Silver Smoke (#1 of Seven Halos Series)

by Monica O'Brien

  "Listen to me." Sirena faced Brie and grabbed her shoulders. "You have to pull yourself together. None of this is a game. Having powers seems fun at first, but they are a liability, not a blessing. In the Hallow world, there are struggles for power at every level. There is treachery. There is death. This will not be the last time you're faced with a difficult choice." Sirena sighed. "I thought you understood what you were getting into."

  Brie tucked her legs into her body. She felt small, but not small enough. "Do you think my mom knew what she was facing before she died?"

  Sirena wrapped her arms around Brie. "Your mother was desperate and she didn't know who to trust. I wish she had trusted me, just like I wish you had trusted me earlier this evening. She shouldn't have sought the stones on her own, but her intentions for wanting them were sound. She was trying to save you. And I'm going to try too."

  "What about the other Hallows?" Brie whispered.

  "They won't bother us," Sirena said. "Clara convinced Thessa that she should wait to tell the New Order anything until we understand what is happening to you. But I wasn't going to turn you in anyway. I was going to run with you."

  Sirena's words took Brie's full-blown panic down a level. She wasn't completely alone—not yet anyway.

  "I'm sorry for not trusting you."

  "I don't blame you—I'm the one who told you to trust Thessa, and clearly, we couldn't. Besides, you might have saved Rykken by being in the right place at the right time."

  "Or I might have guaranteed his death."

  "I don't think so, Brie."

  Brie knew Sirena was just trying to calm her down; Sirena couldn't see what a terrible person Brie was. If she had just thought through some of her actions, or just paid more attention to where Rykken was

  —there were a million other scenarios. She could have kept everyone safe, and she could have avoided a confrontation with Kennedy. She could have avoided killing someone that her brother cared about...

  Brie mustered the courage to ask her next question. "Will Pilot forgive me for killing Kennedy?"

  "Are you sure Kennedy is dead, Brie? She's strong—it's possible that she could heal just fine from a dagger to her heart. Even normal earthlies sometimes do."

  "It wasn't just a dagger to her heart," Brie said. "I went after her. I pulled the dagger out of her chest and I stabbed her. Repeatedly. Blood all over my hands..." Brie's thoughts drifted to something unexpected—Adele wearing silk, red gloves the color of blood to mimic Shakespeare's Macbeth.

  Sirena raised her eyebrows; her sharp intake of breath broke through Brie's thoughts. "Well, you'll have everyone in Silver Smoke after you if you really did kill her."

  "And if I didn't," Brie said, "I'll just have her after me."

  Sirena and Brie looked at each other; Sirena's raisin-colored eyes reflected the conclusion that Brie herself had just come to.

  "So you understand why we can't stay here, right?"

  Brie did understand. They had been planning to leave anyway; but now that Brie understood the stakes, she was truly terrified. How much more was she going to lose, and would she lose herself in the process?

  "Brie, there's something else you should know," Sirena whispered with great restraint. "There's a reason why you have powers and Pilot doesn't. Pilot is an earthlie because Michael doesn't allow sons to be born with his blood. Do you understand? There are no sons of Michael."

  "Why not?"

  "I don't know," Sirena admitted. "I know there have been before, and every time something horrible has happened. Not just to the son of Michael, but to world." Brie opened her mouth, but Sirena cut her off. "That isn't the point," she said. "The point is that the opposite is true in the Nephilim world with daughters of Luci."

  Brie let the words sink in for a moment. "And I'm a daughter of Luci?"

  "Not a traditional one, but yes, by definition..."

  "And the fact that I exist means something really bad is going to happen."

  "Maybe," Sirena admitted. "Thessa certainly thinks so." Sirena shook her head in disbelief. "All this time, we've been worried about if Pilot could ever be a true son of Michael, double and triple checking that he will never have powers—"

  "Because I stole his powers from him at birth," Brie said.

  "I don't know if that's true," Sirena said.

  "It is," Brie said. "Kennedy told me. She figured all of this out faster than the Hallows did." Brie heard the accusation in her own voice, but Sirena didn't respond to the bait.

