by G. P. Ching
“Yes, I have.” Malini walked up behind Dr. Silva. “But Jacob already knew that.”
Jacob’s whole body tingled at the sight of her. “It’s nice to hear it out loud,” he said. In fact, the forgiveness seemed to heal some of the despair that hung in the air. His chest felt lighter.
“I have something for you, my friend,” Dr. Silva said. She handed him a bottle of water. “I recommend using discretion. We are not entirely alone.”
If there were a way for him to fit inside the bottle, he would have done it. As it was, the familiar hum of the water was soothing beyond belief. He took a small sip, strength seeping into his flesh with the liquid. Then he filled his palm. A disc of ice shot from his hand, slicing the lock in two before returning to its source. He willed every drop back into the bottle.
“Here,” Dr. Silva said, handing him a mass of garbage she picked up from behind the cage, “to stuff under the blanket as a decoy. I could use magic for this but I have a feeling I’d better save my energy for later.”
With his bed stuffed to look like he was sleeping, he exited his prison, relieved at his unexpected freedom. He hid under Dr. Silva’s left wing. Watchers passed by but, luckily, they were so caught up in themselves they did not question why two others would be huddled next to the cage door of a sleeping human. Dr. Silva figured out that her wings were long enough to completely conceal all but Jacob’s feet. He pressed up against her back and slowly they moved away from the empty cage.
“We can’t leave without my mom,” Jacob said.
“What? Your mother is here?” The words sounded surprised, but Jacob had a hunch that Dr. Silva had known about this place when they visited the medicine woman.
“She’s in the cage marked Chinese.”
Dr. Silva stopped in her tracks. “How do you know what her cage says?”
“It’s on a sign above her head.”
“Jacob, all of the signs here are in Aramaic.”
He peeked between her feathers and looked at the sign again. As he focused on the letters, he could tell they were not English, but still he could clearly understand their meaning.
“I guess I can read Aramaic,” he replied.
“Hmm. I guess you can,” she said, rubbing her chin. “Now let’s go get your mom.”
The three of them made their way to the Chinese cage. Nearby, three male Watchers wrestled a female Watcher to the ground, tearing off her clothes as she screamed and clawed at their faces.
Malini gasped.
“Look away,” Dr. Silva whispered. “If we help her, they will know we aren’t Watchers.”
The distraction worked in their favor, as all of the other Watchers circled the act of violence, watching and laughing. The three of them arrived at his mother’s cage and Jacob used the water to break the lock.
“Hurry, Mom, it’s me, Jacob. Come with me now.” He held out his hand. His mom stared in his direction, her brown eyes vacant. She did not move.
“Mom, what’s wrong? Come on, we’ve got to get out of here!”
“Jacob.” Dr. Silva put her hand on his shoulder. “Your mom has been here a long time. This could be problematic. She doesn’t remember herself, only her weakness.”
“I don’t understand. Why?” They needed to hurry, before the crowd broke up again.
“Oh for heaven’s sake.” Malini pushed Jacob out of the way and leaped into the cage. She shoved a wad of paper under the blankets and scooped his mom up. She was a small woman. Malini easily lifted her with her enhanced arms and was out the door in seconds. She wrapped her wing around the front of her body, shielding his mom from view. The position was noticeably awkward but, with Dr. Silva leading the way, they reached the entrance without notice.
“That was incredibly stupid,” Dr. Silva said.
“Oh, come on. Damaged or not, we were not leaving Jacob’s mother behind. Now change them to look like us so we can get out of here.”
“I can’t, Malini. I only brought one other flower—for Jacob. But if I use it on him now, the magic could draw attention to us. Plus, we’d have to wait for the pain to stop. There’s no time; we have to keep moving. Anyway, what would we do with Lillian? If I made her look like a Watcher, she’d just be harder to carry. It’s an illusion. It doesn’t affect the mind.”
They headed toward the train and luck was with them. The car was empty. Malini sat down and lowered her wing so Jacob could take his mother’s hand.
“Mom, it’s me, Jacob. Everything’s going to be all right.”
Her eyes focused on his face, squinting and blinking. He rubbed her hand between his own, but she didn’t respond.
