Instruments of the Angels (Hallows & Nephilim: Waters Dark and Deep #1)

by Monica Leonelle

  They entered the church and it looked just as Brie expected—rows of pews, several parishioners, and lots of ornate religious people and symbols. Her parents had never taken her to church, but her mother’s funeral was at a church.

  “Now, I want you to tell me what you see.”

  “People, statues, pews,” Brie said.

  “Great,” Cora said. “This is the earthlie dimension, or the dimension that most humans experience. We all live in this physical reality, but those of us who are Hallows and Nephilim, descendants of archangels and archdemons, can access the higher dimensions as well.”

  “How do we do that?” Brie asked.

  “This dimension has a sheen over it,” Cora said. “You have to peel it back, to see the layer of reality above it. I’m trying to think of an earthlie corollary.” She paused. “It’s a lot like when you go to the eye doctor and they have you look through different lenses. With each lens, your eye must adjust just slightly. You can control whether you are in focus or blurry, though.”

  Brie frowned; those directions didn’t seem overly helpful. She tried to take in everything that Cora had just said, attempting to adjust her eyes.

  “It’s not working,” she said.

  “Try again,” Cora insisted. “It may take a few tries to get the hang of it.”

  Brie closed her eyes, then opened them again. Finally she saw it—the shift in focus, as if she had always been looking up close and now could see far away. She could see what Cora meant by the sheen over the earthlie dimension—it was like a clear saran wrap, and when she refocused her eyes

  “I see it,” she said.

  “Perfect,” Cora said. “Now be it.”

  Brie allowed her eyes to focus fully into the dimension above, allowed her body to feel it. Around her, her physical reality shifted from soft, yellow lights to a shaded white-grey mixed with blue. The pews and people disappeared, replaced with a new set of statues. On the left, seven archangels with proud, open, and nurturing stances, and on the right, seven archdemons fierce and ready to fight.

  “Whoa,” Brie said, barely believing what she was seeing.

  “We’re the only ones here,” Cora said. “That’s a good sign. She stepped forward. “This is the archangel Remy’s dimension, which she shares with the archdemon Bella.”

  “And all of these archangels have their own?”

  Cora nodded. She walked over to a statue in the front, on the left, of a tall, fierce soldier wearing battle gear and holding a sword. “They get harder and harder to access as you move up, even if you have the blood to do so.”

  She looked up at the statue. “Long ago, there were two archangels in the Aerial Spires—Heaven, as most earthlies would call it. The archangels were named Michael and Luci. Michael, of course, is the archangel mentioned numerous times in various religious books, like the Bible and the Qur’an. You’ve heard of him, right?”

  She nodded.

  “And Luci refers to the archdemon, Lucifer. Or rather, Lucifer refers to Luci. In the days when these tales were written down, earthlies did not consider women equal to men, so all the archangels’ names were changed to sound more masculine.

  “Michael and Luci were co-commanders of the angel army in the Aerial Spires. Marriage is illegal there, but you could describe their relationship as similar to a marriage. They were each other’s second allegiance, after their first allegiance to Theos, of course.”

  “Who is Theos?” Brie asked.

  “You might know him as God,” Cora said. “Theos created a new race—humans—in his own likeness. The humans were like children, helpless and weak on their own, but meant to rule above the Chorus—the hierarchy of angels in the Aerial Spires.

  “You can probably imagine how this would upset the Chorus, having to care for and wait on a weaker race than their own. Michael and Luci stood at the center of the controversy, their followers waiting for them to decide whether the army would maintain their allegiance to Theos. Michael was resolute in his purpose and saw no reason to question Theos. Luci, however, shared her doubts openly. Without Michael’s knowledge, she met with another god, Diabo, in hopes of striking a deal.

