Ruined (The Seraphim Series Book 1) (25 page)

“Are we ready?” Lilliah's head shot up as far as it could with the restraints, trying to see who the voice belonged to.

A woman stood in the doorway; a door that hadn’t been there just a moment ago. This must be Ada Washington, Lilliah realised, trying to get a better look. The woman stood in her cloak. It was different from the others. Hers was decorated with gold around the edges and the hood was down. She was beautiful in a very sophisticated way. Lilliah decided she liked the way the woman had neatly piled her hair on top of her head. It wasn’t how she had imagined her to look at all.

“Take your places,” Ada commanded, walking into the room, her head held high and her eyes focused.

A cloaked figure followed closely behind. Benedict, Lilliah guessed, smiling. She felt safer knowing he would be involved with the spell. She knew that he didn’t want to return to The Cure, and she knew the only reason he had gone back was for her, to help her with the spell. She smiled gratefully, knowing she wouldn’t have been able to go through with it unless he had been the one doing the spell.

All the caped men and women stepped forward, forming a circle around her, their heads still bent. Ada joined the circle last, her eyes on Lilliah.

“This is it,” she muttered, taking another deep breath.
No going back now.

“From the sky above to the sands below,” Ada spoke clearly, her voice echoing in the silent room. “I ask the permission of the witches and warlocks who have come before us. Let me use the never-ending spirit, the ultimate power. I am your vessel.” All at once, every unlit candle in the room suddenly lit, giving the room a warm glow.

“Join hands.”

 Lilliah watched everyone in the circle surrounding her hold out their hands. She turned to watch Ada; her head faced her, but her eyes were closed.

“Memory lost and memory bound. Now replace what is found. From the depths of the fires below, release what cannot show.” Ada's body started to shake. Lilliah watched, unable to tear her eyes away. “Fire, water, earth and air, come together and—” Ada stopped talking, her body trying to gasp for breath.

“Seek da doom la shing so ma. Lees mener ta lee uns seem.” Ada's body shook, and she spat the words, her voice sounding deeper than it had just a moment ago. A few heads in the circle looked up, but no one moved. Was this supposed to happen? Lilliah kept her eyes on Ada as her body stopped shaking and her eyes opened. They were black.

“Leave now.” The voice was loud and deep and definitely was not Ada's. “Leave.”

Lilliah stared into the black eyes, fear creeping down her spine.

“What's happening?” Lilliah asked, looking around at the cloaked men and women surrounding her. They all started chanting something she couldn’t fully hear and didn’t understand. At first, she felt a buzz in her toes, nothing more than uncomfortable. The feeling grew and grew, creeping up her body.

“Oooh,” she moaned, gritting her teeth and pulling on the restraints. The chanting got louder and louder. Ada was thrashing about, but not in the same way, and speaking in tongues.

Lilliah's body felt as if it were on fire, burning from the inside. “It hurts,” she whimpered, her body lifting from the stone. Floating in the air. The fire inside her rose until it reached her head, and it kept building and building. She didn’t want to scream. Clamping her mouth shut, she tried to focus on anything but the pain. The chanting got louder. She tried to focus on the words, tried to understand what they were saying, but it was no use. The burning continued to pulse through her body. She could feel little beads of sweat dripping down her face.

“It'll be over soon. It'll all be over soon.” She wasn’t sure whether she had said the words out loud. She didn’t care.

“Stop now or burn. Your souls will be damned to the fires of Hell!” Ada fell to her knees, the deep, menacing voice booming above the chanting, which didn’t stop.

“STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP!” The voice shouted over and over, clear and defined. Ada shot back. Her face tilted to the ceiling, black smoke pouring out of her and filling the room. The burning inside Lilliah stopped. She lifted her head to stare around the room. The black smoke slowly disappeared. Was this it? Was it over?
This isn’t half as bad as I imagined,
Lilliah thought, relieved.

