by Kami Garcia
“Gabriel, stop.” I knew where this was going.
Andras yanked on the chains, his hands still shackled in front of him. “You would be wise to listen to her, Gabriel. After all, she is Elizabeth’s daughter.”
At the mention of my mother’s name, she appeared on the other side of the bars. Wearing a white button-down shirt and jeans, my mom looked every bit as alive as she had in life—from her long, brown wavy hair and beautiful features to her warm, chocolate eyes and playful smile.
“Elizabeth?” Gabriel whispered.
The world around me felt like it stopped. I couldn’t see anything except my mother—because now that I was staring at her, I realized that’s who she would always be to me. Not a rogue Illuminati member, or the woman who had betrayed my father and lied to me.
She gasped, her eyes shining. “Kennedy?” Her gaze drifted to Gabriel. “What are you two—? Why am I in a cell?”
As she turned, Andras clamped his hand around her throat.
“No!” Gabriel shouted, pounding on the bars.
I grabbed his arm. “It’s not real. Your mind is playing tricks on you. Andras is manifesting one of your fears. I’ve seen him do it before.”
Gabriel ignored me, his gaze fixed on my mom.
Andras stood behind her and lifted her off the ground, his hand still locked around my mother’s neck.
“Are you fearless now, Gabriel?” Andras roared. “Is the magic painted on your skin protecting you from the Maker of Nightmares?”
Gabriel turned his pockets inside out. I realized he was searching for the keys.
“Don’t open it.” I pressed my back against the cold lock, blocking Gabriel’s access. “I swear it’s not her.”
His eyes were wild. “Kennedy, move!”
I heard choking noises behind me and my mom’s voice. “Please—”
Don’t look.
“I’m going to tear your heart out!” Gabriel yelled, pushing me aside.
The hiss of the sprinklers sputtered above us. As Gabriel slid the key into the first lock, cold water, spiked with rock salt, showered from the ceiling.
Steam rose from Andras’ skin, and he staggered back and fell against the wall. The holy water’s effect on my mother was worse. The water droplets punched holes in her, eating away at her form. Gabriel dropped to his knees and gripped the bars, while I watched the last pieces of my mom disappear.
The demon gritted his teeth. “That’s the way I prefer to see you Gabriel. On your knees.”
Gabriel dragged himself to his feet and stared at the keys in his hand, black ash from his cheeks running down his face. “I almost.…”
“But you didn’t,” I said.
Andras clapped, his movements slower as if he’d expended too much energy. “You’re smarter than Jared thinks you are, Kennedy Waters.”
“You have no idea what Jared thinks.” I tried to sound confident, but I was still reeling from seeing my mother, even if it was some sort of illusion.
“I’m inside his body. Do you believe it’s any harder for me to get into his head?”
Was it possible?
I shuddered.
The demon smiled. “I know what happened at Hearts of Mercy. Jared regrets it. He cares about you, but he only kissed you because he thought you were one of them—the missing member of the Legion he was searching for.”
The words shot through me. If Andras knew about Jared’s secret and the first kiss we’d shared while we were trapped in the wall…
He really can get inside Jared’s head.
The demon wasn’t finished. “Instead he learns you’re Illuminati. Can you image the disappointment?”
My cheeks burned.
“What does that leave you with, Kennedy Waters? A dead mother. A father who didn’t want you. Friends who don’t trust you.” Andras paused, savoring the moment. “And a boy who doesn’t love you.”
My heart felt like it stopped beating.
Gabriel snapped out of his haze. “He’s trying to get under your skin, Kennedy. He doesn’t know anything.”
Then how did he know about Hearts of Mercy and the kiss?
“I want to talk to Jared.”
The demon laughed, a hollow sound, devoid of any real emotion. “I’m sorry. Jared’s not home right now. But he asked me to give you a message.”
“Don’t listen to a word that comes out of his filthy mouth,” Gabriel barked.
What if Jared really was trying break free and communicate with me? How could I walk away without knowing?
“What’s the message?”
