by Peach, Hanna
“What is Michael doing?” said Lukas as they flew over the vast city of London, stretching out like a strange desert of gray and white below. Few square patches of green were dotted like consolations around the concrete sprawl. “This army isn’t even trying to hide themselves from the mortals.”
“You’re right,” said Jordan. “He’s usually paranoid about the mortals seeing us…he’s stopped caring. He’s stopped caring, which means…”
“Which means?”
Jordan gritted his teeth. If Michael was no longer hiding the Seraphim from the mortals, it meant that soon, to him, the mortals wouldn’t be a “problem” anymore. “It means, war is coming.”
They continued on, flying farther and farther north until they were almost to the Scottish border. Jordan frowned. This army was headed to the west of Scotland. What was in the remote west of Scotland that an army would be interested in except for…
An icy fear gripped him as a growing realization reared its head. “Oh my God, Lukas. I think I know where this army is headed.”
Chapter Fifteen
Alyx tensed as she turned the handle and pushed the door open just a crack, ready to slam it shut if she heard any growling or the sounds of a beast charging at them. But nothing happened. No bangs came from the other side, no growling. She pushed open the door a little more. Still nothing. With confidence now, she let the door open wide and stepped into the room.
It looked as though she was in some kind of lab. The room was long and rectangular, made of hexagonal crystal pillars, the edges making the walls undulate in a clean-edged pattern. More pillars dripped from the high ceiling and stopped partway down, creating a staggered honeycomb effect. The ceiling was comprised of more hexagonal pieces.
Dust coated everything. Within the room were tables and benches covered in large sheets of crinkled brown scrolls. The contents of variously sized and shaped beakers had long since dried, leaving behind a pale film or brightly-colored crusty rings around the bottoms.
This must have been Raphael’s old office. Were they the first living beings to step foot into this place since Raphael died? It wasn’t cold in here but something about this chamber made the hair on Alyx’s skin rise…
She moved along the wall, marveling at the construction of this chamber. The crystal was warm to her touch and a light seemed to radiate from it. It must be from the sun, she realized. These crystal pillars pull down light and heat to keep these underground chambers warm. At the end of the room was a red curtain. Alyx moved towards it, drawn to it, and drew the curtain back. Behind it was a rectangular display box, a shelf set into the wall like one that would be used to display art. But this one was long and started at her waist height. Up on the shelf − a flat gray stone with iridescent pieces − were five large copper vases. She ignored Varian, who fell in beside her. She opened up her Soulsight. Across the altar, blue cursive script appeared.
“Only within the greatest power on Earth will you find your greatest treasure. Placing your faith in anything else will lead to destruction.”
Across the five vases was a word written in Soulsight ink. From left to right they read: Thought, Magic, Anger, Love, Death.
Alyx ascended the steps to the platform. She reached out to touch the first copper vase and gasped at the icy coolness of the metal under her fingers. She peered in.
There! There it was! The missing Amulet piece shone like a gem at the bottom of the vase filled with water.
Really? Was it this easy? She stepped aside to the second vase. There at the bottom was an identical Amulet piece. Her heart sank. All five vases had identical-looking Amulet pieces at the bottom. Four fake Amulets and one real one, she just had to pick which one was which. The riddle promised “destruction” if she chose wrong.
Alyx spoke out the riddle of the vases to the other three and called out each word written across each vase. “We can only pick one vase. We can’t get this wrong, otherwise…” Placing your faith in anything else will lead to destruction. “It won’t be good, whatever the consequences are.”
“So what’s the answer?” said Varian.
“Magic is pretty kickass,” yelled out Do’hann from the other side of the room. He was bent over a bench inspecting a scroll.
Magic was…but the greatest power on Earth? Alyx stared at the vases, reading over the five choices: Thought, Magic, Anger, Love, Death.
It wasn’t Thought. Thoughts meant nothing unless followed by action.