“Why is she like this?” he demanded.
“People don’t end up in Nod unless they’ve done something to invite evil into their lives. In the beginning, it was Eve’s pride that invited the snake to the garden. It was the blood of Abel that brought the Watchers to the sons and daughters of Cain. And it was your dishonesty, your lie to me, and your treatment of Malini that brought you here.” Dr. Silva’s eyes cut through him and Jacob stared at the floor. He knew exactly what she spoke of, and he wasn’t proud of it.
“Your mother, too, invited evil. When people come here, at first they fight, but after a while the illusion of this place overruns their soul. They begin to believe that they are no better than their worst sin. Their guilt makes them think they belong here, and so they give up. Your mom has given up. She is empty because she has no hope.”
“How do we bring her back?”
“It is not within our power to do so. Only she can decide to forgive herself. As we get her away from here, her thoughts will become clearer. After that, it’s up to her.”
The conversation ended as the train came to an abrupt and unexpected halt. Malini quickly covered Lilly with her wing and turned her body sideways. In this position, she appeared to be drunk or sleeping, holding her stomach. Jacob, however, was hopelessly exposed and met Dr. Silva’s eyes with trepidation. Thinking fast, he fell to his knees in front of her and began polishing her shoe with the hem of his rag.
His back exploded with pain as the last to board, a huge Watcher in the image of the African man with bright purple wings, kicked him squarely in the back.
“Use your tongue, maggot,” the Watcher screamed at the back of his head, “and when you’re done there, you can start on mine.”
Thankfully, the Watchers walked toward the large group at the center of the train and didn’t stay to watch him. He’d lowered his mouth toward Dr. Silva’s shoe out of sheer terror. As soon as the other passengers were distracted, she reached down and stopped him. Standing up, she grabbed a pole at the center of the train and Jacob slid beneath her wing.
The train screeched to a stop in the city and the doors opened to reveal the bustling streets of Nod.
“Where is that little maggot?” the Watcher screamed into Dr. Silva’s face as he moved toward the door.
She didn’t answer, just shrugged her shoulders and looked down her nose. He left the train disgruntled, looking up and down the street for another human to do his bidding. The three exited near the back of the crowd, trying their best to blend in.
Crossing town to reach the gate proved to be more difficult than they’d anticipated. Watchers packed the streets, each going their own way with no semblance of order. Halfway to the gate and beyond the most congested part of the city, Malini’s feathers began to drop one by one. Her body contracted, shortening like gravity had quadrupled and was pulling her to the ground accordion style.
“Malini, your hour is up,” Dr. Silva said. “Run!”
Yanking Jacob into her arms, Dr. Silva flew for the gate. Malini’s wings disappeared completely and her arms could no longer support Lilly. Jacob yelled as Malini collapsed to the sand. The sound did nothing but call more attention to their plight. Every eye in Nod turned in their direction.
Dr. Silva tossed Jacob through the gate, where he hit the sand and rolled toward the thorny brush beyond. She returned, swee
ping Lilly into one arm and Malini into the other. With one powerful thrust of her wings, she carried them outside of Nod.
Watchers pointed at them through the gates and then Jacob’s worst nightmare came true. Mordechai emerged from the office building, his jet-black wings stretching in anger. He blazed toward them, his model perfect face contorting with fury, his black eyes burning.
“Mordechai!” Jacob screamed, pushing at the gate, but it would not budge.
“It will only move for a Watcher, Jacob,” Dr. Silva said. With a flick of her wrist the gate slammed shut. A ring of blue energy flew from her hand and sealed the gate.
Dr. Silva transformed into the platinum blonde version of herself. She did not bother to tuck her wings away.
“So that’s what you are. You’re one of them?” he said, unable to disguise the note of disgust in his voice.
Dr. Silva ignored him. “It will not hold. Gideon, where are you?”
The large red cat leapt from the thorny darkness. Dr. Silva handed him the cat’s leash, and placed Malini’s hand into Jacob’s. Then she lifted Lilly into her arms.
