by Nikki Kelly
Orifiel must have discovered this fourth dimension, but unlike Earth, there was no life here—no light souls to steal. Still, he’d found a use for it. He’d built a prison directly on the other side of the fixed doorway from the first dimension to here, the fourth dimension.
But I had a far better use for this world.
Before the flood came, Noah piled the animals on board his ark, two by two. I was Noah, this dimension was my ship, and before the flood, I would rescue the inhabitants of Styclar-Plena.
Traveling through the gray fog, I arrived at the entrance to the first dimension. I concentrated and turned my palette from gray to black. Before I left, I glanced over my shoulder, and to the rainbow—to Ruadhan—I said, “I’ll be home soon.”
* * *
I EMERGED THROUGH THE RIFT to discover that barely a second in Styclar-Plena had passed. Orifiel’s back was turned; he had only just begun to walk away. The fourth dimension, it seemed, ran at the same speed as Earth.
As the crystal’s cry sounded once more, I willed a plume of black smoke to rise up and out, and it sped toward the crystal. The Angels and the creatures at the foot of the steels dispersed as the deadly black fog twisted up and around the crystal sphere.
Though the crystal appeared inanimate, it was very much a living entity; its cry broke apart as though it were taking its last breaths. My black fog swallowed the light energy brought here by the Angel Descendants that were being pulled toward it.
It was as though the crystal had been on life support, and I had just switched off the electricity.
“No!” Orifiel shouted, crashing an almighty, glittering wave down upon me. My barrier of black cloud shook, but it held, and I continued to pump the darkness over the crystal.
The cry was fading; the being so desperate to die was now able to.
A tremendous surge of light blasted from within the crystal like an exploding bomb, and it overcame my darkness. I fell to the ground, caught in the aftershock.
I struggled to see through the blinding white sheet, but then it dulled, and with one fierce final flash, the light was gone.
Though the crystal itself remained at the center of the steels, its life force had been released back into the universe.
The cry stopped.
The crystal was finally free.
Coldness came over me then, and the creatures came forward from out of the forest. Splinters in the dome overhead were already forming; I would have to act fast.
But first …
I hauled Orifiel off the ground. “If you try to move, I will grace you with an unthinkable end.”
“You have condemned every soul here to the darkest of deaths,” he said, and an unnatural emotion rang through his voice. Growing incensed, he shouted, “You’re tainted! You’re, you’re … the same as your father.”
At the mention of Azrael, my hand clenched more tightly at Orifiel’s robes, but before I could reply, feathered white wings beat above my head. One by one, the Arch Angels descended. They weren’t trying to escape through the gateway to Earth. Afraid to go there, after so many of their kind had been lost to Zherneboh, they were smart enough to know what was waiting on the other side of the door.
The clear dome began to break apart, collapsing underneath the weight of the darkness that, with no light to oppose it, was rushing forth.
Creatures with white coats and wide sapphire blue eyes surrounded me. Hundreds upon hundreds of them appeared as they raced to the center of their world, fueled by an emotion they had never felt before: fear. The colored clouds dispersed, and the rifts became masked, invisible once again. Confused, the Angel Descendants arrived en masse, traveling by thought to this spot.
Keeping hold of Orifiel, I picked out the blue in the rainbow and willed the same to leave me. The silver slice in the air became prominent and inviting against the sapphire. It reminded me of Gabriel’s eyes when he smiled.
In the fourth dimension, the Angel Descendants would no longer be tasked, their purpose no longer preordained. I would set them free. And I would save these beautiful and wondrous beings before me. As for the Arch Angels who had watched over this world and turned a blind eye to the terrible truth, I knew what I wanted to do. But I also knew what Ruadhan would do if their fates were in his hands. And so, in tribute to him, I offered them what he would have; I gave them forgiveness.
To Orifiel, I replied, “I am my father’s daughter. His name was Ruadhan.”
I encouraged the Angel Descendants through the gateway and as they went, two by two, they were drawn into and arrived safely in the fourth dimension. A whole new world fueled by a natural sun, the same as Earth; now it would be home to the crystal’s creations.
