CHAPTER 23: FATALITY
It was as if we tumbled into a painting. Maybe I was dreaming again? Was this a memory? Rolling hills spread out around us, and the towering trees in the distance were a rich, golden red. The sun was low in the sky, and the moon glowed faintly in the twilight. Far off, there were gigantic snowcapped mountains, and clouds hugged the top of the mass.
“Where are we?” I barely breathed. The small amount of strength I had was fading away, and the pain in my side was only getting worse.
“Italy,” Andrew murmured and placed me on the soft grass. It was incredibly cold, but it could have just been from blood loss.
How did we get here? I wondered dreamily, still in a fog-like daze. The sun lowered in the sky, and I shivered, which made my muscles knot and caused piercing pain to shoot through me. One-by-one the angels appeared around me. First Abelie, who was at my side in an instant, and then the others. Ehno was last, Joseph’s arm around his shoulder. Now that I knew everyone was okay, I wanted to sleep. Exhaustion began to overtake me as I started to tumble through a cold blackness.
“Gabriella?” Abelie whispered. I blinked. I hadn’t realized I closed my eyes. “I’m going to help you, but I need you to do me a favor.” I barely nodded my head. “Hold still,” she commanded. Like that was going to be a problem, I could barely lift my head. “Andrew?” Abelie looked up, and Andrew’s silhouette came into my view. “Do you mind?”
“Anything.” His voice sounded desperate, pleading. I actually believed that he really would do anything for me. I was lucky to have found him.
Andrew held out his hand, and Abelie grabbed it. I wondered why that was. She placed her other hand over the wound, her palm warm against my cold skin. Maybe I’d lost more blood than I realized. She closed her eyes and bowed her head. Andrew jerked but didn’t let go of Abelie’s hand. I had no idea what was going on. Her face lit with a golden glow. It was then that I realized it was the reflection from the light being emitted from her palm. I hadn’t grasped how cold I had become until warmth spread through me like a wildfire. It felt amazing.
“Take it slow,” Aiden cautioned and placed a hand on Abelie’s shoulder. “We can’t heal you if something happens.”
As I lay there, I had to see for myself what she was doing. Each second my strength returned. I sat up. The torturous ache was almost completely gone. The deep wound at my side was healing. I couldn’t see it, but I could feel it. Abelie inhaled deeper breaths, panting, and then she collapsed backwards.
“Are you okay?” I gasped and got to my knees to check on my mother. My mother . . . My mind went all loopy at the thought.
“Yes, baby. I’m more than fine.” She smiled up at me, breathless. She reached up, and her fingertips trailed along my cheek. “You’re more beautiful up close than you are from a distance.”
“What did you do to me?” I barely whispered in awe, more to myself than her. I realized I was being rude, but I wanted to know.
Ehno and Lucia came to Abelie’s side and helped her up. “You were going to die.” The word sounded sour on her tongue. “The wound was a magical one—the Ladies of Light are more powerful than all other immortals. I did the only thing I could: I healed you.”
Maybe I didn’t hear her right. “You healed me?”
A gusty wind whipped my hair up and around my face. Abelie caught a few pieces and put them behind my ear. “Yes. Not many know about my ability. My whole existence I’ve feared that someone would use it against me. I’m a healer, and always have been. But I was surprised I was able to heal that wound.” She placed her palm over the torn spot in my clothes and looked into my eyes. “It’s one that would kill an angel if not treated correctly.” She paused for a moment, and a pained look flittered across her face. “It would only take minutes for the magic to flood through your veins like poison and kill you. We were lucky I was able to do as much as I did. I was so afraid I wasn’t going to be able to help you. It’s impossible to completely heal that wound, but I did my best.”
My palm automatically went to my side where I could feel the scar there. I still felt weak but amazingly better than before. Then I glanced back up at the face of the angel who saved my life. For several short seconds I just stared at her in wonder and compared our features. The same sea-green eyes, the same nose, even the same color hair. She was fantastic, and the first person I had ever met who looked like me. And no matter how much I resented the person who left me all those years ago, she wasn’t someone I could begrudge. That was when I began to cry the happiest tears I had ever cried, and then I tackled her. She hugged me back, and we sat in the cold damp grass like that for several minutes with the sun slinking away in the background. We cried and laughed and smiled and hugged each other. She was real, and she was my mother. I was part her and . . .
