Fabrizio typed in a code on the electronic keypad and the elevator began to move. He gave Cain a distasteful look. “You’re going to need to hold my hand when we step off this elevator.”
“Yeah?” Cain said, ignoring my laugh.
“Or the wards will incinerate you.” The First Murderer stiffened.
“Oh. Then I guess we’re those kinds of friends, now…”
I laughed even harder.
Chapter 25
Cain and Fabrizio stared up at the hundreds of doors hanging suspended by chains before us, still holding hands. I wished I would have at least brought Roland’s phone down this far to snap a picture.
“You can stop holding my hand, now,” Fabrizio muttered.
“You sure?” Cain asked doubtfully. “I can still feel them probing me,” he said, shivering at the way he had described the sensation of the wards, as we walked through the stone passageway on our way to this cavern. Luckily, Roland had previously added me to the VIP list, so I had access to this area without any hand-holding.
“The wards cover the halls, not this place. We didn’t want to place them too close, just in case they reacted with…whatever these are,” he said, gesturing at the doors.
Cain very slowly unclasped his fingers, holding his breath. When nothing happened, he let out a sigh of relief. I chuckled, staring up at the doors, recalling the first time I had been here.
The stone cavern was huge, climbing high above our heads. They resembled doors from all time periods, eras, and styles; some made of wood, stone, marble, glass, and even metal. As I scanned them, none particularly stood out because of how varied they were. Well, except for the beaded curtain one. That looked sinister. I spotted a charred, blackened door. Fabrizio noticed my fixation and gave me a nod of confirmation. So. That was the one they had sent the video camera through.
“Roland told me a different story about that door. Something about a welcoming committee waiting on the other side.”
Fabrizio’s lips tightened. “That is the official story, yes,” he admitted guiltily. I grunted, once again reminded that the Vatican was not to be trusted.
Dozens of the doors spun lazily from their chains at different speeds while others remained entirely static.
No torches lined the walls, but the room was illuminated somehow—kind of like how some nights weren’t as dark as others, even though the moon wasn’t entirely visible. Just a pale glow reflecting off the chains, doors, and stone walls. Cain murmured something unintelligible, shaking his head. “That’s a lot of options to choose from…” he said dubiously.
He wasn’t wrong. I picked out a few doors wrapped in glowing, golden chains with locks that prevented them from opening, recalling Roland’s explanation—likely another lie fed to him by his lords and masters.
Huge runes were carved into the floor, and I once again studied them, recognizing them as Enochian script—the language of the Angels. I didn’t see any that looked like my name or some other obvious clue as to what I needed to do next. No welcome home mat or anything.
I turned to Fabrizio. “I assume everything else Roland told me was a lie—about these leading to repositories all over the world. Even other realms.”
Fabrizio hung his head. “Since it was impossible to move them in any way, we locked up the Doors that appeared on their own,” he said, pointing to those wrapped in chains. “Then we hung a hundred plain doors from the ceiling to fill out the space, knowing that if anyone opened one and stepped through the empty space we could just say we lost the ability to use that one.
I cursed under my breath, hating that Roland had been suckered in by the Vatican. That I had been right to distrust them and not have blind faith in them. “How considerate of you.”
Fabrizio’s face darkened as he slowly rounded on me. “I lost many friends to these fucking Doors, Callie. Remember that. If I can save a life by fucking lying a little, so be it. But tell me what you would have done differently before you tar and feather me,” he said, fists clenching and unclenching at his sides.
I let out a frustrated breath and finally nodded in what vaguely passed for an apology.
“Do any of them actually work?” Cain asked.
I found myself nodding. “Roland told me one led to Rome. We almost used it to attend the trial with Paradise and Lost. When I first met you.”
Fabrizio nodded. “That one actually does work, but it took many years to perfect, and only works on those granted access. Blood, sweat, tears. It has to be keyed to the individual.”
