by G. P. Ching
“Um, not to shoot down the best theory we have so far, but it won’t work.” Jacob spread his hands. “Lucifer doesn’t have something from Heaven. He doesn’t have an angel to make the sacrifice.”
As if the air around him turned to lead, Gideon’s shoulders slumped forward, his wings falling limp from his back. He scrubbed his face with his hands and his voice came out in a whisper. “Abigail gave herself to him in exchange for Dane. As long as she doesn’t eat flesh, she doesn’t share the Watcher's curse and will work in the ceremony. Lucifer never wanted the list. He wanted her.”
Malini’s fingers pressed over her lips. Jacob fell forward, catching himself on the desk and knocking a pile of books to the floor.
“Why? Why would Abigail give herself over?” he asked Gideon.
“She wanted me to believe it was to save Dane. That’s what she told me before she left. But I’ve been thinking about things she said to me over the last month we were together. She thought Lucifer might win, and she wasn’t sure she wanted redemption. She wasn’t sure she trusted God to do what he promised us.”
Tears streamed down Malini’s cheeks and she noticed Jacob had turned to face the wall of the windowless office, an obvious ploy to hide his face. Gideon’s body crumpled across the desk, sending papers flying and books toppling to the floor.
“Can I speak to Gideon alone please?” Malini asked Jacob.
Jacob nodded and exited the office, closing the door behind him.
Gideon raised his head.
Bending at the waist, Malini rested her fingers on the desk and met Gideon’s eyes. “What I say to you now, I say not as your friend but as your Healer. I’ve had a vision, Gideon. You will have the opportunity to either save Abigail or to join her. You must not do either. You must let her go, even if that means losing her forever.”
“But—”
“No, Gideon. I am certain of this. What I share I don't share lightly. This message is for you and you alone. You must let her go. If you don’t, we are all doomed.”
Gideon shook his head.
“She’s made her choice. You have to make yours. If you are with us, if you will help me save this world, you will believe me and trust what I say. Do not try to save her. Do not try to join her. Do you understand?”
Rising to his full height, Gideon ruffled his wings. He frowned at Malini and stepped around the desk, nudging past her. He paused at the door, his hand hovering over the knob, and his back to her.
“You are very young, Malini. Very young for a Healer.”
“Yes, but my power is old. I’m sure about this, Gideon. You have to trust me. Are you with us?”
Silence stretched out between them. Malini's breath came and went in long, even draws. She had no idea what she would do if Gideon refused to follow her instructions. The Soulkeepers needed him, now more than ever.
“Yes. I’m with you,” he said toward the door. Then he opened it and dissolved into the light of the hallway.
Chapter 25
Dane
Dane opened his eyes with no idea where he was. A glass appeared in front of his lips and a strong arm tipped his body forward. Sweet liquid poured down his throat.
“Good job. Hey, you’re awake,” a deep voice said.
He turned his head toward the voice but the glow from the window left him blinking at a dark silhouette.
“I’m Ethan. I’m going to take care of you for a while.” The silhouette shifted. A guy with Latino coloring and a physique like he lived at the gym leaned against the bed. The room looked like a hospital, but the guy was too young to be a doctor.
Dane tried to speak but his throat cracked. He licked his lips, fighting to sit up against the weakness that seemed to permeate every part of his body.
Ethan placed one strong hand on Dane's shoulder and the other on his hand. He leaned forward, giving Dane a closer view of his face. Stubble peppered his chin and dark circles hung under his eyes, but Ethan’s was the kindest face Dane had seen in what seemed like a lifetime.
“Just relax, Dane. You’re safe. Nobody is going to hurt you here.” Ethan straightened slightly. “Geez, you’re cold, let me get you another blanket.”
Tightening his hand around Ethan’s fingers, Dane tried harder to speak. “Malini?” he rasped.
“She’s gone, dude. Jacob and Malini left to go talk to Gideon. And Lillian and the other Soulkeepers took off for Dr. Silva’s in case they needed back up. It’s just you and me for a while.” Ethan walked away and returned with a warm blanket.
