Chapter 46

Istare at Sarah, her last statement ringing in my ears.

I bet everyone is bating their breath like me as she continues, “I-I never told you about it, Wen, because you hate my parents too much already. I didn’t want you to dwell on such terrible emotions. They-they’re not worth poisoning yourself over.”

My hatred of the so-called parents who sold her mushroom like a nuclear explosion all over again. “It’s not over them! It’s over what they did to you…”

Aela interrupts me with a scowl directed at Sarah. “Why are you telling us this sob story, human? Do you think this excuses your—”

Both me and Jinny yell at her in unison, “Shut up!”

“Guys, please…just listen.” Sarah’s hands tighten on our forearms, bringing our attention back to her. “My parents once brought home what they called Hiruda…”

“Aren’t these magical leeches that…?” Cara pipes up before our glares silence her.

Sarah nods. “Yes. But those didn’t only leach blood from one person, they transfused it into another.”

“Does this revolting tale have a point?”

Before we could blast Aela again, Sarah tugs on our arms. “My parents said I have a rare blood type they would sell to covens and vampires at any price they set…”

Jinny makes that terrifying polyphonic sound in the back of her throat as her nails elongate and curve into claws. “You will give me your parents’ names, Sarah. I will send them to my very own brand of Hell.”

“I’m with Demonspawn for once, Sarah,” I hiss, my blood already boiling. “I was helpless to find and punish them before. But once we’re out of here, I’ll find a way to track them down. Thanks to Godric’s training, I can now break every bone in their bodies!”

“Guys, please, this isn’t about them. Just let me finish.” We both nod reluctantly, and she goes on, “Each Hiruda was as big as my finger, but I was six and very little with it. My parents stripped me naked, tied me down, and connected my arm to an intravenous solution. They placed them on my legs, arms and chest, and they kept growing. The ones on my inner thighs grew to the size of my hands…”

“I’ll drag them back to the Academy and give them to Godric to torture!” I seethe. “No, to Azazel to eat!”

Before Jinny can add her own pledge of torture and mayhem, Sarah pushes at me and stands without support. “This isn’t the point, guys, please.” We both lapse into fuming silence and Sarah exhales. “This became a regular thing until nothing they did between sessions worked to replenish my blood—and this is when they sold me.”

“And if you say they had to, to feed the rest of the family, one more time…”

This time, her pleading glance is what stops me. But nothing will stop me from exacting a vengeance as depraved as they are on these inhuman pieces of human shit. I really need to survive these Trials so I’d get back to Godric, and have him teach me his torture techniques.

“Somehow, I don’t remember being too bothered by this procedure,” Sarah says. “Until one time, the TV was on. It was that movie Alien…and suddenly, that monster and the leeches became one in my mind. I screamed until I lost consciousness. And every time after that, and every night in between. I guess it’s one of the reasons they sold me.”

“Because they couldn’t get a good night’s sleep after they traumatized you?” Jinny actually grins. “Oh, this is going to be the most delicious damnation I ever performed!”

Sarah gives her a pained glance that makes her manic smile wobble. “The point I was getting to is, when I was sold to Zeral, she bought me a Quelling, so I wouldn’t keep her awake every night. I still remembered the incident, but the spell suppressed my phobia. In time it became a very distant memory.” A pause to draw in a shaky breath. “But I think this place must have dug up both memory, and phobia—and amplified them a hundredfold. At my worst times, I woke up screaming and sobbed for a while before I went back to sleep. This time I was totally paralyzed, and the hybrid leeches from my nightmares manifested into those monsters, who only want to feed on me.”

“That’s why you were their target,” I shout, jumping with excitement at having an answer at last. “Now it makes sense. You’re a genius, Sarah.”

Sarah hangs her head. “Not really. I’m the one who knows about my monster leech phobia. I just put two and two together.”

“Genius, I tell you!” I turn to the others, feeling very smug. “See, the brains of this outfit.”

“I still don’t get why you thought Aela is right to be angry at you?” Jinny snaps, glaring at Aela again.

“Because I’m the reason all this happened.”

“Oh, that’s not why Ms. Angelass here was angry at you.” I scoff.

Aela growls again, but Sarah is shaking her head. “Maybe it was. She has uncanny senses, and she might have felt I was at the center of all this. Since she didn’t know how, she thought her anger was about me not participating in the fight.”

“Well, she had no right to be angry, either way,” I hiss, fighting the urge to break my fist against the nephilim’s perfect nose. “None of it was your fault!”

Sarah shakes her head again. “I could have fought the terror…and maybe the monsters would have disappeared.”

“That’s not how phobias work, Sar,” Jinny exclaims.

“Yeah,” I second Jinny, really hating how we’re uniting over Sarah. “If people can fight them or control them, they wouldn’t be called phobias.”

Sarah exhales, and looks at Cara. “I’m-I’m sorry about your hands.”

“What these two said. Not your fault.” Cara holds out her hands for us to see. “And thanks to Aela, they’re almost healed.”

