Piercing blue eyes met mine, his face wrinkled with age and wisdom. “Yes. This is Horizon,” he answered, and then he slammed his rubber stamp on a piece of paper with a thunderous thud. He tossed the sheet and slipped another before him from a teeming pile on his desk.
“I’m dead. And someone made a clerical error sending me here.” Obviously, but somehow I had the need to say it, and by saying it, I solidified the truth and made it more real somehow.
I was dead. Dead. Dead. Dead.
The corners of the man’s eyes wrinkled. “Indeed you are. Don’t fret. A mortal death is never the end…just the beginning of something new and exciting. Think of it like an adventure.”
An adventure? This guy was smoking crack. Subconsciously, I reached up and touched my chest. The rhythmic beating that was so familiar was silent. I had no heart.
Damn. This was weird.
Keep calm. Don’t panic. I looked down at the man. “You’re not an angel. What are you?”
The tiny man beamed up at me. “I’m oracle.”
So, that was an oracle. They were the wisest of all the celestial beings in Horizon, or so I was told. They were Seers, clairvoyants, prophetic creatures whose visions were inspired by mystical forces. They delivered predictions and advice and were responsible for giving angels their assignments. I just never thought they’d be so… small.
Tyrius would have had a field day with this.
The thought of my friend sent a fluttering hollow feeling through my being, an ache through my soul. My shoulders slumped. A tremor went through my body at the question I was burning to ask but was too afraid to say it.
“My mortal life is over. This is the end.” I should have been happy to know that I when I died there was a place for me in Horizon and not the fires and endless torment of the Netherworld. Instead, I was angry. I thought I’d have more time. More time with my mortal life. More time with Gareth, with Tyrius and Kora and my gran. And especially more time kicking demon ass.
“The end?” said the oracle, his eyes filling with sadness. “No. No. No. This is not your end, Rowyn. Not yet. You still have a very important role to play in the scheme of things.”
“But if I’m standing here, in Horizon, my life is over,” I began, thinking the oracle was off his rocker.
What role could I play? I was dead. I’d reached the end of the line. My life was over. My mortal life was over. I would no longer need to breathe, eat, or sleep—all things that separated the mortals from the dead. It was all gone.
Jenna had truly killed me. I stood there in denial, not wanting to believe what was right in front of me. I wanted to cry. Hell, I even tried to force myself to cry just to prove that I still could. But no tears would come.
“She stabbed me,” I added suddenly, remembering how fast it had been and how I hadn’t felt anything. “One of your angels killed me. Did you know that? Right in my grandmother’s kitchen.”
“Indeed she did.”
“Why would she do that? I thought we were onto something. She was about to tell me how to save Layla… and then she stabbed me.”
“In the heart.”
“Why?”
“It was necessary,” answered the oracle, calmly.
“It was necessary that I die?” I asked incredulously.
“Indeed it was.”
“I don’t think so. I still had lots to do with my life. I had plans, you know. Plans to save my sister.” Plans with Gareth. Now I would never know just how far our relationship could have gone.
“She was under orders.”
I frowned. “Really? She was under orders to kill me?”
“Exactly,” grinned the oracle, like I’d just complimented the white paint on his office walls, and I resisted the urge to punch him.
“What about Lucian and your precious Holy Grail?” I grimaced, feeling more ticked by the second as I stood facing the tiny oracle. “He has it, you know. He’s about to fly up here and kick everyone’s asses. And from what Jenna told me before the backstabbing bitch killed me, the angels couldn’t retrieve it. Or something like that. She told me that she’d needed my help. That the Legion needed my help.”
“We do.”
“So why the hell did she kill me? And if you say it was necessary again, I swear I’m going to toss you into that pool.” I didn’t know if oracles could swim. I guess I was about to find out.
The oracle exhaled and folded his hands on his desk. “You needed to complete the process. You needed to die in order to begin your new life as an angel.”
