I stare at Eva as she tells me the story. It’s beyond nightmarish and makes me realize things could’ve turned out so much worse for Jade and I. At least I got my sister back. Eva’s story is exactly what everyone feared had happened to Jade after her abduction.
“They tried to do the same to me but stopped trying after I killed two of them.”
“You had your pole on the ship?” I ask. As soon as the words tumble from my lips, I regret speaking them. What a stupid response to such a horrific tale.
She shakes her head. “No … with my hands. Snapped their necks like they were nothing more than a chicken’s wishbone,” Eva says, her voice void of emotion. She might as well be reading from a menu. “The others didn’t bother me at all after that. Was able to sleep in my own cabin, eat, and go to the bathroom in complete comfort and privacy. Not that I could sleep or wanted to eat. What I wanted was to kill myself. Sometimes I still find it nearly impossible to get up in the morning and go on without Princess.”
We sit in silence for a moment. I have no words to offer, but I’m hoping she’s feeling my empathy. Tears fill my eyes at the thought of anything like that happening to Jade or any of my loved ones.
I dig my fingers into my front pocket, fish out the ring, and place it on my open palm. “It sounds crazy, but I think this ring is what stopped the demons. Sometimes it doesn’t seem to be just a ring. It almost feels like it has some kind of a lifeforce of its own. Not all the time; just some of the time.” Biting my lower lip, I gauge Eva’s reaction. The last thing I want is a fellow Seer to think I’m a complete lunatic.
She leans forward and squints at the ring. “Can I touch it?”
I nod. “It feels normal right now. I mean, how it should feel. Like just a bit of metal.”
Eva picks the ring up and holds it carefully between her thumb and index finger. Her eyes widen ever so slightly as she examines the design on the front of it, the star created from two overlapping triangles, before handing it back to me.
“You just felt it, didn’t you?” I say.
“Yeah, I felt it,” she answers, nodding. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s got power. I need to get Noni over here,” she says, getting up and heading across the room to where Noni’s comforting an older woman.
I put the ring back into my pocket and fish out my phone instead. Holding my breath, I press it on. After a few seconds the screen lights up. I sigh with relief. Knowing I still have a way of communicating with everyone in Toronto makes me feel much better. For some reason, I’m still not one hundred percent sure I can trust everyone here yet. Even if …
My eyes scan the room again, this time with purpose. However, despite the number of bodies and the shadowy light, I already know.
He’s gone. Again.
Though I’m used to Raphael disappearing on me, this time feels different. There’s something about this place or the people in it that isn’t sitting right with me. Maybe I’ve become a victim of Smith’s propaganda machine, and despite knowing that she and Mr. Jawad are up to some pretty shady stuff, I find it difficult to believe that the CCT aren’t terrorists — even though everything I’ve seen this evening should confirm that they’re not.
I check my phone. It was Mom who called earlier when we were in the cabin. My heart sinks. She’s going to be so worried. And angry. If I get out of here alive, there’s a good chance I’ll be dead anyway, because she’s going to kill me. I’ve also missed two calls from Mr. Khan. Jade must be getting so much heat right now from all sides because of my decision to go out last night after curfew. My heart sinks.
“Jasmine?”
I look up from my phone. Noni’s standing over me.
“Yeah?” I answer, casually turning off my phone. For some reason I don’t want her to see who has been trying to contact me in the last few hours.
“Eva said you have some sort of ring that you took off of Mr. Jawad earlier this evening?” She squats down beside me. “Can I please see it?”
For some reason the question strikes me as more of a command than a request.
After a moment of hesitation I fish the ring back out of my pocket and hand it to Noni.
She looks at it briefly, her eyes widening with surprise. “Put it away. Now,” she says, glancing around the room as though trying to be sure no one else saw it.
“What? Why?” I ask, stuffing the ring back into my pocket.
“It’s Solomon’s Ring. It controls demons. Not only that, but its reappearance is part of the prophecy in the lost scrolls about the Final Battle. If it is here in this time and place, it could change everything. We need to get it back to where it belongs.”
