Betrayal (The Divine, Book Two)

by Forbes, M. R.

  When she looked up, her expression was fierce, proud, and infinitely sad. “My involvement with the Templars is secret, and had to remain secret. I couldn’t have convinced anyone otherwise without their sacrifice. The Templars have pledged their lives to this, Landon. They know what failure means.”

  “I’m not judging you,” I said, reaching out and putting my hand on her shoulder. “We do what we think is right, don’t we?”

  She surprised me, turning into my reach and wrapping her arms around me. She buried her head in my neck, and I could feel the wetness of her silent tears against it as I finished the embrace. Holding her while she cried, I could only hope that hadn’t been the day Joseph had died.

  I gave her a few minutes to mourn, and I hated to force her back to the present, but time wasn’t on our side. “Come on, Charis,” I said. “We have work to do.”

  She pulled away and looked up at me, her red eyes flaring. “She likes you too,” she said, her entire demeanor changing. “Let’s go.”

  We reached the end of the corridor. I found myself standing in front of a small wooden door that looked completely out of place down here. It was old, it had to be, the wood stained and faded, pieces of it chipped and cracked. It reminded me of the giant door at the Catskill Sanctuary, only at a much smaller scale. It too was covered in runes, similar to those of the seraphim, but with a flourish and tightness that made it illegible to me.

  “Templar script,” she explained. “It’s very similar in style because its origin is closely related. The power is what really differentiates.” She flicked her eyes at the door, and it swung open without a sound.

  She motioned me in, and I moved ahead, stepping through the doorway. I found myself in a place that betrayed all sense of time and space. A cave, with uneven surfaces, stalagmites dripping from the ceiling, and veins of crystals catching the small amount of light and reflecting it in iridescent shimmers. It was beautiful to behold, but what made the space truly amazing was the Templar script. It covered every available centimeter of the ceiling, walls, and floor, tightly wound in a pattern of order and chaos that defied all understanding. It ran everywhere I put my eyes, and I beheld it in wonder as one of the most complete and amazing works of art I had ever seen.

  “What is this place?” I asked.

  Charis pulled the door closed behind us. As soon as she did, the network of runes began to glow softly, the light reflecting from the crystals, the resulting vision taking the room from unbelievable, to mind-blowing. When I turned around, the door was gone.

  “Somewhere else,” she said. “A place outside of all things. A place beyond. Science might call it a pocket universe, or maybe a fractal dimension. Neither of those things is accurate, but they’ll suffice.”

  “How?”

  “This is the true inheritance of the Templars,” she said. “And of the faith. This is the cave where Jesus Christ was buried, and rose from the dead.”

  I looked around, my upbringing creating more than a little shock, awe, reverence, and guilt. I didn’t feel like I belonged here.

  “Shouldn’t this be near Jerusalem?” I asked.

  “It was, once,” she replied. “I moved it. It left me in a coma for a week, but we felt it had been compromised.”

  I kept turning, in circle after circle, trying to soak it all in. “Tell me more,” I said.

  “Catholic teachings say that Christ was buried and rose on the third day, which is true enough. To any observer on the outside, only three days passed. But Jesus was the son of God, he couldn’t take the mortal path to Heaven. He also had some of the power of God, and bringing him here brought him closer to his Father. It was in this very spot where he learned to harness that power, to use it to return to his birthright. How long it took - weeks, months, years, millennia - is irrelevant. Time is irrelevant here. A hard concept to grasp, but one that we can use to our advantage.”

  I put my fingers on the wall, feeling the power thrumming along the surface in smooth vibrations, like a well-tuned engine. “The runes. Who created them?”

  “The second. An archangel named Malize.”

  “I thought that was Michael.”

  “Most do. Malize is the forgotten, and he prefers it that way.”

  “That’s where you got the blood from?” I asked. “For the Grail?”

  She nodded. “Yes. This is his home.”

  “He isn’t here,” I said.

