by Hanna Peach
The ground began to shake. Alyx’s eyes flew open. From beneath her a wide circular platform of stone broke up out of the wooden floor of the Heart, her chains attached to it. It rose into the air, taking her with it.
It broke through the roof of the Heart, splinters and thatching showering her and piercing her skin like tiny needles. The platform rose higher and higher into the sky until she could not see the ground over the wide edge of the platform, just the horizon as the Earth curved underneath her.
Up here Alyx lay on her side, her chains around her like a heavy sash, the sun beating down upon her. Soon her throat was parched and her lips broken and cracked. She could barely feel it, though, just another small addition to her overwhelming pain. Her wounds wept where she had been lashed. One for each death that she failed to prevent or death that she caused. They were wounds that would not close. She didn’t fight the chains. She accepted this. She deserved to be here.
Through her half-closed lids she watched a dark figure with wings circle the sky beyond. It circled closer and closer until Alyx began to make out the details: wide dark brown wings and a wide feathered tail, a red-skinned face and a curved beak like an animal of Hell.
The vulture swooped down towards her and landed on the far end of her platform. His sharp claws made terrible scratching noises as he moved towards her, piercing her with accusatory eyes. Alyx shut her lids as the bird neared her. She must be close to death now.
“Get away,” a familiar male voice said.
There was an indignant squawk and a fussing of wings, and the vulture took off from the platform. Alyx squinted against the sun as a translucent figure kneeled down beside her.
“Symon,” she croaked. It hurt to speak.
Symon flickered. He was but a ghost here. Had he died too? Symon shushed her. “It’s me. I’m here.” He tried to touch her face, but she barely felt his fingers against her cheek as she pushed her face against him. He pulled back his hand and stared at it. Alyx could almost see right through him. “I’m weak,” he said. “I can’t affect much here.”
“Where is here?”
“Michael is using some sort of machine, he calls it the Tree of Knowledge. He’s using it to steal magic. He’s stealing my magic. He’s used me to find you in the DreamScape and he’s using my knowledge of you to try and break you.”
It worked.
“With the added strength of the magic he’s stealing from me, he’s able to keep you trapped in here. He’s keeping your wounds open. And you’re letting him. Fight back.”
“I…can’t.”
“Alyx, listen to me. Michael’s going to open one of the gates to Hell tonight. I just don’t know which one. You can’t let him. You have to break out of this DreamScape.”
“I don’t deserve to live.”
“That’s rubbish. That’s what he wants you to think. Think about Israel and−”
“I failed Israel. I lost him.”
“Israel isn’t lost. Not yet. Now close these wounds. Break out of these chains and get out of this DreamScape.”
At the mention of Israel she felt a throb of life trickling back into her limbs. Alyx pulled against the chains that held her to this platform. They felt like steel cables. She couldn’t budge them. “I’m too weak, Symon. Everything hurts. It’s all just too much. If I just sleep a little…” She closed her eyes.
“No, Alyx. You have to fight against him.”
“I can’t fight him. He’s too strong. He won’t stop until I’m dead.”
“Alyx, Michael won’t stop because he’s scared of you.”
Alyx blinked. “What?”
“He is scared of you and Israel.”
“Why?”
“Raphael’s Prophecy says that a sacrifice made for love is the only thing that can save an entire race. You love him. And he loves you.”
This had been what Raphael had told Israel’s mother too.
She had to fight. Alyx opened her eyes and struggled to sit up.
“Yes, that’s it,” Symon urged. “You can do it.”
Alyx gathered all her remaining strength and tugged at the chains. But they were so thick and strong she could not break them. They didn’t even bend against her efforts. She swore she heard laughing in the background. The sun seemed to flare even hotter, burning her exposed skin and causing sweat to flood precious water from her body.
Alyx dropped her arms and stared at the ghostly form of Symon. “I’m sorry. I’m too weak.”
“You will not die. I won’t let you.” Symon’s face became grim. “There’s only one thing left to do.” The gravity in his voice struck a chord of fear in Alyx.
“What are you doing?”
Symon’s ghostly figure bent down so that he was kneeling on the platform. Alyx’s eyes widened as she watched Symon’s fingers shake as he reached for the dagger in his boot. “I won’t let him use my powers to kill you. I won’t. If…if I take away my magic, then he will weaken enough for you to break out.”
“No, Symon.” The growing realization of what he meant to do gripped her like a thousand sharp claws. “Please, don’t!”
“It’s the only way, or he will destroy you. You need to live. The survival of an entire race depends on you and Israel.” Symon reached out with his free hand towards her face to brush her cheek. Alyx grabbed at him, desperate to find some purchase, but her fingers just went straight through his body.
Symon’s hands closed around the handle as he turned the point to face himself.
“Symon, please don’t.”
“All my life I wanted to make a difference. To do something good and right. I thought that becoming a warrior would let me do that, but I was wrong. Where I made my difference was with you.” Symon pressed the ghostly tip to his heart.
Alyx couldn’t watch. She just sobbed into her hands, begging him over and over not to do it.
“I love you, Alyx,” she heard him say.
“I love you too.” She squeezed her eyes shut even tighter.
