Divinity: Immolation: Book Three (The Divinity Saga) (15 page)

Ry’s eyes were extremely hard for any being to look at, especially humans. They had this…freak out effect on others that could literally temporarily blind or drive them insane with fear, which was why he kept the sunglasses on or simply masked them in both realms.

I made an attempt to soothe and start over for all of us. “It’s obvious we didn’t come with any malicious intent…”

I’d better word this part carefully.

“I’ve been curious about your stock.”

“Same here.” Mac affirmed with a grin.

Grace laughed, again, that shrill sound was enough to make me want to rip out her vocal cords with my bare hands.

She held her arms out and turned slowly so that I could get a good look at her ass too. That wasn’t what I meant but I sure as hell did take a good, long look. Very nice.

Facing us once again, and with a hand on her hip she said, “Words from fallen don’t hold water with me. Now you want to tell me why you all are really here?”

“Simple. I no longer do business with Morning Star.”

Grace narrowed her eyes, trying to read and study each one of us for ulterior motives.

“And why is that?”

“Is there somewhere else we can talk?” I asked, scanning the dark alleys and corners were the Bandits stood watching and waiting to attack.

She pursed her full, red lips, looking at the other two, who exchanged some sort of silent communication with her in turn. Then she scanned the area all around us before finally snapping her fingers, “Follow me.” She said turning on her heel and sashaying back further into the city.

XX: Starling

I
don’t know how long I just sat there, hand poised above the notebook, trying to figure out how to start my journals. I decided that it was something that I needed to do after all. If I happened to get shunned and kicked out of here, at least I’ve left some version of my explanation behind. Like Sean said, if it wouldn’t be for me, maybe someone else would benefit from what I had to say about my experiences and thoughts—or learn what all not to do.

It was hard for me to focus and concentrate though. I was heart-broken and torn. I didn’t want to have to choose but I know that I didn’t have a choice. There was no way I can have and maintain both loyalties. What if I weren’t pregnant? Would I be able to simply give up Cam? Tell him that we couldn’t see or be together anymore and hope I didn’t have to be put in the position of possibly killing him? I don’t know and I would never know. Where it stands right now, there’d be no way that
I could ever dream of either hurting or killing Cam, or any of his friends—even if I were ordered to do so.

I bit my lip with a deep sigh. What do I write? Tapping the pencil to the paper, I began to think about Joel. The one that Cam said was also a chosen one.
I’d probably never get a chance to see him again. Certainly not here. Would it even matter since he wouldn’t know who I was anymore? Maybe some part of his memory would resurface like mine did and whatever our relationship was in the human realm, would continue here on a different level.