  "You can't believe everything Kennedy says."

  "I guess not," Brie said. "But Kennedy hasn't lied to me yet."

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  When Rykken woke up, he was lying on a small, full-sized bed, clothed in flowing jade materials as soft as silk. He sat up, patting his chest and face with his hands. His skin was perfectly intact. There was no blood—no remnants of his last encounter with Kennedy.

  The room was large but minimal, with few pieces of furniture—the bed he was lying in, with heavy blue drapes hanging from the ceiling, and a large, old trunk against the wall. The floors were covered in handmade tile the color of rust, and the ceiling was adorned with ornate wood-carvings. The walls were covered ceiling to floor in faded murals of angel-like men and women in long robes. Their wings, bodies, and clothing tangled around each other in a large, unending battle.

  Rykken heard footsteps at the door and looked up, hoping it was Brie. But the only person to greet him was Thessa.

  "Where's Brie?" he asked.

  Thessa gave him a long, cold stare. "Alive," she said dryly.

  Rykken considered her word choice. "Does that mean I'm dead?" he asked.

  "No," Thessa said. "Not yet."

  Thessa sat delicately on Rykken's four-poster bed. She looked like a Grecian princess, with white robes and large, gold jewelry. She wore an encrusted band of gold and jewels on her head, and her brown hair fell in rigid curls over her left shoulder.

  "Where are we?" Rykken asked.

  "We're in my mistress' quarters," Thessa said, her lips curling into a small smile. "My grandfather was King Phillip the second of Macedon. He was a Hallow, of course—most of the royalty that you read about in the history books are either Hallow or Nephilim, and most of the wars that you read about are between the Hallows and the Nephilim.

  "You were born in ancient Greece?" Rykken struggled to keep the surprise out of his voice, but he couldn't believe it—Thessa was over two thousands years old.

  Thessa's grin bloomed at his realization. "King Phillip's famous son was Alexander the Great. He had no brothers or sisters, which was unusual, as most Hallows are born in sets of twins. King Phillip later had a child with another Hallow—my mom. She was Alexander the Great's half-sister, young enough to be his daughter, almost.

  "Her name was Thessalonike and when Alexander was murdered, she became the wife of his successor, Cassander. Cassander was utterly non-Hallow, with no divine blood running through him, but Thessalonike would have been executed with the rest of Alexander's family without the marriage in place. She had two children with Cassander named Phillip and Antipater, named after her father and Cassander's father, respectively. She later had twins with another man, a Hallow. She named them Alexander, for her brother, and Thessalonike, after herself. As the years went on, I shortened my name to more modern versions—Nikki, Tessa, Thessa, or Theresa, depending on where I lived.

  My father was executed almost immediately and the incident was hidden from the public. The kingdom was simply told that we were Cassander's children. I stayed out of the public view as my mother had when she was young—she felt Cassander would kill me on sight if he saw me as any sort of threat. My mother wanted to ensure a Hallow was named king, and I was her back-up plan, to repeat her choices if her first plan failed. Meanwhile, Cassander died and my brother was installed to the throne with Cassander's oldest son, Phillip.

  "Cassander's younger son Antipater was jealous, and eventually murdered our mother. Without her pro
tection, I begged Alexander to leave with me—but he was so involved in the politics of the kingdom. I left without him, fleeing to the seas, where I stayed for several years. The only contact I had with humans is when a ship passed near enough to me to prompt an exchange. I sometimes tried to gain information from them. 'Is Alexander the king still alive?' I would ask. Eventually, I found out he was dead, assassinated by a friend of his vying for power."

  Rykken wasn't sure that Thessa was speaking to him anymore; she seemed lost in a faraway ocean of her own thoughts, aimlessly adrift.

  "Thessa," Rykken whispered. Her eyes met his, focusing on him again. "I need to find Brie. She's..." he tried to put into words the pain Brie had to be feeling, but he came up short. "She stabbed Kennedy," he said. "I think she killed her."

  "I know," Thessa said. "Brie is going to pay for that." Thessa's eyes faded from brown to black. "Do you know who you are?"

