by G. P. Ching
He arrived alone and made his way to the conference room on the second floor with haste, pausing for only a moment to greet Archibald as the garden gnome had developed an affinity for him and snubbing a garden gnome was a particularly bad idea. Outside the door, he halted at the sharp bark of argued words.
“It’s insane,” Grace yelled.
“It’s our only hope,” Malini countered.
“I must agree with Grace. How could you even consider it? Have you stopped to think you are giving Lucifer exactly what he wants?”
A pregnant pause peaked his curiosity. Paper rustled. Someone coughed.
“The surest way to ruin someone is to give them exactly what they want.” Malini’s voice was crystal clear, firm, confident. Dane had rarely heard such surety in her before.
Abigail piped up. “Malini, have you seen a future where you are successful?”
“I’ve seen our path but not our success,” Malini responded. “You must remember that I cannot see my own future.”
“So, you can’t guarantee Grace’s fears won’t become our new reality,” Master Lee added.
“In life, there are no guarantees. You know that. We’ve always trusted in the greater good.” A hint of anger or maybe frustration laced her words. “The Soulkeepers had no guarantee Abigail would thwart Lucifer’s plan last summer either, but she did. Every path is riddled with choices and consequences. For most of the last week, I’ve spent every waking hour working this out. I am certain we cannot afford to be reactive any longer. The time has come for us to take up the gauntlet.”
Grace made a noise like a cynical grunt.
Eavesdropping wasn’t Dane’s forte. Time to face this thing head on. He knocked three times.
When the door opened, Gideon stood on the other side, looking tired as if he was coming down with something. He didn’t say hello, but nodded his head slightly before moving out of the way. His eyes shifted downward. Had Dane done something wrong?
Inside, the others acted just as strange. Grace and Master Lee fidgeted, eyes shifting away, fingers knotting together. Lillian’s shoulders slumped forward. He’d seen people look like this before, but he couldn’t put his finger on when. At the window behind them, Abigail turned to fix him with an almost icy stare, worthy of her days as a fallen angel. Malini, leaning up against the credenza, was the only one to give him a warm, although small, smile. The room was eerily quiet, and he hesitated to say hello, afraid to break whatever spell rendered them silent.
“Hello, Dane,” Malini murmured. “I’m sorry for the tension. What we must talk about isn’t easy and concerns you.”
“This concerns all of us,” Grace snapped, shooting daggers at Malini.
Again, the thick silence rolled through the room like a tide.
“Well, if it concerns me, I’m ready to hear it,” Dane said.
Malini pushed off the credenza and gestured toward one of the chairs at the table. “Please, sit.”
He shook his head. “I prefer to stand. I spent a lifetime in a fetal position on a slab of brimstone. Never again. From now on, I face my challenges head on, standing on my own two feet.”
“Understandable.” Malini rubbed her hands together in the way she did when she had something difficult to say. Her small brown palms pressed together in front of her ribcage, one slightly on top of the other, sliding back and forth in a slow rhythm.
“Out with it,” he insisted, his eyes drilling into her. He didn’t have time for this. Not with a Soulkeeper dying in the back of his head and a Watcher coming for him in a matter of days.
Malini nodded. “Your gift is exceptionally powerful, Dane. One I struggled to understand at first.”
“Yeah.”
“You can borrow Soulkeeper powers for a time, and who knows what else.”
“Yeah.”
“In seven days, Auriel is going to show up at the back of your property, and she’s going to expect you to have me with you. She’ll want to take both of us to Nod, where she will likely imprison me and try to kill you and Cheveyo.”
“The problem at hand,” Dane muttered.
“We’ve spent enough time reacting to Lucifer’s attacks, dodging his advancing trickery. The Soulkeepers need to take the offensive. The time has come for us to attack him where he lives.”
Dane placed his hands on his hips and tilted his head inquisitively.
“I want you to be our Trojan horse.” Malini took a step toward him, not breaking eye contact. “I want to allow Auriel to take us to Nod and attack the Watchers from the inside.”