What was I going to do? How was I going to do it? Whatever I decided, I had no time to waste. Slowly, I began to write.

~~~~****~~~~

I was jarred awake by frantic knocking on my door. When had I fallen asleep? My heart raced and I rubbed my eyes, glimpsing down at the notebook. I had written over eleven pages of…I don’t know, everything, including a confession.

The knocking came again even more insistent this time.

“Starling!” I heard a muffled voice.

Was that…Lira?

I quickly shut my notebook, the chair falling backwards when I jumped out of it
, and rushed to open the door.

When I opened it, Lira was wide-eyed and crying, panting, and nearly breathless.

“Lira? What’s wrong?” I was alarmed.

She gasped to catch her breath and stepped back, urging me forward with her hands, “Come, hurry! Jamie told me to come get you!” She blurted out.

“What? Why? Is she hurt?” I began to panic

Lira shook her head and grabbed my hand, pulling me onward to come with her. What was going on?

I let her lead me down the corridor, noting that the halls were nearly empty and everyone else inside was rushing towards the same direction that Lira was pulling me too.

What was happening?

A million thoughts bombarded my mind. What had Jamie done? Was she in trouble? Was it Cam?

Lira led me through the maze of corridors, courtyards, and breezeways throughout the hall, giving up on holding onto my hand when I began to jog at a quick pace.
Once outside, I left her behind to quickly join the crowd that began to form on the North lawn.

Guards, elders, and many other warriors all stood crowded at the bordered edge, facing the thick line of trees where the neutral lands began.

“What’s going on?” I asked Lira, once she caught up with me. My first thought was, were we being attacked? And if so, by who or what?

The other warriors all stood around at attention as if there was something threatening looming. I couldn’t see
anything from behind the crowd but then I did begin to pick up on someone softly…sobbing.

“It’s Devlin…” Lira whispered.

I stopped and gaped at her.

“Who?”

“She’s back.” Lira began to cry again.

I tried to get a look, wondering why everyone was crowded around the lawn like this and anything but welcoming of her return.

“Where is she?”

Lira began to cry harder, “They won’t…they won’t…” her breath was hitching and she couldn’t get her words out.

I tried to calm her down. They won’t what? Let her back in?

That thought infuriated me. I had to see for myself.

“Where’s Jamie?” I then asked Lira.

“She’s up there somewhere, I think but I don’t see her!” Lira was almost hysterical.

“Okay. Stay here. I’m gonna go find her.”

I had to push and force my way through the crowd of warriors, which was annoying and difficult but not nearly as impossible as the wall of warrior guards that lined the very front.

I stooped to peer in between the gaps, scanning the trees beyond for the source of the sobbing.

What I saw made my heart deflate in my chest.

A young, black girl was sitting on the ground with her knees drawn up to her chin. She was rail thin and in nothing but tattered clothing. She looked weak, tired, and now scared as she hugged her thin frame, a lost look in her sallow eyes. Her brandings were still silver, not as shiny as ours but they weren’t black, so that was a good sign, wasn’t it?

Why weren’t they welcoming her back and helping her? She needs help! And then my sorrow turned into incredulous fury. None of the warriors, elders, or guards were making any damned effort to help her.

What the hell?

I forced my way through a small opening, only to have an arm shoot out and block my way.

“Stay back!” The warrior guard gruffly shouted at me.

“She needs help! Why aren’t any of you helping her? She’s scared!” I screamed at him.

“She’s not to be trusted! There’s a dark presence in and around her!” he shot back.

“She’s one of us!”

“She was. Not anymore. Now stay back!” Another warrior added as he moved in to further block my path.

I couldn’t believe this! She was terrified and alone. If that was Devlin, I was pissed that her impossible task of escape only led her back to this welcoming home. She looked emaciated and very weak on top of all that!

“How do you know that?”

“Look, little girl, go back into the hall and let us handle this, okay?” The guard said through clenched teeth. With his shield he nudged me backwards forcefully.

I looked over at Devlin’s small form again. She had fallen over to her side, huddled into the fetal position, and her shoulders quivered as she held herself protectively. I didn’t know her, and I don’t know where she’s been or what happened to her but somehow she managed to make it all the way back here, alive. This wasn’t right.

Tears began to well up in my eyes and then I launched myself forward and forced my way through with all my strength.

“Hey!” I heard behind me as someone grabbed my arm and several others moved to stop me.

Something ignited in me, charging up
my adrenaline. I spun and cocked my arm back; making a firm fist and throwing everything I had straight into the face of the warrior who had my arm. He went stumbling backwards, his shield sliding out of his grip as he skidded along his back a few feet away from me. Shock and anger darkened his face as his lip began to bleed. The force of power behind my strike shocked me.

Had I really punched him that hard? It felt effortless.

“I’m sorry!” I quickly said to him, immediately turning to run out towards Devlin’s pathetic, crumpled form.

I ignored the shouts of protest and anger from the other warriors and elders as I slowly began to approach her.