What about Anger? No, she mused. It couldn’t be Anger. Anger was self-destructive. Look at Passar and his anger at the Elders over Elijah’s death, and look where it led him. His anger didn’t give him the greatest power, it only destroyed him and caused him to make weak decisions.
Love? Her heart skipped a beat when she thought of Israel. A smile spread across her face and her insides glowed, despite everything she was facing. But…he would one day die.
And if she let Michael get his hands on this final Amulet, thousands more would die.
Death, she thought, Death was final. Absolute.
It must be Death.
Alyx stepped up to the final vase, the word Death shimmering around the curve of the copper vase like lines of sapphires. She swallowed the lump in her throat. Placing your faith in anything else will lead to destruction…
Was it Death? Was she sure?
Alyx lowered her hand into the vase and hovered it inches from the surface of the liquid. It rippled at her as if a breeze was blowing across it. A memory entered her mind as if it had been blown in.
Israel leaned down to kiss her deeply. His eyes so deep and dark that she felt herself being pulled into them. “I love you,” he said, his voice growing fierce. “I love you, in this life and the next. I would die for you and be glad to do it.”
Alyx pulled back into her body and snatched her hand away from the water. The greatest power on Earth wasn’t Death.
Death was not absolute.
But Love was. She stepped to the vase named Love.
“Love,” Varian sneered. “Loving someone just weakens you. They can be used against you. You were right with your first choice. Death is final. Death is the end of love.”
She ignored him. Death was not the end of Love. She would put all her faith in Love, even over Death, and she would do it every time. She plunged in her hand into the water without another thought. The liquid was surprisingly warm, comforting. Her fingers hit the bottom of the vase and curled around the Amulet piece.
Everything became very still, deathly still. Alyx frowned and glanced left. To her complete surprise, Varian had frozen, mouth partly open as if he were about to say something else. Do’hann and Tii’la had frozen too. What in the hell was going on?
Before she could move, Alyx felt the water from the vase travelling up her arm and across her body, tugging on her. She was being pulled in by the water in the vase. She barely had time to blink before she sank, totally submerged in water.
Chapter Sixteen
“Now swing your sword to block. That’s it. And again. Great work, Sparrow. You’re a natural.”
Israel lowered his practice sword. Sparrow withdrew his own wooden sword and beamed at Israel. He turned aside, waving the wooden blade in the air then thrusting as Israel had taught him to do. The kid was picking this up fast. He had natural speed and balance. He just needed someone to teach him the basics and he would be a great swordsman.
Israel wiped his hand over his eyes at the sun that was dipping close to the horizon now. The training fields were empty, as the FreeThinkers were all inside now getting ready for dinner. It was the perfect time to train Sparrow. He had seemed to want to avoid all crowds.
Sparrow turned the wooden sword over in his hands. “Do you think I could have a real sword one day?”
“Sure. Maybe you’ll get one for your birthday.” Israel grinned.
Sparrow looked away, an unhappy pout forming at his mouth. “Maybe,” he mumbled.
That hit a nerve. Better tread lig
htly here. “So, just out of interest,” Israel said casually, “when is your birthday?”
Sparrow snuck a look at him. “Dunno. Never had one.”
“But you know when it is, right?”
“No.”
Damn. The kid had never had a birthday. Israel knew his childhood didn’t rate very highly on the scale of happy childhoods, but at least his aunt always made sure he had a birthday cake. On the years she could afford it, maybe even a birthday present.
“Well, we’ll have to rectify that. When do you want your birthday to be?”
“I can’t just pick when I want my birthday.”
“Why not?”
“I just…can’t.”
“Okay then, I’ll pick for you. Your birthday will now be…the 31st of October.”
“But that’s tomorrow!”
“Is it?” Israel grinned. “What a coincidence.”
Sparrow went all quiet, his hands folding into fists at his sides.
“Do you want me to show you anything else before we go in?” Israel asked.
Sparrow shrugged.
