Divinity: Immolation: Book Three (The Divinity Saga) (8 page)

She was definitely appreciative of his efforts …although given the way she was admiring him as he scouted the perimeter for possibly more fallen, I’d say she was turned on right now by him too. But Cam was mine, just as he claimed that I was his, which meant that yes, I’d rage all over her ass in a heartbeat over him.

“Are you alright?” Cam asked me more than Jamie.

I nodded. Despite our earlier conversation, I was still nervous about Cam appearing before and speaking to me in front of her.

Jamie continued to stare at him with infatuation but there was something else in her eyes.

Yearning and ache.

Snapping out of her trance, she looked at me and then dug into the pocket on the inside of her cloak.

“Here, you’re gonna need these.” She tossed me a small, dark pouch that I managed to catch and clutch to me in one smooth motion.

What is this? I squeezed it briefly, feeling several small round objects rolling over each other inside of it.

“I meant everything I told you. Go now!” She urged, turning and kneeling down next to Spencer, who had begun to slowly rouse.

Cam had been right. Being an Earthbound Seraphim, in Spencer’s case, had put him at a huge vulnerable disadvantage, given that a human warrior could knock him out with one or two hits.

Before I could even speak a word, Cam wasted no time snaking an arm around my waist and holding me firmly against his hard body. He skin was slick and extremely warm, almost hot. The vibration of his magic was still pulsing from him and it made me shiver with desire.

In the next split second, we were airborne. I pulled my blades in quickly, clutching onto him tightly as his legs wrapped around mine to secure me to him. My heart felt as if it were sliding straight down into my stomach. It was like being on a reverse roller coaster. Instead of going down, we were going up at great speed. I kept my eyes shut tightly as we ascended higher and higher into the chilly night sky and above the sparse clouds.

X. Cam`ael

“
I
can’t believe you did that.” Starling said once I landed on the wide, smooth, stone outcropping of rock leading to the front door to my home.

I set her down gently, pulling in my wings and then whispering the brief incantation that would open the entrance.

The five-foot thick slab of rock that served as my door, slowly began to slide open.

“Did what?” I played casual on purpose.

She sighed. “Put yourself at risk like that. I told you, I don’t know Jamie despite everything she said. And then Spencer could have seen you too.”

“Oh, he wouldn’t have seen me. He’d have been down and unconscious before realizing that something or someone hit him. When it comes to your safety, I don’t care if the whole damned divine cavalry was out there.” I turned around to face her then.

“You know what I mean.” She replied but she wasn’t looking at me when she spoke. She was looking down into her hands, examining the contents of some small, black pouch. She paused and a mystified expression masked her face.

“What is that?” I asked approaching her.

“Nothing.” She said, quickly closing the bag, and inserting it into a hidden pocket in the inside of her cloak.

I smirked as I slowly strode over to her.

“If I really want to see it…I can retrieve it easily.” I playfully reminded her.

She placed her hands on her h
ips. “You mean you can try to.”

I smiled. “Is that so?”

Standing in front of her and looking down at her petite stature as she gazed defiantly up at me, I couldn’t help but grin.

“There is still one issue that I’d like to get straight with you first…” I then said, purposefully backing her up and forcing her to make a U turn as she slowly began to retreat towards the direction of the open entrance.

She raised a curious brow. “Really? What issue would that be?”

“The issue of trust…” I began.

“Oh, you mean you not trusting me enough to tell me things about you?” She pointed at me and then to herself as she spoke.

“More like the other way around.” I corrected her.

She missed the doorway. The stone wall beside it halted her from continuing to retreat from me. I took advantage of that moment.

Her beautiful, pouty lips turned down into a frown and her brows furrowed in confusion. “I think you have that backwards.” She replied.

Slowly, she began to rise from the ground. Using just magic, I eased her up the wall and stopped once she was leveled face to face with me. She didn’t even react or comment on what I was doing.

I leaned in close, our lips a few centimeters apart.

“No, I think I have it pretty dead on.” I whispered.

“You’re the one who’s keeping things about your past from me.”

