I was beginning to worry that I may have begun my descent into insanity. Everything that had happened to me recently seemed surreal. I couldn't help but wonder if I was locked away inside my mind and everything I was seeing was all a part of some endless nightmare. For all I knew, I could be a drooling mess in an institution with an inability to tell reality from fantasy.
I rounded the corner to find myself in an entirely new environment. I stood in a hall teeming with people. The floor was made of white marble inlaid with shades of gray and black. Large pillars dissected the interior into empty caverns. A desk the size of a large mansion lay in the center, workers buzzing around the desk, speaking with those who were on the other side. Everything was illuminated by a ceiling made of a unified glowing light.
I couldn't believe that this room existed in the same building as the eerie hallways I just left. At first I wondered why I hadn’t heard the hundreds of people before entering the room. However, I then realized that sound was muted inside the room. Ordinarily, in a room so open, the sound would bounce off the walls, floor, and ceiling to create continuous echoes, but there were none.
Forcing myself to focus on my task, I approached, waiting for someone to notice me.
An elderly woman placed a bookmark into the novel she had been reading, A Night in the Duke's Bed. Then she leaned forward with a smile. "Can I help you, young one?"
I shifted my feet, embarrassed that I was standing in my robe, and pulled myself together. "Um, I was in the medical center, but was told my friend was locked away somewhere. Is there someone I can talk to who can help me find her?
"Ah ... you must be talking about the fierce winged one. She made quite the spectacle and harmed a few of our own before they could tranquilize her."
Her stare was disapproving, but I refused to feel guilty. "That's probably her. I just need to find her. I'm sure I can keep her from hurting anyone else and I won't be able to sleep until I know she's safe."
She sighed. "Very well. I heard that some of the warriors managed to contain her in the high security wing." She shifted some papers around; the thin, gray strands of her hair fell forward, getting caught behind the lens of her glasses. "Ah, here you go." She placed a miniature map between us and pointed to the empty space in the center. "We're here. This is the directive. You turn around and take the passage against the far wall until you reach the dead end. There, you’ll will find an elevator. Take it to the top floor. You'll find some guards there who will tell you which cell she's in."
I grabbed the map, smiled, and forced myself to speak in a sincere tone. "Thank you. I appreciate this."
"Just keep that winged one under control and I will consider us even."
I followed her directions down a dark hall until I stood in front of the elevator. Aside from the bright light surrounding the edges of it, it looked like an ordinary elevator. The doors opened and I pushed the button. The trip up was longer than I expected. My eardrums popped from the pressure change.
The elevator stopped, but the doors remained closed. A few minutes later, when they still hadn't opened, I began to panic. The doors open button did nothing and there wasn't a button to set off an alarm or call for help.
My memories flashed back to my childhood cage. I could feel the steel bars containing me, pressing against my skin, incinerating cohesive thought. Tears fell. I screamed and banged my fists against the walls, wailing, begging for my escape. Part of me knew I was having a panic attack, but the primitive part of me screamed at my loss of freedom. Giving up on the walls, I tried to pull the doors open with my fingernails.
I couldn't breathe; my throat was closing. I was cloaked in a familiar darkness. It had a grainy texture that seemed more substantial than it had been before. Suddenly, light blazed in a blinding flash that shocked me enough to take several moments before I realized I was out of the elevator.
My body was shaking from anxiety and I held my eyelids closed, as if blocking the light out would release me from the mortification of my episode. When I finally peeked, I found Ash staring down at me. He held me in his arms, whispering soothing words, furrowing his brow the way he did when he was worried.
"I'm okay. You can let go now."
Ash pulled away sharply, placing our complicated past between us once more. Behind him stood two abnormally large men wearing black uniforms. The first was beginning to show the frost of age, his skin crinkled, his hair graying. He had the look of a seasoned warrior who had seen his fair share of death, but a soft kindness still lingered in his blue eyes. Strange symbols had been tattooed on various areas of his visible skin and I wondered if they were a cultural thing.
