“Raz, and whoever he works for, knows if we take human bodies, we’ll know the truth. That’s why he uses excuses to make us Fall, because once we Fall,” she said before she swallowed. “We can’t Revolt, Airy. We can’t slip into a human shell once we Fall. I Fell, so this shape you see is my true form as a human. And I am little more than a human like this. I have the same weaknesses as them.” She pulled her jacket collar aside to reveal a scar around her neck. “This is where the Halo burned as it dissolved, Airy. This is the mark they look for when they come for us.”
I stared at the puckered skin. “Who? When who comes for you?”
She gave me a weak smile. “You.”
And suddenly I saw the little girl, the child in the bed with the My Little Pony sheets.
And I knew… “She’s your daughter.”
Delilah nodded. “Yes. The children you’re sent to destroy are our children, Airy. Wonderful, special children with bright minds. And the ability to see…”
I swallowed. “That’s why she could see me.”
“Yes. These children can spot a Philosopher. You can’t hide among us as normal folk from them. And that makes Raz and his boss very nervous. They don’t want these children to live, so they send you on missions to kill them. And always, without fail, Philosophers question that order because deep down, we know these children are a part of us.”
I wasn’t trying to break free anymore. All I could do was stare at her in shock. I didn’t want to believe any of it, but I could understand. I remembered the loathing I’d felt at killing that child. The horror that my hand would take an innocent.
Delilah’s daughter.
“Now you really have to listen to me, Airy. You’re getting stronger, and I don’t know if you’ll try and kill me once Raz controls your Halo again.” She put her hand on my chest again. “If Raz makes you Fall, you’ll be cast out like me. You won’t be able to fight him, or even see him. You’ll be a man. But if you Revolt, you can be something more.”
I stared hard at her. “You mean take a human shell?”
“Yes. A human shell can be hidden from them with a sigil. It’s how my husband is hidden from you.”
I looked around again. “He’s a Revolt?”
“No…he’s just a sweet and caring man. But he loves me, and he saw me Fall. He knows, and with this sigil he can see you. If you take a human shell, you’ll be able to fight like we do and stop them from killing our children.” She sobbed and removed her hand from me. She put it to her mouth. “I hope my daughter can forgive me for using her as bait to lure you in, Airy.”
Then it made sense. “She doesn’t have this sigil?”
“No. It has to be tattooed on the flesh and at her age, the mark will grow and change and lose its power. We have to wait until they’re eighteen before we can mark them. Otherwise they stay in protected buildings. I knew Raz would send you to kill her, once she was taken out of that protected place. And I knew if there were any of the Philosophers we need on our side, it was you.”
“Delilah, I can’t—”
But she stood up and held out her hands. “No. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know your choice now, in case we don’t get out of here. Raz is nearby, Airy. She’s searching for you. You’re the one she trusts the most. But if you Fall, or if you Revolt, I’ll find you.” She looked at the air beside her and nodded. “I know, I know. Airy, we have to go. Raz is too close. But she’s alone. We’re going to open the room when we leave. There’ll be no protection. You’ll have to choose on your own.” She came to me and kissed me then, her cold lips on mine. “I have always loved you, Aaron. As I have loved all of my brethren.”
And then she was gone.
The room’s temperature dropped as the Halo’s static returned, and I cringed at Raz’s voice in my mind.
….ron! Aaron! Where are you?
I didn’t have to call out to her then. I knew she’d find me as she always did.
I pulled hard on the chains, and they gave. I sat up on the bed, the cloth around my chest, chains still bound around my ankles and wrists when Raz broke down the door and faced me in all her Heavenly Armor.
The first few blows hurt the most, but the ones afterward…I couldn’t remember.
They all blended together in a cacophony of pain.
We hadn’t moved from the room Delilah and her husband had brought me to. Raz suspected they would return, so why leave? I didn’t tell her who took me. I said I couldn’t see them. They were there, but invisible. I told her they questioned me, and then left.
She didn’t believe me.
Even though the Truth Teller she brought with her insisted I was being honest. Which was a lie itself.
I was suddenly seeing so many lies.
Raz had used the chains to bind my wrists behind me and made me kneel. She used another chain to strike me. Now I rested on my back and tested the bindings. I could break them, but Raz had commanded me to stay. And her orders were always obeyed.
Or were they?
“Raziel,” the Truth Teller said once again. “You are punishing a Philosopher with no just cause. This will be reported in the Records.”
“Screw the records. He knows something. He knows how they knew he was coming.” But she threw the chain to the floor of the room. My blood spattered the carpet. But it didn’t matter. Within an hour it would turn white and evaporate into powder. “I sent him on a specific mission no one should have known about, yet someone was able to shoot him with Iron and hold him out of my sight for two hours. And I want to know how and why.”
She kicked me.
I flinched because I was supposed to.
What I needed…what I wanted now…was proof of what Delilah had said. She’d given me so many answers, but I needed to know for certain. I needed Raz to tell me in her words. And if it was true, then I would need to take a body fast before Raz made me Fall. In order to do that, she’d have to take me back to Fomalhaut, and I couldn’t let that happen.
