Dark Divinity: A Cursed Book

by Amy Braun

  “But he can’t heal himself either,” Dro repeated.

  “He doesn’t need to be healed,” Elle said. “Not until he tells us what he knows about the other archangels and how to defeat them.”

  “You cannot defeat the Heavenly Host,” Gabriel said in his elegant voice. “We are a legion beyond mortal comprehension. Michael alone could crush thousands of you in the blink of an eye. And make no mistake, humans; he will search for me. When he learns what you have done, he shall take revenge upon you.”

  Gabriel’s sharp hazel eyes turned to Dro. “And then he shall take possession of his chosen vessel.”

  Dro flinched and squeezed Max’s hand.

  “No one is taking Dro anywhere,” I said, crossing my arms and walking deeper into the room. “But if you tell us where to find the Heaven Gate, we’ll let you go.”

  “That is not your decision to make,” Carver growled.

  “Ask me if I give a shit,” I snapped. “You kidnapped and tortured an archangel because you hate the supernatural. You’re not what I would call a rational person.”

  “You fucking bitch,” hissed Elle.

  She might have said more, if Gabriel didn’t start laughing.

  His laugh was sweet and gentle. It would have made me smile if I didn’t know exactly how lethal Gabriel was.

  “Humans are so emotional and short-tempered.” He slid his hazel eyes over my shoulder. “I understand why you enjoy their company, Sephiel. Angels are not nearly as galvanic as mortals are.”

  “Gabriel,” Sephiel said, taking a step into the room. His bright blue eyes were heavy with pity and sadness. “Brother, please, you must help us find the Heaven Gate. You have seen the destruction Lucifer has wrought. This madness is of spiritual design. Humans should not suffer for it.”

  Gabriel laughed again. “Truly, you have spent time with the wrong species, brother Sephiel. Your allies are a burdened demon slayer, a lost prophet, a murderer, and the unholy spawn of Lucifer.”

  I spun my head over my shoulder, watching the other slayers as they eyed Dro suspiciously. Warrick moved himself in front of Dro, ready to protect her. Max never let go of my sister’s hand.

  Jackson flashed his eyes between Warrick and Carver. Elle was bordering on confusion and anger. Carver looked so tense I thought he was going to snap in half. He turned his face to mine, and focused all his rage on me. I looked away from him, scowling at Gabriel. The damn archangel was smiling.

  “They did not know who she was birthed from, did they? Such a shame.”

  “Tell us where the Heaven Gate is, Gabriel,” I said, making sure I had a solid hold on my temper.

  “Why? So you can destroy my kin? Tear the wings from our backs and make us fall? Your demand requires too high a cost.”

  “How high is it going to be if Lucifer gets into Heaven?”

  Gabriel’s smug expression started to vanish. “You have no idea how powerful the Heavenly Host is, mortal. Lucifer and his minions are no match for it.”

  “Really? If you could have crushed him so easily, why didn’t you just do it the second the Gates were open? Humans are just tiny ants under your boot, right? Why not step over us and get the inevitable out of the way?”

  Gabriel set his jaw and glared at me. If the anti-seraph cuffs hadn’t been binding him, he probably would have jumped out of the chair and strangled me.

  “Lucifer’s stronger than you thought, isn’t he?” I didn’t ask it as a question.

  “Because of her,” the archangel said viciously, narrowing his eyes on my little sister. “She is the turning point. Under Lucifer’s control, her power would be calamitous. That is why she must give herself to Michael. He can absorb her powers and defeat the beasts of Hell.”

  “And kill the entire human race in the process?” I snorted. “I don’t fucking think so.”

  “Your desire to save your race is the exact thing that ensures its demise!” he suddenly roared. “Inflexibility and inability to see the greater good is what will cause your downfall!”

  “You seriously need to spend more time around humans,” I said.

  Gabriel laughed cruelly. “Why, so I may become like him?” He jerked his head at Sephiel. “The angel who chose to forsake all his beliefs for the child of his dead lover?”

