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“I’m not asking you to be gentle.”
“Aren’t you?”
“No.”
“Good. It wouldn’t matter if you did. I’d still push. I have to push. Because next time there’s a demon like Ryker on top of you, like I am now, you need to know you have the power. He does not. Make him pay. Kill him. I won’t always be there to save you.”
“Stop saying that. I don’t want you to save me. I can save myself.”
“Exactly. Good. Then we train, and we train some more. What animal did you see?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes. It does. Each animal has a different meaning, and the sooner you understand that meaning, the more readily you can embrace your familiar.”
He called us descendants of angels, and I know the history of Adam, Eve, and the snake. I push against him. “Let me up. And don’t say ‘make me.’ I just need some air.”
He doesn’t budge, his magic reaching for me, tugging at my mind. I point at him. “Stop digging around in my mind. I don’t like it.”
“What did you see, Ember? If you want my trust and my help, you have to tell me.”
“What is yours?”
“Panther.”
It fits him. His grace, speed, and agility.
“Your turn,” he presses. “What did you see?”
“Micah—”
“Ember,” he bites out, irritation clear and present.
“A snake,” I blurt. “I saw a snake.”
His gaze sharpens, his eyes almost glowing, before he pushes off me and sits up. I sit up with him. A moment later, he’s on his feet and pulling me around to face him. “Are you sure?”
I nod roughly. “Yes, I’m sure.” And hoping for some new meaning, I dare to ask, “What does it mean?”
“A snake is a demon, Ember.”
My hand grips my throat. “That means I’m evil. That’s why I was hidden away. That’s why Jeremy wants me.”
“What it means is that you and I are leaving this place now.”
Part Two: Elysium
The Sacred Book of Nephilim
Your familiar will find you, live within your soul, fight with you. This animal chooses you based on who you are on the most primal of levels, who you are meant to be. Do not fight your familiar. Fight with your familiar.
Chapter seventeen
We’re leaving now.
The steel in Micah’s words doesn’t unsettle me, but the urgency with which he acts gleams with the heat of sunlight over a volcanic eruption. He captures my hand and starts walking toward the training room door, allowing me no room to debate or decline following.
I blink, and we’re at the exit, and he pulls me closer. “Do not talk about this anywhere but my quarters and outside of the garrison. And even then, use caution. Understand?”
