Chapter 24

“What happened in the Divining?”

The two nephilim swing around at my gritted demand.

I’m disheveled and out of breath from my struggle to climb the stage. I’m furious, mainly at myself for throwing away my plan to ambush Lorcan alone, after Godawful left. But I couldn’t stop myself. I need to know what happened in that Divining.

My only gratification is that I shocked them both. Especially Godric. He can’t believe I creeped up on them. I don’t, either. Even without engaging their super senses, they should have heard me stampeding closer.

Somehow, they didn’t. And as their singular faces crease in frowns of dismay and displeasure respectively, I see them for what they really are. Beyond the facade of impossible beauty and magnificence.

Monsters. Capable of unimaginable cruelty and carnage.

Lorcan alluded to that fact before. I just heard Godric saying he would gladly kill. Anyone. I have no doubt he would—and has. And far, far worse. And is remorseless about it all.

I’m standing in the presence of demi-gods, a hybrid that’s probably the most powerful, most ruthless of the Supernaturals, and I’m provoking the monster inside to lash out.

But in these suspended moments as we stare at each other—as Godric and I stare at each other—I feel no awe, no fear. None at all.

Instead, something as feral and ferocious, as harrowing and horrendous as the power staring back at me, expands inside me. It tears aside the human tissue barely wrapping it—and roars in challenge.

Mercury-laced obsidian lightning bursts from Godric’s eyes in response. That thing inside me only shrieks in exhilaration, and burgeons to encompass us both in its inferno.

His power, jagged lines of pure, elemental destruction shatters its siege. Raging against his counteroffensive, that thing implodes around us, as if to crush him. His hands only cut the air in some magical ritual or celestial martial art.

The force within me erupts like a solar flare. But it’s still no match for him. With one final swipe of his hands, the surreal sensations raging through me fizzle out.

Crashing back into my frail human body, I find I’m still squaring off with the two nephilim, like a beetle interrogating two great felines. It’s like nothing happened.

Yes, moron, because nothing did.

Lorcan’s unchanged expression says so. I blink up at Godric, looking for some kind of confirmation either way. He’s glaring at me with even more intensity.

That doesn’t mean he experienced what I just did. Of course, he didn’t. He’s just furious I committed the unprecedented offense of ambushing him. He must be on the verge of vaporizing me for that alone.

I must have fallen into that dream state again. This time filled with delusions of having a power that rivals Godric’s. While wide awake.

This means I might start spacing out in public. As if I need another kind of brand to make me more of an outcast. Fantastic.

It might not be strange, though. This might be another side-effect of the Divining, like that accelerated healing.

But no. It’s not that. Or not only that. Every time I’m around this guy, I feel weird, overriding things. Everything about him, from his voice to his vibe, acts like a mind-altering drug. It’s like the effect of Angelescence on others. Though I haven’t heard of an aphrodisiac side to the drug.

So he’s even more potent where I’m concerned. His proximity might now be producing hallucinogenic effects.

Yet another reason to despise this spectacular bully.

It’s also a reason to get this over with quickly. I can’t afford to keep getting lost in Mind Warp Land while Sarah is still here. I’ll figure this out after she leaves.

Sticking my fists at my sides as I stalk closer, I channel my scary once-headmistress, Mrs. Potts. “Well? What did happen? I have a right to know.”

“You have no rights here, human.” Godric straightens, making the world shrink. “You only have orders. And if I catch you eavesdropping again...”

I wave him off. “Yeah, yeah, dire consequences ensue. You gotta up your game, pal. Today Azazel made me a much better offer of fail-and-die, so I bumped him to the top of my priority list of Do Not Cross. You and your threats just tumbled down to the bottom.”

Before Godric can retort, I turn on Lorcan. I’ll have this showdown with him here and now before he flies off again, and Godric be damned. As I’m sure he already is.

I poke Lorcan in his ridiculously broad chest, and almost bend my finger out of shape. “How could you! Is that how much a promise is worth to a nephilim? Less than nothing?”

Lorcan raises placating hands. “It’s not what you think.”

My snort is impressive for a change. “You mean you didn’t use privileged info about my best friend’s identity, not to help her as you promised, but to drag her here into this Sinister Academy?”

“I did intend to carry out my promise.” Lorcan grimaces at Godric, who’s clearly hearing about this for the first time. “Then I sensed—something I had to report. My father himself decreed that she belongs at the Academy.”

“She doesn’t!” I cry out, stomping my foot. “You just sensed the residue of Angelescence in her system!”

Lorcan’s gaze tinges with pity. “I know what that residue feels like, from those we examined while we tracked you. That’s not what I sensed.”

“But you all said only the Divining can determine if a human is angel-graced! Now you can suddenly tell?”

“I didn’t say she’s angel-graced, but my father agreed that what I sensed about her is cause for induction into the Academy.”

I don’t pulverize my fist against his perfect teeth, only because I’m uncertain if that healing factor would heal them. “So what did you sense?”

He shrugs uneasily. “It’s inconclusive.”

“That’s the favorite diagnosis around here, isn’t it?” I scoff. “Well, I think you’re lying. You took her to hold her safety over my head!”

“Why should we do that?” Godric interjects, back to being an arctic son of an archangel. “We don’t need any more power over you.”

“Yes, you do. By now you know threats to my own life don’t give you total control over me.” I jab another intact finger into Lorcan’s chest. “You knew her life means far more to me than my own!”

Lorcan looks almost pained at my accusations, but it’s Godric who answers again, “Your overestimation of yourself is indeed prodigious. We already have total control over you.” Before I can blast him, his lips quirk in one of those chilling semi-smiles that can liquefy lady bits at a hundred paces. “Now we have that over your best friend.”