  She smiled. “Remember, there is no time here, not the way you’re familiar with it. He has been here since the day he finished the final rune and connected this realm to ours. For us it has been many thousands of years. For him, either millions or the blink of an eye. He will experience it as he chooses.”

  “Will we see him?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. He will decide. We don’t have much time, not out there, but there are things you need to know, things we need to accomplish.”

  “What kinds of things?”

  “I told you I would help you communicate with your angel. That is part of it. There is more, but it would be impossible to explain.” She looked away, before she brought my eyes to hers. “I know I’m asking a lot, but I need you to put your complete trust in me.”

  Trust? I stared at her. I had put my trust in Rebecca, and she had run away with it, all the way to Hell. Now I was trapped in another universe, and the former Demon Queen was asking me to trust her? I looked into her red eyes, trying to find a hint of deception, a hint of insincerity. She was like me, she could lie all she wanted and I’d never know. How could I be sure she wasn’t plotting to leave me here?

  I had always felt a kinship to Charis, an understanding. We were so alike, yet so different. A mirror, she had said. Balance. Rebecca and Sarah were a serious tag-team. Nothing short of that would have even the smallest chance at stopping them. This wasn’t just about learning to communicate with Josette and Ulnyx, I realized. This was about a union to create the balance that was demanded, because without it everything was already lost.

  “I trust you,” I said, making my decision. The words flowed from my lips like molasses, my experience of time suddenly fluctuating.

  She moved in slow motion, her smile growing wide, her face set in resolve. The cave was small and we were already pretty close, but she moved in closer to that our chests were touching, and I could feel the heat of her body against my own. She was a little bit shorter than me, so she had to tilt her head up to keep eye contact.

  “I promise I won’t tell anyone,” she said, her eyes sincere. I didn’t know what she meant, but I had plenty of time to watch her tilt her head, lean up and forward, and press her forehead to mine.

  I took a single breath, the inhale pulling in the warmth of her, the smell of her, the touch of her skin against mine. The exhale felt like it took forever, and it plunged me into a cold darkness, like a cannonball into a frozen river. In an instant I understood what was happening, and my first reaction was fear.

  The darkness subsided, and I was a small girl standing on the street, watching a horse and carriage tumble by on a cobblestone road. My mum grabbed my hand and pulled me along, I was already late for lessons…

  I was a teenager, at a fancy party arranged for the children of the upper crust. My dress was so tight I could barely breathe, but I moved with confidence, the belle of the ball, my beauty undeniable…

  I was a young adult, in service to the King, laying unclothed in bed with a high ranking American official. He was sleeping, and I rose quietly and went over to his desk to rifle through his possessions, in search of anything that could be of help to His Majesty…

  I was laying on a table in a hospital, blood pouring from the hole in my sternum where the musket ball had entered. I don’t know why I tried to save the General from assassination - we weren’t on the same side after all. Now I would pay with my life…

  I was in Purgatory with Dante, and he was talking to me about the history of Purgatory, and about the role of balance in keeping mankind from the edge of o
blivion. He told me I was special, and promised to teach me everything I would need to know to return to life as a champion to humanity…

  I was in the midst of the American Civil War, fighting the demons that aimed to take the lives of the wounded in the night, and the angels that sought to save them…

  I was trapped by an archdevil, my neck nearly severed, about to die. The door burst in an the most beautiful man I had ever seen stepped in, wielding a sword that seemed to make him immune to the devil’s power. He cut the demon down, and set me free with a gentle hand that I would forever remember…

  I was standing over the body of my love, ravaged by the archvampire and the now fallen angel who had worked together to lure him into an elaborate trap. I swore then that I would have my revenge…

  I was struggling against the archfiend Reyzl, cursing him for his betrayal, fighting to remove the dagger he had planted in my back. I couldn’t focus, couldn’t breathe. I was powerless as he shoved me into the Hell rift…

