by Ching, G. P.
Painfully, Bonnie got to her feet, bracing herself against Cord until they were both upright. They used each other to limp past Auriel’s thrashing limbs and escape into the hall.
“Let’s hope we don’t run into any more of them on the way out,” Bonnie said, spitting blood. “I can barely stand. I won’t be able to fight. My back.” She pointed her thumb at the crippling sore spreading behind her shoulders.
Cord nodded, glancing pleadingly at the dim hallway light. A few painful steps and a shiver passed over his body. Inhaling sharply, he turned to look her in the eye. Then he began limping more quickly, dragging her along, down the hallway toward the great room.
“No, Cord, the elevator is the other way. We have to get out of here,” she rasped.
It was no use. As if possessed, he hurried her aching body along the corridor until they stood at the wall of windows that overlooked the Chicago skyline. He stopped in front of the glass.
“What are you—?” Bonnie paused. Low, behind the buildings, an orangey pink ball of fire rose to the east. As she watched, rays of light broke over and between silver and glass skyscrapers, fanning out to chase away the darkness. Cord’s body glowed. He drank in the light. A golden health washed over him, straightening his wing and healing the oozing wounds in his arms and legs. His sapphire eyes met hers as the glow intensified, and the sunrise cleared the rooftops. She staggered sideways in the glare. He caught her shoulders, his healing energy flowing into her, warming her torso, then her back, and finally from her face all the way to her toes. She blinked at him, speechless with gratitude as the pain left her body.
“Thank you for coming for me, Bonnie.”
“It was what I was supposed to do,” she whispered.
He laughed, a sound like baritone church bells. “And now I will do what I am supposed to do.” He rolled her into his chest, folding his wings around her body. Lifting his face to the sun, they blended into the light, and he carried her home.
Chapter 21
Preparing for War
Around the table at Sanctuary, the Soulkeepers gathered to listen to Cord and Bonnie’s unbelievable story of escape. The two had arrived at dawn, Bonnie with a new dagger-made haircut that she corrected as soon as she had contact with her sister, and Cord, who had fully healed aside from the bright white scars that now decorated his exposed skin. As he told of his capture and torture, Malini was sure his scars ran deeper than their superficial appearance. Moreover, she thanked God for the return of his protective presence.
“I just want to apologize for doubting you,” Grace said. “It’s clear you were trying to do the right thing.”
Lillian added, “Right. I’m not happy you broke the rules, but I know you did it for the right reasons. I’m sorry it took something like this for me to see you for what you are. Please forgive us.”
Cord bowed his head. “I understand why you didn’t trust me. I wouldn’t have trusted me. I forgive you for it. But now, we all must learn to trust each other because I have news of the sixth curse.”
“Did Auriel tell you what it would be?” Malini asked.
“No.” He scoffed. “I heard Lucifer and the Wicked Brethren talking about it in the penthouse. Auriel’s torture did not affect my angel hearing.”
“Please, we need to know,” Malini said.
“Lucifer is calling in the Watchers. All of them. From every corner of the globe. His last curse will be death.”
“Death?” Jacob asked. “How does he plan to win hearts with death?”
“He will give his Watchers the ability to see inside human hearts and order them to kill any who have not sworn allegiance to him,” Cord said. “I heard him compare it to the Passover. He plans to win the challenge by killing off the competition.”
Malini inhaled sharply. “Did you hear when? How long do we have to prepare?”
“The Wicked Brethren will call the Watchers in tonight. They will enchant the United Center to hold them all. Lucifer has to have close contact with the Watchers to transfer his power.”
“Tonight. How do we stop him?” Lillian asked, voice pinched. “There are eleven of us. We’re good, but we’re not that good. We can’t take them all out.”
Malini cupped her chin, running her fingers along her jawline.
“Maybe you don’t have to.” Cord cleared his throat. “In the past, there has always been a physical element to Lucifer’s curses.”
“Like?”
“When I was the vessel, he cut his finger off and placed it in my ear. That is how he infected me with his power.”
A collective groan rose from the table of Soulkeepers.
“He doesn’t have that many fingers,” Malini said, frowning. “But if flesh or blood is required, likely it will be something on a grand scale. He’ll need to pack them in. There will be sorcery involved.”
“So,” Cord continued, “if we can stop Lucifer from making physical contact with the Watchers, we can delay the curse.”
“Good,” Malini said. “That will be plan A. One team will be responsible for intercepting whatever method Lucifer uses to infect the Watchers and eliminating it.” She walked to the whiteboard and wrote the idea down.
“What’s plan B?” Grace asked.
“We fight. We kill as many as we can before they kill us,” Lillian said.
“Ghost,” Malini said.
“Yeah,” Ghost said.
“Go to city hall, to the building inspector’s office. See if you can find blueprints for the United Center. We’ll need them to plan our attack.”
Ghost nodded slowly and disappeared.
“I can flood the place,” Jacob said.
“It won’t be like it was in Nod,” Malini said. “God sent holy water then. This will be the regular variety. It won’t kill them.”
“Unless we turn the water in the pipes to holy water,” Jacob said. “If I bring blessed water and force it up the pipes, I might be able to get it into the sprinkler system.”
