“Don’t you EVER compare yourself to me, Fallon. We are nothing alike!” he ground out, furious.
“I just meant—” she paused. “I’m just sorry you had to find out about Vie this way.”
“Find out what? This…this means nothing,” he said, throwing the diary to the ground.
Even Raphael was shocked by Gabriel’s response. Both he and Fallon knew exactly what it all meant: her eyes, the blade, all alluded to the fact that Vie had evil coursing through her veins. True, it didn’t make a bit of sense to either of them, knowing Vie the way they did. She didn’t have an evil bone in her body.
In fact, it was quite the opposite. Vie was the most genuinely pure, unique Guardian who had ever graced their presence at the Gates. She embodied everything they stood for and it was impossible for anyone, especially Gabriel, to think of her in any other way.
“Gabe, you know as well as I do what this means, and pretending you don’t isn’t going to change it,” Fallon said. “Tell him, Raphael! Tell him what he won’t hear from me. Violet is not one of us. She is one of them!” She shouted this last bit directly at Gabriel.
Gabriel yelled incoherently while pushing Fallon against the wall, pinning her neck with his forearm.
Raphael immediately went to her rescue. “Gabriel, stop! Have you gone completely mad?” he asked, grabbing Gabe’s arm.
Using his free hand, Gabriel removed Raphael’s hand from his arm, warning him with a look not to interfere again. Raphael quickly backed down.
“You did this, Fallon,” he said, still holding her pressed to the wall. “This has your name written all over it. You were jealous of Vie and now you’re trying to turn them against her. Well, they might be buying into your little scheme but I’m not.”
Fallon wasn’t angry with Gabe for his actions. She knew he was in pain and she knew she had betrayed him.
It was just too much for Gabriel to take; too much coming at him all at once. Then something happened that altered his view of Fallon: she began to shed tears. He had never seen her cry before this moment, and in fact she never had, but these tears were real.
The way Gabriel looked at her—the pure hatred she now saw in his eyes—gave way to emotions Fallon had turned off long ago in order to become one of the best, a Guardian.
Gabriel released her and sat on the ground, his head in his hands. He felt lost in his frustration and confused by his actions. Suddenly he stood up and announced that he had to see Camulus. He stormed out of the room and raced down the hall.
Raphael and Fallon were afraid of what he might do, so they ran after him. There was no predictability with Gabriel’s actions anymore. He was definitely unbridled and uncontrollable at the moment.
“Camulus,” he shouted after barging in Camulus’ chambers once again, with Raphael and Fallon tailing close behind.
Camulus took one look at Gabriel and knew he had found the answers to secrets he’d hoped would never find their way to him. He put his hand on Gabriel’s shoulder and was surprised to find him receptive to the physical contact. “It’s true, my son,” Camulus stated with a heavy heart.
“I need to speak with Lily. I need to hear it directly from her,” he said, asking Camulus to help him.
“Gabriel, you know we are forbidden to enter the Gates,” he reminded him.
“I know you have the key and I am asking you to unlock the Gates,” Gabriel replied.
Camulus could see Gabriel was more than determined to get the answers he needed. He feared what Gabe might do if he refused his request. He noticed Raphael and Fallon standing at the back of the chamber, listening to what Gabriel was asking, awaiting his response. He pondered for a moment and then spoke to him.
“Gabriel, are you asking me to break the rules of the Gates?” he said, making sure Gabriel understood the severity of what he was asking, since earlier Gabriel had told Camulus he would never break the rules of the Gates for any reason. “It’s your call, Gabriel. I will do as you ask, as long as you’re certain it’s what you want.” He wanted to give Gabriel a chance to think about it.
Gabriel was torn, feeling like a hypocrite standing before Camulus, asking him to do the very thing he had just condemned him for doing. Then he thought about Vie and made his decision.
“Sometimes you need to compromise honor in order to find the truth,” he spoke with boldness. “Open the Gates!”