  “When Michael found out about Luci’s betrayal, his anger was immeasurable. Luci had broken both her first and second allegiances by meeting with Diabo. Knowing that he and Luci could never see eye to eye again, Michael challenged Luci to a death battle for sole control of their combined army. The battle lasted many years, as archangels are difficult to kill, and Luci had the help of a rebel faction within the army who did not want to stay in the Aerial Spires. Eventually, Michael cornered Luci, but he realized he couldn’t kill his companion, the woman he’d loved and fought alongside for many millennia. Instead, he spared her life but cast her out of the Aerial Spires for all eternity.”

  “What happened to her?” she asked.

  “Luci was weak when she left the Aerial Spires and had no means to take care of the rebel faction that followed her. The archangels needed energy to survive—energy that could only be given by a god. Luci turned to Diabo for help, and he made her a terrible deal. He would take care of her faction of angels and reinstate her as commander of a new army, the archdemons. In return, she would help Diabo steal the minds and souls of his brother’s children—his precious humans.

  Diabo sent his most trusted archdemons, seven in total, down from the Infernal Spires to create a new army on earth—a hybrid breed who would fight to claim human souls on a daily basis. This hybrid race was named the Nephilim.”

  “When Michael learned of the Nephilim, he realized that he too needed an army on the ground if he wanted to protect Theos’ human souls. Michael gathered his six most trusted warriors and took a piece from each of their hearts to form six stones. He sent the stones to earth, along with a stone from his own heart. The seven stones, when fully-formed to their earthlie sizes, stacked on top of each other in a stable arch, with Michael’s stone creating the keystone at the top center. The arch was placed somewhere in what would now be considered Western Europe—the exact location has been lost over the centuries. Any human child under one year of age could stand under the arch and be blessed by a flood of water that poured from the stones. If the child survived, he or she would carry the blood of one of the seven archangels—a bloodline that would flow through his or her descendants for as long as they reproduced, making them as strong as the archangels while keeping their humanity and souls intact.”

  “And that’s us,” Brie said. “Hallows.”

  Cora stared at her. “Brie, you’re one of the rarest Hallows of all, born of blood of the archangel Michael himself. You are one of the last remaining daughters of Michael, just like your mother. And that means that you will have enemies—people who want to kill you, people who want to use you, people who want to trade you for their own gain.”

  “Like the blonde girl?” Brie asked.

  Cora chuckled. “No. The blonde girl is a different mystery. She’s not likely to hurt you, but you also can’t trust her judgment. She’s a little… erratic.”

  “Who is she?” Brie asked.

  “Someone you shouldn’t worry about,” Cora said. She took Brie’s hand and guided her back to the center of the room. “We should get going. I brought you here to show you proof of your powers, and to talk where no one could hear us. But we shouldn’t linger. Clara will be finished scouting, and we need to get you back to school.”

  “I still have a lot of questions,” Brie said.

  “We’ll answer them. In time. Come on.”

  Cora squeezed Brie’s hand and gently pulled her back into the earthlie dimension. For Brie, it was like wrapping a Christmas present in cellophane. Now that she knew what to look for, she could still see the gift underneath, still guess at the shape and size, but there was a sheen placed over it, concealing it.

  As the earthlie dimension came back into view, so did Clara.

  “I found something odd,” she reported back in a whisper. “An arch fusion.”
<
br />   “What is that?” Brie asked.

  “A vibrational hotspot of sorts,” Cora explained. “It’s rare—possibly left by a Hunter or someone similar. It’s basically a huge and dense energy signature and often indicates someone who is traveling between the dimensions quickly.”

  “Okay. Well, what’s a Hunter?” Brie asked.

  “Someone who looks for things for other supernaturals,” Clara said. “Usually people. Better hope it’s not you. You’ll be dead in days without Thessa’s help.”

  “Stop scaring her,” Cora said.

  “I’m just answering her questions.”

  “You have nothing to worry about, Brie. We’re going to keep watching all of this and strengthen our protections around buildings you and your brother frequent.”

  “Are we going to be okay?” Brie asked.

