Envy (Dark Waters Book 1)

Chapter Nineteen:

We traveled for hours. When we left Gabriel's windowless warehouse, a full moon was disappearing in the sky, fighting for its final hour with the rising sun. Eventually, the sun took over, and the need for sleep crept into the car. It wasn't a requirement for me, so I fought it. But when daylight overpowered the clouds, and people rushed the streets for the lunch orders, Priscilla gave in.

Laid out in the backseat, Priscilla had placed one of Gabriel's sweaters under her head like a pillow. I would've offered my lap, but she didn't want to be a burden, and I knew it. So, I sat beside her and looked out the window, focusing on my thoughts, the same that swirled around my head for hours. What else was I supposed to do?

"What you can do, is stop sulking." Gabriel leaned back in his driver's seat as he looked at me through his rearview mirror.

I scowled at his reflection but looked back at the window. He'd stopped the car beside a gas station, the only lively place I'd seen since he left the city. "I wish you'd stop doing that," I said.

"Kind of hard when you're crying in your head, and it's all I hear in here," he sniffed and waved his hand at the air. "It's like a fucking buzzing fly."

A buzzing fly. I snorted. If only he knew what it was like to be so confused, so out of place, and a stranger to my own life. I felt like an outsider in my existence. Gabriel knew who I was and knew details that could affect me. Priscilla, a soul I believed couldn't exist again, knew all about me and our past and dreamed of me.

So much news that was a benefit to my life, and yet... yesterday, I ran to the place that wished I was dead.

"Fly," Gabriel hissed, looking at me through the mirror again, "just ask some questions, and I'll say what I can. We'll be riding for a while, so you might as well get it out."

I bit my lip. If he was offering, I should take the opportunity, right?

"Fine." I adjusted myself in my seat but tried not to disturb Priscilla. I purposely lowered my voice. "What's this plan you've got going on, and did you make it with Gluttony?

Pursing his nips, he nodded, almost approvingly. I chose the right questions to start with, I suppose.

"Yes, I made this with Gluttony." He glanced at me as his car changed lanes on the expressway. "We met at a bar when you and Priscilla were doing your..." he shrugged and turned back in his seat to look at her, "thing. Broke every rule in both realms."

"I know we did," I licked my bottom lip, "but what does that have to do with Glutt and this plan."

He raised his brows as he glanced at me, then focused on the road. "We had similar thoughts," he said. "My realms, my Gods, created pure souls, for what? To help maintain a balance, right?" He drummed his fingers over the steering wheel. "But your realm and your Lords kill each of the ones we put on Earth. It's a waste of life."

I pinched my brows together. "So you both think killing pure souls is stupid?"

"Don't you?" He glanced at me through the mirror. "You fell in love with one and tried your hardest to make sure she lived. And for what? She died anyway, right? That was inevitable. But, we thought," he cocked a brow and bit her bottom lip, "if the two of you connected, the force y'all had could destroy the invisible wall between the two worlds."

My chest tightened. Gluttony wouldn't have done that to me, would he? "You're using us?" I hissed.

"You're alive, aren't you?" I blinked. "You're alive, and so is she; what else do you want?"

"If it were up to me, we'd have normal lives." I leaned back against the car seat and looked out the window. "I don't understand how this happened. I saw her die, and if she was given to darkness—"