She nodded. “Great idea. We have a plan B, counterattack.” She jotted the plan on the whiteboard under plan A. “Other ideas.”
“Malini, you can raise the dead again like you did in Nod,” Dane said.
The Healer glanced at the floor. “I don’t think so. The United Center is surrounded by concrete, not cemeteries. Even if I could find bodies to call, it might take them too long to get there to be of any use to us.”
“Not to be a dick or anything, but do we have a plan C?” Ethan asked. “These things are tough, and there will be thousands. Cutting off Lucifer’s method of infection only delays the inevitable, and even with all of us doing our part, Lucifer is not going to back down this time. Eleven people can’t bring down tens of thousands.”
Malini glanced toward the makeshift cradle Hope was sleeping in. She walked over to the infant and kissed her head. It was time to share the truth about Abigail and Gideon’s daughter. She glanced at Dane and at Cord. “Hope is a Soulkeeper.”
“You mean she has the Soulkeeper gene,” Grace clarified.
“No. I mean she’s an actual Soulkeeper.”
Grace shook her head. “I would have sensed her.”
“Her soul isn’t in her body. It’s locked inside the stone.” Malini pulled the red disc from her pocket and dangled it between her fingers. “And she’s not just a Soulkeeper. She’s a Healer.”
The table erupted in whispers and darting glances.
“I believe that Hope transformed Cord, and I think she can transform the others.”
Cheveyo shook his head. “Wait. You think Hope was what turned Cord from a Watcher into an angel? She’d just been born. How could her Soulkeeper gene have been triggered?”
“I believe God did it. Hope was the third gift.”
“And now you want to try to use Hope to turn the Watchers into angels?” Cheveyo asked.
“In short.”
“Are you sure it was her?” Samantha glanced at her sister. “If her soul is trapped within the stone, how wa
s she able to exercise her power? She’s a baby. How would she know what to do?”
“Cord changed when he saw Bonnie holding Hope. We know it wasn’t Bonnie, because the entire time we’ve been fighting Watchers she hasn’t changed another. It had to be Hope.”
“Maybe we should test the theory. I could capture a Watcher, and we could try to reproduce the phenomenon.”
Hot tears pricked at the corners of Malini’s eyes, and her lips trembled. She couldn’t explain everything to them. She didn’t understand Hope’s prediction and didn’t want to burden them with the paradox. “The immortals and I do not fully understand Hope’s situation. Her soul is split. A portion remains in her body, but another part, an ancient part, survives in the In Between.”
“Like you and your guide,” Cheveyo said.
“Right. Only, unlike me, the two pieces of Hope’s soul are disconnected and the part left in her body isn’t enough to sustain her.”
“I remember,” Bonnie said. “When we rescued Abigail and passed between the Cherubim to reach Eden, I thought it was strange that we couldn’t see the baby’s soul.”
“She wasn’t even born yet, Bon,” Samantha said.
“I know. But when Cheveyo’s soul was inside of Dane, we all saw him. The Cherubim sifted him, outside of Dane’s body. Abigail was pregnant. Hope was inside of her. If she’d had a complete soul, it would have been logical for us to see her being sifted.”
“What are you saying? What does it mean that her body is disconnected from her soul?” Samantha asked.
Malini took a deep breath. “She’s not just sick. She’s dying. She changed Cord when she was just born. When she was healthy. Today, she is not. Hope’s ability to transform Watchers is a manifestation of her healing energy. There is always a price to pay for healing, even with an intact soul.”
Cord frowned. “So we can’t test your theory because it could kill her.”
“Which means using her to battle Lucifer could also kill her,” Lillian said sadly.
“Yes,” Malini admitted.
Jacob shook his head. “There’s got to be another way.”
“If we could reunite Hope with her soul on the other side, she’d be stronger, but we’ve been trying for weeks. Nothing works,” Malini said.
“We?” Lillian asked. “Someone else knew about this?” She glanced around the table.
Dane scowled. “Yes. I knew she was sick, and Malini asked me to try to help her, but I had no idea she’d be delivered to her death by the people who love her.” He stood from the table, arms crossed over his chest.
“We have no choice,” Malini snapped. “Don’t you dare make me feel like I’m sacrificing her. God sent us Hope for a reason. She’s dying. Whether we attempt to use her for her purpose or not, she’s dying. I don’t make the rules. All I know is, tonight, when the sun goes down, thousands upon thousands of Watchers are going to converge a few miles from here, and if we don’t do something, they are going to wipe out what currently amounts to half of the people on Earth.” She swallowed. “I have to have faith that God is going to present a way for Hope to be whole again at the proper moment. Can I have a little compassion? A bit of empathy? Do you think I don’t love her as much as any of you?”
The room fell silent. None of them could look Malini in the eye, least of all Dane, who focused on a patch of table in front of her.
“I’m sorry,” Dane said.
At that moment, Ghost popped into the room, breaking the uncomfortable silence, a large roll of paper in his hands. “What did I miss?” he said upon seeing the solemn faces around the table. Samantha grabbed his hand and pressed a finger over her lips.
