The Helm of Darkness

by Kim Richardson

  CHAPTER 31

  ALEXA SAT ON THE BENCH outside the High Council chamber. She had been biting her nails until they looked short and fat and completely unpresentable. She sat on her hands.

  The doors were closed, and a babble of voices spilled through. She knew they were talking about her.

  An emergency meeting had been called following the events in the American Museum of Natural History in New York. And just as Lance had suspected, Metatron’s personal guard had been waiting for her when she arrived back in Horizon.

  But then Ariel had intervened, and Metatron agreed to release her. She’d been spared a trip to Tartarus—at least for now.

  Lance and Milo had been called as witnesses, and Alexa had been left alone in the hallway to worry.

  War. Erik. Her soul. The soul spirits. So much had happened to her since her first day as a guardian angel. It was an effort just to keep track. She hadn’t really thought of Erik all that much. At least she had tried not to. He was probably comforting beautiful Rachel somewhere.

  She clenched and unclenched her fingers, and then she rubbed them on her thighs as if that would wipe away the pain and hurt pride that still lingered inside her. It didn’t help. It would do no good for her to start thinking about Erik now. She just couldn’t deal with the rush of emotions it would cause. There were too many other issues that needed to be resolved.

  Alexa leaned back and rested her head. She’d been sitting for at least an hour, and still no word from inside those doors—

  As if on cue, the doors swung open, and Milo sauntered out. He was dressed in black and looked just as irritatingly handsome as ever, all golden in the light, perfect. It all made sense now, why he looked the way he looked. He was handsome in the ethereal way that most archangels were handsome. His insufferable glow was Nephilim. He was part archangel.

  Alexa tried to read the expression on Milo’s face.

  Was she going to Tartarus?

  He turned away before she could tell what he was thinking.

  But then he came over and sat on the bench next to her. He sat close to her, and their thighs touched. His hand brushed hers, and she shivered a little. Her chest tightened. They hadn’t spoken since she had saved him, and she had barely understood the Nephilim part. Now when the son of the devil sat next to her, she was even more confused.

  Lucifer’s son is a guardian angel. This is crazy.

  “Hi,” said Milo casually, as though he hadn’t almost died a few hours ago and wasn’t really Lucifer’s son.

  So, naturally, Alexa answered, “Hi.” And after a moment she added, “You look…well.”

  “Nothing a trip to the Healing-Xpress can’t fix.” Milo was silent for a moment. “The question is—how are you feeling?”

  Alexa knew exactly what he meant.

  “Confused. Scared. Like my future is behind those doors, and all I can do is sit here and wait.” She looked at the ground near her feet. “I don’t want to go to Tartarus. I’m just beginning to enjoy being a guardian.”

  “You’re not going to Tartarus.” The conviction in his voice made her look up at him.

  “How can you be so sure?” said Alexa. “Metatron hates me. He’s always wanted to put me there. He probably wants to torture me himself.”

  “Because the Legion needs you.” Milo smiled. “More than ever.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “Because of what you did to those belphegor. They were supposed to be invincible.”

  Milo’s eyes radiated with the intensity of stars, and for a moment she could almost forget he was Lucifer’s son.

  Milo blinked and said, “But mostly because you were able to harness the energy of those mortals’ souls.”

  Alexa sat straighter. “You know what that was, don’t you? What I did?”

  “I do,” said the angel. “It’s called soul channeling. It’s the ability to manipulate souls, and it’s extremely rare. I’ve only heard about one other case. A male angel possessed the same power, and he was killed by another angel who tried to steal it. But it’s sort of an inherited gift. No one can take it away.”

  “Soul channeling,” repeated Alexa. “I know now that it was the souls I was using, but at first, when we fought Kali, and I was fighting her demon husband, I thought I was summoning demons or ghosts. I thought it was evil. That I was evil.”

  Milo shook his head. “You’re not evil, Alexa.”

  The way he said her name made her skin tingle.

  “But how is this possible? I didn’t have this power before—when I was first assigned as a guardian. I was just ordinary like the rest of you—” She knew this was the wrong choice of word, but it was too late to take it back.

  Milo didn’t seem affected by her slight. He leaned back against the wall.

  “I thought about that. The only thing that makes sense, and Ariel agrees with me on this, is that when Hades separated you from part of your soul, that empty part mixed with some of the pagan god’s own powers and became a special conduit. It gave you the ability to channel souls.”

  “So, although Hades thought he was going to kill me, he discovered he couldn’t. But this means he left something powerful and deadly inside me.” She looked at Milo. “Did that other angel lose part of his soul as well?”

  Milo shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. It would make sense.” He paused. “It’s a pretty cool gift to have, and powerful.”

  Alexa couldn’t help but smile. “You think?”

  “You’re now the envy of most of the angels in the Legion, Alexa, even the archangels. Your gift is extremely powerful.”

  Alexa didn’t know what to say.

  “In the wrong hands, or in the wrong angel,” said Milo, “it would be disastrous. Your power could be as evil as it is heroic. An angel with an evil streak in him, like Ryan for example—”

  “Ryan was always a demon masquerading as an angel,” said Alexa. “My only regret is that we should have killed him sooner.”

