Alan Price and the Temple of Artemis

by Jonathan Yanez

  “Do you think he did it?” she asked.

  “I hope so.”

  “Me too, he’s such a good kid. He just wants to help and fit in.”

  Alan dismissed the fact that the ten-year-old girl just referred to Kyle as a kid. “You always see the good in people, don’t you?”

  “I try. We are all capable of fighting for the Light. There’s a battle waging in all of us everyday. We’re—oh, look, there he is.”

  Alan’s eyes already caught the movement. Kyle stepped from the cell and the Angels closed the door behind him. He looked over his shoulder to where he knew Alan and Artemis would be waiting and gave them a thumbs up.

  “Okay, here we go,” Alan said. “You know what to do.”

  Artemis nodded and ran down the hall away from the cell door. Her part in this was over. Now it was up to Alan to sell his shock and dismay.

  Alan watched as Kyle lifted a balled fist and raised one finger at a time. As the third finger rose, the Angels fell to the floor as if their legs had turned to jelly.

  Kyle reached for the keys and unlocked the cell door.

  Alan took a deep breath. He started walking away from the cell hall in a light, easy stride. Soft footsteps reached his ears before he could count to five. Turning, he saw Kyle racing down the hall with Triana following close behind. “Hey, Kyle. What’s the—” He intentionally made eye contact with Triana.

  Alan did his best to act shocked. His mouth fell open. He forced his eyes wide as he filled his lungs to shout a warning. Kyle slammed into him like a linebacker with a free hit on the opposing quarterback.

  The blow was enough for Alan to quit acting and actually fall backward as the wind was knocked out of him.

  “Run!” Kyle shouted to his follower.

  Despite the shock to his system and the fact he was thrown into the stone wall of the Temple, Alan forced back a chuckle as he saw Triana, eyes wider than his own, look to him then forward as she raced down the hall.

  Alan recovered from his fall with a grunt as he regained his feet and followed in pursuit. The next stage of the phase would be tricky. Offering Triana the reality that she was escaping the Temple meant they couldn’t make it easy for her.

  “Ardat, Esther,” Alan yelled as he followed. “Triana is escaping with Kyle!” It felt strange to yell something he didn’t really mean. It was kind of fun in a way.

  Alan called on his supernatural gift of speed to travel through the Temple’s maze of halls. He caught up with Kyle and his clueless runaway as they entered the Temple’s main hall.

  Alan was just in time to witness Triana transform into that same mutant bull that had gored him during their first encounter. She ran at Esther with a lowered head as Kyle used Ardat’s own powers over gravity against her.

  Esther sidestepped Triana’s horns and at the last second, glanced off the animal’s body, selling the idea that she was thrown in to a large bookcase with a crash.

  Likewise Ardat was flying backwards through the air under the pretense that Kyle caught her off guard.

  In the matter of seconds, the two were gone, up the stairs, towards their false sense of freedom. Michael and Seraphim with her Death Angels would track them from afar.

  Alan caught Esther pulling herself free from a stack of toppled books. Ardat rejoined them from her spot on the floor. “Do you think she bought it?”

  Ardat shrugged. “Any scenario where Kyle is more powerful than I am would be a joke; however, Triana has never been the sharpest tool in the shed.”

  Esther almost smiled at the woman’s words. “I think we acted surprised enough to explain their escape. Michael and Seraphim will be tracking them now. We should be concentrating on our own parts to play in what comes next.”

  Chapter 17

  Everything would change. Time and fate were both a constant stream headed towards one direction. Gabriel wasn’t foolish enough to think he could stop that flow. What he did know was that his power combined with the curse from the shaman would be able to divert that stream.

  The raw strength that pumped from his heart to every portion of his being told him it was possible. Nothing would be the same. What he had found inside the Statue of Zeus placed him in a league of his own.

  Gabriel hovered over the landscape clasping the amulet in his right hand. The small trinket etched with the symbols of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World was such a simple thing. Still, combined with what he had become, it would change the world.

