by Tamar Sloan
Arielle
Reign is the first to move, fracturing the stunned silence in the library as he steps backward. “I ain’t going down there.”
Arielle’s about to tell him this is what they came here for, but she quickly notices how pale he is. Her arm still tingles from where he grabbed her, trying to keep her safe. Something in her softens.
“I know this is all a bit scary, but we’re in this together.”
Reign’s bold, black brows shoot down, darkening his green eyes. “I don’t like pity.”
“Oh, I wasn’t—”
“Especially not from girls who think footwear is more important than treating others with respect.”
Arielle’s mouth snaps shut as her eyes narrow. “I would never pity someone with such a strong streak of asshole.” She turns to Gabby and Mac. “Shall we?”
Reign leaps between Arielle and the others. “You guys aren’t going, either! You have no idea what’s down there!”
“Well, there’s only one way to find out, ” says Mac, patting him on the shoulder.
Reign spins around to face her. “Please, you can’t go down there.”
The note of vulnerability in his voice tugs at Arielle. She frowns. Surely, she’s not so easily suckered in by a gorgeous face? Although he’s different with Mac, Reign has mostly been rude and obnoxious to Arielle, and here she is looking for any opportunity to see the good in him! What is wrong with her?
Except Mac doesn’t soften. Instead, she raises a brow. “This is the only way to get answers, and you know it.”
“I already have answers,” he snaps back.
“No, you don’t. You have a theory. One I intend on proving wrong.” She looks to Arielle. “Did you want to go first?”
Arielle glances from Reign to Mac, struck again at how intuitively these two seem to know each other. No wonder they’re dating. “Sure,” she says with far more confidence than she’s feeling.
But Gabby is already at the top of the stairs that have been revealed. “Actually, I’m going first.” She winks, trying to lighten the mood. “If there’s a boogeyman, I’ll take care of it.”
There’s no time to ask why Gabby would think she could deal with a boogeyman better than Arielle, because she begins to descend the stairs, the torch on her cell phone already lighting her way. With a quick glance at frowning Reign and smiling Mac, Arielle withdraws her torch from her backpack, and follows her. Mac comes next, blowing Reign a kiss.
“Dammit!” Arielle hears Reign behind them. “There’s no way I can let you go down there on your own.”
There’s a muffled giggle from Mac, and Arielle wonders if she knew this is exactly what Reign would do. She tells herself she’s fine with their close relationship. That the twinge in her chest is simply because a little part of her hopes she finds someone who is so in sync with her.
They all fall silent as darkness tries to envelop them, their torches slicing through the black. The stairs curve, the thick stone around them muffling the sounds of their footsteps. The air steadily cools, smelling musty and damp.
Arielle’s pulse feels louder and louder the further they descend. Reign was right—they have no idea what they’re walking into. What if this place is booby trapped? Her pulse leaps. What if this place has spiders?
“There had better not be spiders,” she mutters.
“There are most definitely spiders,” Reign calls from behind her. “Ones so fat they probably have cellulite and their bellies drag on the ground.”
“Their abdomen,” Mac corrects. “And I doubt you could see the cellulite under their exoskeleton.”
“Ignore them,” Gabby tells Arielle. “I’ll protect you, no matter how overweight the spiders are.”
Arielle runs her hand over the cool wall to her right, reminding herself she’s not in a dream. She gets why Reign is being so flippant—he doesn’t believe any of this is more than meets the eye. And Mac seems like the type of girl who’s seen too much to be easily rattled.
But she’s grown up with Gabby. How is she taking this in her stride so well? Even if she knew about Joseph and the Keepers of the Grail, how can she just forge into the bowels beneath the manor like this?
Suddenly, Gabby stops and Arielle almost crashes into her.
“We’re here,” her cousin says quietly.
Arielle steps around her, her feet resting on an expanse of stone floor. She senses Mac and Reign come to stand beside them. She can hear harsh breathing and she realizes it’s hers. A part of her wants to run straight back up the stairs and pretend none of this ever happened. A part of her knows she’s exactly where she’s supposed to be, right in this moment.
