by Hanna Peach
He jolted. Then relaxed when he saw it was her. Her gaze devoured his body and his face, desperate to satisfy herself that it was really him. He was dressed all in black except for an off-white bandage around his arm where he had been cut last night. If it were at all possible, he seemed more beautiful than she had remembered him to be.
He grinned at her, showing off his perfect white teeth and a small dimple in his right stubbled cheek. Her heart thudded even harder in her chest. “For a moment there I thought you may not show.”
“I said I would. Now return my blade.”
“Questions first, blade later.”
She could probably take her blade off him forcibly if she wanted to but she decided to humor him. For some reason she wanted to prolong her time with him. To sate her curiosity, she told herself. She was sure it had nothing to do with this strange rushing feeling she was getting from standing so close to him.
“Fine, but not out here.” Alyx jerked her head towards the small gardener’s shed. She led the way.
“Dammit. It’s locked,” she said as she shook the door handle. If only Elijah’s pick could open mortal locks too.
“May I?”
Alyx arched an eyebrow at him but she stepped aside. He knelt in front of the door fiddling with the lock, and was that something thin and metal in his fingers? “What are you doing?”
“Everything is open to those with the right key.”
The lock clicked. He stood and pushed the door open with a flourish.
Alyx couldn’t help but gape. “How did you do that?”
“Magic,” he said casually, but there was a grin on his face. “After you.”
Inside the shed Alyx was greeted with the tang of rusty metal and the musk of moist earth. Garden tools – shovels, cutters, trowels – hung across the walls. In the center of the shed was a thick wooden table, a work bench.
The small spotlight that appeared in front of her made her jump.
“Steady, girl,” Alyx heard him say. “It’s only my flashlight. I just need to find a light switch.”
“Don’t. You’ll turn this place into a beacon.”
“You’re not afraid of being alone with me in the dark?” There was a curious twist to his voice.
“Of course not.”
“Maybe you should be.”
“Maybe you should be.”
He chuckled. “Okay, no lights.” The mortal turned the flashlight off.
Her eyes adjusted quickly to what little moonlight filtered through the dusty window. When she turned she realized how close she was to him, caught between his body and the worktable. She slid around to one side of the table and cleared her throat. “I have some questions too.”
“Ladies first.”
“What are you?”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
“The other night, you leaped up onto the wall and climbed up that building like a spider. You can’t be completely mortal.”
He laughed softly. “Parkour.”
Parkour? Alyx shook her head, not understanding.
“Free running?”
Alyx frowned, shaking her head again.
“Think of it as a form of street gymnastics. Some old friends taught me.”
“So you are mortal?”
“Born and bred. My turn. Tell me more about the demons.”
“I shouldn’t be talking to you about them.”
“As if I don’t know they exist already.”
“Okay, okay. What you were fighting back in that alley wasn’t a demon, exactly. That’s what we call a Darkened.”
“What’s the difference?”
“The demons have been locked out of Earth for some time. They can’t physically cross over here. Unfortunately they discovered a kind of loophole. Demons can use their magic to appear in dreams or as voices in your head, if you are open to influence. If they are able to turn your mind to the darkness then the demons can possess you and you become Darkened.”
“Why would anyone choose to side with a demon?”
“Hate, anger, lust, greed, revenge, power...there are many things that the demons will use, many things they will promise, to get you to relinquish your body. They’re clever and they have had several centuries to practice.”
“How do you get the demon out?”
“You can’t.”
“You can’t?” His shoulders sagged. A flash of pain appeared across his face but just as quickly, it disappeared. “So, the human who has become Darkened...?”
“I was told that they can see and feel everything but have no control. A prisoner in their own body. Can you imagine? I would go mad.”
“That’s horrible.” Then he flared with life. “Let me come with you. I can fight alongside you and your people. I can help.”
Alyx shook her head. “I’m already risking so much just being here talking to you. My people, we have rules, a Code...”
“And they don’t include involving mortals.”
“I’m sorry.” She truly was. “Can I ask you another question?”
“May as well.”
“Your demon sight, when did you first see them?”
“I don’t remember. I was really young. No one believed me, of course. Just an overactive imagination. I wasn’t even sure they were real for a while.”
“You said they have been chasing you?”
“When I was sixteen one of them realized that I could see his real face. He came after me but I got away from him. I tried telling my stepfather, but naturally he didn’t believe me. ‘You’re too old for this nonsense,’ he said to me. The same demon came after me again later that night when I was in bed. He was angry, yelling, saying all these strange things that didn’t make sense.”
“What kind of things?”
“Something about a key. I don’t know what he was talking about.”
Alyx’s forehead scrunched as she tried to make sense of this.
“I fought against him and we tore up my room. He ran away before my stepfather burst the locks on my bedroom door. My stepfather thought there was something wrong with me. I mean, how could I explain what had really happened?
“I was sent away to an institution. For a while I thought I was actually crazy. But the demon followed me to the institute. He didn’t come after me straightaway. He started toying with me, messing with my mind. I knew it was a matter of time before he found a way in. So I ran away. I barely made it out, but I did.”