  She felt no remorse at all for killing him.

  “Well, his corrupted soul was very nasty. He removed people’s souls from their bodies and consumed them. It killed them instantly. But with you, it’s different. You channel the souls—you don’t consume them.”

  Alexa did feel powerful. Very powerful. She wasn’t afraid anymore. She wasn’t turning into something dark and corrupt. She had changed. She thought of herself as a modified angel—different, but still good.

  “I don’t feel empty anymore,” said Alexa excitedly. “After what Hades did to me, I felt like I had been cut in half, like I was half an angel. It’s weird, but I don’t feel like that anymore. I feel strong and fearless and complete. I know this is going to sound crazy, but that part of me that was gone has somehow been filled by those other souls. They have made me whole again. My memories are still missing, but other than that I feel great. I have a real purpose now. I can use my gift to do good, and to fight against whatever Hades is going to throw at us next.”

  She sighed. “But I guess that all depends on the High Council’s decision. I hope they think I’m trustworthy.”

  “More than a dozen angels and an archangel witnessed you killing the belphegors,” said Milo. “I’d say that qualifies for trust. They need you right now. The Legion isn’t prepared for what’s coming. There’s a darkness brewing, and the High Council knows how important someone like you is right now.”

  Milo stared at the ground. “I’ve seen enough death to understand the value of a life. The darkness cannot win.” His jaw clenched, and he was silent for a while. He looked up at her and smiled. “You might even get an apology from Metatron—”

  Alexa’s laugh rang in the hallway. “That will never happen. That guy would rather cut off his own arm than apologize to me. Sometimes I just want to whack him over the head with those damn cigars of his.”

  Milo laughed softly. “Yeah, you’re probably right. I just hope the Legion doesn’t use you for its own agenda. Angels get desperate at times like t
hese, and they might do things that they would normally never consider.”

  “Like what?”

  Milo’s mouth tightened. “Soul channeling can have incredible destructive power.”

  “And?”

  “And,” said Milo, “the Legion will want to use you as a weapon. They’ll want to put you on the front lines to fight what’s coming. And you’re not ready for that. You have to understand that while you possess great power, it comes with a great responsibility. You’re untrained, and you could easily hurt someone without intending to do so.”

  “You were happy enough to let me use my power to kill Ryan and his demons,” she said more sharply than she’d intended. “You didn’t tell me to stop then.”

  “I’m not telling you not to use this ability,” said Milo. “Just to be wary of it. In fact, I think it’s great that we’ll have someone with so much power fighting alongside us. The problem is that your power is so new you may not know how to harness it properly, at least, not yet. What if you try to summon it, and it doesn’t work?”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  “Alexa,” Milo’s obvious concern for her was moving in its sincerity. “You need training to learn how to use your weapon. It’s just like when you trained to use a soul blade. You’ll need to train how to use the soul channeling.”

  “And how do I do that?” asked Alexa. “From what I understand, it works with mortal souls. And the souls I channeled were from mortals who had been injured and were close to death.” She shrugged. “Are you suggesting we kidnap a few mortals and try it out?”

  Milo was taken aback. “No, of course not. But I believe there’s more to it than that. I just haven’t figured it out yet. Maybe we can carry out a little investigation of our own. Maybe we can learn from the experience of the angel who died because of it. The more we know, the easier it’ll be to train you. It’s just something we’re going to have to learn.”

  Alexa couldn’t help but notice how Milo planned to involve himself in her training. This handsome Nephilim who had rebelled against his own father and had been such a stranger to her now felt more like a friend.

  His gaze lingered momentarily on her face, and she realized she’d been staring at him for too long without uttering a single word. She looked away and felt a flush of heat rise to her face, as though her angel body were trying to convince her that she was still human.

  Milo’s thigh brushed up against hers, and she didn’t move her leg away. He ran his hands through his hair and made it stand up messily. Alexa ached to smooth it down.

  “And that snake thing on your neck,” began Alexa. “That mark—”

  “My father’s sigil,” answered Milo. He was suddenly tense, and it was obvious to her that it was painful for him to talk about his father.

  “It’s his mark. No matter how many times I’ve tried to cut it off—it always comes back.”

  Before she knew what she was saying, she asked, “Did your father order you to kill those mortals?”

  Milo looked at the ground, and Alexa regretted being so bold.

  “No. I never killed anyone. I was the youngest amongst my brothers, and I just followed them.”

  He clenched his hands together. “I didn’t lay a hand on any mortal, but I stood there and watched as my own brothers massacred everyone—the women and children, everyone. And I did nothing.”

  The muscles on his face twitched like he was in pain. “So, you see, Alexa, I’m just as guilty. I did nothing to stop it.”

  Alexa was silent for a moment. “But you didn’t kill them. At least there’s that.”

  Milo closed his eyes. “I can still remember their screams. It’s something I’ve had to live with for all these years…and I’ll live with it for the rest of my life.”

  “How old are you, anyway?” asked Alexa, hoping to shift the conversation to a less morbid topic. “The way the elders were talking, they made it sound like you had been around for a very long time.”

