The Halo of Amaris

by Jade Brieanne

  “Welcome to Elysian,” Rooke stated proudly.

  They drove for another mile or so and Jin, Aiden, and Jon kept their heads stuck out of their windows. The car rolled to a stop as they approached a sentry gate. A head popped out the window and a hand waved buoyantly at them. “I heard that car before I saw it!”

  Rooke flashed his pass over a slim entry scanner, watching the red light switch to green. He smiled up at the friendly faced guard. “They got you on sentry duty again, Christian? What did you do this time?”

  “Harmless prank on the neophytes.” The sentry guard smirked, shrugging as he leaned an elbow on the windowsill of the guard booth. “Apparently, changing all the names in the register to binary code isn’t high on their list of ethical things an analyst should do. They’ll get over it. Until then…” He made a grandiose gesture at the sentry gate.

  Rooke chuckled. “You’ll never change.”

  “An eternity is too short a time for conformation.” The young man lowered his head, apparently intending to continue the conversation, when he noticed Jin, Aiden, and Jon. “They’re going, too?” he said as he studied their faces. Jin stared back at him and saw the caution in his eyes. “I thought all candidates for mating went through—”

  “Not mates, Christian.” Rooke glanced briefly over his shoulder at his three passengers and smiled brightly, before giving Christian a look. “Kano should have sent their visas over this morning.”

  They watched as Christian searched around the little office he was squeezed into, scanning shelves and compartments until his hands landed on a long manila folder with the name Josue scribbled in bold black marker across the front. He popped the seal and peered inside, withdrawing three identical, dark-gray leather holders. He flipped through them, looking at the pictures and back at the three inside the car. “Checks out.” He stuffed them back into the folder before handing it to Rooke. “Where are you guys headed to?”

  “Tower Barracks. They are slated to be the honorary guests at the graduation tonight.”

  Christian nodded, and with a jerk of his thumb, motioned for the guards to open the gate. He turned to Rooke one last time. “Well, I’ll see you there. My sister is taking after her big bro and is being inducted into Hawk tonight.”

  “Hawk? Hawk is good. I miss you guys.”

  “We miss you too, but Fox suits you, I think. You think well under pressure.”

  “I’ll look for you guys tonight, then?”

  “You bet your ass! We’ll take a picture of the old gang!”

  “Honorary guests?” Aiden growled as Rooke rolled up the window. “You didn’t tell us that.”

  “I was going to,” Rooke said evenly, and then muttered, “I haven’t had a chance.”

  Rooke used his knees to guide the steering wheel, and with both hands free, reached into the folder and handed out the passes. On the inside flap of each one was a recent picture and a digitized scan of a thumbprint.

  “This is—how did you get these?” Jin stared at her photo with narrowed eyes.

  Rooke laughed as Jin held the pass closer to her face, examining the authenticity of the photo. “Tahir.”

  Jin caught Aiden’s eye in the side view. “The delivery woman,” they said at the same time.

  “That little shit.” Jin felt the laughter bubble up and escape in the first genuine laugh she’d experienced since she’d arrived at Au Courant. Aiden joined in while Jon raised a brow at them. Jin was still laughing when a shadow blotted the light in the car. She craned her neck up to see what caused it.

  The end of the bridge was capped by a colossal grouping of buildings, towering over the others in the city. Peeking through the patches of fog circling the pinnacle of the tallest one was a huge metal obelisk.

  Rooke guided the car down a narrow, paved strip that ran parallel to the main road. A large sign made of metal with letters that read ELYSIAN – CENTRAL cut into it was bolted to the side of the building, and a large sculpture of a winged fleur-de-lis sat in the middle of a fountain a few feet from the entrance.

  Jin squinted as the mist of water from the fountain caught her in the face, smiling at the cool kiss of water. A holographic screen floated over the fountain, a friendly female face centered over the continuously scrolling words. A History; The Gospel of High Caeli.

  She watched the woman on the screen’s lips move, but was unable to hear what she said from the moving car. She wanted to jump out and run to the screen, listen to what the woman was saying, and what she could teach her about this place, but Rooke’s car kept rolling.

  Rooke made a sharp turn, and they passed under an arched entryway. The road descended into a wide underground passageway paralleled on both sides by spacious walking paths. Jin rolled her window up. The air was cooler down here, but the strong scent of treated water was magnified by the stone walls. The smell made her heart race. Silly, she thought.

  Hanging overhead on thin wires were square, bronze signs with a letter-number combination on each one. As they drove deeper into the tunnel, Jin could see a large, smooth door in the wall as they passed each sign. “What is this?” she asked.

  Rooke looked contrite. “I’m a terrible tour guide, and there is so much to explain. Sorry.” He cleared his throat. “As you can see, Central is massive—it has to be, because it houses so much. It’s vital for us to be able to assemble quickly, so we work here, and some of us even live here, in the Tower Barracks—which is where we are going. It also holds the meeting chamber of The Fallen, as well as the command post for The Army of The Fallen.”

  Jon snorted. “You are rattling off a lot of stuff that don’t make sense, kid.”

  Jin managed a smile grin because it seemed Jon had given Rooke a new nickname. She could see the angel’s nose crinkling in distaste.

  “You’ll have to be patient with us, Rooke. This is like, unfathomable…it’s just so…” Jin fumbled a few words around in her head, looking for one that explained what the three of them could possibly be feeling.

  “Cool, right?” Rooke beamed with associative pride.

