While Alexa felt there had to be some mistake, she’d had always sensed a great sadness about him, as if some dark secret was eating away at him.
“Do you expect me to deny it?” Milo seemed resolved to the memory of an old grief.
He looked at Alexa.
“I made grave mistakes and did terrible things. Not a single day goes by that I don’t regret what I did. I was a fool, and I know I can’t be forgiven,” he said softly.
He looked back at the elders, “But the legion gave me a second chance, and I’ve been making amends ever since.”
“Not nearly good enough,” Elder Hugo’s eyes flashed. “The Elders’ Guild also abides by a set of rules—rules that we enforce upon all those who commit atrocious crimes. I don’t care if you’re an angel, a god, or even if you came to us in the form of a child. The elders have considered your actions, and we have found you wanting.”
“Just a second,” Alexa suspected that her chance to retrieve the books was slipping away. “I’m sure Milo has paid for whatever he did. Otherwise the Legion would never have let him back in.”
She tried to meet his gaze, but Milo’s attention was only on the old man.
Elder Hugo’s face contorted in disgust. “A Legion that lets the murderer of children back into its service is no Legion at all. We cannot condone the massacre of innocents.”
Alexa shook her head like a stubborn child. “No. Can’t be.”
“It is,” said Elder Hugo as he eased himself back into his chair. “He is a demon. A demon with a man’s face, but a demon still. A demon has no place among mortals. We kill demons.”
Suddenly, there was a shuffling of feet behind them, and before Alexa could turn around she and Milo were surrounded by more than fifty elders. Their long silver swords were drawn, and they moved with the silence of elderly ninjas. Alexa knew not to be fooled by their age. They moved like ghosts.
“I wouldn’t move if I were you,” said Elder Nicholas.
Milo froze where he was, but Alexa could see that his hands had already reached for his swords.
Elder Hugo smiled at the surprise on Alexa’s face and said, “The Legion may be the army in the heavens, but the Elders’ Guild is the army on Earth.”
Milo looked at Elder Hugo. “Don’t do this.”
The old man raised an eyebrow. “I do as I please. You have no authority here, tenebris angelus.”
“Please,” said Alexa, raising her hands in protest. “This is a huge misunderstanding. We would never have come here if we’d known it would have made you so distraught.”
She started to move forward but stopped when her face was nicked by the tip of a silver blade. She winced as warm liquid trickled down her cheek.
“We only came to ask for help, and it was with the best intentions, I swear. But I see now that it was a mistake. We’ll just go quietly and pretend none of this ever happened.”
“Go?” laughed Elder Hugo coldly. “There is nowhere for you to go. All the rivers are frozen over. The only spring runs beneath this mountain, but you will never see it. Where you’re going, there is only darkness.”
Milo lowered his hands. His body was trembling, and he spoke with a low growl. “You tricked me, and you lied to the Legion. You were never going to give us the books.”
“Of course not, you fool,” spat Elder Hugo.
“You are an enemy,” he said in a voice as oily as a blade slicked with butter. “You are an enemy to all mortals, and to our extended Sensitive family. You are an enemy of the Elders’ Guild.”
He looked across the room at Alexa. “You should have kept better company. Regrettable as it is, you leave me no other choice. I can’t leave loose ends.”
Alexa whirled on the spot.
“Milo. Do something,” she hissed.
But he wouldn’t look at her and kept his eyes focused on the ground.
Elder Hugo leaned back into his chair and smiled at Alexa. “Tell me. Have you ever seen an angel die simply because they couldn’t return to Horizon?”
He waited as though he wanted Alexa to comment.
“Have you ever witnessed what happens to your false mortal skin when it cannot be rejuvenated? How it starts to rot like a bad apple? No? Well, I have. You will begin to decompose. You will wither away, screaming in agony, until your angel essence spills out of you like the puss from a burst abscess. The stink will be unbearable. It will stay with you for days.”
“You won’t get away with this,” said Milo impassively. “The Legion will find out. I don’t care how old you are—you’ll die for this.”
Elder Hugo laughed wickedly.
“No, the Legion will never know what happened to their angels. Because after you’re dead, no one will tell them.”
“Where are you taking us?” Alexa couldn’t stop trembling.
“To a place where you will be forgotten. Where it’s cold and damp, and where no one will hear your screams.”
Elder Hugo’s gummy smile was not a thing of beauty.
“You’ve taken lives, tenebris angelus. And now we will take yours.”
CHAPTER 21
ALEXA DIDN’T KNOW HOW LONG she’d been sitting on the cold stone floor in their prison cell when her legs began to cramp. She had been shivering so long that her mortal body seemed to have contracted into a single hard shudder. But while she wasn’t cold, she knew the shivering was psychological.
She was so angry that she could barely think straight, let alone try to focus on her plan. It just seemed to get farther away from her every time she tried. She needed to get out of here, rescue Milo, find Hades, and get the missing part of her soul back.
The Icefall dungeon had damp, slimy walls, and the occasional rat scurried past. Iron cuffs and chains were mounted on the wall opposite her, and she could see scratches where whoever had been tied there before had tried to claw their way out. While the only light source came from a single oil lamp, it didn’t really matter because Alexa could see just fine. The darkness was welcome.
