Son of Secrets

by N. J. Simmonds

  Everyone was looking at her expectantly. Were they waiting for her to say something? She hadn’t been listening to a word her father had been saying.

  ‘Sorry, Papa. Could you repeat that?’

  ‘I said do you, Arabella Imaculada Santiago de los Rios, take Joshua Joseph de Silva to be your lawfully married husband?’

  It was strange to hear her full name. Nobody ever called her Arabella, not even her parents. She realised she was marrying a man without knowing his full name, either.

  ‘Joseph? Is that your middle name?’ she whispered.

  He scrunched up his nose and nodded.

  ‘Sorry, Papa,’ she said. ‘I mean yes, I take…’

  Suddenly, there was a loud bang at the back of the church as the wooden doors slammed open, hitting the stone walls on either side. The sun shone into the chapel, creating a silhouette of the two figures standing in the doorway. They walked toward the altar, stepping through the rainbow of colours the stained glass windows threw across the aisle.

  Her heart leapt. Was it Zac? No, she could tell right away by their body shapes that neither of them was her angel.

  ‘A wedding? Oh, I do so love a wedding,’ a female voice said. ‘I’m so glad I dressed up for the occasion. Don’t mind us; we’re just looking for somebody.’

  Josh put his arm protectively around his bride, and Leo stepped down from the altar. As the strangers got closer, Ella could see one was a dark-haired woman and the other was…

  ‘Sebastian?’

  ‘Hello, little sis.’ He turned to the pew beside him. ‘And mummykins. Look at that, my father’s bimbo wife is here, too. Where’s Richard? Oh, no! Wasn’t Daddy invited?’

  This couldn’t be happening. What the hell was Sebastian doing at her wedding? She’d thought she would never see him again. How had he got into Spain without being caught? And who the fuck was that stunning woman beside him? She looked familiar.

  ‘OK, let me guess,’ the woman in red said. ‘The blushing bride must be Ella, the priest is her father—how very modern—and the confused blonde must be the mother. And what about those two girls in the hideous burgundy dresses? Never mind, it doesn’t matter; I doubt they’re important.’

  ‘What do you want?’ Josh said, standing between Ella and the brunette. ‘This is a private wedding. We don’t want any trouble.’

  The woman smiled.

  ‘Ah, the dashing groom. Yes, with your chiselled features, I can see why a girl would want to have you between her legs, but I’m not so sure why she would want you beyond that.’ She ran her hand over his chest and moved it down to his stomach. ‘My goodness, you’re very hard down there, aren’t you? Now be quiet.’

  Josh stood stock-still. Why wasn’t he pushing her off him? Was she an ex-girlfriend or a crazy groupie? And what did Sebastian have to do with any of it? Ella’s first thought was to cry out for Zac, which was ridiculous. Fat lot of good that would do this time.

  ‘That’s quite enough,’ Leo bellowed. ‘Get out, whoever you are.’

  The woman faced the priest and cocked her head to one side.

  ‘Are you not Leonardo?’ she said. ‘The famous angel expert they speak of in the Vatican? I’ve heard your name. I know you know my people.’

  Angels? Why was the woman talking about angels?

  ‘You,’ she said, pointing to Leo, ‘and you, you, you, and you,’ she continued, nodding to her mother, Josh, and her friends. ‘Go to your bedrooms and stay there. It’s Ella I need to talk to. If you do as I say, no harm will come to you.’

  Much to Ella’s horror, they all walked single file down the aisle and out through the side door that led back to the hotel without a backwards glance.

  ‘Stop!’ Ella cried.

  Why were they ignoring her? She went to run after them but invisible hands held her back. She swung around and faced the woman in red.

  ‘Who the hell are you?’ she shouted. ‘And why can’t they hear me?’

  ‘Oh, I do apologise, Ella. How very rude of me. I’m Luci and this here is Sebastian, but I believe you two have already met.’

  Sebastian flashed his tiny teeth. He was thinner than when she’d last seen him and his hair was longer, but his smile was as creepy as ever.

  Luci peered closer at Ella’s neck and inspected the pendant on her necklace.

  ‘Where did you get this? This is my necklace,’ she said.

  ‘No, it’s not. It’s mine. It used to belong to my great-grandmother, and then my father gave it to my mother.’

