‘Lincoln was hurt,’ Evelyn said, putting it together.
I nodded, remembering what it had been like to know he would die without my help. The overwhelming fear of a world that didn’t include him was all I needed to know I’d made the right choice.
‘He was dying,’ I said.
‘You became …’ he couldn’t find the words. ‘This!’ he pointed to my wrists. ‘This was for Lincoln?’
His disappointment stung, but I stayed calm to give him time to process. ‘He would’ve died. I don’t regret my choice, Dad. And now I’m Grigori and that means I’m a warrior.’
‘A warrior against what?’ he barked, incredulous.
I took a deep breath. ‘Angels who exile themselves from their rightful place and take on human form.’
‘Fallen angels?’ he clarified. ‘You fight fallen angels?’
‘Yes. They’re strong and powerful and … evil. They can do things that others can’t and they are intent on taking this world for their own.’
‘Sweetheart, there are no fallen angels walking around in this world.’ He shook his head, as if trying to bring himself back to reality.
‘Yes there are. You even know one.’ I braced myself and bit down on the inside of my cheek. ‘Phoenix is an exiled angel.’
‘Phoenix? That guy that you were hanging out with a while back?’
I nodded. Dad had never liked him.
‘You brought Phoenix into your home?’ Evelyn asked, her tone carrying both disbelief and accusation.
I flashed her a quick smile. I didn’t owe her an explanation.
‘But you just said they were all evil,’ Dad continued.
I nodded again, this time with regret. ‘Phoenix has human blood in him, too, and that means he can seem more human than other exiles. He fooled me.’ I dropped my head, feeling the shame of my choices. ‘Lots of people have paid the price, with their lives.’
‘Violet, what are you talking about?’ Dad asked.
I thought of the Grigori who had died fighting Phoenix’s exiles on Santorini. ‘People are dead, Dad. I just got back from trying to stop Phoenix from opening the gates to Hell. He could’ve killed thousands of people but Grigori came in force from all around the world. We fought, we saved Santorini, but … we failed anyway. He used me to bring something out of Hell that makes nightmares seem like fairy floss. He’s determined to be all-powerful and … he’s the way he is because of me.’
I could see Dad struggling to process my words but there was little point in stopping now, so I ploughed on.
‘Phoenix has gone for now but I don’t think forever and even if it is, there are still more exiles. They’ll keep coming and we’ll keep fighting them. This is the truth that you deserve, Dad. The truth that she–’ I jabbed a finger towards Evelyn, ‘should’ve told you a long time ago – like, before she married you, or before she had a child with you. Definitely before she chose to die and leave us.’ My plan to remain calm had come unstuck.
Dad seemed frozen with shock but somehow he managed to reach over and pull a tissue from the coffee table to pass to me. I dabbed at my eyes but otherwise ignored the fact I’d started to leak.
‘Did you really do that?’ Dad asked, now looking at Evelyn. His voice was even and low.
Evelyn closed her eyes briefly. When she opened them, they were resolute. ‘A few weeks before Violet was born, I started to have dreams. As Grigori we all have strengths. I’m what they call a dream-walker – I can communicate with others in the dreamscape. That always made it easier for angels to contact me. One angel started to visit me before Violet’s birth. He was very powerful. He told me that wars were coming. I was given a choice: exist in a world, knowing my family would ultimately suffer in a reality ruled by exiled angels or give up my life and yes,’ she glanced at me, ‘commit my daughter to a fate where she would become what I am.’ She paused. ‘From what I’ve seen she is a respected warrior.’
I rolled my eyes. ‘Compliments don’t mend bridges. And you forgot the part where in return you got to live happily ever after – until I plucked you out of heaven, that is!’
‘Violet!’ Dad said, abruptly.
I closed my mouth.
‘Wait, what do you mean you “plucked her out of heaven”?’
