A Mystery of Light

by Brian Fuller

  “Follow me out on my side,” Helo said. More Possessed pushed through, and he blasted them with Glorious Presence again. After a kick to the door that sent two Ghostpackers sprawling, he stepped out and let loose a big hallow.

  The Possessed inside the circle froze, bewilderment overspreading their faces. Helo shoved his way through, Melody and his team right behind. The Possessed outside the hallowing circle jogged along the fringes of the crowd, waiting for the inevitable depletion of Ash Angel Virtus.

  And still they came, pouring out of buildings in their pajamas and sleeping shorts, mobbing around them. Helo clenched his fists. Avadan was clearly pissed and had sent a mob for vengeance. They had to find a car and get clear. They weren’t going to make it if they had to jog out of Saint Louis while shoving their way through a crowd they couldn’t use their weapons on. Helo shouldered his way through a tight clump, knocking three Possessed to the ground.

  “Look for a car!” Helo shouted. “Something big.”

  “It won’t work!” Finny said, eyes darting around the crowd. “We’d have to drive over these people!”

  Helo glanced around at the swelling crowd. Finny was right. Even if he could Hallow the ground long enough for them to get a car, the Possessed were everywhere. What they needed was an aircraft. The Ash Angels used to have access to helicopters and private planes, but those days were long gone. But there had to be helicopters in Saint Louis somewhere, and Finny could fly anything.

  “Stop!” Helo said, keeping his hallow up “Faramir, find us a helicopter.”

  With trembling hands, Faramir dug his phone out of his pocket. The confused people within the hallow milled about, most leaving to head back to homes or jobs only to turn around and stare blankly at them when Avadan took control of their minds again. The crowd had swallowed all the cars on the road, their drivers stepping out to join their companions on the street, patiently waiting for the hallow to drop.

  “Got it!” Faramir said. “There’s a helicopter tour company down by the river. It’s only a couple miles west of here.”

  “Let’s do it,” Helo said. “Hallows and Glorious Presence to clear the way. You’re in the lead, Faramir. Take us to it. Melody, take over the hallow.”

  Melody provided the hallowed ground, and everyone else took turns blasting the Ghostpackers with Glorious Presence and pushing them out of the way. Block after agonizing block, they churned through the throng. Helo was just waiting for someone to pull a gun or plow through the crowd in a car to get to them.

  The massive Saint Louis Arch rose into the sky in front of them, seeming to grow taller the closer they came. They arrived at a walking bridge across the interstate, a cathedral just beyond. The bridge was stacked with Ghostpackers pushing and shoving toward them like the Ash Angels were discounted TVs on Black Friday.

  “We’ve got to go through,” Faramir said. “We go past the cathedral and cut across some trails. The riverfront and helicopter tours are on the other side.”

  “Try not to knock any off the bridge,” Helo warned. “How you holding up, Melody?”

  “Good,” she said. “I think I can get us there.”

  With another blast of Glorious Presence, they squeezed through the disoriented crowd. The interstate was a mass of cars sitting on the highway, doors open, Ghostpackers trying to climb at them. After a final push and shove, they cleared the bridge. The other side had fewer possessed and a lot more open space, which provided for good running. The arch glinted in the morning sunshine, the river a muddy snake winding through the city.

  A road ran down the riverfront, and the helicopter-tour barge floated in the water, two gangplanks stretching to the shore. A blue-and-yellow helicopter waited on the pad.

  “There it is!” Finny said. “That’s a Robinson R44. I think it can only hold four. We’ll need a couple of us to morph into children.”

  They reached the waterfront road. A herd of Ghostpackers—only the healthy ones who could run a mile—swarmed toward them on either side, while others wheezed and fell behind. The obesity epidemic was bad, but it helped thin the pursuers’ numbers. To their left, a long stretch of concrete stairs led up to the arch.

  “Shedim!” Sparks said a half second after Helo felt the taint creep into him. Two Shedim morphed like police officers bounded down the concrete steps in front of the arch with Strength-powered jumps. The helicopter pad was so close! Getting trapped between Ghostpackers and Shedim could get ugly fast.

