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Chapter 3

Noch

“She doesn’t remember!” Hezerial practically spat as he paced in front of me. Here I was enjoying my glass of splendidly aged wine in my warded room, and suddenly this banned excuse of an archangel popped up in the middle of my room, pacing a hole into my beloved carpet.

I lifted my eyebrow at him, contemplating my next words. I haven’t seen the angel in centuries, which probably meant something I wasn’t sure of since his ward died a long time ago. And what a dark day that was…

“She…?” I asked carefully. Surely he couldn’t mean who I thought he meant. It was impossible, bordering extremely close to hilariously ridiculously impossible. Certainly the angelic had been away from heaven for far too long and was probably imagining he saw his ward when, in fact, it might have been someone else entirely and probably also gave the poor mortal a heart attack.

“MERIANNA!” the angelic roared. His wings erupted out from behind him and spanned the expanse of my room, having escaped the hold he had on them to hide from mortal view. They stretched wide, engulfing the little hidey hole I made for myself in the castle.

I froze. Not because I was afraid of the angelic, but because the name still stung deep into my soul. I leveled a look at him. “She’s dead, Hezerial. You know that. She died two thousand years ago. Not even you could track her soul after that day.”

Hezerial lowered his wings, leveling the look right back at me, letting me know that he was being deadly serious. “Noch, you know that, and I know that. Yet there is no mistaking what I felt last night, what I have been feeling for the past few weeks. Noch, it was her. Without a doubt, it couldn’t be anyone else.”

I frowned. “Are you sure you didn’t mistake a poor little mortal for her?”

He glared back at me, then strode up to me and roughly clasped my hand. I felt images being transferred into my head through the connection. I felt his bonded impulse to protect, kick in his gut and take him to where he was needed, and I saw her…

Her hair was blonde, her skin pale, and her eyes were as blue as storm clouds. She was pretty, though not exactly as beautiful as she was in the past, but still slender and tall. I could feel her aura through him as he replayed what had happened. The fae creatures did not seem like the normal kind, and neither did the sight of them leave a comforting feeling in his gut. Yet when she stabbed the one that had a hold of her, I saw her. The look on her face was what convinced me. No one could make a face like that while stabbing someone but her.

Through Hezerial’s memories, I saw the look on her face after it was all over. I saw her head practically splitting with the pain she was in. Her eyes said she recognized Hezerial, yet she couldn’t link recognition to any memories. I was shocked when I saw her nose starting to bleed. I frowned at all this. Sure, there was pain when certain witches reawakened after being reborn, but mostly the pain was from their bodies having to readjust to their former and added power again. The Surge is what that readjustment was called. She wasn’t going through the surge though … Something was fishy.

When Hezerial took back his hand and gave me a pointed look, I sighed. “You’re right, it’s her…”

I put the tips of my fingers together and pressed them to my lips as I thought. Hezerial only gathered back his wings and folded his arms as he waited, expecting me to make a choice.

“I don’t like the situation she is in.” I said plainly. And I meant it.

“Neither do I. All my instincts are screaming for me to grab her and drag her back here, even if she protests.” Hezerial added. I smiled at the thought of that.

“Well, give me a few hours and I’ll have her yelling in my ear as I drag her back into the Order myself.” I grinned as I jumped to my feet and rubbed my hands eagerly together wandering to my closet of weapons and mortal clothes. “Now leave me and keep an eye on the girl! I have some plotting to do before the sun rises.” I cackled excitedly as I picked up what I needed and started undressing even as I carried on walking towards the wall that led to the atrium. The wall parted around my form, and I melded straight through the rock walls without shifting a single pebble.

I was all dressed and ready to go outside by the time I reached the atrium, whistling to myself I readied a gate to take me to the location that Hezerial had given through his recounting memories.

“You sound dreadfully chipper.” Muttered a voice from the back between the dark shadows.

“Well, don’t you look wonderfully and drunkenly haggard this morning, Arasule?” I said, still bubbling with giddiness as I constructed my gate.

