Frosted Torment (Marked Mortals Saga #1)

Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

V incent’s mood quickly shifted to aggravation.

“My brother lost his way,” he said through clenched teeth. “Angels should watch over humans, but sometimes they wonder why you’re the chosen ones. It’s an ache that eats at them like a plague. They’d do anything to switch positions.”

His jaw ticked as his gaze seemed to drift through memories too painful to relive. My gut knotted like a warning. When he glanced back at me, his eyes reflected a well of sympathy.

Skepticism laced my words. “What could an angel do to change things?”

Vincent’s expression turned dark as he leaned in closer. His voice dropped to an intense whisper. “Some angels have the power to rewrite destinies, to alter the fabric of reality itself, but such acts come with a great cost.”

I picked at the bandages on my fingers when it dawned on me that whatever was happening was on a much bigger scale than I’d imagined. “Humans didn’t choose this life,” I reminded him. “Why would you care about us so much, then try to eliminate us?”

Vincent nodded in agreement. “Some angels don’t feel that humans are worthy of the choices they get.”

“Last time I checked, it wasn’t up to your kind to decide.” The disdain in my voice was evident as I rolled my eyes. “How are you even allowed to do things like this?”

He fixed his eyes on mine, unyielding and grave. “We’re not only messengers, Noa. We help keep order and we’re given gifts and the power to do that. We can change worlds, but angels take reckless chances sometimes.”

My face contorted in confusion at the implications of his words. “Because Lucifer wasn’t enough of a wake-up call?” I asked.

“He wanted to be in charge of it all. That’s a different story. Angels, in general, want to shake you and help you get your life together.” Vincent’s expression softened, but his words hung heavy.

“So we’re puppets. Great.” I shook my head in disbelief.

“Are you listening?” he bit out. Then, he stood up, his movements purposeful as he crossed the room to a bookshelf lined with old journals. Dust swirled in the air as he ran his fingers over the spines. He selected one bound in cracked leather. “We don’t control humans, Noa. We assist.”

“Vallen believes otherwise,” I retorted. Terror coiled in my chest like a slumbering beast.

Vincent returned to the couch and opened the book. Symbols filled its pages and stirred my mind. “He was noble once,” he explained, his voice tender. “And dedicated to protecting human souls before their journey here.”

“Is this yours?” I asked as he flipped to a section where two angels faced one another and their wings spread wide. They held up a bright golden ball.

Vincent nodded and continued, “I’d get the soul and whisper half of our knowledge into it. Then, Vallen would whisper the other half. He’d seal the soul?—”

“With a kiss,” I interrupted him, touching my top lip lightly. “My mom told me bedtime stories, but I thought they were folklore.”

He smiled at me as I ran my finger over the pages of information. “Yes,” he confirmed with a slight chuckle. “But not the way you’re thinking, Noa. Your lip could be genetic or environmental, but even that isn’t definitive.”

“I know.” My voice was soft, but my face turned red, and I lifted one shoulder. “That was the legend. So, what’s the truth?”

“Once a soul becomes attached to the body, the knowledge seeps in over the course of a human life,” Vincent shared. “It helps to guide your choices and assists you in finding your purpose.”

“It seems too simple,” I whispered with a tilt of my head.

“There’s no grand revelation here,” Vincent lectured. He closed the ancient book and brought it back to the shelf. He turned around and crossed his arms. “Vallen grew bitter and cynical.”

“What happens if a human isn’t given the secrets?” I blurted out without considering whether I truly wanted the answer.

His eyes flitted to Jossy and Lex, who sat engrossed in our conversation like they had never heard it before. He continued, “ Without the guidance of divine knowledge, that you call a conscience, humans become the worst versions of themselves. They’re lost and confused as they claw their way through this place.”

My knee bounced as I cradled my head in my hands, working to process it all. “Don’t you have a celestial HR department to help unhappy angels find new careers?” I glared at him. “It seems odd that he decided to play keep-away one day without any clear reason, like a spiteful child.”

Vincent shook his head with a weary sigh. “It wasn’t random or impulsive. Watching humans across eons wore on him. In his eyes, they had yet to evolve in their humanness.”

“Taking away a person’s conscience is worse.” My eyes turned to stone as I challenged him.

“That’s irrelevant,” he stated as he rejoined me on the couch. “The knowledge you carry has the power to reshape universal existence.”