My lips parted and worry pulled me tightly. “Life as an angel?” Oh, hell no . I don’t want to be an angel. I hated angels. This was the worst thing that could happen to me. It was worse than death.
The oracle nodded, sending wisps of his hair floating about his head. “Exactly. You’re catching on.”
I swallowed, which was really weird when you didn’t have any saliva. “No. This is a mistake.”
“No mistake. You’re to start your new life as an angel. Right now as a matter of fact.”
“But I had a life,” I said, trying to control my temper but failing miserably by the dangerous tone in my voice. “I don’t want a new life as an angel. I liked my life. I loved my life. I want it back.”
“Life as a Hunter,” said the oracle. His blue eyes gleamed and reminded me of Tyrius’s eyes.
I cocked my hip, not liking his tone. “Yeah. So?”
“You became a Hunter for hire,” said the oracle, his voice carrying on ably, “without a real purpose or cause. For money.”
“Not just for money.” Yeah money was a big part of it. “I saved lives. I helped people. Mortals. Half-breeds. Even the angel-born. I was damn good at my job. I liked it.” When I got paid.
“But you were born for something greater. It’s why you’re here now, standing before me.”
“I had a purpose,” I grumbled, trying to spout out something wittier but coming up short.
The oracle fell silent for a moment, thoughtful. “Have you ever wondered why you were different from all the other angel-borns? Why you were Unmarked?”
“All my life.” Is he serious? “I’ve heard the archdemon Lucian had a part in it.” A colossal part.
The oracle smiled, his teeth brilliant and gleaming like stars. “Yes and no. And no and yes. You were created different and unique for this very moment.”
I stared at the oracle, uneasy with where this conversation was going. I had nothing to say to that or to add. Besides, I had a feeling he was going to tell me anyway.
The oracle leaned forward on his desk. “You have the chance now to fight for all life. Life on Earth and life in Horizon. It’s what you were meant to be. What you were born for—of shadow and light. An equal balance of angel and archdemon essence. All your life experiences have led you to this very moment. To who and where you’re supposed to be. Your true purpose.”
I choked down a surge of panic. “Which is?”
“A dark angel.”
Demon balls. “Excuse you?”
The oracle clapped his hands excitedly and laughed hard. Yeah, the dude was definitely smoking crack.
“A dark angel,” repeated the oracle. Delight flashed in his eyes, making him look like one of Santa’s elves that just delivered a gift to the poorest kid in the entire world. “The first ever dark angel. You, Rowyn Sinclair, are it!”
“No shit.”
A dark angel? Holy crap. Being dead was traumatic enough in its own right, but the notion of becoming an angel—well, that was just completely bonkers.
“No one in their right mind would want me to become an angel,” I told the oracle as I tried to wrap my head around this new information. It was less scary that way.
The oracle smiled pleasantly. “Yes, yes we would.”
I eyed him. “This is crazy.”
“This is Horizon.”
“I’m not angel material.”
“You most certainly are.” He tilted his head to one side an
d smiled at me. “You are standing before me as an angel at this very moment.”
I looked down at my feet. Don’t ask me why, but it was my first reaction. Feeling stupid, I looked back at the oracle, finding him still smiling.
I was an angel. And I hadn’t felt a thing.
“And all this, this new me is because of Lucian. Isn’t it?” I started to put the pieces together. As an angel I could retrieve the Holy Grail. And as dark angel with archdemon essence I could pass through the wards.
“Right again,” confirmed the oracle, seemingly pleased that I was finally catching on. What could I say? I was a slow learner. “With your unique essence, as a dark angel you will be gifted with strength and skilled with enough power to match what Lucian infused into Layla.”
Now I really wished Tyrius was here. “So Jenna killed me so that I might go through this transformation to become an angel,” I said, in more of a statement than a question.
“A dark angel,” corrected the oracle. “That is exactly right.”
“And then what?”
“Then,” said the oracle, “you complete your mission. You must retrieve the Holy Grail. You’re now part of Horizon’s angelic warriors. It’s your duty to see it through.”