The demon rose and walked toward the bars, dragging the chains along with him. Gabriel unhooked his whip, and the bones uncurled themselves.
“What’s the message?” I repeated.
He’s not going to tell you.
Without warning, Jared’s body rocketed toward me, faster than any human being could possibly move. He stopped inches from the bars—and me.
Gabriel raised the whip, and I caught his arm. “No.” I turned back to Andras. “What’s the message?”
The slow, insidious smile crawled across his lips. “Goodbye. That’s all he said.” The demon’s body sped backward, like someone had hit rewind, until he was leaning against the wall on the other side of the cell.
Gabriel grabbed my arm. “Come on.”
“Leaving so soon, Champion of God?” Andras called.
“Don’t you worry,” Gabriel forced a smile. “I’ll be back.”
As I turned away from the bars, Jared’s voice called out, “Alexa Sears, Lauren Richman, Kelly Emerson, Rebecca Turner, Cameron Anders, Mary Williams, Sarah Edelman, Julia Smith, Shannon O’Malley, Christine Redding, Karen York, Marie Dennings, Rachel Eames, Roxanne North, Catherine Nichols, Hailey Edwards, Lucy Klein.” He taunted me with their names, as if I didn’t already know them by heart. “They’re all dead, Kennedy. Because of you.”
“You killed them, not me.” I kept my voice even.
He tilted his head to the side. “But I did it for you.”
The words left me speechless.
“He’s lying. Let’s get out of here.” Gabriel touched my arm, but I couldn’t make my legs work.
“Am I? Jared was sure his brother, the great code breaker, would have figured it out by now.”
I stared at the names scrawled on the wall like a schizophrenic crossword puzzle: Anders, Klein, Edwards, Turner, Nichols, Eames, York, North, Dennings, Williams, Redding, Smith, O’Malley, Edelman, Richman, Sears, Emerson. My mind took snapshots as I scanned the letters, searching for patterns.
Within a few moments, random letters jumped off the wall, arranging and re-arranging themselves in my mind’s eye.
A. T. E. R. S.
No.
R. O. S. E. W. A. T. E. R. S
My stomach lurched.
K. E. N. N. E. D. Y. R. O. S. E. W. A. T. E. R. S.
“Why?” I barely got the word out.
Andras looked right at me. “I wanted to know how it would feel to be inside your skin. Think of the other girls as substitutes.” Gabriel steered me away from the cell, as the demon called after us. “Souls to tide me over until I found yours. The one that set me free.”
My knees buckled, and I hit the floor, icy water seeping through my jeans. Tiny pinpricks stabbed at the wet skin underneath, but I didn’t move. I wanted the numbness to spread until I couldn’t feel anything, inside or outside.
“Let’s get you out of here.” Gabriel pulled me up.
A familiar melody floated through the tunnel. I recognized the lyrics and shuddered. “Cry, Little Sister,” Jared’s favorite song.
“Kennedy? Are you listening to me?” Gabriel grabbed my shoulders. “That wasn’t Jared. Demons prey on your insecurities. The things you feel guilty about.”
But he knew other things, like details about my relationship with Jared. How could he know those things unless Jared was thinking them?
When we reached the iron door, he unlocked the bolts and
coaxed me through.
Jared’s voice drifted up the stairs. “Cry, little sister.…”
26. ATHENAEUM
The maze of steel hallways looked exactly the same, and within three turns, I was lost. For once, I didn’t care. I had been lost for so long now—running from the memories I couldn’t escape, the wounds I couldn’t heal, and the mistakes I couldn’t erase. It had started the night my mom died and led right up to the moment Andras confirmed my worst fears a few minutes ago.
I’d ditched Gabriel the second he bolted the door that led down to the containment area, and retreated to my room. But I wasn’t ready to face Alara, or Elle, so I had grabbed Faith’s journal and ended up lost. Technically, I wasn’t alone. Bear had followed me, unwilling to stay cooped up in our room any longer. I reached down and scratched between his ears.