I spit blood and pushed myself up into a sitting position. “I didn’t say you could sit.”
“Why were they invisible, Raz?” I asked. “How come I couldn’t see them?”
She started to strike me again, but the Truth Teller answered. “More than likely they were branded with the Sigil of Enoch, which renders them invisible to us.”
Raz stopped. She turned away. “How did they know you were there, Aaron?”
“Who was the child? Why did she have to die?” I was surprised she didn’t try to strike me again.
“Because she’s an abomination,” Raz spat out. “She’s a half demon. We are to root them out and kill them.”
I looked at the Truth Teller. And even though he didn’t speak, he looked at me and shook his head. I understood then, and kept my eye on him as I asked, “Are you afraid I was trying to Revolt, Raz?”
The Truth Teller didn’t nod or shake his head. He didn’t know.
But Raz looked at me. “You can’t be that stupid, Aaron. The Revolt has been going on for centuries. There have always been those who desert the good because bad is easier. Evil wins, and we dwindle in numbers.”
“What was it about this child that would cause so much evil?”
“Because she can see us, Aaron. Don’t you get it? We can’t have humans running around who can see us. We must remain invisible.”
I finally pulled hard enough to break the chains, but held my arms behind me. “What is it they see, Raz? Can they see God? Is that it? Humans are asked daily to give themselves over to God, and yet not allowed to see him. And now there are children being born that can see us, and perhaps see Him, and this is a sin?”
Raz’s eyes flared red when she looked at me. She blurred across the room to my face and grabbed it with her long fingers. “You know the answer. I see the truth in your eyes.”
“Yes…I know that the Fallen have children, and those children can see us. But I can’t understand is how this is a sin punishable by death. Why? Why, Raz? Is it be
cause they would see the truth?” And then it came to me, the one thing Delilah didn’t say, but that I’d suspected all along. The reason for the Revolt. “They would see that God is dead?”
It was there, in her fiery eyes. Reality.
The secret she protected.
I knew in that instant she intended to have me Fall.
I pulled my hands from my back and wrapped them around her neck. She wasn’t expecting that, so I got a good hold, but not for long. She grabbed my head and tried to twist it to break my neck—it wouldn’t have killed me, but it would have made me lose consciousness, and then she could do with me as she wanted. She was stronger than me, not because of size, but because I’d suffered a wound with Iron, as well as blood loss from her beating.
To stop her, I reared back and smashed my forehead into hers. It gave me enough time to release her neck and wave my hands up to get her hands off me. As she stumbled forward from the blow, I rolled to the side and told the Truth Teller to get out of there.
And he did.
I didn’t know if he’d get reinforcements. He probably didn’t have a choice. I’d just attacked the Voice, and that wasn’t good.
I got to my feet and put my hand against the wall. Raz was rising, her wings evening out her balance before she turned a rage-filled gaze on me. “You will Fall for this, Aaron!”
Right.
I dodged out of her way, narrowly missing being smashed into and went for the chain on the floor. When she came at me again, I bashed the iron poison against her face. It burned my hand as I held it, but what it did to her skin when it touched was messy. I tossed it aside and headed to the door. I had to get away from her and find a shell.
It wasn’t until I was several yards down the street before I realized I’d made that decision. I wanted to find one with this sigil on it, but I didn’t even know what that looked like. Delilah hadn’t told me.
The night was almost over, and I saw the rising sun lighting the buildings above me. I was in an alley, running, my wings out and ready to fly, but I stopped myself. Airborne, I would be even more vulnerable, and visible to her and her soldiers. Other Philosophers would have been alerted about me, a possible Fallen candidate on the run. They would search everywhere and like this…I was a beacon for them.
I stopped a half-mile from where Delilah took me and ducked into an alley. My wound was bleeding again, and I felt dizzy. Light-headed. I probably looked like I’d been
hit by a car, given the pummeling she’d given me. But to regular humans, I was invisible. If someone saw me, it meant they were one of the Fallen children.
Across the street was a club, and beside it another alley. I watched as a bouncer let in a few kids, then put up his hand. The humans in line were all dressed in black leather and black hair, multiple piercings… the name on the marquee was Chimera.
I ran across the street, looking up to see if Raz was moving from rooftop to rooftop. That was how she liked to travel when she came down here. And I felt her presence. She was somewhere close by. Toying with me, maybe. Or looking. My blood would lead her right to me if I didn’t stop it.
Moving through the line, I half-limped down an alley behind the club and right into what looked like a standoff between two guys and a girl. One guy had a gun trained on the other, and the girl was pleading with the gunman.
“Jacob stop it… it was nothing, okay? Just one night. You shoot him and you’ll go to jail!”
I moved into the shadows to watch as the one without the gun took a step toward the club’s back door. “She’s right, man. It was nothing. Just one night. Put the gun down, man.” He wasn’t a very big kid, and young. Twenty-one, maybe. Thin. Dressed in baggy black pants, a black t-shirt, and oversized jacket. His head was shaved along the back and sides, with intricate, almost tribal patterns etched into the hair. A long, black shock of hair hung over his left eye and the rising sun glinted off the metal around his lips and nose.