Sarah deflates with a tremulous exhalation. “Thank Heaven.”

After a long beat of silence, when we all take stock of the situation, Aela looks at Sarah, with that same unrelenting displeasure. “You said you have an idea what the coming tests would be.”

Before Sarah can answer, I step in front of her, shielding her until she gets herself together. “It stands to reason they will target the rest of us.”

Aela shakes her head, and even her golden ponytail looks disapproving. “I can’t understand how this place chose her as our first test.”

I crack a nasty laugh. “Oh, you poor princess! You’re put out because it didn’t start with you?”

Aela looks down her nose at me. “It stands to reason, as you said. I’m the superior one here.”

Jinny joins my snickering. “This place clearly doesn’t agree. It put your deluded ass where it belongs, beneath the one you consider the weakest of us. Doesn’t that just ruffle your stuck-up feathers—Ruffle-Aela?”

My laugh becomes a snort as I fight the urge to high-five Jinny. “Yeah. How pathetic is it, to be snubbed by nothingness, Nephi-lame?”

Jinny bursts out laughing at my newest addition to Aela’s nicknames.

Aela sniffs haughtily at us. “Vulgarity and name calling are to be expected from both of your species.”

My laughter ends abruptly on an exclamation. “You call us names all the time!”

“I do not. I call you human or angle-graced, and demon. That’s what you are.”

“It’s the way you say them, then,” I mumble, unable to believe she’s right. I could have sworn she insults us all the time.

Jinny puts what I’m thinking into words. “You make them sound worse than insults.”

Aela shrugs. “You must be hearing your own inferiority complexes concerning your respective species. I would never engage in your juvenile games of insolence.”

“You should engage us,” Jinny taunts. “It might loosen the stick you have up your celestial butt.”

Cara steps between us. “Guys, we need to strategize for our coming tests.”

“Who says we have more tests?” Aela says.

I hold up one finger. “First, they’re called Trials, plural.”

Aela pouts dismissively. “That can mean all of the cadets’ trials.”

I unfold another finger. “Second, we’re still here.”

Aela doesn’t have an answer to that. She lowers her gaze for a second before exhaling. “Fine. How do you suggest we strategize?”

Unable to believe she gave an inch, I rush to offer my opinion. “Let’s assume more tests may target each of us. So, out with it, guys—what’s your phobia?”

Aela waves a nonchalant hand. “I have nothing to contribute. I’m not afraid of anything.”

“Hah, a likely story.” Jinny scoffs. “Every sentient being is afraid of something. Many things. Pick the worst one you can think of.”

“I have nothing to tell you, demon.”

“C’mon guys, we don’t know when the next test will start,” I urge. “We need to be prepared. I’ll start. I discovered I’m terrified of suffocation. So anything that includes that is my phobia. Like being buried alive, drowning, stuff like that. Just in case we fall into an ocean or a crypt or something and I go catatonic.”

“I’m afraid of fire,” Cara chokes. “It’s why I almost died of fright when I thought I burst into flames.”

I raise my eyebrows at her. “You sure recovered fast when I yelled at you.”

Cara twists her lips at me. “You have that effect on me.”

That’s the first time she says something to me without a “drop dead” undertone. It does still say “aggravating bitch.” But it’s progress.

I grin at her. “Fire, check.”

Jinny shakes her head. “That’s ridiculous. Fearing fire is not a phobia. Every sentient being is afraid of it. It’s why Hell was created.”

I gape at her in dismay. “Ugh, you have a point there. Anything else, Cara?”

“Uh, I’m terrified of injury, of losing body function, that’s why when I thought I lost my hands…”

Aela takes an exasperated step forward. “Quit with the generic fears. It has to be an irrational fear, something specific to you that others will not be afraid of. Like those monster leeches.”

“I can’t think of anything else, okay?” Cara mumbles.

Flicking her a glance that proclaims her useless, Aela turns her gaze to Jinny. “What is your phobia, demon? Azazel?”

Jinny’s eyes crackle with the hellfire I thought exhausted. That was actually too unfeeling of Aela. “Your morning breath, nephilim.”

I rush to come between them. “Guys, guys, we don’t know how much time we have before the next feature movie starts. So put a sock in it, both of you. Spill!”

Jinny glares at me with those terrifying hell-pits. “You didn’t spill your phobias. Suffocation is like fire and losing body parts. Everyone is afraid of that. What are you hiding?”

“I’m not hiding anything!”

“Stop it!” We both jerk around to Sarah, shocked at how sharp she sounded. We find her standing steadily, scowling at us all. “Stop bickering, all of you, and remember we’re a team, a Unitas—please.” I’m almost sorry she added that to soften her reprimand. I like this assertive side of her. “I think you’re going about this the wrong way. I didn’t mean that any coming tests will be about more phobias. I doubt it can be this predictable.”

I gape at her. How didn’t I think of that? How did none of us?

I throw my hands toward her. “See that? That’s brains.” I rush to her side. “What do you think it will be?”