She heard Michael roaring in the background in her ears. It sounded so far away yet everywhere at once. “No, you stupid, stupid man.”
She felt the DreamScape fading and the chains around her wrists slipping away. She knew that it was because Symon was dying and his magic was draining, no longer able to be stolen by Michael, no longer being able to be used. She felt her wounds close up even as this fresh wound in her heart split open just a little bit further.
Chapter 28
Alyx’s face was wet across both cheeks. Warm arms were wrapped around her. Israel.
No. The smell was wrong. The shape of him was wrong. But still familiar.
Jordan was holding her. She was in one of Cleo’s bedrooms, sitting up in bed, and Jordan was holding her.
She froze.
His hand stilled on her back.
A clock ticked.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…” Jordan began to mumble apologies as he pulled his hands off her.
The loss of Symon, the closest thing to a father that she had ever had, broke over her like a wave. She began to sob. She needed someone to hold her. She didn’t think Israel would begrudge her this so she clung to Jordan like he was her life raft.
Jordan rocked her softly and let her cry. And she cried. And cried. Until all the tears inside her dried up. She tried to feel glad that she had survived, but she couldn’t.
Finally she pulled away and when she did, Jordan let go of her. Alyx could see the strain of morning light through the lush, thick curtains of the bedroom. She must have been trapped in that DreamScape all night.
Jordan shifted back a little, giving her space between them on the bed. He was sitting on the edge, beside her, facing her as she sat up. “I was coming to get you,” he said quietly, “I didn’t mean… You were thrashing around in your sleep. I couldn’t wake you.”
Alyx wiped her eyes. “Why,” her voice croaked, so she cleared it and tried again. “Why were you coming for me?”
He shook
his head. “Alyx, you scared me. Is everything okay?”
Alyx felt the pressure of the well of sadness rising up inside her again. She pushed back. She couldn’t give in to it right now. She couldn’t. “I don’t want to talk about it. Just tell me what you came here for.”
Jordan opened his mouth, then shut it and nodded. “Lukas just got word from Zulu. After the dark army left the castle, Zulu followed them. They turned south and eventually headed towards Morocco. They stopped in the Atlas Mountains where they remain now. They look like they’re guarding something.”
“Jordan, is there a Gate in the Atlas Mountains?”
“Yes, it’s the largest Hell Gate.”
“Alyx, listen to me. Michael’s going to open one of the Gates to Hell tonight. I just don’t know which one.”
Now she knew.
Michael would open the Gate with Israel tonight in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and let in a demon army.
Tonight.
Which would mean that Michael would have to take Israel out of hiding; he’d have to bring him to Morocco. This was her chance, her chance to stop him and a chance to save Israel.
Her grief reformed into an impenetrable steel that wrapped itself around her heart. Symon’s sacrifice would not be wasted. Elder Michael wanted a battle. She would bring a war to him.
Chapter 29
“Michael is going to open the Gates to Hell tonight,” Alyx said to their small leadership team around the table.
“His army is stationed around a remote section of the Dades Valley in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco,” said Jordan. “We know that there is a Gate in that valley, the largest one on Earth.”
“He’ll call forth Lucifer’s army using the Trinity Amulet, and he plans to use them, along with his dark army, to take control of this whole planet. This means wiping out every single mortal and Rogue Seraphim on Earth.”
Alyx continued, not stopping to acknowledge the gasps that came from around her. There was no time. “This is why he attacked us at our home. We are his greatest threat. Michael wanted to distract us so that we were too focused on finding a new home and rebuilding rather than stopping him. He didn’t realize we would have Cleo and the use of her large home. There’s one more thing he won’t see coming.”
“What’s that?” asked Tobias.
“We’re going to fight back.”
This was met with more loud astonished cries.
Tobias shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “Alyx, we don’t have the numbers.”
The plan that had been formulating in her head swirled again, folding itself over and over, trying to make itself as tight and as waterproof as possible. For her plan to work, she needed help. A lot of help.
You don’t have to do this alone.
Alyx had to ignore, to push past her gut reaction to try and defeat Michael by herself. She had to trust that she would get the help she asked for, and she would have to place her faith in those who would help. All these things made her nerves tremble like a guitar string being plucked over and over again. But she had no choice. She couldn’t do it alone. But with help, maybe…
“I can get the numbers,” Alyx said.
“How?”
“Who?”
“Where from?” These questions flew at her from across the room.
She ignored them. She didn’t have time for them. “I can get the numbers. I know I can.” She turned to Jordan. “Remember when you said that with enough Seraphim working together, we could do incredible things?”
He was watching her strangely. “I do. What are you getting at?”
“How many DreamWalkers do we know? How many would help us?”
Jordan shifted in his chair. “We have a few here in our community. I know several more in the other communities, and a few of the nomads who live outside of us. So maybe…fifteen in all. Give or take.”
“Good. I need you to contact them all and get as many of them as possible to meet me on the front lawn at sunset. That goes for all of you,” she said to the rest of them, all in various stages of open-mouthed shock. “I need all of you to reach out to any DreamWalkers you know. Tell them we need their help.”
“But that’s only three hours away,” said Jordan.
