This is Emmorta

24 Fall Away

Rune

I'm thinking I may have been better off on my own.

Nyx was three minutes late with the car, and that was her principal role. Now, we are behind schedule. Every moment ticking by is one moment closer to Evander coming after me, and I'm not ready for that fight just yet.

I've always tried to stick to my commitments, and despite the tardiness, I'm telling myself these women can still be of use. Their casual attire and general look of exhaustion on all of their faces aren't convincing, though. Charlie was the only one who wore the recommended footwear.

If Neserin doesn't stop yawning, I may have to get rid of her personally.

Our breaths fog in front of us while we wait for Nyx to remove the children's accessories from her car. Why she waited until now, I wonder, to do this. What possessed her to believe this was more advantageous than clearing this stuff out beforehand? Opening up the back, I set down my bag, and the clanking of the metal contents inside captures Aurelia's attention.

"What's that?" she asks.

I unzip the bag for her and the others crowd around me.

Nes gasps, "Are those the knives the angels carry to kill demons and other angels? Raith has one. Or did."

"Yes."

Her daughter—the one Evander spends his time with—pops up from the row of seats in the back of the car and reaches for the bag. "Cool! Can I have one?"

"No, sweetie," Nes says. "Knives are dangerous."

That won't help the kid at all. She is a walking target and should know how to at least sharpen an object into a weapon or pierce an organ with enough damage to get away from an attacker. Her short legs and knees look too weak to commit any actual damage to a man's genitals, so she'd need to use the slim arm to penetrate at least a stomach.

Were her parents not murdered in front of her? They ought to be more motivated to teach her these things. Maybe she should learn to hunt.

Charlie closes up the back while everyone piles into this vehicle.

Holy Lucifer, what is that putrid smell? Phantom cringes inside when the scent tickles his senses. We find the source hanging from a mirror.

Strawberry Dreams.

"Hey!" Nyx cries when I drop it to the ground outside the vehicle. All this time in this realm, has she never smelled a real strawberry? "That was my new scent!"

I don't have patience for more of her time wasting. The balance tips more in favor of the wrong side the longer we sit here.

"Phoenix, I think we would get there much faster if you would switch the car to pilot mode." I think flying would be our best bet to get there.

Phoenix blinks and angles her face to the side with an untimely confusion in her features. Is she a habitual time waster, or am I encountering her on the wrong day?

"I'm sorry. What did you just say?"

"Pilot mode. Or does your car not fly?" If not, we will need to find another. I know Evander called it pilot mode, and Amara explained to me what a pilot is, so as far as I'm concerned, I'm speaking plainly and my words aren't too big for them to understand.

"Do any cars fly?"

If she's playing a game or needs some sort of specific word or phrase to make a point, I will not hesitate to teach her why we don't waste time. She's straddling a line that will rattle this frustration I've been saving up. If I didn't need it this badly, I would have finished last night's message to Evander Hector dying in a violent fire, swallowing him into ash.