“No one move. It's not over.” Ada panted after the blackness had cleared. “Whatever you do, do not break the circle.” For a moment, no one moved or spoke, not really sure what to do next.

Lilliah looked at Azrael. He was still there, arms folded yet ready to pounce if he thought anything was going wrong.

“Lilliah,” a voiced hissed from the other side of the room. Her head shot in its direction, not sure who had said it.

“Who said my name?” she asked, not sure whether it was part of the spell.

“Your name? No one said your name, Lilliah. What did you hear?” Ada pressed urgently, still on her knees.

“Someone said my name,” Lilliah repeated.

“Lilliah,” the voiced hissed again, this time stronger and closer.

“It said it again.” She panicked, trying to pull her hands away. “What is it?”

“What can she hear?” Azrael demanded, stepping forward.

“Azrael, stay where you are. You cannot enter the circle!” Ada shouted, her eyes darting around the room.

Lilliah stayed focused on Azrael, not daring to look anywhere else.
Did it go wrong? Is this supposed to happen?

It started with her hands, then her legs. Before she knew it, her whole body was violently shaking and she couldn’t stop it. She had no control of her own body.

“What's happening?” She could hear Azrael demand, but she couldn’t answer him. She couldn’t control her body as it thrashed, a fire burning in her stomach, ripping her from the inside.

“Lilliah.” The voiced laughed mockingly, sounding as if it were standing next to her, whispering in her ear. “You stepped into the depth. You won’t come out.”

She could feel its breath on her neck. There was something here. She wanted to scream for help, to tell them what she was hearing, but she couldn’t. It was impossible for her to speak. The pain was unbearable, as if someone were crushing her head with both hands, while at the same time reaching into her chest and holding her heart. She tried her hardest to keep looking at Azrael.
There's someone here!
she screamed in her head.
Please help me!
No matter how hard she tried, the words wouldn’t come out of her mouth. Nothing did.

“Something is wrong. Stop this, Ada!” she could hear Azrael shout. She could see him almost pleading with Ada, who was not standing up.

“No. This is okay. I think this is working. Please calm down.”

“You think! You think?” he roared. “I’ve warned you, Ada. If she is harmed in any way, I’ll kill you all. I'll . . .”

She was sure he hadn’t finished, but she couldn’t hear anything. She could see his mouth moving, but nothing was coming out. She had lost her hearing, she realised. Her body was still moving of its own accord, the pain still building.

“You want to remember who you are? Then break down the walls separating you from it,” the voice hissed into the silence.

What walls?
She wanted to scream. As quickly as it had started, her body stopped thrashing. She lay motionless on the stones, the unbearable pain still inside of her with no way of releasing it.

Her head fell to the side. She could see Azrael looking at her. The pain she was feeling was written all over his face. He was shouting something at her, but she couldn’t hear what he was saying. She watched as he ran towards her, but he was thrown back, into a wall. As quick as he was down he was back on his feet and trying again, only to get knocked back a second time. He couldn't get to her. Slowly, her body was lifted off the stone. She was hanging in mid-air as far as the ropes would allow.

Please let this stop.
She silently sobbed. She'd break down any wall. She’d do anything to make the pain stop.

“Fight through the pain,” the voice hissed again. The burning in her stomach intensified. Everything was going dark. She was losing her sight. Panicking, her eyes darted around the room and landed on Azrael. His worried eyes were the last thing she saw before everything went black.

She wasn’t sure how long she had been in the darkness. It could have been minutes or hours, she didn’t know. She just knew her body couldn’t take much more of the pain.

“Dig deeper and remember. Walk through the fires.”

Who are you?
she screamed in her head. Could it hear her? The voices were in her head, so she guessed yes.
What fires? What wall?
she screamed again, needing a way to vent her pain.

“You know who I am.” Red eyes appeared in front of her in the dark, the same red eyes that quite possibly belonged to Lucifer.