“I’m not drunk. Yet.” She grumbled, then I heard a pull being taken from a wine bottle. Poor Arasule has been miserable ever since the little Demon Child died. Even her comebacks have suffered under the grief.

“Awww, have no fear hag! For pretty soon we will all be celebrating and making merry till the week is out!” I smiled as I put on the final touches.

“What are you talking about? Making merry, bah! We haven’t made merry since… yeah.” She slumped deeper into the shadows and took another swig.

I laughed right in her face. “Oh dear Ara, trust me, once I am back you wouldn’t want to do anything else but make merry.” I waggled my eyebrows and disappeared into the gate as Ara’s bleary eyes glared at me like I had just lost what little of my mind I had left.

And suddenly, I was in the mortal world looking at the house that our little witch was hiding out in. Or rather, was living in right now.

Giggling to myself, I glamoured my face to disguise my features. Just as I took a step forward, I found myself planted face first onto a stretch of pavement. I growled and looked up to my right. Hezerial looked at the house as if nothing at all had happened. His face was stoic except for the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth. I shoved myself onto my feet and healed the small scratches on my face as I dusted off my clothes.

“We meet again, winged pest. Twice in the space of one morning. It has to be the apocalypse.” I said as I looked up at the house.

Hezerial smiled. “Hopefully it’s not, otherwise all this would be for naught.”

I smiled back. “Too true. Shall we approach?” I asked.

Hezerial shook his head. “I’m going to stay out of the way. She would recognise me and I do not wish to cause her the pain she endured last night by remembering me again. What do you plan on doing?” He asked, looking at me skeptically. “Hopefully, nothing bordering on kidnapping.”

“Kidnapping?! Me?! My dear winged friend, what do you take me for? A fiend?!” I gasped, grasping my heart in mock shock.

He shook his head with a smile. “With you Noch, anything is a possibility.”

I chuckled and was just about to take a step towards the house when suddenly the front door opened and she walked out with a simple handbag slung over her shoulder and keys in her hands. I cocked my head to the side, reading her aura, and then grinned. Yep, that was our girl alright. Strangely though, her aura seemed muted, like it was inside a containment spell or something of the sort. I frowned as I watched her climb into a clunky car and drive off to the left.

“I told you it was her.” Hezerial said, almost wistfully, as he watched her drive off. That’s the thing with guardians, they hate feeling useless…

I started walking down the street, following her aura as she drove. Then I heard Hezerial give a huff of irritation behind me. I heard the flutter of wings being opened, and before I could look around, Hezerial had grabbed me around the chest, and we were airborne.

“A little warning next time will be nice!” I yelled over my shoulder at the guardian as I quickly cast a new glamor over us, making us look like nothing but a pair of birds if anyone were to look up.

Hezerial only snickered and lifted us higher, so we glided in the warmer slipstreams.

“That way.” I said, pointing to the left where her aura seemed to have turned off towards a shopping district of sorts. We glided silently along until we saw her car stopping in front of a little art shop. I raised my eyebrows at this.

“An art shop?!” I asked, squinting to make sure I was seeing right. “She does art?!” I asked skeptically.

“I see nothing amiss with it. She has always enjoyed some finer things in life.” Hezerial commented like I was supposed to know this by now.

“Wine yes, penmanship yes, furniture yes, clothing yes, but art?! That child knows nothing but how to mutilate and kill her enemies!” I was completely thrown by this little hobby revelation. At first, I half expected her to walk into a weapons shop by the looks of the knife she sported the night before.

I could practically feel Hezerial drilling daggers into the back of my head with his eyes. “There are a lot of–,” He cut himself off, but I had a sneaky suspicion as to what he was going to say.

“A lot of what?!” I challenged, twisting to look back at his face, hoping to goad him on and see if he would let something slip. We already spoke of Merianna’s possible pasts before, but the angelic had stayed true to his word that he never divulged anything specific without his lady’s approval.

He gave me the blackest look I’ve ever received from anyone besides Merianna. Then I fell. I yelped as I struck a tree’s branches, but caught hold of my descent using the air before anyone could notice anything else breaking or snapping in the tree.