They headed to the entrance of the golden gate and Camulus excused the men standing guard. All of them, including Gabriel, had their reservations regarding what they were about to do, but they believed it was right to stand by Gabriel.
Camulus placed the key in the lock and slowly turned it. He looked at Gabriel one last time to make sure he wanted him to continue, and Gabriel nodded, signaling his confirmation.
They entered an enchanted place, magnificent to look at, which offered the most amazing feelings of peace and tranquility. Hatred was not carried beyond the Gates, nor were any of the other emotions that were running rampant through the Guardians just minutes earlier. They all immediately felt an overwhelming feeling of camaraderie as they continued their journey.
They didn’t know how they were going to go about finding Lily, but they knew they had to try. They hadn’t gone far before Gabriel saw a familiar face. Restoria, the young trainee from the arena, seemed to have known they would come to look for her, though she may not have known when.
Gabriel proceeded over to where she stood, and she did not turn away.
“You are here for Lily?” she said.
“We are. Can you take us to her?” Gabriel asked.
Restoria looked around cautiously and then signaled to them to follow her quietly. She led them quickly through the forest of trees swaying in the gentle breeze until they came upon a meadow of violets, where they saw a lovely woman waiting for them.
Gabriel took one look into her eyes and knew this had to be Lily. Although her eyes were as blue as the sea, he recognized almost immediately that they were the same eyes as Vie’s. Lily was Vie’s mother, no doubt about it.
Lily walked over to Gabriel and put her hand on his cheek. She gazed into his gentle eyes and softly said, “Thank you.”
Gabriel could hear her speaking to his soul. Although she only said those two words out loud, many other sentiments were communicated to him as Lily expressed her gratitude to him for watching over her daughter and protecting her with his life. It was strange for him to feel so invaded by her glimpse inside him, and at the same time to feel an odd sort of comfort, too.
“Lily, I need to know the truth about your daughter. It is imperative that you tell us everything if we are to protect Vie.”
“Vie?” Lily said with an approving smile. She repeated the name to herself. “Yes, I discovered very early on that ‘Violet’ would be much too formal for a soul such as hers. I didn’t even name her; did you know that?” she said with sadness.
“I didn’t,” Gabriel said, understanding her shame at having abandoned her baby girl.
“Can you tell me how Vie came to be? Who is her father? Why did you leave her on the reservation?” Gabriel fired off his questions almost without pausing for breath.
He could see Lily was hesitant about answering him, so he took her hand and said, “Lily, we have risked everything to come here. Please, I need to know the truth.”
While Gabriel didn’t truly believe there was any chance of Vie having even a shred of evil running through her, he didn’t believe Henry was her father, either. Vie had come to the Gates with powers. That much they knew. She could not have gotten those powers from a mere mortal; they had to have come from somewhere else. From someone else.
“I’ll tell you everything if you promise me that no matter what you hear, Violet will always have your protection,” Lily said firmly.
“I give you my word, I will always protect Vie with my life, no matter what,” Gabriel replied, steadfast.
Lily waved her hand, and they were all teleported to a dark alley in a city
far away. It was Chicago, and they were walking down a desolate street filled with hopelessness and despair. They saw drug addicts shaking from withdrawal, prostitutes standing on every corner, and gangbangers roaming in the streets. It was a dismal place.
They were invisible spirits, transparent to the people around them, because these people could not see any angels in their hopeless world. Lily explained how they remained unseen, saying, “To see an angel, you must see another’s soul. To feel an angel, you must touch another’s soul, and to hear an angel, you must listen to both.”
Lily walked them through each body, allowing them to feel the pain of each soul as they passed through it. The sea of despair engulfed them like flames. It was an awakening for all of them.
She continued her story.
“This is the place is where he—the Dark One—hunts for souls, and where he found me. I had a very troubled past. I was a child of abuse, born to alcoholic parents living in poverty. I made many bad decisions as a young girl, but one of them was the one I would end up paying for with my life. It led to meeting him: an evil soul who called himself Dimorte.”
