“What suspicions? That the Circle were breeding children from the essence of the Spirit Demons?” I chewed on the skin beside the thumbnail.
“No, I had no idea that the breeding program was the means they intended to use to achieve their goal of recreating the Lost Powers, but I suspected that was their intent. To control the powers of the Halfling race and use them against the Humans.” Jonah began pacing again. “It was so obvious, I was almost there—have you read my diary?”
His head swiveled to stare in my direction, and I lunged for our grimy pile of belongings and rooted through the backpack, pulling the leather-bound book out with a sigh of relief. Sam eyed the diary with a raised eyebrow. “She’s read it a hundred times. There’s nothing in it. Gabriel and Emmanuel spent a year going through every page, and making Grace study it—there’s nothing there we didn’t already know.”
“Nothing that you can see, Reaper. Your other half will find a different tale if she opens her eyes to the truth. It is a Seeker’s diary—written by a Seeker, for a Seeker.” I opened my mouth to question Jonah, but heavy banging on the front door made the words shrivel on my lips.
Anna sprang to her feet and dragged Ozzie and Dawn inside the room. Cat and Cain pulled the two youngsters close to them as the old woman closed the door to the small room behind her and made her way to the front entrance. Jonah placed a finger to his lips. “This room was designed to be undetectable and impenetrable by the Circle, but we take no risks.”
Voices filtered through the house and the sound of footsteps stamping into the storeroom on the other side of the wall beat against my eardrums. I recognized Peter’s slithering tones. “What do you have that can help us locate them, Mother-of-all. They can’t have gone far, how they escaped the prison cell at all is quite the mystery…”
Peter’s silence was more frightening than his words, and my skin crawled as I imagined him running his fingers over Anna’s cheek. I sat on my fists. Jonah screwed his eyes shut and pressed his forehead against the wall as Anna began to answer. “I have many potions to help find what is lost. Do you have anything that belongs to the missing that I can use?”
“I told you they were clever little shits, Peter. That’s why they bothered to take all their filthy rags with them.” My skin crawled as I recognized the rough tones as belonging to Fergus. I saw him in my mind’s eye, leering at the elderly lady, with pretty Lara trailing behind him like a dour shadow.
“I need far less than clothing. A hair would suffice. Sweep out the cell and bring me what you find.” Anna’s voice faded as she led her unwelcome guests out of the house, but I didn’t breathe again until she appeared in the doorway. Her face was ashen. “Time runs short; we need to move quickly.”
The old woman pressed her hand against the wall, and a hidden doorway appeared. She snatched the lamp from the table and the candlelight cast an eerie glow over the steep staircase. Anna led the way, and the rest of us followed. Jonah came last, sealing the door behind us.
The steps led to a low, narrow passageway. Sam and Cain had to crouch over so that their heads didn’t smack against the curved stone ceiling. Jonah beckoned for us to follow him. “The city was designed to offer maximum protection to its few inhabitants, allowing entrance and exit from only two points. One from the citadel, and one through the crevices in the magic barrier that only a Seeker could find.”
I grabbed Jonah’s sleeve and tugged him to a halt. “Like we did earlier to escape from the cell?”
“Exactly.” The Demon patted my hand and began to move forward again, upping his pace to a jog.
I lengthened my stride. “Why don’t we just do it here? We can cast that net, and I will take us to Gabriel—he’s your friend, right? He told me his friend would protect me when Fergus sent me through the portal last year.”
Jonah’s lips thinned, and he broke into a run. “Gabriel was foolish to take such a risk. He had no idea whether I was able to protect you or not.”
“But he knew you were here? You sent him a message?” I ran to keep level with the Demon.
Jonah shook his head. “No. Gabriel knew I was here only because he sensed me when Fergus and Lara opened the portal. The Circle believed they could call more Demons to their cause, and many have fallen victim to their selfish desires and been drawn into this web—whenever the portal to this place is opened, Gabriel can sense my presence. We have a bond.”
