Atlas (The Atlas Series) (25 page)

They didn’t need to say a word as Kala and Jack embraced. Emotion threatened to choke her as she felt his arms wrap around her. How could she have ever considered killing this man? Kala started to doubt everything. Maybe Talan was evil, showing her a future that wasn’t real? How could she know if he was an Angel or a Demon? She was simply taking his word for it. Showing her how to do magic could have been a way to discover how powerful she was. But she knew that wasn’t true. If Talan was evil he could have killed her a hundred times over. The fact that he hadn’t stopped her from seeing Jack also proved that Talan was giving Kala time with the one she loved. Kala decided not to think about any of it. She just stood there, in Jack’s arms, soaking in every second of it.

Jack leaned down and whispered in her ear, “I was so worried. I thought someone might have…” He left that sentence unfinished.

Kala finished it for him, “Killed me? It is
me
we’re talking about here.”

Kala suddenly saw the person Jack had been waiting to meet arrive.

Penny.

“Now!” Penny said with authority.

Jack looked down at Kala, anguish in his eyes.

Now
meant
kill
, Kala had no doubt.

“Jack,” was all that Kala could utter.

Jack’s arms stayed locked around Kala and Kala’s around him. He was struggling as hard as she had been.

Penny pleaded, “Jack, you have to.”

Kala turned her gaze to Penny. “You and Talan are like a broken record:
Jack kill Kala, Kala kill Jack
. Shut up already!”

Penny’s eyes widened. Kala had never seen her so scared, so shocked. “Did you say Talan?”

Kala remembered that maybe she was supposed to keep the whole Grigori thing a secret. Oops! Since she couldn’t successfully backtrack, Kala decided to stay silent instead.

“Impossible! The Grigori have been banished for all of time.” Penny looked like she was on the verge of panic. “And why would Talan tell you to kill Jack?”

Both Jack and Penny picked up on the reasoning behind that in about two seconds.

Surprisingly, Jack leaned down and kissed Kala’s forehead. There was a strange kind of relief in his eyes. “I’m your mission.” He made it a statement of fact.

“She’s the potential, Jack. She has to die.” Penny was becoming a little too scary for Kala’s taste.

Jack and Kala looked at each other; Kala could read Jack’s thoughts like they were her own. He wasn’t going to kill her, and she wasn’t going to kill him. But they did need to occupy Penny while they made their escape.

Kala reached into her pocket while still in Jack’s embrace and sparked the lighter. Jack’s eyebrows furrowed in curiosity. Kala tried to prepare him for what he was about to see. “Get ready for a shock.”

Faster than she expected, Kala sucked in the fire and shot it out of her hand, completely engulfing Penny in a cocoon of fire.

Penny screeched in anger — but not anguish: Penny knew what this meant and she was pissed. Meanwhile, people around the courtyard panicked and screamed when seeing Penny on fire.

Jack was definitely shocked, but he was a soldier first and knew when an opportunity to retreat presented itself. He grabbed Kala’s hand and they ran to Union Station. There was no talking between them as Jack bought the tickets. Kala didn’t hear where they were headed, just as long as they were headed out of there. Their hands never left each other’s as Jack led the way to the departing train. Kala figured that at least no one would wonder why they were running since the train was about to leave the station.

Finally, they leapt onto the train and were in one of the main cabins just as the platform loudspeakers announced that no more passengers could board. Kala plopped down on an empty booth; Jack slid in beside her.

“I was just on one of these things yesterday,” Kala observed.

“We won’t be on long. This train is to Alexandria. It’s a twenty-minute ride and there’s a train going there every half hour. We’ll be hard to track.” Jack wouldn’t let go of Kala’s hand.

Kala didn’t mind, though she had tried to brush a stray hair out of her face and found that Jack wasn’t budging. She couldn’t imagine what was going on in his head.

Jack obviously knew he was the target, but there was so much he didn’t know.

Kala could tell that her
Grigori
slip meant nothing to Jack. Penny, however, seemed to know who Talan was, and she definitely looked scared. It gave Kala a smug satisfaction that Talan scared Penny. Kala felt a strange sort of loyalty to her new Angel friend. Of course, she had abandoned him and threatened to light him on fire, but Kala knew that Talan forgave her. There probably wasn’t anything Kala could do to truly anger Talan. Still, she wondered why he hadn’t popped up to take her away.

Kala sighed in defeat when it hit her.

Talan was giving her the time to kill Jack because he believed she would eventually cave in and go through with it. He was probably watching her somehow, like an annoying stalker-spy.

“Is that true?” Jack spoke. “Killing me is your missin?”

Kala looked up at Jack sitting next to her, his eyes were full of fear and worry.

She nodded. “I didn’t want to tell you, but I’ll never do it. You don’t have to worry.”

“Kala, you have to. If it means saving the world, my life is worth nothing,” Jack said in a deadly serious tone.

“I’m working on a way out of this,” Kala lied. There was still a tiny part of Kala’s brain that thought of what Asmodeus had said about some ritual to summon Atlas by killing her. If she could pull it off without actually dying... Maybe if she was able to trick Atlas into taking the power back, then Jack would be safe. After all, the only reason why the earth ended in Talan’s vision was because
she
was the Atlas and Jack wasn’t. They couldn’t exist together in the same space. If a god became a god again, maybe that problem would cease to be.

“There is no way.” Jack seemed convinced. “I won’t kill you either… if you’re worried.”

“I’m not.” Kala squeezed Jack’s hand for emphasis, but internally, there was a part of her that wasn’t as confident as she pretended to be. Jack had trained all his life to become an Atlas, he was a true believer, and he looked like he had considered killing her. Maybe Kala had imagined it. A part of her wasn’t sure.

