I carried Iliana over to Sloan and Nathan. “Take her for a minute?”
Nathan got up and took the baby. Then I walked back to the Father, drawing my sword as I crossed the grass. “Mind if I kill him?” I asked, pointing the blade at Elek.
“Where did you get that?” The Father’s old eyes were wide.
“Uko had it. Any idea what it is?” I carefully turned it sideways.
He ran his finger along the blade. The metal seemed to shriek. He withdrew his hand. “It’s nothing I’ve ever seen.”
“I think it was forged in Nulterra,” Azrael said.
“Then I think you should have a very informative journey there.” He lowered his voice. “Do it, but not in front of the baby.”
“Yes, sir.” I waved toward Reuel. “Hold him? We’ll take him with us when we go.”
Reuel nodded.
“Samael, can you go find Gabriel and cancel the call for an Angel of Life?” I put my hand on Azrael’s shoulder. “I think Az will be just fine.”
The Father smiled at us. “If you’ll excuse me, I’d like to speak to Cassiel.”
My eyes flashed across the lawn. She was still waiting and watching for some sign that I might forgive her.
Not today.
“Father?” I asked.
He stopped and turned back toward us.
“I owe you the truth.”
“The truth about what?” he asked.
“I haven’t found the Morning Star. I don’t know where he is, how he’s coming back, or how to stop him.”
The Father looked straight at Azrael and lifted his white brow. “Oh really?”
I could have sliced through their loaded stare with my sword.
My face whipped toward Az. He didn’t meet my eyes.
“In the meantime”—the Father looked at the sky—“I think I know what we can do to make little Iliana a bit safer.”
“You’ll close the spirit line around Asheville?” Azrael asked.
“Maybe around the whole state, just to be safe.”
“That means I won’t be able to warp in and out of here,” I said.
Azrael looked over at me. “Neither will anyone else.”
“And Warren?” the Father asked.
“Sir?”
He leveled his all-knowing gaze at me. “Unforgiveness grows like a cancer in your heart…not theirs.” He glanced toward Cassiel. “Or hers, in this case.”
I nodded. Then he walked away. My eyes drifted beyond him and connected with Cassiel’s. I held her stare for a moment, felt my heart tug, and then I turned away.
Other problems were at hand. I looked at my other father and crossed my arms. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”
His lips pressed together.
Realization poured over me like hot lava. “Oh god. It’s Adrianne.”
He didn’t answer, which was answer enough.
Azrael grabbed my arm and pulled me in the other direction, toward the large crater he was building in the ground, away from everyone we knew. “You don’t tell anyone. Not human or otherwise.”
I ran my hands down my face. “How did you find out?”
“Sandalphon. That was the message he sent via Ionis the day Fury’s son was born. It was a warning.”
“A warning?”
“He worried the Council was dirty. And he knew if the Morning Star was reset to spirit form, we’d never have control of him. When they ruled to destroy the newborns, he knew we must hide Adrianne’s child.”
“But Ionis said—”
“I saw Sandalphon’s vision myself. He sent it in a memory stone.”
“The trinket box.”
Azrael nodded.
“That was why he locked himself in Cira. So no one could get the truth out of him.” We stopped in front of the massive crater behind Echo-5. Support beams had gone in since the last time I’d been there. Somehow the giant hole made me feel even more empty, more hopeless. I swore and put my hands on my hips. “Azrael, what are you going to do?”
“Son, the less you know, the better.” He stared out across what would someday be a safe house we would hopefully never need.
I rubbed my hands slowly down my face. “I can’t worry about this right now. I want to spend the little time I can with my daughter, but after that, you and I are going to have a serious chat.”
I started to walk away, but he put his hand on my chest to stop me. “Go back to Eden and heal after this. You’ll need it.”
I wasn’t exactly sure what he meant, but the look in his eye told me not to argue.
“We’ve got time, Warren.” He was looking off into the distance. “Twenty weeks, give or take.”
Nausea churned in my stomach. I gave a slight nod. “Before I forget.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out the blood stone.
He didn’t accept it. “My mind is clearer now than it has been since I came back to Earth. I think your daughter fixed that too.”
“Well, take it anyway. Just in case.”
He took the necklace and stuck it in his pocket. I shook his hand, and he pulled me in for a hug.
Nathan and Sloan were standing when I returned. Sloan was holding Iliana, but once again, she reached her tiny arms toward me. I knew she was probably drawn to the power she sensed inside me, but it didn’t matter. Nothing even in Eden felt that good. She laid her head against my collarbone.
Closing my eyes, I let the memory soak in. The smell of her hair. Her hand gripping my sleeve. The way her head fit perfectly under my chin.
“Appa, tan,” she said softly.
I kissed her forehead, not even trying to stop the tears that leaked from my eyes. “I wish I could, sweetheart. I wish I could stay forever.”
When I opened my eyes, Sloan was crying too. Nathan had his arms around her. I pulled back and looked at Iliana, then I spoke to her silently in Katavukai, the language I was pretty sure she could best understand.
“Iliana, look at me.”
She lifted her head and met my eyes.
