by Julie Hall
“I have a plan and a purpose for everything.” The Creator nodded toward Satan. “Even this.”
“You planned to have Satan released from Hell so he could break into our realm and steal something?” This made no sense.
“The plan for the end times was set in motion a very long time ago, yet no one knows the date or the time but Me. This is but another way the Deceiver continues to unknowingly play his role. The device he sought will transfer his power to another, as it has been written and foreordained. The device was created for that very purpose, and now it will find its home with him until the day is right for him to use it. The day of My choosing.”
I took a step back, shocked. “But . . . then you just . . .” Where to even begin? I hardly even knew what I wanted to say. “Are we all just chess pieces to You?”
I slapped a hand over my mouth and squeezed my eyes shut at my outburst. Surely I was due for a bolt of lightning right about now.
When I finally cracked one of my eyelids open, Joe was standing alone. The look on his face was not one of anger or condemnation but sadness.
“Audrey, is that really how you think I see you?”
I opened my mouth to reply, but the words caught in my throat. I didn’t think he felt that way, but if I was interpreting what he said correctly, that meant I had been used to free Satan on purpose. I’d suffered so much because of what I’d done. Logan had suffered. This didn’t make sense.
“You would not have suffered at all had you sought me out, but you chose to turn away from me.”
But Logan—
Joe cut off my train of thought and answered my question before I could even ask it. “Did Logan not come away from his ordeal a stronger person? Free from the chains that he’d shackled himself to for so long?”
I opened my mouth to protest, but I couldn’t. He was right. Logan did return from Hell a healed man, and had I sought out Joe, I wouldn’t have feared an eternity of torment.
“My deepest desire is for you to know me better. I petition my Father on your behalf daily. My love for you is immeasurable. And all I ask is for you to trust in me. To let me help you with your burdens. My heart is full of love for you, not malice. It is not my desire to lose a single human being, and you have and will always have a part in that plan.”
Sadness filled my heart, for I realized my transgression against Joe had not been the mistake I’d made in Hell—as awful as plunging the blade into him had been, doing so had been unintentional. No, my true offense had been when I tried to hide from him rather than run to him for forgiveness.
“You were forgiven before you even thought to ask.” He spoke softly to me, knowing my mind without me having to verbalize the words. “That mark you bore, it was intended to send you running to me, not away. It was never a representation of your curse, but your refusal to seek my face, to seek forgiveness.”
I’d completely forgotten about the black stain on my skin.
“Just like the physical scars that don’t heal properly represent your internal struggle, your refusal to turn to me was like a poison in your veins, spreading every day. You no longer bear that mark.”
My eyes began to fill with the heaviness of that news. I had jumped to the exact wrong conclusion. Logan had been right all along. The answer was always to seek the Son; nothing good would ever come from hiding. I wanted to say something, to thank him for this act of forgiveness, but words failed me.
He smiled and nodded. Walking forward, he placed a hand on my shoulder. “Audrey, the Father knows all things. His ways are not your own. The path you are on may look dark, but you must hold tight to the truth that He is good and works all things for good.”
“I won’t forget again.”
His eyebrows rose.
“All right, I’ll try not to forget again. Better?”
He smiled. “How about we put the beast back in his cage . . . together?”
“We can do that?”
“Yes.” He pressed a sword into my hand and stepped back. “You’ve always had the power of my Spirit inside you. Let’s see you set it ablaze.”
As seeds of doubt took root in my soul, Joe’s smile fell.
“I . . . can do that?” I questioned.
“With faith the size of a mustard seed, you can do that and so much more.”
“So I should just, like, tell it to flame? Is there a manual?”
The corners of Joe’s mouth ticked up, but he quickly pinched his lips together to cover the action. “What do you think is the source of your power?”
“Faith?”
“So use that now, and tell the flame to appear.”
I closed my eyes. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this, I chanted.
Hugo’s words boomed in my mind. You can only do this through my power.
Right, not my power but the Spirit’s power in me. With renewed vigor, I imagined the flames as they used to be, burning bright blue with intense holy fire. Licking only the blade. Hungry for enemy blood.
When I cracked one eyelid open, the sword was blazing. Exactly how I’d imagined it to be.
Joe’s face was lit by the flicker. He smiled broadly as he lifted his hand and pierced it on the tip of the weapon.
“Whoa, what are you doing?” I swung the sword out of his reach, but trickles of blood rolled down from the end of the blade.
“My blood was used to break Satan’s chains, and along with the sword of the Spirit”—he nodded at the weapon I held—“my blood will form new ones.”
“Oh my gosh, give a girl a heads up next time.” I pressed a palm to my overexerted heart.
“Audrey, I’m fine. Look.” Joe shoved his hand in front of my face, and there was no gash. Only a round scar marred the center of his palm. “Would you like a heads up on what we’re about to do?”
“Yes, please.” I smiled broadly and bounced on the balls of my feet, more than a little ready to watch Joe kick Satan’s butt.
He chuckled. “Then let me tell you.”
In a blink, the world around us was set back in motion. I stood shoulder to shoulder with Joe, rather than a hair’s breadth away from Satan where I’d been when time stood still. I grasped the sword of the Spirit in my hand, and the blade flamed with holy fire.