Gabriel and Camulus looked at each other, immediately recognizing the man Lily had just named.
“Dimorte came to me at the lowest point in my life; he inhabited my soul and took over my body. He was in control of everything I did and everything I felt. He was in my head, always leading me further down the path of darkness. I lived in a shelter at the time, and one day a counselor paid me a visit. She told me she believed she could help me conquer the demons in my head. Of course I wanted to escape his torture, so I immediately accepted her help. That was when I was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
“But what they didn’t know was that I didn’t have a mental illness that could be contained with medication; what I had was an evil man housed within me. Dimorte consumed my thoughts, my dreams, and my soul. He proclaimed his love for me and said I would never escape him, telling me we were bonded for eternity. I believed him. One night he came to me and told me it was time for me to join him. I had given up fighting him, and I was ready to take my own life. If I committed suicide he would have me.
“But in a moment, everything changed. Henry walked into the shelter and into my life. The moment our eyes first met, I knew he was my soul mate. He was captivated by me, as I was by him. He continued to come to the shelter, speaking with me daily, and I came to realize he was the most compassionate man I had ever met. And he wanted to help me! I firmly believed Henry was the only one who could save me from the torture of Dimorte, and I knew this because with each second I spent with him, I could actually feel Dimorte’s hold weakening. I had figured out very quickly that Henry’s love was much more powerful than Dimorte’s evil.
“I accepted his offer of marriage and moved far away to a place called Newcastle, Wyoming, with Henry Thorne. He saved me that day,” she said, remembering it fondly.
Lily waved her hand and they were again teleported, this time to Newcastle, Wyoming. She continued her story.
“We were so very happy there. The deep love Henry and I shared seemed to have the ability to flush out the evil that had devoured my soul. I didn’t hear voices any longer, and I didn’t feel Dimorte’s presence within me any longer, either. Henry had truly chased all my demons away, or so I thought. A few years after we were married, the voices returned. I tried to suppress them but I couldn’t; his power was much greater than mine. I started thinking perhaps the doctors had been right about the schizophrenia, so I sought out the services of a friend, a counselor named Katherine Stone. She tried to help me, but nothing she did could make him stop. He continued to haunt my every thought. I wanted to run, to hide, but I couldn’t let him win, so I stayed and kept what was happening to me a secret from Henry.
“One night, while Henry and I were sharing an intimate moment, I heard his voice again. He was calling my name and telling me he would never let me go. I closed my eyes and continued making love to my husband, hoping and praying that the Dark One would leave. I kept telling Henry I loved him, and I held him close and tight to my body, desperately trying to keep Dimorte away. When Henry finished, I opened my eyes and saw Dimorte, not Henry, lying on top of me.
“Things only got worse from that day on. Nothing felt right. I was getting sick all the time, I was tired, and Henry was worried. He convinced me to see a doctor and we went together to the appointment. Imagine my horror when I learned I was pregnant. Henry was thrilled about the news, but I couldn’t get the image of Dimorte’s face out of my mind. A few months into my pregnancy, I had an ultrasound which concluded that I was not just carrying one baby, but two. That was when I knew for sure Dimorte had planted his seed of evil in my womb.
“Months passed, and Henry was leaving for a retreat with the church. There was a storm coming that night and I was home alone. Dimorte appeared to me, taunting me about the babies I was carrying. He confirmed what I had already felt: one of the babies conceived that awful night belonged to him. He kept saying we would both be his forever. Naturally, I was upset and I tried to run to get away from him.”
Lily waved her hand, and again we were teleported, this time to the Lakota Indian Reservation.
“I called Katherine Stone, frantically needing help seeing as how I’d just gone into labor. I knew she would come and I also knew she would keep my secrets, since she was bound by her code of ethics as my counselor.