Those were his nightmares. The white room. The creature tearing at the walls. Those were his memories coming out in his nightmares.
“I lived on the streets, taking odd jobs where I could, relying on the kindness of charities, taking scraps from restaurants at the end of the night. But I could never stay in one place for too long. He was still after me. One night, I was confronted by a street gang. They were mostly kids like me but bigger and toughened by years on the street. Apparently I was in their territory. I fought as if my life depended on it. Thankfully, the leader took a liking to me. So he took me in.
“They let me stay with them, taught me how to survive on the streets, how to fight properly with a knife, taught me parkour. But soon the demon caught up to me and this time he had friends with him. I managed to escape but I knew I had to leave my gang, to keep them safe. I left without telling them why. Since then, it’s been more of the same.”
“Until you decided to fight back,” Alyx realized.
His face twisted. “I just got fed up with running. I got sick of being afraid and always having to look over my shoulder.”
“I’m sorry.”
He gave her a half-smile. “Don’t be. My life hasn’t been all bad.”
“I can’t believe your parents institutionalized you.”
“They weren’t my parents. My mother died when I was born and I never knew my father. My aunt raised me. Later she married my stepfather.”
“I’m sorry...about your parents.”
“You can’t miss what you never kne
w.” His short laugh came out as a choke, and she knew he was hiding the truth from her. She knew. She had never known her parents either but she missed them every day. Their absence made her hollow. “I don’t know why I’m telling you all this,” he said. “You’re practically a stranger.”
“My parents had me out of wedlock.” It came tumbling out before Alyx could censure herself. “To my people, falling pregnant with me was…a great sin. They abandoned me when I was born. I don’t know where they are now. They’ve never tried to contact me or anything. I don’t even know if they’re alive or dead.”
“I’m sorry.”
Alyx shook her head. “I didn’t tell you so you could be sorry. I told you because...well, I think it makes it easier when you know that you’re not the only one who has been abandoned.” Alyx remembered being in his mind, remembered the feeling of his loneliness as it overlapped her own. “You need to know that you’re not the only one who feels...alone.”
His gaze was warm on her face, a touch of a smile brushing the corner of his lips. “Thank you. For telling me.” He stepped a little closer and her heart started to pound. There was something in his eyes that hadn’t been there before…something heated.
A small wave of panic flowed through her and she jerked her gaze away from him. “I have to go. They don’t know that I’ve left.”
“Oh. Of course.” He sounded disappointed. “Thank you for coming. For taking that risk. I know I can’t come with you, but would you meet me again and train me? So I stand a better chance against them?”
“I−” She wanted to see him again but she was already going to be in so much trouble from the rules she broke last night just to save him. “I can’t.”
“You can’t or you won’t?”
“I can’t,” Alyx said with a sad smile. “You have to stop hunting demons.”
“I can’t.”
“You can’t or you won’t?”
“I can’t.”
“Be careful.” She gave him a wry smile. “I can’t save your life every time you get in trouble.”
He laughed. “Did I thank you for that? I can’t remember. Anyway, thank you for saving my life.”
“I’m glad I got there in time.”
“Me too. What were you doing in that alley anyway?”
“Patrole,” she lied, feeling instant guilt for doing so. But he couldn’t know about her visions of him. Not until she figured out why this was happening to them. “Patrolling for the Darkened.”
“A lucky coincidence then.”
“Yes, lucky. If you’re going to kill them, you can’t leave their bodies out. It’s attracting too much attention. Burn them after you kill them.”
He shook his head. “I want them to be found.”
“Why?” Alyx suddenly realized, “‘Adere’ is a message for someone, isn’t it? A warning?”
“Something like that.”
“If you keep leaving their bodies out, my people will come after you. They’re already after you.”
“Why haven’t you turned me in?”
How could she explain it? She didn’t even know why herself. “I don’t know.”
“Thank you for not turning me in.” He took her blade from his belt and held it out in his palm. She had to step closer to him to reach it. As she took the kris her fingers brushed his palm and a thrum of electricity coursed through her body. Mine to protect, a voice whispered in her head.
Alyx gasped and jerked her hand away. He snatched his hand back too. The kris dropped and the point stuck into the wooden floor. For a moment they just stared at each other, the only sound being their breathing − both seemed to have gotten louder in this shed that seemed to have gotten smaller.
“What was that?” he asked.
Alyx shook her head. “Probably a buildup of static or something.”
He didn’t look convinced. She wasn’t either.
“I have to go,” she said, pulling the kris from the floor and sheathing it. She had to leave, now, before...what? She wasn’t sure what.
He stepped aside but there wasn’t enough room to move past him without touching him. Her body brushed against his. So close. Too close. A warm flush traveled down her spine and her head rushed as if she was falling, causing her to stumble out the door.
“Alyx, wait,” he said. The sound of her name on his voice sent a small thrill through her. She turned her head back to him. “Even if you can’t train me. I want...can I see you again?”
“Maybe,” Alyx heard herself say. She should have said no.
“Maybe.” He smiled. “I can live with maybe.”