I waited for Jonah to elaborate, but he continued on in silence. We followed him through a warren of tunnels, and I tried to keep track of the turns we took so that we could make our way back if needs be, but it was impossible. The Demon stopped abruptly in the middle of the passageway and pressed his hands against the rough stone wall. The blocks under his fingers gave way, and we squeezed through the narrow gap and found ourselves in a circular room.
I twisted and turned, trying to see the painted walls in their entirety. Like the curved hallway Peter had led us through, the pictures told a story, but it was a very different version of history. The paintings were plain and simple in comparison to the majestic artistry we had seen earlier.
My fingers stroked the rows of dead children covering the base of the picture, stretching from the foreground into the horizon. A man kneeled among them, cradling the body of an infant in his arms. Tears flooded his gentle brown eyes, and his long dark hair appeared to blow in the breeze. Four figures stood to his right side and four more stood to his left. Their hands were raised, I could not tell whether in anger or to cast a charm, but the crying figure paid them no heed.
Sam paced the periphery of the room before turning to face Jonah. “What is this? Is that the Circle? Did you paint this?”
“No. Niamh and Anna did.” Jonah wrapped his arm around the old woman’s shoulder, and she smiled, her eyes fixed on the picture of the weeping man.
Sam clenched his fists and hissed through his teeth. “Niamh painted this? Niamh knows about this city? Is this some kind of a setup? Was it Niamh that opened that portal and sent us to the Circle?”
“It’s not a painting of the Circle.” I walked forward and touched the wall, pressing my palm against the painted cheek of the man with the long dark hair. “This is a painting of the Elders.” Sam and Cain both began to argue with me, but I shrugged my shoulders. “It is. That’s the Halfborn Elder. I saw his face when we went to the courtroom in the Angelic University—remember, on display in that awful glass case.”
A strangled cry escaped from Anna’s mouth, and I turned around in concern. She sealed her lips and stared at the ground. Eve took a halting step toward the wall, and something about the way her face was stretched made the blood rush inside my ears. She lifted her hand and pointed at one of the eight figures in the painting, standing with arms aloft, and I squinted my eyes to try and focus on the outline of its face.
My heart ceased beating as horror and understanding crashed over me like a tsunami. The face belonged to Peter. Peter’s face. Nine podiums in the circular theater—one empty for an absent brother. The Circle. The Elders.
I sank onto the floor; my legs weakened by an overwhelming tide of despair. My brain processed Sam’s words through a fog of disbelief. “The Circle—they control the Veil. They control everything. We can’t fight them. We can’t win. The Circle are the Elders.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“When I first came to this world, I was searching for a great darkness. A black presence that had been burrowing its way through every dimension. My people were not the only ones who had sensed the badness. In every realm, I met others like me—travelers sent by their worlds to track the darkness before it could infect and destroy us all.” Jonah leaned his back against the painted wall and stared up at the ceiling.
I crossed the room and stood next to Eve. Sam gravitated toward us, but his eyes were still fixed on Jonah as he began to speak again. “The Spirit War had already begun when I got here. I had never seen anything like those creatures—parasites of the soul and
the heart. At first, the people of this world were united in their fear, and the ruling council supported each community in their battle against this plague of evil, but in time the terror gave birth to blame, and I watched in utter horror as the Angels and the Humans turned against their mixed blood brothers.”
Jonah glanced at Anna with eyes full of sorrow and regret. “I was deep in the desert when the ruling leaders, the serving Elders that you now know as the Circle, made their decision to sacrifice the Halfborn race, and use their energy to create a Veil. By the time I returned to Rome, the sacrifice had been made, the Veil had descended, and I was trapped here.” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “I felt the barrier fall. Felt that entire population wiped out in one fell swoop. I cannot describe the grief…”
He took a deep breath and pulled away from the wall. “This world never recovered. The Spirit Demons all but vanished, but much else was lost. The Halfborn race were a beautiful people—the magic of the Angels combined with the skill of the Humans. The Lost Powers are a testimony to the might of the race.” Jonah bowed his head for a moment. “The inability to travel between the realms after the Veil fell limited the people of this world and it fell into ignorance. Despite their great intellect, Humans fought and starved each other, and the Angels grew stagnant and insular. The Halfborn race had been the balancing factor. Without them, all fell into ruins.”