I scowled. “So, that is why you had Roland give you samples of my essence. To help pull off your trick.” I took a deep breath, closing my eyes. “I get it. I’m not happy about it, but I get it. And no, I can’t think of anything else I would have done in your place,” I finally admitted.
The devious scheme was actually very clever. Have all the Shepherds provide their essence, so the door would work. And if that door worked, then all the other stories must be true as well. Don’t forget about the dangerous ones, they will kill you. And we can’t tell you which ones are the dangerous ones. Above your pay-grade.
I glanced at Fabrizio. “What if someone—hypothetically—chose to ignore your warnings and test out a door, somehow disproving your claim?”
I scratched at my arm absently, concealing my thumb from view. It hadn’t been particularly cold recently, but it had most definitely turned warmer than usual at some point in the last few moments. And such a change felt as significant as if it had caught fire compared to its usual constant chill. Was Nameless reacting to a man of God? Or maybe, just maybe, it had something to do with the big Enochian script three feet away.
Fabrizio smiled humorlessly. “Someone like you, for example,” he said drily. “The ruse would likely be up. They would continue testing doors until they got to the wrong one and disappeared forever, I would imagine,” he admitted. “Lead us not into temptation… Which is why we threaten ex-communication and execution for any who dare attempt to use a door without permission. For extra protection, we warn that using the doors could unlock the door from the other side, allowing whatever lives there to cross over here into our fortress. Even the ballsiest of Shepherds doesn’t want to be responsible for letting a monster into their own church.”
I grunted. He had a point. Ultimately, they would be hunted down or test the wrong door and die. Fear was the great motivator. Either way, problem solved.
“What about these runes on the ground? What are they? I can sense their power,” Cain asked. Since everything I knew had been a lie, I waited for Fabrizio to preach some gospel on the matter.
Fabrizio studied them with a shiver. “Those are very real. Protection runes cast by all seven of the Conclave.” He was silent for a moment. “But who knows if they would protect us from whatever lives on the other side? None have returned to let us know, so we simply did our best.”
I studied the doors above us, trying to find some pattern. I counted the ones Fabrizio had pointed out, those wrapped in chains. Twelve. I scanned the other doors, analyzing them thoroughly—at least those I could clearly make out.
The shadow ring around my thumb throbbed colder for a moment and I pointed. “That one goes to Rome,” I said, not entirely sure why—whether it had been me or the ring dictating the guess. That alone made me shiver, remembering Samael’s comment about influencing me through the ring.
Fabrizio was staring at me. “Did Roland tell you that?” he asked very softly.
I shook my head, not meeting his eyes. Instead, I studied the castle-like door with the metal rivets across the beams that led to Rome. There were several other similar ones that physically matched, but something about this one…I could almost hear singing as I stared at it, like a choir.
I finally shook my head and looked away. Cain was frowning, eyes darting from me to Fabrizio, wondering exactly what had just happened. His hand also rested on the hilt of the bone blade in a familiar gesture. I wasn’t sure if he was aware how much his f
ace transformed when he touched it. His features became both more feral and more relaxed.
Like it was a part of him. Maybe it centered him, made him feel complete. I wasn’t sure, but I would keep an eye on it. Because even though it seemed to calm him, his eyes also had a dangerously wild look to them.
“I hope you have a ladder or something,” Cain said.
I scratched at my arms, feeling like I was overheating.
“Actually…we don’t. We used pulleys,” Fabrizio said, pointing to an alarmingly weathered setup on the side wall. I didn’t feel like trusting myself to them. I stared up at the twelve doors, thinking furiously. Which one? If I could only see them closer, maybe touch them…
My forearms began to tingle noticeably, and my ring of shadows grew colder against my thumb, reacting to whatever had made my arms tingle. I scowled at my appendage. On principle, I wasn’t pleased that my body could have an argument with itself when I didn’t even know why. It was ridiculously unfair.
“Which door?” I mumbled to myself, my lips suddenly feeling numb.
