"Mom?" I say as I cautiously approach the kneeing woman in the centre of the road. She is speaking in tongues again. Praying to whatever god or devil she thinks has the power to bring her girls back to her safely. "Mom, its me Penryn" I say as gently as I am able. Who knows how she will respond when she is in this state.
She looks up like a wild animal caught in the headlights, staring through glassy eyes. "Penryn" she says, wobbling from her kneeling position, stumbling towards me. "Penryn" she says again wiping tears from her eyes as she surges towards me and pulls me into a hug. She smells of the sulphur of rotten eggs, stale sweat and unwashed clothes. But through the layers of dirty clothing she wears I can feel that if nothing else, the Resistance has been ensuring she is fed.
"Mom...", I begin again as I pull myself from the embrace, trying to determine how to broach the subject of Paige, Raffe and the scorpion horde who wait for us behind a corpse of trees, just out of sight.
"Did you find Paige? Where's Paige?" says my mother, jerking her head around, suddenly frantic. "Where's Paige? Why isn't she with you? What have you done with her?" she screeches in her sudden panic.
"She's fine mum, she's fine. I will take you to her, but I need to tell you something first". I take a deep breath, uncertain where to start or even if it is worth the effort while she is in this state.
She ignores my words, and starts to look frantically around her. "PAIGE" she screams above the wind "PAIGE"…
I have to stop her. Not only might she bring down the wraith of passing angels, but the Resistance camp is not far away. The last thing I need right now is Raffe and Paige coming to the attention of the Resistance.
I can almost see Raffe in my mind, rolling his eyes at my promise to him earlier as he lowered me to the ground. I had promised I would prepare her as gently as possible and bring her over quietly to the hidden clearing where he and Paige waited.
I swear beneath my breath and grab her arm. I begin to drag her to the hiding place. "She's here mum" I grit out as I jog her along, "I will take you to her to her, just, please, be quiet". "And" I add as an afterthought, "brace yourself for a shock". She seems somewhat mollified, but continues to feverishly mumble under her breath as we trot along the road and beyond the trees.
The scorpions are milling about the clearing, waiting further instructions from Paige. Raffe stands among them, daemon wings folded behind him as he observes my approach, poorly hiding a little smirk at my inability to control my mum as promised. I glare at him and just manage to clamp down upon the immature urge to poke my tongue out at him.
Little Paige is standing on the edge of the group, with her stitched up face hidden behind her hair, peeking out to catch site of my mother. She seems insignificant among this strange menagerie. Though both Raffe and I know that despite appearances, Paige is really in-charge of this rag-tag gathering. We are here because she would not go on without finding my mother, even though it would be much more simple if we left her behind.
Mom rushes to Paige and grabs her, shoving her behind her back as she throws herself into a kneeling position at Raffe's feet. Raffe raises a quizzical eyebrow to me over mum's back. I shake my head and shrug my shoulders, like I have no idea what's going on. But that is a lie. Mum has obviously concocted some story in her head, where Raffe is the devil waiting on his payment for saving Paige. Payment to be extracted from me, his daemon bride. I hate to think what sort of payments she thinks I am giving to Raffe for his help… Well, I don't exactly hate to think of giving Raffe that sort of payment. All the time I have spent pressed up against his hard, beautiful body as we fly together and sleep wrapped in each other arms. Despite his boundaries, I am not a saint ... But what teenage girl wants her mother thinking those things?
Mum starts to speak in tongues again, this time her attention focused upon at Raffe. I struggle to not roll my eyes heavenward. We will now have to wait for her to pull herself out of this before we can try to convince her to let one of the scorpions carry her out. But then I see the stunned look on Raffe's face. He looks as if he has just discovered something both wondrous, and terrible. He beautiful eyes are wide and staring at me in shock and wonder. I have rarely seen him lose his poise so thoroughly. I sidle over to him and ask him what the matter is. "Your mum" he says "that language… it is ancient Atrarian…"
My mum's gabbering is an actual language? What the hell is Atrarian?
"She is actually making sense then?" I say to Raffe.
He nods at me. "Ancient Atrarian", he says before taking a deep breath "...is the language my watchers wives spoke when they were sentenced to the pit."
I look up at him in wonder my mouth slightly agape, my heart thudding. "What… what is she saying?" I gasp out, barely a whisper.
Raffe is silent for a moment, then begins to speak in the halting monotone of someone translating a language they lack practice using. "She is saying that she has kept her bargain... that her family has stayed away from the Angels and that the new generation's children ... no longer eat the flesh of men. She says that she has provided sacrifices of flesh and Sulfur to ease the appetite of the Hellions..."
He continues to listen to her as she rattles on. Then looks at me, startled. "She thanks me for saving Paige and asks if the services of my part-angel bride have pleased me."
I stare at Raffe in a state of shock, barely able to breathe.
Clara's words come back to me, "just because someone is out to get you, doesn't mean you are not paranoid". I am not so naive to think this means my mother is not suffering from some sort of mental illness, but it occurs that least the core of my mother's delirium stems from some sort of twisted reality. I am descended from the Watchers, from the Nephilim... I am part Angel… My mother has made deals with daemons to keep her family alive and together. And, my brain begins to process, she has just willingly prostituted me to a creature she believes to be a devil… though this last revelation does not shock me as much as it should.
All of a sudden realisation hits me as I stare into Raffe's beautiful face above my mother's prostrated form. Raffe came to earth to destroy the Nephilim. Paige, Mum and I are descended from one of the children his Watchers fathered. In a way, we are all Nephilim, and it follows that Raffe is obliged to hunt and kill us. I can't take my eyes from him as my mother continues to babble in what I now know to be Ancient Atrarian. Realisation washes over me, my body tenses as half of me prepares to hoist up my mother, grab Paige's hand and make a run for it before Raffe comes to the same realisation I have.
But this is Raffe, not some unknown threat, he will not turn on me, no matter what. Will he? Despite myself, I brace for a blow.
Then, to fast for me to react, he grasps my shoulders and pulls me towards him, bringing his lips towards mine. He kisses me hungrily, burying one hand in my hair, the other dragging my hips against his. My lips part as his tongue darts greedily into me. There is no softness in this kiss, no hesitation. It feels as if he claiming me. My mother and sister are watching and it is all I can do to stifle a groan as I kiss him back, claiming him in return. Shocks of pleasure radiate from where his lips and his hands press against me, settling in my core. Too soon, he pulls away and turns to my mother his mouth broadening into a self-satisfied grim.
"Yes", he says to her. "My part-angel pleases me very well. Thank you for asking".
So, kisses then, not murderous rage... That is good, I think in a daze as I gasp for breath, struggling to recover.
Grinning like a child that has just been given permission to pull the wrapping paper from a longed for present, Raffe hauls me into his arms and spreads his daemon wings for take off, calling to Paige to follow with my mother and the scorpion horde.