As the final Descendant Pair and the last of the creatures left through the gateway, the darkness edged ever closer to the base of the steels. I gestured for the Arch Angels to follow the others through.
Not a single one of them regarded Orifiel as they passed by. And not a single one of them spoke. But the last to leave glanced over his shoulder and, surprising me, said, “Thank you.”
Only Orifiel and I remained. We were leaving, too, but we were going somewhere else. With no time to waste, I dragged the squirming Orifiel to the elevator and bashed the glass with my fist until the door closed. As the darkness drew across the base of the building, the elevator jolted and the steels bowed beneath us. For a minute I wasn’t sure we had enough time to make it out.
As the door opened, Orifiel dissolved into thin air. He might be able to make himself invisible, but I was stronger than he was, and I still had him by the scruff. Whether I could see him or not, I could still drag him the length of the halo. But even with my superspeed, I feared we were a fraction of a second too late to make it to the gateway. But then the observation deck buckled and tipped at a ninety-degree angle. Orifiel and I fell. I clung to his leg, and we slid as the halo snapped and dropped away.
We were propelled through the gateway. It rippled with luminosity for one last time, before, just like this world, it was lost forever.
TWENTY-FIVE
I CLUTCHED ORIFIEL’S ROBES as we fell face first back to earth. I yanked him to his feet, and he stretched his feathered wings out behind his back, a panicked expression slapped across his face. The gateway still shimmered silver, but it was decreasing in size. We emerged from the apple tree into Malachi’s invisible bubble.
Malachi jumped up from the doorstep, and his homburg hat flew off his head as he rushed over. “Child!”
“Styclar-Plena is gone,” I said flatly.
“Take your hands from me,” Orifiel said, trying to shake me off.
I cast my gaze out through the orchard and adjoining lands, and straining with my impaired vision, I counted more than two hundred Second Generation Vampires scattered around the boundaries. Though the sight of Zherneboh’s readying forces was troubling, it was not that which made me stifle a breath; it was the sky. The aurora had bled out from the third and spilled, soaking the entire scenery. Though the blood-red color was most concentrated where it splashed across the sky, particles of autumn orange hung low like a thin mist along the ground.
“How long was I gone?” I rushed.
“Calm yourself, child, only one year has passed. You have returned in time,” he answered quickly.
“You sent her to Styclar-Plena?” Orifiel accused.
“Yes, brother, I did.” Malachi removed his coat and sweater. Rolling his shoulders, he loosened his muscles, and great white-feathered wings sprang from between his shoulder blades. As his wings shimmied, the wrinkles on his forehead ironed out, and his blue eyes brightened. He simply shook away the years. I don’t know why I was surprised. He was, after all, a master of disguise. He had said he was one of the first Angels created, but I had assumed he had meant that he was one of the first Descendants.
“You’re an Arch Angel?” I said with a heavy breath.
“Yes. My throne was stationed next to Orifiel’s, in fact. I acted as his right hand,
until, of course, it no longer suited him.”
“You knew about the crystal, and you masked the cry for Orifiel.…” I trailed off. Zherneboh had shown me his story. Without knowing he was doing so, Zherneboh had opposed Orifiel’s regime, and so Orifiel had seen to it that Zherneboh was no longer in a position to do so. Malachi, on the other hand, knew the crystal was a living entity and had not only concealed the crystal itself from view but also covered the cry. So why, when Malachi had abided Orifiel’s orders, had Orifiel sentenced Malachi to an existence on Earth?
“Yes, well,” Malachi said, “after my work was done in the first, our great leader saw fit to station me here in the second to watch over the gateways and to monitor the activity from the third.”
“You were meant only to watch, not act.” Orifiel’s top lip curled with contempt. “I did not instruct you to send the girl to our world and bring about its doom.”
“No, you didn’t, but you would have gladly let this world burn, and me with it, if I hadn’t.”