  Sephiel stared blankly at Gabriel. I couldn’t tell how much his brother’s words hurt him, but they had to sting. Every time someone brought up Dro’s dead mother, Sephiel either went tense with anger or slumped with grief. Right now, he looked tired more than anything else.

  “Sephiel may find humans noble,” Gabriel went on after Sephiel didn’t react, “but after what I have seen and endured, my assumption is quite different.”

  “We didn’t know what was happening to you,” I said. “If we did, we would have stopped it.”

  Gabriel scoffed. I crossed my arms tightly around my chest. “Dro offered to help you. Don’t get bitchy just because you said no.”

  “Constance,” Sephiel said wearily. “I fear we shall not obtain any information from Gabriel. He is a resilient angel. We can do no good by arguing with him.”

  I looked at Sephiel, then opened my mind to let him into my thoughts.

  They’re just going to keep torturing him.

  I am aware. But there is nothing to be done for it. Time is short. If Gabriel will not help us, then we must explore other options.

  I pushed him out and snapped my mind closed. I might not like Gabriel, but I didn’t want to leave him in the hands of Carver and Elle, either. But what choice was he giving us?

  I sighed heavily and turned, walking out of the room. Sephiel followed me.

  “That’s it?” Max said, looking between Gabriel and me. “We didn’t get anything.”

  “In case you missed that whole conversation, Mr. Angelic Asshole isn’t going to tell us anything. If you have any other ideas, drop them on us, Max.”

  The dark eyed psychic gave me a hard look. He turned his head to his girlfriend. Dro was watching Gabriel with sad eyes. She wanted to help him, but there was no way we would let her get near him. I sure wouldn’t allow it, even if he was in pain and tied to a chair with enchanted handcuffs.

  Max was still holding Dro’s hand, making up his mind about something. I glanced at their hands. There was such a contrast to their skin. His was the same dull gold as mine, and hers was paper white. But it didn’t look unnatural. It looked meant to be, like white-hot fire melting into a pot of gold. Their fingers meshed together, his larger hands perfectly aligned with her delicate ones.

  Max’s touch comforted Dro in ways I never could, though I wondered what it was like for Max. He had a lot of control over his powers, and touching someone as powerful as Dro never seemed to bother him. He’d been surprised when his fingertips first brushed hers and he got a sense of how strong she was. All that power should have alarmed Max, but it only made him want to get closer to my sister.

  Maybe that was why he trained with Sephiel to control the senses and emotions that came with his unique magic, and why he was working on honing his precognition. He wanted to keep them under his control. Max’s powers were sporadic sometimes, but he knew how to use them. More importantly, he knew when to use them.

  Max looked over my shoulder at Carver. “Those wards are secure, right? He can’t get out of the bonds or the circle?”

  Carver shook his head, narrowing his eyes on the kid. “Not unless we release them, which we have no intention of doing until we have answers.”

  “Max?” Dro said.

  He looked at his girlfriend. His face softened when he smiled at her, like all his problems could be taken away by staring into her eyes.

  “It’s okay, pretty girl. This will work.”

  “What will work?” Warrick asked.

  Max grinned at the demon slayer. He pried his fingers from Dro’s and showed Warrick his palms.

  “Magic hands.”

  “Max,” I said, starting to understand his plan.

  “Seph
said that the archangels know where the Heaven Gate is. If I look into his mind, I might be able to see where it’s hidden.”

  “An archangel’s head isn’t like a human’s head,” Warrick pointed out. “Looking into one seems like a huge risk.”

  “Well, yeah, it’s risky, but that’s why it might work.” He looked at Dro. “I don’t want you to do it, pretty girl. It’d be too dangerous.”

  Dro bit her lower lip. “But what if he does something to you?”

  Max just shrugged. “I doubt he can. Like the slayers said, he can’t do any of his magic outside the bonds and the circle. There isn’t a way for him to hurt me. If there was, he’d be out of that chair and burning our eyeballs out.”

  None of us laughed. Max sighed and stood in front of his girlfriend, taking both her hands in his.

  “This will help, Dro. I know it will. I’ll be careful. Anything feels off, I’ll back out. I promise.”