His mouth dropped open. He closed it. Reaching behind him, he pulled out the chair he’d said he didn’t want or need and allowed his knees to give out. He plunked down hard. Minutes ticked by in silence until laughter rumbled from his chest, breaking the spell.
“You must be joking,” he cried.
She shook her head. “You can borrow the other Soulkeepers’ powers. Every Watcher we kill is one less in Lucifer’s arsenal. He can’t make new followers unless an angel is dumb enough to fall from grace. We hit him where he lives and scare the Watchers underground again. It’s the only way.”
“No…No…you must be joking! Having Lillian’s weapons gift inside of me for an hour was one thing. Sure, my power gave me her instincts but not her experiences. Who knows if I could actually do anything with her gift in a combat situation? But to hold six separate gifts inside of my head, along with Cheveyo, and somehow use them to our advantage seems incredibly optimistic. I get the Trojan horse thing, Malini, but this is farfetched, even for you.”
“Not six. Bonnie and Samantha’s gift is shared between the two and wouldn’t be useful to you. Plus we need them to carry on the Soulkeeper line should we fail.”
“We don’t know if I can hold more than one power at a time.”
“You had Lillian’s and Cheveyo’s.”
“We don’t know how long it will last.”
“You’ve had Cheveyo for a week.”
“We don’t know if I’m strong enough to wield that kind of power in a battle situation.”
“We can practice. We have seven days for you to learn how to fight.”
“If I die in Nod, the Soulkeepers could lose their powers.”
“Yes.”
“And their Healer!”
“Yes.”
Close now, she met his eyes with her warm chocolate ones and seemed to look right into his soul.
“I’m not strong enough, Malini.”
“You are stronger than you think. The world needs a hero, Dane, and everything in me tells me you’re him. Do you think I’d risk my life if I didn’t believe we had a chance?”
“A small chance,” Grace said. “A tiny, chance. You will be surrounded by thousands of Watchers. No matter how many of them you take out, the chances of getting out of Nod alive are next to nothing.”
Lillian cocked her head to the side. “Why do you have to do that, Grace?”
“What?”
“Ride Malini like that. Do you think if she saw any other way she’d be putting Dane or herself at risk? You have the least to lose but are making the most noise.”
Grace huffed. “Least to lose? If she fails, we lose our Healer! It will be up to the girls and me to continue the fight on our own. What kind of position does that put us in?”
“The only position we have a choice to be in,” Abigail stated, turning from the window. “We are Soulkeepers. Malini is right. We have to be proactive. We can’t hide safely in Eden while Lucifer has his way with human souls.”
“Says the woman who hides safely in Eden,” Grace snarked.
Gideon took a step toward her. “Don’t you think if we had any power we’d be on the frontlines? Administering this school is the best way for us to help right now. Out there, at war, we’d be a liability. Lucifer has spent more than a millennium trying to get his hooks into Abigail, and you know it.”
Master Lee leaned back in his chair and threaded his fingers across his stomac
h. “I think what Grace is trying to say is that all of us are in this together. It is her prerogative to worry for Malini and Dane as much as for her own life and the Soulkeepers in general. We all know this is a long shot, practically a suicide mission. Something this serious is worthy of discussion by the council.”
Dane slapped his hand down on the table. Six pairs of eyes swung in his direction. “I’ll go first. I can’t do this. My father is ill and in the hospital. I have three hundred acres of corn that need to be harvested in a matter of weeks. I’ve already missed too much school. And there is no way...” He swallowed hard. “There is no way I’m going back to Hell. I’m sorry, Malini. I just can’t.”
He might have been mistaken, but he could have sworn Malini paled slightly before an emotionless mask snapped into place. She glanced from one council member to the next, but no one, not even Abigail, would meet her eyes.
“Well then, I respectfully request the council come up with a plan to deal with Auriel. While you are at it, you should know that Harrington Enterprises has contaminated water with elixir all over the country. As far as I can tell, Lucifer is just waiting for the right moment to make his move, and he’s primed for invasion.”
