“I’m not going to show any weakness in front of her or any of the Evils. Plus, I doubt there’d be a way for me to arrange my schedule so I wasn’t in any classes with either an Evil or a demi-demon. There’s only three months until graduation. I can stick it out until then.”
He leaned down and kissed me lightly. “We could arrange it so you and I would have more classes together.”
I bit my lower lip, thinking about that. It was tempting. “Sorry, but I’m not going to look like I’m running scared and need protection.”
“You’re too stubborn,” he said, shaking me gently.
I laughed at his scowl. “Yeah, and you love that about me.”
He grunted in response, and I laughed harder.
Wait, why did Chay sense I was in trouble? It was just a vision.
***
“Can I talk to you, Dad?” I sat on the arm of the chair where he was reading the newspaper.
“Of course, what’s up?” My dad set the newspaper on the side table. He slipped off his reading glasses and tossed them on top of the paper.
“I have a question about Azazel.”
“Shoot.”
“Well, you said after my eighteenth birthday, I would be immune to his powers. That as the most powerful demi-angel he wouldn’t be able to touch me. Right?”
“That’s right.”
“Is there any way he can get to me? I mean, could he use someone else?”
My dad leaned forward in his chair. His elbows rested on his knees, his hands falling between them. “What’s going on, Milayna?”
I looked at the floor, twisting my fingers together. For some reason that I didn’t understand, tears pressed the back of my eyes. I didn’t have anything to cry about. Nothing had happened but a few visions and a couple of threats from the hobgoblin duo, who were notorious troublemakers. Nonetheless, big, warm tears dripped from my eyes and rolled down my cheeks.
My dad didn’t wait for me to say anything more. He reached out and pulled me into an enormous hug. I felt small wrapped in his six-foot frame, like I had as a little girl. I laid my head on his shoulder and smelled the familiar scent of his spicy aftershave mixed with the slight smell of laundry detergent that lingered on his shirt.
We sat like that for countless seconds, maybe minutes. I looked around the family room. A bright, airy room, it was decorated in muted sage and yellows. My dad and I sat next to a small fire burning in the fireplace, family photos lining the mantle. His favorite chair smelled of softened leather and squeaked slightly when he moved. It was a room full of happy memories. Birthdays and Christmases were celebrated there, and the sights and sounds still resonated. I hated that those wonderful family moments now shared a place with memories of Azazel and the suffering he brought to my family, and everyone else’s.
I pulled back and looked at my dad. His face was pinched with worry. Lines fanned out from his eyes and a small frown pulled at his lips. “It’s just… well, the hobgoblins have been hanging around again, telling me things aren’t over. Shayla said the same thing at school today, and I’ve been having visions of someone trying to kill me,” I said in a rush. When he didn’t answer right away, I added, “I think.”
“Okay, I think we need to start over. Tell me what the hobgoblins said.”
“That ‘he’s coming.’”
“Honey, you know Azazel can’t—”
“I told them that he didn’t have any power over me, but then they said it wasn’t Azazel who was coming. When I asked who, they told me it was the one who would kill me. And then in gym today, Shayla told me it wasn’t over. That Azazel wasn’t finished with me.”
“What about the visions? Tell me about those.”
“I’ve had three. Instead of seeing someone else in my vision like usual, I see myself. There’s no one else in the vision. Well, that’s not true. There’s at least one other person, but I can’t see them. It’s like I’m seeing myself through their eyes. In the first one, I just saw myself talking to someone, my hands held toward them, palms out, like I was pushing them away. I couldn’t hear what I was saying. The second…” The tears started again. “Well, in the second, it looked like someone was trying to hurt me. They had a knife and raised it above my head just before the vision dissolved. In the vision I had today, I know someone was trying to hurt me because I could feel it. They were choking me. I couldn’t take a breath, my lungs burned, and I could feel their hands tightening around my neck.”
“Holy shit.”
I raised my eyebrows. It wasn’t often I heard my dad swear. It worried me that he did then. It scared me.
“What does it mean, Dad?”
“What does what mean?” my mom asked, walking into the room after putting my brother to bed.