“My father?”
She pulled away but still held my arms. “Aiden is your father, Gabriella.”
“So it’s true then? I’m the Illuminator?” Even though angels popped into my house and tried to explain this to me, and even though I saw the prophecy myself in my dream, I needed to hear it from my mother.
“Yes, baby. You’re the chosen one—the one who will light the darkness.” She didn’t sound upset—she sounded proud.
Aiden put a hand on my shoulder, and Andrew flinched behind Abelie, as if he was nervous about the Shadow being so close to me. In my head, I remembered Andrew saying he knew Aiden as Abelie’s angel husband, not the Shadow before us. I wondered briefly if this was the same being Andrew remembered.
I looked up into the face of the Shadow—a creature that I had once feared. There was no horror in his presence. Just like with my mom, I practically leapt into his arms like a four-year old jumping up to meet her daddy’s embrace. His arms burst into flame when he grabbed a hold of me. There was no heat from the fire, only an enormous amount of love engulfing me, as if the cool flames held his feelings. He spun me around and placed a kiss on my forehead.
“My sweet Gabriella,” he whispered in relief.
When he put me down, I looked between my parents and a million questions flew through my mind. The one I wanted to ask the most, the one that I had been trying to find the answer to for years, came bounding out of my mouth.
“Why did you leave me? How—”
“Sweetie,” Abelie cut in, rose to her feet, and placed her palms on my cheeks. “We didn’t want to leave you. We tried to keep you hidden for five years, but one day a Shadow found you. His name was Jeff—a nickname he acquired after seeking out and killing twenty-seven mortals named Jeff. He wore the name like a trophy. We fought him off, as we had in the past, before your birth.”
The images bobbed their way to the surface. When I was in pain and the blackness consumed me . . . they were running from a Shadow. Jeff. I hated him. How many times did an angel have to cast one of them out? But even as the images unfolded before me, it was hard to tear my eyes away from my parents. My parents. I tried to contain my smile.
“I met Jeff,” I admitted.
“What?” growled Aiden and Andrew at the same time. Watching the two of them, their faces angry, was funny to me for some reason. I swallowed the giggle before it could surface.
“He was disguised as an FBI agent,” I continued.
“Wait,” Joseph interrupted. I had almost forgotten he was here. When I turned to look at him, he had dried blood on his face and down his neck, making his appearance look brutal. I was surprised he hadn’t freaked out by this point. Hell, I was surprised I hadn’t freaked out. “Jeff was a Shadow?”
“Yes,” both men answered. Joseph’s face distorted into a grimace.
“Anyway,” Abelie continued, “we didn’t want to give you up. We cried over you and fought against the whole unbelievable idea, but we knew if you were to survive, you would have to live a life far away from angels and the supernatural. We’ve watched you grow up when we were able to get away,” Abelie explained. “We knew you were safe and happy. Your adoptive parents di
d a wonderful job in your upbringing.”
That brought me to my next train of thought. “How was I human and now I’m not, and my memory?” I mumbled.
“You were such a smart little girl,” Abelie reminisced fondly. Now, more than ever, I wished I could remember the time before. “It was amazing how resourceful you were, even at such a young age. Your memory was perfect.” Aiden wrapped an arm around Abelie as she began to cry. “We—we cast a spell that turned you human. Your blood ran red, and then you couldn’t remember a time before that. We didn’t realize that would be the side-effect, but we were happy that it was so, because we didn’t know how we would explain the situation to you.” Her shoulders shook with her quiet sobs. “And we knew that the angels couldn’t find you, and if they did, they wouldn’t know you were the Illuminator. The whole world would know you as human, not angel. We did it to keep you safe. It was the hardest thing we’ve ever had to do in four thousand years.
“What we didn’t even think about was that you would one day possess a gift beyond being the Illuminator. We should’ve known. Everyone felt the shockwave you emitted. I knew how smart you were, and so I sent you a chest with a key.”