“My duty.” I was already seeing a problem here. I curled my fingers into fists. “In other words,” I said, my voice trembling, “you killed me so that I might do your bidding? So that I might become another tool for your angel Legion?”
The oracle looked at me with wide eyes, and I looked away from him. My anger soared, and I focused my hate and my denial and my pain. Again the Legion of angels were playing God. They’d never asked if I wanted this. Never asked if I wanted to die, to become one of their angels, their pawns. They just took my life. My entire life. And that really pissed me off.
My anger replaced the wave of denial and the slowly dawning sense of horror. I turned, slowly, to look at the oracle.
I thought about it. “What if I refuse?”
The oracle looked taken aback for the first time. “You cannot refuse.” It was his turn to look at me as though I was the one smoking crack. “It’s your destiny. You were meant to become a dark angel, just as you were meant to retrieve the Holy Grail.”
Fantastic. I made a face. “I don’t believe in destiny,” I said, though I didn’t sound convinced. “From what I understand, I’m basically a slave. A grunt. To do as you command. I have no free will.”
I’d always done what I wanted, made my own choices since I was a teenager. I didn’t take well to following orders. I was undisciplined and I had a huge problem with authority. If they didn’t foresee this as a problem, they were idiots.
“Haven’t you always wanted to be part of something greater?” asked the oracle, making my skin erupt in goosebumps. “I know you’ve longed to belong with the angel-borns. And I know being different caused you great pain, never knowing where you truly fit in.” The oracle tapped his desk with his index finger. “This is where. Right now. With the angels.”
Angels. Yes, part of me was furious, I wanted to scream, to cry, to shout how unfair this was. But the other part knew it would be pointless.
Lucian, you bastard. The well of hate I had for the archdemon rose to the top and spilled. Lucian was the mastermind behind all this. He’d started it by simply infusing me with his blood. And then my whole world went down the crapper. This was his fault. All of it.
The oracles were clairvoyants, which meant if I was standing here, they’d already seen and knew that I had accepted this new fate of mine. Did I really have a choice? It didn’t seem like it. But it didn’t mean I had to like it or that I couldn’t get something out of it.
I stilled my face to show no emotion. “The angels mentioned that the Holy Grail is said to hold great power.”
“Yes, that is correct,” said the oracle, nodding.
“Can it kill an archdemon?”
The oracle frowned, his face wrinkling in thought. “I’m not certain. It has never been done.”
“But is it possible?”
“It is possible, but highly unlikely.”
That was good enough for me. “Can it cure Layla from the curse Lucian gave her or was Jenna lying about that?” I searched the oracle’s face. Somehow I knew he wouldn’t lie. Maybe he couldn’t. The thought did nothing to stop my anger from rising, but it made it happen a little more smoothly.
The tiny man nodded. “Yes. The Holy Grail can heal Layla of the dark curse.”
“Fine. I’ll get your Holy Grail.” I crossed my arms over my chest, finding the silence inside my chest eerie. “But on one condition.” Yeah, I was that kind of girl.
The oracle frowned and looked dubious. “What is your condition?”
“Okay, then,” I said, feeling slightly better. “Once Layla is cured, I want her to be marked like the rest of the angel-borns with an archangel sigil so that no other archdemon or demon or any other supernatural asshole can take advantage of her ever again.” I raised a brow. “Deal?”
The oracle’s face wrinkled into a smile, surprising me. “Consider it done. Is that all?”
Can I have my mortal life back? Though I had a feeling they couldn’t un-dead me. “That’s all.”
“Great!” the oracle clapped his hands together again. “Now,” he said and gestured with his hand, “if you’ll only step right up to the pool and jump in, you can begin your mission.”
My gaze fell on the small pool. I knew enough about angels to know they needed water to make the transition from the mortal world to Horizon. Looked like it went both ways.
I moved towards the small pool and climbed up the steps to the platform. Once I jumped in, my life would be forever changed. I would be changed.