My mind kept replaying the demon’s words.
Friends who don’t trust you… and a boy who doesn’t love you.
All the doors were identical sheets of reflective steel.
Except one.
At the end of the corridor, an intricately carved door dwarfed the metal ones around it. Symbols were etched into every inch of the wood—a Gothic cross, the Devil’s Trap, a Celtic knot, a pentagram, the evil eye, and others I didn’t recognize. The Eye of Providence stared back from the center of the triangular brass knob.
Bear sat in front of the door, watching me expectantly.
If it’s unlocked, I’ll go in.
I turned the knob, and the hinges creaked. A soft light spilled into the hall from inside. It was probably a study.
Or Dimitri or Gabriel’s room.
The thought stopped me cold. I started to turn around when Bear slipped through the door.
Endless rows of books lined the walls of the circular room. The shelves were lit from behind, illuminating the books like the stars glowing on the ceiling above me. A huge opalescent sphere on a crazy-looking metal stand projected dozens of constellations onto the black ceiling, like a planetarium. Protective symbols and summoning circles like the ones from the journals marred the pale, stone floors.
Six identical glass-front bookcases cut through the center of the shelves at regular intervals. It was difficult to see inside them, and I stepped closer to one. Instead of books, the case held a disturbing assortment: pristine vertebrae and bones suspended in apothecary jars; silver dishes filled with skeleton keys; a Venus fly trap inside a terrarium; exotic butterfly wings, each housed in individual glass bottles; a framed black widow spider; and stranger objects I couldn’t identify.
Bear barked at a fluffy taxidermy chick with two heads, on the bottom shelf. Next to the chick, less identifiable creatures floated in containers of formaldehyde like carnival oddities.
I drifted past the case, examining the cracked spines of the older books and the fabric covering newer volumes: The Book of Secrets, Le Dragon Rouge, The Grand Grimorie, Heptameron of Darkness, and The Sketchbooks of Leonardo Da Vinci. I slid one of the smaller books off the shelf and leafed through pages of architectural drawings, depicting tunnels and passageways with hidden entrances and concealed chambers.
Would Dimitri let us read them? Maybe there was information in one of them that could help Jared.
Bear raced past the sphere-shaped projector and through an archway, across the room.
Perfect. It probably leads to another dungeon.
I was relieved to find a spiral staircase that led up, not down.
Bear peered at me from the top, where the black railing enclosed a second level of the circular room that blended perfectly into the dark walls. As I climbed the steps, the entire room spread out below me. An inscription ran along the circumference of the room, the words alternating in Latin and English.
Confusa Est, Invenitur Ordo
IN CHAOS WE FIND ORDER
“The Creed of Chaos,” someone said from behind me.
I jumped, even though I recognized Dimitri’s voice.
“I didn’t mean to startle you.” He rose from a threadbare armchair, tucked into an alcove.
“You didn’t. It’s fine.” I stepped back, hoping to put a little distance between us, and my shoulder bumped into something hard. Another glass-front bookcase—filled with severed doll heads.
Cracked porcelain and shiny plastic faces stared out from behind the glass. “I don’t know what you guys are into, but these are even weirder than the little alien embryos downstairs.”
Dimitri pointed at the mountain of heads. “Charity work. Every one of those dolls was haunted. Gabriel and I exorcised the spirits.”
The more I learned about Gabriel, the stranger he seemed. “So they’re souvenirs?”
“Gabriel likes to keep an eye on them.”
“That’s not creepy or anything.”
Dimitri studied the dolls for a moment and smiled. “I see your point.”
“Do you guys live at the safe house?” I asked.
“Our work takes us all over the world, so we don’t have permanent residences. This is the closest thing we have to a home.”
I couldn’t imagine living in one of the utilitarian and impersonal rooms I’d seen earlier. I stood at the railing, overlooking the vast space. At least doll heads and the mummy gave this weird museum-library hybrid some character. “So what is this place?”
“An athenaeum,” Dimitri said. “In addition to Gabriel’s collections, this room houses our library and Illuminati records.”