  Cora smiled. “We’ll do everything we can to protect you.” She held out a hand to Brie. “Ready to go back to school?”

  “Is that really the most productive place I can be right now?” she asked. It seemed to her that if someone was potentially trying to kill her, she should probably start figuring out how to defend herself.

  Clara nodded her head. “The best thing you can do to protect yourself is go back to your normal life. Be as un-Hallow as you can possibly be, and stay out of the spotlight as much as possible.”

  “It probably sounds counterintuitive,” Cora said, “but Clara’s right. Your best advantage is that no one in the Archworld knows who you are, and no one besides the two of us has seen your powers. You need to blend right now. Pretend your normal.”

  Great, she thought to herself.

  Staying out of the spotlight, blending, and acting like a normal person were not exactly her top strengths.

  She took Cora’s hand and felt a chill come over her entire body.

  Whoosh!

  Within seconds, she was back in the hallways of DeRosa Academy, as if nothing had happened.

  Chapter 7 - Pilot

  He was supposed to be doing homework—that's why the entire water polo team had to take a library hour during the fall. With morning practice, after school practice, and some evening practices, Coach wanted to make sure the team kept their grades up.

  But Pilot couldn't concentrate on school work—not with everything else he had going on. He hadn't seen Brie all day, and he had no idea how she was handling the Zoey Fromme breaking news about her.

  He hadn't slept much either, and he was starting to feel his body wearing down, his concentration slipping. The dreams haunted him during daylight hours as well as night; they replayed in all their vividness at random times throughout the day, usually when he was supposed to be focused on something else.

  But he wanted to pull it together, not just for himself, but for his sister too. He needed to set a good example for her so she could avoid his mistakes… so she didn't turn to the same escapist activities that he had used to numb himself when they used to live in the UES.

  He needed to be there for her. And he didn’t know if the pills Justin had given him earlier that day would help or hurt his cause.

  He thought back to Rykken’s advice to him. Take the pills, don’t take the pills… what matters is, how serious are you about changing?

  He still didn’t have the answer to that. He knew what he wanted, and he knew what was calling him, and he still didn’t know the right answer.

  He turned back to the paper he was supposed to be researching, about volcanoes. He glanced down at the first question and started typing aimlessly in his browser to search for some resources. He hit enter, still thinking about his dream.

  “What’s that?” Justin’s voice rang out behind him, loud and obnoxious as always, startling him out of his thoughts.

  “Dude, sit down,” he said. “You’re distracting everyone.”

  It was true. Several people at the tables around them had looked up from their work. But Justin wasn’t the type of guy to care about that.

  Justin dropped his bag on the table with a loud thump. “Are you looking up our Friday night plans?” he asked.

  “What are you talking about?” Pilot asked. “I’m looking up—” He stopped, staring at his laptop in disbelief.

  A full-screen picture of the club that kept repeating in his dreams had somehow come up in his search.

  He stared blankly at his screen, not remembering that he typed Trinitas into his search bar, even though the evidence was plain to see.

  “It’s on the other side of Oahu, according to maps,” Justin continued, swiping frenetically on his phone. Not exactly easy to check out, but I could drive.”

  Pilot shut the top of his laptop. “We’re not going anywhere. I don’t even know how that came up.”

  “Heh. Maybe you were having a bad dream again.”

  Pilot looked up too sharply at the words “bad dreams,” giving away how much it had freaked him out, even if just for a second.

  Justin grinned wickedly. Pilot wondered if there was a direct correlation between someone else’s discomfort and Justin’s happiness. Schadenfreude and all.

  “You know, you have a glass at your house with that logo on it,” Justin said.

  “What?” Pilot said, still feeling dazed.

  “Yeah. It was in your dad’s cabinet. I don’t know, we were drinking or something.”

  Pilot looked at Justin. “You’re sure?”

