by Ivy Sinclair
“I don’t think I’ll ever master your Napoleon recipe,” I said off-handedly.
“It just means you weren’t meant to be a French pastry chef,” Benjamin said.
I couldn’t help but chuckle. It was an exchange we had had many times about several recipes that eluded me over the years. Those were happy memories too, but there wasn’t anything there that caused me to believe those could be linked to the relic.
Continuing down the hall, I stopped at the door to my room. I grasped the knob and swung it open. Then I stepped inside, and I felt a small jolt of energy burst through me. My magic was there, and that’s the signal I had been waiting for.
“It has to do with something in here,” I said. Benjamin hovered behind me uncertainly. “You can come in.” He had always been overly formal about entering my room. He said it was my private space, and he would never come in unless invited. In three years, that had always been the case.
Benjamin crossed the threshold as I stepped to the center of the room and did a small spin. The walls and every available flat surface were covered with gravestone rubbings from all of the local graveyards. It was a hobby that Benjamin had introduced me to, and one that had grown into a bit of an obsession. I pointed at several of them.
“Why did you teach me about gravestone rubbing?”
“One of the beautiful things about this place is the fact that so many people who lived long and vibrant lives wanted to spend eternity here,” Benjamin said. “For someone like me, I can appreciate the idea of having a peaceful afterlife even if it is something that I would likely never have. The gravestone is what is left behind to encapsulate their lives, and it is breathtaking to see the level of detail that some families create to remember their loved ones who have passed on.”
“I understand that,” I said as my eyes scanned the pieces of paper. “But why teach me that?”
There was a long pause. “There are only so many things for a young woman to do on an isolated island. When you first came here, I was afraid that one day I’d wake up, and you’d be gone. There was nothing tethering you to this place. You had a passable interest in the island’s history. I thought that if you came to appreciate the uniqueness of the island the way that I did, you’d want to stay even if your memories came back.”
I forced myself to ignore the rawness of the emotion underlying his words. Then my eyes came to rest on a rubbing that was buried near the bottom of one of my walls. I always told myself that I kept it more out of sight than the others because it was one of my first clumsy attempts at rubbing. In reality, it was for an entirely different reason altogether. I crossed the room and reached out my fingers to touch it.
“Mission cemetery,” I said without looking at Benjamin. “That’s where we need to go.”
“You are certain?”
“Yes,” I said. I looked over my shoulder at him. “Although I’m not sure you would classify it as a happy memory.” Surprisingly, Benjamin’s expression was serene.
He nodded. “Of course. I should have thought of that before.” He reached out his hand, and I took it. I barely even noticed the swirl of the scenery around us as it changed. We were standing above a massive, flat gravestone. On it, there was a listing for the members of an entire family. The detail around the edges of the stone was immaculate, even though the last family member had been buried over a century ago. It was one of the oldest stones in Mission cemetery.
“Martin and Rose Draton,” I said. “You told me about how Martin’s family wanted him to marry a well-to-do socialite to cement their status in society. Rose’s family were servants to the Draton family. Martin and Rose fell in love, and Martin lost his inheritance when they got married. He moved them all the way across the country to build a life for his new family. They had four children but lost them all because they were stillborn. But Martin’s love for Rose was unwavering, and when he died Rose passed away just a few days later. You knew them, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” Benjamin said. “I was fascinated by them. In all my time on this earth and Heaven, I had never felt the depth of emotion that they clearly felt for each other. It was the first time in my life that I felt truly alone. Something stirred inside of me when I watched Rose move on and reunite with Martin in Heaven. I knew then that there was something missing in my life.”
I knelt down on the ground and reverently touched the stone. “I remember listening to the story, and I felt like I knew them. You’ve always been an amazing storyteller, and now I know why. You incorporated little details that brought the story to life, and you could do that because you were there.”
“I will take that as a high compliment.”
I forced myself to look up at him. “That day, you told me the story, and then you told me that you thought that you might feel the same way about me.”
Benjamin turned his face away from me. “Yes, and you told me then that you didn’t think that you could feel the same way about me.” He took a breath that seemed to shake his entire body. “You asked me why that would be a happy memory. It’s because, despite the fact that you rebuffed me, I had already realized I didn’t need to be alone anymore. I had it inside of me to feel the way that Martin felt about Rose. It isn’t something that is encouraged or even desired among my kind because what is the best for the majority is always prioritized above individual wants and desires. But that was what was missing from my life. I had found someone who brought those desires to the surface, and for that I will always be grateful to you. Even if I can’t have it with you.”
My mouth fell open as the air above the gravestone began to shimmer. A piece of paper materialized in front of us. Benjamin reached down and plucked it from the air. He frowned.
“What does it say?” I said getting to my feet to try to look over his shoulder.
“It seems that our journey is not over, and it is about to get far more dangerous,” Benjamin said.
