by S. J. West
“God has visited me in my dreams. From what He’s shown me and told me, I can tell He still loves all of you, and I believe He wants to give you a way to be forgiven for the sin you committed.”
“Did He tell you this?”
“In a way. Malcolm says He speaks obtusely. That you have to make out his real meaning by what He provides you.”
“I had hoped He would outgrow that annoying habit.”
I smiled. “No, apparently He’s still doing it. But from what we’ve been able to piece together, God has been watching all of you and I believe He’s allowing Lucifer’s plan to play out, at least to a certain extent, in order to bring you all closer to Him. Don’t you owe it to the others to give them a chance at redemption? If you say you regret not stopping them from falling from grace, then do something now to help them at least have a chance at forgiveness.”
Mason was silent for a while. Then he walked up to me, completely revealing his face to my eyes in the moonlight.
He was handsome like all Watchers were but his beauty was marred by a scar over his left eye. The slash looked like it had been deep when made, stretching from right above his eye to just below his cheek bone. The pain he must have suffered from such a wound had to have been great. I felt compelled to touch the old wound and raised my hand towards his face only then realizing my hand once again flamed bright with the light of my power. When I touched the edge of the scar with the tips of my fingers, Mason took in a sharp breath. I knew my touch didn’t hurt him because that wasn’t my intention. I wanted to heal his wound.
“It can’t be healed,” Mason said in a tight voice, somehow knowing my true intention.
“Why?” I asked.
“It is a wound from my father; proof of his disappointment in me and a constant reminder of how I failed Him.”
I let my hand fall back down to my side, the flames instantly extinguishing.
“Thank you,” he said, bowing his head to me.
“For what?” I asked.
“I haven’t felt the Touch in quite a while.”
I remembered what my power had done to Robert. But when I touched Robert I was angry and my power destroyed him. Apparently that wasn’t all it did.
“I don’t understand. What did you feel?”
“For just a second, I felt the love my father still holds for me.”
“But my touch can kill the fallen.”
“Your touch also acts as a conduit between Him and the person you’re touching. It can bring a peace so great it negates any pain they may be feeling. Thank you for giving me hope He can forgive me. And I will do what you have requested. I will gather the Watchers.”
“And King Solomon’s ring? Have you been able to track it down yet?”
“Not exactly. But I found someone who knows where it can be found. I won’t lie to you and say obtaining the ring will be easy for you. From what I was told, you will be judged by those how have no right to judge you. But if you pass their test, you will be granted access to the ring.”
“Who is this someone you found?”
“A jinn named Horace.”
“He knows where it is?” I asked in disbelief, remembering the raggedy pawn shop owner who told Malcolm and me the whereabouts of Faust once upon a time.
“From your tone I take it you know him?”
“Yes, we’ve met.”
“Go to him and tell him I sent you. He will tell you what you need to know. Make sure Brand and Malcolm are with you though. I trust Horace about as far as I can throw him. Brand will make sure he is telling the truth and Malcolm isn’t someone Horace wants to intentionally anger.”
“Thank you,” I touched Mason on the arm and instantly felt his tenseness fade. “Thank you for your help.”
“There is no need for you to thank me. You’ve given me more than you ask of me. I will contact you when it’s time for the gathering. It will take me a while to track down all the Watchers, but I will do it as quickly as I can. Farewell, Lilly. I will see you soon.”
When I returned home, I told Brand everything which happened. We phased to Malcolm’s house and filled him in on what I learned from Mason.
“Of course,” Malcolm said. “Why didn’t I think about Horace? Considering he’s spent the greater part of his life searching for his own ring it makes sense he would know the whereabouts of other relics.”
“I say we go now and find out what he knows,” Brand said. “The sooner we get the ring for Lilly the better.”
When we entered Horace’s pawn shop, the dirty little jinn was sitting behind his counter stuffing his face with a Twinkie. His eyes widened when we entered and he spat out the Twinkie into a trash can before he choked on it.
“To what do I owe the pleasure of this little visit?” Horace asked, wiping crumbs from his beard.
“Mason sent me,” I told him.
“So you’re the one? He didn’t tell me it was you.”
“What do you know about King Solomon’s ring?” Malcolm asked, making it clear we weren’t there to make small talk.
“I know you can’t get it, Malcolm,” Horace said with self-satisfied grin on his face. “Only someone with a pure soul can reach it.”
“What do you mean? Where is it?” I asked.
“The old bastard took it to his grave. But it wasn’t the only thing buried with him. All of the demons he commanded with it are there protecting it. They won’t let a fallen come near it. I’ve tried. Our souls are too tainted.”
“But someone with a pure soul can go in and get it?” I asked. “The demons won’t harm that person?”
“So goes the legend,” Horace said eyeing me curiously. “But if you have the slightest thing to feel guilty about or if you have doubt in yourself, they’ll use it to drive you insane. You may never recover and end up being trapped with them”
I looked at Brand beside me. “Is he telling the truth?”