“Everyone get some rest. I’ll draw up teams. We leave at sundown.” Malini snatched the blueprints out of Ghost’s hand and unrolled them on the table.
The Soulkeepers scattered as a confused Ghost looked on.
“Go ask Samantha,” Malini said.
He dissolved, and she returned to her work.
* * * * *
With Hope sleeping on her chest, Malini maneuvered through the rubble to the front of the church, near where the altar used to be. She could’ve used a long talk with Father Raymond, but he hadn’t returned yet from dropping off Katrina in Paris. Instead, she used her foot to right a toppled pew and took a seat under the massive crucifix still mounted on the wall. It wasn’t what she was used to. This was a Catholic church. Her Protestant church displayed a plain cross and a statue of the resurrection. It also wasn’t how she pictured God anymore. There was no statue for that, no image that could possibly incorporate the enormous and versatile source for good she’d come to know. Still, it was all she had now and would have to do.
“I suppose I should pray more,” she began, staring at the crucifix. “I’m not very good at it, and there never seems to be enough time. To be honest, there is nothing I can say to you that you don’t already know. I suppose then, you are aware that I have failed you. I do not know how to save Hope. I do not understand how to reconnect her spirit. I know she said I must give my power to the world. There can only be one Healer. But I can’t die, and without her full power, she can’t kill me. If there is a way to save her, some further purpose I should play in all of this, then you must be more direct. You must tell me what to do.”
Malini closed her lips tightly, realizing she’d crossed a line snapping at God as she did. Her heart sank.
“I don’t mean to be ungrateful. You gave us a safe place to stay here. I know that was you who whispered in my ear how to gain Father Raymond’s trust. All of your gifts have been appreciated. Cord’s redemption especially, as I realize now it was his presence that kept us safe for so long. Plus, you gave us each other. Not a small thing.
“But what good is all of it if we go to our deaths now? We don’t stand a chance without your help. We can’t possibly survive this without your guidance. I’ve been to the In Between, and not even the immortals know what to do. The tapestries are no help either. The future shifts and changes color. It is impossible to predict. I am a Healer. I am supposed to be their leader. Don’t make me lead them to their deaths. Especially Hope. Why bring her into this world just to have her die? It doesn’t make any sense.”
Malini rubbed Hope’s tiny back and pressed her tear-stained cheek against the side of her soft head.
“Well? Answer me? How do I save her? What should we do next? Am I going in the right direction?”
Her voice echoed in the empty church, only the rubble witness to her plea. The crucifix didn’t respond. There was no burning bush or choir of angels. The silence was almost deafening, and her heart broke to know they’d been abandoned.
Minutes passed. Malini was about to give up and return to Sanctuary when a strong wind picked up outside, knocking against the wall of the church and causing a painting to fall from its hook and crack against the floor. After the deafening silence, Malini startled at the sound.
She stood slowly, a shiver raising the hair on her neck. Step by step, she made her way over to the painting and lifted it by the frame to get a better look. The art contained the image of a dove descending from a glowing red sun. Beams of light ignited every corner of the canvas. She read the inscription aloud. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13.”
Swallowing hard, she read it again and again. “Plans to give me hope and a future, huh? Okay. So pretty much you are saying to trust you and stay the course.”
No answers came from the silent rubble. They didn’t need to. Malini could feel the answer in her bones.
“Come on, Hope. If you are going to help us save the world, you shouldn’t do it on an empty stomach.” With new energy, she jogged toward the kitchen to make the baby a bottle of formula and finish preparing for the battle to come.
She would step out in faith, go to battle against Lucifer without all of the answers, and trust that when the time came, she would know the path to take.
Even if that meant her ultimate demise.
Chapter 22
Labyrinth
“Cord, I’ll need you to take Hope.”
Cord turned to face Malini in surprise. She supposed after everything that had happened, he didn’t expect to be a key member of the plan. Even though Lillian and Grace had apologized for doubting his loyalty, his face said it all; Cord felt like an outsider.
“She requires constant healing, but for my plan to work, I can’t take her. She must remain with Bonnie and so must you,” Malini said.
Eyebrows knit, Cord reached for the baby obediently, a soft healing glow engulfing Hope as he folded her into his arms. “Of course, I’ll help in any way I can.”
“Why does Bonnie need to stay with Hope?” Grace asked.
Malini’s heart sank to have to put Grace in this position again. How hard it must be as the mother of a Soulkeeper. “We need to recreate the conditions that changed Cord. I think Bonnie acted as an amplifier of Hope’s power from inside the stone. Bonnie will wear the stone and hold the baby exactly as before.”
“You’re sure it has to be her?” Grace murmured. “I would be happy to do it.”
Bonnie shook her head vigorously. “No, Mom, I can’t let you do that.”
“Yes. It has to be her,” Malini said. “Amplification isn’t something every Soulkeeper possesses. If I am right and Bonnie amplified Hope’s latent power, she is likely the only one of us who can do it.”
With a sigh, Bonnie nodded. “So, I’ll have to stand at the center of them all, where all of the Watchers can see Hope, in order for it to work.”
“Cord will hand you the baby at the last possible second. I’m not sure Hope will last any longer. And yes, get yourself to the place most visible.”