Dane’s head snapped up, and six pairs of eyes locked on Malini.
“How will Dane’s likely death and your capture possibly stop that?” Grace asked cynically.
“The Watchers are a self-serving breed. We take out enough of them, and Lucifer will be afraid to put any more of his limited followers at risk. He’ll pull the ones who are topside back to regroup.”
“You hope,” Master Lee chimed in.
Malini nodded slowly. “Oh, and Dane,” Malini said, “I worry you won’t make it to harvest with Cheveyo rotting inside your head.” She didn’t say it in a mean way, just matter of fact. And she was right. Dane had forgotten all about the wisp of a soul at the back of his skull. Maybe his mistake was thinking he could go backward in time, to before he was a Soulkeeper. Things weren’t so simple anymore.
Breathing deeply in the awkward silence that ensued, Dane spread his fingers on the table. He realized now where he had seen the expressions around him before, the slumped shoulders and shifting eyes. People at funerals acted this way. This was a preemptive funeral…his.
“It seems my life isn’t my own anymore,” he said. “Malini is right; I need to get Cheveyo’s body back. He’s dying inside my head. I can barely wake him up anymore. There’s some poetic justice to using Lucifer’s scheme against him. We need to send a message that if he messes with us, we’ll mess with him. And you’re right, Malini, this is our one advantage. Lucifer doesn’t know about me or Cheveyo.”
“What are you saying?” Grace asked.
Dane sighed. “I’m saying, in the grand scheme of things, three hundred acres of corn is less important than who knows how many souls.” He ran a thumb over his eyebrow. “She’s right, I’m probably dead anyway if I don’t get Cheveyo out of me.”
A tear escaped Malini’s eye, and she wiped it away. This wasn’t easy for her, and it was her life on the line too.
He looked Grace directly in the eye. “I’m saying, I’m in.”
Lillian placed a hand over her heart. “Let’s put it to a vote. If we are going to do this, I need to start training with Dane as soon as possible. All those in favor?”
A terribly long time passed before the first hand went up.
Chapter 25
Lost
After a surreal moment of watching each member of the council reluctantly agree, one by one, to his mission, Dane found himself in the atrium of the school staring up at the mural of Adam and Eve. Weak kneed and somewhat dazed, two words kept crawling through his brain: seven days. A week seemed a short time to live. He’d known something like this was coming since he’d used the red stone. He’d even invited death on occasion to save him from having to deal with his feelings for Ethan and his problems on the farm. But now that a time and date were involved, he was less enthusiastic about the idea of cutting out early on the people he loved.
“Awfully small fig leaf, don’t you think?” Beside him, Ethan’s mischievous smirk made him seem younger than his nineteen years.
Dane’s throat constricted, and try as he might he couldn’t return his friend’s smile.
“What? What’s wrong, Dane? You look like someone died.”
Words failed him. Anyway, he wasn’t supposed to say anything. Lillian would tell everyone about the council’s plan at the same time. But, for reasons Dane didn’t want to admit, opening up to Ethan seemed critical in a last-chance-ever kind of way. His pulse throbbed at his neck, and his eyes prickled with the intensity of his need to come clean. With his breath caught in his throat, he just didn’t know where to start.
As always, Ethan responded as if hardwired to Dane’s brain. He pulled Dane into a hug and whispered into his ear, “It’s going to be all right. Whatever happened, I’m here for you. It’ll be okay.”
Dane hugged him back, hard, thinking he didn’t deserve this kind of love. That’s what this was, love. He was sure of it now. The way Ethan was there for him unconditionally, knowing his feelings might never be returned and not giving a damn about himself. Auriel found Ethan’s feelings for Dane repulsive. What other proof did he need they were true?
“Ethan!” Lillian jogged toward them, tagging his friend’s shoulder. “Lecture hall, now.”
Meeting his gaze, Ethan gestured in the direction of the room.
Dane shook his head. “Just you this time.” He didn’t need to go. The other Soulkeepers would need space and time when they realized the repercussions.