  He grabbed Melody’s arm. “Keep Hallowing. Finny, get to the chopper and get it going. Everyone else, dump Angel Fire on those Shedim before they torch! On me!” He really, really couldn’t afford to have torched Ash Angels right now.

  Helo took point. Four streams of Angel Fire lit up the air, nailing the Shedim midflight. The Vexus of their creation steamed off them as they descended and landed fifty feet away. As soon as they touched the ground, they juked and dodged and then Sped forward, unleashing tentacles of smoky fire. One drilled Andromeda square in the sternum, blowing a hole through her chest and plowing her backward—into the crowd of Possessed.

  One whizzed by Helo’s ear, and he Strength jumped as the Sheid whipped a tentacle meant to chop him in half. The Sheid threw out another once Helo hit the ground, and he rolled as it passed overhead. He Hallowed, catching the Sheid inside. It started to run, but Helo trailed it and drove his fist through its back. The black mist exploded, and a teenage girl flopped to the ground.

  Another one of Avadan’s discount Shedim.

  He turned to find Melody in half on the ground, still Hallowing. Faramir was missing the bottom half of his legs, but he poured on the Angel Fire. Sparks stayed inside the protective circle and was dodging for all he was worth, keeping up the Angel Fire on the Sheid. The Possessed dragged Andromeda toward the river while she thrashed, though only her arms seemed to work. She belted and squirmed, sending Ghostpackers flying.

  Helo knew he couldn’t save her and help Sparks and Melody. Could they hold out long enough for him to do both? The Sheid torched, and Sparks flinched and stumbled before a tentacle sent him flying backward into the same crowd of Possessed hauling Andromeda off. Helo Sped forward and Hallowed before the Sheid could turn its attention on him. It too tried to run, but it was too late. Helo drilled it, and the darkness exploded, sending a teenage male to the ground.

  He crossed to Melody and healed her and Faramir before her hallow went out. “That’s all I’ve got,” she said as he gave her a hand up.

  Helo kept his hallow going, and they turned just in time to see Andromeda disappear into the water, disintegrating to ash. Helo’s heart sank.

  “Sparks!” Melody said, yanking Helo out of his stupor.

  The Possessed had surrounded Sparks, but the British Ash Angel was using bursts of Glorious Presence to keep the mob at bay. Helo, Melody, and Faramir sprinted forward and shoved the confused people around Sparks away. Helo grabbed him and dragged him down the gangplank, where the helicopter waited, engine whining, blades whipping the air.

  Chapter 42

  Shujaa

  Magdelene’s eyes went wide. “At last, some good news,” she said after Helo related how he and Melody had cleansed Saint Louis. They sat on the back porch of Spade and Martha’s white farmhouse. The rest of the team had gone inside for brownies, but Magdelene had pulled him outside. She had morphed young, red hair back in a ponytail, but she seemed older than he’d ever seen her. Weeks of worry roosted in her eyes, in the tightness of her lips.

  “We need to Hallow Kansas City as soon as we can,” Helo said. “If we can find fuel for the chopper, Finny says we can be there in under two hours.”

  “Aren’t you both drained?” she asked.

  “It doesn’t take any of the Virtus from us,” he said. “It’s hard to explain. And I can’t explain too much. It’s against the rules, if that makes any sense.”

  “But one of you has to be in the meditation and touching the other for it to work, right?”

  “Yes,” he said
.

  “So doing this in a combat situation isn’t going to work,” she said, leaning back.

  “No,” Helo confirmed. He’d been racking his brain, trying to figure out some way they could take advantage of it when facing Avadan. If they could keep a hallow up around him, maybe he wouldn’t be able to use his black torching power, which disabled even the toughest Ash Angels.

  Martha came out with the lemonade. Helo took a cool glass, then said, “The good news is the hallow doesn’t take forever. The bad news is it’s easy for the Ghostpackers to pinpoint where we are afterward. Honestly, I think it’s a bad idea to do this without an aircraft. Getting trapped on the street was not good. But we have to get there before Avadan can do to Kansas City what he did to Saint Louis. It’s hard to describe a city full of Possessed. Unreal.”

  Martha stood nearby, hands in her apron pockets. Her face seemed troubled.