Israel was losing him. He had to think of something cool to show Sparrow before he lost this tender connection with him completely. He lifted up his fingers. “I have Air magic. Wanna see?”
Sparrow’s eyes widened, and if Israel didn’t know any better, he would have said that he saw fear in the boy’s eyes. “No, that’s okay.”
Israel raised an eyebrow. “Scared?” he said teasingly.
“No.”
“Don’t worry, it won’t hurt you.” Israel started to draw a small wind out from his palms, ruffling the boy’s hair.
Sparrow began to back away, his eyes wide like saucers. “Don’t.”
Israel frowned. The boy was actually scared. “It’s okay Sparrow, it won’t−”
“I said don’t!” Sparrow yelled.
Suddenly, like a battery draining of power, Israel felt his magic being sucked out of him. The wind stopped and Sparrow’s hair stopped ruffling. Israel stared at his fingers. He couldn’t pull at his magic. It was like it didn’t exist. What the hell?
He turned to look at Sparrow. The boy let out a small sob. “I told you not to.” Sparrow turned and ran away across the field towards the forest.
Sparrow? Oh my God, Israel realized. Sparrow was doing this. Sparrow was taking the magic away. It made sense. The magic started going haywire when he arrived. Exactly when he arrived. Israel thought back to the incident on the training fields when Tebo’s power had drained, just as he and Sparrow walked past him.
Holy hell. Sparrow was coming into his powers.
“Sparrow, wait.” Israel sprinted after him.
The boy didn’t stop even as Israel called out after him. Sparrow didn’t even turn around to look at him. He just ran.
Israel caught up to him meters away from the forest. He grabbed Sparrow by the arm to try and stop him.
“No,” Sparrow cried, “leave me alone.”
“I just want to talk.”
“I don’t mean to do it. I’m sorry. Please,” Sparrow sobbed as he flung himself to the ground and curled himself into a ball. “Don’t hurt me. I’m sorry. I’ll go away, I promise. I won’t come back.”
“What?” Israel knelt down beside the shivering child. “Sparrow, I’m not going to hurt you. No one’s going to hurt you. I’m not mad.”
“B-But I’m taking everyone’s power away. I don’t mean to.”
“Sparrow, you don’t have to be upset. It’s your magic. You’re coming of age.”
“I don’t want to come of age.”
“It’ll be fine. You just need some training on how to control it, that’s all.”
“You’re lying. I knew I was born a devil. I knew it.”
“Sparrow, you’re not a devil.”
“What kind of evil magic steals from others?”
“Sparrow, that’s not what your magic is.”
“What is it then? You’ve seen it. All it does is destroy other magic.”
“Your magic is the ability to manipulate magic. One of those manipulations is to take it away, to borrow it.”
“So I’m destined to be a thief.”
“Your magic is vital to the Seraphim community. You are the way that Seraphim can share pure magic through making bloodink. You’re a GiftKeeper.”
Sparrow sniffed and peeked out from under his skinny arms. “A GiftKeeper?”
Israel smiled at him. “It’s the rarest gift of them all. This makes you special.”
More of Sparrow’s face appeared. “Really?”
“Truly.”
Sparrow lowered his arms. He sniffed again, wiping the sleeve of his shirt across his pink nose. “How rare?”
Israel held him gently by the shoulders and stared right at him. “Sparrow, you are the only GiftKeeper.”
Chapter Seventeen
Alyx’s vision was hazy and air bubbles rose up from her mouth. Her whole body felt wet and weightless. Across her skin she felt the soft pressure of being underwater. She spun around trying to figure out where she was. She couldn’t see anything but water around her. Nothing but water. Was she dying?
No, she wasn’t dead. In her right hand she clutched the Amulet piece until it cut into her palm. It was the one thing that was tethering her to reality. The Amulet piece, Raphael’s chamber, Tii’la, Varian… This, wherever this was, wasn’t reality. So where was she?