He holds my gaze, and I again tumble into that battlefield raging between us, deeper and vaster than existence. When I’m fully awake and aware this time.

Then those images flare again, of him plunging his sword into my heart.

I flinch. But he does, too. He did first.

Lorcan doesn’t seem to notice anything. This was totally between us.

Or I imagined it all again. Exposure to Godric might be scrambling my mind irrevocably.

Yet—that uncertain flicker in his eyes makes me think he experienced something. And he, too, has no idea what it was. So the scrambling is involuntary on his side?

Great. I might be getting Godric Poisoning, and I can’t even hate him—even more—for it.

Next second, I doubt my senses all over again. Whatever confusion I sensed in him is gone as his drawl abrades every single one. “If you’re petitioning for your friend’s release, don’t hold your breath. And if you care about her that much, you’ll behave.”

“Or what? You’re not allowed to ‘harm’ us. Or was that another lie?”

He shrugs one power-laden shoulder lazily. “No harmwill come to you or your friend, not on account of your insolence or pathetic attempts at insubordination. But there are other ways life here can be very difficult for both of you, if you persist in instigating conflict.”

“If you persist in instigating conflict.” I mimic a nasal parody of his elegant delivery. “Why don’t you do us all a favor, and return to the eighteen hundreds, pal? They’ve been asking for their source of pompous assery back.”

But even as I lambast him, my shoulders slump. My fury and bravado are expended. I lost. Worse, I fought this battle in the worst possible way.

Not that any other way could have gotten me a different result.

For some undisclosed reason, they dragged Sarah here. And, like me, she’s going nowhere until they decide to let her go. If they ever do.

Dismissing that bully who roasts my mind with the blaze of his very existence, I turn to Lorcan, trying one last time. “Please, Lorcan, she doesn’t belong here. She deserves to be free.”

Lorcan’s gaze becomes apologetic, only intensifying my despair. “You think I betrayed your trust, but think about it, Wen. Getting her out of the Demon Zones wouldn’t have assured her freedom or safety. As a lone, inexperienced girl in the world outside, she would have been exposed to more dangers. I would have provided for her financially, but I wouldn’t have been able to guard her 24/7. I did consider not reporting what I sensed about her, and fulfilling your wishes. But I do believe she’s better off here.”

“If she survives, that is,” I mumble over the lump of shards filling my throat.

Lorcan sighs. “Mortal danger would have been ever-present in any life she could have had on her own. At least now she’s with you. And that’s all she wants.”

I stare at him, my anger and urgencies collapsing like scaffolding struck at the foundations.

Lorcan’s words, and the heart-wrenching truth behind them, cleave into me, tear a sob from my depths. And I burst out crying.

Tears, sudden and copious, stream down my face as my lips tremble out of control, and my breath scrapes like claws in my chest.

Feeling Godric’s gaze intensifying over me, I whip my head up, finding his eyes almost obscured by his deepest frown yet.

“What are you looking at?” I hiccup among shearing sobs, flinging my hand at Lorcan sympathetic expression. “Why don’t you look at that, Godawful? That’s a nice guy!”

Godric’s jaw muscles bunch, but he doesn’t lob something back at me. Almost as if he’s lost for words.

Ha. As if.

When he does answer, as always, he makes it a lethal blow. “Let’s hope it doesn’t get him killed—too soon.”

His gaze sweeps to Lorcan as he turns away, and a lot passes between them. Things I can’t hope to fathom.

As he walks to the stage, he tosses over his shoulder. “Get on with the rest of your day, White. And try not to make your roommates incinerate you. I need you alive and in the Lycurgus Arena at five a.m.”

“Five a.m.!” I croak a shout at his unfeeling back as he floats to the auditorium floor.

“Sharp.”

His voice echoes back to me as he passes Sarah who came back inside, not even looking at her before exiting the auditorium.

Lorcan takes my arm when I remain gaping after Godric, frustration fizzing in my blood.

As he leads me back to Sarah, I wipe at my tears and look up at him. “Is it only me, or does he make everyone want to kill him?”

Lorcan huffs a chuckle. “Sort of an acquired taste, is our Godric. Or an atrocious medicine you must endure.”

“Endure to what end? Anyone recovers from exposure to him?”

“No one recovers from Godric. But everyone comes out of the ordeal—transformed.”

Curiosity reviving, I probe, “Speaking from personal experience?”

He only grins. “From what I gather, he intends to transform you.”

“Transform me into what? A compliant prisoner? Save us both time and aggravation and tell him that’s never happening.”

Lorcan’s grin widens. “Why do you think he wants you at the Lycurgus Arena before the crack of dawn?”

“To torture me, of course.”

He sighs. “That’s what he does. But if you have what it takes, he’ll hone you into a lethal weapon.”

“Yeah, right.” I scoff before realizing Lorcan is no longer grinning. “Okay, quit fooling around. After the stunt you pulled with Sarah, you owe me. If you know what he wants to do with me, you tell me right now.”

“I already told you.”

“But you can’t be serious!”

“He is. Deadly so.”

“But…how can he hone me into a lethal weapon? Weapon how? And lethal to who?”

“To anyone.”

Sure now that he is joking, just with a straight face, I go along with it. “Even to you archangelspawn?”

He nods. “Knowing his overachieving arse, maybe even to him.”

I start to scoff again, before Lorcan’s expression makes me swallow it. He is serious!

My eyebrows almost shoot off my face. “Why would he even want to do that?”

Lorcan’s gaze grows conspiratorial. “Why care about his reasons? If he can turn you into a weapon capable of killing even him, maybe you’ll get the chance to act on your burning desire after all. All you have to do is survive him.”

That’s all I have to do?

Easy peasy.