Uriel: The Inheritance (Airel Saga Book Five)

Chapter IV

Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho—Present Day

ELLIE HADN'T THOUGHT IT was going to be so uncomfortable, bringing Airel back to her father's house. But it was. For both of them. She couldn't quite place her finger on why. Or perhaps I'm not ready to admit to what I suspect. "You all right, girlie?"

Airel looked at her with haunted eyes. "Sure."

Ellie chuckled. "You don't have to lie to make friends."

Airel wasn't amused. "I'm not making friends. I already have you." She looked around Kreios's library, up to the high crenellated stone walls and the coffered ceilings they supported. "This place has too much going on."

"What do you mean?"

Airel pointed to the blazing fireplace. "Did you light it? No. Neither of us did."

"And?"

Airel exhaled heavily. "I don't want to say."

Ellie walked to her side and touched her arm. "Hey. This is my dad's place. It's safe here. I promise. Okay?"

"Promises."

Ellie had to growl a little at that.

Airel turned around again, looking at the walls, the high wooden shelves holding volumes that were ten times older than she was, and scrolls, even. "There are ghosts here, Ellie. I feel them. The last time I was here, bad things happened, and Kim—"

Ellie could see that she was crying. She let her. She walked to a wingback chair near the fire and lounged on it, swinging a leg up over the arm and tucking her bright blue head into its deep corner. She listened to the crackle of the fire, burning wood for fuel, wood that was either never consumed or always miraculously replenished. What would be the difference?

Airel went on, speaking through her tears. "It's just that it's weird here now. Without them. Last time Michael was here, it was ... different. And Kreios ... do you know where he is?"

"Haven't a clue." Ellie nibbled a bit of dead skin from a fingertip and then spat it toward the fire. This dead skin thing had started happening again—in the past fifty or so years—and she figured she was starting to show her age now. In another couple hundred years, she might be aged enough in her appearance to be able to legally buy alcohol. Unless social mores changed by then. She had been given wine as a child quite often, though it was usually mixed with water. She snapped out of her reverie. "I imagine, though, that when he wants to show up, he'll show up."

Airel breathed, sitting down on the loveseat that faced the fire. She kicked off her boots and tucked her feet up under her and then changed the subject. "I wish I had coffee."

"You and me both. Or a cup of Earl Grey."

Airel grunted and fiddled with the seam of her jeans. "Thanks for breaking me out of my high tower, by the way. What on earth did you say to my mom that got her to agree to this little trip?"

"Oh, nothing. Just that 'the world's gone mad,' and, 'kids these days,' and then I nodded sympathetically with a couple of her assessments and told her I needed some time in Sun Valley with my bestie."

"Really. That was all it took? And you bought us three days?"

"Yeah. She seemed impressed with me. Well ... and my car." She was referring to her brand-new bright blue Toyota FJ 4x4. Ellie had told her when she first showed it off that she'd bought it because it went with her hair. "I guess she thought it was big and buff enough to be quote-unquote safe, and that it was part of the reason she figured you would be in good hands."