  “We’ll try,” Magdelene said. “I might be able to call in some favors from the Old Masters. We’ve got people watching the hospital where Billy Wickett is being ‘treated,’ and he hasn’t been discharged yet, so we’ve got a little time. We can’t be sure if he’ll hit Detroit or Kansas City next. If he announces a concert, we’ll know for sure. If not, we’ll have to see which way he goes. You and Melody have to be ready,” Magdelene said. “Since you’re the only two who can do this partnered hallowing technique—”

  “They’re not,” Martha said.

  Magdelene twisted around. “Really?”

  “Can I have a private word with Helo, dear?”

  “Sure.”

  “And can you fetch Spade for me?” she said, commandeering Magdelene’s seat. “He’s watching TV.”

  Magdelene went inside, screen door banging shut. Martha leaned forward, voice quiet. “So, you and that cute little Melody,” she said. “You’ve been doing a meditation with the silver ball and the sun?”

  “Yes,” he said. “You know it?”

  She nodded. “And you’ve, um, figured out the mysteries?”

  “Yes,” he said. This was great news! Maybe this technique was known by many Old Masters.

  “All of them?” she pressed.

  “I’m not—”

  The screen door banged open, and Spade ambled out, hat off and flannel shirt unbuttoned far enough to reveal a nice bush of graying chest hair. “What is it, Martha? Bonus round’s about to start!”

  “Sit down, dear,” she said.

  Spade grunted, a wicker chair crackling as it took his weight. “Well?”

  “It’s the meditation, dear,” she said. “He and that sweet Melody girl have figured out the mysteries.”

  His bushy eyebrows shot up. “Now that’s a thing.”

  “They used it to Hallow Saint Louis, heal it,” Martha continued. “We never even thought to try having one person in the meditation and another out.”

  “That works?” Spade said, momentarily forgetting to use his old-man voice.

  “Yeah,” Helo said, excitement pulsing through his veins. “You can take one city, and Melody and I the other. We can wipe out Avadan’s atrocity cities before the day is out.”

  Spade thought for a moment. “And you’ve solved all the mysteries, right?”

  “I guess,” Helo said. He lowered his voice. “We’ve found this place where we can create anything. It’s amazing.”

  Martha and Spade shared a look, one that carried fond memories. “That’s right,” Spade said. “There’s one more mystery, but for the two of you to have solved what you have so quickly . . . well, you’re a couple of insufferable show-offs, really.”

  Martha patted Helo’s knee. “Well, congratulations, dear. It’s kind of silly that more don’t know it, really. The meditation was such a sacred subject to the Old Masters it got lost in the last century or so. I’m glad you found it. What you have is really the greatest blessing. Well, Spade, I think we’d better pack our bags. How about we head on out to Detroit and let Helo and Melody rest up and take Kansas City?”

  Spade grimaced. “Detroit’s a cesspool.”

  Martha and Spade stood at the same time. “Come on,” Martha said. “It’s time to clean it up.”

  “You’ll want help,” Helo said. “The Ghostpackers are chasing auras.”

  “Help,” Spade muttered in the way men do when they’re told to read the instructions.

  Martha swatted his rump. “Don’t be a jackass, Spade.”

  Helo followed the old couple in. They took the creaky stairs to the second level. His team and Magdelene sat quietly on the couches in the living room wolfing down brownies and lemonade. Melody smiled at him from her seat by the window, sweating glass in her hands.

  “Well?” Magdelene said, standing. “Can they?”

  “Yep,” Helo said.

  “Can they what?” Sparks asked.

  “Hallow,” Helo said. “Like Melody and I can.”

  “Okay,” Faramir said. “Does this have to do with that meditation thingy you guys do?”

  “Yes,” Helo said.

  Magdelene moved toward the front door. “I’ll go down to the Foundry to talk to Mars and Ebenezer. This is the best news we’ve had in weeks. I’ll see if I can get birds for both of you.”

  “Okay,” Sparks said after Magdelene had left. “I’ll admit that I didn’t take this meditation bit seriously when you told us about it. But let’s just say I’m much more interested now. Explain it again.”

  Helo reviewed the basic technique with his team. “Do that every day before dawn. Remember, the goal is to empty your mind of all worry and care.”