Apart from the steel door, there was no way out. Alexa had pounded and kicked the door for the past half hour without any noticeable result. Her supernatural strength was apparently just not enough to punch through steel doors. The door hadn’t moved an inch.
They were trapped.
How could this have happened?
Alexa had made peace with the Erik situation—at least she’d led herself to believe she had—but she still wanted her soul and memories back. For better or worse, she had prepared herself to face Hades and to fight him with everything she had, even if it meant dying. But now it seemed she would never get the chance. She was doomed. They were all doomed.
Alexa felt sick. She had failed in a big way. Trying to obtain the Deus Septem seemed pointless now. She was resigned to spending the rest of her life locked up in this dungeon with only Milo to witness her slow deterioration.
How could she defeat Hades when there was so much more evil out there?
Alexa had tried to put up a fight, but she had given up when she had seen Milo walk meekly into the cell like he deserved to be imprisoned.
Alexa had been furious with him at first. She’d wanted to slap him, punch him, anything to wake him up from his self-loathing stupor. But then she had tuned everything out and sat on the ground as far away from Milo as she could.
She wondered how long an angel could survive without returning to Horizon to replenish their body. It was no secret that angels couldn’t survive on Earth indefinitely. Not even the new and sophisticated M-9 suits could do that. She looked at her hands and rubbed her thumb along the thin white lines where her skin had blistered and cracked. Iceland’s cold climate had done a real number on her mortal body. Although she had healed somewhat, she was not fully replenished. Only a trip back to the homeland would do that.
How long before the pain started? A month? A week? A few days?
Just the thought of being locked away alone to die was enough for her to lose her mind. While the wound that
had been caused by her loss of Erik was slowly healing, the rest of her was falling apart.
No memories. No books. No replenished soul. And Hades was still out there.
And what was worse—she was locked up to die with a coldblooded killer.
She looked at Milo. He simply gazed at the ground, remote and distant. It was as if he were looking back into the past. Alexa couldn’t stop thinking about what Elder Hugo had said, about how Milo had killed innocent women and children. Hell, she couldn’t get it out of her mind. She was angry. She felt let down and betrayed. She had once thought she was getting to know her petty officer, at least a little. Now, he was more a stranger to her than the elders.
Could evil wear the face of golden angel? Who the hell was Milo? What was the Legion playing at? How could Metatron partner her with such an angel?
As hard as it was to admit, he looked different to her now. With dark circles under his eyes, and his face a little sunken, he was not so perfect anymore. He would never be the same to her again. She wasn’t an expert in Latin, but she was certain that tenebris angelus meant dark angel. He was a dark angel because he was a murderer, because he was evil.
Once she had sought his leadership and support. She had even felt the beginning of a friendship. Now she could only imagine murder, blood, pain, and terror. Milo would forever be the killer of children. The very sight of him made her sick.
He caught her looking at him, and she saw a look of hope in his eyes. He actually hoped she would allow him time to give his side of the story. She looked away.
Jerk.
“Alexa,” said Milo for the millionth time. “Are you going to keep ignoring me, or are we going to talk?”
Alexa’s anger loosened her tongue. “Talk? Seriously? I’d rather cut out my tongue and feed it to the rats.”
Milo sighed and rubbed his face with his hands. He got up and sat next to Alexa. He was so close that their shoulders touched. But she didn’t move. If he was trying to intimidate her, it wouldn’t work.
She could see that he was trying to control in his own anger. “You don’t understand. How could you. You’re just a fledgling—”
“I really hate it when you call me that.”
“You have to believe me. These things happened a long, long time ago. Your grandparents weren’t even born. The Legion, Horizon, everything worked differently back then.”
Alexa shook her head. “Murder is murder. It doesn’t matter when it was done—it’s still murder.”
Milo’s face fell. “Things are different now. I’m different. I’m a different person than I was then. You have to believe me.”
“Are you?” said Alexa. Her eyes burned.
“Is it true? Did you kill those people? Those kids? I didn’t hear you deny it, and that’s as good as a yes in my book. Are the elders wrong? Is this just a case of mistaken identity? Tell me they’re wrong about you. Tell me you’re not a murderer. Tell me you didn’t kill little kids.”
Part of her wished he would deny it. As hard as it was to admit to herself, she still needed him.
Milo looked away and said quietly, “It’s not that simple.”
“A simple yes or no would do it,” said Alexa.
Did she have a past like this? Was she a murderer as well?
Alexa despaired that she could not remember what it was like to be her.
“Who the hell are you anyway?”
When he didn’t answer, she added, “You wanted me to trust you? How can I trust you, now that I know you’re a fraud? You’ve been parading around like some noble angel when all this time you were nothing but a liar. You lied to me.”
“I never lied to you.”
“Keeping the truth from someone is the same thing as lying.”
As soon as the words came out, she realized she was just as much a liar as he was. She had kept from him the truth about the specter that had helped her vanquish Kali’s demon. She had been afraid. Maybe Milo was afraid, too.