As I stared at the water, a thought occurred to me. “If Jenna killed me… damn … my friends. My friends probably attacked her after they saw what she did.”
The oracle gave me a smile and waved off my concern. “You will be back in your new dark angel body seconds after she stabbed you. You will be able to stop them before things get out of hand.”
“Right.” Was I supposed to know this?
“It will feel like only a second has passed,” informed the tiny man.
“And I’ll remember who I am and this conversation. All of it?”
“Yes, of course. Jenna will be there to instruct you in our ways. Most rookie angels catch on fairly quickly. It’s not much different from what you were used to before.”
“Except for the living part,” I said.
“Good. Oh, and Rowyn?”
I looked up. “Yeah?”
“Be easy on Jenna,” said the oracle. “She’s only doing her job.”
I sighed. “I can’t promise anything.” I smiled.
“Very well,” said the oracle. “Until we meet again.”
And with a last look around the office, I braced myself and said, “Bottoms up,” as I leapt off the platform and plunged feet first into the pool of waiting water.
I waited for my feet to hit the bottom, but they never did. The water didn’t feel like normal water. It was thinner, more like a thick mist. When I realized I was holding my breath unnecessarily, I let go. White light exploded all around me. My body began to glow with fluorescent white light. I felt a tugging on my skin like I was being pulled apart from every direction.
With a burst of brilliant white light, my body disintegrated into millions of brilliant particles. My world shifted, and everything around me disappeared.
23
A thick white haze swallowed me. I had no idea how long it kept me. There was nothing but silence where I drifted, nothing but endless light. I wasn’t cold. I wasn’t warm. I wasn’t anything. No thought, no dreams, no anything.
Memory broke through the haze. I started remembering what had happened. It was like watching a series of movie clips inside my head. Each image was more vivid than the next—the stabbing, the trip to Horizon, the oracle, me as a dark angel, the nightmare.
Oh, God. I was an angel.
I blinked a few times. The heavy white haze drifted. I stood for a moment, confused and a little dizzy. The smells hit me first, the familiar scent of coffee and the slight musty smell of my grandmother’s house. I pried open my eyes, seeing black and white tile and the soft movement of a white curtain hanging from a window. The next thing I saw was Jenna’s terrified face. Her hazel eyes were wide, the biggest I’d ever seen them.
She stood exactly where I’d last seen her, inches from my chest. “It worked,” she breathed. “It really did.”
Panic hit me. I sucked in the air in giant heaves, only realizing seconds later that I didn’t need to. I didn’t need to breathe. Holy shit. It was real. It was all real. And I was back at the exact moment Jenna had just finished stabbing me.
Glad that my instincts were still intact, I whirled around and shot out my arm at Gareth.
“Don’t!” I shouted.
The elf froze, both hands out and both dripping with yellow-colored elf dust, a deadly blow no doubt.
“Don’t hurt her,” I said again, louder this time.
The elf’s expression shifted from anger to surprise and then finally to fear. Gareth was staring at me like it was the first time he’d ever laid eyes on me. A stranger’s gaze. His eyes moved from where Jenna had stabbed me to my face. His lips parted but he didn’t say anything. Somehow that made me feel worse.
“Holy mother of all demons. Rowyn, you’re a goddamn angel!” shrieked Tyrius. “How the hell did this happen!” The cat was running around my legs. He stopped and smelled my right leg. “You stink of angel. I don’t understand. You got stabbed and the next second you’re all glowing and stinking of angel?”
“Rowyn?” came Kora’s sweet voice. “What happened? We all saw the angel stab you… but where’s the dagger? And you’re not bleeding anymore.”
“Of course she’s not bleeding,” said Tyrius, his ears swiveling on the top of his head, eyes wide and looking slightly mad. “She’s a damn angel. An angel!” The cat made a face and a wheezing sound came out of his throat. He collapsed dramatically on the tile floor and pressed a paw to his chest. “I think I’m having a heart attack.”
Dark Angel Page 40