I silently cursed the angel to the farthest realms of the universe and back in my mind as I descended slowly to the pavement. Hezerial stood at the bottom with his arms crossed, looking for all the world like nothing had happened.

“One of these days I will pluck and skin you personally, Hezerial.” I muttered as I passed by him. The only response he gave was a snicker. In retaliation I reached into the earth with my magic and lifted a wild root in the angel’s path. I grinned when I heard a thump, stumble and curse, but no pavement contact. Damn…

As the angelic and I walked towards the art shop that Merianna had disappeared into, I felt a strange flux of energy. I frowned. That energy… felt strangely familiar and definitely wasn’t the Demon Spawn’s.

I glanced around and completely missed the black-haired anomaly that bulleted across the street and slammed into me, whirling me into a dark alleyway next to the shop with inhuman strength.

“What in blue blazes-!” I was cut off with a silencing spell as I was dragged further into the alley. Hezerial stood outside the alleyway for a minute or two longer looking after us and then followed.

Once the motion finally stopped, I dispelled the silencing spell with no more than a thought, and looked at Thyrion. The years certainly haven’t touched him much. His hair was longer though, pulled up in a small ponytail like he couldn’t be bothered to have it cut, or didn’t have the time to have it cut. It was still blacker than the night sky. He looked tired as well. Stress was practically radiating off from him. Something was definitely going on.

I frowned at him. Scrutinizing him from head to toe. “Time seemed to have coiled you tighter than a spring my friend.” I said.

“It’s nice to see you as well, Noch. Although I wish it was under different circumstances.” He glanced around as if to make sure no one was there, even though I had blanketed us all in invisibility.

He then nodded to Hezerial. Hezerial just nodded back and kept staring at us. Expecting something to happen, or hoping to hear something I am also hoping to hear. Information.

“What in the pits of Tartarus’s name are you doing here? I haven't seen nor heard hide nor hair of you since Merianna died, which is completely understandable, given the circumstances. And now suddenly here you are, just as we find her again. And it seems like you have known of her being alive and well for far longer than even her honorable Guardian here seemed to have known.” I nodded in Hezerial’s direction.

The angelic’s feathers bristled but he didn’t say anything. Thyrion took a step away from me and eyed me like he didn’t trust me to keep to my own business. And frankly, he was right on that part. If this involved Merianna, and the involvement wasn’t to my liking, I would not back down in the slightest.

“You should leave. You don’t need to be here.” Thyrion said simply, then turned to walk away. But before he could take another step, Hezerial stood in front of him, blocking his way with both his wings and body.

“Tell us what has happened to her. Whatever she is going through, it is not normal. It is hurting her to remember.” Hezerial said menacingly.

Thyrion’s eyes snapped to the angelic, and in a flash he was in his personal space. “You approached her?! You cannot approach her! She cannot remember!” I could see that Thyrion was about a hair’s breadth away from clobbering Hezerial silly, and clearly it had nothing to do with jealousy. Thyrion looked terrified for Merianna, like at any moment she could disappear, like she was as fragile as a wine glass.

I put a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him. “He had no choice but to approach her. She was in danger. She would have been killed last night if he hadn’t been there.”

Thyrion jerked away like he had been punched in the gut. “Who attacked her?” He demanded.

I frowned at him, trying to figure out just what in the Hell was going on. Clearly, he was hiding something from us. There was no doubt about that. “She was attacked by three fae that seemed to have been under a contract with a heavy-handed master.” Zerial answered plainly, scrutinizing Thyrion as much as I was.

Thyrion let out a frustrated growl and started pacing. His face was lowered, letting some of his hair fall over his face and casting his features in such a deep shadow that I could barely see his eyes.

“Why can we not approach her, Thyrion? You know something. Something very important that we clearly don’t know about. Tell us and we can try to figure this out together. Clearly, this has been going on for a very long time.” I said, glaring at him. This was out of character for Thyrion. He almost looked like a caged animal with no way out, and there weren’t many things that could frazzle him this much.

Thyrion didn’t stop pacing, but I could see the wheels turning furiously in his head. He was beyond angry that someone had tried to harm Merianna, like he was sure that it wouldn’t have happened, or shouldn’t have happened.

