Divinity: Immolation: Book Three (The Divinity Saga) (29 page)

XXXIII
: Ca`mael

I
didn’t think it was possible for me to be as pissed, annoyed, and any more near ballistic than I already was right now. First, at Draea for having the gall to bring both herself and Grace here; at Ry for acting like it was no big deal, knowing how I am about my space; at Edanai for telling Starling all of my past business; and then at Starling, for being so damned stubborn. Now, she’s been seen by Grace and even worse…Grace knows that she’s pregnant. That meant that Morning Star would soon know too. I could only portend doom and very bad things from this point on.

Starling took a step towards the door, only to stop short. The doorway was crowded with both her friends and the rest of mine.

This just kept getting better and better. Not the way I wanted everyone to find out but it was out of my hands now. If I really wanted to be an ass, I’d throw a huge gush of wind filled with light at Grace, Draea, and the two goons in the distance but I lost my window of opportunity several moments ago.

“Did she just say what we think she said?” Durien asked Starling.

She bit her lip, casting her eyes down to the ground and slowly nodded.

“Whoa.” One of her friends breathed softly.

The rest were quiet, probably in shock.

“Is everything okay, Cam?”
Rahab asked.

“Not really, Rahab but no threats.”
I informed him warily.

“I suppose I’m going to be an uncle now?”
he then asked for verification.

I wanted to chuckle. In the midst of the moment, leave it to Rahab to remain positive and supportive, not that I didn’t think he wouldn’t have been no matter what the circumstance
s.

“It looks that way, my friend.”

“Congratulations, Cam.”

Rahab, a long time close friend, both knew and understood what Starling having my children meant to me.

“Thank you, Rahab.”

Now, I had no choice but to hurry and get Starling and all of her warrior friends the hell out of my place and back in to the human realm, where they’d all fare better and safer for the time being.

All of my friends, except for Edanai were staring at me. Well, it was going to come out eventually. I wanted nothing more than to ghost away right now.

“Pregnant with your child, h
ow very interesting.” Grace reiterated, looking me over curiously and then at Starling again.

I already didn’t trust her,
even more so, the way she phrased that.

If I told her to leave, it could jeopardize any alliance but I didn’t care about that at this point.

“
Is Starling really pregnant?”
Ry asked me privately for verification. His question held more of a disbelieving tone. Draea was still draped all over him like a wet towel.

“Yes.”

“Not that it surprises me at all but how was that even possible? And how long were you going to wait before telling us? Damn, you had her doing all that hardcore training too? She can’t be too far along, she’s not showing yet.”

“Now is not the time to talk about all that but yes, I was going to tell everyone eventually. Aon and Aliks already know, they said she would be fine and —well…she sure as hell did
everything and very well, too.”

“True. So, the angels know and they’re cool with that?”

“Yeah.”

Ry was silent at first and then he began to laugh hysterically in his head.

I glanced at him in question.

“Nay got owned by a human female—and a pregnant one at that. Sweet!”

I pursed my lips. Ry shook his head with a huge grin on his face.

“I’ll meet yo
u at your place to talk later at nightfall.” I finally told Grace.

I had to make sure that the threat of her reporting this to Morning Star was nullified somehow.

I could feel the heat of Starling’s unhappy glare on my face right then.

In the nex
t instant, I literally felt something in the air—change. To us fallen and supernatural beings, the anomaly was evident. Even Kaia, the female seraphim emerged from my home with a serious look on her face as she scanned the horizon.

Draea and Grace also reacted, we just didn’t know what we were looking at or expecting other than it being something…negative.

“What’s going on? What’s everyone looking at?” Starling asked, moving in next to me.

I automatically put my arm around her and pulled her to me protectively, scanning the skies in the far distance suspiciously.

“I’m not sure yet.” I whispered.

“You felt that too, huh?” Mac said, appearing on my other side as he gazed over the horizon.

“Do me a favor, take them all inside and tell everyone to get ready for transport into the human realm. We need to get them out of here, now. I have a bad feeling about this.” I told him.

“About what? I’m not going anywhere without you.” Starling panicked.

“Starling, this isn’t up for debate and your stubbornness won’t work this time. I’ll be fine, your safety is my main concern.”