  I was trapped in Hell, in a prison of bone and anguish, crying out in pain while my keeper methodically cut away at me, over and over again as I regenerated, the pain unbearable and unending…

  I was laying broken on the floor, my bonds severed, my body feeling relief for the first time in ages. My captor stood over me, her dark face an empty mask of curiosity…

  I was in her arms, and she was professing her love for me. She was begging me to take her soul, to escape this place before another could be sent to take her place. She said she was sorry she had hurt me, and she handed me a dagger. I asked her name. ‘Vilya’, she said…

  I was in the cave, alone, sitting prostrate on the floor, focusing on my breath, on letting go. I called her name, and heard her weeping. ‘Are you sad’, I asked her. ‘I have never been happier,’ she said…

  Trust. That was why Charis had required it. It was her life, and I lived it, from the beginning to the present, every breath, every word, every feeling. I knew every instant of her existence as though it had been my own, from her greatest triumph to a trip to the bathroom with a bout of diarrhea.

  Trust. She had lived my life too; every embarrassing moment of my own, every failure, every success. She knew me at least as well as I knew myself, and probably better. She had that perspective that I would never have, just as I did for her. It was a frightening, incredible experience that left me feeling more bare than any nakedness could, yet more fulfilled than I could have imagined. When her forehead separated from mine, and she moved back far enough to look into my eyes I could see myself reflected in them.

  “I don’t know what so say,” I admitted, struggling to catch my breath. Such a deep understanding of another was a difficult thing to resolve. Knowing Charis, everything that made her who she was, and every decision she had made - I hesitated to call it love, but it was something like it.

  “You don’t need to say anything,” she replied. “Focus, and tell me how you feel.”

  I did as she asked, reaching out for my power. I grasped it easily now, and so much more securely. I could almost visualize it in a corner of my mind, not only able to touch it, but also pick out individual fibers like strings. I could see the way Josette and Ulnyx’s power entwined around my own, and with a thought I could begin to release them. As I did, I felt the clarity of their souls coming into focus, moving forward in my consciousness.

  “Josette?” I whispered tentatively.

  “Landon,” she replied, her voice clear in my soul. “I can hear you. I can feel you. You’ve changed.”

  My eyes were open, still looking at Charis, but I could see her in my mind, standing against a blazing white backdrop. I sharpened my focus, pulling Ulnyx forward.

  “Sucker,” he said, materializing next to Josette. “Are you sure you want to give me so much control?”

  That was the trick. In order to communicate with them, I had to extract them, at least in part. The more I let them go, the more will they could exert upon their surroundings, upon my soul.

  “Behave yourself, creature,” Josette said, smiling at the Were.

  He laughed and winked at her. “Not a chance,” he replied.

  Satisfied, I returned my attention to Charis. “This is what he wanted, isn’t it?” I asked her. “Dante?”

  “Yes. One diuscrucis is powerful, but adding a second and having them connect increases the output. It is because of our humanity, our unique strength that the other Divine don’t possess. That was why I told you I needed you, and why we need each other if we are going to stop the Beast.”

  I nodded and delved into her eyes. “Vilya is a daughter of Belial,” I said. “Yet she fell in love with you, and helped you escape.”

  “All creatures have the touch of God, and all creatures are capable of love,” she said. “Love and hate are how the universe balances. Sometimes people confuse these words with good and evil, but they aren’t the same, and they are all subjective. Her love saved me to be here with you now. What the effects of that decision will be remain to be discovered, but it has no doubt altered the course of all time.”

  I knew it was true, and I had seen it before with Izak. “But that means…”

  She put a finger to my lips. “I know what you’re thinking, Landon, and it may be true. It also may not.”

  It was a weak hope to pin the future of everything on. “Then I guess there’s only one thing left to do.”

  “Fight,” she said.

  “Fight,” I agreed.

  “You may want to know what you are fighting,” the soft voice said from behind me.

