Gates of Death

by Rae Foxx

  Again, as if picked up by an invisible hand, it lifted, then moved immediately down on the new map.

  "New York City," Michael said. "I don't have a map that detailed with me."

  Abel had said the magic would last until we found Ariel, but I didn't want to risk it. "Let's go, before the magic runs out."

  Purgatory and Abaddon are in the same realm but are separated by a neutral expanse of grass that anyone can exist in

  4

  "Let me have your hands," Gabe said. "I'll heal them."

  Lucifer and I held out our palms, still oozing blood. I was so excited and enthralled in the magic I hadn't even noticed. Now that I looked at them, the pain set in. Gabe grabbed Lucifer's and held his palm over the cut. Michael did the same for me. Their hands glowed, and the pain lessened over the course of the next minute or so until it disappeared entirely.

  Michael grabbed my hand once it was healed and after tucking the piece of grass carefully between my lips, I grabbed Lucifer's. He took Gabriel's, and Gabriel took Michael's other hand. When we were all linked, Michael sucked in a deep breath. "Okay. Let's do this."

  The next second, we were in a back alley in New York. The grass in my mouth warmed considerably, so I snatched it out from between my lips.

  "Glamour our backpacks," I whispered. "Especially that duffel full of guns." Gabriel focused for a second and the bags on our backs disappeared.

  "How are we going to do this?" I asked.

  "Let's find a map." Michael walked to the end of the alley, and we followed. "There's a drug store over here." He hurried onto the busy sidewalk. We tried to follow, but it was too crowded, even this late. By the time we made it into the drug store, me first with Lucifer directly behind, one hand on my back and Gabe right behind him. Michael was already at the register, map in hand, holding out a ten-dollar bill. "Keep the change," he said as he rushed toward us.

  We exited and made our way back to the alley we'd arrived in. It seemed the least crowded at the moment.

  "Hurry," I whispered. "Before it stops working or someone comes."

  Michael unfolded the map of the city and its surrounding boroughs. I pulled the Scythe out from under my arm, where I'd protected and hidden it as we made our way to the drug store.

  "Please show me where to find my daughter," I whispered. My hand trembled with nerves and excitement as I held the Scythe over the map and let it dangle by the rope.

  It fell with a purpose but felt less guided this time. "I think the magic is weakening." We peered down at the map in the faint light coming from the streetlights. I couldn't make out the details, but Michael and Gabriel's eyesight was superior to mine.

  "What does it say?" I asked.

  "Brooklyn," Michael said, but at the same moment, Gabriel also spoke.

  "Queens."

  Lucifer stepped forward and peered down at the map. Pulling out his phone, he turned on the flashlight so we could both see. "That clearly says The Bronx," he said, stabbing his finger over the word "Manhattan."

  "What is wrong with you guys?" I asked. "It says Manhattan."

  We stepped back. "Okay," Gabe whispered. "Why do we see four different maps?"

  "Hang on." I put my hand on the Scythe, and it felt weaker. "The magic is fading, but Abel said it would last until we found her."

  Grabbing my scant power, I funneled it into the Scythe. "No, wait. There's still a lot of power in this thing. Something is blocking it."

  "Whoever has Ariel knows we're in New York," Michael said. "Do you think it would be possible to break the power of the Scythe away from whoever is blocking it?"

  "With my full power, of course. But without it, not a chance."

  Michael and Gabriel both tried, and Lucifer even gave it a go. None of them could sense the Scythe's power at all. "Why does it like you so much?" Luc asked with a grumpy side-eye.

  "Because I only want Ariel. Nothing more. I don't want to use it for anything else."

  "Neither do we." Michael indicated himself and Gabe.

  "This is an object of sin," I said. "I suspect no angel could wield it." Abel had said those with good intentions, but that didn't explain their inability to sense its magic at all. "Let's try this."

  I turned Lucifer around and tucked the Scythe into his backpack. "I'll get you back out in just a minute," I whispered to it. "You've been so wonderful helping us."

  All three of them looked at me like I was nuts. "What? The magic is self-aware. Makes sense to tell it how wonderful it is, right?"

