Illumine (14 page)

my Mother's closet.

"Leo, what is this place?" I craned my neck as far as I

could to see the delicate pictures that laid out on the ceiling. It

showed broad-winged angels floating over gusts of air to a city

made of tal towers and sparkling gold. Only the bottom half of the

ceiling was shrouded in black, a demon etched into the far corner

with horns protruding from his malevolent smile. It looked like a

place crafted in the limbo of the world, caught between the

darkness of Earth and the precious promise of Heaven.

"Charon," he said. "Home to mythical, the unreal. Your real

home."

The second he said it, it instantly felt true. While the house

I grew up in felt natural, it never felt real, not like this. This felt

natural. A warm that had nothing to do with my powers spread

through my body. I was
home
.

I walked in front of Leo and grabbed him by the shoulders.

"I want to see it. I want to see it al." Then as an afterthought.

"Please."

He laughed and nodded in the same movement. "Where

would you like to start?"

"Anywhere. Bookshops, bakeries, anything."

He seemed to think about it for a moment. "I think I know

where we should start." His gaze almost looked sad, as if what he

where we should start." His gaze almost looked sad, as if what he

was going to say would disappoint me. "There's a tavern just down

the main road-"

"Okay," I said. A congratulatory sloshing? "I'm down for

drinking until the room tap dances."

"-which is right next to an apothecary. The Alchemist who

owns it is married to a lovely woman who knows every history of

every kind of person to walk through here," he ignored my

interruption and finished. He scratched his head absentmindedly.

"They'l probably know where to start looking for anything,

considering you're probably the only Nephilim in the past three-

hundred years."

I gave a curt nod. "Lead the way, captain."

He turned and started to walk forward only to stop and

spin around rapidly. Any space between us rapidly evaporated,

right along with my breath. "Are you glad you trusted me?"

"Absolutely," I blurted out without shame. A smile spread

across my cheeks faster than I could have imagined possible. It felt

like every fiber of my being was singing in joy at the promise of

understanding just what I was and where I belonged.

Leo extended his arm to me with a little mock-polite bow.

I took his hand and, realizing I was probably breaking some

cardinal rule about holding hands with other people's boyfriends,

dropped it.

"No, it's okay," he said with a smile but the shock of his

words read in his eyes. Every mental alarm in my head sounded off

that it was a bad idea. These new surroundings were realy starting

to scramble my brain with what was right and wrong. This time he

to scramble my brain with what was right and wrong. This time he

reached out and took my hand, holding it firmly in his grasp as I did

my best not to blush or read into it.

We took our time walking down the street, Leo stopping

to let me stare in a shel-shocked awe of everything around me.

The city looked exactly as it had on the glass ceiling; towers of

white spiraled into the clouds farther than the eye could see.

Smaler brick-and-mortar houses were crafted of the same

blemished white marble I had seen inside of the library, coils of

golden-twisted metal lacing along the outer frame like imitation

vines. Paved tawny colored cobblestones led down a wide

expanse of road that ended in a cul-de-sac lined with several smal

shops.

It felt weird staring at everything but it was something I

wanted to record to memory in case I never saw it again. Witches

and wizards, goblins and centaurs, faeries and more walked past

us at any given moment, each one different from the first and the

last. I half expected to pinch myself and wake up from a daydream

in school.

"What are you doing?" Leo asked as he watched me pinch

myself for the third and fourth time.

"Trying to see if I'm going to wake up," I answered truthfuly.

"This just feels so..."

"Impossible? Imaginary?"

"Yes."

"Wel, is the fire you create impossible? Is that imaginary?"

"Impossible, yes," I said with a laugh. "Scientificaly

speaking, anyway. Imaginary?" I thought back to the first night I

felt the heat in my fingers, how I had thought I'd burnt them on the

bonfire. How fast everything had changed from there. "No."

Leo smiled at me and gave my shoulder a nudge with his

own. "Let's head inside. His wife is going to love seeing you."

Inside the shop it was darker, a thin cloud of smoke

hovering against the ceiling. The upper half of al four wals held

shelves sporting different bottles of color, shape, and size while the

lower half had tables spread every few feet draped in ornate fabric

and scrols of parchment. At the back nestled between two tables

stood a desk just as elegant as everything else, an old man twirling

the ends of his white mustache while he gazed into a mirror

standing behind it.

"Excuse me," I started off.

"Shh shh shh shh
shhhhhhhhh
." The old man held up a

finger in protest, eyes never leaving the mirror. His fingers drifted

from the mustache to his bald scalp to the tips of his sharply

pointed ears. "The sign outside said I was out to lunch. You'l have

to come back later."

"We're not here for a remedy," Leo spoke beside me.

"We're here to see your wife, Lorena."

The man puled his face away from the mirror and I let out

a little gasp. Bronze colored scales covered the center of his face

from the top of his eyebrows just under the chin. Cat-like eyes with

violet irises blinked back at us as he regarded us with curiosity.

"My Lorena? Heavens, what did the woman do now?" He

roled his eyes and gave a haughty little sigh. "LORENA! SOME

roled his eyes and gave a haughty little sigh. "LORENA! SOME

KIDS ARE HERE TO SEE YOU!"

Curtains behind the desk parted as a smal, brittle looking

woman gently inched out, a curious expression drawn on her face.

