Their message given, Scarface and Friendly disappeared in little plumes of white smoke, leaving the smell of sulfur behind.
The other one. Azazel? What other one? Ugh, they’re so confusing that they make studying for the SATs easy. Just let Chay come home.
***
Eighteen days. No word from Chay.
The demi-demons and Evils hadn’t been around. There were no fights, no demon sightings, and no attempts on my life. Even Rod and Jake stopped watching the house at night.
“It’s like nothing happened. They completely ignore us,” Muriel said one afternoon at lunch.
I glanced at Rod and Jake sitting at a table across from us. “I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or puts me more on guard. Maybe they’re just trying to get us to forget before they make their next move.”
“I agree with Milayna. I don’t think we should get too comfortable yet,” Drew said, tearing up a piece of doughy pizza crust. “I don’t think we’ve heard the last from Abaddon.”
“He’s never far from my mind.” I hadn’t forgotten, and I wasn’t letting my guard down. Abaddon and I still had a score to settle, and I wasn’t resting until I stood over his cold, lifeless body.
Train.
I sucked in a breath and gripped my plastic fork so hard it snapped. The image flashed quickly before my eyes. A train barreling down the tracks. I didn’t know what it meant. We didn’t have any train tracks around us. There wasn’t a station close by.
I can smell the exhaust… and something else. Something cleaner, fresher… cologne. Chay.
I stood up so fast my chair fell over with a loud bang against the tiled cafeteria floor.
Muriel put her hand on my arm. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know.”
Closing my eyes, I concentrated on the vision. I needed a landmark, a sign. Something, anything, that would tell me where Chay was. I tried to relax and will the vision to show me something else. But like always, it came on its own terms. When I wanted to see something, I didn’t.
Drew tossed his pizza crust down and leaned forward. “You’re having a vision?”
I shook my head, muttering a frustrated curse. “Just flashes of an image. Nothing I can use.”
“What was it?”
“A train. I think it… never mind. It was nothing.”
***
I see him standing in the distance. The turquoise water behind him, waves lapping at the white, sandy shore. The sun is high in the cerulean sky.
His back is to me. I call his name, but the sound is lost in the wind. I walk toward him, calling his name again. He turns. His face is void of any emotion, masked, closed off. I stop walking. Have I made a mistake? Maybe he doesn’t want to see me.
He raises his arm, holding out his hand to me. A smile lights up his face. I laugh and run to him. He catches me against him, lifting me up in a hug, twirling me around. When he stops, I slide down his body to the ground.
The water laps at our feet as we stare into each other’s eyes. He lowers his head and kisses me gently. I wrap my arms around his neck. This is right. This is where I belong. Where ever Chay is, that’s where I need to be. He lifts his head and moves his mouth close to my ear. He murmurs something. I strain to hear.
“What?”
“I said it’s time to come home, Milayna. Abaddon is waiting.”
My blood runs cold. I pull back and look at him, dropping my arms. I see the gray-faced demon looking back at me with black, lifeless eyes.
I turn and run. The sand shifts under my feet and I slip, catching myself with my hand. I look over my shoulder. The demon is gaining on me. I push myself harder, run faster. I can hear it calling my name.
“There’s nowhere to go, Milayna. He’ll find you. Hell waits.”
I look down and see the sand disappearing. It’s falling away beneath my feet, and I realize I’m not on a beach. I’m in an hourglass. The sand is falling from one globe to the next. My time is running out. The last of the granules swirl through the hole and I slip down with them, like water circling down the drain.
At the bottom… a yellow, glowing hole. The smell of burning flesh swirls though the air. Screams of the damned bounce off the glass walls of the hourglass.
Time has run out.
Bolting upright, I looked around. I was home, in my bedroom. Benjamin lay sleeping in his bed next to mine, snoring softly.
I pushed a sweaty lock of hair off my face and lay back on my pillow. The nightmare didn’t upset me. I’d had them every night since Chay left. Besides, any dream of Chay—even a nightmare—was a good dream.
My stomach clenched so hard that I doubled over and inhaled sharply. I tried to stay quiet so I didn’t wake Benjamin, biting my lip to keep from crying out. My head pounded. The pain so intense it felt like someone was jabbing me with a hot poker from the inside.
You hear me, don’t you, Milayna?
I squeezed my eyes closed against the stabbing pains in my head. “Yes,” I gasped.
I’m coming for you.
27
Prom
Six weeks. No word from Chay.
“Dinner was great. Thank you for inviting me.” Xavier folded his napkin and laid it neatly beside his plate.