  “Yeah,” Justin said, laughing. “With a name like Trinitas, I think I’d remember. What does that mean, anyway?” He sat down next to him, grabbing Pilot’s laptop and opening the screen again.

  Pilot shrugged. “Maybe my dad knows something about this place. And you’re right, it’s been showing up in my dreams.”

  “Huh,” Justin said.

  “If you give me—”

  “Calm down, calm down,” Justin said. “I’m not going to make fun of you. Just tell me.”

  “My mom was there, at this place, Trinitas. Maybe it’s because she’s been there in real life too. You know, before she died.”

  “Ooh,” Justin said. “That’s reading into it a bit much, don’t you think? Maybe you just remembered the glass, or an old picture or something, and that wove itself into your dreams.”

  Pilot frowned. “Maybe.”

  “Dude, be real with me for a minute. Are you doing okay?” Justin hesitated. “I know I’m not exactly your go-to friend for this stuff, but if you need to talk more about these dreams… I have your back.”

  “Yeah, man,” Pilot replied. “I know you do. They just… they don’t feel like dreams sometimes. They feel real, like I’m actually there, walking the same places as my mother is—”

  “Wait a minute,” Justin said. “Are you saying these dreams are from your mom’s perspective?”

  Pilot pursed his lips, thinking about it for a second. “Yeah, I guess so. It’s like I’m inside my mom’s mind as she walks through this club—”

  “Okay, now that’s weird,” Justin interrupted. “You’re dreaming that you’re your mom.”

  “It’s not like that, okay?” Pilot said. “Dude, you promised.”

  Justin sniffed. “Fine. Being serious here. Go on.”

  “It’s like I’m walking through an old memory of hers, or something.”

  Justin made a face. “Or… maybe it’s like I said, and you’re reading too much into it. Look. If you want my advice, because obviously I’m more brilliant than Rykken in this subject area, you need to stop taking these dreams so seriously. Your mom is gone, and you have no idea how sorry I am for you about that. But don’t let it mess with your mind like this. You can’t cling to the idea that your dead mom is sending you special messages in your dreams—”

  “That’s not what I think,” Pilot protested.

  “It is what you’re thinking,” Justin said. “You know it, and I know it. And I’ve been around psychiatrists enough to know that some crazy stuff happens when people detach from reality.”

  Pilot frowned. Both of Justin’s
parents were psychiatrists, which was how he’d gotten the pills for Pilot in the first place.

  “Look, I know Saint Rykken is telling you not to take those pills I gave you, which means you won’t be able to make the dreams stop. But trust me, you need to get rid of these dreams.”

  “Yeah,” Pilot said, nodding his head. “You’re probably right.”

  “You know what else you need?” Justin said. “A party. A big, sexy party with lots of pretty girls in bikinis.”

  Pilot chuckled. “I need to do this paper. I need to sleep.”

  “No, you need fun. You need to stop being all serious and stuck in your head all the time.”

  “I don’t know.” Pilot opened his laptop again, staring at the image of the club on it. Justin was right—it was on the other side of the island, about an hour’s drive by highway.

  It might not hurt to drive by it. He wasn’t sure what he’d find there, or what he should even want to find there. Maybe he’d recognize someone from the dream…

  You’re thinking crazy, he told himself. Justin was right. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, there was a small part of him that was holding out hope that the dreams meant something.

  And that was nuts.

  He shook his shoulders, rocking back and forth, trying to shake it off. He didn’t want to end up like some of the horror stories Justin always talked about.

  “Dude, just think about it,” Justin said, watching him carefully. “You haven’t been to a party with me since you got here.”

  “I’m not in the mood for parties lately.”

  Justin sighed. “Suit yourself, but I don’t think your mom would want you to quit your life like this.”

  “I miss her still,” Pilot admitted. “My mom, I mean. And every time I look at my sister, I see her again. And I think about all the things I should have done differently when she was still around… and I think about all the things I need to do differently to protect my sister.”