Even Grace and her Bandit cronies began to inch closer towards my home, turning around to face the unknown force that was pressing heavily in the atmosphere, growing stronger by the minute.

The only thing I could think of, the only thing that I was sure that we could all think of…was Morning Star.

What the hell was he doing and why now?

I turned to face the rest of the warriors, gently pushing Starling in the direction of the doorway.

“All of you, get inside now. I’m going to seal the door closed.”

“No!” Starling screamed, holding onto me tighter.

I started to just pick her up and carry her inside myself, when an extremely loud and powerful explosion rocked both the air and the ground in a sonic boom that reverberated against the mountains, hurting even
my
ears.

Starling jumped, gripping onto me tighter and gasping in horror with a hand clamped over her mouth to keep from screaming aloud. Her eyes went wide, immediately filling with tears.

Several of the warriors verbally exclaimed their shock out loud, and the girls all screamed in horror, falling to their knees in tears. Even the female seraphim began to cry. An enormous, fiery ball billowed up like a rising, flaming sun in the far distance.

I was struck speechless, feeling helpless and paralyzed with revulsion. I did feel a sense of guilt for being relieved that Starling hadn’t been there at the time. It didn’t take much to guess what had just happened. It was just impossible for me to even begin
to comprehend.

The Divin
e Hall had just been completely—obliterated.

XXXIV
: Starling

P
aralyzed in horror, I couldn’t help but cry. I felt sick, my knees about ready to give out on me but Cam supported me to keep me from collapsing. I wasn’t really sure what had happened until I heard both Lorelei and Scarlet scream, and then saw them both fall to their knees in horrified despair.

I still couldn’t believe it let alone understand how that happened. Then confusion began to intercept my grief. Even the fallen were silent and frozen as we all stared out into the far distance at what was once the grand Divine Hall.

“How did that just happen?” I asked Cam.

He hugged me tighter against him and then glanced down at me. I never thought I’d see uncertainty in his eyes but I was seeing it now and it worried me.

“I don’t know.”

Suddenly, both Aon and Aliks appeared and they didn’t seem at all alarmed. I supposed it was because they already knew.

“I’ll see you tonight then.” Grace said quickly in reaction to their arrival.

Ry and Draea kis
sed their good-byes and she was back on the beast with Grace in a flash. Then, they all took off swiftly towards the Northern horizon.

Cam turned to address his friends, “Could you all take the warriors to the l
ocation I set aside for them now?”

“How was that allowed let alone able to happen?” Anthony looked at both Aon and Aliks for an answer.

“Nothing is ever allowed to happen. For every action, there is an opposite reaction.” Aon said.

“So a bunch of innocent warriors, animals, and people were killed for no reason?” Lorelei’s voice was quivering.

“What it because we all defected?” Scarlet sniffed, confused.

Both Aon and Aliks remained passive and stoic but Aliks shook his head no. I was angry at them right now too.

“Why didn’t you two warn them? Or better yet, stopped it? What kind of an action and reaction caused that?” I spat with a gesture towards the inferno in the distance.

Aon looked at me and Cam matter-of-factly and calmly replied, “Why do you think?”

I froze, my anger halted as I crossed my arms over my middle. My voice quickly toned down to an innocent whisper. “What? But I thought that…”

Cam cut in and spoke to Aon, “There are enough eyes and ears out here and I don’t mean everyone here.” Then he turned to me urgently, “Starling, go inside. Ry is taking you out of here.”

So this was all mine and Cam’s fault? I felt like fainting. Guilt burned my face and threatened to make me throw up. Was everyone going to blame and hate me now too? I didn’t even want to meet their eyes.

Lira was the most hysterical.

“I-I- need to see what h-h-happened.” She could barely speak.

“No, it’s way too dangerous for you.” Edanai told her.

Lira got up, almost stumbling as she ran back inside.

Cam’s friends began to usher everyone else inside.

Durien was standing stock still like a statue, simply staring in silence.

The only one who wasn’t crying at all, and I was even surprised that she was out here, was Devlin.

She seemed unaffected by the scene and I couldn’t blame her on the surface but there were many innocent people over there.