Sarah’s eyes fill with the eagerness that always accompanied a good idea. Which used to be regularly. “Let me explain my thought process first. The first trial proved this place has—logic. It can read us, then exploit our weaknesses, test our strengths, and force our development—along with necessitating teamwork. It boiled down to exploiting my weakness, using it to test Wen’s and Jinny’s strengths, to force Cara’s development, and to necessitate relying on each other.”

“What about me?” Aela asks. “What did it do with me?”

Sarah lowers her gaze. “Uh…it’s only my interpretation…”

“Out with it.” Aela bites off. “What do you think it did to me?”

“It sidelined you!” Sarah blurts, still unable to look at Aela. “It—it…”

“Quit stuttering, human.” Aela scowls at her bent head. “What are you saying the purpose of that was? The lesson learned?”

I get in her face, taking her disconcerting focus away from Sarah. “Not only are you a winged bully, you’re a dim one, too. Sarah provided all the dots, and you still can’t connect them, featherbrain? Let me explain in simple terms even you can understand. When you left us, left the Unitas, without consulting us, and took it upon yourself as the “superior one” to resolve the issue singlehandedly, this place showed you that you’re not all that. It did whatever it wanted to you, kept you prisoner without you even realizing it, and let you go only when it saw fit.”

“Yeah, it did to you the opposite of what it did to us,” Jinny puts in, grinning from ear to ear. “While it unleashed us, it reined you in. It took away the one thing you value most, control. And it hit you where it really hurts a being like you, in your confidence, your pride. You came out of its grip unable to trust your own mind and senses. That should have made you realize it’s not all about power, that you’re not the leading lady here, and we’re not your extras. That should have been the lesson you learned.”

An exquisite color creeps over Aela’s chiseled cheekbones. Man, if she isn’t Godric-level magnificent!

She finally nods. “Fine. Lesson learned. Apologies, Sarah. What else do you think?”

We all gape at her.

She can do that? Admit she was wrong, can learn from her mistakes, apologize, and respect “lesser” beings’ opinions? She even called Sarah by name. Miracles do happen.

Encouraged, Sarah raises her gaze to her. “Keep in mind my deductions are built on the first trial. The next one might be totally random.”

Aela inclines her head at her. “And if it isn’t? If it still follows the logic of the first one?”

“I might be wrong, but I can’t find many other possibilities, since really, sentient beings are not that complex, even the immortal variety. We all play by a limited set of universal rules.”

“What are you suggesting?” Aela asks, seeming genuinely intrigued.

Sarah blushes under her attention and interest. “If the first test was about fear, what other emotions are as powerful?”

“Love?” I suggest at once. That’s certainly the most powerful emotion and motive I ever had.

“Hate,” Jinny adds, predictably. Yet, not so predictably, I’m not her target. Her eyes are jeweled amber again, focused somewhere—beyond. Who does she reserve her true hatred for?

“Jealousy,” Cara mumbles, looking at me. Ugh, I was premature thinking things might be improving between us.

“Vengeance,” Aela intones solemnly, as if pledging it.

“Trust.”

We all swing our gazes back to Sarah.

Aela frowns. “Trust isn’t a primal emotion. In fact, it’s the antithesis of one. You need to go against your survival instincts and gamble with your best interests to have trust.”

Sarah shrugs uneasily. “It’s what came to my mind.”

“It’s a brilliant idea, Sar.” Jinny rushes to assure her, before I can. That bitch. “Trust is powerful enough to suppress the most narcissistic emotions. And…”

“And from my experience,” I interrupt her. “What comes to your mind is always right. I’ll go with your gut any day.”

Cara raises both healing hands. “Okay, okay—we get it. Sarah’s the brains. So, now we have a list of possibilities, what do we do with them?”

“We make sure to consider anything that happens from now on with those possibilities in mind,” I say.

“Also, always remember this place can be messing with your mind,” Aela says, angry again that it has messed with hers.

“And remember that in this Unitas, we’re equals. We take decisions together, and no one thinks they’re superior, or knows better than the others.” Jinny glares challengingly at Aela. “And by no one I mean you, Nephi-lame.”

Aela glowers back. “Don’t harp, demon.”

Jinny wiggles her brows at her. “Just saying, since heavenly bodies like you have brains with equivalent density.”

“Maybe it would have been better if you remained in a coma,” Aela grits out.

“Guys!” Sarah’s sharp cry yanks us from this latest confrontation. As we turn to her, I realize she’s not reprimanding us again. She’s pointing a shaky finger into the distance. “Look!”

We swing around as one, and we see it.

A vortex.

The hope that it’s the Imperium Gate, opening again to take us back flares.

But this appears to be the same size, when it’s at least a hundred miles away. And while the Gate’s depths looked like a roiling galaxy with a white-hot center, this thing feels like a window into the abyss of eternity.

But it’s worse than that. In the distance, this non-existence seems to be tearing apart at the edges, its components streaming in spirals, revolving helplessly towards its center.

I try to avoid making the deduction, admitting the realization. But there’s only one thing I know of that looks like this, that has this effect.

A black hole.