Milo turned to her again. “Not if the truth would hurt that someone. Not if the truth was too unbearable. There are some things better left unspoken.”
A chill went through her. “You did it, didn’t you?”
Milo’s eyes glowed with sorrow and anger. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Then tell me,” said Alexa, surprised at her own anger. She swallowed hard. Her head was spinning. “How did it feel to kill little kids? Did you enjoy it?”
She knew by the sudden fury on Milo’s face that she’d gone too far. But it was too late to take it back.
Milo sprang to his feet and walked away. He leaned on the opposite wall, his face half-lit by the oil lamp and half in shadow. But even in the semi-darkness, she could still see that Milo was horrified and ashamed of what he’d done.
“Does it have something to do with the snake mark on your neck?”
He flinched, and the coldness in his features made him look ancient, but he didn’t answer.
Alexa snapped. “Tell me something!”
She jumped to her feet. “The Legion was pretty quick to judge me, a rookie angel, a nobody. They were ready to throw me in Tartarus because Metatron believed I was working with Hades. It’s a miracle they didn’t. And I never hurt anyone. I didn’t kill any mortals. I just kissed one. But you…”
She trailed off.
“How could the Legion employ you after you murdered mortals? Doesn’t the murder of mortals go against everything you believe in? Answer me that if you can’t answer anything else because that makes absolutely no sense to me.”
“Because they gave me a second chance,” Milo murmured. “After what happened…” He rubbed his face, as if he could clear away his memories. “All those mortals…” he whispered.
Alexa could only watch in stunned silence.
He sighed. “I’ve spent years trying to put the past behind me, but it always seems to catch up to me somehow. Listen. I know I’m sometimes aloof with you, and I know I asked you to trust me. I don’t blame you if you don’t anymore—”
He turned to her. “But the Legion gave me a second chance to redeem myself. That should hold some weight as to why I’m here now. I know what you heard from the elders shocked you, but you must understand there is much more to it than that. But I can’t talk about it. Not now.”
“Not with me, you mean.”
Alexa had hoped Milo would deny the charges against him. The fact that he hadn’t left her feeling cold and sick. She felt tears well around her eyes, but she forced them away. She wouldn’t let him see how this was affecting her. Her feelings for him surprised her. She would not be weak. She would not fall apart.
She tried to change the subject. “Did you know the elders would provide such comfortable accommodations?”
Milo stared at the iron cuffs and chain. “I didn’t know about these dungeons.”
He looked very vulnerable, standing there dismayed and alone.
“I thought—” he faltered. “I thought enough time had passed. I didn’t expect to be forgiven, but I thought—hoped—they would see the real danger, and that it wasn’t me. I was wrong.”
“No kidding.”
She felt sick, both from the musty smell and from the dreadful prospect of what lay ahead.
How many had he killed? One? Ten? Hundreds? Was there even a reason for the killings? Could Milo really be such a demon?
Metatron had a twisted sense of humor to pair her up with him. It was like a cruel joke. The Legion was laughing at her. She’d been destined to fail from the very beginning. She should never have trusted him.
“These elders,” said Alexa, trying to change the subject again, “are old, ancient even. They should be using walkers and canes, but they’re steady on their feet and fast. It’s like they’re old on the outside, like a shabby coat you just can’t throw away, but inside they’re still young…how is that possible?”
“Because these elders have the most angel essence flowing in their veins,” said Milo, cl
early glad to be on another subject. “It prolongs their lives and gives them unnatural strength.”
“The strength to torture angels?” said Alexa. “Did you know about this?” she said, staring at the iron manacles on the wall and wondering if they had held an angel.
Milo shook his head. “No. I’ve only heard of demons doing that kind of thing. I never thought mortals could stomach it.”
He rubbed his face again. “Seems I’ve been wrong a lot lately.”
Alexa pulled out her soul blade and flipped it in her hand. “Why didn’t they disarm us? Are they hoping we’ll do them a favor and do ourselves in?”
The hilts of Milo’s swords were still visible behind the cowl of his coat.
“Because they knew it would be pointless,” he said. “There are hundreds of elders here in the castle. They’re skilled killers. They were trained to kill demons since they were children. They would have torn through our bodies like swords through paper. It would have been useless to try and fight.”
“Why do you sound like you’re giving up?” she was seething and her voice echoed as if it had been amplified. “You knew we couldn’t get out, didn’t you? That we were going to rot down here, and you just let them toss us in without a fight!”
She clutched her soul blade with such force she could barely feel her fingers.
“Well, I’m not giving up. You can stay here and rot for all I care. Maybe that’s what you want. Maybe that’s what you wanted all along. Maybe it’s what you deserve. Maybe the thought of dying seems better to you than living with the memory of what you did. But I’m not dying here. Hell no. I’m going to find a way out.”
Milo angled his head towards the door as though he was listening to something. “I never said I wanted to stay here.”
“Well, that’s the first sensible thing you’ve said since we’ve been in here,” said Alexa.
She sheathed her blade and felt a ripple of excitement. While Milo wasn’t who she thought he was, she had no other choice now but to trust him.
“So, what’s the great plan?”
The Helm of Darkness Page 16