“There’s nothing else I love more in this world or the next than you. And though I have to go away, it’s only for a little while on this earth.” I tugged on the front of her pajamas. “And I will always come back for you.”
She put both hands on my face. “Akai anlo alis, Appa.”
I lost it then, and I kissed her cheek through my sobs. “I love you too, Iliana.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
I spent the next few days alone in Eden, understanding fully what Azrael meant about needing time to heal. The beach in Lunaris was good for that. I spent a lot of time flying. Even more time thinking. And ate my weight (and then some) in all sorts of manna.
Physically, I’d never felt better. Or looked better, if I do say so myself. The faint crinkles around my eyes were gone. So were the stray gray hairs that had welcomed me to my thirties. It took a few days for me to realize why.
Iliana had somehow used her life-giving power on me and her mother when we were inside that lightning bolt. It had kept Sloan alive, and it had dialed the years back for me.
That gave me an idea. I was already in Lunaris, so I paid another trip to the Fiery. There I told Metatron to hang onto hope just a little while longer. Help was on her way.
Then I was finally ready to go home.
Home to Alice and Skittles.
When I left the Fiery, I hiked out through the shaft that led to the beach. The bright light from the suns was blinding, momentarily obscuring the face of the woman on the shore.
Cassiel.
I drifted over the rocks and landed beside her on the sand.
The wind whipped behind her. “I thought I might find you here.”
“Why?”
“It’s where I would come to mend what you went through on Earth. How are you?”
I nodded. “I’m OK.” And I meant it. “What are you doing here?”
“I have something for you.” She reached into her bag, the one she’d taken on our trip
to Earth, and pulled out a scroll.
“What is this?” I asked, breaking the seal.
“A treasure map.”
I unrolled it. It was definitely a map. One that looked like the map she’d forced me to buy at the souvenir shop in Venice. Only this one was global.
There were colorful dots on Thailand and Turkey.
“I backtracked Vito Saez’s travels, following the other murders he committed to an island known before the twentieth century as La Isla del Fuego. I found the Nulterra Gate.”
Just like Azrael had said, there was an island marked with an X in the South China Sea. A tiny speck of land near the Philippines.
“You’ll feel the gate once you get on the island, so you won’t have any trouble finding it. The lock, on the other hand, will be trickier. I didn’t have any luck, but I took pictures.” She reached into the bag again and produced a few photographs.
I took the pictures. “Photos? A map? How did you get them across the spirit line?”
She held up the bag.
I pointed at it. “I wondered why your locker wasn’t jam-packed with magnets.”
“What?”
“Never mind.”
She tapped the first photo of a pond or a lake, I couldn’t tell. “I believe this is the entrance. When I stood on it—”
“When you stood on it? Who are you now? Jesus?”
“It’s not water. It’s salt.”
“It looks like water.”
“It actually looks like a mirror.” She pulled out a photo behind it. “Look at this shot from the air.”
“Dang, it’s like a perfect circle.” Inside the circle, I could see Cassiel’s tiny reflection.
“It’s a perfect circle, actually. Too perfect to be made by nature or humans.”
“That’s crazy.”
“When I was in the air, I tried to use my power to open it, the way we do locked doors. Nothing happened, except it glowed purple.” She thumbed through the stack and found another photo. This one had a faint purple ring with a line through the center. She turned it diagonally. “Is it a ‘no’ sign?”
Something snagged in my memory. Fury’s hospital room. The burn on her hand. A charred circle with a line through it.
“It’s not a sign.” I looked at Cassiel. “It’s the key.”
“What?”
“I thought we were looking for a key, like a car key or house key.” I looked at the photo again. “The key isn’t a thing. It’s a person. Fury and Anya are the keys to Nulterra.”
Her head pulled back. “Wow. Really?”
“Yeah, Fury had this burn when I saw her in the hospital.” I held out my palm. “It was a circle with a line through it. Just like this picture.”
Cassiel looked excited, but the light in her eyes quickly dimmed. “I guess you and Fury are all set then.”
I forced a smile. “Yeah. I guess so.”
“No, take this too.” She took the bag off her shoulder. “You’ll need something to transport these things back across the spirit line.”
I took the bag. “Are you sure?”
“Positive. You can return it when you come back.” There was a small sparkle of hope in her eyes.
“I will.” I lifted the bag and laughed. “You know Samael is going to give me a rash of shit about this.”
She laughed too. “Yes, he is.”
I put the map and photos inside it, then I held the bag in my hand because I wasn’t yet ready to drape it over my shoulder. “Thank you, Cassiel.”
“You’re welcome. I hope it’s a start on making things up to you. I really am sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t figure out how very wrong I was until it was too late.”
“On the bright side of all this, I finally figured out how to identify angels in infancy.”
“Really?”
“I think Fury’s son is an Angel of Protection. A guardian.”
“How do you know?”
“When we visited them in the hospital, I’m pretty sure the baby recognized Reuel’s voice. He woke up when I touched him, but when Reuel spoke, that baby paid attention.”
