Page 4 of A Lost Light

“Alright folks,” she said with a no-nonsense tone that made it sound like she wasn't the least bit concerned, “Let's go jump into the questionable hole between realms!”

There were a few long glances, but no one voiced any objection as they approached the portal. When the others hesitated, Aahil rolled his golden eyes and threw himself through the opening to another world without a backward glance.

Andy sucked in a deep breath and her smile wobbled for an instant before she grinned even wider, as if by pretending to be happy, she could convince everyone else that there was no cause for alarm.

We all knew she was terrified. And yet, no one was going to call her out for her bravado. I floated over to her and brushed my ghostly fingers through the warmth of her cheek before sending myself home to my anchoring charm. It would be safer here until we got through the portal. The last thing I wanted was for the unstable magic of the space between realms to sever my connection to my charm, and leave me floating in darkness of nowhere.

If I had a body, I'd shiver at the thought.

I watched and listened from my cozy home, fighting the urge to sleep in the warm darkness so I could make sure things went well on the outside.

The others followed Aahil through the portal. Andy went last, giving the swirling, wavery oval another look and a little surge of extra magic to sustain it before wrapping her hand around my charm, sheltering me at her bosom. Then she stepped through as well.

It wasn't the smooth transition that one would expect from a portal in any other realm. The pocket world interfered and reacted with Andy's magic in different ways. Magic crackled in the darkness around us like looming lightning searching for a place to strike, in the brief moment before we stepped out onto solid ground once more.

Andy's heartbeat skipped and jittered a little before settling back down. It wasn't just hard on their magic. It was hard on their bodies. But I was relieved to see that everyone had made it intact.

We stood on angelic soil, looking out across the rolling blueish grasses that grew in the fields at the outskirts of the capitol city. In seconds, angelic guards materialized out of nowhere, probably summoned here by the swell of unauthorized portal magic.

“It's her,” one of the angelic guards said in a commanding voice as they all leveled swords and spears coated in “holy” magic at our group. “The dark witch the alliance in Magea is searching for.”

I flowed out of my charm and materialized between Andy and the guards, my form just a bit stronger here in my home realm, enough to let the glowing branches of light that made up my wings unfurl behind me, marking me as one of them. Magic rose around us in a wave—earth magic, elemental magic, fae magic,and the swirling darkness of nightmares and death—as all of Andy's people prepared to defend her. But our witch just pushed her wavy green hair back from her face and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Oh, so I'm a 'dark witch' now, am I?” She glanced around at the others. “Sounds edgy. But you'd think the lying assholes at the supernatural alliance would come up with something better, wouldn't you?”

Her absolute lack of reaction to the threat the guards posed seemed to break up some of the tension. She cocked a hip and reached up to pat Biz on the head as she spoke, like this was just any other day for us. “Well? Take us to your stuck-up high chorus. We need to talk, and I'm kind of in a hurry here.”

The angels encircling our group seemed to engage in some silent communication, probably trying to decide whether they should just kill Andy and her followers on the spot like they would any uninvited, potentially hostile intruder. I pulled on what limited magic I had to make myself even more visible in the soft afternoon light.

“As a citizen of this realm, I have the right to request a meeting with the high chorus. Even if you see us all as criminals, I am still warranted a trial before my people.”

The head guard scoffed. “You're dead, Elijah. The rules don't apply to you.”

It took me a moment to realize why he called me by name. At first, I thought it was simply because they knew me as the evil Lovell witch's companion. But no… I knew this male. Slowly, the memory came back to me. I had known him as a child, several years younger than me when I was alive. We were from the same small town outside the capitol, and we attended schooling and training together.

His name escaped me. But I recalled him all the same. He had once looked up to me like a big brother. Now I was dead, hadbeen for a very long time. And the little boy had become an adult, gone through the decades of training that it took to become a guardian of the realm, and looked at me like a tired elder, though the long angelic lifespan meant his face was still young and unlined. It was… unsettling.

“This is important,” I said, my voice softening with the weight of the memories of the life I'd lost. The years and the people that were taken from me. “Please take us to the High Chorus. We come in peace. But this is a matter that affects all the realms.”

I felt Andy's warm magic as she brushed her fingers through where my own fingers should be, as if she would take my hand. No doubt she could feel the sadness that threatened to overwhelm me. But I wouldn't let myself wallow. I wasn't the only person here who had lost decades—centuries,even—to the Lovells and their bestiary.

“I don't know if you all buy into the utter nonsense about angelic superiority and good versus evil,” I said to the angels around me, knowing my voice was haunting and hollow to the living, but speaking my truth anyway. “But I've seen evil, and Oleander Lovell isn't that. If anything, she is the only person who seems willing to stand up to the dark forces that threaten to subjugate the whole of Magea, and Planus after that.”

Andy stepped up beside me and spoke, her voice firm and her posture clearly stating that she was done wasting time. “The Supernatural Alliance and a cult of genocidal magic users are trying to take over the world. We're the resistance, I guess. And the angels can join the resistance, or you can all sit here on your asses, so assured of your superiority that darkness overtakes the other realms, and you lose any and all influence you ever held there.”

Her gray eyes were steely as she stared down the head guard. It was difficult to guess whether these guards with their flowing locks, and their glowing wings, and their holy swords trulybelieved all of the propaganda our society filled our minds with, or if they knew on some level that it was all about keeping power and control over the other realms.

The head guard's eyes flicked to the side, sliding away from Andy's angry gaze. “We will take you to the High Chorus,” he said tiredly. “But there's no guarantee they won't kill you on sight.”

So, he knew—or at least suspected—the games our rulers played. And that maybe everything wasn't as simple as good or evil.

Andy nodded once, curt and impatient. “Finally. For fuck's sake you all like to keep those sticks firmly inserted in your asses, don't you?” She gestured at the nearby road. “Well? Lead on, oh, Holy Stick Carriers.”

The guard looked like he was regretting his decision. But with a head shake and a look of resignation, he gestured for the others to round us up and march us into town.

Chapter 3

Andy

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