Her feet touched the sandy bottom and she kicked up against it, following her air bubbles until she broke the surface. She gasped, rubbing away the water from her eyes with her free hand. Her feet suddenly hit the bottom again and she found herself standing knee deep in the middle of a lake of some sort. Alyx spun, studying the area around her.
She gasped. Wherever this place was, the sky was filled with a thick black cloud, lighting casting a fierce shuttering strobe against the hungry clouds. Beyond this lake, the trees along the shore were on fire, spewing noxious sooty ashes to the sky and raining down black and gray ash. Beyond she could see the outline of a city, a spiked church spire, the teeth of buildings silhouetted in the blaze of a fire. All through the air was the scream of the dying and the rancid curl of burning flesh. Close by she thought she saw a bloated body bob to the surface. Then another.
Oh God, she drew back in horror. She wanted to run but fear wrapped its hands around her throat like fingers and dug in. Where would she run to? Behind her, past the shore, was nothing but black charred remains of trees like black skeletons, wisps of smoke still rising from them. Did she just get pulled into Hell? Did she choose wrong? Was this to be her prison? Her “destruction”?
“Hello, Alyx.”
She spun towards the voice. Standing a few meters from her, also knee deep in water, having appeared from nowhere, was a Seraphim dressed in white. He had golden hair that curled close to his head and his soft boyish features seemed so familiar.
“Who are you?” Alyx asked.
“You know who I am.” The Seraphim smiled and Alyx felt warm and safe. She knew it in an instant. This was Raphael. Raphael, the archangel whose Amulet piece she was clutching on to.
“But you’re dead.”
“The soul is eternal.”
“Am I dead?”
He chuckled. “No.”
“Am I in Hell? Did I fail the last test?”
He smiled and it seemed warm and friendly. He wouldn’t be this friendly if she had failed, would he? “No. You passed all my tests. As I knew you would.”
“So where am I?
“You are inside a message I left for you.”
“But this place…all those people dying. Everything on fire. Cities crumbling.” Her voice trailed off as an acrid wind picked up again, ruffling her hair and tickling her nose with death’s scent, causing her to shudder.
“I just showed you what I saw coming, two thousand years ago. What I saw coming…”
Alyx felt her throat closing up. She was scared to ask, but she had to know. “You me
an, this is Earth?”
“If Michael succeeds, yes. If you can’t find a way to stop him.”
Alyx felt that familiar weight of responsibility again pressing down on her shoulders. “Why me? I’m no hero, I barely have any powers.”
“Then you are looking in all the wrong places.”
“Why doesn’t God stop all this?” Alyx asked, her voice suddenly fierce.
“It’s not his place.”
She felt her anger rising as the questions and accusations she had been silently nurturing finally burst from their nest. “Not his place? Not. His. Place? So he just let us get locked up on Earth all those centuries ago and he just washes his hands of us? He’s just going to forget about all of us on Earth, all of his creations?”
“Alyx, who do you think closed the gates to Heaven and Hell all those years ago?”
The legends said that it was Lucifer who had shut the gates and inadvertently shut them on himself too. But the Threads of Dusk, an important Seraphim scroll, had claimed that it hadn’t been Lucifer. In her mind there was only one other person that had the audacity, nay…the insanity to perform a trick like that.
Her features hardened. “Elder Michael.”
“Do you really believe that Michael would have the power to perform such an incredible feat?”
“No... But then who?”
“Think about it Alyx. If it wasn’t Michael and it wasn’t Lucifer…there is only one being that is powerful enough to do it.”
She gasped when it came to mind. She almost couldn’t bring herself to say it. “God?”
The Seraphim nodded.
“God shut us away from himself? Why would he do that? Does he hate us?”
“No, Alyx. God has watched over this planet like a father for the last two thousand years.”
“But he hasn’t intervened. How can you say he cares if he hasn’t stepped in?”
“He has intervened. He chose you to be Israel’s Guardian, so you could help him.”