Cain asked Fabrizio something about Last Breath, but I was too focused on the sensation rippling through me. The cold, the heat. Back and forth, back and forth…
“…maybe a lion of some kind. I know how ridiculous it sounds…”
My teeth began clicking together as my whole body shuddered. I was squeezing my arms, now, and realized I was staring at the shadows in the cavern, feeling slightly nauseated. I touched my forehead and felt it was slick with sweat. Fabrizio suddenly stood before me, looking alarmed as he touched my cheeks. I was simultaneously sweating and freezing. “Callie, are you feeling okay?”
I shuddered again, my vision beginning to tunnel as if I was dehydrated and had stood too fast. Cain began to growl from where he stood near the pulleys, but I wasn’t sure if it was because he sensed something or if he was just reacting to my apparent meltdown. My thumb suddenly froze, and I gasped as my vision shifted into a world of chrome shades.
One Door among the twelve seemed to glow like polished silver, brighter than the rest, which merely looked gray and dull—still metallic, but not as brilliant. The hundreds of other doors were simply a weak, pale gray.
I pointed at the polished Door, my arm shaking with cold. I realized I was gripping the Seal of Solomon in that fist. The door began to rattle and dance on its chains, tugging and popping the links as if something was trying to break free from within. Cain and Fabrizio began to shout in alarm as the Door abruptly snapped free, molten shards of hot metal chain zipping out in every direction, splintering any adjacent decoy doors to shreds or igniting them in flames. The Door crashed to the ground about three feet in front of me, landing perfectly on its edge, even embedding an inch into the stone, but not damaging or impeding the door itself. The rock floor around it singed upon contact—even one of the powerful runes the Conclave had spent so much time finger-painting was destroyed.
“I think we know what her silver ring does now,” Cain told Fabrizio.
I shifted my hand to touch those golden chains and they puffed to vapor like smoke.
It comes. RUN! Nameless screamed from within the furthest corners of my mind, making my thumb bone ache at the sudden arctic chill.
I heard a metallic screech—like nails on a chalkboard—from down the passageway. The elevator. Someone was scratching at the elevator. I locked eyes with Fabrizio—his face now just a tapestry of chromatic hues. He looked shaken, alarmed, and furious. No one but Fabrizio and Roland had the code to the elevator for this floor, and I hadn’t heard the elevator leave our floor.
“Run…” I heard myself whisper, repeating Nameless’ internal warning. But I realized that it was hopeless. The only way left to run was down the passageway…
Towards the scratching sound.
We were all staring at the passageway, Cain gripping the hilt of his bone knife with a permanent snarl, his lips pulled back to reveal his teeth. Then I heard the sound of rapidly scratching claws, as if something was running towards us on all fours.
Cain appeared to be frozen, his body bending low as if to crouch at half-speed, even though my movement felt entirely normal. Cain’s mouth began to open as if he was roaring, but in slow motion.
A ball of flame gradually flickered to life in Fabrizio’s outstretched hand, proving that something funky was happening with reality. Just like when Michael had abducted me, time had abruptly decelerated.
Then it hit me. I’d seen my vision do this before. When I’d been chasing down Cain through an alley so long ago. The Silver. Time hadn’t slowed, my perception had quadrupled.
I flung out my hand, sending a swarm of Silver butterflays down the passage, hoping to deter the attacker long enough to get Fabrizio out of here. I heard a feral, coughing snarl—not sounding remotely affected by the strange distortion to time—as I ripped open a Silver Gateway directly behind Fabrizio. The runes at our feet suddenly flared in warning, smoking at the use of a Gateway in such a heavily warded place.
Shit. Forgot about the Conclave’s finger-painting.
Fabrizio’s pulse throbbed in his neck about once every ten seconds, proving the time distortion for everyone but myself and our attacker. I hoped it also delayed the defensive runes.
I grabbed Fabrizio and shoved him through the Gateway, having no idea where I had just sent him. Because Silver Gateways were based on need, not rational thought. It had to be better than his current location. Next, I released the Gateway, grabbed Cain, and then jumped through the open Door, ramming my shoulder into it like I was a one-woman SWAT team raiding a known drug house. I caught my thumb on the frame and it flared with pain, but I bit back my cry.