“Are you saying you can’t do it?”
“No, I−”
“Then do it. Please,” she added after a small pause.
Jordan stared at her for one long moment. Then he nodded. “Okay.”
“I’ll see you all at sunset,” she said, grabbing her sword off the table and rushing for the door.
“Wait, where are you going?”
“To start building us an army.”
* * *
Alyx stood atop a cliff ridge gripping Balthazar’s Communicator. She had salvaged it from the remains of her room in the castle. It was activated so the demon bug now fluttered in its cage.
“Would it be too much for me to think that you called me just to invite me to tea?” Balthazar appeared through the forest, alone, his own Communicator around his neck pulling towards her like a magnet.
“Sorry,” she said. “We ran out of scones.”
Balthazar stopped before her. “No mini-cupcakes sprinkled with candy, then? No tiny buttered cucumber sandwiches with their crusts cut off?”
“Not even tea.”
“You’re not a very good host, are you?”
“This isn’t a social call.”
Balthazar sighed dramatically. “You never call, never write. Only when you want something.”
“I need to know how the Trinity Amulet works.”
Balthazar narrowed his eyes at her. She thought he might not answer but then he began to speak. “Lucifer’s demon army has a link in their minds to him. He calls an order to them through this link and they obey. Without fail. No questions. Total obedience. The Trinity Amulet allows the wearer to override this link. Which means that any command he or she gives is as good as having come from Lucifer himself.”
“Does everyone in Hell have this link?”
“Not everyone. Only those conscripted to Lucifer’s army.”
“Do you have this link?”
“No. Lucifer and I have a separate and different link.”
At least that was a relief. “Couldn’t Lucifer send a call down his link to refute the Amulet’s command? Like a counter-command to confuse the army?”
“Alyx, I really don’t like where this is going.”
“Please just answer me.”
“No. The Amulet, once activated, overrides Lucifer’s link.”
“So if the wearer of the Amulet told Lucifer’s army to kill all humans, they’d do it.”
“Like I said, total obedience. Without question.”
“And if the wearer of the Amulet told his army to kill Lucifer…”
Balthazar hissed as if she had splashed acid on his face. “Don’t you dare threaten him.” He drew his weapon from his side. “I will cut you from ear to ear−”
Alyx snatched her blade and countered Balthazar’s sword. “Balthazar, stop. I’m not threatening you. I don’t have the complete Amulet.”
Balthazar paused but his blade remained against hers, applying a steady pressure. “Why all these questions?”
“I don’t have the Trinity Amulet.” She swallowed. “But Michael does.”
Balthazar blinked at her once. Twice. He seemed to have frozen.
“Balthazar?”
To her surprise Balthazar began to laugh. “Michael has the Amulet,” he managed between chuckles, “for a moment there you nearly had me.”
“It’s not a joke.”
His laughter stopped. “The missing piece…”
“I found it but his warriors took it off me.”
“But you still have the second piece kept safe, right?”
Alyx shook her head. “We were betrayed…”
Balthazar whirled his blade aside. It flew towards a tree, striking it directly in the center of its trunk, small pieces of bark scatt
ering from where it embedded. A string of low guttural utterances left his mouth. Alyx guessed that this was some sort of demon swearing, but she dared not ask what he had said.
This went on for some time before he stopped, seeming to remember himself. He drew himself up, brushed down his clothes and tucked part of his shirt that had come out of his pants before retrieving his blade and sheathing it. Alyx resheathed hers.
“Okay,” he said, considerably calmer now. “Michael has the Trinity Amulet. But he can’t command Lucifer’s army while the Gates between Earth and Hell are locked. At least he doesn’t have the keye.”
Alyx remained silent.
“At least he doesn’t have the keye,” Balthazar repeated. He lifted an eyebrow at her. “Right?”
Alyx pressed her lips together grimly.
Balthazar let his head fall back and he sent out another string of harsh sounds towards the sky. His arms began to flail as he erupted into shouts. “How could you let this happen? How could you let the only keye, your protectee, fall into the hands of that maniac? I knew this would happen, I knew it. He is a danger to us all. That boy should have died in Port Safaga years ago!” Balthazar’s eyes went wide, then he clamped his mouth shut like he said something that he shouldn’t have.
Alyx latched onto the very last thing that Balthazar said… That boy should have died in Port Safaga years ago! Port Safaga, Egypt…why did that sound so familiar?
Israel was almost killed in Port Safaga when he was a boy. He survived, but only because his heart was on the left side of his body. It was why he had all his scars. Those pale diamond scars across his body and on his lip.
“You…you were the demon that tried to kill him?” Rage grew in her body as she imagined a young Israel, pain consuming him from the knife in his chest, blood leaking from him, as his distraught aunt fought to save his life. She drew her blade and pointed it at Balthazar. “He was just a boy.”
Balthazar drew his sword again. “Who turned into a man, a dangerous man, the keye to unlock Hell for Christ’s sake, now in the hands of a madman who would destroy us all. Thanks. To. You.” Balthazar exhaled as he forcibly struggled to calm himself. “We should have let him die with that poison but unfortunately Lucifer is a sucker for a good love story.”