Lines of both laughter and worry creased into her skin and time

hovering over potions had hunched her shoulders into a permanent

hump. But her eyes stil shined like two commanding orbs of opal

that could rip the truth right out of your lips.

"Kids? I don't recal anyone making an appointment." She

smacked the back of the man's head as a bel rang behind us.

"Next time lock the door."

I shifted uncomfortably in my shoes, exchanging a pleading

look with Leo. I wasn't ready to show them my power, not with

Kayden's warning stil swirling around my head.

"Lorena, we came to see you on the word of my father,

Artemis? We own the library just down the street," Leo spoke in a

silky-smooth tone, making sure to inch closer to her. I watched him

bat his eyelashes, one tiny step away from pleading on his hands

and knees. "Remember?"

"Cut the flirtatious crap," Lorena cut him off. She shooed at

him as if he were no more than a stray that had snuck in off the

streets. "Wealthy business boy, that's al you are. Leave us be and

play your pranks on someone else."

"But this isn't a-"

A hand shoved right into his face and cut him off. "
Leave
.

Before I find that useless father of yours and give him a good crack

on the skul." Her tiny frame inched back behind the curtain as she

went off on a rant under her breath.

went off on a rant under her breath.

"You heard the lady," the old man chimed in as he

shrugged with a bored expression glazing over his eyes. "Now

could you leave? I realy don't want to sleep on the couch tonight

and the longer you stay the more likely that's going to happen."

Leo and I turned to look at each other. I could feel the

defeat in his saddened resolve of a stare, his lips clenched tight in a

bitterly depressive smile. To come so close only to be shuffled

aside by the very woman holding the secrets I needed...fire blazed

over my knuckles.

Jingle bels sounded from the doorway the same time

someone cleared their throat. I looked over to see a wilowy

shaped figure hiding under a maroon cloak beckoning us closer.

Crimson fingernails longer than her actual fingers reached out from

the cloak, the skin on the hand a sickly lime green.

"Folow me,
Nephilim
, and bring your little friend too." A

girlish chipper voice sounded from under the hood before turning

around and abruptly leaving the shop.

The fire vanished from my knuckles and I grabbed Leo's

hand, yanking him back out onto the street before the door could

shut behind the cloaked woman. Crowds of people pushed up and

down the street to the point where I could barely make out

anyone. The tip of a maroon hood caught my eye as it entered a

pub halfway up the street. I instantly sprinted down the way,

praying Leo wouldn't trip and take us both down in one fel swoop.

While the outside of the pub looked regal and designed for

a couture world the inside resembled any regular run-of-the-mil

drinking hot spot. A couple unsavory looking creatures sat at the

drinking hot spot. A couple unsavory looking creatures sat at the

counter, a lizard tale sticking out of the back of one of the guy's

pants 'accidentaly' getting a little too friendly with a waitress that

walked too much.

Leo inched a little closer to me, his shoulders set in a rigid

stance. "I don't like the looks of this place."

I thought back to the bars I'd seen in New York City,

memories of vomiting and outside brawls coming back to mind.

Judging by how this bar stil had its floors polished and no

shattered glass to be seen it looked marvelous to me.

I offered him a sweet smile. "It's not bad. Almost has a

type of rustic charm to it." A green hand waved at a booth across

the room, the hood stil hiding her face. "Come on." This person

already knew what I was, so it was time to see just how deep the

waters were. I let Leo slide into the far end of the booth, his

uncomfortable behavior stil beyond obvious. Last thing we needed

was a brawl against Lizard Tale and his groupies from the counter.

The hooded figure seated across from us giggled. "Good to

know you can track a faerie."

"I'd thank your cape for that, not for any skils you think I

may have," I said. Arms crossed against my chest I made sure to

give my best look of revulsion. "What did you cal me before?"

"Do you realy want me to say it aloud in here?" The hood

leaned closer and pressed both hands onto the table. "Around al

these ears?"

Kayden's warning played in my head again. I leaned back

in my seat and glared into the hood as Leo shifted closer beside

in my seat and glared into the hood as Leo shifted closer beside

me. "Okay, let's just say what you said earlier was right. What do

you know about it?"

"Give me your arm," the hood instructed. I instantly drew it

closer to my chest.

"How about we see who the hel you are for starters," I

growled. The heat of my fire swirled in my chest, ready to spread

at any given moment I let my guard down. "Or you can keep

pushing me and watch this whole place go up in flames."

Leo's horrified expression came into view from the edge of

the table. But I caught the faintest touch of a smile grace his lips as

his eyes flashed with a hidden delight. "Essalie, you're not serious.

You wouldn't."

I cracked my knuckles, watching the sparks jut off in

different directions. Smal scorch marks littered the table between

us and I did my best attempt at a wicked smile. "Want to bet your

life on it?"

"Okay okay," the hooded figure held out both hands like a

white flag. Her long fingernails puled back the hood in a single

graceful move, revealing a beautiful face. Her skin was of the same

lime green as her hands save for a large navy blue blemish that

covered one of her caramel colored eyes and part of her cheek.

Ears nearly twice as long as her head extended back into thin

points, most of them hidden in the thick caramel colored curly mass

of hair that rested on a shoulder in a half-pony tail. "My name is

Serena. Satisfied?"

"Much," I said with little enthusiasm. Part of me wished she

had kept the hood on. I suddenly felt very plain compared to her