There was bad blood between these two, and their fractured back-and-forth only confirmed what I had already suspected of Malachi. He hadn’t wanted to come to Earth, he’d had no choice, and so he’d had to find his own way. His survival was dependent on his ability to double-deal. His interests always lay with himself—even in the case of the fallen Angels whom he had rescued and delivered to the sea. He’d sent them there by securing their promise to return and fight when he called. He was not a character who could be easily trusted, but on this occasion, his agenda was aligned with my own, even if his motivations were selfish ones.
“Enough talk.” Malachi gestured for me to leave the relative safety of the concealed cottage. “Zherneboh is waiting for him, child.”
I hesitated, something niggling at me. “That’s why Zherneboh never took you through the rift to the third. You promised to deliver Orifiel, didn’t you? If he would spare you?”
Malachi’s wings fluttered. “Zherneboh is not a man. He is a creature, and one who cannot be held to his word. Once his use for me as the Ethiccart was fulfilled, he would have pulled me through to the third—”
“And you’d have emerged a Pureblood,” I concluded.
He nodded. “Not a fate that suited me, child. Luckily, there was one deal left to be struck.” He looked again to Orifiel.
“And when Orifiel is gone,” I said, “there will be no more deals to be made. Zherneboh will come for you, that’s why you want me to end him, isn’t it?”
“I can’t deny that his end will spare my own existence, but so, too, will his end spare the entirety of the human race. Of course, I know your allegiance is with mankind; it just so happens that a by-product of your success in saving them will benefit me.”
The light from the fixed gateway flickered behind me, and across the land, the Second Generations’ attention pricked.
Malachi continued, “It is the light from the fixed gateway that I have manipulated in order to conceal us. Now that you have ended Styclar-Plena, all the fixed gateways will cease. Come, it won’t be long before they will be closed for good. Better to present yourself to Zherneboh than to be uncovered.”
Once again, Malachi encouraged me to move forward, but Orifiel resisted. I knew then that he feared facing Zherneboh. I wondered how long it had been since he’d had to fight, since he’d gotten his own hands dirty.
“Is there a problem, child?” Malachi pressed.
For a second I doubted myself. I thought of Ruadhan and what he might say if he were here, but I shook it off. There was one thing I absolutely believed was fair, and it did not stem from some dark side of my own self.
“No.” Meeting Orifiel’s eye, I said, “Your brother is due his revenge.”
I whipped Orifiel up onto my shoulders and sped through the orchard. We arrived at the center of the garden. Restraining Orifiel by the edge of his magnificent wings, I called the Devil by his real name.
“Eden!” I shouted.
The air was still, and silence surrounded me.
Then the heavens opened, pouring with torrential rain.
Zherneboh appeared out of thin air. Several meters ahead of me he towered, and cracking his jaw, he released a shriek that made the hairs on my arm stand up. Before I could blink, a circle of Zherneboh’s Pureblood Vampires wrapped around me. Hot dark matter oozed from their palms in liquid form. The substance looped from one Pureblood to the next, joining them in a deadly circle. Further rings spiraled out and up, stacking on top of one another until we were inside a familiar cone-shaped cage. But this time, the enclosure had not been created for my benefit; it was designed to hold Orifiel.
Through the gaps in the rings of dark matter, I saw the Sealgaire charge forth in the battering rain. But over Zherneboh’s shoulder, the cliff shook, and the ground exploded. The oak tree wobbled as its roots were ripped from the dirt. The roar of hundreds of Second Generation Vampires sounded as they sprang out of the tomb.
Pandora’s box was open and the demons were descending.
The Second Generation Vampires tore across the land, clashing with the Sealgaire. As the battle between man and demon commenced, I released Orifiel. Finally, he was forced to face the brother he had damned. As Zherneboh came forward, I stepped aside, and the Devil and the Arch Angel stood nose-to-nose regarding each other.
Orifiel’s body language made him appear confident, but he could not disguise the quiver in his voice. “Once again, the river clashes with the rock. It has been a long time, my brother.” But this being was not the brother Orifiel had once known. Eden had been lost to the darkness the day he had fallen into the third, and he had emerged as Zherneboh. And there was only one thing Zherneboh sought, the reason for everything that had come since the day Eden had died.
Vengeance.
