Sacred Cups (Seven Archangels Book 2)

by Jane Lebak

  Raphael ascended behind Gabriel and targeted a blast of his own. “This is your fault!”

  Gabriel took Lucifer off-guard with the first shot, leaving him with both hands over his eyes and his outer wings on fire, but now Satan had a Guard up. He deflected Gabriel’s last blows and Raphael’s follow-up.

  Michael pushed between Gabriel and Satan, his sword in his hands. “Your hour? It’s over.”

  Satan glowed hazily, and a moment later he was on his knees, the fire smoldering out, and then he shone far brighter. Saraquael and Raguel enchained Asmodeus and Beelzebub with their willpower. Belior and Mephistopheles stood back-to-back, maintaining a Guard, but they hadn’t drawn their swords. All five wore identical black armor, but the three Seraphim wore capes.

  Satan pushed to his feet. The fire in his hair and wings flared out, and he shook his head like a man bothered by nothing more than a cloud of gnats. He opened his hands, scanning the angels before him. “Is anyone in charge here? If I could have someone rational listen to me for a moment—”

  “I’m in charge,” Michael said. “Leave.”

  “As much fun as it would be to rout your forces while you’re sniveling about your friend, I’m actually here to offer my help.” Satan folded his arms and tucked his wings at his back. The singed upper feathers had already turned white again. He hadn’t taken down his Guard, though, which gave Gabriel a momentary satisfaction. “It sounds to me as if you’re breaking him out of Sheol, and frankly, I think the bunch of you haven’t a chance. I don’t want him in Sheol either, though, and therefore it’s in my best interests to make sure you have at least some chance of succeeding.”

  Raphael stared daggers at him. “Did you forget who put him there?”

  Satan stood much more relaxed than the other four demons. “You can’t afford to pass up any resources that might make the impossible possible.”

  Gabriel said, “Thank you for your input. We’ll take that under advisement.”

  Satan glanced at Gabriel. “That was the most gracious way anyone has ever told me to sod off.”

  Gabriel inclined his head. “Thank you.”

  “By the way,” Satan said with a smirk, “nice shot.”

  “This is not a joint assault.” Michael hadn’t relaxed. “I’m not having you stay so I need to defend against you at the same time as—”

  “You won’t have to defend against me,” Satan said. “And you should free my officers. They’re under orders not to attack, even if you try something as boneheaded as that again.”

  Gabriel raised his eyebrows.

  Satan continued, “I’m not stupid. If the Second Person of the Trinity is not returned to the throne, the Father is going to exact revenge on all creation. Being a part of creation ourselves, we see no benefit in being destroyed. Our continued existence is contingent on his emergence. Consequently, I put our resources at your disposal.” His eyes glittered, and flames crackled around his wings until Gabriel could feel the heat. “I dislike the prospect immensely myself.”

  “Then you can relax.” Gabriel shifted his weight. “He asked the Father to forgive us all because we were too boneheaded to realize what we were doing.”

  “I’ve felt the Father’s wrath firsthand and know how readily He forgives when it’s His dignity on the line. You might remember that yourself.” Satan huffed. “My people did nothing in comparison to those monkeys today, and He took everything.”

  Michael said, “You knew what you were doing.”

  Satan shook his head “The point remains: just because the Second Person asked doesn’t mean the First Person will go along with it.”

  Israfel pulled Michael aside and whispered, and then Michael called over Saraquael and Zadkiel.

  Satan said, “You don’t need to consult. If you don’t want us here, you need to forcibly eject us from the proceedings. Otherwise, we’ll remain.”

  Michael looked at Gabriel, and Gabriel flashed over to him.

  How sincere is he?

  How should I know? Gabriel sent. But then he remembered as if in a dream Satan accosting him in the Temple, demanding if he understood what was about to happen, and Satan at the Cross telling him they’d screwed up.

  Michael must have caught some of Gabriel’s thoughts. You think he’s genuine?

  We should never trust him entirely, Gabriel sent, but his goals may coincide with ours for the time being.

  Michael rubbed his chin. What have they got to offer?