Fate has brought her here. Destiny is being forged. It’s both terrifying and exhilarating.
She lifts her torch and points it into the room and the others do the same. Four beams of light move around the space, traversing and transecting as they scope whatever it is they’ve discovered.
The room is circular, like the one above, with seven thick beams around the perimeter. Shelves line the walls, less numerous than the library, and gray with age. They appear to hold books and shadowy shapes, possibly artifacts of some sort. The center of the room is an empty stone expanse.
“Look.” Arielle points the beam of her cell torch onto the floor. The stones are arranged in a septagram, each tip of the star pointing toward a beam.
“I’m sensing a theme,” Mac jokes. She shines her own light around, trying to take it all in. “Man, this place is old.”
She’s right. The air is heavy with age, the stones feel ancient. Time rests patiently in this place, calm and undisturbed.
“Let’s have a look around,” Gabby suggests. “See what we can find.”
She steps right while Mac goes left. They both walk with purpose, like women at Walmart who know what they want, just not which aisle it’s located in. Reign remains by the entrance, his beam of light far more focused on the three of them than what’s on the shelves.
Arielle moves slowly around the circular space. The leather-bound tomes dotting the shelves feel like they’re old enough to have the answers to the meaning of life. There are vases, statues carved out of stone, a large sword in a scabbard. Arielle’s mind struggles to process it all. To grasp what any of this means.
What does this have to do with her mother’s disappearance?
“Should we even touch any of this stuff?” Mac asks in awe.
Reign snorts. “How else are we going to hock it to a museum?”
Gabby points her beam of light at his eyes, making him squint and raise his arm. “That’s not remotely funny. There’s stuff in here humans wouldn’t even know exists.”
Arielle’s about to ask her cousin how she could possibly know that when she passes one of the beams. She stops and retraces a step. Surely it couldn’t be…
Just like the ones upstairs, these beams have also been carved. But not with a small symbol. Large, sweeping lines soar up the stone, reaching a point. Strange lines, like rune symbols, run down the length.
Arielle brushes her hand over it. “An obelisk.”
Gabby’s by her side in an instant. “Did you say an obelisk?”
Her pulse suddenly thrumming, Arielle rushes to each beam. Every one of them has an obelisk carved into it. “Just like the ones in my dream.”
“You’ve dreamed about these?” Mac asks. “How is that possible?”
“I don’t know.” Arielle frowns. “I don’t understand what any of this means,” she murmurs, talking to herself more than anyone else.
“I do. Obelisks are keys,” Gabby says solemnly. “Keys to the Gates of Hell.”
Mac appears beside her. “Did you just say the Gates of Hell?”
Gabby nods. “Open a Gate of Hell and demons will be released onto Earth.”
There’s a snort from beside the entry. “There are no such thing as demons,” Reign scoffs.
“Demons,” Arielle whispers, pressing her fingertips to her temple. “Gat
es of Hell.” She takes a faltering step backward. “It’s all too much. All I want to do is find my mom.”
“Unless this is what got Sierra kidnapped.”
Gabby’s words punch through Arielle, her breath drawing in sharply. “What? Why would you say that?”
Her cousin seems to hesitate, but then she squares her shoulders. “Last year, I came back from boarding school a day early. I went to your house to surprise you, but you weren’t home. But Sierra was.”
Arielle remembers that day. It had been a wonderful surprise. But the flush of happiness she’d felt in that moment doesn’t wash through her. There’s a note in Gabby’s voice that has Arielle tensing. Her words sound like a…confession.
“She quickly shuffled away some papers she’d been reading.” Gabby’s gaze slips away. “So, of course, when she went to get us something to eat while we waited for you, I peeked. The pages had notes all over them.” She looks back at Arielle, her hazel eyes heavy with truth. “She was researching demons. There was even stuff on the first humans.”