She tried to scream, she tried to move away, but she couldn’t. She was being dragged away from the darkness, pulled back to life. The red eyes were still staring at her.

“Lilliah, can you hear me?” She recognised the voice. It was Benedict's, but she still couldn’t see him.

“Get her out of this, Benedict! What the hell's wrong with her?” Azrael’s voice was close, and he was angry, angrier than she had ever heard him.

Azrael, I’m trying to get to you!
She wanted to scream, but it was useless. He couldn’t hear her.

“You promised she'd be okay! You promised me nothing would happen to her!”

“I don't know what’s wrong, Azrael! I'm trying,” she could hear Benedict plead before he started muttering words she couldn’t understand.

“Well, try harder,” Azrael hissed back.

The red eyes were getting farther and farther away as she was dragged towards the light and back to Azrael.

“No!” the voice seethed, getting closer and closer as it ran towards her, colliding just as she was pulled out of the dark.

Azrael held Lilliah in his arms. Her limp body was no longer floating in the air, but she still wasn’t awake and she still wasn’t responding.

“Why isn’t she awake?” Benedict stood close by, his eyes tired from all the magic he had just used.

“Give her time, Azrael. We don't know what she's been through.” It was Ada who spoke first, nervously stepping forward. The other members of The Cure were all milling around, unsure of what to do or say, and not wanting to say anything to piss Azrael off any more than he already was.

“This is your fault!”

Ada stopped, standing taller as Azrael broke the ropes and stood, Lilliah still in his arms.

“If she doesn’t wake up from this, no amount of magic will save you. I'll hunt every single one of you down and kill you all.”

“Azrael, please. She'll be fine,” Ada tried hesitantly to reassure him.

“Azrael, look. She's stirring,” Benedict cut in, realising how close Azrael was to killing everyone in the room.

“Lilliah.” Azrael tried setting her down on the floor. “Get me something to put under her head!”

“Here, take my cape,” Benedict offered, kneeling down beside them.

“Lilliah, can you hear me?”

“She's walking through the fire.”

Azrael frowned, moving her hair away from her face. “Angel?”

“She's walking through the fires.” A deep voice laughed.

“Move away from her,” Benedict commanded, slowly backing away. “Ada, come here now!”

“No.” Azrael leant closer. “Lilliah, angel, open your eyes. Please.”

“Your Lilliah isn’t here anymore. She’s walking through the fires.” Her eyes shot open. Blood-red orbs stared back at him.

“What does that mean? What have you done with Lilliah?” he demanded, moving away as he stared into the stranger’s eyes.

“I’ve told you. She's walking through the fires. Of course you wouldn’t know anything about the burn of Hell, would you, Azrael?” Slowly it stood up, its movements rigid and jerky.

“Lucifer?” he whispered, still on his knees. It couldn’t be. “This isn’t possible.”

“I'm glad you remember your place, Azrael. I know you've been here pretending to be a god while I’ve been burning,” he spat, scanning the room. Lilliah's blonde hair swayed behind him. “So this is the mighty Cure. The scum that seems to be basking in our shadow!”

“Bring her back to me.” Slowly, Azrael stood, his hands fisting.

“She'll be here when she's good and ready. Don't you worry about that.” Half the members of The Cure were frozen with fear, while the other half were trying to make their way to the door. Even Ada had been slowly backing away. Everyone apart from Benedict was slowly backing away; he was heading for the top of the altar. Azrael saw him grab Ada’s arm, stopping her from escaping.

“Where is she?” Azrael demanded again, turning back to Lucifer.

“You really have been a god among mortals, haven’t you, Azrael? And Michael’s daughter? Tut-tut.” Azrael could see Benedict whispering in Ada's ear. He had a plan.

“What do you want with Lilliah?”

“What do
you
want with little Lilliah is the question?” He laughed. “Do you really think Michael will let you back in? After you've spent years planning to kill the apple of his eye? Come on now, Azrael. You’re smarter than that.”