  Two of the four smartest Cherubim and three of the four most powerful Seraphim are standing two wingspans away willing to help, Gabriel replied. I’d say that’s something.

  Michael turned to Satan. “You can stay until you annoy me sufficiently that I throw you out.”

  Satan folded his arms and tilted his head. “Appreciated.”

  Michael gestured to Saraquael to release the four demons from their restraints. Satan brought down his Guard. “Your Cherubim will take orders from Gabriel. The Seraphim you can keep for now. And if you have any ideas on a starting point, you might as well voice them now, since I know you will anyway.”

  “Only one.” Satan turned to Raphael. “You were with him when he raised the dead. How did he do it?”

  Raphael said, “He called them. They came.”

  Satan folded his arms and shifted his weight only a little, but with such control that the tip of his sword in its scabbard carved an arc in the air. “Then maybe you should get to the walls of Sheol and start calling.”

  Michael said, “You’re here against my wishes. You will not be ordering my officers like that. You want him that badly, you go call him.”

  Satan smirked. “He’s not going to come for me.”

  “Then I’d strongly suggest you be respectful to the ones he might come for.” Michael turned to Raphael. “Do you think it would do any good?”

  “None.”

  Gabriel said, “Let’s take a look, though. If there’s a solution to be found, we might as well be closer.”

  All five demons and a select group of archangels flashed to the edge of Sheol, where they hovered in a cluster. Sheol didn’t have a gate and didn’t rest on the ground. It existed as a territory not encompassed by Heaven or Creation, but immediately adjacent to Hell. Gabriel craned back his head to look up the length of it. It resembled nothing more than a polished cube of black granite, without handholds or decoration.

  Had you ever been here before? Israfel sent.

  No, never. Gabriel extended a hand to the wall and found it cold beneath his fingertips, but cold in the same way a living thing is warm to the touch. The cold pulsed and met him, and having touched it once, Gabriel knew he would recognize it if ever again he touched a part of it. This was Death.

  Michael was scanning the structure. “How large is it?”

  Satan said, “Measurements that have no meaning. You could glide all day and not reach the top. When you reach the top, it’s the same as here.”

  Gabriel said, “This could be the top,” and changed his axis so he stood on the breathing stone. Now at a right angle to everyone else, he crouched on the plane and pressed both hands into it, then laid down and exposed his wings to it as well.

  Ophaniel got down beside him. Awe rolled off him.

  “Are you getting anything?” Gabriel whispered.

  Ophaniel sent a negative.

  Belior and Mephistopheles joined them. Gabriel looked up to find everyone standing on the stone watching the Cherubim investigate. His wings tightened involuntarily as he sat up on his heels.

  “We’ve never managed to talk to the wall,” Belior said. “It won’t talk back.”

  “There’s no entrance.” Mephistopheles had discarded his helmet, revealing a mass of blond curls. “No seams. Even on the corners, you don’t realize you’re around them until you can’t see anyone else you were with a moment ago.”

  Gabriel reached for Raphael instinctively only to feel the heat again; he disengaged and reached for Israfel. She sparkled in his
mind, and he shook off the self-consciousness. “How do souls get inside?”

  Belior shrugged as he removed his own helmet. “I’ve followed them from death, and I get stopped at the wall, but they get drawn in without any struggle.”

  “So we have a semi-permeable façade,” Gabriel said, “which appears to be channeled to prevent entrance by certain types of creatures.”

  Mephistopheles said, “More than semi-permeable. It’s almost an osmotic reaction. Put a human soul alongside it, and in it goes, even if it’s not yet dead.”

  Ignoring Gabriel’s horrified expression, Belior said, “Leaving out for the moment the fact that if it were truly osmotic, we’d be drawn inside because the concentration of angels inside is clearly less than the concentration of angels on the—”

  “Obviously,” Mephistopheles said, speaking rapidly, “and the concentration of human souls isn’t equalizing either because at this point in time there clearly are far fewer humans outside Sheol than—”

  Satan said, “Belior, Mephistopheles, stop.”

  Gabriel felt Israfel chuckle in his mind.