  I raised my eyebrows at them, and they got the picture. If we pissed the Scythe off, it might not help us anymore.

  "Oh, yeah." Gabe coughed. "It's the most powerful magic I've ever seen, personally." His voice was an octave too high and a bit too loud. Lucifer and Michael nodded over-exaggeratedly and hummed agreements.

  Rolling my eyes, I grabbed the map and walked out of the alley, standing just out of the way of the busy pedestrians.

  "Can anyone help us read this map?" I called out. Several people walked by, but one squat gentleman in a worn leather coat paused, then rolled his eyes and turned back.

  "All four of you really can't read this?" he asked.

  "Sort of, but we're in a bit of a disagreement on which way to go," I said. "We'd be so appreciative if you'd help."

  He chuckled and shook his head at us. "Tourists. Gimme the map."

  I handed it over and pointed to the spot the Scythe had landed on. "This is where we need to go."

  "Well," he said. "Your map has a hole in it, so the name of the borough isn't legible."

  I shuffled in closer to him and peered at the paper. "I would've sworn that hole wasn't there before," I whispered. "Can you tell us how to get to wherever that is?"

  "Sure, of course." He pointed across the street to a subway tunnel. "Take that train up five blocks, then it'll be fastest to walk the rest of the way. It's not far from here." He handed me the map and headed on his way.

  Following just a few steps, I called out, "Thank you! But, sir, what's the name of the borough?"

  The man turned his head to call over his shoulder, but his words were washed out by the sound of a cab honking directly beside us. I jumped and flinched against the sound. When the horn blaring stopped, I looked for the map-reader again, but he was long gone.

  "Did any of you catch that?" I asked.

  Three heads shaking was their only response. "Well, we can at least take his advice on how to get there."

  Gabriel led the way across the street and underground to the subway. "Did you know, I once had an earth cycle where I helped build these?" he asked. "Since we always end up on opposite Earth cycles, I bet you didn't know that."

  I chuckled and took his hand. "You're always so jealous that you don't ever get to be my mate on an Earth cycle. But someone has to protect us while we're human. I'll have you know we watch over you while you're here as well. I knew you helped build these."

  "Then why couldn't you have gotten us where we needed to go?" Michael asked.

  Gabe rolled his eyes. "Man, that was a long time ago, and I was underground, slaving away at the tracks. I wasn't in the planning committee."

  Lucifer and Michael continued to tease Gabriel about his lack of knowledge after bragging about building them. I couldn't help but giggle at their brotherly camaraderie. It made me so happy to see Lucifer interacting with his friends this way. They hadn't done this for the last few centuries, though they used to..

  Duty had begun to weigh heavily on all of us. With the exception of losing our daughter, this whole stuck on Earth thing might have ended up being good for us. All of us. Oh, and there was the whole Abaddon gates crumbling thing. That was worrisome.

  When we got to the train, the doors were just closing. I sighed and looked at the schedule. "It's a half-hour. Can't we just teleport there?" I asked.

  Michael nodded. "Sure. We can try. Come here." The terminal was fairly quiet considering all the traffic above us. We stepped against the wall and joined
hands. "As soon as nobody is looking," Michael whispered. His eyes darted to the dozen or so people milling about. "Now," he said after about two minutes.

  But nothing happened. I cracked an eye and looked over at him. He had a shocked expression on his face. "Again," he whispered. I didn't even bother closing my eyes this time.

  We didn't move. "Let me try," Gabe said. He didn't bother making sure nobody was looking, just closed his eyes and focused.

  Nothing.

  Son of a bitch.

  "What's going on?" I asked.

  We unlinked our fingers and huddled in a circle. "It's hard to disrupt magic like this," Lucifer said. "Can you still feel your link to your power?"

  They both nodded. "Yes, it all felt very normal," Michael said. "As if it were going to work, no problem."

  "Then something is blocking portal travel within the area. Again, powerful magic. Relic-needed sort of power," Lucifer said. "What is Raphael doing?"

  "And why does he need Ariel?" I knew my voice sounded pitiful, but I didn’t care.

