Seals

by Kim Richardson

  A shadow passed in the oracle’s eyes.

  “Kara, listen to me. I don’t know what you are planning, but this…this dark supernatural energy is the worse there is. There is nothing more foul in all the worlds. The knights were forged from the archfiends’ darkness and wickedness. Everything about them is evil. If you truly do share this connection, it could be very bad for you, and for the legion.”

  Kara was silent. She hadn’t thought about that.

  “I wish I could say that I’m not linked to them, but that would be a lie because I felt it. So how would this be bad for the legion exactly? I’m the one who’s going through this, not them.”

  The more she thought carefully about the connection, the worse she felt. Had she made a mistake in telling everyone?

  Mr. Patterson looked her in the face.

  “Because, my dear, if you are linked to it…then it is also linked to you.”

  Kara felt like the oracle had slapped her. She bit her bottom lip. “I…I didn’t think about that.”

  “Try not to fret, my dear. We’ll make sense of this, I promise.”

  But Kara only felt worse. She wasn’t sure what she had expected to hear, but that definitely wasn’t part of it.

  “You mean like it could read her mind or something?” inquired Jenny. “It could find out about the legion’s secrets and plans. Everything.”

  Could Jenny be right?

  Kara shivered at the thought of the knights rummaging through her mind, discovering her deepest secrets. Not just the legion’s but her own. Could they sense what she was planning?

  No.

  She couldn’t read their minds or sense them at all, so she was certain that they couldn’t read her mind either. Whatever link they shared, it wasn’t telepathic.

  This conversation was not proceeding as Kara had planned. Jenny had not tried to anger her. She was just speaking her mind as she always did.

  “I don’t think it can read my mind,” she said quietly to Jenny.

  “Are you sure?” pressed Ashley, before Jenny could answer. “I mean, how would you know for sure?”

  Kara’s gaze shifted to Ashley. “Because I can’t read their minds—”

  “So they can’t read her mind.” David looked at Kara. “Makes sense.”

  “But that’s if it works that way,” said Ashley. “How can we know for sure? We can’t, can we? Are we willing to take that chance? Kara…are you?”

  Even though she didn’t want to admit it, Kara knew that Ashley was right.

  “Of course not. But what am I supposed to do? I still don’t think they can read my mind. And if you are right, you still don’t have much to worry about since the legion’s never shared any secrets with me.”

  She couldn’t help sounding bitter. “I don’t know anything about any plans. There’s not much in my head that can harm anyone, really. Just stupid stuff.”

  “Even so,” began Mr. Patterson. “It would be wise if you didn’t go back to Horizon. At least not until I speak with the oracle mothers. I believe it would be best for everyone.”

  Kara was taken aback.

  Was that an order? She couldn’t go back to Horizon? Was he afraid that she would infect the legion with her disease? Horizon was her home. She hadn’t realized how much she cared about it until he suggested that she stay away. Even if it was just temporary…

  The oracle was only trying to help her by telling her the truth. And she needed the truth. Besides, she needed to be here on Earth for her plan to work, and right now she needed to stick to her plan.

  “Okay, I get it. I won’t take any more risks with the legion. I’ll stay here for as long as I can.”

  “I know this is difficult to hear, but it’s for the best.” Mr. Patterson brushed his crystal with his sleeve and then looked up at Kara, “And it won’t be forever.

  “I believe we went a little off track. So, what of your theory for a cure? What is it you think you know?”

  At the mention of her theory, Kara’s miserable thoughts about Horizon vanished.

  “Like I said, it’s just a theory…but I think it’s going to work.”

  “Go on.”

  Kara was excited to continue.

  “We know the archfiends are responsible for my changes. We still don’t know why exactly, but we all know it’s them. We also know that the archfiends created the knights. I think that I have some of whatever they used to create the knights in me. That would explain the bond I have with them. When I saw the wound on my arm after I stabbed the knight, I just knew. It became clear to me.”

  “What did?” David said.

  “That I could kill it.”

  “But Kara—”

  “The only way to get rid of my curse,” Kara shuffled her wings, “is by getting rid of the archfiends.”

  She felt excited.

  “It’s a win-win for everyone. We destroy the knights, keep them from breaking the seals—the archfiends will go back to their cage and take their virus with them. The worlds will be saved, and I’ll be back to normal again. I know it’s going to work.”

  David and the others looked uneasy.

  “What?” said Kara a little annoyed that they didn’t jump for joy at her master plan. “Don’t you want me to get better? Don’t you want me to be normal again?”

  “That’s not it, Kara.” David’s eyes were filled with worry.

  “Then what?”

  “You said that when you cut the knight, it affected you too,” said David.

  “Yes. And?”

  Kara concealed the flutter of irritation that surged through her. She wasn’t sure if it was the darkness inside her, but her anger seemed to find her awfully quickly since her transformation. She had to fight to control it.

  David tilted his head to the side.

  “Doesn’t that mean you might be at risk of killing yourself, if you kill any of the knights?”

  “Yes,” said Kara.