“How do you know all of this?’ I ask. “And I don’t have a clue where it belongs. Sandra Smith’s been wearing it for as long as I’ve known her, but Mitchell, he’s Smith’s assistant, had it on earlier tonight. That’s how I got it. I grabbed it off a chain around his neck. But it belongs to Smith.”
Noni shakes her head. “No, it doesn’t belong to her, and it shouldn’t ever have been in her hands. That’s for certain. The fact she’s had it explains some of what’s been going on, though.”
“How do you know all of this?” I ask again.
For a moment she doesn’t answer. Instead she looks around the room, her eyes wary, then back to me. She presses her lips tightly together.
“My colleague and I have been studying the fragments of certain Dead Sea scrolls for years. These are scrolls that were never made public, nor was the information contained therein. And they contain a great deal of information about the Daughters of Light, amongst other things. Because of that, we’ve been waiting in particular to have a chance to meet and hopefully collaborate with you, Jasmine.” For a brief moment she smiles. “Craig Jakande and I know what the other members of the CCT don’t: that global climate change is only part of the transformation happening to our world. You see, we know all about the Seers.” She pauses and regards me solemnly. “We know about you.”
JADE
Mr. Khan powers off his video watch and sighs heavily.
“Why isn’t she answering?” Mom asks. Worry and panic rise in her voice like hot lava. I walk over, sit down beside her on the couch, and put my arms around her shoulders in a loose hug. My own worry is beginning to intensify, but I also feel that Jasmine is okay. At least right now. Somehow I know that if something really bad were happening to her, if she were in pain, I’d feel it to a degree.
“Where did you take her? Where is she?” Mr. Khan asks, swinging around to confront Mr. Jakande.
Though his voice is steady, there’s an undercurrent of detectable anger. And worry. “I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you that,” he replies, folding his hands on his lap. His calmness is shocking. “One of the reasons the CCT has been able to continue our planning and work is due to the fact that we’ve largely avoided surveillance and detection. Even Jasmine doesn’t know where we’ve taken her. “
“I’m Jasmine’s Protector. Do you have any idea the danger you’ve put her in? That you’ve put all of us in? You mean to tell me that Jasmine can’t find her way back here if she needs to? The arrogance of your organization is incredible.” Mr. Khan stops speaking for a moment, his cheeks flushed with emotion. “If anything happens to her, you won’t have to worry about climate change. The consequences of us losing Jasmine will have far-reaching implications for the future of the human race — implications you can’t even begin to fathom.”
“She’s the Chosen One, isn’t she?” Mr. Jakande asks. “We suspected as much, but couldn’t be one hundred percent certain. From what you’ve just said, it’s evident.”
These words seem to hit Mr. Khan like a tsunami. Visibly shaken, he sits down heavily on a chair. “I’m not telling you anything,” he answers, his voice quiet. “You’re not the only ones trying to keep quiet. We’ve also only been able to s
urvive until now by keeping under the radar of society … and under the radar of those in power. And we were fairly successful at doing so, aside from a relatively brief period known as the witch trials. Unfortunately, that’s changed.”
“Smith is one of the greatest threats our global community faces,” Mr. Jakande says. “We need to warn Canadians, and the world, about the truth. The CCT requires just a bit more time. Our people are working on a way to disrupt her plans as we speak.”
“If you can’t tell us where Jasmine is, then take us to her,” I say. “She’s my twin, and Mr. Khan is our Protector. You are part of a plot that saw my sister abducted tonight. If you think I won’t contact the police right now and have you arrested, you’re very, very wrong. And FYI, the Toronto police are pretty hyped up about abductions right now.”
“Jade’s right,” Mr. Khan says. “You can take me to Jasmine without giving away the location. Blindfold me. Throw me in the trunk of a car.” He turns to me. “Jade, I know you want to come, but we just can’t risk it. Not knowing where we are means having to rely completely on Craig here and the rest of the CCT members that are with Jasmine right now. It’s just too dangerous —”
“To lose two Seers together,” I finish. Despite my best efforts, my words are tinged with sarcasm. I get it. Well, I guess I do. Somehow it just makes me feel, once again, like Jasmine is the focus and I’m the afterthought. I know that’s not really the situation, but my Cinderella complex is taking over: I feel like everyone else gets to experience the excitement and glamour of the ball while I’m stuck at home.