“I still don’t know your name.”
“Israel,” he said. “My name is Israel.”
“Israel. Maybe when it’s safe, I’ll come find you.”
“Wait. Don’t you want to know where I live? How else will you find me?”
“Magic,” Alyx said, a small smile on her lips.
He was still laughing as she disappeared into the night.
Alyx’s mind was whirring as she flew back to Michaelea. Who was this mortal? How could he see the Darkened’s true face? Why was she suddenly seeing through his eyes? Why did she slip into his thoughts and have his feelings coursing through her body? She expected answers when she finally met the sole focus of her visions and these dreams, but instead she only had more questions.
Chapter 12
Purgatory was a bar reminiscent of old lower Manhattan: long and skinny like an alleyway, exposed brick, faded booths and low-hanging lights amidst the soft racket of a dirty jazz. Purgatory was located in that slip of space and time between Earth, Heaven and Hell. Nowhere and everywhere. From Earth you could get to it from number 13 of any street if you knew how to look. Mortals had long forgotten the reason that thirteen was unlucky, yet street numbers all over the world still read 9, 11, 15.
Inside, the demon Balthazar was leaning against one of the gritty walls, partly hidden by the soft haze of smoke that seemed to just hang at eye level, partly hidden by the mirage magic that he had wrapped himself in. Anyone looking at him would see the pale green skin and scarlet eyes of a lesser demon.
Another demon named Samyara, wrapped in the body of a mortal, stepped in through the door from Earth. Balthazar’s body remained slouched and uninterested but his eyes became alert. He watched as Samyara weaved his way to the far end of the bar and slipped onto a stool next to a lone seraph wearing a crimson cloak, playing with the rim of a glass of untouched golden liquid. To anyone else watching, it may not have appeared unusual, an angel and a demon sitting side by side, at least not in Purgatory. But Balthazar had come here with suspicions.
What was Samyara doing? Usually Samyara wouldn’t go near the Seraphim. He openly joked that angels gave him hives and a case of homicidal rage.
Balthazar had to get closer. Not too close or he may be noticed. He moved towards them, cursing under his breath as a lustful couple, all hands and teeth, fell out of one of the booths, blocking his path.
“Move it,” he growled.
He wanted to shove them out of the way, but he couldn’t touch them or his true self would be revealed to them. Damn the limitations of mirage magic. Eventually the couple moved enough to let him slip pass. They groped each other all the way to the door to Hell.
Balthazar fell against the bar, swaying, within earshot of Samyara and the seraph. Just another drunken demon.
“…weapons that will disrupt the Seraphim’s healing powers,” the seraph was saying, his voice low and husky. “You’ll be able to kill them like mortals.”
Even from here Balthazar could see the glitter in Samyara’s eyes. “Very interesting. But I’ll have to verify this information.”
“You do that.”
“Did you find out about this girl with the supposed visions that everyone’s talking about? The new Seraphim Oracle?”
The seraph snorted. “That’s what the Elders are claiming it is but...she’s not an Oracle.”
“What is she?”
The seraph paused. “She’s a Guardian.”
“No,” Samyara said on an inhale. “Are you sure?”
The seraph nodded. “She told me about her supposed vision herself. It wasn’t a vision. It was the bond.”
Samyara began to laugh under his breath. “A Guardian. A Guardian. The Prophecy. Oh…the possibilities. You have just made my century. Can you bring her to me?”
The seraph was quiet for a moment. “If I do, she’s not to be harmed.”
“Not to be−?”
“I don’t care what you do with him. But she is not to be harmed.”
“Interesting. So you care about this little Guardian.”
“Promise me or I won’t help you with this.”
“Boring.” The seraph made to get up but Samyara grabbed his arm to pull him back into his seat. The seraph snatched his hand away. “Relax. I won’t hurt the girl. I just want to use her to get to him.”
The seraph nodded. “I’ll be in touch.” He got up from his seat to leave.
Balthazar cursed internally. He wanted to follow this seraph back to Earth but he couldn’t. It was one of the rules of the enchantment over Purgatory; you could only leave through the same door you came in. As Balthazar came in through the door from Hell, he could not get through to Earth this way. The Seraphim coming in the door from Earth could not get back to Heaven this way. No one had come through the door from Heaven in over two thousand years.
“Going so soon?” said Samyara. “Stay, have a drink.”
“I don’t socialize with your kind,” the seraph said.
“What do you call this then?”
“This…this is helping you destroy the Elders. It’s what they deserve. It’s…justice.”
Chapter 13
The Elder-dome stood at the head of the city and near the highest point of the mountain. Flanked by two Elderguards, Alyx moved through the internal corridor that coiled around the inside of the dome. They had been waiting at her pod when she had returned from seeing Israel. She knew she could no longer delay the consequences of the other night.
Her eyes flashed around her, barely taking in the paintings that unfurled in one long mural along the corridor walls: a seraph fighting hand-to-hand with a mortal in the desert, an army of Seraphim cowering under falling stars, a seraphelle burning at a stake. Maybe she would be burned at the stake? Do they do that?