“The next thing I remember was the Chief carrying me into their clinic and the babies being born. They placed Vivian in my arms and I knew she was the baby conceived lovingly between Henry and myself. Then came Violet…calm, cool, and collected, right out of the womb. They brought her to me and all I could see were Dimorte’s eyes, the devil-red eyes of evil.
“I made the difficult decision to leave her there on the reservation to keep her safe. Yes, I abandoned Violet, but it was not because I didn’t love her. It was because I wanted to protect her. The Chief was wise and he knew evil when he saw it, so I told him about my life, the baby, and how obsessed Dimorte was with me. The Chief reassured me that the reservation was on sacred ground, grounds that not even an evil as powerful as Dimorte could enter.
“The Chief was encouraging. He said he had seen the evil in my baby, but he also saw a light. He promised me he would protect the baby and banish the evil from within. I believed he had the power to heal Violet, and I knew he would keep her safe. If I had taken her off the reservation, Dimorte would have swallowed her soul.” She waved her hand and the Guardians were teleported back to the Gates.
“Now you have the truth you’ve been seeking. Guard it with your lives.”
The four Guardians looked at each other, completely confused about what had just happened. They found themselves standing in Camulus’ chambers as if they had never left.
They all sat, quiet, for a moment. Raphael finally spoke. “Okay, so we know the truth. Now what?”
“We find Violet and tell her what we know,” Gabriel said, sure about it.
“Gabriel, perhaps you may want to think about that one for a while. I’m still trying to process it all myself,” Camulus said.
“No, we tell her now. I can’t keep this from her. She needs to know who she is, and she deserves the truth. You remember what happened the last time we tried to conceal the truth from her. I won’t betray her again,” Gabriel said.
“Wait, Gabe. There’s something you need to know,” Fallon said.
“What is it, Fallon?” he asked.
“I tried to tell you earlier, but you were so angry. It’s about Vivian, Vie’s sister…she’s dead,” Fallon informed him.
“Oh my God. Vie!” Gabriel said, running out of the room to find her.
Chapter Thirteen
Reunited
Carter bolted to the Tower, hoping he would find what he was looking for when he reached the top. Although he wasn’t certain what finding the violets would bring, he was absolutely positive that Vie was using the poem to communicate with him. Carte
r noticed he was lagging; he was still weak from the depletion of his energy during his efforts to keep Vivian alive, but he pushed on in spite of it. Just the thought of connecting with Vie was a driving force for him.
He reached the second plateau and now had the Tower in his sights. He stood on the ridge and just stared at the massive rock for a moment. It was daunting to look at. He thought back for a moment to the memory of Vie’s eyes staring at him as the Tower rose up and disappeared into the sky, taking the person he held most dear with it. All in one brief moment, the girl he loved had vanished from his world again. He shivered, reminiscing about that moment and the scar it had left on his soul.
Just then an envious wind crept by like an unwelcome thought, picking up intensity as it moved across the plateau. He looked up at the sky and watched the dark clouds rolling in fast, the thunder rumbling overhead; the storm came out of nowhere.
Carter knew he had to move quickly. Climbing the Tower would be tough enough without his gear; he didn’t need the challenge of a storm as well. Without warning, the ground began to shake and the plateau parted. An earthquake? Carter thought, trying to maintain his balance. But deep down, he knew it wasn’t an earthquake at all; something powerful was trying to stop him from getting up that Tower.
He started to slide down the plateau to get to the valley, but everything below his feet began to shift. He held on with all his might, determined not to succumb to the force working against him. For a moment, it seemed like the work of Lucian, but Carter knew it couldn’t be. Lucian was gone. Or was he? Carter wondered.
Just the very thought of Lucian provoked an intensity in Carter that surprised him. He found himself thinking back to a conversation he’d had with Raphael about the day he would get his wings.
Raphael had told him that, until he fully matured, the gift of flight would only come when it was absolutely necessary. He’d warned Carter never to rely on his wings unless there was no other option.
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