But then I noticed that both the guards’ necks held the identical tattoo, two daggers crisscrossed with the blades pointing down. In the center of the daggers was a spear with the sharp end pointing upwards. The black weapons were surrounded by a knotted circle that glowed a bright red, vaguely resembling the Celtic knot.
The second guard was much younger. I doubted he had seen a true battle, but he looked fit enough to handle himself. His hair had been shaved until barely half an inch of blond hair was left to warm his scalp. He smiled, showing his razor sharp teeth, and I twitched at the sight. I would have been tempted to back away, but his eyes were filled with rich emotion, as though a churning sea were held in their depths.
"No offense, child, but when someone has a fit like that, they are rarely fine." The elder of the two guards held out his hand to help me to my feet.
"I'm okay now, honest."
The guards exchanged glances and the younger one shrugged. "If you say so." His voice was deep, holding power in each syllable. It made me uneasy. "I'm Rafe and this ancient chew-toy is Maloc." Rafe flashed his incisors once more.
"Ancient chew toy, my ass. I may be older, but I can still take on a little scamp like you." They both laughed and turned back to me and Ash.
"You nearly scared your boy to death. I have no doubt he would have incinerated this entire wing to pry those doors open. You sounded as if the fates themselves were punishing you." Maloc had spoken in what seemed to be a teasing voice, but when I looked behind me I was shocked.
The doors to the elevator were charred and twisted, bent away from the inside of the elevator. It looked like a scene from a comic book, as if someone with incredible strength had pulled the doors apart, with the effort most people used to crush a mosquito.
"Wow ... I…." Turning back to Ask, I placed my hand on his shoulder. "You did that?" He shrugged and looked everywhere other than in my eyes. "Ash?"
"What did you expect? You were screaming like something was trying to kill you. After what happened at the house, I ..." He took a deep breath. "I thought you needed me." He shook his head, putting an end to the conversation.
Ash looked tense, his body slightly angled away, as if he couldn't bring himself to face me. "I did ... I do need you! I was terrified, and just because it was in my head doesn't mean that I needed you any less."
Ash's eyes were shadowed in vulnerability.
The silence stretched on, carrying a wave of yearning and regret, before Rafe cleared his throat. "Come on." His voice was short and clipped, and we walked down the corridor, away from the guards. I waved goodbye to them.
"Is Izzy down this way?"
"Yeah, we've all been taking turns watching over her door. I knew you wouldn't want her to be alone."
A wide staircase that led down into a murky darkness lay before us. Ash grabbed a torch from the wall to light the way, while I made my way down the cement steps. This section looked like it needed a renovation badly. I was more suited to a dungeon than a maximum security prison.
"I thought they put her in the ward with the best security?"
"I asked the same thing." He held the torch against one of the walls to show me ancient symbols written across it. They were everywhere. "This is the oldest part of the building. It was built on the site of the threshold to the Divine. It's called the in-between, because we are nei
ther here nor there. Izzy is powerless as long as she is in this wing."
A small light bloomed ahead, but I wasn't anxious to reach it. I wanted to make sure Izzy was okay. However, my need to finish my conversation with Ash was overshadowing everything else. I knew the temptation was a bit selfish and I despised that piece of myself, but the sound of his voice was like a lullaby for my soul. It made me feel safe and warm, adrift in a sea of emotion.
I also remembered Liam and Ash telling me that Diamante and members of her coven would guard over Izzy. The light ahead served as a warning of that confrontation. A part of me still resented Liam's mother ordering him to seduce me. However, given everything that had occurred since her interference, I could overlook the past to withstand the present.
"I didn't know places like this existed. I thought you could only cross the threshold, not stand within it."
Ash angled a sidelong glance my way and paused in his steps. "Neither did I. Apparently, the elders only share the location of this place under duress. You were poisoned by something our coven has never seen, so they brought you here. It's sort of a supernatural sanctuary."