“Records of what, exactly?” I asked.
“Anecdotes, case studies, observations—”
“Your spy diaries?”
Dimitri frowned. “We’re not the Order. We don’t employ spies in the way you’re suggesting.”
Which means they employ them in some other way.
“The Illuminati has a long history of observing and recording paranormal and unexplained phenomena. You’d be shocked if you knew how many of the world’s greatest thinkers were members of the Illuminati.”
I pointed at the linen-wrapped mummy. “Like him?”
Dimitri laughed without even looking. He obviously knew every inch of this place by heart. He glanced up at the stars on the ceiling. “How about Galileo?”
“And you know this because?”
“Like I said, we keep great records.” Dimitri switched on a crystal floor lamp, illuminating the alcove. It gave me a clearer view of the mummified guy—who I hoped wasn’t a former Illuminati member they were preserving. A broken piece of a Renaissance-style fresco was mounted on the wall behind the mummy.
Dimitri pointed at the fresco. “The missing section of Raphael Santi’s La disputa del sacremento, Disputation of the Sacrament. Painted inside the Vatican and commissioned by the Pope himself. Of course, Raphael was only one of many Renaissance painters who was in the Illuminati.”
Dimitri made the Illuminati sound like an average, run-of-the-mill organization like the 4-H Club.
He gestured at the silver-plated journal under my arm. “Were you looking for a place to read?”
I shrugged. “More like a place to be alone.”
“We don’t generally allow anyone in here, but I can make an exception.” He patted Bear on the head. “I’ll leave you to it.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“I’m not offended,” he said. “I come here to be alone, too.” He glanced up at the ceiling. “And to look at the stars.”
Once Dimitri left, I settled into the armchair furthest from the mummy, and Bear curled up at my feet. I skimmed Faith’s journal this morning, but I didn’t have time to read it carefully. Maybe I missed something between its silver covers that could help Jared. I read the first few pages again, which were identical to the one Faith’s father had copied.
Anarel’s words still gave me the chills: Soon enough, the sins of man will rival those of the demons in hell. There are no innocents among you.
I flipped past pages filled with drawings of summoning circles and demon seals, exorcism rites and cyphers, unti
l I reached an incantation I hadn’t paid much attention to before.
An angel’s blood.
A demon’s bone.
A passing shadow.
A dragon stone.
Heaven and hell, darkness and light.
Caged in the Vessel, as they wage their eternal fight.
The Vessel—that’s how Faith had referred to the Shift.
Did we give up looking for it too easily? What if the answer was right in front of us all along, but we missed it because we so busy looking for another one? I heard Faith’s voice in the back of my mind.
A prison to hold a demon.
It was the one thing we needed to save Jared, and we had lost it.
Lukas opened the door to the room he and Priest shared holding a slice of pizza. An open box lay on his bed next to his journal and laptop. “Hey. I’m reading everything I can find on demonic possession and exorcism. I can access source documents from libraries all over Europe.”
“Have you found anything?”
He finished the slice and wiped his hands on his jeans. “Not yet.”
“I need to show you something.” I ducked under his arm impatiently and sat down on the end the bed across from his. I’d rushed here from the athenaeum, hoping to find them both. “Where’s Priest?”
“I think he’s in the Mech Room. It’s a metal shop on steroids. If everything didn’t completely suck right now, he’d be having the time of his life in there.” He gestured at the half-eaten pizza. “Want a slice? I was so hungry I couldn’t think straight. I conned Gabriel into picking it up when he went on his supply run. He almost had a heart attack when I suggested delivery.”
“No thanks.” I handed Lukas my aunt’s journal and pointed at the page. “Remember when Faith mentioned the Vessel? There’s something about it in here.” I rambled on without giving him time to read the passage. “Faith said the Vessel was the only prison that can hold Andras. This is how we’re going to save Jared.”
Lukas held up his hand. “Back up. I missed something.”
“We can use the Shift to trap Andras.” I waited while he read the passage.