Zora shrugs, clearly not caring too much about the significance.
My mind starts racing as I move back to my chair. I wonder if I can give myself wings to fly? I also wonder how deep Zora’s powers go and if they are completely dark, or if she held onto anything light when Pyke first juiced her up?
I would find those things out, but I ask her something that’s actually more pressing. “There’s going to be a battle with Kymaris. Will you fight with us?”
Zora’s eyes come to mine, and the sparkle that had been there talking about wings and flight dies. “It’s not my battle.”
“No, but it’s mine,” I say, hoping she’s accepted a bit of the sisterly bond on some level. “And I’m asking you to help. You have powers, and we need every bit we can muster.”
Zora drops her half-eaten croissant on her plate, then wipes her hands with a napkin. “Finley… I don’t know what my powers are. I don’t know much of what I can do other than fly and apparently communicate with you telepathically.”
“How is that possible you don’t know how to use your powers?” I ask.
“There wasn’t a lot of time to practice anything. Amell didn’t teach me much other than flying and some protection stuff. But I can feel I have something strong inside of me. I just don’t know if it would ever help.”
“But would you help if you could?” I ask. “Because Kymaris is your enemy, too, no matter how much you might not think you have a dog in this fight.”
“Dog in this fight?” she asks in confusion.
“A stake in the outcome,” I clarify, and she nods in understanding.
“I’ll consider your request,” she says, and I can tell that’s all she’s willing to commit to at this point. But that’s okay. We still have a little over two weeks for me to work on her, and I’m going to make it a priority that we figure out her powers.
“Zora,” I say softly, needing to know something else that could be a bit delicate. “Where does Amell really stand? Is he evil? Will he truly fight beside Kymaris? And if he had to make a choice between you and Kymaris, what would that choice be?”
“I don’t know,” Her tone says Amell is a puzzle that she’s never really tried to figure out. “It’s never been important to know where he stands with Kymaris as she’s been in stasis and then gone.”
“It’s important now,” I point out.
“It’s also moot, as I’m here and he’s in the Underworld. But make no mistake… he’s as dark as they come. He’s an original Fallen. He’s second in command under Kymaris, so I have to believe his loyalty is strictly with her. He’s known her thousands upon thousands of years. He’s known me for only twenty-eight.”
“But he clearly cares for you.” I need her to focus on the good in him.
“Care and loyalty are two very different things,” Zora says, and yes… that succinctly describes the dilemma with Amell. I make a mental note that when this all goes down, we probably need to keep Zora away from him. I’m not sure I could bear to witness her pain if he turned on her, because while she keeps emotions cool where he’s concerned, I have to believe that there’s more to how she feels about him than what I’m seeing simply because she’s a human.
And as I’ve been taught by Zaid and even Boral, evil can become good.
I glance down at my watch again and curse. “Crap… it’s about time for us to go.”
Zora nods. She pushes her chair back, but, before rising, she says, “You don’t really want to go, do you?”
I blink in surprise. “You mean to One Bean?”
“Yeah, to One Bean,” she confirms. “I mean… it’s your coffee shop. You’ve told me about all your hard work to make it to ownership, and how much you loved it. It’s on the verge of being ready to re-open, and yet I sense that you just don’t want to be bothered with it.”
Now, that is uncanny, because I have done nothing but speak in glowing terms of my business and how well Rainey has done putting it all back together for me so I could concentrate on the prophecy.
It must be an identical twin thing—her being able to read emotions I’m keeping down deep—and I need to make sure I never forget that I might not be able to hide things from Zora if it ever came down to needing to.
But she asked me a question, and I’m going to give her an honest answer as I stand from my chair, too. “I love One Bean, don’t get me wrong. But… it’s just with the prophecy now being my priority, I don’t have a lot of room for it. My life is so different now, I’m going to die soon most likely, and—”
“Die,” Zora exclaims, her face paling.
We have not discussed this in detail, but now I need to fill her in. “A seer in Faere said I’ll have to bear a sacrifice to thwart the prophecy. The prevailing theory is that it means my life.”
Zora stares at me a long while, before shaking her head. “How can you be so cavalier about it?”
“I’m not,” I say, taking a step toward her. I grab her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “I’ve just accepted it.”
“You make it sound so easy to die,” she says, her gaze moving off to look out over the city. “I don’t think I could be that brave.”
I glance at my watch one more time, and we might be a little late. “It’s a little easier to be brave about it when I know I’ll come back.”
“Because you’ll be reincarnated and Carrick will find you,” she surmises. When I first told her all about Carrick, I told her everything, including about Rune’s curse.
“That’s how I’m brave, Zora,” I assure her. “Not from anything inherently strong inside. I know that death isn’t permanent for me, and maybe that’s why I was the one chosen to stop the prophecy.”
“But Rune could decide not to bring you back on a whim,” she points out.
I nod grimly, my chest constricting at the thought. It’s something I think about a lot. Rune thinks he’s torturing Carrick with my death each time he takes me, but, at some point, he might figure out the greatest torture is in not letting me come back.
Zora makes an observation I’ve repeated over and over again like a mantra. “That makes it more important than ever for you to stop this prophecy.”
“Yeah,” I agree as we head inside the condo. “I don’t want to come back into the world with Kymaris ruling it.”
I don’t like to think about it. What would my life be like if I was unsuccessful? Would Carrick and I be able to survive? Would we even be able to find each other in a world where Hell was now on Earth?
I push those thoughts out of my head as we gather our things and head down to Carrick’s limo. It’s a short ride to the shop, but he insisted on it so we could all ride together.
We exit the back when the driver opens the door… me, Zora, Maddox, Carrick, Titus, and Zaid. It’s a showing of friendship that we all came, because truly… this was a big deal for Rainey. While Zora knows my level of excitement isn’t where it should be, I resolve to put on a big, enthusiastic show for my friend.