“The hall has many underground tunnels, tunnels that span a great distance and converge into one main hall in the central hemisphere…” Kaia began to say softly.

“There’s no way they could have been prepared or saw that coming. There wouldn’t have been any time for anyone to have seen that coming.” Durien replied.

“But they do have a ton of portal gems. They could have easily used them before it happened.” Gabe offered.

“The only problem with that possibility is that they had no idea it was going to happen.” Anthony replied.

It was
upsettingly silent for the next few moments.

“Wait! Spencer. We need to check on Spencer too!” Jamie suddenly said before they were all
ushered inside.

Once inside, Scarlet was screaming Lira’s name. I ran into the living room to see Lira, lying on her back as if she were in a peaceful sleep on the couch. Her arms were gently resting over her stomach and she wasn’t moving. We all knew what she had done and both Scarlet and Crystal were in tears again.

“Can one of you find her and tell her to come back!” Lorelei asked any of the Fallen.

“How do you usually wake her up when she does this?”

“We can’t. Her spirit is already gone. Unless it returns, she’s like a corpse save for the fact that she’s still breathing.”

“Then her physical body will be fine here. It will have to remain here for her return anyway, right?” Edanai pointed out.

Scarlet nodded.

“I need to get to Spencer before we leave!” Jamie said again frantically
to Rahab.

“I
’ll go with you guys just in case.” Durien offered her.

“
I will too.” Kaia stepped up.

“If he’s there and won’
t come with us, then what?” Durien asked Jamie.

“Then I’ll stay with him and try to convince him.” Jamie replied.

“I don’t know.” Rahab shook his head.

“Please!” Jamie begged him.

I could only look on at the plight of everyone in both shame and sadness.

“If Spencer is in the human realm, isn’t he safer than all of us right now? I mean,
he’s not gonna be in the same place, but the human realm is where we’re going now too, isn’t it?” I pointed out.

“It’s just a feeling I have, Star
ling. He’s by himself right and he’s going to be devastated when he finds out what just happened. He’s a part of this group too and I want to make sure that he’s with us. There’s no limit to anything anymore after that brazen act.” Jamie countered.

She was right.

“What do you think this all means? Do you think this is it? This is the start of it all, isn’t it?” Lorelei asked anyone who would answer.

“No, not necessarily.” Nay replied.

“But it was shocking and really odd.” Mac said.

This was all my fault. They would all be looking at me next. I was the one responsible for the death of so many. Why had God and the Angels allowed so many warriors, elders, and elementals to die like that? We needed all the help we could get!

The table in the dining room was still full of the savory dishes we cooked, all untouched. I turned to head back to Cam’s room to sulk and grieve in private. I had no words of support or anything right now, and I didn’t want to look anyone in the eye. A hand stopped me firmly.

“Starling, start grabbing
your clothes. We’re getting all of you out of this realm, now.” It was Ry.

I shook m
y head. “I’m staying with Cam.”

“Touching
—but no, he’s not gonna be on my ass for leaving you here.”

“He won’t.”

I gasped and squealed in surprise when he leaned down, reached under my arms, and hoisted me up with fluid ease so that I was eye level with him. I could only look at my reflection in the sunglasses that masked his mysterious eyes. It was amazing to me how he managed to keep them on during all of the training drills too.

“Apparently, you don’t understand how we fallen interact with one another. He wants you safe in your condition. Normally
, I wouldn’t give a shit but Cam is my friend and he’d do it for me, now get your things and let’s go. If anything, you’ll be back in your own familiar territory anyway.”

“I’ll deal with him then.”

“Damn, you’re more stubborn than I am. Edanai!” Ry called over his shoulder.

“Put me down, please.” I stated.

“What?” Edanai answered him.

“Need a little assistance here. Starling isn’t
quite working with me or getting any of this. Can you get her stuff later?”

“Later? Hey, put me down, Ry! I said I’m not going!” I began to writhe and squirm in his grip.

“Aw hell, hurry before she lights my ass up!” he called again said.

I wouldn’t have done that to him but it didn’t matter. Before I could even make a move to do anything
at all, I lost total and complete consciousness.