  Why did the woman think the necklace was hers? Then it dawned on her. Ella knew exactly where she’d seen that beautiful woman before. A painting, the necklace, a face that looked just like Zac’s…

  ‘Give it to me!’ Luci shouted.

  Ella did as she was told, her trembling fingers struggling with the tiny clasp behind her neck. She removed the rings off her right hand, too, and passed them over.

  ‘You have the full set? You have no idea how long I’ve waited for the planets to align themselves like this. These metals and stones were especially made to bring him to me. So where is he?’ Luci twisted her head around wildly. ‘Where is my boy?’

  ‘Zac was right, then,’ Ella said. ‘You’re a fallen angel.’

  ‘He knows about me?’

  Ella swallowed, struggling to find her voice. Zac’s mother was still alive? But that would mean that he…

  ‘Speak, girl!’

  ‘My father…he had your portrait in his house. He’d found it in the Vatican and saw you were wearing the same necklace his grandmother gave him, so he asked to keep it. When Zac saw the painting, he recognised you straightaway. We worked out that, to still be alive, you would’ve had to have been one of the original fallen archangels.’

  What had the woman said her name was? Luci. Ella’s stomach sunk to her feet. Of course! Why hadn’t she worked it out sooner? Had Zac? She took a deep, shuddering breath before forming a sentence she never thought she’d hear herself say.

  ‘So is Luci short for…?’

  ‘Lucifer. That’s right. I’m Lucifer, but don’t believe everything you hear.’

  Zac’s mother was the Devil? How could that be? How could she have walked the earth for so long without anyone knowing?

  ‘What did Zadkiel do when he saw my picture?’ Luci said, gripping the top of Ella’s arm.

  ‘Well, when he realised you were still alive, it gave him hope. It made him do what he did.’

  ‘What did he do? Where is my son?’

  Ella stared down at the ground. His mother had no idea, and Ella didn’t want to be the one to tell her.

  ‘Look at me!’ Luci screamed. ‘Say it. Where is my boy?’

  A single tear escaped down Ella’s cheek. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Sebastian grinning, but she didn’t wipe her face. If this was Zac’s mother, then where was he? Why hadn’t he survived, too? If he’d lived, surely he could feel her fear right now?

  ‘Zac’s dead,’ she said.

  Luci gripped her arm tighter.

  ‘No. That’s impossible. What do you mean?’

  ‘Luci, you got your answer. Zac’s dead,’ Sebastian said, stepping forward. ‘You said I…’

  ‘Shut it and stay where you are!’ she shouted at him without taking her eyes off Ella. ‘What happened? You know what my son is. He can’t die. Don’t lie to me.’

  Ella sniffed and let another tear fall.

  ‘You think I would be marrying Josh if Zac were alive? I haven’t seen him since January three years ago. He saw your portrait, realised you were a fallen angel, and decided if he died, then he too could return and be with me forever—no longer under his father’s rule. Except it didn’t work. He never came back. He hacked off his own wings with Mikhael’s sword for nothing!’

  Ella was sobbing uncontrollably now. She knew how much Zac had wanted to see his mother again; she also knew angels were never wrong. Zac didn’t make mistakes. So why had it worked for his mother but not him?


  She tried to free herself from Luci’s grasp, but the fallen angel gathered her into her arms instead and held her tightly. Was she hugging her? Ella allowed herself to relax into her embrace. Whoever this crazy woman was, she was still a mother—someone who was hurting who clearly loved Zac as much as Ella did.

  ‘You haven’t seen my boy in three years?’ Luci asked.

  Ella shook her head against her shoulder.

  ‘Come on, this is a waste of time,’ Sebastian said. ‘Ella’s no use to you now. I did what I said I would do and brought you to my sister. I’m going now, and I’m taking her with me. You promised I could have her.’

  The two women turned slowly to face Sebastian.

  ‘Have me?’ Ella spat. ‘Fuck off, Sebastian! I’m not going anywhere with you, you evil bastard. You ruined my life. I have no idea how you even found me!’

  ‘I like you,’ Luci said, wiping Ella’s tears off her face. ‘I can see why my son was so obsessed with you.’

  ‘What?’ Sebastian spluttered. ‘Don’t let her talk to me like that!’