“I said,” Joe began, “that you cannot have her. She’s been purchased with my blood. The price was paid long before the deed was done. But you”—Joe pointed a finger at Satan, authority ringing from the Son’s voice—“no longer belong here.”
I flicked my gaze to the side to see Logan staring at Joe and me in awe. A small army of hunters surrounded us, but they all held their positions, waiting for orders from Joe.
Satan let out a rage-filled bellow and charged us. Joe turned to me and, with a nod, sped right back at him.
The two collided with a force that sent a wave of power crashing into everyone. Some of my fellow hunters stumbled and fell from the quakes.
I stood strong with my feet planted despite the blast and waited for my moment.
31
Defeat
The battle raged: Joe versus our ancient enemy. But after only a few short minutes, it was obvious Joe was toying with Satan. Anyone could see it. There wasn’t a scratch on Joe, yet Satan’s black blood was splattered and smeared all over the floor where they fought.
And now I knew the truth. Joe wasn’t just more powerful than Satan in this realm; Joe was more powerful in any realm. And despite all of Satan’s well-laid plans, he had unknowingly been following the Creator’s script all along. The mighty red dragon was a puppet in this game, and his strings were about to be reattached.
Joe released a blast of power from his hands, and Satan flew back into the wall.
Well, that was a cool trick.
“Audrey.” Logan was at my side. He squeezed my shoulder to get my attention. “What’s happening?”
My gaze remained glued to the conflict in front of me as I waited with my blood-tipped blade for Joe’s signal. I replied to Logan wi
thout turning his way, “Something amazing.”
“Are you hurt? Are you okay?” No doubt the blood smeared on my white body armor from my previous injuries hadn’t gone unnoticed.
The unveiled anxiety in Logan’s voice forced my attention. His other hand was fisted, surrounded by a crackling ball of blue electricity. His face looked carved from granite except for the muscle that twitched in his jaw. His full lips were tight, and his blue eyes blazed.
I covered the gloved hand on my shoulder with mine and matched the intensity in his eyes. I didn’t have time to explain everything that had happened, but he needed some small assurance. We’d have time—all the time in the world—to catch up later.
And with that thought, I smiled—a full, heartfelt smile. No longer was my eternity uncertain. I would spend it with the man I loved. I was certain of it.
“Everything is fine. Everything’s going to work out.” I squeezed his hand. “I promise.”
He nodded once to let me know he believed me, even if he didn’t fully understand. I snapped my focus back to the main event, putting aside my celebratory mood for later.
Joe stood with his foot on Satan’s chest. Satan hissed and spat at Joe and squirmed on the ground like an overturned bug.
“Gotta go, babe,” I said with a wink. “That’s my cue.”
“Wait, what?” Logan yelled after me as I ran forward with the sword at the ready. The power of the Spirit flowed through my limbs and into the blade.
As I reached the pair, Joe lifted his foot. Satan sprang up and extended his jaws. His roar of anger was cut off by the sword I shoved into his gut. The injury wouldn’t kill him, but the holy blood mixed with the power of the Spirit and Creator would do its job.
Satan’s jaw opened for a different reason this time. His strangled words of disbelief were followed by his frantic attempts to pull the blade from his body.
Taking several steps back, I watched his frenzied movements as he registered the horror of what was about to happen.
“This can’t be done!” he yelled. His voice pierced my eardrums like razors, but I refused to do so much as flinch.
“It has been done. It’s time for you to leave and for me to make repairs to my kingdom.” Joe turned his back on Satan as if he were no more than a passing nuisance rather than the Prince of Darkness.
I watched in morbid fascination as a chain appeared from the entry point of the sword. The binding twisted and grew, snaking itself around the now thrashing beast and constricting his movements until finally a shackle appeared and clamped onto the lower part of his leg, right above the hoof that had crushed my hand not so long ago.
The bellow that followed shattered all the remaining glass in the room. I was forced to cover my ears this time, as did my fellow hunters.
“Enough!” Joe commanded, his voice booming above the noise and echoing across the room. Then all was quiet.
Something pushed against my leg, and I saw Bear, back to his regular size. I took a brief second to be thankful he was okay, laid a hand on his unusually stoic muzzle, and gave it a scratch.
“It’s finished.” Joe’s voice carried in the silence.
A crack appeared in the floor beneath Satan. The chain that bound him grew and slithered into the ground.
Satan renewed his struggles in silent defiance, for the Son had restricted his speech. The chain pulled taut and brought the beast down, dragging him across the floor in front of me.
I stared at him. The thing that once haunted my nightmares but whom I now understood had no hold over me.
The red glow in the pits of Satan’s eyes latched on to me. The hatred emanating from him was palpable, creating an itchy, restless feeling across my skin.
I wanted him gone.
The fissure in the ground opened wide enough to fit his horrid body. I turned away. It was done. I didn’t need to see the end.
Before I took my first step, a thud on my back brought me to my knees.
I blinked down to see a black spike protruding from my chest. Reaching a hand back, I felt the thick barb lodged in my back.