  Gabriel took a deep, steady breath. His wings beat in unison on either side. With both hands he held the spell-laden charm. Channeling the same power he had discovered inside the statue, Gabriel willed his laws into effect.

  He began his spell by rejecting what their world told them was true. He twisted and manipulated the rules set in place for a millennia. The effort was enough to hold the air in his lungs. His entire body sent out dark tendrils that shifted and wavered in open space.

  Every muscle seized. Even his wings ceased to beat. Gabriel fell, but below him there was no world, only darkness. The power the hex demanded would have killed anyone else. Sweat ran from every pore in his body. Fatigue began to set in.

  Still Gabriel’s stranglehold held. Hate and the lust for power forced him on. Darkness tore though his heart as he ripped the fabric of reality and imposed his own wishes on fate; the Horseman, the rules of supernatural life and death, the Wonders, the very world they lived in, they would all change.

  ---

  Alan, Ardat and Danielle said their goodbyes to Esther, Gideon and Angelica. Artemis was also present at the entrance of the Temple so see both parties off. Their paths would lead them on very different journeys.

  Alan found himself already missing the Temple as Artemis reached up to give him a hug. The concern in her eyes gave him pause as knelt next to her. “What’s wrong, Artemis?”

  In that moment Alan wasn’t sure if she was looking at him through the eyes of a child or a mother. “It’s all going to change.”

  “What is?”

  “Everything. You have to stop him, Alan. At all costs, you have to stop him.”

  “I will. Don’t worry; we won’t let Gabriel bring about the Apocalypse. I promise.”

  “I wish I could see more of the future,” the girl said. “So much is still hidden from me. I can only see pain and suffering clearly. Victory is veiled in a series of choices.”

  “We’ll win, Artemis,” Alan said summoning the most reassuring smile he could manage. “I promise. We’ll win and we’ll eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches together again.”

  Artemis looked back into Alan’s eyes, freed from her own thoughts of doubt. “You’re right. It will be okay. It’s just going to get worse before it gets better. Goodbye, Alan.”

  Artemis wrapped him in a hug so intense it caught Alan off guard. As Alan returned the girls embrace, he could hear her crying tiny, faint sobs almost too low to comprehend. Her body shook in his arms.

  A sound like thunder as if the sky itself was tearing in two seized Alan’s attention. He lifted his eyes as darkness spread over the once clear blue atmosphere.

  “He did it,” Ardat said with a tired voice. “We’re too late.”

  “The spell worked,” Esther breathed.

  Everyone else stood stunned as a shadow filled the sky. Darkness not only covered the landscape, it worked its way into their very bodies. Fear gripped Alan’s heart and forced the notion that they already lost into his mind.

  The girl sobbing in his arms reminded him fear was a choice. Alan fought back the questions. He steeled his will against the darkening landscape and instead pulled Artemis away from his body.

  At arm’s length he wiped the tears from the girls’ large brown eyes. Alan never considered himself a leader, yet in that moment he knew leading was exactly what he needed to do. “It’s going to be okay.”

  Standing, Alan looked around him. Everybody’s eyes were on the sky. Shadows of their own fear written across their faces as everyone
battled against their own inner demons.

  “This isn’t the end,” Alan said. Eyes turned his way as his voice shook them from their own thoughts. “Gabriel can change whatever he wants; because, there is no reality that exists where we don’t fight him and win. This isn’t the end.It’s just the beginning.”

  Alan Price will be back in the third installment of the Nephilim Chronicles,Alan Price and the Statue of Zeus, coming soon. Until then, stay informed by visiting www.jonathan-yanez.com. Be sure to signup for the newsletter, which will keep you updated on new releases, provide discounts on new books, and allow you to preorder upcoming titles.

  Jonathan Yanezis also the author of The Elite Series, Steam and Shadows, Thrive and Bad Land. His books have been optioned for films and are available in ebook, print and audio book. He would love you to leave a review after you finish reading Alan Price and the Temple of Artemis.