Page 31 of Into the Abyss
“And you are an empath like the faewere.”
I couldn’t tell if this was a statement fromCaim or a question, but when he stared at me and the silencestretched on, I answered him. “Ah, yes, I am.”
And from what the other Faulted told me, myempath ability would amp up once I came into my immortality. I waslooking forward to finally being immortal, but I dreaded theincrease of my empath ability. My ability was already stronger thanwhat the other Faulted possessed. The idea of it becoming worsefrightened me, but I would cope with it; I had no other choice.
“Are all the Faulted empaths?” Magnusasked.
I contemplated how to answer this. I had toprotect my kind and keep them safe, but I could feel their growingtrust in me and their lessening hostility. “To some degree,” Isaid. “Do you plan to harm the jinn?”
“I plan to do whatever is necessary to savemy friends,” Magnus replied honestly. “I will destroy anyone whostands in the way of that.”
My parents were involved in this, and so wasmy uncle, but I’d dug myself into this mess when I took Magnus intothe Abyss; I couldn’t distance myself from it now. If I did, then alot of those here could die, along with many other futureinnocents.
Looking around the cave, I gazed at thenumerous faces trapped in the Abyss. There had to be something Icould do to help them while making sure none of the jinn were hurt.We couldn’t save Mara, but there might be others wecouldrescue, and I refused to walk away from that.
Plus, if I remained involved in this, maybethere was a chance I could talk the jinn into freeing theircaptives. At the very least, I should be able to ease some of thehostility between the two sides. The jinn were devious, but we wereloyal to each other, and though they still saw me as the baby, theymight listen to me.
“The jinn have also chosen to side with andfollow the horsemen and Astaroth. The craetons can’t be allowed towin this,” Corson said. “We’ll all be dead then.”
“We have leaders amongst us, but the jinndon’t do well with following others or orders from anyone outsideof the jinn. They may have aligned with the craetons, but theyaren’t following them,” I replied. “If it suits the jinn, they willbreak the alliance.”
“And do you think you can get them to breakit?” Magnus asked.
“No,” I answered honestly. “They see me asthe baby and as someone who doesn’t understand the way things workwith them, but I might be able to get them to listen to me aboutwho they have trapped in there now. No matter what happens in theAbyss though, you must remember the Faulted only seek to live inpeace.”
“And they will be allowed to continue doingso while they remain peaceful,” Corson said, and I believedhim.
Besides, the Faulted were extremely wellprotected where they resided. Anyone who tried to attack them wouldregret it.
“The scrolls detailed demon history for overfifty thousand years, I didn’t get the chance to read them all, butI never saw any mention of a fae and jinn who were Chosen,” Magnussaid.
“Some say the pairing happened a hundredthousand years ago; others say it was a couple hundred thousandyears ago,” I said. “But no matter how long ago it was, it didoccur, and the jinn line has had Faulted in it ever since. Some ofthe jinn call us the Fae-aulted.”
“Fae-aulted,” Erin murmured as her gaze raninquisitively over me. “Amazing.”
“The Faulted often remained in the shadowsof the jinn; far preferring to allow their brethren to do what theymust rather than get involved. Since being freed, and I’m surebefore they were locked away, most of the jinn see the Faulted asweaker and needing protection. But the Faulted don’t want to beprotected, and we’renotweaker. However, the jinn aren’tcomplete monsters, we are all very close. The jinn are not thehorsemen or the fallen—”
“Careful, you’re about to make the mistakeof lumping all fallen angels together,” Caim said and grinned at meas he ruffled his wings. “Some of us are different.”
“Youare different,” Raphael said.“The others are too far gone in their madness to see beyond theirmission to destroy us all and enslave the human race.”
Caim lifted his hand to admire his nails.“Perhaps, one day, some of our siblings will come around.”
“They are not our siblings, not anymore, andI would not hold out hope for that.”
Caim blew on his nails and buffed them onhis shirt. “I think there is much hope to be found in thisworld.”
Raphael frowned at him while confusion anddisbelief drifted from the others. I was struck with the impulse tohug the fallen angel. I didn’t get a sense of much emotion fromCaim, but something about his words rang true.
“Okay, so the jinn can ensnare people,” Erinsaid. “Some jinn are Faulted and empaths, and you can fly—”
“I can’t fly,” I interrupted, “and neithercan my fellow jinn.”
“But I was there. Isawyou all floatout of the gateway,” she said.
“We can levitate.” Placing my hands at mysides, I held my palms over the floor and pictured my feet risingoff the stone. A small wave of power issued from my palms and myfeet lifted a few inches off the ground. “I can do this, andcontinue to go upward, but I’m not like an angel, I can’t soar overtreetops or navigate. I can float over short distances, but most ofthe time, because of my fae blood, it’s faster for me to run. Toescape Hell, it was fastest for us to float out as it was the mostdirect route, and we avoided much of the chaos raining down.”
Erin’s eyes were huge as she watched mesettle back on the cave floor. “But seeing you do that makes meunderstand where humans got the idea of a jinni being able to fly,”Erin murmured. “What about the magic lamp?”