I eyed her playfully and held up an index finger, “Key word. Past. I’d like to leave it there.”

“I’m not asking so I can judge you today.”

“Then why do you need to know any of it?”

She narrowed her eyes at me suspiciously. “Why can’t you just tell me?”

I couldn’t help but smile. She was definitely still the Starling that I fell in love with, without a doubt.

“Besides, you told me that you’d tell me anyway.” She insisted.

“I didn’t tell you when I would. You’re immortal now, so that could mean tomorrow, next week, next month, or five hundred years from now.” I grinned.

She gaped at me incredulously.

“Come inside, I need you to do something before we go.” I finally said, completely changing the subject as I took a few steps away from her and eased her back down the wall to her feet again.

I headed inside, expecting her to be right behind me but she wasn’t. When I turned to head back outside, my eyes widened.

“What are you doing?” I quickly darted over to her.

She was standing at the very
edge of the stone platform, facing me—with her back to the nearly 55,000 foot drop down to solid ground…with several protruding cliffs and jagged outcroppings along the way.

I wasn’t sure what she had in mind and what she meant, let alone why she was so damned insistent about it, but I had a pretty good idea. Maybe a small part of me didn’t fully trust her but I wasn’t paying that part any heed. I love her. Of that, I’ve never been more certain. Surely, she has to know that.

Would she really go this far to prove her trustworthiness to me? She didn’t have to go to this extreme.

Her sudden backwards, yet extremely graceful swan-dive over the lip of the ledge had proven me wrong. She immediately began to plummet, back first, down the mountainside. Her black cloak flapped all around the shape of her small frame like crazy bat wings, creating a disturbance in the cloud cover that parted and wisped apart once she quickly disappeared through it.

So, she wanted to play the trust game, huh? I smiled to myself, crossing my arms over my chest while calculating the distance, velocity, and time that it would take for her to just barely come close to hitting the ground. This wasn’t a building, this was a mountain—there were no straight lined sides. I pushed out a bit of magick to create a cushion of air and space between her and all the solid, jagged, and deadly obstacles that I knew were part of this mountainside.

In the meantime, my mind wandered to the words that Elohim had revealed to me in the book. It made sense but what was it ref
erring to? It was like a riddle.

‘And it will come to pass, before the two worlds divulge, darkness begins to spread its arrogant disease. A weapon will be formed from the life of its master, which shall become the sole source of his absolute destruction.’

I think I had a pretty good idea of its interpretation but I wasn’t sure. I suppose that’s why I’ll have to retrieve the rest of it, which should be an interesting venture.

I wondered why he saw the need to keep this text hidden and who he had implored to write it. Why had he allowed Morning Star to claim a portion of it? And was it a coincidence that Berith had managed to take it from right under his nose and hide it from him, only to place it in my hands? Many things were coincidental lately. I think Edanai had a point when she began to add up all the components surrounding myself and Starling from the beginning.

I immediately sensed the physical change in Starling’s now rapidly beating heart.

Panic.

Snapping out of my temporary thoughts, I took a step off the ledge. My wings snapped out and spread wide, and I turned them downward in order to catch the wind. I began to float down slowly at first.

Stray curls had freed themselves from her wildly flailing pony tail, nearly covering her face. I cloaked myself on purpose, diving down and bypassing her by a vertical distance of a few feet. It was apparent that though she was calm, with her arms still splayed out on either side of her, there was a hint of both doubt and a tad bit of anxiety i
n her heartbeat and expression.

She was as light as a pillow, landing precisely in my arms with a grunt…just several feet from full-on ground impact. I held her cradle st
yle in my arms against my body.

For me, it brought back a memory of when she had been injured by that moronic demon at the hospice. He had injured her ankle and she couldn’t walk. I carried her up to her apartment originally with more intent than just being a dutiful cop. It angered me to think about again, so I shifted to the fact that it did lead up to our meeting for the very first time that night too. Even though it was a planned intention on my part, I would treasure and cherish the memory of how and when w
e met for as long as I existed.