I felt pressure building in my head and untied my bun. Rubbing my scalp, I squeezed my eyes shut. “My mom hinted at something similar in my vision.”

“There’s more,” Vincent revealed. Lex and Jossy both seemed to squirm at what was coming next.

“That’s not ominous,” I mocked, growing impatient with his storytelling.

“When your great-great-grandmother died,” Vincent drew out, “we learned she only possessed fragments of the secrets. Each woman passed them down until only one descendant remained to hold them all.”

“And here sits the last one,” I muttered, my palms held up in frustration .

“Yes,” Vincent confirmed. “But the secrets are too immense for an ordinary human mind to contain. It would rupture at the seams.”

I chewed my bottom lip, scrutinizing his stoic expression for any clue to his meaning. Vincent’s lips pressed into a taut line, his body coiled tight as a spring.

“Where are you going with this?” I inquired, as I arched my brow.

A shadow of uncertainty crossed his face before he answered. “It’s only a matter of time before you set off a bomb, destroying everything as you know it.”

The air left my lungs as I processed Vincent’s words. “How do we stop it?”

He shut his eyes and bowed his head. “We can’t. Our best option is to postpone it,” he told me, his voice barely loud enough for me to hear. “Nothing detrimental has happened yet because Vallen hid your soul in the Veil.”

A chill ran down my spine, and for a moment, the world seemed to spin around me. “I don’t have a soul?” I whispered, unable to believe the magnitude of what he was saying.

Vincent nodded. “We can get it back, but it will need participation on your part.”

A nervous laugh escaped me as I felt a sense of terror snake over me. Events of my life began to fall into place as I thought about my past and my current situation. I didn’t have a soul, but I still had most of the secrets since my mom died. They must have helped me in life to some degree. I remained calm, even though I was certain my face revealed a different emotion.

“What twisted carnival ride do you have planned for me next?” I asked .

Vincent hesitated before answering, uncertainty flickering in his multicolored eyes. I didn’t move or say a word. I rubbed my hands together, feeling like a pawn in a twisted chess game between angels and demons.

“With the help of Nevaeh’s granddaughter, Ena,” he admitted, “we can retrieve the secrets and then transport them back to the Veil.”

“If we perform the ceremony with precision,” Jossy interjected, “we have a chance to replace your soul at the same time, Noa.”

I stood up and paced in front of Lex with my stomach in knots. “I’m hearing too many maybes about this situation, and now you’re involving magic?”

“It’s spiritual.” Lex jumped up, taking me by my shoulders to face him. “This world connects Ena’s people and us as celestials. We assist Ena, so it’s possible for her to perform the ceremony,” he explained.

I stepped back from him and fixed my eyes on Vincent. “What happens if I die? If the bomb in me decides to go off?”

Vincent rose from the couch and walked over to look out a window above the front door and leaned one arm against it. “I don’t want any of you to think about that right now.”

“Too late,” I said with gritted teeth to his back. “What happens, Vincent?”

Lex gave my hand a reassuring squeeze, but I couldn’t bring myself to reciprocate. Instead, my face contorted, and I crossed my arms over my chest. I didn’t know what Vincent was holding back, but I would explode sooner than he imagined if I didn’t get an answer. Nothing happening with these secrets was good.

Vincent dropped his arm and turned back to me. His throat bobbed before answering, and I knew I wasn’t going to like what he was about to say.

“If you still hold the secrets and you die,” he started, “everything behind the Veil and the angels here on Earth vanish. You included, so it’s you that turns to mist. Everyone else becomes trapped here as your world becomes forgotten. It becomes uninhabitable. Feeling nothing. Knowing nothing.”

My arms dangled at my sides. “Oh my god. Children and babies, too?”

Vincent nodded, confirming my fears. “They will go mad, as they age with all the decomposition that comes with death, but they will never die. There would be no end for them, Noa, and the most horrendous torment anyone could go through.” He cleared his throat before continuing and said, “That is the punishment for my brother’s actions.”

I sat on the hearth in disbelief as grief began to wash over me. “Once again, a supernatural creature’s dumbass decisions are punishing humans.”

Vincent squatted down in front of me at eye level. “If we succeed in retrieving the secrets, but are unable to return your soul,” he continued in a voice meant to keep me calm, “then you’re the only one who suffers.”