I caught Thyrion on the bicep and brought him to a sudden halt. “You damn well better start telling me what is going on or I’m going to walk into that shop and tell Merianna who I am and she’s going to see this guy again,” I said pointing a finger at Hezerial, “and me, and then she may or may not freak out but I’m going to try and bet on her coming back to the Order with us where she belongs.”

Thyrion looked mad enough to snap my neck clean off. “You can’t let her see you.” He growled. Then he ripped his arm out of my hand and started pacing again.

“Why not?!” I yelled, stepping into his path.

“Because she’ll die!” He exploded. Then he turned pale as a sheet, as if he didn’t mean to say that.

I frowned at him. His reaction was unexpected, and the revelation that he believed that she would die if she were to recognize us was startling. Now that I thought of it, the pain she went through last night and her nose bleeding as if she were being ripped apart from the inside… it might just be possible that Thyrion’s fear is not irrational.

“How? Why?” I asked flatly not giving him a chance to back down. I leveled a glare at him that everyone at the Order ran away from, but he had never ran away from anything I ever did. When it came to resilience and experience, he was the best person you could find that fit that description.

Thyrion took a deep breath and drew himself up to his full height. “There is a wall set up in her mind. When that wall breaks, she will die. Very painfully.” He said, wandering around me and continuing his pacing.

I was frozen for a minute. Cold chills ran through my veins as I processed that new revelation. He clearly knew what he was talking about. But how on earth was someone able to chain the Demon Spawn down like this? Was it something her Denaue subconsciousness did to keep her as mortal as possible after last time? Many things were still uncertain where the old deity was concerned, so for all we knew, it could be possible. On the other hand, a third party was also an option. Dermon was still on the loose and has become even more slippery than an eel after the day that Merianna perished all those years ago. Right now, we have to handle one problem at a time though.

“Thyrion, has this happened before already?” I asked, turning towards him slowly. Behind him, Hezerial looked like a furious statue, the true embodiment of an avenging angel.

Thyrion took a shuddering breath and let it out slowly. “Yes.” He admitted shakily. “After we all thought she was gone, I went traveling. I couldn’t stay in the same house without going mad with grief. You know that.”

I did know that. Merianna and Thyrion were practically a messed up match made in heaven. I could clearly see that neither of them would ever have thought of being with anyone else but each other. It was a very intense and surprising relationship. I never would have pegged the Demon Spawn to tie the knot with anyone, ever. After their marriage, the castle was always filled with nothing but smiles. Even after more coven emergencies and Council requests popped up, and things became hectic. Thyrion was completely head over heels for her, and she was as happy as could be. After that day though…

“I found her though.” Thyrion whispered. He had come to a standstill, caught up in his own memories of the past I didn’t know about. “She had beautiful brown hair at that stage, with her usual stormy eyes, and I knew without a doubt that it was her, her aura screamed it, I could even still feel the bond we created between us, even though it was extremely muted. Almost like she was just another mortal. I couldn’t understand it. It almost felt like she was in a thick container, still there, but muted or silenced. Her once volatile energy was silenced to a great extent.”

I knew what he was talking about. I had felt it myself not too long ago, and it made me angry to remember the feel of that muted vibe again. She was a force to be reckoned with. To feel her energy being that quiet was shocking.

“I approached her, and for the first few days or so that we saw each other again, it all seemed normal. She had started having vivid dreams of her past, which is normal when we reawaken, but they would fade soon after and she couldn’t fully retain the details, just the gist of the dreams. But when she started remembering while she was awake, it was different. She started having intense headaches, and her nose would bleed on occasion. Sometimes she would even pass out from the pain. Yet one day when we were fighting this small group of Hunters we stumbled across. Her nose started bleeding during the battle. I could practically feel her aura thrashing and trying to break free, but still ended up being suppressed. When she killed the last Hunter on her side, she screamed.”

Thyrion looked haunted. Like the sound he had heard back then was a death knell from the Pits of Tartarus for him. He shook his head slightly, balling his fists at his sides.