“You helped the Elders build this city?” Eve’s voice was brittle.
Jonah flinched. “After the Veil fell, I returned to Rome and sought out the other Demons who had become trapped in this realm, the Original Demons, and we made a pact to help this world as much as we could while we waited to return home. It was too late to save those who had been sacrificed, but we hoped for a better future. Niamh and I helped create this city for the Elders, a sanctuary we called it, in the hopes of keeping the future children safe. If we had known the rot inside the souls of these leaders—”
“If you’d killed the Elders, the Veil would have fallen, and you could have gone home.” Ozzie stared at Jonah with bold eyes.
Jonah gave him a respectful nod. “I considered that—I cannot lie, but killing the Elders and destroying the Veil isn’t as straightforward as it sounds.” The Demon gave me a pointed glance. “The diary explains much of this.”
He looked back at Ozzie. “Even if we could have broken the barrier, we didn’t wish to see the Spirit War reignite. We believed we couldn’t risk allowing Humans to see Angels in their true light, lest the attraction begin again, and a new race of Halflings draw the Spirit Demons on the people again. We begged the Elders to see the Veil as a temporary measure while they found a way to obliterate the scourge of the Spirit Demons permanently. We tried to help the rest of the world as much as we could, but we never condoned the Veil. I don’t believe anyone has the right to play God. The Humans should not be kept blind to their true reality, and Halfling children should not be forfeit to the Veil.”
“But when did the Elders become the Circle? Does the Council know what they have become, what their planning to do?” Cat twisted the end of her shirt into a tight little knot.
Sam clenched his jaw. “Of course they know! They run the Silent Homes that the Circle used to breed us! Breed us with Spirit Demons—if they hate and fear the Spirit Demons so much, if the Spirit Demons are this greatest blackness you chased across the universe, then why do the Circle keep them as pets?”
“We were mistaken, Reaper, we didn’t see clearly—” Jonah tried to put a hand on Sam’s shoulder, but Sam shoved him away and started to crack his knuckles and pace the floor like a caged tiger, muttering about bullshit answers and culpability. Cain stepped forward to calm him and the room exploded into a storm of raised voices and accusations.
I backed away from the confrontation and started to count the bricks to calm my racing heart. Something flickered at the edge of my consciousness. A familiar streak of purple and gold. My eyes were drawn to one of the curved arches leading from the room, and I sidled toward the tunnel.
Eve caught my hand and gave me a searching look. I pressed my fingers against my lips and nodded to the closest exit. The room behind us was still abuzz with the sound of squabbling and blame. Eve tipped her head and nudged me through the exit with her palm. I waited until we were several meters down the tunnel before I opened my mouth. I grimaced apologetically. “This is probably just stupid, but I thought I felt something. I just don’t want to draw all the attention on me—”
“And be embarrassed if you’re wrong?” My cheeks flushed at the truth in Eve’s words, and I glanced down at my dirt-encrusted feet. Gentle fingers squeezed my shoulder. “I believe in you. Lead the way.”
I bit down on my lip to hide the rush of gratitude twisting my mouth into a smile. “It seems close, but the energy down here is a mess—there are random blind spots where magic is useless. That’s probably how Jonah designed it. Places for him to hide.”
The tunnel suddenly split into two branches. One led right, toward another network of tunnels, the other stopped at a heavy door carved from polished wood—strangely out of place in the dust and dirt. My stomach jumped as another familiar blast of energy hit me. Eve grabbed my elbow and shot me a warning look, reminding me to raise my arms and adopt a stance worthy of a warrior.
I steeled myself and twisted the doorknob, easing the door open soundlessly. I squinted at the sight on the other side of the door. The sound of gentle humming tickled my ears, and I shot my hands into the air again, ready to fight. Ready to protect Eve.
Edging further into the room, I followed the sound of the lullaby. As I turned the corner my jaw dropped open, and Eve stopped short behind me, drawing breath into her lungs in a sharp gasp. The room was decorated like an old-style drawing room. A woman in a deep purple cloak was bent over two sleeping bodies with her eyes closed as she worked her magic.