  Dro hesitated again. Max must have felt her worry, but he kept his face neutral and calm, as if her uncertainty reminded him of how much she loved him.

  “The angel is my prisoner,” Carver said angrily. “I haven’t given you permission to do anything to him.” He turned his cold blue stare onto Warrick. “You never told me he was a supernatural.”

  “No disrespect, pal,” Max said, “but what I am isn’t your business.”

  Carver tensed and tried to take a step forward. Jackson put his hand on the man’s shoulder to stop him. Carver twisted his head around, looking at Jackson icily. The large man took his hand back.

  “Sir, maybe we should let them try this. We haven’t been lucky with our tactics.”

  Carver’s eyes narrowed until they were slits. Then he turned his blistering eyes on Max.

  “You have five minutes. Use them wisely.”

  Max rolled his eyes. “You can’t rush talent, you know.”

  Steam was practically shooting out of Carver’s ears, but Max ignored it. I swear, no living human being could intimidate that kid anymore.

  Max kissed Dro’s hand and walked past me into the cell. Sephiel followed right behind him. Dro watched her boyfriend nervously. I put my hand on her shoulder before I walked back in the cell.

  I wouldn’t let anything happen to Max, and not just because he meant the world to my sister. Max was a good kid, stubborn and fearless. He had been nervous about me when we first met, but it didn’t take long for him to get used to me. He was the only person in our group who had enough sense of humor to keep us smiling, no matter how bad the situation was.

  Max stopped in front of Gabriel. The archangel tilted his head, trying to push himself into Max’s mind. He frowned when it didn’t work.

  “You must have some sort of magic,” Gabriel guessed.

  “Yup. Don’t worry. I don’t think this will fry your brain.”

  Max took a step closer to the edge of the circle, reaching out to touch Gabriel’s hand.

  “And you love the hellspawn.”

  Max’s hand froze in midair. He stared directly into the archangel’s eyes. “Yeah. I do. So watch what you say about her, bird-brain.”

  Gabriel looked at Max with total confusion. “How?”

  “How what?”

  “How can you love her? Surely your magic must show you the darkness surrounding her. You must feel it with every touch. How can you cherish something so evil?”

  Max’s eyes narrowed. “Because I’m not blind. I can see what she is. Her power nearly knocked me on my ass the first time I touched her. It’s a tidal wave in my head whenever I touch her now. Some days I think it’ll drown me. I don’t have any illusions as to how powerful my girlfriend is.

  But there’s something stronger underneath that power. I can dig past it and see the goodness in her. The strength and courage she never knows she has until she uses it. Nothing evil loves and cares as much as Dro does.”

  Max bent at the waist to look directly into Gabriel’s eyes. I was amazed that the angel had stayed quiet.

  “Her origin might be evil, but her soul is as bright and as clear as it can get. It’s this blindingly warm feeling that makes you think you can touch the sky. It’s perfect and pure, and that’s who Dro is. She makes me think anything’s possible, because I know she can literally do anything.”

  Max leaned back. “How can you not love someone like that?”

  We were all speechless. I knew Max loved my little sister and would stand up to her, but I never expected him to tell us what he saw when he touched her. She was his adrenaline rush and his hope. The beacon that gave him strength. No wonder he was head over heels for Dro.

  I almost asked him if he knew how much he would love her when he first met her. If he’d had a vision of her before they met, and if the feelings were stronger than he thought they would be.

  It was a mystery I was happy not knowing. Max would never hurt my sister, and that was the only thing I really needed to know.

  The archangel read Max’s face, seemingly too stunned to speak, like some of what the kid said actually resonated with him.

  “Well,” Max sighed as he straightened his back, “now that the truth’s out there in the open, let’s get this party started.”

  Before Gabriel could protest or flinch, Max reached out and touched the top of the archangel’s hand.

  The slayers and I couldn’t see anything happening. We were all non-magical humans. Dro and Sephiel were the only ones who could see the supernatural. Max’s shoulders were tense, his eyes squeezed tightly shut and his mouth was in a thin line. Gabriel stared at him unblinkingly and without emotion. I turned to Sephiel.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “Max is trying to break past the barriers Gabriel has placed in his mind,” he answered, watching the scene carefully. “Angel minds are meticulously warded to prevent demons from breaking in and stealing Heaven’s secrets.”