“She fell to the ground, writhing in agony. I ran to her side. She had started bleeding from her ears, and bloody tears were running down from her eyes as well. When she opened her eyes, they were completely bloodshot. She kept mumbling things, names, places, then pleaded that she wanted to go home. At the moment I saw her really recognize me, truly recognize me. Her head snapped back, and I felt her aura breaking completely free from whatever had confined it. When she looked back at me, she smiled, but then was gone just as quickly. She died in my arms, again.” Thyrion turned away from us, lifting his head to the sky while rubbing his face.

“I can’t let her go through that again, Noch. I can’t let you approach her.”

I was shaken and thoroughly confused by Merianna’s violent and painful death he described. But there was still clearly something, something was still not being told.

“Do you know the cause?” I asked. Thyrion was a really good liar, but certain things you just couldn’t hide. Like the way his fists got even tighter for a split second while the rest of him didn’t even move an inch.

“No. I have no idea what is causing this. All I know is that it hurts her and literally kills her to remember. I would hate for her to have to go through that again.” I narrowed my eyes at him, but I had to relent, for now. If what he said really did happen and we reveal ourselves to her here, it would all be for naught if she dies now. I’ll have to do some digging in the background.

“Alright, we won’t go to her or approach her unless absolutely necessary. Especially Hezerial, when her life is in danger again. Both of us really don’t have any control over that at all.” Thyrion looked a bit more relieved at that.

“Thank you.” He said formally. “I’ll most likely see you two again in the near future.” Then he started walking past the menacing angelic but stopped short like he walked into a brick wall. Face going as pale as white parchment.

I looked around at the same time that Hezerial did, and we saw Merianna looking down the alleyway. Scanning and scrutinizing the space we were huddled in like she knew something should be in there.

“Don’t worry.” I said lowly to Thyrion. “She can’t see or hear us. I cast a cloaking spell the moment you dragged us in here.”

Thyrion relaxed a little, but he still looked like he wanted to either sprint away or run over and hug her. Either way, he didn’t do any of those two things. He just stood there and stared at her like the sight of her was eating him alive.

Merianna looked hesitant, as she took a tentative step into the alleyway. “Hello?” she asked as she scanned left and right and up and down the alleyway.

She stood like that for a minute or two, like she expected something to happen, or someone to jump out of the shadows. When nothing happened, she shook her head and sighed heavily. “Yep, totally going nuts. No doubt.” She muttered to herself as she walked back out and towards where she had parked her car.

I frowned as she wandered off. “Looks like she might be starting to pick up on a few things on her own without us even having to show our faces.” I said to Thyrion, who was now leaning heavily against a wall. He just looked at me for a heartbeat then disappeared in that convenient way of his, practically dissipating into the shadows of the buildings and before we knew it, he was gone.

I turned to Hezerial. “I don’t like this.”

He nodded. “There is something more going on.”

I clapped my hands together and in a sarcastically cheery voice said. “Let’s forget that any of this ever happened and go back to our merrily boring lives, shall we?”

“You do know we cannot do that.” Hezerial said in all seriousness.

I looked sidelong at the winged angelic. “Really? I never would have guessed.”

Hezerial scowled at me like he didn’t like the game I was playing. “Oh come now Zerial. It’s the 21st century, you do know sarcasm right?” He lifted an eyebrow at me.

“Oh gods, you don’t?!” I gaped at him. Has he been taking every sarcastic comment that ever slipped out of my mouth seriously?! “We seriously have to sit you in front of a TV so you can become socially updated.”

His scowl deepened. “Those abominable creations are merely a waste of time.” He promptly turned around and walked out of the alleyway. Most likely to follow his Lady at a respectable distance. Angels were nothing if not serious about their jobs. Well, I was starting to wonder if Ela even still belonged in that category or not. I couldn’t even remember the last time she popped in for a visit.

I turned the other way and walked towards the dead end wall of the alley. Swiftly I constructed a newly devised gate and walked right through the wall and stepped my foot onto the Atrium in the Order. There was work to be done and people to see.

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