I nodded, stunned. “Two keys,” I corrected.
“Two?”
“Yeah.”
“Huh,” she said, bewildered. “That’s strange.”
“No, the Shadow was strange.”
“There was a Shadow?” She gasped. “I left you a message with the key to the Divine Library, explaining what it went to—just in case something happened to me or Aiden.”
“There was no message, only a Shadow.” I paused.
“Wha—what happened, did he hurt you?” Abelie’s hands flailed around my body, searching for any signs of harm.
“No, I’m fine. Apparently all the damage happened in my head. He tore my office apart, but when he left everything was normal again.”
“Gabriella, I’m so sorry. I had no idea. I was only trying to provide a way for you to get some answers about your life.”
“Why didn’t you just come to me?”
“We were afraid that we would lead the Shadows or Ladies of Light to you. They both knew you weren’t dead, but they couldn’t find you. We had to be careful. But—” She hesitated for a second. “—who could have tampered with it?”
I shrugged.
“Did you at least understand that the key was meant for you?” she asked.
“Yes, though it was pretty cryptic, if you ask me.” I smiled.
“I was trying to warn you about the Ladies of Light—that they couldn’t be trusted, no matter how wonderful they seemed.”
“Okay.” I placed my hand on my shirt, which was still wet with my golden blood, and pulled it away. I placed my palm toward them and asked, “But why and how did I turn back into an angel?”
Abelie sighed, and Aiden answered this time. “We don’t have the answer to that. But I’m pretty sure it’s because you’re the Illuminator. No spell or powerful charm will keep you from becoming who you were meant to be. Deep down, I think we knew that. It was still incredibly hard to let you go. It was for your protection; you have to understand that.”
“I do.”
Everyone was silent. Thoughts whirled around in my head. There was so much to take in. “How did we get to Italy?” I blurted. The question was reasonable enough, I thought.
Lucia laughed, an enchanting sound. “My dear Illuminator, I’m able to manipulate dimensions. I opened up a portal and sent us all somewhere else for a second before I sent us here.”
I shook my head, trying to comprehend what she just told me. Did she seriously just tell me she opened up a portal and sent us to another dimension and then sent us here?
I blinked. “Come again?”
Lucia smiled at my bewildered expression. “It must be hard for you to understand our world, being so new to it, but you should know that you were made to live as an angel, and you will adjust better than anyone else.”
Andrew put his arm around my waist and pulled me to his side. “You’re freezing,” he stated. “Let’s get you inside.”
“Inside where?” I asked, looking around. Was I missing a building or a house? I glanced over my shoulder and back around me again. There was nothing but rolling, grassy hills, small, rocky precipices for miles, and massive mountains in the distance.
“The Divine Library.”
“Really?” Again, my eyes scanned the surrounding area. The sun was almost completely behind the horizon, and I couldn’t see that far. As I did a second sweep across the tall trees to the east, I saw something move within the shadows. I jumped and electrocuted Andrew, who then looked around suspiciously.
“Let’s go,” he said to everyone. “We aren’t safe out here.”
We aren’t safe out here, I repeated in my head. Ehno nodded toward us, and we walked the opposite direction of the line of trees. Chills ran down my spine, and I couldn’t help but peek over my shoulder again. It was too dark, and I couldn’t make out anything. That didn’t stop the goose bumps from rising on my arms.
The sky was lit with a purplish tint as the sun finally made its way west. Instantly, everything started coming into focus. Shapes that were blurred were now clear and sharp, and that was when I saw them: a line of roughly thirty Shadows. They were dressed in black robes that billowed in the wind, all of them except for one who was dressed in a black suit. Even at this distance, I could see their eyes glow. The two at the end of the line stomped their feet, and fire lit between them, illuminating the Shadows in the middle. My heart started to race ahead. I didn’t know what to do, and it seemed that the others didn’t either. We were all frozen in place. When I looked at my angels, their eyes glittered with the reflection of the fire. The scene was eerily like my depiction of hell.