  She saw that they all looked anxious. “And it’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

  “It’s not a risk I’m willing to take.” David’s expression toughened. “I won’t risk your life.”

  “You don’t have a choice.” Kara’s voice sounded harsher than she had intended.

  “Look,” she said softly as she recovered a little, “It’s already in motion. The fate of the worlds depends on us. We need to succeed. I know what you’re all thinking, and I’ve already thought it through long and hard. Yes, I might die…and I might not.”

  David clenched his jaw.

  “I don’t like this, Kara. It seems that every time something goes wrong…you always end up getting hit with the worst of it. It just doesn’t seem fair. I just wish that I could take some of that burden, just this once, so you didn’t have to.”

  The room went still.

  Kara felt a cramp in her chest at David’s concern for her. She wasn’t embarrassed at his sudden revelation. She admired him and adored him all the more for it. If they had been alone, she would have kissed him hard and never let him go. But they weren’t.

  “I know, and truly I understand, believe me I do,” she said. “I wish things could be different, but they’re not. And I just have to accept them. I don’t want to die my true death either, but I know within my soul that this is the right move. We’ll finish what we started and move forward. Nothing’s changed, well not that much. At least now we know that the knights can be killed.”

  “What makes you so sure?” inquired Peter. “You only stabbed it, and from what you just told us it wasn’t a deadly cut. You said it yourself. You just injured it.”

  “Call it a hunch,” said Kara. “If we can injure them, we can kill them.”

  “I have to agree with Kara, although it pains me to say it,” said Jenny. “It’s a relief, but also terrifying all at the same time,” she continued softly.

  Kara felt a lump in her throat.

  “I’ll be fine. Trust me. We’ll hit these knights with whatever it takes. Don’t hold b
ack. You must promise me that.”

  She moved around them, watching their eyes.

  “Promise me that you won’t hold back, for my sake. Whatever it takes. Promise me.”

  Silence.

  “Guys,” pressed Kara. “I need you with me on this. I need your help, your skills as guardians. We’re the best team in the legion—together. You know how important this is. It’s more important than me. It’s more important than all of us. It’s the most important job we’ll ever do. You must accept it, just as I accepted it.”

  “Fine, whatever it takes.” David said a little reluctantly.

  The others all agreed slowly, and Kara’s excitement returned. They would destroy the knights, and she would be free.

  Mr. Patterson paced. “Have you told anyone else about this?”

  He turned to face Kara.

  “No,” she shook her head. “This is the first time I’ve spoken of it.”

  She wanted to add the fact that someone else had seen her markings, but she wasn’t sure how to bring it up without putting the oracle in a state by revealing too much about her discussion with Metatron.

  “Did anyone else see the marks on your face and hands when you were in Horizon?” asked the oracle. He might just as well have been reading her mind.

  “Metatron saw me.”

  Mr. Patterson’s fluffy white brows furrowed. “Why does that not surprise me?”

  He turned away from her for a moment, as though trying to control himself.

  He turned his attention back to Kara, his face contorted in rage. She had never seen him so angry.

  “Did you speak to him?”

  “Yes.”

  “What did he tell you?”

  After sighing loudly, Kara recounted the events that had occurred between her and the archangel. He had seen the marks and her wings. She had told him about the attack on the archfiends and she almost tipped him off about their plans. She told Mr. Patterson everything except the part about the deal. No one needed to know about that.

  “I apologize for not mentioning that this mission was not an official one,” began the oracle.

  He turned the crystal orb in his hand anxiously.

  “I was afraid that you all might not want to take it. And that was a not chance that the oracle mothers and I were willing to take. There is too much at stake, and we had to bend the rules a little.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Mr. P,” said Jenny grinning. “We love anything unofficial.”

  David smiled. “Yeah, we would have agreed to it anyway. All of us.”

  “Yeah,” agreed Ashley and Peter in unison.

  The oracle beamed at their confidence in him.

  “It’s fine,” said Kara, “but I almost gave us away. In fact, I’m pretty sure Metatron will figure it out sooner or later. He was really angry.”

  “Yes,” said Mr. Patterson, a mischievous smiled played on his lips. “I bet he was.”

  Kara shared a sidelong glance with David.

  “Did something happen between you and Metatron?” asked Kara.

  The idea that the oracle might derive some pleasure out of angering the archangel was too sweet to pass. She wanted to know a little more about the newly appointed commander. Maybe she could learn something that she could use against him to trade with if he ever tried to make a deal with her again.

  Mr. Patterson dismissed her with a wave of his hand.

  “That is a story for another day. And don’t worry about Metatron. I’ll deal with him when the time comes. Now, you best hurry. We don’t have much time left to stop the knights. It’s our only chance.”

  “Where do we begin our search?” asked Peter, although his voice was void of enthusiasm.

  “Boston,” answered David. Kara raised her brows in surprise.

  “I was talking with the archangel Raphael, and she hinted to me that a whole plague of diseases originated in Boston.”

  “Well, it’s a start,” said Kara.