  Luci ignored him and continued talking to Ella.

  ‘Did you know I once saved your life from this creep? It’s true. Two thousand years ago, during your first life with Zadkiel. You were Arabella, and Sebastian was a Roman soldier called Sabinus. Do neither of you remember?’

  They shook their heads in unison.

  ‘What a pity. No wonder you humans never learn. Well, Sebastian was a disgusting man back then, too. He bought you as a sex slave. I’d just awoken in the forest, years after Mikhael had ripped out my wings and left me for dead, but instead of helping me look for my son, this vile creature raped me. Then the piece of shit killed my boy.’

  Sebastian stepped back from the two women, his hands held up in surrender.

  ‘This is preposterous. I can’t be accountable for something I supposedly did in another lifetime.’

  Luci’s eyes glowed a bright green and were fixed on Sebastian’s, whose own eyes were now wide and filled with fear.

  ‘It was you who took Zadkiel away from us. Because of you, I’ve been searching for my son for thousands of years. Your actions forced him to suffer an eternal cycle of pain lifetime after lifetime where he longed to, but couldn’t, be reunited with this girl. His one true love. All,’ she said, jabbing him in the chest, ‘Because. Of. You!’

  Sebastian winced and rubbed his chest.

  ‘This is madness. Listen, you asked me to take you to Ella and I did. You promised I could do what I wanted with her afterwards. We had a deal.’

  ‘I lied, you stupid fool. You made a pact with the Devil, Sebastian. The Devil always wins.’

  Sebastian broke into a run, but Luci pointed at every door in the chapel, slamming them shut, each lock simultaneously clicking into place. They were trapped. Ella looked on in horror as Luci’s voice got louder.

  ‘You will listen to me. Turn around,’ she cried out. She twirled her finger, and he spun on the spot until his startled eyes met hers. ‘I rescued this girl once from you, and I will do it again. You think I’d let you touch another woman after the way you treated me in those Tuscan woods? Your soul is still as black now as it has always been. I kept you close this week because I’ve been hunting you down for two millennia. I’m going to hurt you as much as you hurt us.’

  Sebastian’s face drained of colour. He reached out for the pews on either side of him as his legs shook beneath him. Ella guessed he’d already seen what Luci was capable of. Three years ago, Ella had watched Zac use his powers on Sebastian after he’d attacked her, but something told her this was going to be a lot worse. Clearly, Sebastian was thinking the same.

  ‘Please, Luci, don’t get angry. I’m sorry. Whatever I did in the past, even the stuff I don’t remember, I’m truly sorry. I’ve changed. Please, don’t hurt me. I’ll do anything you want.’

  ‘Anything I want?’

  ‘Yes. Anything.’

  Luci appeared to be thinking.

  ‘There’s only one thing I want from you, Sebastian,’ she whispered. ‘I want you to die.’

  Her arm shot out, and he screamed as her outstretched finger lifted his feet from the ground. Ella was paralysed by both fear and curiosity.

  Was Zac’s mother defending her? But wasn’t she the Devil? And where the fuck was Zac? Ella jumped as Luci clicked her fingers, sending Sebastian flying into the wall where he fell back down with a thud.

  ‘What do you think, Arabella?’ she said, turning to her with a smile. ‘That wasn’t nearly bad enough, was it? Shall I try a bit harder?’

  She didn’t wait for a reply, immediately lifting him up again with a wave of her finger. His head flopped forward, and he groaned as he struggled to speak. Luci raised her hand higher and higher, turning him around until he was floating in front of the altar. Luci blinked, and his arms shot out to either side of him—a sacrificial Jesus.

  ‘You said…I…couldn’t…die.’ Sebastian gasped, blood bubbling at his mouth.

  ‘No,’ Luci said, ‘I said no one could kill you…except for me. The only reason I’ve kept you alive is so that no one could take this pleasure away from me. And the only reason I wanted you to take me to Ella was so she could watch me do this.’ She raised her arms to the heavens, sending him so high that his head touched the chapel’s tall ceiling. His face was an ashen mask streaked with red, his lips moving in protest but no words forming.

  ‘Goodbye, Sebastian. May you never return because if you do, I will hunt you down for all of eternity. You will never be safe from me.’