He showed me the paper. It was a map of the cave systems that ran along the other side of the island. Benjamin and I had explored many of them, but they were extensive, and some of them were too dangerous to try to enter. There was an ‘X’ over one of those areas.
“You told me that part of the cave system was impassable,” I said.
“It seems that I was cleverer in my hiding techniques than I expected,” Benjamin said with chagrin. “This isn’t a place where it would be advisable to use magic.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Using magic near a gate that allows travel between the realms can very often tear the user of that magic apart.”
CHAPTER FIVE – RILEY
I considered it a good day if I managed to get through the day without getting blood on my clothes. Today wasn’t shaping up to one of those days.
Samuel dropped the bomb on me as we prepared to head to the Hell Gate. “We are unable to use magic near the gates,” he said.
“Why not?” This wasn’t music to my ears.
“The gates are made from ancient magic, and they were designed to be resistant to any magical interference. If you use magic near them, it will absorb the magic.”
“I feel like you’re not telling me the whole story,” I said, examining each one of my blades. I felt woefully underprepared to go into battle even with six archangels on my side. This seemed like the worst news ever.
“The gate absorbs magic,” Samuel said again.
I stopped my examination to look up at him. “Are you saying that it would absorb people who use magic?”
“My brothers and I are immortal,” Samuel said. “Our very existence is magical. If we get to close to the gate it is possible that it could absorb us into it, and we would cease to exist.”
“So that’s the real reason you’ve all been avoiding it like the plague,” I said. “You don’t know how to close it, and you’re afraid of what it will do to you.”
“Is that unreasonable?” Samuel asked, cocking his head toward me. “Surely you understand the call of the need to survive?�
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“Sure, I understand it, but you are supposed to be the good guys,” I said, shaking my head. “God put you in charge to make sure that things don’t go all awry here on earth, and when the shit hits the fan it appears the archangels have tapped out.”
“Tapped out?”
I opened my mouth to explain, but decided against it. It didn’t seem like the best time to educate a thousand-year-old being on the intricacies of professional wrestling. “You’re bailing on the situation. Leaving it to somebody else to clean up the mess.”
Samuel frowned. “We have been hunting the demons coming through and sending them back. That’s not leaving the situation to someone else. We are fulfilling our responsibilities to keep this realm safe.”
“You are sending demons back to hell knowing that they’ll be able to come right back out of the gate again if they want to. It’s that kind of circular thinking that will wind up causing everyone to go insane,” I said.
“My brother is simply telling you that there is only so far we can go in this quest,” Ezekiel said. He was less than three feet away from me. I hated how the angel popped up out of nowhere. “It does this realm no good if the guardians are all absorbed into the gates and wind up who knows where if we even survive. You might disagree with our methods, but we are doing the best thing we can at the moment.”
I pushed to my feet. I stared at him hard. “That’s bullshit, and we both know it. Guardians my ass. You could care less about what happens to us mortals. You look down your nose at us and consider yourselves superior. You only get involved when you have to, and the rest of the time you are scheming on how to increase your power and your territories. Now, when we need you to step up and take care of this shit, you are hiding behind some flimsy excuse of survival. That’s not what guardians do. Guardians are willing to do whatever it takes, even if it means certain death, to save the ones that they are assigned to protect.”
Ezekiel smiled at me, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “If I were you, I’d stand down before someone like me decided to try pushing the limits of the protection spell my brother placed on you. You don’t know what you are talking about.”
Protection spell? I thought about the sensation that had washed over me earlier, and now I realized what it meant. For a moment, I was annoyed, and then it occurred to me it might be a handy thing to leverage for what we were about to do.
“I call it like I see it,” I said, refusing to back down. The archangel and I glared at each other for several more long moments before he snorted and turned away.
“You aren’t even worth the effort,” he said.
I bit my tongue before responding. It wasn’t going to do me any good to show a sign of weakness around these beings. It was all about power, influence, and negotiation. Ezekiel might think I was beneath him, but it just meant he would always underestimate me. That was something I could use to my advantage in the right circumstances.
“He’s a bit rough around the edges, but he’s a good man,” Samuel said as he watched his brother stalk away from us to mingle with the rest of the group. “He’s also far from a coward. I trust him with my life.”
“You go ahead and trust him with your life, and I’ll trust me with mine,” I said. I checked the gear across my body one more time.
“I don’t think you are that dissimilar,” Samuel said with a small grin. “You do not trust blindly and you require those around you to earn your respect. I think I like you, Riley.”
The guile on the archangel’s face was almost enough to make me believe him. He reminded me a lot of Klein, but I forced that comparison away. It wasn’t in my best interests to trust any of the archangels. They’d already as much as told me that when we got close to the gate, they’d stand down. Knowing what I did now, I was surprised that I had managed to convince them to accompany me to it at all.
“Let’s go,” I said loud enough for the other group to hear me. “The day’s not getting any younger.”
I caught Ezekiel’s glare in my direction. I smiled and waved. As his scowl deepened, my grin widened. It was too easy.