My mouth gaped open as I caught sight of the sleeping faces and a blast of energy shot from my hands, sending a violent gust of wind at the woman and knocking her to the ground. Deirdre stared up at Eve and me, but she didn’t lift her hands to strike back. Her gaze flicked from my face to the sleeping bodies on the sofa and my heart convulsed again as I stared at the two faces—back from the dead.
Gabriel had been right. Somebody had escaped the massacre at the doomed Silent Home.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
A spell had fallen over the room. Deirdre, Eve, and I were frozen—as still as Frank and Lydia’s lifeless bodies on the sofa. Only Deirdre’s eyes moved. And the pulse in her throat. I lowered my hands and Deirdre sagged forward, hugging her arms across her belly. Eve dragged one of the stiff Regency chairs across the floor. She left it in front of Deirdre, took a few steps back, and gestured for me to do the same before she addressed Deirdre. “Sit. Please.”
Deirdre watched Eve from under hooded lids. Her eyes darted from my hands to Eve’s as she perched herself on the edge of the chair. A wave of pain contorted her face, and I shot Eve a glance. My palms were damp. Deirdre gritted her teeth. “I can’t help you.” She lifted her chin defiantly, and a bead of sweat rolled down her brow and over the curve of her cheek. “This was as much as I could do. I can’t risk anything else. If Peter finds out—”
“This was as much as you could do?” I waved my arm wildly over Lydia’s head. “This? What is this? How long have you kept them like this? Were you there, in Moscow? You know Sam thinks they’re dead and that it’s his fault? We grieved for them. Lucas, Megan, Jasmine—your students.”
I ripped my glare away from her face and dragged my fingers through my tangled hair. Deirdre shifted on the chair and leaned her weight forward. “I was going to return them to the Shadow Children. It’s a simple sleeping spell, it hasn’t harmed them, and anyone can break it. I wanted to send them home, but I needed to find a safe time. You don’t know how hard it’s been for me, trying to keep them hidden, moving their location to keep them safe, sneaking away—I have made sacri
fices to keep them safe. I saved their lives at that Silent Home! Do you know what would have happened if I hadn’t rescued them? You have no idea the risks I took.”
“The risks you took?” The words scraped over my tongue like a knife on glass, and Deirdre winced. “What about all the others people that were in that Silent Home? Did you stand and watch them? Huh? Did you watch them slaughter the children? Did you wash their blood from your clothes? Can you ever wash it from your hands?”
Eve stepped in front of me with her arms outstretched and I stared down at my clenched fists in horror. Deirdre shrank back into the chair and wrapped her cloak protectively around her body. I stumbled backward and sat down heavily on the sofa beside Lydia’s unconscious form. “I wasn’t going to—Eve, I’m not like her.”
“We’re all like her, Grace, in the end. There’s so little to separate any of us. Heartbreak, a chance encounter, the loss of someone we love—all it takes is a twist of fate to transform us from who we are into who we could be. For good or ill, we’re all like her.” Deirdre blinked rapidly as she watched Eve press her lips to my forehead.
I rested my head in my hands and exhaled. “We should go back to the others. We’ll need help to carry Lydia and Frank, and to make sure that she doesn’t escape.” I shot Deirdre a glare out of the side of my eye, and my voice froze on my lips. Deirdre's face had drained of all color, and her hands were clasped over her abdomen like a vice.
“Who knows you’re here?” Deirdre’s words hissed through the still air.
Eve pulled herself up to her full height and raised her arms in the air. Her eyes flashed from the door back to Deirdre. I stood up slowly in an attempt to move silently as possible. I screwed my eyes shut and tried to focus on the energy outside the room, cursing Jonah and his charmed tunnels under my breath. The barrier was too strong, but I could tell from the terror etched across Deirdre’s face that she had heard something. The door creaked open, and I threw my hands into the air, but Eve shot her arm in front of me, and I held my magic in check as Dawn’s slender body slipped into the room.
The Demon-Born Trilogy: (Complete Paranormal Fantasy Series) Page 45