Relief flooded Jack’s face. Regardless of whether or not he had been tempted to take Kala out, Jack had chosen not to, and Kala’s words of faith obviously made him feel better.

“Where are we going?” Kala needed to know if Jack had a plan.

“There’s an apartment in Alexandria that I use for emergencies. No one knows about it. Not even Penny.” Jack lifted their clasped hands and kissed Kala’s as if taking comfort from her presence.

“Emergencies?” Kala inquired with curiosity.

Jack explained, “A part of my training growing up was about Demons and Angels tracking me. As long as the fact that I was the Atlas was hidden I’d be safe, but I wanted a couple places just in case, like the place in the forest where I was going to take you before Asmodeus grabbed you. Somewhere where no one would look for me.”

Kala didn’t want to burst Jack’s bubble about his place being safe. She knew Talan could show up at any minute. Once an Angel or Demon had Kala’s
signature
they could find her anywhere. The more time Kala spent away from Talan, the less angry she was with him. She knew the vision he showed her was true. She just didn’t care. But Kala didn’t really want to bring up Talan at the moment. She was just grateful that Asmodeus hadn’t figured out where she was yet. It was definitely a
yet
. Kala had no doubt the Demon would use any means necessary to find her.

“You’ve had so much time to prepare for this.” Kala felt jealous. Jack knew exactly what had been in store for him. He’d had years to prepare. Kala was thrown into this mess without a life preserver and expected to swim like an Olympian.

“I’m sorry this is happening. I really am.” Jack finally released his grip on her hand and reached up to touch her face. “I love you, Kala.”

Kala grabbed the back of Jack’s head and pulled him into the most intense kiss they ever had. Every part of her tingled from his touch. No one made her feel like Jack did. The more they kissed the more Kala wanted. If she could have ripped his clothes off right then and there, she would have, and from the way Jack grabbed her waist, he felt the same. It was as if all the pent-up frustrations from last three craptastic days were suddenly being released into this one kiss.

“Excuse me, but the train has stopped.” A voice jolted them out of the moment.

A very disapproving passenger was the culprit and he gave the two of them a dirty look as he exited the train car.

Jack smiled shyly and took Kala’s hand once more. “Let’s get out of here.”

Kala smiled back and let Jack lead her once more.

It took them less than a half hour to reach their destination: a small apartment complex. Kala was reminded of Jack’s brownstone only because of the older brickwork and black trim of the windows. The building was three stories high and looked like it was built in the late 1800’s. It had the same warmth as Jack’s apartment, making it feel like home. Once they were inside, Kala smiled at the décor. It was very similar to Jack’s apartment, old-fashioned furniture with a pleasant worn-in look that always screamed
cozy
to Kala.

“I think I have some food in here.” Jack let go of Kala’s hand to search the cupboards. “Mac and cheese?” He poked his head out from the cupboard door.

“That actually sounds amazing.” Kala couldn’t remember the last time she ate, but she was starving.

“Agreed.” Jack started boiling the water for their
nutritious
meal.

Kala walked over to him and he pulled her in for an embrace. She rested her head on Jack’s chest while his hands wrapped around her small frame.

He kissed the top of her head. “We’re in serious trouble, aren’t we.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yeah.” Kala didn’t know what else to say.

“So what’s your plan? You said you had one.” Jack pulled away to dump the macaroni noodles into the boiling water.

Kala told him about what Asmodeus had said.

“Do you think you could pull it off, tricking Atlas? Do you think
dying by ritual
is the only way to contact him?”

Kala was happy Jack hadn’t dismissed the plan altogether. If she were being honest with herself, they were grasping at straws. But maybe Jack wanted to grasp at the same straws. Maybe together they could pull it off.

“I need to talk to Asmodeus again,” Kala admitted. She couldn’t believe those words had actually come out of her mouth. If she met with him it would have to be soon because when the countdown was up, Asmodeus planned on killing her by performing whatever the stupid ritual was. The whole thing made her head hurt.

“No way.” Jack fell immediately into protective mode. “He’s a Demon, Kala. You have no defense against a Demon. Remember the Compound?”

“Remember Penny?” Kala hated being snarky, and she didn’t really want to go into her training sessions with Roberta and Talan. Especially Talan. Talking about him in front of Jack seemed wrong. She felt guilty, like she had somehow cheated on Jack or something. Grumbling to herself, Kala wished she could punch Talan at the moment.

“You think fire would hurt a Demon?” Jack was unconvinced of Kala’s newly learned powers, though he had seen them firsthand. Apparently scorching Penny wasn’t impressive enough for him.

“Just trust me, I can handle myself.” Kala tried to sound as persuasive as possible so Jack would drop it.

“What was all that stuff about a gigi, or jambili? Penny looked pretty freaked.” Jack was fishing, Kala could tell.

“Grigori. He’s a type of Angel and he taught me that fire trick.” Kala hoped Jack would leave it at that.

Nope.

“
He
? Why did he want to help you? Shouldn’t he want to kill you to be the next Atlas?” Jack watched Kala like a hawk, waiting for her face to reveal something.

Kala had dealt with jealous boyfriends before so she knew how to keep her face casual and dismissive as she spoke of another man. “The Grigori are some group of Angels who were banned from earth for teaching humans magic. He escaped somehow and just wants the Atlas to do its job so he can stay here. It’s not that complicated.” Kala widened her eyes with mock-annoyance, like talking about Talan was a horrible chore she didn’t want to think about it.

It worked.

Jack’s whole demeanor relaxed. “He must be powerful if Penny was scared of him. Did he teach you anything else?”

Kala didn’t want to admit that the answer was no, so she nodded. “Yup. I’m all set if Asmodeus arrives unannounced.” Lies.

Jack breathed a sigh of relief and finished preparing the mac and cheese. They plopped on the couch and each ate a giant bowl of the stuff.