"Supernatural Sanctuary? What the heck does that mean? What kind of supernatural beings?" Demons, angels, witches ... what else was out there? I thought back to the guards, the incisors Rafe had sported. "Wait, Rafe? Was he a vampire?"
Ash laughed hysterically, pausing only to mock me with a smile, and say, "No, not a vampire. A Draconian." When he received no response other than an irritable sigh, he explained as if he were reciting a passage from a book he had been forced to memorize. "A Draconian is a human who is a descendent of the dragons from the war of origin – the war between demons and angels. Dragons were ... I guess you could say they were the steeds of the demons, created as a weapon to use against the archangels. Most of them turned on their slavers. As a result, their blood is diluted from breeding with ordinary humans, which had left their descendants the ability to shapeshift. They can take on the shape of any animal or creature, but most of the time they're confined to the shape of a human."
"Um, why didn't I know this? Why didn't Maye tell us any of this?" When I got back to my room, Maye would be answering some of these questions. I was starting to believe the elders were keeping more from us. There was an entire species that I had no idea existed!
Ash shrugged with a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. "S, I know you have questions. So do I, but can we please do this later? I haven't slept and this whole mess is giving me one hell of a migraine. So, unless you brought some painkillers from the medical ward down with you...."
"Okay. Alright, that's fine, and to answer your question, no I don't have any painkillers." We smiled at one another before walking towards the light at the end of the passage, where we found a group waiting, though, it was not the group I was expecting.
Liam, Isis, and Griffin were gathered in front of a large, circular door, which reminded me of the entrance to a nuclear fallout shelter, with a hatch that needed to be turned clockwise to be opened.
"Oh good, does this mean we can remove ourselves to a location that's safe from that psychotic, screaming banshee?" Isis stood with her arms crossed. Her appearance was frazzled, which was unusual for her. She wore pajama pants, a hoodie, and her hair was carelessly thrown into a ponytail.
Griffin leaned against the wall, an alert and commanding expression across his face, but his appearance was similarly dismantled. "Oh, God, stop complaining," he groaned. Isis flashed an irritated look his way, but followed his direction.
"Screaming banshee?" Confused, I looked between the three of them.
Ash winced, but explained, "Well, it's an accurate description. She wasn't too happy with leaving you and screamed until she was sedated. Let's just say we all prayed someone would come around with earplugs."
"Oh, I don't hear anything now though."
"When she wakes up, the guards release gas into the chamber. It makes her pass out again." Griffin seemed apologetic, but I knew it wasn't their fault. "She can't get out, but they were afraid she might hurt herself if she tried."
"Is she okay?" Walking to the door, I listened closely for some hint of life within, but received none. My question remained unanswered, but in a way, their silence gave me more knowledge than their words would have.
I had gone down there to find Izzy, but when I thought back to how much she had changed ... I was afraid to find out. She had attempted to protect me when that thing had attacked us at the house. I wasn't sure I was thinking clearly, but felt strongly that I needed to trust her, if she would only reciprocate.
A lever on the opposite wall opened the door to Izzy's cell. The door gave a harsh squeal, balancing itself against the walls and conquering the dark hole. Ash grasped my shoulder, leading me to look away from the task at hand. His lips were hesitant, breaking the silence. "I could go with you."
"No, I think she needs me to come alone. I'll be fine." I offered a smile that was more to encourage myself than to assure Ash.
The first steps I took were born of fear. Hands clenched, my teeth assaulted my lower lip in burning worry. It was cold within the chamber and tremors racked my body. I forced my hands to obey me well enough to slide against the walls, searching for a switch.
Inching along, I sought any protrusion from the cold cement walls that might indicate a light source. Finally, my fingers brushed against a circular button which felt similar to the buttons found in hospitals to alert security.