Dane pushed against the mattress, trying to sit up, but he wasn’t strong enough. Ethan’s arms hooked behind his shoulders and under his knees and lifted him up in the bed, plumping the pillow behind his head. The warmth of the new blanket encircled him as Ethan spread it across his body.
“There. That’s better,” Ethan said.
What happened next didn’t involve any thinking on Dane’s part. It was instinctual, like drinking the water that was brought to his lips. He used what little energy he had left to throw his arms around Ethan’s neck.
At first, Ethan's arms tensed, but then he returned the hug, rubbing Dane's back and cradling his head as tears Dane didn’t know he was holding, rushed down his face. “Man, you’ve been to Hell and back … literally.”
Dane fell back onto the pillow with Ethan’s help.
“Whole time,” Dane croaked, “no one touched me.”
Ethan frowned. “You don’t have to explain. I get it and it’s okay with me.” He held out his arms. “Hugs are free.”
The smile that Dane cracked hurt his cheeks, but he didn’t care. “Why are you here?” he asked.
“You mean, why was I left behind?” A scraping sound echoed through the room as Ethan pulled over one of the chairs from the patio to Dane’s bedside. He took a seat. “Someone needed to stay to look after you and I’ve had the least amount of training as a Soulkeeper. I guess they thought I’d be safer here anyway. Besides, no one knows me yet, so…”
“You’re a Soulkeeper?” Dane asked.
In response, Ethan reached out his hand and made the glass of lemonade float into it from the bedside table. “Yeah, I guess I am. No one was more surprised than me. Are you?”
“No,” Dane said. “Friend.”
“I see. And you ended up in Hell for it?”
Dane nodded.
“Sounds like you’re a friend worth having.”
The muscles in Dane's face twitched. His vision blurred and he closed his eyes against a floaty, spinning sensation.
“You’re tired. You should rest. I’ve asked one of the gnomes to bring you dinner. You’ll want to have enough energy to eat it once it’s here,” Ethan said.
“Gnomes?” Dane’s eyelids flipped open.
Ethan grinned. “Yeah. The Garden of Eden has garden gnomes. Like real useful garden gnomes that know how to do, like, everything.”
Dane’s eyebrows lifted.
“The food is great. Save your strength. Like I said, Jacob and Malini are on it. They said they're going to talk to Gideon about Lucifer and Abigail. They’re afraid she traded the list for you.”
The sound of her name made Dane stutter. He needed to tell Ethan. Someone needed to know.
“What’s wrong, Dane?”
“Traded herself for me,” Dane spat out. “Saved me.”
“You mean she traded herself, not the list?”
Dane nodded.
“She saved you? Was that who put you on the boat?”
“Yes. Tell them.”
Ethan nodded and smoothed the covers. He pulled his cell phone from his back pocket and held it toward the window. “No service here. No cell towers in Eden.”
Guilt weighed on Dane’s heart. Had Abigail lost her soul forever to save him? He didn’t know for sure, only that Abigail had met with Lucifer, then carried him out of Hell and to the boat. Lucifer never gave something for nothing. She’d traded something valuable. He shook his head, the tears starting anew.
Ethan’s eyes seemed so sure and Dane was too weak to do anything but cling to the hope he offered. He relaxed against his pillow and closed his eyes again.
“That’s it,” Ethan said. “Rest up. I’ll wake you when your food gets here.”
This time Dane allowed himself to slip into darkness, feeling oddly safe in Ethan’s presence.
Chapter 26
Mara and Henry
Wrapped in Henry’s arms, Mara watched her last minutes fall through the hourglass. She squeezed him tighter, wishing that her bell still worked and she could stop time, preserving this moment forever. It was so unfair. All of it, all of the rules, all of the consequences, seemed arbitrary and purposeless.
“It’s time, Mara. Let’s not give Lucifer the chance to argue the particulars.”