I pressed my lips together. There was so much to explain, it was hard to know where to start. ‘My angel maker told me she made a deal to give me up to them. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out where she went after she died.’ I forced myself to remain indifferent. ‘Phoenix executed a sacrificial ceremony from an ancient scripture in Santorini and part of my blood ended up in the mix. He got his mother and somehow … I got mine.’
We all sat in silence for a moment, digesting.
‘This is …’ Dad shook his head, but then blurted out, ‘What colour was my underwear on our wedding night?’
Evelyn’s lips curled. ‘You weren’t wearing any.’
I think I’m going to be sick.
‘When we drove out to our honeymoon cottage, what happened halfway there?’ he shot back.
‘You ran out of fuel and made me wait in the car for three hours while you walked to the gas station.’ Her smile widened.
‘What was the last thing you ever said to me?’
Her smile faded. ‘I asked you to name our daughter Violet.’
‘The very last thing,’ Dad pushed.
Evelyn bit her lip, looking for the first time vulnerable. ‘I love you … both.’
Dad dropped from the couch onto his knees in front of her.
‘Was it all lies?’ Dad pleaded, not moving any closer.
‘No.’
‘You died …’ he said, a tear sliding down his face.
‘Yes.’
‘And now you’re back.’
‘Yes.’
He swallowed and stood up, still trying to appear indifferent. ‘For how long?’
‘I don’t know.’ And then Evelyn’s eyes seemed to lose their focus and she slumped to the ground, unconscious.
CHAPTER TWO
‘I am not bound to please thee with my answers.’
William Shakespeare
Things weren’t going in my direction.
After Evelyn first came to, she’d continued to pass out intermittently as we tried to answer Dad’s many questions.
After the fourth time she blacked out, Dad had taken her into his room and ordered her to rest.
That was three weeks ago.
She was still there.
I’d tried to explain everything to Dad, sat up with him, night after night, giving him various demonstrations of my power, but logic is a strong counter-agent to acceptance. Eventually I called in Griffin and Spence to help. Griffin had the ability to instil truth in a person as long as what he was saying was in fact true. After a few choice words, it became difficult for Dad to question him.
Spence hammered everything home with a showing of his glamour abilities, morphing into a number of different personas and settling on simply putting his hand on my shoulder and cloaking us both with invisibility. I couldn’t help but notice during his display that Spence’s power had grown significantly in the last few months.
Finally, Dad knew the truth.
His acceptance was closely followed by a demand to see Lincoln.
They sat across from each other at the dining table, Dad staring at Lincoln in a new – unfriendly – manner.
‘I welcomed you into my home,’ Dad said, threateningly. ‘Let you spend time with my daughter, despite the age difference. I thought we had an understanding.’
‘Dad,’ I groaned from my perch on the kitchen bench, but it was useless.
I’d expected Lincoln to be on edge or at least cautious. I was wrong.
He stared right back at Dad, sporting his own steely glare. ‘With all due respect, Mr Eden, I’ve been here many times and seen you very few. For the first two years I knew Violet, we were just friends who worked out together. I never encouraged anything …
more than friendship.’
Sadly true.
‘When I first met her, she was trying to put her life back together after the attack, though I only learned about that recently. Her world had been thrown upside down by that bastard.’ His hands fisted on the table. ‘It’s no wonder she was desperate to find a way to get control of her life. I helped give her some of that.’ He glanced at me as I paled, half expecting Dad to leap up and throw a punch in his direction. ‘And she did the rest.’
Dad flinched and glanced towards the hallway where Evelyn was eavesdropping. She didn’t look happy.
‘That is, in part, true,’ Dad confessed. ‘But I trusted you with Violet and I now hear you happily sent her, with an evil angel no less, to jump off a cliff in order to save your life!’
I had to give it to Dad, he did have a way of presenting things in an unfavourable light.
Lincoln’s composure didn’t falter. ‘I was unconscious and had no idea that she’d gone to embrace. I never wanted her to make the choice for me.’ His next words were heavy and slow. ‘I have to live with that for the rest of my life.’