“No.” Arielle shakes her head. “Mom is a history lecturer. She never mentioned any of this.”
“Your mom isn’t just a historian, she’s an occultist, Arielle.” Gabby’s arm sweeps around the room. “She believed in all of this.”
“Demons? The first humans, as in Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve?” Reign asks incredulously. “This is the lamest conspiracy theory I’ve ever heard,” he says angrily. “Shadowy organizations, gates to the underworld, is the Devil going to make an appearance soon?”
“You need to have an open mind,” Mac tells him. “Too much weird stuff has been happening, and you know it.”
“So far, all you people have are half-baked theories, a bunch of assumptions, and stuff written down by people who believe in magic. You’re joining dots that belong in different zipcodes.” Reign leans forward, anger seeming to vibrate through him. “You. Have. No. Hard. Proof.”
“Zip it, Reign,” Gabby snaps. She glances at Arielle. “I can see why he gets on your nerves so much.”
Before Arielle can answer, Gabby takes two steps backward. “I know this is all true,” she says with conviction. “Because of this.”
There’s a strange sound of rustling, and in the space of a blink, massive white wings unfurl behind her. Gabby draws a deep breath in, and the wings move with her, impossibly expanding some more as she exhales.
Stunned silence slams through the secret room. Arielle blinks. Everything feels like it just contracted. The space around her. The air. All the things she was sure of in this world.
Because before her are two magnificent wings, and they belong to her cousin. Each feather glistens in the pale beams of the torches, as if it’s been dipped in ivory. Luminous, they seem to generate their own light, casting a soft glow around Gabby. Despite the surreal moment, they’re undeniably, inexplicably real.
“You know what?” Reign says in disgust. “I’m outta here.”
He’s gone before anyone can object, Mac rushing after him. “Reign! Wait!”
Arielle is left, alone, with Gabby. Her cousin who just revealed herself to be an angel.
“I…” Arielle starts, only to realize her mind is blank. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Ta da,” Gabby says in a meek, quiet voice.
“You’re…an angel.”
Arielle isn’t sure whether it’s a question or a statement. She’s not sure whether she’s even awake right now.
“I wanted to tell you, Ari. I almost did, so many times.”
“How many, Gabby?” Arielle takes a step back, reality hitting her like a tidal wave. “How many lies has our relationship been based on?”
Not giving her cousin a chance to respond, Arielle takes a step back. “I need a moment.”
She races up the stairs.
How can she ever trust her again?
15
Reign
Reign has just yanked the door to the library open, desperate to get away from this mansion as quickly as possible, when he almost slams into Auden.
Auden rears back, panic spearing across his face. “Did she not make it in time? Is there a mess?” The panic flares. “Has she collapsed?”
“No,” Reign snaps, only to modulate his voice. He quickly draws the door shut, conscious the opening to the downstairs chambers of holy-hell-what-did-I-just-see is still open.
“She’s...ah, not feeling much better. We’re leaving.”
Auden slumps with relief. “I think that would be best.” He points to a door at the other end of the corridor. “That will take you straight back to the entrance.”
Reign nods. “We can make our way out.”
Auden smiles at him for the first time since Reign arrived, ironically when he told the tour guide he’s leaving. Not that Reign cares. He just saw an—he stops his train of thought. He’s pretty sure he never wants to think again.
Auden rushes off again, no doubt off to continue his tour. Assuming things are normal. Clueless as to what this mansion has been sitting above all these centuries.
Reign almost envies him.
He’s about to step away when the door behind him opens. Mac stands there, her caramel skin pale. “What the fu—”
“Outside,” says Reign.
She nods, realizing this is a conversation that can’t be overheard, and they silently make their way out. Just like Auden said it would, the door leads them to the porch. Reign can’t get out of the mansion quick enough.
Once he’s down the steps of the porch, he turns right, figuring the gardens will afford them some privacy. Except, he’s only made it a few yards when he spins around to face Mac.