Her heart was racing wildly and her mixture of relief, fear, and slowly mounti
ng anger was incredibly strong…

Shit!

I had no choice but to drop her, literally, like a burning hot coal.

“Ow!” She cried out after landing hard on her ass upon the hard packed earth.

Her body was aglow and white flames began to erupt all over her. She lit up the entire vicinity so intensely, I had to shield my eyes and turn away. Given her current condition, I instantly felt like an asshole for having dropped her the way I did. It was a reflex defensive action. Even though she was superhuman and immortal now, and her body was definitely an extremely strong fortress of protection for our growing child, I still considered her a delicate and fragile human.

This isn’t good. She’ll draw way too much attention.

The flames around her hands didn’t last as long, soon flickering and finally winking out. “I’m sorry,” I bit my lip and held a hand out to help her up, “ Though I’m sure that was nothing considering what kind of a splat you could have made if I didn’t make it on time.” I then reminded her.

She grabbed my hand and yanked herself up to her feet gruffly. “Barely! And I know that you waited that long on purpose by the way.” She pointed and glared at me. Her anger was slowly subsiding.

I laughed. “Only because it was pointless.”

“It wasn’t pointless. See? I had complete trust in you the whole time.”

“Says the sweat on your face and your erratically beating heart.” I commented with a single raised brow.

She looked at me dryly. “Natural human reactions.”

“I didn’t expect the spontaneous combustion. You really need to gain control of your fire.” I told her.

She scowled at me as she dusted off her cloak, form fitting pants, and boots.

“Well, since I’m not a robot or an inanimate object with no emotions, I can’t.” She replied.

I looked at her curiously. “It’s not linked to your emotions…at least it shouldn’t be.” I told her.

She seemed frustrated. “How would you know that?”

“Because emotions, especially in females, can be wild and out of control. I doubt very seriously that your essence would be of any use if that were its catalyst. More so, I’m referring to the most powerful emotions of all. Love, hate, and fear.” I explained to her with a loving smirk.

Though I instantly felt a sudden onrush of hot emotions begin to well up in her, validating what I just said, it was as if she suddenly realized exactly what I was thinking. It was apparent that she opted to bite her tongue instead. I smirked playfully as she eyed me with a slight, defiant pout.

“Well, it’s a good thing that I don’t hate or fear you then. But I don’t like the idea of loving you enough to possibly accidentally hurt or kill you at any given moment either. It’s like a cruel twist.” Panic masked her eyes with worry and doubt as the flames all over her body finall
y began to wink out bit by bit.

The visual suddenly made me wonder about our child. Surely it wouldn’t be able to sustain itself inside of her whenever she used her fire…if it were solely or even remotely of darkness. Was it even still alive then? Wouldn’t she have felt some sort of a physical reaction if that had been the case? That was peculiar and would continue to plague my curiosity until she gave birth—if she managed to give birth. The thought began to sadden and depress me so I pushed it all away for now.

“I know but it’s a chance that I’m willing to take. I don’t doubt that you’ll be able to master it soon.”

A sudden shriek split the night air, commanding attention over all the other normal night creatures and sounds. Starling instantly flinched and jumped, turning around to pan the air.

“What was that?” She hissed in a low whisper.

I carefully scanned the darkness of the trees, shadows, and landscape beyond for any scent, movement or signature.

“Yet another reason you should never do something like that again. You’ll draw too much attention to yourself if you haven’t already,” I said reaching for her protectively.

“It’s a Psyren. Definitely not females that you’d want to get to know or hang out with. They steal, use, and sell souls and auras.” I quickly told her.

Her eyes went wide and sparkled with curiosity as I held her close to me. Her body was taut against mine, slowly kindling arousal and her heart was racing once again. As long as she wasn’t feeling fear, I was good.

She glanced up at me and then cocked her ear to listen again. “It sounded like it was right by my ear.”

“Never assume that it isn’t.” I warned her.

Note to self. If her essence is linked to her emotions, never piss her off.

Giving her an affectionate, quick kiss on the lips, I secured my arm around her small waist and we began to ascend once again.