Vexed by this news, Ethan trudged toward the lecture hall, eyes narrowing before they tore away. Dane watched the others siphon through the door and decided he couldn’t stand to be still a moment longer—not when he wanted to climb out of his own skin. Instead, he decided a long walk in the garden would be the best prescription for his nervous energy.
* * * * *
Jacob emerged from the lecture hall nearing hysterics. Lillian hadn’t even finished sharing the council’s plan, but he couldn’t hear any more. The proposed mission was choking him, and he wouldn’t breathe again until he could talk some sense into Malini.
“Where is she?” he demanded from Archibald, almost plowing into the gnome as he rushed from the lecture hall.
“Down by the docks, Master Jacob,” the gnome said.
Jacob didn’t say thank you. No time for pleasantries.
“Jacob!” Abigail called from behind him.
He shook his head and shot her a deadly glare on his way out the door. “How could you, Dr. Silva? How dare you?”
She stopped short as if he’d gut punched her. Well, she deserved that if she’d had any part in this.
Jacob raced for the dock and found Malini sitting cross-legged in front of the water. He should have guessed she’d be here. This is where she came to meditate and contemplate the hard choices she had to make. He didn’t even attempt to move quietly into her serene space. He stomped toward her, heart pounding, breath coming in pants, and scooped her up into his arms.
“No, Malini. No. I won’t let you do this. Not this time,” he fumed. Tears stormed his cheeks unchecked. There was no way she could survive this, and he wouldn’t, he couldn’t, let her go.
“Jacob,” Malini said sympathetically, “this is who I am and what I have to do. A leader has to be the first to serve.”
“No.” He shook his head. “It would be one thing if I could go with you. We could die together. That’s how it’s supposed to be. But this is too much to ask of me. I can’t sit here, powerless, waiting to find out if you live or die. I won’t.” He sobbed openly.
“You have to, Jacob. There’s a chance, if they kill Dane, your power will return to you, and the world will need you even more.”
He cupped her face in his hands, running his thumbs along her jawline. “I don’t care about the world, Malini! Don’t you see how wrong this is? We’re
supposed to graduate together and go off to the same college, then get married and have a dozen Soulkeeper children. You are supposed to be our queen, our Healer, the one we protect at all costs.”
Despondent, Malini wrapped her hands around Jacob’s on her cheeks. “It’s a beautiful future you paint for us, Jacob, but what if Lucifer decides to set up shop topside? We won’t graduate because we’ll be too busy surviving, and if we have children someday, we’ll constantly live in fear they’ll be eaten by the enemy. We need to send a message to the devil that if he messes with our world, we’ll mess with his.”
“It hurts.” Jacob rubbed his chest over his heart.
“I know.” Malini placed her hand over his on his chest and a wave of warmth and light flowed through him. It was impossible to stay sullen with that type of joy pumping into you, and even though he knew it was the effect of her power, he wiped his eyes and managed a small, uneven smile.
* * * * *
Dane was lost. He was sure he’d come out of the jungle near the pineapple-shaped palm tree. Only, once he’d taken a few running steps down the white sandy beach he’d happened upon, every palm tree looked like a pineapple. Considering the path he’d traversed from the school was overgrown and barely visible, finding it again without a landmark proved a challenge. So, he ran, panting, until he couldn’t run anymore, and then planted his rear on a large piece of driftwood. Who knew that on this side of Eden there was an ocean? Waves rolled in, foamed across the sand to the toes of his shoes, and then receded, leaving seaweed and seashells behind.
“The Divine Sea. So good to see a student enjoying it again.”
Dane startled at the sight of Archibald sitting next to him, the brim of his pointy green hat rotating through the pads of his meaty fingers. When did he get here?
“Hello, Archibald. I’m so happy to see you.” He meant to add because I’m lost but stopped short at the gnome’s widening grin. He didn’t think he should qualify the greeting. It was enough, for now, simply to appreciate the gnome’s presence.