  Charis and I turned as one to greet the archangel. He was a slight young man with dark olive skin and shiny black hair, a sharp, pointed nose and deep set, dark eyes. He was wearing a simple black cossack sashed with a rope belt, and a sword hung from his hip. He regarded us with interest and curiosity.

  “Malize, the time has come,” Charis said. “The Pure One walks, and the servants seek to free the Beast.”

  He didn’t look surprised, maintaining his soft calm. “It is sooner than I had expected, but we knew this day would come. No secret can be contained for all time. Still, it is only a fool who goes into battle without knowing their enemy, and so I shall tell you what I can.”

  He turned his back to us and waved his hand, and we were transported in this universe to a world newly born, covered in verdant green but devoid of any other life.

  “There was a time before time,” he said. “When this world was newly created, and mankind did not yet exist. My Lord looked down on what he had wrought with pleasure, for He knew how good it would come to be. There were no angels then, nor man, nor beast. Only the promise of life, and His love.

  “He began to lay the seeds of humanity, bringing life to this realm; the creatures of the sea and the land and the sky. He prepared this world, stocked it for those He would create in His likeness, to bestow His love upon them and to follow His own nature as a creator. The world was young, but it was vibrant, and He was very pleased indeed.”

  The scene changed, to dark skies filled with smoke and clouds, and fires raging as far as I could see.

  “There would have never been a need for the seraph, if it hadn’t been for the Beast,” he said. “Perhaps even Lucifer would still call us brother.” He shook his head sadly. “It matters little. At one time, there was no Beast, and then there was. It saw what my Lord had created, and it was intent on destroying it, for that is its nature.”

  “Where did it come from?” I asked.

  “Another place,” he said. “Perhaps like this one. My Lord is the Lord of all things, but there are an infinite number of all things, and as such he cannot keep a constant watch on them. It has been said that it revealed itself to Him and begged Him for amnesty and protection; that it had been exiled from this other place for attempting to defend the name of the Lord. It claimed that others like it, but calling themselves the true gods would follow after were it not hidden.

  “My Lord, His heart filled with mercy
granted its request. He allowed the Beast to settle in your world, to hide under His wing. Ages passed and all was good, until one day this realm began to burn, and the Beast rose up to challenge Him.”

  The scene changed again, now showing Malize and another seraph, an incredible figure of beauty and light, dressed in golden armor, their wings spread in magnificent white glory, standing before a dark figure. It didn’t really resemble a beast. It looked like a man, but even in the recreation of the history I could feel the coldness and despair.

  “We were the first of the seraph, Lucifer and I. We met the Beast in battle, and we lost. Other seraph were made, and in time we had an army. We marched on the Beast, but it had created its own army from the remains of the dead, and again we lost. As we died, its power grew, using our casualties as soldiers, feeding off the destruction of the world. We were nearly helpless against it.”

  This wasn’t making me feel any better. “You trapped it,” I said.

  He nodded. “Yes, but it required a new way of thinking. When my Lord would grant His power to us, the Beast would know, and it would grow its own, such that we would fall against it. So we devised a new weapon - a language. A special language that could siphon its power too quickly for it to adjust. This was the Templar script, the first language from which the scripture of the seraph is derived, and the runes of the demons derived from that. This was to be our path to victory.”

  Now we saw the battle. We watched as legions of angels fought against legions of the dead, knitted together in haphazard fashion, a grotesque motley of flesh and bone.

  “There were thousands of us against it. We accepted the casualties, we accepted the loss. We moved in, Lucifer and I, getting past its armies and confronting it one final time. Lucifer tricked it into chasing him, and led it straight into a trap. A cage of words, symbols, and numbers, not unlike this cave, where my Lord’s power overwhelmed it and held it in His grasp. There it has remained, trapped for all of eternity.”

  A final image of the Beast, curled up on the floor, quaking in fear, surrounded by light. I shivered, chilled by the visage.