  You’re only amused that I didn’t get involved too.

  You didn’t get a chance. Then after a pause, I just had exactly the same conversation with Ophaniel.

  Gabriel smiled, and her fire swirled through him again. “Is there any way to follow a soul through?”

  Mephistopheles said, “If you’d like to attach yourself to something, I’ll be happy to dispatch it so you can test what happens.”

  Gabriel said, “I was thinking more of being an opportunist.”

  “You don’t need to,” Saraquael said. “Guardians frequently try to follow their charges into Sheol, especially if the charge is in a poor state of soul.”

  Gabriel said, “Are they stopped at the wall or can they penetrate to any depth?”

  Raphael scowled. “You could ask me, you know. I just tried to follow him in.”

  Gabriel steadied himself. “And were you stopped right at the edge of the wall, or could you penetrate?”

  “Right at the edge.”

  “Thank you,” Gabriel said. “You could have just told us.”

  Raphael said, “I didn’t stop being his guardian the instant he died, regardless of how convenient that would have been.”

  Gabriel ignored the glance Ophaniel sent him and instead looked at Belior, who wore a thrilled surprise.

  Michael said, “All this trickery is interesting, but have you ever tried battering it?”

  Satan said, “I can’t blow it open.”

  Gabriel’s eyes brightened as both Israfel and Raphael ignited. “You tried?”

  Beelzebub laughed out loud, and Asmodeus said, “I was surprised you didn’t feel it in Heaven and come running to find out what we’d done.”

  Israfel projected to Gabriel that she wished she’d seen it. Gabriel said, “Maybe you could try again?”

  Satan met Gabriel’s eyes with a sparkle in his own. “Would you care to be that impressed?”

  Michael looked uncomfortable. “You’ll impress me enough if you get him out. We don’t need pyrotechnics in addition.”

  The Seraphim’s disappointment was palpable. It wasn’t every day you got to see that much power unleashed in one place.

  Push it, Israfel sent.

  Gabriel turned to Michael. “What if I help him?”

  “Better yet,” Belior said, “if we get bonded pairs hitting from opposite sides, we could set up a structural resonance that would perseverate and magnify the strength of the initial blow.”

  Mephistopheles nodded. “If we fine-tune the harmonic and anharmonic tendencies, it might just increase the entropic energy in the wall enough to—”

  “Mephistopheles, Belior, stop.” Satan looked at Michael. “I’m willing to try.”

  Michael sighed. “We’ll need six teams.”

  “If you knew anything about resonance, it’s only two,” Belior said. “We’ll want to time it exactly to coordinate the strike.”

  “What are we hitting it with?” Gabriel said. “Fire won’t have any effect. Light isn’t going to do anything other than be pretty.”

  Satan said, “Blast it with undiluted soul-energy.”

  Gabriel said, “Have you ever tried plasma, nuclear energy, antimatter…?”

  “No,” Satan said.

  Mephistopheles raised a hand. “I have.”

  Satan looked at him, eyebrows raised.

  “I was curious. I segmented off areas and measured them for smoothness and hardness, as well as chemical composition and—”

  “Mephistopheles—”

  “I documented its null state,” Mephistopheles said quickly, “and comparisons afterward showed no significant alteration in any of the measurements.”

  “Anything insignificant?” Ophaniel said.

  “Nothing I couldn’t account for by measurement error.”

  “Soul energy,” Satan said. “It gets the most power from a blast because you’re not changing or diluting it.”

  Gabriel agreed.

  “You and Israfel go to the opposite side,” Satan said. “I’ll strike from here.”

  “If you don’t mind my saying,” Belior ventured, “that may not be the best tactic.”

  “Why Israfel?” Raphael said.

  Satan shrugged. “She’s stronger than you are.”

  Gabriel sent Raphael reassurance, but Raphael pushed it aside.

  “You won’t be able to coordinate it finely enough with Gabriel to set up an anharmonic resonance.” Belior rubbed his chin. “Timing is going to be of greater import than force.”

  “Ophaniel or Raphael can give the signal,” Gabriel said.

