Page 21 of Into the Abyss
When he rested his hand on her shoulder, shelifted her tear-streaked face to meet his gaze. “Bring him back,”she implored and held the dead man toward Magnus.
“I can’t,” Magnus said.
“Why?” the woman choked out as snot streakedfrom her nose. “My life… it’s all… it’s beennothingsince Ilost Ricky!”
“Mara, listen to me, whatever is going onhere, it’s not real. Let him go and step away from him.”
“He’s real!” she wailed and held the mancloser. “He’s real!”
I could barely breathe as the woman’ssuffering battered me until I felt it as acutely as if it were myown. Weaving its way into me, her sorrow rattled my bones andcaused my legs to wobble.
Then, the man’s body faded to reveal therocks beneath him before he disappeared.
“NO!RICKY!” Mara screamed so loudher voice echoed off the rocks around us. “NO!”
Kneeling beside her, Magnus tried to drawher to him. She smacked his hands away as she kicked her feet.
Magnus sat back on his heels and held up hishands in a conciliatory gesture. “Easy, Mara, I won’t hurtyou.”
“Bring him back!” she screeched.
She tore at her hair until handfuls of itspilled from her fisted hands. Unable to handle anymore, I backedaway as blood trickled from her scalp.
Then, Mara vanished too.
CHAPTER 10
Magnus
I gawked in disbelief at where Mara had been in myhands before turning toward Amalia. I opened my mouth to demandanswers from her, but my words froze when I saw her face. Huddledin on herself, tears streaked her cheeks as she sobbedsoundlessly.
I didn’t think anyone could fake themelancholy radiating from her. Her eyes, which turned a vermillioncolor when she was impassioned earlier, weren’t just the color ofochre but they also held a gray hue I’d never seen in them before.It was as if the gray existed when she was so sad the ochre huealone wasn’t enough to convey this.
She was a jinni, they were as trustworthy asthe horsemen, but I found myself rising and going to her.Enveloping her in my arms, I held her while her tears wet my shirt.When my hand slid up to grip the back of her head, the silkenstrands of her hair slipped through my fingers. She clutched myback, drawing me closer until her tears subsided.
Jinn were the most manipulative creaturesever to exist, but this was no act.
Sheisdifferent from theothers.But how is that possible? Why is shedifferent?
My mind spun as I tried to figure it out,but the one thing I did know was that I wouldn’t allow this place,or her kind, to destroy her.
“I’m okay,” Amalia said after a couple ofminutes, but she didn’t release me, and though her tremors eased,her tears still fell.
“Can you handle this place?”
Silence met my question, and then sheinhaled a jerky breath. “Yes. I wasn’t expecting that. If somethinglike it happens again, I’ll be better prepared.”
“I think it’s going to happen often inhere,” I warned her.
“Yes. Yes.” She pulled out of my arms andwiped the tears from her eyes. “You’re probably right, but I’mfine.”
She was trying to convince herself more thanme. She could say she’d handle this, she could dry her tears andlift her chin, but the melancholy color of her eyes belied herwords.
A memory niggled at the recesses of my mindas her amazing eyes gradually shifted toward a more ochre color.There was something about those eyes and their shifting colors thatI’d seen… or heard… or maybe read before?
Read, I read it somewhere!
When the war with Lucifer was still wagingin Hell, I’d retreated from Kobal’s forces to work on strengtheningmy ability to conjure illusions. Over time, I became so adept atcreating illusions that I built them into realities. During thatperiod, I’d also spent a lot of time pouring over the scrollsdocumenting the history of demons and fallen angel children whoroamed the Earth.