At the last moment, I glanced back at the passageway to see a four-legged creature stalking towards us, its head hanging below its shoulders like a stalking lion. Or a tiger. It was still just a white blur, although I would recognize those flaming blue eyes anywhere.
Last Breath. I took that as a sign that we were on the right path.
And that we were about to pay dearly for it.
If the creature had opened the door to get down here in the first place, I knew our security wasn’t going to hinder it. How it had even found the church, or that I was in it was a mystery.
Was it tracking my Seal? Had it sensed the Fallen Angel on my finger? Or something else? It had killed those Sons of Solomon earlier, but had looked directly at us in the fountain and hadn’t attacked. Had it not seen us? What had changed?
It stared only at me, completely ignoring Cain and the rest of the cavern.
I fell through the Door, shoving Cain ahead of me, and then stared back at the figure hunkering low as if preparing to leap at me. The time distortion definitely wasn’t impacting Last Breath. Those twin blue flames were not pleased.
The Door slammed shut and we landed on cold stone in a strangely familiar place.
Chapter 26
I panicked for a moment, eyes flicking about the room for any sign of Last Breath, but we were entirely alone. Cain grunted, rolling up to his feet, spinning back and forth with wild eyes, not understanding what had just happened—or comprehending our current location.
We were in the cavern of Doors we had just left.
But with a few differences. No runes decorated the floor, and only three Doors hung from the ceiling. There were no pulleys on the wall. The Door we had just exited clicked shut high above, at least twenty feet in the air. I was suddenly thankful we hadn’t landed on our necks from such a height. In fact, I didn’t even feel a bruise from our fall.
And more importantly, Last Breath had not pursued us. I could make out a faint hymnal song in the air, like it was being carried from far off in the distance, but I also sensed that it was the place itself—part of the air, not truly a song being sung in the distance. It was powerful, like a flavor of magic.
Cain gripped my shoulder. “What about Fabrizio?” he demanded. “He’s a sitting duck back there!” he hissed, panting. “Who attacked us?”<
br />
I squeezed his arms reassuringly, trying to calm him. He hadn’t seen me send Fabrizio through the Gateway. Because his sense of time had been messed up.
“Easy, Cain. Easy. Take a deep breath. Fabrizio is fine. Last Breath came for us, but I sent Fabrizio to safety. Last Breath did something to you guys to mess with your sense of time,” I said, not knowing for sure whether it had been Last Breath or myself.
Cain took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment as he lowered his dagger. He finally shook his head. “Okay. I heard the claws on stone, but never saw anything. Did you get a good look at Last Breath this time?”
“Maybe…” I said, pursing my lips. “He looked like some kind of cat. Or a four-legged creature with a long tail, at least. It was still hard to tell. But it was definitely Last Breath. Same blue eyes. But wherever we are, it didn’t follow.”
Cain nodded jerkily, eyes darting about the room in newfound recognition. “What happened to the other Doors?” he asked anxiously.
“We went through a Door and ended up here. It’s the same cavern,” I told him, studying the room. My pulse suddenly began to quicken, and my stomach dropped. “I think this is…the night the Doors first appeared…” I whispered, suddenly realizing what that meant.
The night I had been left on the steps of the church.
Somewhere high above me, baby Callie lay crying in a small crib on the steps of the church, terrified of the lightning and rain. My vision seemed to rock, and I almost lost my balance. Cain caught me immediately, following my train of thought and knowing my sudden reaction for what it was.
A grating sound made us flinch, spinning to face an attack, imagining the worst horrors possible in this strange…dimension, or plane of existence. Was this real? Or a dream fragment of some kind?
A black quartz obelisk—flecked with metallic veins of silver and gold—rose from the floor, dust and gravel crumbling until it grew as tall as a man. Then, silver script flared into existence across its surface.
Feathers and Fire Series Box Set 2 Page 43