At first, the button caused the light to flicker in hiccups, lasting seconds before eventually accepting my will. Smiling, I turned and came up short. Wide, black eyes without a speck of white were staring at me. Izzy’s expression was that of a predator, fixated on me. I screamed, ready to slash out until my mind caught up with my terror. This was Izzy. She hadn’t hurt me before, and she wouldn't now.
Standing still, wary as a rabbit, I waited. Gradually, Izzy's pupils shrank until only slits remained and I allowed myself to breathe. She didn't move away as she had in the clearing, but she didn't cling to me the way she had before when the creature had attacked us either. She remained motionless, examining me, while I stared back at her.
Izzy's appearance had changed slightly since I’d seen her last. Wearing a long, white dress which resembled a modest nightgown, she stood with dignity. Her hair had coiled tightly into full body curls entwining themselves within one another and collecting over her right shoulder. Her wings had grown, the feathers having gained a downy texture like that of a marshmallow, and bits of silver and white. She reminded me of a young bird who had gained their adult feathers, finally able to fly.
I pushed away from the wall towards the center of the room – though I wasn't sure if room was the right word for that place. It was barren of comfort; the only decorations were the vents, through which I assumed gas was dispensed.
When I turned to look back, Izzy was wearing a puzzled expression. She then knelt at my feet, and lifted my hospital gown. Her hands were gentle, tracing the faint lines left from my injuries.
I was familiar with emotions warring with one another, how they could create chaos within a mind. Instinct warned me to flee, but my soul reminded me that this was my Izzy. How could I betray her with my absence, when she had stood with me, when she had paid for it with her life?
"I'm okay."
"Izzy..." My voice trailed off with a tremor, altering into a surprised shout, leading to Ash tearing open the cell door.
Ash's face held a mixture of anger and confusion at the sight that greeted him. He found Izzy gripping me in what I was fairly sure was the tightest hug I had ever experienced. Awkwardly, I patted her shoulder and smoothed her hair until she released me, leaving tearstains on my hospital gown. Strangely, I thought it was an improvement to my attire.
Ash's gaze alternated between Izzy and me, but he must have realized that I wasn't in any danger, because he remained in the doorway. Isis and Griffin were peering out from behind him with expressions that clea
rly stated their hesitance to offer help. Isis eyed Izzy with a mixture of horror and annoyance, while Griffin alternated between worry, confusion, and his own unique irritation.
"Are you okay?" Ash's voice should have been soothing, but I had a sudden urge to find a broom and sweep him out the door like a dust bunny.
"Yeah, nothing wrong here. Why don't you guys take a break? I’ll watch Iz."
What I really meant to say was Get out of the damn cell before you ruin the headway I’ve had made with Izzy.
Ash spoke quietly with bitterness. "No offense, but none of us are leaving you alone with her until she remembers the difference between loving someone and attempting to kill them." Griffin backed his statement up with a loud grunt and Isis sighed in disappointment.
I began to explain that Izzy wasn't trying to kill me. Then I remembered the moment in the clearing when she had tried to maim me with her claws.
"She's okay now. Honest, she was just hugging me. Besides, she saved my life. I doubt she wants me dead or she would have let that thing finish me off."
Griffin stepped forward, placing his hand on Ash's shoulder in support. "Ash is right, for all we know she might be bipolar. She could go from hugging to carving your flesh in a heartbeat. Plus, she may have been trying to save her own skin and you just got lucky."
"If she had been trying to save her own skin, she would have allowed the creature to make Savannah its midnight snack," Isis sneered, letting out a petite snort. "Then again, as soon as it got a good taste of her, it probably would have turned its attention onto Izzy anyhow."
The old Isis was back. Great, just when I was beginning to get used to the kinder version, she whips out the snide remarks that have always made me itch to smack her. With all of the stress I had been under, I briefly wondered if I would be able to get away with a few good shots. After all, if I had the stress card, I might as well play it, right?