Dad shook his head. ‘And so you should.’
I chose that moment to step forward. ‘Would you rather I was a different person, Dad?’
He broke his eye-lock with Lincoln to look at me.
‘Would you rather I had let him die? Chose my future over his life?’
Dad was silent.
I glanced in Evelyn’s direction. ‘That’s not something I could’ve lived with.’ I walked to stand behind Lincoln, the symbolism not lost on anyone. ‘I’ve made choices. Some I regret, some will haunt me forever. But leaping off that cliff to become who I was supposed to be, to save him – that’s one choice I will never regret.’
I couldn’t see Lincoln’s face, but his body was very still.
Dad eventually cleared his throat and stood up. He was far from ready to forgive and forget.
‘I hear what you say, Violet. But I can’t help but feel you’ve been forced into this world for the wrong reasons.’ He glared at Lincoln.
Lincoln stood up. ‘I understand your feelings, Mr Eden. I look forward to changing your mind about me one day. But until then, I can only give you my word that I value Violet as both a person and a Grigori. And …’ he looked at me briefly, ‘I’d do anything for her.’ And with that, he made for the door.
I followed him out to the lift. I’d expected him to be angry, ranting that Dad had lost his mind. But he was silent. Too silent.
I pressed the lift button. Lincoln didn’t look at me.
‘He just wants someone to blame. It won’t last,’ I said quietly, wishing I could be there for Lincoln the way I wanted.
He tried to say something, but closed his mouth again, as if he couldn’t speak, and shook his head.
‘Linc?’ I reached out, the tips of my fingers grazing his hand. The contact sparked the usual influx of soul-crushing hurt.
Lincoln gripped my hand and suddenly, without warning, pulled me into his chest and wrapped his arms around me so tightly it was as if he was trying to weld us together.
It was a rare display of raw emotion and an even rarer display of physical need. I held on to him just as tightly, neither one of us saying or doing any more. Just holding on. I breathed him in – sun and melting honey – my soul only craving for more.
We stood like that until the elevator doors slid open. Lincoln sighed and pulled away from me, his hand moving to my jaw as he did, his thumb smudging my cheek in that way I loved, his emerald-green eyes piercing into mine. Wordlessly, he stepped into the lift.
The moment the doors closed, my knees gave out and I dropped to the ground in literal agony. I gripped my chest and stomach as, from somewhere within, the magic that bound our souls was torn apart.
I didn’t even hear the door open behind me, but suddenly Evelyn was there, crouching beside me. I felt a tentative hand on my back as I tried to hold back the tears of pain.
‘Are you hurt?’ she asked, her voice sharp and fast. I could feel her tension as she looked around for an enemy.
‘No,’ I managed to say.
‘Then what?’ she continued, looking me over. ‘I don’t under–’ she broke off, looking at me, then the lift. ‘Lincoln? This is–’ she stopped again. Then, sternly, she grabbed me by the shoulders, hauling me to my feet.
‘Tell me that you two are not involved!’ She shook me. ‘Tell me you are not in love with your partner!’
I tried to swallow back the pain, the punishment for touching him. I started to shiver.
‘Answer me now! Are you sleeping with him?’ Evelyn said, giving me one more shake, forcing my head up to hers. Her eyes were blazing and boring into me.
‘No,’ I said, tears streaming from my eyes, partly from physical pain, partly from my heart. I knew why she was asking – it was forbidden for Grigori partners to start relationships – it caused some kind of negative response in our angelic components and the results were dangerous; at best the Grigori’s powers are weakened, at worst they are lost. But Lincoln and I were quite the opposite.
We were soulmates.
Our powers would become greater if we were together … But there would be other costly consequences that neither one of us wanted to bring about.
She kept her eyes on me as I tried to gain control. ‘But there is something, isn’t there? Between you two, something you’re not telling me.’
Her demand gave me what I needed to pull myself together and step out of her hold.