  “Can Max do it?”

  “Perhaps. Gifted humans are exceedingly rare, and therefore most angels have not protected their minds from them. We never sought the need. This may not have worked on Michael, but with the right motivation, I believe Max can obtain some information.”

  Sephiel looked at me. “And now we understand the depth of his motivation.”

  That we do. I loved my sister with all my heart, but there were things I couldn’t give her. I couldn’t hold her at night and make her feel like she was the center of the world the way her boyfriend could. The love I felt was the love of a sister, which was completely different from the tenderness of a lover. I was overprotective of Dro. It was the one switch I couldn’t turn off. But Max was perfect for her, and I would never take that away from them. It only made me want to fight harder. My sister had found the happiness she was missing with me. I was determined to let her keep it.

  I watched Max carefully for the next two minutes. His body got more strained every second that passed. He began to tremble slightly. His eyes and lips were pinched so tight I could see tiny wrinkles forming around them. His breathing was becoming labored. I looked at Sephiel.

  “He must have found a way through. Patience, Constance.”

  Five seconds later, Max gasped sharply. I took a step forward, but Sephiel put his hand on my stomach to keep me from breaking his concentration. Though the angel was ready to move if he had to. Gabriel sat in the chair, looking as blank as ever. I would have thought he hadn’t moved at all, except that his hands were now tightened into fists.

  A flicker of shame darted through Gabriel’s sharp golden eyes. He blinked slowly, and then looked down. Max collapsed immediately after.

  Sephiel and I caught him before he hit the concrete, carefully putting him into a sitting position on the floor. Dro and Warrick rushed into the room. The slayers stood outside, watching tensely.

  Max’s face was twisted in with pain. His eyes were shut so tight they looked almost sewn together. His lips were turned down into a grimace. Thin trails of sweat beaded down his forehead. He breathed through his teeth.r />
  Dro knelt beside me and put her hands on her boyfriend’s face. They began to glow a moment later as she healed whatever was in his head. I gave her some space and stood up. I turned to glare at Carver and clenched my fists at my side.

  “I thought you said he couldn’t do any magic in that circle,” I growled.

  Carver stared me down. “I did the wards precisely as my research instructed, but this is the first time I’ve ever captured an angel. Let alone an archangel. Mistakes can be made.”

  He might have been right, but I still wanted to knock his teeth out. Then again, maybe it wasn’t Carver I should be getting ready to punch, but the creature that hurt Max. I turned my fury on Gabriel. The archangel sat on the chair and looked at the ground, as if he were defeated.

  “What the fuck did you do?” I snapped, walking closer to the prisoner.

  “Angelic wards always have a failsafe,” he answered, surprising me, “in case our minds are broken into.”

  “What kind of failsafe?”

  This time he looked up at me. “They are meant to erase the memory of all the intruder has seen. It is impossible to steal the mind of an angel.”

  “Forest always green waterfall dahlias stream willows trees,” Max was breathing out craziness that meant nothing to us.

  The gold light in Dro’s hands grew brighter. He finally slumped, exhausted. Dro pulled her hands back and sat on her heels. She watched her boyfriend’s face as Warrick and Sephiel kept him steady. Max groaned, then blinked his eyes open.

  “Well,” he sighed. “That was an experience.”

  He grinned weakly when Dro took his hand. He relaxed again. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah,” his smile faded, “but I think I got a legendary headache for nothing.”

  “You can’t remember anything?” Warrick asked.

  “No, I can, but it’s all images. I was telling you guys everything I could, but I think it was seeing what Sephiel saw.”

  The angel looked at him. “Your jargon sounded most accurate, ironically.”

  Warrick took Max’s hand and pulled him to his feet. “You might want to take it easy for a bit.”

  Max was standing straight, but he looked exhausted. He put his arm around Dro’s shoulders not just to hold her close, but to keep from collapsing again. He used his other hand to point at Warrick’s chest.