Death by Tara Brown Page B

is dangerous. It's best if we let Marcus
keep him under wraps. The children of your mother, the ones born of the Fae,
they're not stable."
    I sigh. "I don’t feel stable either."
    He kisses my head. "You aren’t."
    "Why did you hide in the village?"
    "Your father knew I helped them. I helped Marcus and Aleks and Dorian.
I too had turned to Lorri. The saying 'Hell hath no fury' actually came into
existence because of Lorri and your dad. She loved him, a long time ago. When
we fell he went for Lillith, seeing opportunity and power."
    "He left her for my mom, even though my mom didn’t want him?"
    He nods. "Yup. Lorri loved him for a long time. She kept making
excuses for him and expecting him to come back to her. He was her weakness.
When he didn’t she started the hunt for him. Unfortunately, by the time she had
gotten around to him he had built a very large army for himself. Most of the
archangels that have fallen and all the nephilim but a few, agree with him.
This is our playground. Here we have freewill and the ability to choose. We are
immortal. The gates of heaven will never open for us anyway. We have
fallen."
    "We will kill him together." I squeeze his hand.
    He squeezes back. "I want you to do a spell for me though. Just in
case. This is going to be our meeting place. You can make a port here. This
tree is magical. It's spelled by the village shaman."
    I frown. "Why?"
    His eyes sparkle. "In case you need to run."
    I look out over the view and nod. "What do I do?"
    "Close your eyes and hold the tree tightly. Call the tree and mother
earth and the power and light of the spirits. Mark the tree as yours. Visualize
a door shaped in the air that you can walk through from anywhere. The rest will
come to you."
    I swallow hard and close my eyes. The earth magic fills me instantly.
Like mother earth and I are connected. My body hums. The rough bark heats in my
hands until it is the same temperature as my hands.
    I focus on the doorway. Flashes of the shaman blessing the tree fill my
mind. His skin is old and dark and wrinkled. He speaks something I don’t
understand. His eyes are completely white and his dark skin is sweaty. He rocks
and chants and smoke is coming from somewhere.
    His white eyes dart at me. He smiles and puts a hand out for me. I feel
myself letting go of the bark and reaching for him.
    My sisters stand in front of him, blocking my view of his face.
    The blue sisters shake their heads. I push past them and find him again.
    "O, don't do this. This is dark magic." Their voices float in
the air but I swat at them and sit beside the man. He crosses his skinny brown
legs. I cross mine too. He closes his eyes and takes my hand. His skin burns
mine. I scream out but I can't take my hand from his grip.
    I can smell my skin burning. He pries open my hand and rubs it into the
ground. My eyes fly open. My lips are parted but no sound escapes them. The sun
has set. It’s dark. I'm standing in the tree still. My hand is still gripping
the branch. I pull it back but the burnt skin from my palm sticks to the
branch. I cry out and stop pulling away. My hand shakes.
    "It's okay, O. Just pull it back slowly and then heal it."
Oliver is still with me.
    "Did you leave?"
    He shakes his head. "You did."
    I peel my hand from the branch. Tears stream down my cheeks. When I
finally have it off I turn my hand over. A circle with a line through it is
burned into my palm. The skin is red and blistered. I place my other hand over
it and pull the healing from the tree we are in. The hand heals instantly but
the scar is the circle with the line through it. The pain is still mildly
present.
    "It still hurts."
    He nods. "It will for a while. You've left a piece of yourself here.
It's the only way to make a port. It's so that you can find this place again.
Your piece of you will pull you here." He takes my hand and kisses the
palm. The air moves and we are on the road out front of Lydia's.
    I don’t want to leave him but I know I must.