A weight settled on my shoulders. Raz was near—perhaps hovering or lurking on a nearby rooftop. Within minutes she and I would both have to go to ground, as our kind could not stand the sun.
“You fucked my girl, asshole. You think just ’cause you’re some singer you can have any bitch you want?” The kid raised the gun with both hands.
I knew what was coming. I knew how this would end. And I saw my chance. The gun fired twice.
The kid in black shuddered and went down in a spray of blood. I cursed silently from the shadows. If he died before I could get to him, there would be no Revolt. I needed a living body, a living soul to absorb. I needed to move now, run to him and take him. The boy who shot and the girl turned and ran. Once I moved though, Raz would know where I was. And if I was able to take the body…would she destroy it?
If she was there, she would have seen what happened. She would know what I was going to do and she would try and stop it.
A sudden scream from above interrupted my thoughts. I looked up to see someone jump across the alley, saw the spread of wings. Was that Raz? I couldn’t tell from where I was. The Halo noise was silent—she wasn’t going to let me hear what she was doing. I heard gunfire again, this time from the roof.
Another scream.
Had someone engaged Raz in a fight? Were they fighting up there? I stepped out from the shadows to look and tried to see. But the sun stung my skin, and I had to step back.
The club door opened, and several people stepped out. They saw the kid lying on the ground and started screaming. Someone said to call 911. I looked from them to the edge of the roof and made a decision.
I took off at a dead run to the unmoving body. I knew if I did this, if I Revolted and took a shell, my body would disappear. The Halo would evaporate, and I would be cut off from Fomalhaut. I would be alone in a physical body. But when I weighed what Raz intended to do—to rip my wings from me and make me Fall—there wasn’t any other alternative.
Sirens screamed in the distance. I was nearly there. People gathered around, and I slipped past them, a broken and beaten man with drooping wings. A sight no one else could see.
Except for the dying man.
I knelt beside him as someone stripped off a jacket, declared himself a doctor. The kid’s eyes parted, and he looked up at me.
“It wasn’t my fault, man.” His voice was in my mind.
“I know,” I told him. “Let me have your life, and find peace.”
“But I don’t wanna die.”
“There is nothing I can do. Follow the light to the next and find peace.”
He reached up to me. He believed I was death. I bent down and took him into my arms.
I didn’t know what I was doing…I simply let go. My life moved into his body, and I felt him brush past me. Afraid. Terrified. Angry. So very angry. He wanted me to avenge him. He didn’t want to go.
And then it was done. Darkness.
A gasp of air. “He’s alive!” And then pain.
Oh dear God…the pain.
I awoke in a room painted soft green. The window was open, and it was raining outside. Streaks of water ran like tears down the glass. I couldn’t feel much. Seeing through human eyes was limited. And yet…the colors. The glint of subdued sun on a single drop of water on the glass fascinated me, and I stared at it so long the doctor thought I was catatonic. I had to look away and consciously focus on him.
His name was Doctor Strapoli. He had an odd, nasal voice and his life, the energy that animated his body, was colored orange and yellow. I didn’t understand what I was seeing. I just knew the colors were his.
“Mister Mullins,” Strapoli said as he leaned against the window. “You’re a very lucky man, do you understand me?”
I nodded.
“The bullets actually punctured your lung—but from all we can see—the wounds have healed, and you should be released in a few days. Are you up to seeing visitors?”
I panicked. I hadn’t thought about the host’s friends. The man obviously knew the host’s name, so it meant I sti
ll looked like he did, shaved head and piercings and all. But how did he sound? How did he act? What had been the essence of this body was long gone. It was just me.
When I didn’t answer, he stepped forward and put a hand on my shoulder. “I think it would be a good thing for you to see them. It might help you remember what happened.” And with that he went to the door.
I gripped the sheets covering me, and felt the IV needle pinch on my left arm.
Delilah, her daughter, and an older man I didn’t know stepped through the door and thanked the doctor. Her daughter ran up to me and grabbed my hand. “Wow…you look different now.”
I stared at her, cleared my throat. I wasn’t sure I could talk. My voice was deeper, reedier than it had been. “You recognize me?”
“She’ll see you as Aaron,” Delilah said as she approached. She reached down and put a hand to my face. “Aaron, you couldn’t have chosen a host more unlike you.”
I smiled up at her. Or I think I did. “I couldn’t really see him in the alley.”
“His name’s Oliver Mullins, so you’ll need to get used to that, at least until we can get you a new ID.”
I looked at the man as he went to the window. The colors surrounding him sang so bright when he stood there, it was hard for me to tear my eyes away. “What about Raz?”
“The Truth Teller surprised us all. He didn’t like what Raz was doing and reported her behavior. Two of the older Sentinels came to take her back to Fomalhaut. It gave you the time you needed. And us time enough to make sure you were taken to a hospital we could hide.” She looked over at the man as her daughter continued to rub my hand. “Joel, come meet Aaron.”
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