She nodded, sobbing, and climbed from the bed. She'd dressed in the gray dress from the day they met. If she had to spend eternity in one outfit, she wanted it to be the one she was wearing on the happiest day of her life, the day she met Henry.
He kissed her softly on the lips. They had said everything there was to say. To draw it out any longer would be torture for both of them. With a wave of his hand, her door glowed to life.
“I’ll come to you,” he said. “Eventually, when I find the right person to replace me and Lucifer is less of a threat, I’ll pass on and we can be together forever.”
She twisted his ring on her finger and nodded, although she found his words less than comforting.
He pulled the door open. Light and warmth welcomed her, coaxing her forward. She stepped into a world of joy. Children played in the distance. Figures danced in the beyond to the drifting notes of a far-off melody. Even the air smelled sweet, a combination of freshly cut grass and blooming roses. Cherry blossom petals showered down from above like confetti welcoming her home. She took another step into the light and sensed the door behind her close but didn't turn around to check.
In the blink of an eye, a dark figure blocked her path. Her first thought was disappointment. She desperately tried to step around the dark silhouette. But curiosity got the best of her and she looked up, way up, into the figure's face. A blood-red toga wrapped around his body, in stunning contrast to his espresso-colored skin.
“Do you challenge me?” he said.
“Who are you?”
The man tipped his bald head, giving her a better view of his face and his large gauge ear piercings. “I am Time. Do you challenge me?”
“Aldric?”
“That is the name some call me.” He met her eyes.
Mara squared her shoulders and silently weighed the choice before her. Heaven was clearly paradise and she had no idea what becoming Time meant, not really. A moment ago, she'd been ready to move on.
She played with Henry's ring on her finger. Heavy. Squeezing. What was God's purpose, having Henry tell her the story of how he became Death? Could it be for her benefit instead of his? She thought of the ring she'd made for Henry, an hourglass. There was more she wanted to do, more she wanted to be.
The loving light behind Aldric tempted her, warming every particle of her being with joy. She closed her eyes to keep it out. Heaven could wait. It would still be there when she was the one being challenged. This chance would never come again. The chance to be with Henry might never come again. When she'd said she wanted Henry as her Heaven, she hadn't been exaggerating. Every part of her wanted to spend eternity with him. This might be her only hope.
“Have I chosen unwisely or do you challenge me?” Aldric whispered.
“I challenge you,” she said.
At once, God appeared on her right, again in Mara's likeness. Lucifer's platinum-blond illusion appeared on her left.
The devil's red face spewed an obscenity she could hardly comprehend. “I have things to do. Let’s get this over with,” he hissed.
God smiled. “Is the timing not convenient for you? It was your hourglass that marked the minute of her crossing over.”
“Yes, a process that shouldn’t have involved me. Surprising there should be a challenge now.” He rolled his eyes.
“Why? She is clearly worthy.”
“On with it then. Aldric, the coin.”
Aldric produced a large golden disc and tossed it into the air. Mara watched it spin, noticing one side was engraved with an all-seeing eye, the other with a horned beast. Aldric caught it and flipped it onto the back of his hand.
“God,” he said, exposing the all-seeing eye.
Lucifer groaned. “Trial or consequence?”
For a moment, God seemed to be weighing Mara with her eyes, taking her in from head to toe, looking into her soul.
“Consequence,” she said. “If Mara does not succeed or dies during the trial, her soul is mine.”
Mara breathed a sigh of relief.
“Humpf.” Lucifer scanned Mara with equal interest. Each part of her body burned where his gaze touched her, a red-hot poker testing her soul. He waved his hand and the warm glow of heaven disappeared, replaced by a rural landscape. A vast field of corn stretched as far as she could see.
Aldric shifted, glancing from Lucifer to the field. “What is this game?”
“If I get to choose the trial, there sure as hell will be some entertainment value, Aldric.” Lucifer shrugged. “Don’t be concerned. Should either of you die, you are guaranteed a spot in heaven, after all.” He sighed deeply. “Although there may be some suffering.” The corner of his mouth curled.