Zherneboh snarled, baring his fangs, and his tattooed markings grew up his neck from beneath his cloak. Down at his sides, his hands plumed black smoke, and without hesitation, he commanded the darkness toward the Arch Angel.
Orifiel responded in kind, throwing up a protective white sheet.
The light and the dark collided for the first and the last time.
Zherneboh’s and Orifiel’s forces were equally matched and the light and the dark bounced off each other, sending the two beings sailing backward. Orifiel hit the ground so hard it broke beneath him, but he sprang back up in time to defend himself against the next spell of Zherneboh’s darkness. The black smoke hit Orifiel’s wings, which were enveloping his body in a protective shield.
Zherneboh’s Purebloods hissed and growled, acting as the witnesses to Orifiel’s pending execution. Both Zherneboh and Orifiel were beings of immense power, but one thing Zherneboh had that Orifiel didn’t was strength in numbers. I wondered if Zherneboh might call upon his Purebloods to bring this battle to an end. But then, Orifiel’s death belonged to Zherneboh; I doubted he would share it unless he had no other choice.
Orifiel jumped and then tumbled repeatedly through the air, following the curve of the inner circle and expelling bolts of white light as though they were throwing stars. I ducked as they whizzed by my head, and one by one they disappeared, dissolving into the darkness as they collided with the rings of hot dark matter.
Between the Purebloods’ dark rings, Second Generation Vampires were pushing through Phelan’s wall of men. Limbs were torn and blood sprayed as Zherneboh’s demons slaughtered them with ease. Rounds of gunfire drummed as the Sealgaire tried to gain ground, and though a Vampire thudded just outside the cage, squealing before his head exploded, the Sealgaire were not faring well.
They needed help.
I cast my gaze around the circle of Purebloods and willed my soul of gray to manifest in a thick fog. I concentrated, imagining the stifling smoke as if it were wafting from a bonfire. Zherneboh thought he needed to imprison Orifiel to stop him from escaping, but there was no reason I couldn’t do some damage to the Purebloods and still keep Orifiel contained.
While Zherneboh and Orifie
l continued to fight fire with fire, I willed my gray soul to leave me, and the smoke bobbed and weaved among the Purebloods. Where it met the dark matter, it dissipated, but it was still able to cloud around the demons’ throats, tightening like a noose around their necks. The smoke invaded them.
The Pureblood closest to me choked and, tipping forward, broke the chain. The ribbons of dark matter drooped and then fell away. Orifiel did not try to run. In fact, as I regained my balance, he and Zherneboh leaped and crashed into each other in midair. And it was the Arch Angel who came out on top as they smashed into the ground. Orifiel gouged his thumbs through Zherneboh’s black orbs and the Arch Angel’s electric light sizzled. Inside Zherneboh’s eye sockets, his orbs melted and drained away, pooling down his face as if he were bleeding oil. Zherneboh writhed and, thrashing his talons, caught Orifiel’s cheek. Zherneboh’s claws farther jutted from his knuckles, and he pumped his fist, tearing through Orifiel’s flesh and bone.
Orifiel’s form might seem as though it were impenetrable, but Zherneboh’s blades cut through him as though he were butter.
My stomach turned and, with my concentration broken, my gray smoke stalled.
Orifiel released Zherneboh as he fell backward with a pained wail.
Zherneboh retracted his arm only to then thrust his scissorlike blades through the Arch Angel’s side.
Orifiel cried out again.
I looked away, bile rising in my throat at the sound of Orifiel’s flesh tearing and his bones breaking. With my focus split, my smoke, which had been invading the Purebloods’ insides, disappeared completely.
Zherneboh stretched his jaw, and a stream of hot dark matter dribbled down his lizardlike tongue, pouring out where it split in two. The black liquid wrapped around Orifiel’s throat like a collar, and the Arch Angel’s skin scorched and glowed red underneath it. Zherneboh tugged, leading away the once glorious Arch Angel as though he were a dog on a leash. Zherneboh’s cloak lifted as he turned, and the Purebloods moved aside as Zherneboh strode back into the rain, back in the direction of the cliff.