My mouth turned to cotton. “How do you mean?” I croaked out.

“Hell, Noa,” Jossy said, resting his elbows on his thighs and folding his hands together. “You go to hell when you die.”

If I’d had a soul, it left me the instant I heard Jossy’s words.

I felt like I was going to pass out. “I go to hell because your dickhead brother decided to play a god’s game.” My breath hitched as I thought about my family. “Are my mom and other relatives in hell too?”

Vincent sat next to me as the pieces fell into place. He didn’t look at me as he rubbed his chin. “Yes. But I need to tell you something else. Vallen and Maros are the ones who killed your mother.”

The room began to spin as I struggled to process his words. I stood, but stumbled forward over the coffee table, and Jossy grabbed my arm to catch me. The walls began to close in, and beads of sweat formed on my forehead. Lex ran into the kitchen, and I heard the ice machine, but my legs grew weak.

“Sit down, Noa.” Lex offered me a glass of water and pressed a cold, wet cloth to my head.

Panic rose inside me, and I choked back the bile forming in my throat. I wasn’t going to stand there and let any of them strip away another minute of my life. I slapped away the glass, and water drenched the floor.

My head snapped up and I glared at Vincent. “Where are those two murderous pieces of shit that sent my mother and the rest of my family to hell?”

The corner of Vincent’s mouth twitched as he stood, but my eyes narrowed even more while waiting for his answer.

“We know Maros is the one after you,” he admitted. “They caught Vallen years ago. He’s locked away for his crimes.”

Wrath crept through me like icy tendrils. “Is he back in the Veil, or is he here somewhere?” I pressed him as my eyes refused to leave his.

“Noa, you can’t get to him.” Vincent blinked. “He’s untouchable and, more importantly, warded by powerful angelic runes. Impenetrable ones. ”

“So he’s here.” I squared my shoulders. “What I want to know is, how are they both still breathing?” The electricity in the room seemed to crackle with my anger.

Vincent stilled as he looked around at the flickering lights, then back to me. “A master of demons isn’t easy to kill,” his voice was calm. “Maros is like an unhinged demonic Hitler with an endless supply of resources.” He dragged his hands down his face. “My brother lives because, as much as I wanted to rip his wings off, it’s a crime and an atrocious obscenity in our world. Trust me, he is suffering.”

I let out a feigned laugh and threw my head back in wonder. “This is unbelievable. And how will you protect me from an unhinged ancient demon?”

Vincent looked at me with hardened resolve. “Maros is consumed with a desire to uncover the secrets and to kill you himself. It’s why he stays hidden. And now, he’ll use the Baneful to seek you out. He did it last night, but that gives us an opportunity.”

What felt like centipedes skittered down my spine at the thought. “Using me as bait is your plan? I’m better off out there alone.”

“If you leave, you put every human outside of the ranch at risk of torture and death. You’ll end up the same as your mother.”

My eyes narrowed as I clenched my fists, and my fingertips pressed into my skin. “Vallen and Maros will burn the same way they burned my mother,” I snapped at him. “Your rules don’t govern me, Vincent. They will die.”

He disregarded my statement, likely thinking it was a panicked outburst. “We can contain this, Noa. If you want to stay alive, you need strength, which isn’t always physical.”

Lex placed a gentle hand on my shoulder, his expression soft. My head jerked in his direction. “We’ll get Maros,” he said. “But for now, the best course of action is to strengthen our defenses and prepare for what’s coming.”

Jossy’s eyes filled with empathy, and he walked around the coffee table. “We need to keep you alive, Noa. If you die before we extract the secrets, we’re all doomed.” He stood in front of me, offering what he thought was a sliver of comfort as my heart shattered. “And when we catch Maros, you can light the match yourself.”

Sobs overcame me and I shook my head. “No. I will kill them both. Vallen’s wings are mine, and once he turns to ash, I will saw them off and nail them to the fucking wall!”

A tidal wave of emotions crashed down on me, and I could sense their worry about my next move. Then, the ground beneath us began to quake. A piercing howl erupted with another rumble.

I lost my balance, but steadied myself by grabbing the mantle above the fireplace. Then, as quickly as the tremors began, they stopped. We all looked around at one another as Nevaeh burst through the door. Right when I noticed an opportunity to make a run for it, a rush of wind blew me back into Jossy’s arms.