Brand nodded. “Yes, he’s telling the truth as he knows it.”
I looked back at Horace. “Do you know where the king’s tomb is?”
“Sure, I can even take you there….for a price.”
“Everyone knows where the tomb is, Horace” Brand said. “We don’t need you to take us there.”
“Ah,” Horace said pointing his index finger in the air. “You all think you do but you don’t. Solomon wasn’t a fool. He made sure everyone knew where he was supposed to be buried, but he’s not actually there. He made sure his body was placed somewhere no one would think to look.”
I looked at Brand and saw him nod is head. Horace was telling the truth.
“What’s your price?” Malcolm asked, daring Horace to ask for something which would be impossible for us to grant.
“Once you have the ring, I want a favor. Let’s just say you would owe me one.”
“What type of favor?”
“No, I won’t tell you because you might not do it if you know what it is.”
“Would it hurt anyone?” I asked.
“Not really,” Horace said, with a small shrug of his shoulders, his voice not completely certain. “It all depends on how you look at it I guess.”
Time was a precious commodity. The faster we got the ring the better.
“Can you at least promise me no one will die because of the favor you wish to ask?” I said.
Horace raised his right hand. “You have my oath as a jinn that no one will die if you do as I ask.”
I looked to Brand for confirmation Horace was telling the truth. Brand nodded his head.
“Then take us,” I told Horace, praying I hadn’t just made a deal I would later come to regret.
Chapter 12Before we left, Horace scavenged around in his horde of stuff in the pawn shop and handed us all flashlights.
“It’s going to be dark where we’re going,” Horace said by way of explanation.
We all held onto Horace as he phased us to the location of King Solomon’s tomb.
A cold wind swirled the air around us. My eye
s were drawn to the lights of a city not that far in the distance. A multitude of light colored buildings with red tiled roofs decorated the landscape. I turned my flashlight on and saw that we were standing on hard packed sand with plods of dried out grass a foot high scattered in a random pattern. A small broken stone wall stood on one side of me while a scattering of mostly buried structures made of the same stone jutted up from the ground.
“Tel Beit Shemesh?” Malcolm questioned. “Why would he bury himself here?”
“Exactly. Who would think to look for him here?” Horace said, like the answer was self- evident.
“Where is the tomb?” Brand asked, obviously wanting to get down to business and get out.
“I’ll have to take her down myself,” Horace said pointing to the ground at his feet.
“Down where?” I asked.
“Down to the tomb, of course. You don’t think he would bury himself where just anyone could find him, do you?”
“If you take her you take us all,” Malcolm told Horace.
“Did you not hear a word I said back at the shop?” Horace said in irritation. “They won’t let you in there. Only she can go in and get it. Trust me, you being there would just make things worse for her. I’m going to phase her down and come right back up before they sense me. She’ll be fine.”
“It’s ok,” I told Brand and Malcolm. “I’m not scared.”
Brand took me in his arms. “At the first sign of danger, come back up. Don’t risk your life.”
“Everything’s going to be all right,” I said, giving Brand a kiss before I took Horace’s hand.
“Now when you get down there, just walk to the other end of the hallway,” Horace instructed. “The tomb is there.”
Horace was true to his word. He phased me down to a dark corridor and immediately left.
Living in the modern world you become used to small noises always in the background and not even realize it. The hallway I stood in was cut out of rock and complete, undisturbed silence surrounded me.
I cautiously made my way down the corridor scanning the walls with my flashlight for any signs of trouble but seeing none. I began to wonder if Horace had made his ghost story up to frighten me until I saw a white apparition appear at the end of the hallway. The ghostly form slowly floated towards me. I felt the air in the room drop by ten degrees and pulled the lapel of my coat closer around my neck to ward off the chill. I stood stock still until the spirit stood before me, shimmering is its otherworldly beauty. It didn’t really have a true form. Its misty shape held a glowing orb of incandescent light at its center.
“Why are you here?” It asked, its voice sounding like wind passing over metal chimes.
“I’ve come for King Solomon’s ring.”
“Why do you wish to have it?”
“To prevent Lucifer from using me in his plans.”
The mist floated around me as if it were judging me. Finally it said, “To pass through them you must show no fear. They derive their power from the fear of others.”
“I’m not afraid of them,” I said, knowing he was talking about the demon souls.
“We shall see,” the spirit said before fading away.
I continued down the hallway until I reached a room with a stone box sitting in the middle of the room. As soon as I stepped over the threshold, I felt them. They whirled around me like a hot wind on a summer day. One of them passed through my body sending a cold shiver of dread down my spine. One by one the souls of the damned demons buried inside King Solomon’s tomb battered my body like they were searching out my weaknesses.
All of a sudden, I found myself standing on the old wooden half bridge back in Dalton.
I saw the Will of my childhood sitting with his feet dangling off the edge of the bridge. He turned when he heard my younger version walk up behind him.
“Where’s Tara?” He asked.
“She fell asleep,” I told him.
“Oh well,” he said, his eyes filled with mischief.