  “Even at that,” Belior said, “there’s time for communication. It would be better to have you and Raphael on one side and Israfel with Ophaniel on the other because you four are primaries to one another. That eliminates any communication glitches.”

  “What a convenient plan.” Michael looked incredulous. “You just assigned my four strongest officers to scatter and then drain themselves of their power.”

  Gabriel turned to Michael. “It’s unfortunate, but he does make sense.”

  “Then let Belior and Asmodeus hit one side and Mephistopheles and Beelzebub the other.” Michael folded his arms. “I’m not objecting to the theory. I’m objecting to gutting my forces.”

  Saraquael said, “We could still take them.”

  “I don’t want to take them,” Michael said. “I would rather they not have the time to consider the opportunity.”

  Satan looked bored. “If we were going to attack, we would have immediately after he died. Besides, my Cherubim are having too much fun.”

  Gabriel laughed, and Mephistopheles caught his eye, also grinning.

  Ophaniel said, “They’re not cross-primaries. Belior and Beelzebub are secondaries, and Asmodeus and Mephistopheles are only tertiaries.”

  Michael shook his head. “It still sounds far too convenient.”

  Gabriel said, “It would be a deep discharge. We wouldn’t be incapacitated for long.”

  Satan cleared his throat. “If Gabriel wants to bond with me, I’m willing.” He frowned. “Don’t misunderstand. I don’t want to, but I’d agree to it.”

  Gabriel grimaced. “I don’t see that it would give us that much additional advantage.”

  Satan gestured toward Belior, who looked simultaneously horrified and jealous. “He thinks bonded pairs are the way to go. My power plus yours would not be insignificant.” A moment later he added, “You’re also smart enough and would be motivated enough afterward to figure out how to break a permanent bond and free both of us.”

  “That won’t be necessary.” Gabriel glanced at Raphael, whose face showed no emotion at all: not the jealousy nor the anger he’d have predicted. “If our efforts are just short, I’ll consider it again. But not without a compelling reason.”

  Satan inclined his head in agreement.

  Michael looked at Gabr
iel. “I’m going to leave the decision to you. If you have any reservations about this, it’s a no-go.”

  Gabriel said, “I don’t.”

  Michael opened his hands. “Then set it up.”

  Beelzebub muttered to Satan, “I’d rather see you blast it.”

  “If he hits it afterward, he stands a good chance of disturbing the resonance.” Mephistopheles put his hand on Beelzebub’s arm. “Resonance is a feedback loop. If you want it to work, you need to get it started and then leave it alone.”

  Satan smirked. “There will be other chances, no worries.”

  Gabriel said, “Raphael and I will take the opposite side.”

  Raphael shook his head. “You were going to be paired with Israfel, remember?”

  He averted his eyes. “It will be more even if it’s you and me against her and him.” Then he looked right at Raphael and met the anger face-forward. “It shouldn’t be you and me against each other.”

  Raphael flashed away. Gabriel followed.

  I’m with you, Israfel sent through her bond. Then, What’s going on with him?

  Gabriel sent back a sense of hopeless confusion, and then turned toward Raphael. They had arrived on the opposite side and were completely alone. Gabriel again altered his axis so he was standing on the surface. He reached for Israfel and Raphael, and a moment later he felt the Seraphim in contact with Ophaniel.

  He and Ophaniel established what they would do, the distance they needed, and then positioned themselves. Israfel gave an all-clear on her side when the other angels had gotten safely distant.

  All in one another’s hearts, the four didn’t speak as much as share one set of thoughts from four different directions. And the longer they remained merged, the more it arose in their collective awareness just how angry one of them was, how impatient another was becoming in response, and how sad it made the other two. Raphael backed off from the others, and Gabriel stopped the line of thought. Later, later. We can deal with it later. Now we have to coordinate the strike.

  He and Raphael merged even as Israfel and Ophaniel merged, and at the same time on opposite sides of an impossibly large cube hanging off the side of Hell, Israfel/Ophaniel and Gabriel/Raphael fired their souls’ energy at Sheol.