“I think you might be right.” Her head tilted. “Even as babies, they should still be able to recognize angels from their own choirs.”
“Reuel will go with me when I tell Fury about her sister. We’ll test the theory more thoroughly then.”
“Good luck with that. Everyone is still eager for you to find the Morning Star.”
I looked out toward the ocean and didn’t respond. Cassiel and I might be speaking civilly, but we were a long way off from me trusting her again.
“The Father banished Zaphkael from Eden.”
“Good. I would have killed him.” I thought about the sword that was now locked up in Reclusion. “I still might.”
She didn’t respond.
“One thing I can’t figure out. Why do you think Zaphkael picked the souls he did to be released from Nulterra?” I asked.
“I’ve thought about that a lot too. I think he knew Menelek would likely keep the Father preoccupied in Africa. He knew Vito Saez would make huge waves in this world, forcing us to act. And as for the last one…he knew Charlie Lockett would affect you the most.”
Understatement. My eyes fell to the ground again.
Then my mind drifted to how Cassiel had walked with me through that.
Cassiel’s voice interrupted the memory. “What I’ve been puzzled over since I got back from the Nulterra Gate is how all three souls picked right up where they left off all those years ago.”
“Even Charlie. The hospital where he found the body he was using was the same hospital where his old girlfriend, my former foster mom, was a registered nurse.”
“It’s like they were never gone at all.” Silence settled between us. Then she touched my arm. “At least now, thanks to you, they’ll never hurt anyone else again.”
I looked down at her hand. “I need to ask you a question, Cassiel.” I pulled my eyes back to hers. “Did you tell Zaphkael willingly how to get Moloch into Echo-5? Or did they force you to tell them?”
“Zaphkael got his hands on me and saw it in my mind.” She took a step closer. “As you know, we can extract information with a touch.”
I nodded.
She took another step closer. “We can share it the same way.” Her hands trembled as she placed them on the sides of my face. My eyes closed at her touch, and a moment later a rush of elation pulsed through me.
Scenes flashed through my mind.
Holding hands on the boat.
Us sitting on the bathroom floor.
The first time we kissed.
The night we made love.
Me dismissing her in Asheville.
Me telling my daughter goodbye.
And then she kissed me on the beach. Timid but needy, like the waves lapping the sand. The sensation sent my heart through a gauntlet of emotion. Her emotions.
Joy.
Love.
Sorrow.
Brokenness.
Regret.
Hope.
Breaking the kiss and the spell, I leaned my forehead against hers and breathed slow and deep to slow my heart. “I want to love you too, you know?”
I felt her nod.
I kissed her again. Gently. Carefully. A kiss full of absolution and possibility.
Then I eased my lips toward her ear and whispered, “For the first time in a lifetime of brokenness, you’ve made me fly.”
Her eyes were still closed as I backed slowly away. Then I spread my wings and lifted off the beach.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Another week of being at home was just what I needed. Mom brought food. Yaya brought wine. George took me out on his boat.
Neither Alice nor Skittles left my side.
Samael brought word about Iliana. Serious migraines would have been expected for her from the exposure to and sudden withdrawal from so many angels. Thankfully, the Father had spent his last few days on Earth in Asheville to gradual
ly wean her off her connection with us. So Iliana’s symptoms had been mild. I’d experienced those headaches myself, and wouldn’t wish them on anyone—much less, my daughter.
I didn’t see Cassiel again, but I would.
Someday.
Alice and I had just finished a quiet dinner at home alone when Skittles ran to the door and started barking.
“What is it, girl?” I asked, crossing the room.
I pulled open the door.
“Hark!” Ionis said.
I shook my head. “You’re so weird.”
“I’ve come with a message.”
“Shocker.” I stepped out of his way. “Come on in.”
He walked into the house, and Alice came in from the kitchen. “Hi, Ionis.”
“Hello, Alice. How’s star-making these days?”
She smiled. “It’s great.”
“Tell Forfax I said hello?”
“You bet. You hungry? We have plenty of leftovers.”
“No thanks. I can’t stay long. Just stopping by on my way back from Italy to make a delivery.”
“What were you doing in Italy?”
“Handling some business with your father.”
My brow scrunched. “You two have been very chummy lately. What gives?”
“Let’s just say Azrael has finally figured out who he can trust. He even hired Chimera to take Fury’s open spot on SF-12.”
“Really?”
“She’s good.”
“So I’ve heard. What did they do with that gargoyle she trapped Moloch inside of?”
“They moved it to the vault at Claymore headquarters in New Hope. As far as I know, they’re keeping him locked inside it.”
“That’s brilliant.”
“I must say, Chimera is brilliant. Azrael’s paying her to keep working with Fury. The search for Anya is now a top Claymore priority.”
“That’s good news.”
“There’s more news. He sent you a message.”
“What is it?”
Ionis reached into his pocket and pulled out the blood stone.
My shoulders fell. “I’ve barely put myself back together from the last time I dipped into that world.”
Ionis pushed the stone into my hand. “Trust me. You want to see this.”
The Soul Destroyer: The Soul Summoner Series Book 7 Page 31