  “But,” Sparks said, “if I’m reading between the lines correctly, I’m going to need to find a lady friend to, you know, get the most out of this?”

  Melody laughed. “Yes,” she said. “You need to be bonded.”

  Sparks frowned. “Brilliant.”

  “Still has benefits for those of us who haven’t been so lucky,” Faramir said, briefly glancing at Melody.

  “That’s your problem, Faramir,” Sparks said, tone serious. “It’s not a matter of luck. It’s all about a bloke’s attitude and skills.”

  Faramir rolled his eyes. “I suppose you’re booked solid with dates all the time. Oh, wait, I haven’t seen a woman talk to you for more than two minutes.”

  Sparks pointed his finger at Faramir. “Hey, the ladies have been lining up for my entire afterlife, but I like the unattached life, you know.”

  Finny grinned. “Lining up, huh? You sure about that, mate?”

  “That’s right,” Sparks said. “Too easy. Takes the fun out of it, you know? A man likes a chase. How about Archus Magdelene? She on the market? Or are she and Mars a couple?”

  Melody smirked. “Mars in love. Now that’s hard to picture.”

  “All right, everyone,” Helo said. “Let’s get back to business. We need to honor Andromeda.”

  Silent nods followed, and everyone grabbed a glass of lemonade. Helo struggled for what to say. As the commanding officer, he had a tribute to perform, something to comfort and honor. But words weren’t his strong suit. Second-guessing himself was. If only he’d done this or that, she might be alive. He shoved it aside and raised his glass.

  “To Andromeda.”

  “To Andromeda,” his team said in unison, thrusting their glasses forward.

  Melody took a drink and said. “Heaven welcomes another lioness home.”

  “Here, here.”

  They nursed their drinks in silence for a while, then Faramir glanced over at his backpack. “What about Shujaa?”

  “We don’t know for sure that’s his heart,” Sparks said.

  Helo was pretty sure it was. Shujaa made it quite clear he had no sympathy for the Possessed, and his passionate hatred had pushed him too far. It was weird not to have Shujaa’s shadow at his back or having him call him Angel Born every five minutes.

  “I’ve got to take the heart to the Foundry,” Helo said, moving toward the backpack. “Magdelene said they’ve got Ramis down t
here in some room they’ve converted into a cell. They’ll put Shujaa in there.”

  “They haven’t fried Ramis?” Sparks said. “Don’t look at me like that. After Aclima, I get that they want him back, but he’s messed up.”

  Helo grabbed the heart out of Faramir’s backpack. Weird to think the slimy lump in his hand belonged to the mighty Shujaa. “If Ramis knows what he’s cost the Ash Angels, he probably wants to be burned. If we’re not gone by the time Shujaa comes back, we should talk to him. He might be a Dread now, but he got closer to killing Avadan than any of us.”

  At five minutes to sundown, Helo sat in a chair inside the Foundry, staring at the cell where Ramis kept walking into the locked, metal door over and over and over. Someone had tossed Shujaa’s heart into the cell, just a lump in the middle of the tiled floor. What would he say to Shujaa? How would the man react to being a Dread? Shujaa hated Dreads for what they had done to his family, and now he was one.

  Helo stood as the time neared, stepping close to the bars that had been spot welded onto an office to make a prison of it. He hoped they’d reinforced the door and the walls—Shujaa was a beast of a man even without Bestowals. There was only one sentry at the door around the corner, and he looked about half the size of Shujaa.

  It was Helo’s first visit to the secretive compound beneath the old white farmhouse. The side he was on held the offices and the receiving area for raw materials, which were lowered on a large hydraulic platform. The line of offices overlooked the receiving floor, a metallic-grate platform stretching the length of the room. The office where they held Ramis abutted a common area in the middle of the stretch of rooms, and that’s where Helo had set up watch.

  At two minutes to sunset, Archus Mars strode up with Archus Magdelene and Corinth. Magdelene wore the blue jumpsuit of an Archus, while Corinth and Archus Mars wore the black-and-gray battle fatigues of the Michaels, the same outfit Helo had changed into after morphing back to his usual persona. Helo laid a man hug on Corinth. It was hard to see him so sober-faced. Helo couldn’t be sure if Scarlet or the Avadan situation had sucked his energy dry.