“There’s no way both of my girls are going to be taken to some unknown place by someone I am not even sure isn’t a terrorist,” Mom says, getting up off the couch. “Jade, you’ll stay here with me.” She walks over to Mr. Khan and grabs his hand. “Thank you for this. For everything you’re trying to do for my girls to keep them safe, even if I wish you’d left them alone — Seers or not.” Then she turns her gaze to Mr. Jakande, her dark eyes snapping with emotion. “As for you, should anything happen to Jasmine, I will hunt you down and personally tear your heart out with my own hands. And you can tell the police that, if you so desire.”
Mr. Jakande is silent for a few moments, then he nods. “I understand. These are difficult times, and to make sense of things in the midst of chaos is hard. I’ll take you to Jasmine. But only under my conditions.”
JASMINE
I’m given one of the mattresses in a far corner of the warehouse, which seems highly unfair considering the number of children and elderly from the camp here with us. Noni insists, though. The mattress is damp with humidity and smells like unwashed socks. I fold my arms under my head, unwilling to let my face touch the fabric. My body is beyond exhausted.
But sleep doesn’t come. Every time I close my eyes, the image of Penelope crumpling to the ground floats up to haunt me. I caused her death. There are no two ways about it. If my phone hadn’t been on, she’d be alive. Instead, my stupidity and recklessness caused the death of more than a few people tonight, including children. Rolling over onto my back, I link my hands behind my head and stare at the ceiling. How can I possibly be chosen for anything when I can’t even trust myself to make smart decisions?
Noni knows so much about the Seers, the Place-in-Between, and the demons. It’s more than just a bit uncomfortable realizing that she possibly knows more than even Ms. Samson and Mr. Khan. Does this mean that someone, like maybe Smith, knows a lot more about me, about my weaknesses, than I’d ever imagined?
I play my conversation with Noni just after I showed her the ring over and over again in my mind.
“If the ring doesn’t belong to Smith, then whose is it?” I’d asked after putting it back into my jean pocket.
“The ring belongs to no one. Many centuries ago it was given to King Solomon, apparently in the hope of eliminating the demons. Solomon was supposed to use the ring and the power inherent in it to control the demons, to make sure they could never roam the Earth again. Except that’s not what happened.”
“So it was the ring that controlled the demons tonight? Not some kind of special, previously undiscovered Seer power of mine?” I said. Really, I was only half joking. The idea that I was able to completely stop the demons from killing all of us with just a little circle of metal was still pretty mind-blowing and hard to believe.
“It was. Whoever has possession of the ring is able to control the demons.”
“Do demons have their own thoughts?” I asked.
Noni nodded. “You mean like free will? I suppose, but as far as we know, their main drive is one of feeding on blood in this plane — the Earthly plane — and feeding off the negative energy of the Place-in-Between. They are consumers, carnivores, driven by an insatiable hunger. And they are programmed to partake in and celebrate human-made chaos. Oh … and to destroy Seers.”
“Lovely,” I replied. “Seems to me that this Solomon dude could’ve done us all a huge favour if he’d followed through.”
“The history of the ring is no joke.” Noni regarded me solemnly as she spoke, her dark eyes revealing her worry about me.
I wanted to tell her it’s a two-way street: I wasn’t exactly feeling totally warm and fuzzy in terms of trusting her yet either.
“However, once the ring was in his possession,” she continued, “Solomon decided to wait before keeping his promise. Instead he used it to build a temple, with the demons utilized as slave labour, and then he went on to use the power of the ring to compel a woman to marry him. You see, even though Solomon was a very good man, power corrupts. It’s a nearly universal human weakness. Just one of our many Achilles heels.”