  "Yes," Rykken said. "A Hallow. A son of Gabrielle."

  "And a future leader of the Hallows," Thessa said, finishing the list.

  "How do you know that?" Rykken asked.

  "I told you, I see things. I see you and Sirena disbanding the New Order and taking over the Hallows, several years from now."

  "I don't care about the Hallows right now. Brie needs me."

  Thessa sighed. "Do you remember what I told you about my husband, Bes?"

  Rykken nodded his head.

  "I lied," Thessa said, not a hint of remorse in her voice. "Bes was an Egyptian monk I met wandering the desert. This was at a time when Egypt was rejecting its pagan gods and deities and turning to various forms of Christianity. After several years, we married, ready to grow old together—but we were unable to get pregnant. We lived at the Hallow capital so I had access to all the researchers and sociologists and historians who studied and tracked the lifestyles and abnormalities of the Hallows. I underwent all sorts of tests, but at the end of it all, their findings were inconclusive. While infertility happens to humans, it had never happened in the history of either Hallow or Nephilim.

  Hallows and Nephilim have the ability to heal themselves. So genetic defects, bacteria, viruses, cancer, and other types of sickness don't affect us. We even elude aging until we have children. The only other way to die is by falling in battle.

  "I was an anomaly. The team finally concluded that I had simply waited too long to have children. If you'll remember, I spent hundreds of years in hiding, and the doctors said there must be a reproductive limit even for the Hallows.

  I cried for weeks when I found out. Bes tried to comfort me, insisting that he wouldn't leave me. Both Hallows and Nephilim typically mate for life, but I couldn't imagine anyone choosing to endure eternity with me. Finally, I moved on, investing myself in my relationship and my work. Bes and I travelled the world together, trying to accomplish the mission of the Hallows among humans. We had lots of free time, so we made a game of visiting every country, tasting every delicacy, seeing every wonder the area had to offer.

  "Eventually, we had been everywhere and done everything several times over. Even the changing times, the different periods, the way the human race was developing didn't bring enough newness to the experiences.

  Bes and I went back to the capital.

  "When the New Order took over, Bes' had to take a new wife—but not just any wife. His wife was Magda, the friend I told you about—Clara and Cora's mother. She had heard our story, of course—everyone had—and she felt guilty for taking a man away from the woman he loved. At the same time, I felt guilty for giving her a husband who would never be in love with her. What could we say to each other though?

  "I stayed away, as much as I could. I travelled some, but my travels only reminded me of Bes. A few years later, I returned to the capital. That same year, Magda did bear children, two twin girls, with the most beautiful almond eyes, skin the color of coffee, and heart-shaped faces.

  "When I held Bes' children, I felt like they were my own almost, as if Magda was a surrogate mother for the children I couldn't have. Bes aged quickly as soon as the children were born, the years he spent alive catching up to him. The girls crowded around his bed as he withered away of old age, begging him to tell them stories. He told them stories about us, replacing my name with Magda's. The three of us, in the strange relationships we had formed, agreed it was the best way to protect the girls. Bes was gone by the twins' tenth birthday."

  Thessa gently placed her hand on Rykken's. "It was hard to let go of Bes. I'm not going to pretend it was easy to see him with Magda, and to see her still when I look at Clara and Cora. But it was for the best. In many ways, she had given Bes and me a gift. She was the ice pick, cracking the moulding surrounding our relationship, which had been frozen in time for far too long. And if I hadn't let go of Bes, I wouldn't have the twins now."

  "Why are you telling me this?" Rykken sensed the troubling, double-meaning of her story.

  Thessa's gaze shifted to one of genuine empathy mixed with stout certainty. "I know how much you think you love Brie, but she's a Trinity. I'm sorry Rykken. She isn't one of us."

  He glared back at Thessa, pain pricking him all over his chest. "I don't care."

  "You should. The Brie you're in love with now will fade, replaced by someone neither of us recognize anymore."

  "No," Rykken said. "The stones can cure her."