One of the Shadows stepped forward from the fire. He was the only one not wearing black robes. The black suit and cold glare was attached to none other than Jeff Vittorio. There was no reason for him to be wearing his glasses when he was among his own kind. He still looked more human than the others, but the façade was gone, his appearance just as wild looking as the Shadows around him. Their skin was dark and cracked. Inside the cracks it looked like a river of lava flowed. They looked like demons.
Were we going to fight them? Were they here to capture me? How would we survive? My heart beat faster. Instead of staring at our enemies across the way, all I could do was look at the angels and the very human Joseph who would either be a witness to my death or die alongside me. I couldn’t allow that. He was innocent and good and didn’t deserve that fate so young. We couldn’t fight against them all. They were strong. Too strong.
As the Shadows converged upon us, their robes rippled across the ground like flowing water. Electricity burned within me and begged to escape. My heart pounded so fast I thought it would jump right out. As the line of fiery Shadows moved closer, all I could think about was protecting those I had grown to care for. Instead, the angels circled around me and kept me from their view. I hated how they felt obligated to protect me. This was a battle I didn’t want them to fight for me.
Jeff stepped forward through the fire as if it were air, a manic gleam in his eyes. “We don’t have to fight,” he said viciously with a grin spread across his charcoal face. Whatever magic he used to conceal himself when I first met him was gone. “Just give us the Illuminator, and we’ll leave you be.”
Andrew growled and pulled me closer behind his back. If it wasn’t for the situation, I might have raised my eyebrows and asked, “Did you just growl?” Instead, I gripped onto his skin right under his shirt and let the current flow between us. Let them take me, I thought, sure he could hear. His head jerked to the side, and the look of disbelief and pain was clear in his eyes. We can’t fight them. We can’t win. And I can’t lose any of you—especially you.
Ignoring the fiery Shadows, Andrew spun around and put his warm hands on my shoulders. He looked down, his eyes pleading. “I wo
n’t allow it.”
“It’s not your decision.”
“We’re not going to hand you over,” he said firmly. His eyes surveyed my face for several seconds, like he was looking for some answer I couldn’t give him.
“Just let me go,” I petitioned.
Andrew frowned and brought me into a comforting embrace. “Please don’t ask me to do this,” he barely whispered against my ear.
I took in his magnificent scent—kind of like honey and the most delectable cologne I’d ever smelled. The electricity burned within me, strong, hot, and fierce. I knew in that moment he could feel my emotions and hear my thoughts. He pulled me away and put his warm hands on my cheeks. This time there was no reason for him to kiss me, no ulterior motive. His lips pressed firmly, yet gently, against my own, and everything around us disappeared. My arms snaked around his neck, and he let go of my face and put his hands on my lower back to pull me to him. I was in heaven, right in the middle of an oncoming battle. And no matter the small amount of time I had known him, I loved him.
We broke free of each other, breathless. His forehead was against mine, and he looked content and distraught all at once.
“I love you too. That’s why I can’t let you to give yourself over to the Shadows.” Andrew’s gaze was intent.
I sighed heavily. For a whole second I almost gave into his demands. Though his words were sweet and unexpected, I had to make him understand. I repeated part of the prophecy. “As the dark ones approach, the Illuminator should be set free, uninhibited by all Guardians.” I went on in increasing desperation. “You must realize that I know this is what I was meant to do. You need to let me go—it’s the only way.”
Lucia tapped his shoulder. “Andrew, she’s right. Even though my mind and body are screaming for me to protect her, the prophecy states that we should not hold her back.”
Abelie interrupted. “You can’t seriously be considering this, Lucia. She’s my daughter. I just got her back.”
Her words were touching, and I knew how she felt, but I had to do this—not just for her but for all the angels. It was time for me to protect her.
“Enough,” I ordered. As I had stated before, this wasn’t their decision; it was mine. “Stop talking about me like I’m not here. Listen to me—I love you all more than I’ve ever loved anyone in my entire life, and I refuse to stand by and watch you all die trying to protect me.” Unfortunately, I had no idea how I would defeat the Shadows single-handedly.
A soft tenor voice sounded from behind me. “Gabriella,” Joseph said, “there’s no reason to be selfless right now when we’re all here to help. You don’t have to carry this burden alone. Let us all carry the weight.”
