Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 130619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Nephilim, I think, and Micah says, “Can you feel it?”
“Magic,” I say softly.
“Yes. Magic. There are ways to make it undetectable to anyone I don’t want to feel it, but I wanted to see if you picked up on it.”
“The minute I walked in the door.”
“But not outside?”
“No. Not outside.”
He doesn’t comment or clarify if I should have been able to feel it outside, instead motioning to the rear of the store. “We’re going out the back door.”
I glance that direction, and I’m confused all over again. “I don’t see a back door.”
“You will.” He starts walking.
I follow him until we’re in a narrow hallway with him behind me and nothing but a wall in front of us. I halt and turn to face him. “What door?”
“Look harder.”
I rotate to find the wall has transformed into a door.
Micah steps to my side, and I shoot him an incredulous look. “What is this?”
“There’s an interstice between the human world and the Nephilim Kingdom, where magic thrives and demons cannot travel. We call it Elysium. If you’re ever injured or your powers are bound, you get to one of the entrances. You’ll learn how to find them.”
“And you hide the entrances inside human structures?”
“This one just happens to open right next to the spot where they built a highway. It was in our best interest to create a shelter of sorts. In this case, the country store.”
“So, it’s run by your people,” I say, assuming as much.
“By one family I’ve trusted for a very long time. I don’t invite anyone to the location you’re about to visit. It’s my private spot—a slice disconnected from the rest of Elysium. And as I promised, a safe place no one else will enter.”
Because he’s protecting me from the world and the world from me. And maybe that’s a little melodramatic. Maybe he’s just protecting his people. I don’t know. “Do we go in?”
“Yes.”
“Okay,” I say, but I don’t move, my feet frozen with the rest of me. What if he’s sending me to the prison I’d feared he’d planned for me? Or what if I go in, and it’s some crazy place, and I lose him or him me?
Always on point, it seems, he asks, “Would you feel better if I went first?”
Do I?
Is first or last better?
Clearly reading the uncertainty scrambling my brain, he captures my hand, a calmness radiating through me. I wonder now if it’s magic—if he spellcasts me with his touch—but it doesn’t feel like magic. Then again, he’s extremely powerful, of this, I have no doubt. I’m not sure I’ll feel anything he doesn’t allow me to feel. “Caution is good,” he says. “Trust no one. Not even me.”
“That’s not comforting.”
“Very few people would call me comforting. We’ll go together.” He pushes open the door and guides me outside, and we are not in the back of the convenience store. We aren’t in Kansas anymore, as the saying goes, or Colorado in our case, but we are most definitely in a place that fits Micah’s description of Elysium perfectly.
Someplace magical.
The Sacred Book of Nephilim
Silence is where magic lives, breathes, and whispers the answers found nowhere but in the vast hollow of its existence. Listen, and listen closely, or you will find your demise in the noise elsewhere.
Chapter twenty-five
It’s no longer snowing, the air around me is crisp and cool, the kind of fall day that entices one to enjoy hot cocoa with a friend while leaning into the weather, embracing Mother Nature rather than hiding from the brutality of the cold I’ve just left behind. To my right, there’s a forest, I do believe. The trees are towering giants swaying with a forceful wind. The leaves and foliage are brighter here, too, sharper, the russet, scarlet, and amber colors are richer than any known to man, with more depth and clarity to each shade, a contrast to the rich blue of the ocean to my left. Waves crash on a stunning beachfront before me, portions of the sandy landing are as pure white as a perfect cloud, while in contrast, others are as crystal blue as my eyes.
Micah steps to my side. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
“How is this even possible?” I ask, offering him an incredulous look.
“The universe is a complex place, and there are many things the human eye doesn’t see, nor is it meant to. The same can be said of the Nephilim, this place included. No one comes here that I don’t allow to visit, and I don’t come here to socialize.” His coat disappears, replaced by a black windbreaker. “We have to walk five miles to reach our destination. Change clothes.”
It’s a demand that I use the magic he claims I own. To that, I unzip my coat and drop it to the ground. “Does that work?”
“You really are a stubborn smartass. Magic flourishes here. Think about what you want and make it happen. Shut your eyes.”