  "And how will you find the stones?" Thessa asked, tilting her head curiously. "The odds were against Brie even when I thought she was an extremely powerful Hallow. Now, the chances of her going dark before she finds them all... well, it's almost an impossible task."

  "You know what's going to happen in the future, don't you?"

  Thessa buffed her nails on the bedsheets, admiring a gold ring she was wearing. "Yes, some of it. Just images, really."

  "Like my vision about Brie falling off of the boat and almost drowning."

  "We share a gift—the ability to see the future in our dreams." Thessa gestured to the door. "All of my visions are catalogued in the next room. You can reference them any time you want."

  "What do you mean?" Rykken asked. "How?"

  "I'm giving you my visions, but I don't advise you to go looking for trouble. Knowing too much about the future is just as dangerous as not knowing enough. I would let your subconscious decide what to look at, if I were you."

  "I don't understand."

  "Rykken, you were dying. I used an ancient ritual named after a man named Cronus that allows a Hallow to use his or her healing abilities to help another living being. The Cronus ritual is not always a death sentence for the healer, but with your wounds, the only way I can save you is by giving my life in place of yours."

  Rykken's jaw plunged into total astonishment. "Did Kennedy kill me?"

  "Yes and no. She is the reason you're dying, but Brie brought you back to the van Rossum house just in time." Thessa left Rykken's side and traversed the room, meandering in random patterns. "You're alive because my own life force is keeping you here. You can tell, because I'm controlling the room."

  "Why would you die for me?"

  "Because you're far more important than me," Thessa explained, an uneasy passion in her words. "You can bring down the New Order." She gestured to a shelf. "I'm passing on my powers to you too. It's a rare gift, to receive another Hallow's powers. But you'll need them, if you are to fight and win the wars that lie ahead."

  "What about Brie?" he asked. "She doesn't trust you anymore. She said you were going to turn her in to the Hallows."

  "I was." Thessa sighed. "When you live as long as I have, you learn to look at the bigger picture. But I was overruled." Thessa held up her hands. "Either way, I'm dying. Brie doesn't need to worry about me spilling her secret anymore."

  "You also said she would pay for what she did to Kennedy."

  "She will," Thessa said. "Sirena will protect her, though, for as long as she can."

  "So will I," Rykken said.

  Thessa's bottom lip twitched. "Brie is just one person
. You're destiny is bigger than her or you—you have the chance to change history; to overthrow the government, to make things right with the Hallows, for once."

  "What happens to Brie affects me," Rykken said defiantly.

  Thessa's stern look reminded him of a teacher. She pursed her lips. "I guess it could be better that you're close to her. I thought it was a weakness at first—something that would just hurt both of you at the end. But now, I wonder if it might help you."

  "I can fix this," Rykken said. "My visions helped me save Brie once."

  "My visions say otherwise," Thessa countered, "and I have lived for thousands of years. I've never once changed the course of one of my visions." She sat down again. "Not even the vision of my husband having children with another woman."

  "What's the use of having visions then?" Rykken asked, frustrated. "If you can't change what's going to happen, there's no point in knowing early."

  "Because in rare circumstances, you may save someone. Like the way you saved Brie. Sometimes good things happen, but most of the time the visions just prepare you for the inevitable. They help you let go of the ones you love."

  "I won't give up on her," Rykken said.

  Thessa pursed her lips. "Very well," she finally said. "It's best if you discover your true destiny on your own." She kissed his cheek. "Be well, my friend."

  She shoved him back down onto the bed. He panicked, wishing he could say something wise to her, or at least thank her for sacrificing her life to save his. But his eyes drifted shut against his will, pushing him back into a clear, blinding world of pure white.

  *****

  In the hallway, Clara screamed at Brie. "I'll never forgive you if she doesn't wake up! You deserve to be a Trinity! You've been evil all along and—" Cora buried her head in Pilot's chest. "Don't let go of me," she begged.

  Pilot wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin against the top of her head. They sat like that for several minutes, blocking out Clara's screams and Brie's sobbing.

  "Why do you find me comforting?" Pilot asked. It didn't make sense to him. They weren't particularly close, and he was an earthlie. For the most part, the other Hallows ignored him.