“Our vehicles are parked on the other side of the cemetery,” Samuel said.
“What, no hocus-pocus?” I asked. “Seems like we could save some time that way.”
“It’s better for us to conserve our strength, plus it’s unclear really how close we can get to the gate before its magic takes hold of yours,” Samuel explained as I fell into step beside him. “It seems prudent for all involved if we proceed to the area the old-fashioned way. Plus, the demons can sense our magic. We’re trying to keep a low profile.”
We walked in silence as we crossed the cemetery. I kept my gaze swinging from right to left examining the trees and taller tombstones scanning for trouble. The angels thought that the demons wouldn’t attack them in broad daylight, but I had the benefit of knowing that demons were generally dumb as a box of rocks; especially when they were following the orders of a demon official.
I wasn’t sure how many demon officials there were supposed to be on earth because it seemed like any demon who managed to grow his posse larger than a handful of loyal demons set-up shop as an official. That was why the demons seemed to spend most of their time bickering and plotting against each other, and why I had been able to leverage that situation to my financial benefit over the years. Having no loyalty at all had its rewards in that respect.
But that had all changed the night I met Paige. I had gone from being a man who had no loyalty to anyone to a man who carried an intense fire in his gut to protect the woman I loved. She had a path that was far greater than my own, and I was willing to throw in my stock with wherever that path took her. I hadn’t spent a lot of time thinking about the implications of what would happen if she was able to defeat Eva. Klein thought that would make Paige immortal. I don’t think that anyone knew for certain because it was an unprecedented situation.
“It’s almost a guarantee there are demons protecting the gate,” I said. “They know that you guys were able to close it before, and now that it’s open again they are going to want it to stay that way.”
“That seems like a reasonable assumption,” Samuel said.
“Any idea how the thing was opened to begin with?”
“Benjamin was unable to ascertain that answer,” Samuel said. “He discovered it just a few days ago when the demons continued to appear on the island after he had stopped all transit across the bay from the mainland.”
We had reached the gates of the cemetery. Three SUVs were parked in the dirt lot on the other side of the entrance. I turned the information that Samuel shared with me over in my mind even as Ezekiel directed everyone into the vehicles. Not surprisingly, I was paired with Samuel in the vehicle that Ezekiel wanted at the back. As we pulled away from the cemetery, I turned and looked back at it. A small part of me hoped that I would see Paige standing there, but the opening to the entrance to the cemetery was empty. I had to trust in the fact that the island was only so big, and Benjamin could only have taken her so far.
“You are thinking about Paige,” Samuel said. He expertly guided the SUV around several large potholes in the road.
“I was thinking that the timing of all of this seems a bit too coincidental,” I said, deflecting his comment.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, everything that has happened in the last week or so can all be traced back to the night that I met Paige. A Tiphon demon attacked her, and that one event set in motion a series of events that led us right up to today. That includes the opening of the Hell Gate that has been closed for at least a thousand years.”
“Are you saying that it wasn’t an accident?” Samuel asked.
“I’m saying that all of this seems tied up in a neat little bow. There’s something that we’re missing,” I said. I kept thinking back over everything that had happened so far, and I kept arriving at the same conclusion. “There is someone who has orchestrated all of this, and I can’t help but feel like we�
�re all chess pieces on his game board. The worst part is, we don’t even know it.”
“Who would do something like that?” Samuel asked.
I had a good idea, but I wasn’t willing to share it yet. There was no way to be certain that the being who killed the Protector and framed Eva wasn’t one of the archangels. I hadn’t been willing to tell Paige that her buddy Benjamin was at the top of that list in my mind.
“Somebody with one of hell of an ax to grind with pretty much everyone in the world,” I hedged. “It would have to be someone pretty powerful in order to pull it off too.”
“There aren’t that many demon officials who would even come close to that kind of intelligence or motivation,” Samuel said.
“Guess we’ll just have to stick a pin in that one for now then,” I said looking out the passenger side window. We had left the cemetery but were passing another one. Cemeteries weren’t in short supply on Calamata Island. “So what’s your story, Samuel? I haven’t heard much about you.”
“I don’t have a story,” Samuel said. “And when you are the youngest, you are often overshadowed in the legends by those who are older.” It was the first time that the angel’s tone sounded guarded.
“My older sister, Gabrielle, was the outgoing one. She was six years older than me, and I always felt like things came easier to her. She had the coolest friends, got the good grades, and was a happy person, in general. It was hard trying to follow in her footsteps,” I said. I was surprised that I had even said that much. My goal had been to throw the guy enough of a bone to get him to open up about his family.
“It’s not supposed to be a competition,” Samuel said. He seemed to be staring hard at the taillights of the SUVs in front of us. “We foster collaboration and cooperation to find the best path for everyone.”
“C’mon,” I said. “You’ve been envious at some point in your life of what they’ve got or what they get to do that you don’t.”