Page 100 of Into the Abyss
Amalia
“Help with what, dear?”
When the voice spoke from the shadows at theback of the cave, I nearly jumped out of my skin. Straining myeyes, I tried to see who’d spoken, but I didn’t spot Caim until hestepped away from the wall almost a hundred feet in front of me.The shadows hugging his body like a second skin caused me togulp.
Until recently, I’d had nothing to do withthe fallen, but I’d heard enough about them to know I preferred tokeep my distance from them. I didn’t get any bad impressions fromCaim. Mostly he projected amusement, yet he still unnerved me.
Was he somehow capable of hiding hisemotions from me? I knew so little of the angels that it could be apossibility. Raphael came across as indifferent to almosteverything, with a bit of boredom mixed in, but Caim, for all hissmiles, was trickier to figure out. And why was he here when theothers were gone? Had Caim turned against them like he’d turned onLucifer to fight for Kobal’s side?
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” hemurmured.
“You didn’t,” I lied and badly.
He smiled at me, but it didn’t reach hisonyx, rainbow-hued eyes. The tips of the spikes on top of his wingscaught what little glow remained from the dying fire and reflectedit. Those spikes could skewer me in less than a heartbeat. I itchedto open a portal and plunge back into the Abyss, but if the otherswerestill alive, he might know where they’d gone.
“What do you require help with?” heasked.
“Where are the others?” I was proud my voicecame out stronger than I’d expected.
“They’ve gone to speak with your Faulted.They left me behind in case you and Magnus returned while they weregone.”
“No,” I moaned. “That’s too far; it willtake too much time for me to reach them.”
Caim’s eyes flashed to the bites on my neck,and his smile vanished. “Where is Magnus?”
“The horsemen ordered him taken away, andthe jinn took him to the ruins. Then the ruins collapsed, and now,I’m not sure where he is!” I blurted. “Iknowhe’s stillalive; I feel it through our bond, but I don’t know if he’s buriedunderneath it all, if he somehow managed to get free, or if he’ssomewhere else entirely!”
By the time I finished speaking, I couldbarely contain my mounting terror. I took a deep breath to helpcalm me, but the longer Magnus stayed in the Abyss alone, the moresomething might happen to him.
“The horsemen?” Caim inquired.
“Yes, the jinn brought Pride, Lust, andSloth into the Abyss. Pride killed…” I had to stop to swallow thelump in my throat before I continued. “He killed my mother.”
Caim blinked at me before tilting his headto the side and running his gaze over me. “I will return to theAbyss with you and help you get Magnus away from them.”
I had no idea how to respond. Did I daretrust a fallen angel when I’d felt the distrust of the otherstoward him?
Then, I realized one thing—I didn’t have achoice. Even if Caim flew me to the Faulted, it would take moretime than I was willing to spend on Earth to get there, and Icouldn’t send him to retrieve the palitons while I returned to theAbyss.
I might never get this chance to bring helpback to the Abyss again.
Caim continued to study me in thatunnerving, bird-like way of his. “Do you not trust me?” heasked.
No.But I bit the word back as Isought to figure out a solution to my problem.
Then, I felt a slip in the humor heprojected. A twinge of sadness slipped through his emotions beforehe smiled at me, but I still felt the sadness behind his smile. Hecouldn’t keep his feelings from me, but somehow, he was better thanthe others at suppressing them most of the time.
His sadness tugged at my heart, and I foundmyself softening toward the perplexing angel. He couldn’t fake thatfeeling, no matter how hard he tried. It was impossible to fakeemotions. He wanted… no, heneededto be trusted. He wasonce as golden as Raphael, once one of the elite, and now he wasthe one left behind to wait in caves.
He was trying to atone for his past; maybethe others didn’t see that yet, but I did.
“I understand your distrust of me,” Caimsaid. “But remember almosteveryoneon Hell, Earth, Heaven,and your Abyss want me dead far more than you.”
I almost protested his words, but there wasno reason to lie to him when we both knew the truth.
“Right then,” I said firmly. “Here’s whatyou have to know.” I filled him in on the scene I’d left behind andwhat he could probably expect if he returned with me. “Would youstill like to help me?”
His grin revealed all his teeth as heskipped away from the shadows and toward me. Watching a fallenangel skipping across the open space may have been one of thestrangest things I’d ever seen, but somehow it fit this peculiarbeing. As he skipped, both his index fingers swung back and forthin front of him like he was composing a song only he couldhear.
