Grounded ~Book Four of Winged~

Storming

Etheriel

"She's fine, well, she is still having nightmares, but she is fine." Dominic reassures me as I question him over and over again about how Trinity is doing. I worry about the nightmares since I'm not there to hold her at night. "Did you guys put the body up on the hill at the tree?" Dominic questions, changing the subject.

"Yeah, so now we are waiting for him to contact us." I reply and watch Dominic closely. He is acting strange lately. He is more restless and finicky than usual.

"How do we know that he hasn't sided with the Demons yet? He could be helping them now and if he is then he isn't going to help get Nathan and he is just going to try and kill us like the rest of the Demon race." Malachai questions. Another thing that I worry about is Nathan. He has been in Hell longer than Trinity was in Hell, that's over a year in Hell time. I don't think we are going to be able to get him in time.

Trinity

"T-Trinity..." My eyes adjust to the dark and I turn and look at Nathan. I drop down next to Nathan and he looks worse than the last time I saw him. He is shaking violently and is drenched in his own sweat. He barely has enough strength to use the wall to pull him into a sitting position, leaning against the wall. He doesn't open his eyes and has a pained expression on his face.

"Nathan." I whisper and get closer to him. He is pale and is burning up. "Tell me how to get you out of here." I beg and pull him to me easily. He shakily grips onto my shirt.

"Y-Y-Y-You... You can't. H-H-He will t-trap you and u-use you t-t-t-t-to get Eli b-back from the p-pit." He can barely talk and he opens his eyes and looks up at me. His eyes are extremely bloodshot and dilated and there is a ring of red around his pupils.

"He figured out a way to get Eli back?" I question and he slowly licks his dry cracked lips. His wings twitch rapidly behind him and I watch as a feather falls off and slowly drifts to the ground.

"Y-Yes... He n-needs you because you're t-t-the only N-N-Nephilim-Demon m-mix alive." He suddenly groans in pain and grabs his chest. I hold him tightly until the sudden pain seems to pass. "O-Only a H-H-Human can enter the pit, b-but only a Demon can take a soul out of the p-p-pit. H-Humans can't enter the pit without b-becoming l-lost and d-dying in the pit so y-you have to have an A-Angelic part to you so y-you can n-navigate and be stronger t-than a normal Human." A metal door screeches open and footsteps come down the hall. It's all too familiar. Nathan's eyes flicker to the window in the door and then at me as he tosses aside the chunk of concrete that he was using to make himself bleed.

"Y-you can't let him catch you. You're the k-k-key to win the war." He starts mumbling in a different language and the door opens to the cell. I turn and see Sammael enter and immediately look directly at me. He quickly lunges to grab me, but everything goes black before his hand can close around my arm.


I wake with a start and immediately Zerach sits on the side of the bed and brings me to him. He carefully gets onto the bed with me and holds me. I'm the key? How? Nathan's words echo through my head.

"I'm the key..." I mumble and Zerach leans away slightly and looks down at me.

"What?" He questions and pushes hair, which I did not know was in my face since it is pitch black, away from my face.

"Nathan said I'm the key to win the war." I say sleepily, going in and out of consciousness. Zerach pauses and then pulls me closer without saying anything.


"Trinity... Hey, Trinity..." I roll over and barely open my eyes to look at Zerach who is crouched next to my bed, waking me up.

"Yeah...?" I mumble and slowly sit up. Zerach carefully lays me back down.

"There is a break in the storm... I'm going to go out and get some more food. I won't be gone long." I nod and roll over. I barely register the door opening and shutting when Zerach leaves before falling asleep again.


Thunder booming above the house startles me awake and I sit up quickly. I look around for Zerach and only see lit candles scattered around lighting the dark room. I hear rain hammering down on the roof again and I get up. Where is Zerach? How long has he been gone? I go to the door and open it a bit before the wind takes me by surprise and forces the door open more. Rain sprays in and I can't see five feet out the door from how hard the rain is coming down.

"Zerach!" I yell, but I doubt he can hear me over the rain. I struggle to close the door and then go grab a hoodie, pulling it down over my head. I go to the door and step outside. I can barely shut the door. "Zerach!" I fight against the rain, making my way toward the beach. I'm already completely soaked. I trip off the wooden walkway because I couldn't see where it ended and I fall into the sand. The rain beats down on me and I slowly get up to my feet. It's the first time that I have ever felt cold on this island. I stumble down the beach looking for Zerach.

"Zerach!" I call out again. I can't hear anything over the rain so I doubt he can. Several bolts of lightning strike and a second later thunder booms loudly overhead. I continue down the beach and when I near the part of the beach that completely turns into sharp jagged rocks, I think I see something. I squint through the rain and carefully make my way towards the silhouette I see.

"Zerach?" I yell and wipe my face. It's a person sitting on a large boulder. They turn toward me and suddenly they are gone. I spin around and sudden thunder startles me and causes me to slip on the rock I am standing on. I cut my palm and I'm pretty sure that I sliced my leg open too. I make my way out of the rocks and back down the beach toward the house. I go to the waterfall and search around.

"Zerach!" I yell and glance down at my leg which is in fact bleeding a lot from a deep cut. I walk around the spring toward the smallest part of the river and wade through it to the other side. The water level of the spring is way higher than it was before. I go further into the woods, further than I have been before. I yell Zerach's name again. What was he doing on that rock and why did he disappear when he saw me? Where did he go? I come across a few downed trees and I either have to walk around them because they are too large or climb over them. A branch falls from a tree and right in front of me. I look up and step over it, calling for Zerach again.

"You're bleeding." I spin around and don't see him. "What happened?" I look up at where his voice came from and see him standing up in a tree. His wings are out and drooping slightly soaked in water. He appears in front of me and immediately pulls me to his warm body and shields me with one of his wings.

"You're going to catch a cold if you stay out here." He begins to quickly lead me back toward the house. As soon as we get back inside, he disappears and reappears with a towel and starts drying my hair. I stare up at Zerach as he carefully dries my hair. "You should take off your wet clothes." He says bluntly and I blink and he looks into my eyes, tilting his head.

"Oh, sorry." He goes to my stuff and gets dry clothes for me, bringing them to me. I smile and go to the bathroom to change. When I come out of the bathroom, Zerach brings me hot tea and makes me sit on the couch. He grabs some blankets from the storage closet and wraps them around me tightly.

"You look nice and warm now."