  She wondered if the archangel had intended to reveal so much to David. Did the archangel know of their secret mission? Her angel intuition told her that this wasn’t a coincidence. Raphael knew where one of the knights was, and she had just told David where to look.

  “It sounds like this could be the handiwork of the knight called Pestilence, right?”

  Mr. Patterson gave her a small nod of his head. “If Raphael mentioned it to David, then it’s definitely worth a look.”

  As they took their leave, Kara couldn’t help but notice the nervous glances everyone kept giving her as they stepped onto the street. Did they think she couldn’t see them?

  The news of Kara’s link to the knights had put a damper on the excitement they would normally have felt at going on a secret mission. The quest was different this time. It was complicated.

  Mr. Patterson stood sadly at his front door and watched them leave. Her friends’ long faces caused a wrench in her chest, but there was no room for gloom or regret now.

  Kara felt excited and determined. Her mind was active, and she whispered the same word to herself over and over again.

  Normal.

  Chapter 10

  Boston, Massachusetts

  Kara and the others were silent as they walked along Fruit Street and made their way toward the Boston, Massachusetts General Hospital.

  Kara took comfort from the thought that the archangel Raphael might be on their side, but it wasn’t enough. The knowledge that the legion had ordered a strike for tomorrow left the team sullen and on edge. They all had friends in the legion who wouldn’t survive, no matter how many legions of angels and archangels fought, or how resilient they thought they were. It didn’t matter how many demon legions fought with them. The archfiends were stronger.

  Kara had caught a glimpse of a local newspaper as they strolled down the street. Crops and livestock all over the world had suddenly dried up, rotted, and withered away. The mortals were blaming global warming and a short winter. But there was no scientific explanation for the millions of carcasses.

  The angels knew better. This was only the beginning.

  Kara’s icy cold fear that she would die if she killed one of the knights never left her. She had told everyone that she accepted her fate, no matter what. She had a reputation to uphold. But deep down, Kara was terrified.

  She didn’t want to die her true death. She wanted to live. It didn’t matter whether she survived as a guardian or a mortal, as long as it was a life with David. It was beginning to feel like a fantasy.

  She continued to struggle with the darkness inside her. Now that she had unleashed it, she felt it slowly spreading, and she feared she could no longer control it. It might be foolish, but she still had hope. The part of her that was angel still believed she could change the course of the future—she would not become the monster that killed her friends.

  But the darkness inside her was intoxicating. She had power that went beyond anything she had ever felt, even beyond her elemental powers. It was addictive. And like an addict, she trembled in cold sweats as she fought the urge to succumb completely, to lose herself.

  And so she walked in silence and clenched her fists in the attempt to keep the darkness at bay. She had to restrain it until she met another knight.

  As soon as they arrived at the hospital, Kara knew something was very wrong.

  Masses of people lay on the road in front of the red brick building. Their faces were covered in boils, blood, and sores. They looked like someone had taken a cheese grater to them. Their clothes were splattered and drenched in maroon stains. Kara saw a young man vomiting blood, and she winced when he collapsed on a pile of infected bodies. Mothers cried tears of blood as they clutched their dead babies. People’s bodies and faces were encrusted with sores that looked like third degree burns. Moaning and wailing filled the air around them like a symphony from hell. It reminded Kara of a scene from a zombie movie. Everyone was infected.

  Kara moved carefully through the dead and infected, careful not t
o step on anyone or on anyone’s severed limbs. She covered her nose, but it was impossible not to smell it. It was everywhere, in the air and on their clothes. They stood paralyzed by the horror of it all.

  And as she looked at the sick and the dead, Kara became mesmerized by all the blood. It drew her in and nourished that part of her soul that was corrupted. Part of her enjoyed the scene, enjoyed watching the suffering. The stench became a luring fragrance. Darkness clouded her mind, and she forgot why she was here. An intoxicating wickedness spread across her chest, down her arms and legs, and into her wings.

  She heard her friends’ voices and clung to the knowledge of their friendship to regain control. Her body trembled as she overcame the evil that had been triggered by the sight of all the dead bodies. She clenched her jaw and pushed the darkness down.

  She turned her head away to help clear her mind. But everywhere she looked, the dead plagued her vision, their arms reaching out in a last desperate attempt to reach the hospital. This was no natural disease. This was supernatural evil, and only the supernatural could defeat it.

  She was overcome with a cold anger, an anger to kill.

  “Are you feeling okay?” David appeared by her side. “You’re shaking.”

  Kara could feel his fear. She knew that when they found the knight, David would be afraid to strike in case he hurt her in the process. She knew him too well. But they had no choice. She had no choice. They would have to try.

  “I’m fine,” she lied. She was disgusted with herself for the brief moment of satisfaction she had felt at the sight of the dead.

  “All these people. All these sick people. It’s a lot to take in.”

  She hated herself.

  “It is,” said David. “You think the knight’s still here?”

  “I do,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t feel its presence or anything like that, but I know it’s here. Probably gloating at all the sickness and death it spread.”

  “Like some serial killers that come back to the scene of the crime,” said Jenny.