She didn’t know me but it didn’t matter. We were fellow warriors.

“Devlin?” I called out carefully as I cautiously scanned the forest and trees behind her for any sound or movement.

She began to sob harder.

“Starling! Don’t be an idiot, it’s an ambush!”

“Get back here!”

I ignored all of them.

Her head slowly began to rise. Clean tear marks streaked her dirty face. Her eyes were swollen from crying and wild from the terrors she was probably trying to block out of her mind, only to be reminded of just how screwed she was when she finally made it back to the hall.

“I’m Starling. I’m a new riser.”

She shook her head as more tears fell, and then she turned away from me, almost as if she were shy or too embarrassed to have me see her this way.

“What are you doing, Starling?!” I recognized that voice.

Spencer.

I turned briefly, seeing Spencer with Kaia, Brynn, and Jamie— who stood with a hand cupped over her mouth, crying silently. Lira was still crying hard next to her, and then Lorelei, Scarlet, Crystal, Anthony, and Gabe all stepped from the crowd into view. They looked over at me as if I’d lost my mind but were torn in their own grief, unsure of what to think or do themselves.

“Go get her!” Someone said.

Both Spencer and Jamie ran over to where I knelt about two feet from Devlin.

Jamie and Devlin had been close. That’s what Durien told me. If anyone could help her, Jamie could.

“What do you think you’re doing? She can’t be trusted! Get away from her!” Spencer hissed.

How could he even say that? Right in front of her?

“How do you know? None of you have even bothered to examine her! She’s still Devlin, isn’t she Jamie?”

Jamie began to cry harder, shaking her head. “I told you Starling…” She was too choked up to finish, looking down at her close friend in conflicted pain.

I wanted to punch Spencer too, and I nearly did when he reached down to hoist me up by the arm as if I were a little child.

Devlin’s head rose slowly, her eyes connecting with Jamie’s and that’s when Jamie lost it. She turned away, putting her face in her hands and crying harder.

I jerked my arm out of his hold. I was beyond pissed now.

Heat was racing through my veins and entire body in a fury, and spreading quickly beneath the surface of my skin. Everyone else simply looked on, shocked, horrified, and scolding. Lorelei, Crystal, and Scarlet were all crying now, and Anthony and Gabe were wide-eyed. The Elders were stoic and eyeing both Devlin and me carefully.

I glanced over all of their faces in disgust. What they were doing, which was nothing for her, was beyond wrong. I thought better of us. This isn’t what we as warriors are supposed to represent in the face of a fellow warrior. She had been kidnapped, taken against her will, and then managed to both survive and make it back on her own, what was their deal!?

“I can prove it!” I suddenly blurted, looking at Devlin, and then Spencer and Jamie.

“What are you talking about? This isn’t a drill, Starling. This could be disastrous and dangerous. You have no…”

“I’ll prove that she still belongs at the hall and that she’s still one of us! If I can prove it, will you get them to help her?” I asked him.

He looked at me as if I’d gone insane and pursed his lips, shaking his head. Then he looked at Devlin and I could tell that he was
contemplating it but he was too code abiding to take the chance.

“How?”

Jamie turned to face me with a questioning look of hope in her eyes. Every time she looked at Devlin, fresh tears began to stream down her face and she had to look away again.

“You guys need to get back over here now for your own safety!” Someone called out to us.

I turned to look at Devlin again, and a brief image of that girl China, thrashing on the ground in what looked like uncontrollable pain, suddenly made me gasp softly.

I didn’t even think, I did what I only knew how do to since I’ve been here. Sean’s words began to echo in my head; ‘You can’t hurt or destroy your own likeness.’

Light could not harm or destroy light.

If she was still one of us then there was only one way to find out.

Without thinking anymore about it and giving myself time to doubt what I was going to do, I lurched forward and grabbed Devlin into a bear hug, wrapping my arms tightly around her. She felt like a literal bag of bones to me, light and too thin.

Many other voices were shouting at me now, calling me insane, and screaming at me to stop what I
was doing but I didn’t listen.

I pinched my eyes shut, focusing and seeing nothing but a wall of wildly burning, white fire inside my mind’s eye, and then forcing all of my energy, strength, anger, purpose, and sympathy into one enormous detonation of emotion.

A powerful whoosh erupted from me, engulfing the both of us in a conflagration of white flames. Devlin’s body went rigid, and she began to scream and buck wildly in my hold. She was incredibly strong, and when I heard an inhuman howling beneath her shrieking screams, I began to panic. Something powerful was trying to escape from her, pressing against my flesh with extreme force as if trying to penetrate and burrow itself into me instead. A stinging sensation began spread along my skin, making me wince as my fire instantly combatted its every attempt.

There had been a dark entity in her after all. She was being used as a vessel to transport it and it was both furious and in severe pain. It tried to fight against me but my fire was too strong for it, consuming and obliterating it swiftly. It screeched in rage as Devlin writhed, her back bent in an almost impossible and painful looking arch, and then she began to tremble as if she were having an exaggerated seizure.