‘You know what, Mother, if you’re so clever, figure it out yourself!’ And with that I stormed passed her into the apartment.
Evelyn had made herself comfortable in our home, with Dad now sleeping in the living room and despite my efforts, she didn’t seem to be going anywhere.
It didn’t take a genius to see Dad was falling in love with her all over again. I tried to make him understand how awful she was – and he actually agreed with what I said, part of the time. Evelyn had lied to him for their entire relationship and he hadn’t forgotten that. But even so, his eyes tracked her around the apartment constantly.
The day after Lincoln’s visit, I spent the morning avoiding home and trying to run off some of the residual soul-ache his touch had left behind. I always felt a little better after a good workout.
When I got home I grabbed a bottle of water from the kitchen and noticed yet another cut-up newspaper in pieces on the bench. I held it up to Dad and shook it.
‘Has she explained why she keeps massacring these yet?’ I asked, joining him on the sofa. She had been destroying our newspapers daily and I kept finding international ones stuffed into the rubbish.
‘I don’t think it will go on for much longer,’ Dad said with a smile that spelled trouble. ‘I’ve shown her how to use the internet.’
Great, that explains why I can’t find my laptop.
‘We should just send her to a hotel or something. Griffin could arrange it.’ I’d offered this solution a number of times to no avail, but I was determined.
Dad just shook his head and gave his usual response. ‘She’s too weak. Whatever happened to her in the transition back … here – she can’t be on her own.’
I slumped against the pillows. ‘She’s probably faking the fainting spells. She doesn’t belong here, Dad.’
He sighed and put an arm around my shoulder for one of our traditional awkward hug moments.
‘Vi, I know what you’re saying. She’s made choices that we don’t understand or agree with, but I think we need to give her the chance to get well. Once she is, then … we’ll work out what to do.’
Yeah, right.
I pulled away from him. ‘I’ve gotta have a shower,’ I said, standing up.
‘I was hoping to see you in your dress tonight. You know, have a photo together or something.’
I shrugged. ‘I’m getting ready with Steph,’ I said, omitting the part about us meeting up at Hades.
‘She could’ve
come here. There was a time when she was here more than at her own home.’
I took a final sip of water and re-capped it. ‘It’s a bit crowded here already.’
Dad stood and took my hands in his, looking down at the bracelets that were covering my markings. ‘Any news?’
I shook my head. ‘Griffin’s in touch with the Academy daily. They’ve had some sightings but nothing concrete.’
In fact, it was as if Phoenix and Lilith had dropped off the face of the earth. But at the same time, I knew they hadn’t. Something was brewing. I could feel it – and it wasn’t a happy feeling.
‘You’re not “hunting” tonight, are you?’ Dad asked-slash-insisted.
I smiled. ‘Not tonight.’ I’d been given the night off for our school dance.
He kissed me on the top of my head. He smelled like Dad – shaving cream and aftershave.
‘She’s awake you know, if you wanted to say goodbye before you head off.’
He moved towards the dining table, where he had set up a makeshift office.
I laughed. ‘I’ll keep that in mind.’
CHAPTER THREE
‘Can you hear Destiny laugh as she tiptoes toward you? Destiny is heartless.’
Anonymous
The days ahead were full of landmark events, starting with the end of year dance that night, the Fenton art course starting the next day – yes, weekend attendance was expected – and on Monday, my official graduation.
I can’t say I was expecting great things from my graduation. There was no doubt my exam performance had been substandard. But I was at least proud I’d made it through to the end of high school. Plus, Steph’s speech would be a guaranteed highlight. She was valedictorian – and not afraid of saying, well … whatever came to mind.
It was the Fenton course that I was really looking forward to. I hoped those six weeks would be my stepping stone into the arts community and, all dramas aside, a chance for me to be normal.
Steph had bought me an incredible leather portfolio so large it would fit full canvases and all of my supplies. I knew that walking down the street with it would fill me with pride.