  Alexa studied his face.

  Would she have felt the same way about him if he had looked as old as elder Hugo?

  “You do know that you don’t look older than nineteen, right?”

  Milo smiled. “Well, technically, if you want to add up the years from when I was born to when I died—then yeah, I guess I’m around nineteen. The Legion didn’t recommission my soul until just recently. I had been sleeping before then.”

  Alexa shook her head and smiled. “Well, you look good for an old fart.”

  Milo gave her an easy smile that showed off his perfect teeth. “I do my best, fledgling.”

  Alexa laughed and realized that she had not relaxed like this for a long time.

  “Must have been quite a shock for you,” she said. “Waking up in a different time. The mortal world must have seemed very different to you.”

  “It was at first,” said Milo. “The technology and science took some time to get used to. The modern way of speaking was a challenge, too, but a few years of twenty-first-century-immersion did the trick.”

  Alexa could not help but admire his muscular body. “So, you’re a Nephilim?”

  “I’m an angel now,” said Milo, a little too quickly. He stared at his hands again.

  Alexa pursed her lips and leaned closer to him.

  “But you were a Nephilim before you…” she didn’t finish. “I’m guessing that makes you more powerful than your average angel. You’ve got archangel essence in you. The way you move—your skill—it all makes sense now. Women want that annoying glow that you have about you, you know. I want it now.”

  She waited until he met her eyes and asked, “How many in the Legion know who you are?”

  “All the archangels and oracles,” answered Milo. “Well, the oracles that remember, but as far as regular angels—just you.”

  Alexa flushed and turned away.

  “Do you think word will spread about my ability?”

  Milo chuckled and tucked a lock of hair behind his ear.

  “Rumors spread like wildfire in the Legion. It only takes one of the angels that saw you destroy Ryan to start the stories going. I’m sure the entire Legion is buzzing about what happened in the museum…about your new gift.”

  Alexa wasn’t sure she was happy about that.

  “We make quite the pair, don’t you think?” said Milo, clearing his throat. He was looking straight ahead.

  Alexa hesitated for a moment before she nodded. “We certainly do.”

  When Milo looked at her again, his eyes sparkled. This was real. Only yesterday everything had been bleak and unpleasant. Now Milo was her friend and ally. Perhaps she could get her memories back. Hope bloomed all around her.

  “It’d be nice to get back out there.” Alexa leaned back. “How long is this going to take—”

  The doors swung open and the archangel Ariel stepped out. Her face was both stunning and ancient. She could have been any age. She glanced at Milo as if she had expected him to be there.

  Then she turned to Alexa. “You’re up.”

  With a final glance at Milo, Alexa stood up tall and walked in to speak with the High Council.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Dear reader,

  Thank you for reading The Helm of Darkness. If you enjoyed this book, please consider posting a short review. Your feedback is important to me and will help other readers decide whether to read the book too.

  Again, thank you for coming on this ride with me, and I hope we’ll take many more together. Happy reading!

  Kim Richardson

  The CITY of FLAME and SHADOW

  CHAPTER 1

  THE CHILLY MARCH WINDS STUNG Alexa’s face like hot needles as she ran through the dark streets of downtown Toronto. Her boots flapped against the slippery pavement while her legs pounded a steady rhythm. The downtown area was a twisting labyrinth of ever-darker alleyways and passages lost in shadow. There were no pedestrians and no street lights. The only source of light was the moon moving past thick clouds ov
erhead. Very unnatural.

  Alexa picked her way carefully around a recent snow fall. Her legs were still a bit stiff from her recent arrival to the mortal world, but she didn’t dare slow down.

  After a ten-minute sprint, mortal lungs would be burning by now, but not hers. The muscles in her thighs pulsed with strength, pushing her onward at a supernatural speed. She unclenched her fists and relaxed her shoulders so her arms could swing more loosely as she sprang a little harder off of her toes. The burning in her thighs intensified, but it was barely a tingle, not nearly enough to slow her down.

  She wiped the hair from her eyes and barreled down another street.

  Ahead, Milo glanced over his shoulder to check on her, the powerful muscles of his back shifting beneath his clothes. Tall and broad-shouldered, he had his blond locks tied back, revealing the snake-like sigil that marked his neck—Lucifer’s sigil. He wore the black gear made of durable, flexible cloth common to all of the guardians from the Counter Demon Division, and had his spirit sabers, his special swords that could cut through metal, strapped to his back.

  Nearly a month had passed since the night at the American Museum of Natural History in New York when the pagan god Hades had taken the Helm of Darkness and fled. Since then, the mortal word had exploded in paranormal activity, especially around major cities. Mortals were dying, hundreds at a time, and the death tolls were increasing by the hour. The mortal news stations described the deaths as “an abnormal number of mass suicides.”

  With the help of the Helm of Darkness, Hades had breached the Veil and he was letting hell out into the mortal world—literally.

  Still, Alexa was happy to be doing something other than sitting alone with her thoughts. Her mind was still in a drunken fog, but she knew she couldn’t run forever. Eventually she would have to face the uncomfortable truths about her new gift, the loss of her memories, and her feelings for Erik.