“Gideon, move!” she said as the pounding against the gate became more urgent. “I can’t hold them for long.” Gideon took off down the thorny path with Malini and Jacob following close behind and Dr. Silva, Lilly in tow, bringing up the rear.
The absolute darkness swallowed them all.
Chapter 43
Showdown
Jacob tried to run in the dark behind Gideon, but the narrow path was bordered with thorn bushes. In the blinding darkness, the barbs tore his skin and more than once the front of his foot stepped on the back of Gideon’s. He could hear the brushing of wings and the stomping of feet in the distance behind them. Malini’s hand was cold and clammy in his.
“Gideon, we won’t make it to the garden. We need a place to do battle,” Dr. Silva whispered, panic evident in her voice. The cat jerked to the left and Jacob followed, pulling Malini along with him. Abruptly, Gideon stopped, causing his feet to plow into the cat and Malini to slam into his back.
“Jacob, reach in front of you at waist level and push,” Dr. Silva said from behind him.
Jacob did what she asked, finding a doorknob. The door was extremely heavy and he had to throw his shoulder into it to get it open. Once he did, Gideon pulled them inside.
Dr. Silva set Lilly down and rummaged through her backpack. The hiss and dim light of an igniting match broke the darkness. She lowered the flame down to a candle. He could see the wick catch and then a pale light washed over them.
“Hold this.” She handed the candle to Jacob and returned to digging in her bag.
They were in some kind of a church. At least, it was shaped like a church with pews, stained glass, and an altar, but the similarities ended there. Unlike the one the Laudners attended, no crosses or statues of saints filled this church. The pictures in the stained glass were of Watchers. Instead of a crucifix, a statue of a Watcher stretched its wings above the altar. A day ago, none of this would have meant anything to him. But after experiencing Nod, Mordechai, and the zoo, Jacob realized the evil of this place. This was not like a human church, where people came to think about how they could be better people, tried to live up to a higher standard or help each other. In this place, the Watchers worshiped themselves. It was, sadly, a testament to their egos. This was a world where the only priority was the desire of each individual at any particular moment. There was no law, no rules, and absolutely no guilt about anything because the only thing that mattered was obtaining more of what each Watcher desired.
“Ah, here it is. Malini, you and Jacob push all of these pews to the side. Quickly! Clear as large a space in the middle of the room as possible,” Dr. Silva said. She held a container of salt in one hand and pushed pews aside with the other. Jacob continued to hold the candle but pushed with his hip and free hand as well.
Lilly sat on a pew near the front, still motionless but looking more awake than before. There was a hint of awareness in her eyes.
When they’d cleared a large circle in the middle of the building, Dr. Silva set to work drawing lines of salt on the altar, a giant triangle, and then another inverted atop the first. When she was done she had formed a large six-pointed star inside of a giant circle.
“The star of David,” Malini whispered next to him.
“Gideon, I’m going to need your help, darling,” Dr. Silva said to her cat.
In response, Gideon moved into the space at the center of the room. Front feet forward, he stretched his hindquarters into the air. His waist grew longer and his red fur tightened on his body. A pillar of flesh erupted from the cat’s mouth toward the floor. The flesh split into a pair of legs and the cat turned itself inside out, fur moving up the legs and then the body of a man. When the process was finished, nothing was left of the cat but green eyes and wild auburn hair.
Gideon was easily seven feet tall, with long, lean muscles and a twenty-foot wingspan. The pearly white wings were similar to Dr. Silva’s, but Jacob couldn’t say he was a Watcher. What set him apart from everyone in the room was not his height, or his frame, or his wings, but his glow. Looking directly at Gideon was like looking into the sun. It filled the room. In fact, with Gideon’s light flooding over them, he wondered if he should blow out the candle.
“He’s an angel—a real one,” Malini said into Jacob’s ear. “He has to be.”
Jacob opened his mouth but nothing came out. He was awestruck.
“It really is you,” Lilly said. She was not looking at Gideon but at Jacob. It was like the light from the angel had opened her eyes for the first time since he’d rescued her. “Jacob, how did you…? You shouldn’t have come here.”
He ran to her and threw his arms around her neck. She hugged him back.
“Mom, whatever happened, however you got here, I forgive you. Please stay with us. We need your help.”