“Yeah, humans can really suck,” I said. “So what happened? I mean, it’s pretty obvious the guy didn’t follow through with his promise — ever. ’Cause tonight, as you know, a bunch of those bastard demons murdered people, including kids.” I paused, my bottom lip trembling, as Penelope’s face floated into my mind’s eye again. Taking a deep breath, I pushed it away. Guilt wasn’t going to help the rest of us in the here and now. “Where did the ring come from then? I mean, who gave it to Solomon in the first place? Why didn’t that person take care of the demons himself?”
“As far as we know, the Archangel Michael devised the ring and infused it with the power to control demonic entities. The Archangels and the Archons are two great forces balancing each other. They are supposed to be the bookends, so to speak, for our world. The Archangels balance the light and the Archons, the dark of humankind. However, both needed to do so without interfering in the structure of this realm — especially without interacting intimately with humans. Very early on, the Archons broke that rule.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “This realm? What do you mean? Earth? The Milky Way?”
Noni shook her head. “This realm encompasses both the Earth and the Place-in-Between. There may be other components to it that we don’t yet know about … there is some evidence of a lower level, a deeper level below, but we’ve only come across fragments of the scrolls alluding to that. Of course, the scrolls mention a heavenly plane from where both the Angels and the Archons come. What we do know is that the demons are a creation of the Archons. Both the ring and the demons are abuses of the gifts given to the Archons and the Archangels. Just as the Archangels cannot undo something the Archons create, so the Archons cannot directly use the ring, nor destroy it. The thing is, the Archangels may not use or destroy it either. Same with demons.”
I tried to take in all of this information. But it was a lot, and I was beyond exhausted. I wondered if Noni knew that Raphael was an angel. Probably, because she seemed to know everything, but I couldn’t be entirely sure. And she refered to his brother, Michael, as an angel.
“What do you mean they weren’t supposed to interact intimately with humans? What did the Archons do exactly?”
“The Archo
ns involved themselves emotionally, physically … and sexually with humans. The result was the exchange of Archon powers with a group of humans who were filled with much more darkness than the average person. Emotions like greed, anger, hate, and jealousy attract the Archons. They then gave this group of humans the ability and strength in the afterlife to move their souls into the bodies of vulnerable humans in order to make them do their bidding. They were also given the ability to move between the Place-in-Between and Earth when conditions allowed it. In essence, they taught them the art of the darkest magic. Whereas these souls should’ve spent eternity on the lowest plane or in the Place-in-Between, instead they were able to become predators. As in life, so in death. And that is how demonic beings came into existence.”
My stomach felt like it was being pulled inside out. So that’s why Ms. Samson was so concerned about Raphael and me. My mind drifted back to our kiss under the tree last year. Did that mean Raphael had broken the same rule? And if so, what did that mean? Had we somehow changed the way our world and the Place-in-Between are supposed to function? I desperately wanted to ask Noni if she knew, but didn’t want to reveal what had happened between Raphael and I. It felt like too much of a risk.
“So how did the ring get here, to Smith, after all this time? Did Solomon pass it along to his children or something like that?”
Noni nodded. I noticed deep purple circles under her eyes and wondered how much sleep she actually gets at night. It seemed to me like she was kind of in charge of things with the CCT.
“Solomon realized the power of the ring was corrupting him, so he passed it along to his two daughters. Twin daughters. On the advice of Michael. It was hoped that, with Seers having the ability to control the demons and keep them in the Place-in-Between or in the Darker Place, some balance would be restored here on Earth. And as far as we know, it worked for a while, though the opening between the two worlds was still there. The next time the ring was used here, that we know of, was around 60 CE. The Iceni ruler, Boudicca, used it to brutally defeat the Romans and destroy London after she was tortured and her twin daughters were raped by the Roman army. Boudicca led a violent army to avenge her family — an army that not only killed, but also devoured some of their enemies. She realized the incredible power of the ring to corrupt and decided it shouldn’t be in any mortal’s hands — ever. Just before her suicide, she placed it between some of the rocks that would, a century later, form part of the foundation of the Roman wall built around Londinium.”
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