“What do we have to do?” Aldric’s hands tightened the knot on his toga.
With a grin that seemed to hold too many teeth, Lucifer pointed his hand toward the cornfield. “Simple. Find the scroll within this cornfield. Read it and you become or remain Time.”
“What’s the catch?” Mara asked. “Is the field so large that I’ll die of old age before I reach it? Is the scroll hidden inside an ear of corn?”
God shook her head. “The trial has to be possible to navigate. This field is five miles square and the scroll is on the ground within it.”
“No more helping!” Lucifer snapped. “Or I will demand a retrial.”
He kept talking but Mara couldn’t hear it. A whisper echoed through her brain, God’s whisper. Beware. The field is filled with hellhounds. Kill them to survive.
Aldric held out his hand. “I am allowed a weapon.” A sickle formed in his palm, out of the ether.
Mara didn’t give Lucifer a chance to argue. She held out her hand and knitted a short sword. “Me, too,” she said.
“Fair,” God said firmly.
Lucifer narrowed his eyes. “On my count. Three, two, one, go!”
By the tone of his voice, it was obvious that Lucifer wanted her to race into the corn, but Mara noticed that Aldric stepped cautiously into the stalks. She did the same. It didn’t take long for her to figure out why Aldric hesitated. The leaves of the corn had thin, sharp edges. By moving slowly, the leaves bent against her weight. Even so, she already had several paper-cut like red marks on her bare shoulders.
The gray dress and sandals that had seemed symbolic when she’d stepped through Henry’s door now seemed like a ridiculously poor choice of dress. But how in the world could she have foreseen this? She attempted to conjure jeans and a flannel shirt but the magic didn't work. Apparently, the knife was the only tool she was allowed.
Mara stopped short. Why did Aldric offer her the challenge? Henry was with her the entire time. He couldn’t have had anything to do with it. Was it God? Someone else? No immortal offered a challenge without expecting they would lose. She needed to know why Aldric was willing
to sacrifice himself for her.
Veering left, Mara hoped to intersect Aldric’s path. If he truly intended to give her immortality anyway, then why not work together to find the scroll?
As she chopped at the stalks, she envied Aldric's sickle. Her straight blade required her wrist to turn awkwardly and made for slow progress. She walked at a diagonal, toward where she thought Aldric's path would lead. The point where she'd entered the field was a distant memory. The corn loomed above her head against a purple and red sky. Twilight. How long before she'd be lost in the dark?
Breathe. Just breathe. Mara tried to slow her racing pulse. There was a reason that Lucifer had chosen a cornfield. Having grown up in trailer park near the city, Mara had no experience with rural life. Cornfields had always held an exotic creepiness. The farther she journeyed into the stalks, the more the corn seemed to crowd her shoulders and steal the air around her.
She couldn’t help it. Fear gripped her by the lungs. Whacking at the stalks with her sword, she cleared a circle around herself. She needed air. She needed the corn to stop touching her. Whack-whack-thwack. She chopped at the field. It wasn’t enough. She couldn’t breathe. She was going to die!
At a full-out run, she raced through the corn, letting out smothered yelps as the stalks sliced at her face and shoulders. Bright red blood oozed down her arm. She swung the sword haphazardly in front of her, somehow knowing she shouldn’t scream but finding it impossible not to. A loud rustle to her right stopped her in her tracks. She lifted her sword toward the noise, trembling.
“Aldric?” she whispered.
A stalk whipped forward, forcing her to dodge left to avoid it. No one. Silence. Another loud rustle, closer now, behind her.
“Aldric?” she asked again.
Shadows lurked at the base of the corn. Mara stared at the dark patch of dirt to her left. A bit of her blood dripped from one of the leaves onto the earth. That small drip grew wider, like oil bubbling up from a hole. She watched in horror as the oil grew into a wolf-sized black beast with more teeth and claws than body. It blinked glowing green eyes and licked a drop of her blood from its jowls.