  "Should we wait on the train?" Luc asked. "Have either of you lived here recently?"

  They both shook their heads. "Let's try a cab," Gabe suggested. "Anybody have cash?"

  I hadn't brought money. Hadn't imagined I'd need it.

  "Yeah, it was Lucian's habit to always make sure he had a few hundred bucks on him just in case," Lucifer said. "I grabbed his wallet before we left."

  "Let's go," I said urgently.

  We walked up the stairs, and I threw my arm up like I'd seen others doing. Within seconds, a yellow vehicle parked at the curb in front of us. We piled in. Me, Luc, and Michael got in the back seat and Gabe ran around to sit beside the driver.

  "Where to," the driver said. His silver hair glinted in the streetlights coming in the windows.

  "Here." I leaned forward and unfolded the map. "We need to be dropped in this vicinity."

  After putting bifocals on and peering at the spot I pointed at, he nodded. "Sure, that's a fast ride. Hang on."

  When the old man put the cab into drive, it made a horrible clunking sound and the engine died. I chuckled as I choked back a squeal of hysteria. Of course, the cab had engine trouble. "Sorry, kids," the cabbie said. "Looks like you'll have to call another cab while I deal with this."

  We thanked him for his trouble. "Give him some money," I told Lucifer. His cab never would've died if it hadn't been us he picked up.

  Luc rolled his eyes but pulled a bill out of his wallet. The cabbie looked at us with amazed eyes as I glimpsed a hundred-dollar bill as it disappeared into his jacket pocket. "You a bunch of angels?" he asked.

  "Hardly," I said darkly as I slid out of the back of the vehicle. "Come on." I looked at my mates, each as frustrated as I was. "Let's just walk."

  Without waiting to see if they agreed, I set out to walk five blocks in the direction the first map-reader had indicated. In seconds, they'd caught up to me. Luc took my hand and walked beside me while Michael led the way and Gabe brought up the rear. "Are you protecting me?" I asked. "This is how you'd form us up if we were headed to battle.

  Gabriel chuckled behind me. "With all the effort Raph is exerting to delay us, we better keep you safe."

  "I don't think he'd hurt her," Luc said. "He knows that would be his death sentence."

  "Taking my daughter was his death sentence," I replied. And as I said the words, I knew they were true. I'd kill him for this.

  We worked our way up the busy city streets, the grass warming in my hand the whole way until a snarl caught our attention. We'd broken out of the crowd and had walked an entire block without seeing another living soul. "Something is weird," I whispered.

  My guys had gathered close. Lucifer sucked in a deep breath. "Do you sense that?" he asked.

  As soon as the words left his mouth, I did. "Why is there a Djinn in New York?" I whispered.

  Lucifer shrugged and stepped forward. "Reveal yourself," he boomed. Hopefully, the Djinn wouldn't be able to sense how little power Luc and I had.

  The small, multi-colored demon popped into view, prostrate on the ground in front of Lucifer. Djinn were not automatically demons, but over the years most had proved their loyalties and been shifted from a neutral being to either a demonic or angelic one. This one was, of course, demonic. Angelic Djinn were typically regarded by humans as guardian angels. They liked to interfere in human lives to keep them safe from harm, and on occasion helped them acquire wealth or worldly power.

  "Why are you here?" Lucifer asked. We kept a close reign on our demonic Djinn, only allowing them short stints on Earth, and never when Luc and I were in our Earth cycles. My brother, Asmodeus, who kept things running smoothly in our absence, never would've sanctioned any demon's visit to the Earth realm while we were there.

  "My lord, I went for a walk near the gates as I want to do in the evenings, and what surprise did I see but a hole there! When I walked through, I was transported here. How may I serve thee, great Lord of the Dark?" His squeaky voice negated any real respect he tried to infer with his words. He didn't mean a word of it.

  Luc and I exchanged a long look. "Djinn," I said in a harsh voice. "Lead us here." I held out the map and pointed to the spot we needed to get to. By my estimation, we still had two blocks to go before we reached the spot the man had said to get off the subway. He'd advised us to walk the rest of the way.