  With that, she dropped her arms to her sides and sent him falling through the air. Down he plummeted, faster and faster, his arms flailing and a strangled gurgle emanating from his lips. He dropped with such speed and force that as he approached the golden altar, his head collided with the huge, pointed crucifix, its tip piercing the back of his neck and exiting through his gaping mouth. His arms collapsed on either side of him, draped along the horizontal bars of the giant cross. His bulging eyes and skewered mouth gaped in perpetual fear. Blood poured down the ornate altar, snaking its way from the pulpit down the marble stairs until it formed a puddle at Ella’s feet.

  She looked up in horror at her murdered stepbrother and screamed and screamed and screamed—three years’ worth of pain and anguish and anger flying out of her mouth like a swarm of plague-ridden flies.

  Luci, as if she’d spent every last drop of energy slaying their shared foe, collapsed with a thud onto the marble steps, her head in her hands.

  ‘Get out!’ she shouted, her words fighting to be heard over Ella’s cries. ‘You can’t give me back my son, so just go!’

  Luci slumped forward, her shoulders shuddering as if she were crying, but Ella wasn’t going to comfort her. She didn’t want to go anywhere near the crazy woman after seeing the extent of her powers. Ella ran to the side door but it was locked, as were the double doors that led to the front of the building. She had to get out! Then she remembered the secret entrance to the library. She ran past Luci, who didn’t look up. Avoiding the glassy-eyed stare of her stepbrother, who was hanging above her, she pushed a panel on the golden altar and climbed inside.

  She could escape via the library. There was another door up there that would lead her to the back stairs and then outside. She would call the police, and then she’d check that her parents and Josh were OK. Had they really been sitting in their rooms all that time?

  She ducked inside the secret entrance beneath the altar and, with one last glance at the sobbing woman, let the tiny golden door shut behind her.

  ZAC COULDN’T SIT on the grass staring at Ella’s hotel all day. Neither did he want to move.

  He’d been sure Ella would come running to him once she’d seen the jewellery. She hadn’t. She didn’t want him after all this time; he had to accept that. Three years was nothing to him, but it was a long time for a human to be expected to wait. He’d loved her for two thousand years, but in reality they had only been tog
ether a couple weeks. He had to let her go.

  But what was he meant to do with himself now?

  He’d had every intention of escaping somewhere on his bike and getting his head around a life without Ella, until that crazy driver had nearly run him over and he’d had to swerve. He’d stopped to check the bike and now didn’t want to get back on it. With the monastery still in view, he couldn’t bring himself to leave.

  Suddenly a scream rang out, a scream that wouldn’t stop. It was such a piercing wail that goose bumps rose on his skin and his stomach fought its way up his throat. That sound was the last thing he’d heard before he died.

  Ella was in trouble.

  Forgetting his motorbike, he ran as fast as he could toward Ella’s voice. Her cries filled every inch of the monastery grounds. They bounced off the tall trees and the curved archways as well as the stained glass windows of the tower and the cobbled stones beneath his pounding feet. He headed for the chapel, hoping he wasn’t too late.

  Her screaming had stopped by the time he reached the chapel doors. He leant against them, his chest rising and falling as he battled to catch his breath, but they were locked. Placing his palm against them, he waited for the telltale sound of the mechanisms moving inside. Tentatively, he pushed the door open, blinking until his eyes adjusted to the gloomy interior. The chapel was empty. Weren’t Ella and Josh meant to be getting married right now?

  He walked toward the altar, his eyes adjusting to the gloomy light, and squinted up at the large, life-size effigy of Christ hanging above the pulpit. Strange. This one was clothed and…no…it couldn’t be. A dead man was impaled on the crucifix, his blank, soulless eyes staring out over an invisible congregation.

  Zac’s heart quickened. Where was Ella? Was that why she’d screamed? He ran to the front of the church and then stopped. A woman was sitting on the marble steps, her face in her hands, wearing a dress as bright red as the puddle of blood surrounding her.

  Upon hearing his footsteps she sat up, pushed her dark hair away from her face, and stared at the man before her.

  It was his mother.

  ‘Zadkiel?’ She stood up very carefully, wobbling on her high heels. She was shaking, her face streaked with black rivulets of mascara. ‘Is that you, son?’