“It wasn’t just me, was it?” Reign asks in a harsh whisper. “You saw the wings, too, didn’t you?”
Even as he asks the question, he isn’t sure what he wants the answer to be. If it’s a no, then he’s more batshit crazy than he thought. He’ll need to walk straight out of here and into a straight jacket.
But if it’s a yes…
“Yeah. I saw those whopping feathered appendages, too.” She sighs. “Gabby’s an angel.”
There’s a low brick wall bordering a garden bed beside him, and Reign sits heavily on it. They need to stay close to the entrance, anyway, for when Arielle exits. And Gabby.
Suddenly, Reign’s glad he’s sitting down. His legs feel like they just turned into jello. He realizes he hasn’t seen Joseph since they went down there. The hallucination had done a recon of the room, slumped his shoulders and disappeared. Reign’s relieved. Maybe now that his brain has enough to process with the whole angel thing, it’s decided to give him a break. There’s only so many times a person can visit wackyville in a lifetime.
Mac flops down next to him. “I didn’t see anything that looks like a cup.”
“Because there’s no such thing as the Holy Grail,” Reign snaps.
“I’m pretty sure you would’ve said that about angels until about ten minutes ago,” Mac points out. “You’re going to have to face facts.”
But Reign is already shaking his head. “Gabby can go be an angel, if she wants.” He kicks at a stone. “But I ain’t no Grail Keeper.”
Mac sighs in frustration. “So you can believe Gabby is one of God’s angels, but not that you’re a descendant of those entrusted to keep the Holy Grail safe?”
Reign doesn’t bother to explain. Some things are in the realms of shit that could happen. Others are just…impossible.
Mac shoots to her feet, pacing. “You can be so stubborn!”
Reign doesn’t answer. In part, because it’s true. But mostly because Joseph just appeared again.
He stands before Reign, imploring him as he extends his arms. “It is time you listened, Grail Keeper. Angels exist, just as demons do. You must understand what is at stake here.”
“Not. Now,” Reign grinds out, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. “Just leave me alone, Joseph.”
“The big J is here?” Mac a
sks, her voice alive with curiosity. “What’s he saying?”
“That you have a great ass.”
“I said no such thing,” Joseph says, affronted. “This girl has no mule.”
Reign squeezes his eyes closed, pressing his hands in even harder. Is this what happened to Lance? Does he fight this, or just accept the inevitable?
“There you are,” Arielle says with relief.
Reign jumps to his feet. “We needed some air.”
“Tell me about it.” She rubs her forehead, looking as strained as Reign feels. “That was intense.”
“Yeah, talk about a paradigm shift,” says Mac. She eyes Arielle. “You gonna sprout wings, too?”
Arielle shakes her head. “I’m just like you guys. Human.”
Mac shrugs one shoulder. “Mildly disappointing, to be honest.”
Reign is struck by the way Arielle’s flame blue eyes seem to swallow her face. She looks fragile. Lost.
“Your mom is missing?” he asks quietly, conscious that he made some assumptions about her that haven’t held up.
She nods. “She was kidnapped. Yesterday.”
Reign hides his wince. On the day he almost hit her trying to get away from the cops.
“She’s part of the serial abductions?” Mac asks quietly. “That’s awful.”
Arielle’s eyes shine with unshed tears. “I’m an only child. She raised me on her own. All I want to do is find her.” She frowns. “And now Gabby’s been lying to me our whole lives.”
“You two seem pretty close,” says Mac. “My guess is she wouldn’t have done that without a good reason.”
Arielle looks away. “That’s not what matters right now. I’m no closer to finding my mom,” she chokes.
Reign’s heart constricts. He knows how it feels to lose a parent. There’s a tear inside his heart that will never be healed. He takes a tentative step forward, wondering if Arielle would accept any comfort from him, but determined to try. The pain in her eyes is almost unbearable.
Except Gabby’s voice spears through the aching space between them. “Your mom knew about the Keepers of the Grail. It has everything to do with this.”