“What are you planning, Will Allen?”
I watched as my younger self stood up and Will began to chase me around with his stupid garter snake. My young counterpart tripped, hit her head on an old wooden post and fell into the water.
“Lilly!” Will yelled before diving in after me.
“You feel guilt over this one’s death,” one of the demons accused.
“It was an accident,” I said. “It wasn’t anyone’s fault.”
“Yet, you feel as though you should have done something to prevent it.”
“There wasn’t anything I could have done,” I said, truly realizing for the first that it was the truth. Will had died because of me but what happened hadn’t been a planned thing. It was an accident, nothing more.
The scene melted away and changed to the moment I found Tara and Malik in the forest Robert had taken them to. Tara lay on the ground with Malik transformed into his panther form licking the torn flesh of her wound. Robert had ripped open her throat, almost killing her because of me.
“Proof that you are a danger to your friends,” another demon accused.
“Robert is the one who put them in danger. I did what I had to do to save them.”
The dark forest faded to be replaced by a bright sunny day. I saw Malcolm about to kiss me on our day together. I didn’t try to stop him and knew I felt guilt over such a small indiscretion. I shouldn’t have let him do it, but I wanted to know what it would feel like and let it happen. I watched as we had our talk and relived the question which broke my heart the first time he asked me.
“May I have one last kiss, dearest Lilly, before I make my heart let you go?”
“You allowed this man to kiss you even though you had pledged your heart to another,” another demon mocked.
“I had a moment of weakness,” I confessed. “But I never let Malcolm think I loved him more than Brand. I did what I had to do to make him finally realize we couldn’t be anything more than friends after that.”
A vision of Robert and I struggling against one another materialized and I was forced to watch myself discover my true power and reduce him to a pile of ashes.
“He tried to violate you yet you still feel guilt over his death. Why?”
“You should never take joy in the death of someone else,” I said, remembering God’s words to me. “I don’t believe what I did was wrong but it brought me no joy either.”
The scene melted away as did my guilt over the events in my life the demon’s tried to use against me, to weaken me with. Now I knew why Horace had said only someone with a pure heart could get close to the ring. No human can have a completely pure heart. We all have things we regret. We all have something from our past which makes us feel guilt. But you can’t let regret and guilt rule your life. You have to find the strength within to forgive yourself. I let go of my guilt and regrets realizing some had been out of my control and some had been simple human mistakes.
The spirits ceased their bombardment of my soul, fading into nothingness.
I stood and walked over to the tomb, sliding the stone cover with more ease than I had expected. Lying within were the bones of King Solomon still wearing his crown around his skull and the ring on one of his hands.
I pulled the simple silver ring off his skeletal finger and looked at it in the light of my flashlight.
The ring was embossed with a pentagram and six colorful jewels which twinkled against the light to illuminate the stone walls with their brilliance.
“Be careful with the power it possesses,” the misty white spirit said as it floated into the room.
“I’ll bring it back to you when I’m done with it,” I promised, now knowing the spirit was that of King Solomon’s.
“I will be waiting,” he said, fading once again.
I phased back to the surface.
Brand and Malcolm immediately made me put the ring on. It was large so I had to place it on my thumb.
“Try it out,” Malcolm encouraged.
“Horace of course,” Malcolm said, gesturing to the jinn with his hand.
“Now wait just a damn minute,” Horace said, filled with righteous indignation. “I didn’t say you could do that.”
“How do I control him?” I asked, having my own reasons for wanting to control Horace.
“Just tell him to do something,” Brand said.
I looked at Horace and said, “Sit down.”
Horace sat down on the packed sand without argument.
“Tell me what favor you want me to do for you,” I said, still wanting to know what type of bargain I had struck with the jinn.
“I want you to make Faust give me my ring.” Horace clamped both of his hands over his mouth but it was too late. I knew what I wanted to know now.
“How do you know he has it?” I asked.
“Because another jinn saw him with it,” Horace said, then quickly covered his mouth again as if that would stop him from answering any more of my questions.
“We did promise to do his favor, dearest,” Malcolm reminded me.
“But if he gets his ring back he’ll start making bargains with people and ruining their lives. You saw the actor Faust was using. He lost everything when Faust left, but he didn’t care because he finally had his freedom back. How can I let Horace do that to people?”
“Anyone Horace tries to trick is looking for an easy way to obtain something,” Brand said. “You shouldn’t pity people like that.”
I knew both Brand and Malcolm were right. We had struck a bargain with Horace. He kept his end of the deal. Now I had to keep mine.
“Where is Faust?” I asked.
“I don’t know just yet, but I’ll find him,” Horace said fervently. “Can I get up now? This ground is cold.”
“Get up,” I said in irritation. “Go back to your shop and don’t contact me until you know where Faust is.”
“Got a phone number?” Horace asked.
Brand gave him his cell phone number. Horace memorized it and quickly phased back to his shop.
I looked at the ring on my hand and asked, “Now how do we test it out on Lucifer?”