“It’s true, we’ll all fight,” Ehno agreed.
Behind Abelie was Aiden, his back to all of us as he watched the Shadows’ every move. “We aren’t giving you the Illuminator,” he yelled toward Jeff, his voice ferocious. “We didn’t give her up when she was a child, and we certainly won’t do it now.”
Jeff laughed, amused. “She’s going to kill the Shadows—that includes you. The daughter that you continue to protect is the one who will kill you. Priceless.”
Aiden growled and fire shot from his palms. The flames raced across the ground and circled around Jeff before they licked at him angrily. Jeff merely stomped on the ground, and the fire went out. Smoke lingered in the air around him.
“Then we fight.” Jeff smirked.
“No,” I shouted and sprang forward out of Andrew’s embrace and tried to penetrate the circle of angels. Andrew yanked me back by my waist, and the circle tightened. “Let go of me.”
“I can’t let you do this. Please Gabriella, please don’t go,” Andrew pleaded, his eyebrows pushed together in frustration.
I struggled in his grip. “Please don’t fight them,” I begged as frustrated tears descended my face. “I can save you all.” I repeated the prophecy’s words.
Andrew placed his hand against my head and pulled me to his chest where I continued to cry out. “I don’t care about the prophecy. I won’t let them take you. I just won’t.”
I quit struggling and let him hold me.
“Even if you went to the Shadows, I’d fight to get you back.” Andrew lifted my chin to his face and placed his lips to mine quickly before he looked up toward Ehno and nodded.
Chaos erupted—like a volcano bursting at the seams with hot molten lava. Though the sun had set, the area was alight with fire. The Shadows attacked, and the circle was quickly penetrated. Aiden broke free from our small grouping and charged into the Shadows. Then he was gone, as if a bunch of ants attacked a piece of meat and swallowed him whole. Lucia battled against several Shadows, but she was wearing down. She had been weakened after the Ladies of Light attacked us, and I was sure she hadn’t returned to full strength yet. Still, she continued to thwart her attackers, many of them disappearing as she cast them away. Ehno sent red light flashing into a group of Shadows, and several of them went down. Not enough to make a difference. There were too many of them and not enough of us.
Andrew stayed at my side, his voice low and vicious as he shouted many fluid Italian words that made sparks fly from his palms and race through the bedlam. My eyes shot around the battlefield, desperately searching for Joseph whom I had lost sight of. He was only human, and there was no way he would be able to fight against these black creatures. Surprisingly, a few gunshots rang out. When Andrew glanced over his shoulder at me, he pointed off in the distance, as if he could read my thoughts when we weren’t touching. As my eyes swung the direction he pointed, I breathed out a deep sigh of relief. Joseph was fine, as far as I could tell. He was on top of a Shadow, his gun tossed aside as he punched him mercilessly, his strength disproportional to his size. His powerful punches surprised me; he had extraordinary strength for someone so human.
As everyone fought against the Shadows, I tried to keep track of them. The pandemonium was too much. Lucia was down on the ground, hurt. I ran toward her, shouldering my way through the battle, and slid on my knees in the dew-covered grass. As I went to her aid, a Shadow came out of nowhere and dove for me. He pushed me down on my back and held my arms above my head with one hand. He ripped at my shirt, and I tried to electrocute him; but my strength had not fully restored since I received my injury from the Ladies of Light. The Shadow’s hot, greedy breath was at my throat, as if he was sniffing me. His fingers around my wrists burned my flesh away, and odd little whimpers escaped my mouth as I writhed and shrieked, unable to cause any damage. Suddenly, the Shadow flew across the field and tumbled into a few others. They went down like bowling pins.
Andrew knelt next to me and moved a strand of hair from my face. He had an anxious expression displayed on his face. “Are you hurt?”
I was, but there was no time to worry. The burns would have to wait until later. We were in danger. “No. I’m fine, really.”