She looked around the building, at Gideon, and then at Dr. Silva. Jacob thought he would have to explain, but before he had a chance she was on her feet, more determined than he’d ever seen her.
“How long?” she demanded of Gideon.
“Minutes.” Gideon’s voice reverberated off the walls. It was deep and hollow, like a cross between a harp and a baritone.
“I need weapons.” She looked at Dr. Silva, Gideon, and then Jacob.
“What?” Jacob asked.
She spoke directly to Gideon. “My name is Lillian Lau. I am a Horseman,” she said. “I was captured in battle.” She stood to her full height. “My gift is weapons. Help me find something to use before it’s too late.”
“Mom. How long have you known?” he asked.
“I’ll explain everything later, Jacob. This must be very confusing for you but trust me.”
With two beats of his wings, Gideon flew up to the rafters and stripped a steel girder from its place. He rolled it in his palms, which must have been hot because the metal took on a bright red glow. Throwing it down, he stomped on the last foot of metal with his heel, flattening it pancake thin. Then he jumped on the other end in the same way. When he was finished, he tossed Lillian a bladed staff. She caught it and twirled it around her body, as if she’d been born with it in her hands.
“The candle,” Dr. Silva said to Jacob. The thick white wax in his hands had a name and date carved into the side in gold. He moved to hand it to her but she shook her head. “It’s my baptism candle. When you step inside the star and place this candle within it, I must warn you not to be afraid of what you see. The star will reveal truth within itself. It dispels illusions. You may see things that you find disturbing. I beg you, stay within the circle. Your skills are not ready for battle.” She handed him three bottles of water from her pack. “Just in case.”
“Just in case? Who are you? How do you know my son?” Lillian crouched in fighting stance, looking suspiciously at Dr. Silva.
“Lillian, water is Jacob’s gift. I’m his Helper,” she said, as if she were talking to a two-
year-old.
“Oh. Wow. Jacob! I didn’t know.” His mom beamed.
“He’s not ready,” Dr. Silva repeated.
The sound of flapping wings outside of the church made everyone’s head turn toward the door.
“They’re coming! Jacob, Malini, into the circle!”
Dr. Silva, Gideon, and Lilly positioned themselves at the center of the clearing. Jacob grabbed Malini’s wrist and pulled her into the star. Placing the candle inside the triangle at the front, the salt around the outside of the circle ignited and the star burned an eerie, purple flame.
Gideon and his mom looked exactly the same through the purple glow, but Dr. Silva changed. Her already tall frame extended another foot and her muscles pulled against her clothes. Her skin became scaly black like a serpent and her wings, leathery like a bat. Her blue eyes turned yellow with cat-like vertical slits. Jacob understood now why the devil was often portrayed as a snake. Watchers, in their natural form, looked like serpents.
With a deafening crash, the window shattered above them and Jacob pulled Malini into his chest. He turned his back toward the storm of falling glass but nothing reached them. The purple flames licked upward and swallowed the shards as they fell.
Auriel stood in the broken frame of the window. From within the star, she looked like a snake, although slightly smaller than Dr. Silva. But Jacob could tell who she was from the murderous expression on her face, the same one she’d had when she attacked Dane. He fought back the memory of maggots on his tongue.
“Mordechai, they are here!” she yelled and then turned, seething, toward Dr. Silva. “You have something of mine, Abigail.” Her eyes darted toward Jacob.
“He’s not yours, Auriel. He’s just a boy. He did not choose this place.”
“He’s a sinner, a cheat, and a liar. He has plenty of anger, too. I had every right to take him.”
“He did not come willingly. You will not have him!”
Just then, the heavy door swung open. Mordechai stood in the doorway along with another Watcher. Through the purple flames, they looked nothing like their borrowed images, but Jacob would know Mordechai anywhere. He was easily the biggest Watcher he’d seen in Nod and the blackness of his eyes was unmistakable. That hadn’t been an illusion. His friend was only slightly smaller but equally terrifying. Male Watchers, it seemed, had horns that grew from their forehead, giving them a more demonic look than Dr. Silva or Auriel.