  "At once," he said. "That is easy." He scurried in front of us, and when we left the quiet area of the neighborhood, he darted between the feet and legs of the humans, but they never noticed him.

  "Do you recognize the Djinn?" I whispered to Lucifer.

  He nodded. "Yeah, I've used him before."

  "He needs to go back to Abaddon."

  Luc grunted. "At once."

  We followed the colorful demon for another four blocks before he darted into an alley. "This is the spot on the map," he said. "May I be of service?"

  "No," Lucifer said. "Not here. Go back to Abaddon and do everything in your power to close or hide any holes or cracks in the wall."

  A look of disgust passed over the Djinn's face, but he bowed low. "As you wish."

  "He didn't want to leave," Michael said after the small demon disappeared.

  The grass was nearly hot in my hand. "We're close," I whispered. "This thing is getting hot."

  Michael held out his arm. "Lead the way."

  I started forward, but the grass didn't heat and fade very quickly. It took a while to be sure I'd gone too far or not far enough based on how it heated.

  By the time we were pretty sure we'd found the right street, the sun had begun to peek through the buildings.

  "Three options," I whispered, looking at the three remaining structures we hadn't ruled out. The amount of time it had taken us to do this was disheartening. Raphael knew we were in the city, based on how hard it had been for us to get this far. He'd had plenty of time to run again.

  With a sigh, I stopped in front of the closest building and waited. The grass didn't change. I walked forward, ignoring the people beginning to stir and come out of the doors. The grass got warmer, but not much.

  "It's this one," I whispered, pointing to the last building on the block. Running for the door, we caught it as someone came out. Nice that we didn't have to figure out how to get the door open without drawing attention to ourselves.

  The grass became uncomfortably hot. We ran for the elevator. Out of service. "Of course," I muttered, then without a word to my mates, threw open the door beside the elevator and sprinted up the stairs.

  The blade of grass grew warmer and warmer, by the sixth floor I was gasping in pain. Six stories at a sprint wasn't easy.

  I kept going. My thighs burned and breath came out in bursts, but I made it to the tenth floor before I had to switch to a walk.

  Pushing past the pain in my thighs and lower back, and the intense pain in my hand from the grass, I kept going. The blade grew hotter and hotter.

  When I topped the very las
t stair, on the twelfth floor, I stared at a sign. "Penthouse," I read.

  Surging forward, I was surprised to be stopped by a hand on my arm.

  "My turn to go first," Michael said. He ran through the door with Gabe on his heels, then Luc. I moved slowly, suddenly nervous. As soon as I stepped over the threshold, the blade of grass burst into flames and burned itself out.

  Childlike laughter filled my ears. "Thank you," a sweet, innocent voice whispered in my ear. I knew it was the magic from the blade, and as sure as I knew that, I realized it was literal innocence. The innocence of Abel. His childlike ability to believe the best of his brother, trapped in the weapon that had murdered him so many years before.

  "Damn," I whispered. "That's heavy shit."

  When the laughter faded and the power dissipated, my magic alerted me to the presence of my child. "She's here," I gasped, running down the hall. I didn't know what made me go in the direction I had, but I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she wasn't in the enormous kitchen or living room I'd just left. She was in one of these bedrooms.

  I flung doors open as I went, sparing a fast glance in the room to make sure she wasn't in it.

  The last door called to me, so I abandoned the others. How many bedrooms did this damn place have, anyway?

  Slamming myself against the door, I turned the handle and burst into the room in time to feel an enormous surge of magic and to see a golden object fall from about waist high onto the floor. A baby's gurgling cry split the air as I saw the ghost of a person standing in the middle of the room before the golden thing fell, but I had to focus on what I'd seen to be sure.

  If I'd been seconds faster, I would've seen her. My Ariel. Raphael had to have been the one that disappeared. Running for the spot I'd seen... whatever it was I'd seen, I cried out in frustration when the room remained empty.

  A bassinet in the corner of the otherwise empty room drew my attention. Stumbling forward, I fell to my knees and hung my arms and head over the side of it.

  "I can smell her," I whispered. "She was here. They just left." My hope and determination crumbled, and pain washed over me.