He helped me up, and two Shadows came up from behind and yanked me back into the chaos. The Shadow’s skin was rough and hot against mine. Andrew shouted something, and sparks flew as fire flared in my view. I screamed for him. There were no answers. I couldn’t see any of my angels. There was a loud explosion, and several of the Shadows flew into the air, their bodies limp. Abelie walked through the smoky remains of the grass and shot off spell after spell; Shadows disappeared at random. As the wind blew the smoke away, I saw Andrew break free. But he was too late—three Shadows sent fire sweeping across the ground toward Abelie. My pulse quickened. I shouted for her to run, but she couldn’t hear me through all the noise.
As I watched, helpless, a feeling of horror rose like bile in my throat. The fire ran up her clothes. It didn’t burn her like I thought it would. No, it snaked slowly up her body and around her neck. The Shadow smirked and made eye contact with me. As if the cacophony of battle ceased, the loud crack of her neck resonated through the cold night air. I gave a small cry of shock, and my stomach jolted sickeningly. I felt as if my heart wou
ld fall out of my chest. The raging battle disappeared and all there was—was my mother.
Andrew ran toward Abelie and caught her before she hit the ground. Her body was limp, her face empty as her green eyes, my green eyes, stared at me lifelessly. There was a chill in my stomach as I tried to digest the horrible image before me. Each breath seemed to become sharper in my chest. It was oddly disembodying, like part of me was being detached.
It’s too late, a voice echoed in my head.
A scream of agonized fury tore from my lips. “No! Please . . . God! Not her. Not my mother. Take me instead,” I shouted at the sky. No longer was I paying attention to the battle. A Shadow could have struck me dead, and I would have been okay with that—anything to alleviate this horror. This pain.
Aiden sprinted through the smoke toward Abelie. His whole body burst into flames, and for the first time they were blazing hot, just like his fury.
As the tears descended my face, Andrew leaned over my mom, or what was left of her, and shut her eyes. I took a step toward the woman who had done everything she could to keep me alive. Out of nowhere, Joseph sprang up and tackled me just as a violet light flashed over our heads. How was he still alive—a human—and my mother—an angel—not? Abelie isn’t here to heal me this time, I thought abruptly. My heart felt like it would burst with the overwhelming anguish. As if something had been ripped from my body. I crawled to her like a soldier, needing to hold her in my arms—those same arms that would never bring comfort to me again.
I gasped and knelt beside my mother. There was no puddle of golden blood, no marks—just a lifeless body. It was in that moment that I realized I’d never speak to my beloved mother again. Though it killed me to tear my eyes from her, I turned to see Aiden sobbing molten golden tears. Regardless of his Shadow name, he was an angel. When I looked to Andrew, hoping he could tell me something different from what I already knew, he glanced up to meet my gaze. To my surprise and shock, his eyes were like sapphires, the richest most electric blue I had ever seen, his face tortured. It was true then.
“Your eyes,” I whispered and went to wipe away his tears. A fiery mist burst over our heads and descended upon us. Hadn’t there been enough damage done? I could see Jeff in the distance, a gleam of triumph in his eyes as a smirk quivered on his lips. Hate and revulsion rocked my body.
It was then that the Shadow to my left gasped in shock and fear. The others followed when they looked my direction. I knew what they were afraid of. They were frightened of me and my glowing skin. The prophecy’s words scrolled through my head. “As the dark ones approach, the Illuminator should be set free, uninhibited by all Guardians. She will show us all who the enemies are and how to defeat them.” I stood, more livid than I had ever been in my entire life. It was time to prove who was the most powerful. It was me.
My vindictive wrath acted as a stimulant. The waves of fury I generated could probably be felt for miles. I welcomed the tide of anger that swelled within me. Powerful hatred swept through me roughly as electricity coiled at my core. I eyed all the Shadows malevolently.
“Ombre, è il momento di cadete,” I said in a low and deadly voice, my arms outstretched, palms faced forward. There was no hesitation. I didn’t know where the Italian words came from, but I understood them: “Shadows, it is time to fall.” And fall they did, like sooty pieces of wood, as electricity exploded from my luminous anger. Every Shadow in a mile radius was probably knocked off their feet. Even the dancing firelight was extinguished, leaving oily smoke billowing in the wind. The grounds were bathed in a ghostly moonlight, and a scene of total devastation was all that could be seen.