here. He vanished, leaving only his guitar gently playing in the background.

I looked nervously from Madison to Monroe, then I remembered where Draven was. “We have to go back. What if... what if...” I couldn’t say it. I couldn’t think the thought that Silas had killed Draven after we left The Realm.

Monroe walked slowly to me. “He’ll be here soon.”

“Who?” I asked in a panicked tone.

“He didn’t kill him,” Monroe said calmly.

Good to know. “Monroe, was that your dad?” I asked.

She refused to answer. “Did you kill him?” I pushed.

She looked down. “No.”

“What did you say?” I asked her.

“Just to leave you alone,” Monroe said as she knelt down and picked up part of a broken lamp.

“I...I...I can’t process this,” Madison said, looking at me.

“We just need to take a breath,” I said as I started to pick up the broken pieces of glass from the floor.

We’d seen a lot in The Realm; hell, we’d seen a lot here, but we’d never seen anything that dark, that evil, not in my house. I couldn’t think, and when I can’t think I have to move. I had this insane thought that I would be in trouble for making such a mess in the house. The fact that there was a devil’s trap on the floor, that I’d reached into men and pulled out darkness just moments ago, or the fact that I’d almost died twice today wasn’t my concern. All I could think to do was clean up the mess that the devil had made.

Madison stopped me and gripped her hands on my shoulders. “Stop cleaning. What now?! What do we do now?”

“I don’t know,” I whispered. “Help me clean. If I clean, I take away the memory of that thing.”

“Cleaning isn’t going to do that,” Madison said shortly.

“What do you want me to do? What do you want me to say?! That was the devil; I swear it was.” I glanced at Monroe. “The devil has those boys. He’s holding our way out, and my dad just told me to leave. I don’t know how to leave. I don’t know what to do,” I said with a voice that was laced in tears.

“Do you really think he’s the devil?” Madison whispered, glancing at Monroe. “What does that make her?”

I stepped back away from Madison. “An innocent child.” I walked slowly to Monroe, who looked up as I got closer.

“Monroe,” I said as calmly as I could, “I need you to be honest with me. Can your dad hurt you?” Even though she hadn’t admitted that the dark spirit was her father, I couldn’t help assuming that he was, or at the very least that he’d lead to her father.

She looked down. “Only if I let him.”

“Can ... can that demon come back here? Now that he knows you’re here, will he come back?”

She slowly raised her head. “We won’t see him here again.”

“But we’re going to see him again?”

Her eyes told me yes.

“How do we leave, Monroe?”

“They’re coming,” she said as she looked down at the broken glass she had in her hands and turned to go to the kitchen to throw it away.

“Who’s ‘they’?” Madison asked.

“I don’t know. I just hope Austin beats them here.”

“We need to talk to Silas. He knows something. I bet you money he does,” Madison demanded.

“Did you not see the way Draven looked at me? How hurt and angry he was when Silas helped me in The Realm?”

“He wasn’t angry that he saved your life. He was angry that he couldn’t.”

“How do you know that?”

“I felt him. His emotions. He was grateful for Silas. Mad at himself.”

Perfect. Not. “Well, that’s the last thing I need him to feel.”

At that moment, the kitchen door opened. Draven was there. All alone. His eyes found me across the room. Even though he was trying to hide it, I could tell he was furious. He walked through the kitchen, and when he reached the threshold, he saw the damage, the pentagram across the floor. I stared right at him, not hiding anything. I let him see the evil angel that was here. I let him see Monroe make him leave. Draven tightened his jaw, then walked past me and up the stairs.

I looked at Madison. “What emotion does he have now?”

“Grief.”

Panic came over me. She moved her head from to side-to-side. “Not like death. Like a broken heart.” Madison bit her lip, then said, “You guys go work this out. I’ll clean this up, keep an eye on Monroe.”