The object that had impaled me dragged me back several feet before being pulled from my body with a sucking sound. Freed, I lay on my side, unable to move, but numb to pain.
When Bear’s frantic barking assaulted my ears, spears of agony sliced across my chest. Something warm and sticky soaked my cheek. The flow of red spread across the white marble floor, and warmth drained from my body. Fluid pooled underneath where I lay.
Logan was running to me, the color draining from his face. Sound snapped back into its rightful place when he reached me, gently arranging me so he could press his hands on the holes on my back and chest.
“Audrey, it’s going to be all right,” he was saying to me. “Joe’s still here; he’ll fix you right up.”
“Wh—” I wanted to ask what happened, but my strength was fleeing as quickly as the blood gushed from my wounds.
“Satan managed a partial transformation before he was sucked back to Hell. He struck you with his spiked tail. But it’s going to be all right.”
He’d already said that, but his voice shook this time. The slickness of my blood made his dark armor shine.
I couldn’t die since I was already dead, but I was bleeding out so fast. Something didn’t seem right.
Logan looked in the other direction.
“Please,” he pleaded with someone.
“On her back,” Joe commanded. He slipped a hand beneath me, and I felt the entry wound knit together. The thought that I’d been struck exactly where my mark had first appeared drifted lazily through my mind and then blew away.
The wound on my chest still bled freely. Joe held my head in his hands as Logan moved both hands to cover the hole on my front. “It’s time for you to go too, dear one.”
Wait, what?
“Your journey here has ended for the time. It needs to be picked back up where it left off.”
I tried to shake my head or ask for an explanation, but my body was numbing, and I was incapable of speech.
Joe leaned over and kissed my forehead. Trust in me. The words whispered through my mind.
“What’s happening?” Logan all but shouted the words I wanted to scream.
Joe said something to Logan. My hearing was dimming by the second, so I only saw Joe’s lips move. When they stopped, Logan gazed down at me with fear-filled eyes.
Dread pooled in my stomach and curdled.
Vaguely aware of other hands on me, I looked down the length of my body, and the faces of my friends swam in and out of my blinking vision. Romona held vigil at my other side. Kaitlin and Kevin knelt on either side of my legs, and Bear was on his belly with his head rested on one of my ankles.
I couldn’t feel him. I couldn’t feel anything.
Tears flowed freely down Romona’s and Kaitlin’s cheeks. I caught a quick glance of Morgan’s somber face behind Kaitlin before I focused on Kevin’s red-rimmed eyes. And Logan . . .
With hands still pressed to my chest that I could no longer feel, he was red faced and yelling at Joe, who stayed stationary at my head, keeping me steady.
I could no longer hear nor feel my body. In that there was some mercy, for the pool of my blood had grown past the circle of my friends. I vaguely wondered how much blood one person had in their body to spill. If I could grimace at my gruesome thoughts, I would have. But I was paralyzed except for the movement of my eyes.
My vision blinked out for more than a second, and when it returned, I looked into Logan’s face.
The world had changed. I was no longer in the Artifact Room but instead somewhere in the foothills of the mountain range I loved so much.
Feeling and hearing had returned but not movement. Soft grass pillowed my body, and Logan no longer held his hands to my chest to staunch a crimson flow.
My friends and Joe stood off to the side.
A soft summer breeze kissed my cheeks, and I felt no pain, but I saw it reflected back at me in L
ogan’s eyes.
He bent down and pressed a gentle kiss to my lips, and pulling back slightly, he whispered, “I love you.”
I smiled up at him. Of course, I already knew that. My eyes grew heavy, and I was helpless to keep them open. As they closed for the last time, I was able to whisper back, “Always and forever.”
32
Realms
Beep . . . beep . . . beep . . . beep . . . the sound went on at a steady cadence of about a beep per second. It was both familiar and offensive. The rooms of the Healing Center were usually peaceful. This incessant beeping was downright annoying.
I tried to peel open my eyes, which were dry and filled with crusty goop, and only managed to open my lids a sliver. Florescent lights blinded me, and I pressed my eyes shut once again.
Florescent lights? What?
Had the Healing Center gone back to the dark ages?
Lights off, I thought, but nothing happened. The same unpleasant brightness remained, and I squeezed my lids even tighter.
I expanded my senses. My body ached. I needed to do some serious stretches, but when I tried to move, to bring my hand up to cover my eyes, nothing happened.
The beeping noise increased its pace.
Forcing my eyes open, I looked around without moving my head. I was lying in a scratchy and uncomfortable bed, covered only by a thin white blanket that had seen many washes. Several machines were stationed around me, one of which I recognized as the source of the beeping. Its screen showed a peak every time a beep sounded, and I recognized it as a heart rate machine. Next to it stood a pole that held several bags of liquid.
The beeping grew faster.
My mouth was dry. I went to lick my lips. They were chapped and peeling.
A whiteboard hung on the wall in front of me. Unfamiliar names were written on it, along with times of the day. A TV was suspended from a mount near the ceiling, and a muted soap opera was playing.
My breathing increased, and the beeping grew frantic.