  Jin smiled weakly. “Well, that’s not the word I was looking for.”

  They continued driving, shrouded in the darkness of the passageway with the warm-pool smell getting stronger with each passing moment. Rooke slowed the car down to a crawl as they came to a sign that read L1. He hooked a right into a one- lane tunnel that fed into a large underground parking garage.

  As they exited the car, the noise level tripled as the sound of raging water echoed off the walls. Rooke put one hand up to his ear and pointed toward a raised walkway. Once they reached it, he pointed below it. “We channel and treat the water from the bay here in the tunnel. Someone gets stuck down here, they’ll need potable water. That’s what you smell,” he yelled at the top of his lungs as dark- blue water flowed under the bridge, charging violently against the sides of the channel.

  He made a thumbs-up gesture and their gazes followed the motion—up, up, and farther up, to a pinpoint of light. “Central splits into two separate sectors here. There are one hundred and fifty-eight walkway bridges that connect the east wings with the west—”

  A thought lodged in the back of Jin’s brain and wouldn’t let go. “Why would anyone get stuck?” she asked, interrupting him.

  Rooke’s good-natured smile flickered before vanishing. “Well…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Things haven’t always been as peaceful as they seem now.”

  “They haven’t?” she asked.

  “No. War almost destroyed this realm.”

  Chapter Sixty-One

  Jin eyed the depths of the chasm as they slowly made their way across the bridge. A downdraft in the shaft rattled through the bridge’s wire fencing and the wood creaked with each step. Aiden pulled her clenched fingers from the hem of her borrowed cotton shirt and laced them together with his.

  He turned to her and mouthed, “Are you okay?”

  Jin had never been scared of water a day in her life, but her fast p
ulse and the temptation to suck in mouthfuls of air as she fought off a panic attack told a different story. Something blazed across her vision, burned behind her eyes as if someone had flashed a bright light and snatched it away. She couldn’t make it out no matter how hard she concentrated on the blurry negative left in its wake.

  This place felt familiar. The water called to memories she didn’t own, and the sounds recalled emotions she’d never felt. She was not okay.

  She smiled and nodded anyway.

  She gulped audibly as she forced her eyes from the water, concentrating on Jon’s back as they walked across the bridge and approached a wide metal door. Rooke scanned in his badge again, and the doors slid up. A short ride up in the glass and steel elevator took them to what Rooke called the Hutch.

  The interior of the Hutch matched the exterior of Central, all blue tones, metals, and clean lines. People in dark-gray uniforms were everywhere—a woman stood at a large touch screen jotting down information, a group of people hurried down the hallway with armfuls of paper, stopping every couple of steps to pick up an errant, flying sheet. A few of them waved at Rooke.

  There was a concentration of people milling up and down the length of a long metal reception counter that stretched from one end of the room to the other. Tall, mostly opaque screens extending to the ceiling sectioned off the counter every few feet, and an operator sat behind a computer in each of those sections, handing out information.

  When they reached the counter, the operator looked up and asked Rooke for his ID badge.

  As he pulled the plastic card back out of his pocket, Jin got a chance to glance at it. There was a picture of Rooke, his curly hair pushed back off his forehead, his posture rigid, and his carefree smile masked under the stern weight of discipline.

  Rooke handed the card to the operator, and she scanned the thick plastic. After tapping a few keys on her computer, his image appeared on the screen. Under his picture, printed in bold letters was “Josue, LM Second Class.”

  “Welcome back, Luminary Rooke,” she said, smiling cordially. “Your Tower pass has been reactivated and your activity log has been loaded.”

  Rooke accepted his pass back and spun on his heel. “You guys probably thought I was some kind of rookie, huh?”

  Jon scoffed loudly. “Like that word means something to us. What the hell is a Luminary?”

  “Does it sound cool?” Rooke buffed his nails against his shirt. “It’s okay to admit that it sounds—” He choked when Jon smacked him upside the head.

  “Speak,” Jon barked as Rooke rubbed the back of his head.

  “All right, all right.” He edged away from Jon. “There’s a hierarchy here. There are Nephilim, your average halfy, and then there are Mutare. Mutare are especially skilled Nephilim. Above that you’ve got Luminary Mutare. We’re an exceptional pedigree of Mutare. You have to master five aims to even be considered Luminary. It takes almost two decades to master them, that is if you even have the ability to do so. I mean, unless…you’re me.” Rooke flashed six fingers repeatedly, smirking while he mouthed twelve years. Jon rolled his eyes, and Rooke ignored him. “Pass the exam, and bam, you’re a Luminary.”

  “What’s the exam?”

  Rooke blinked patiently. “Surviving Qeres poisoning.”

  “Qeres what? They poison you?” Jon asked, his face twisted in revulsion. “How the hell is that supposed to be…”

  Jin staggered as something, a flurry of emotions she couldn’t place, hit her again. She tried to focus on Jon’s voice but the word Qeres echoed in her head, drowning him out. Her gaze locked with Aiden’s.

  He mouthed, “What?” and Jin shook her head, not wanting to worry him. That didn’t pacify him. He took a step toward her.

  “Watch out!”

  Aiden jumped back as a woman with shoulder-length, strawberry-blonde hair passed them pushing a long flatbed cart packed with gold-tagged bags. She looked like she was going to yell again if her annoyed expression was anything to go by, when she noticed Rooke’s mop of curly hair.

  She pulled the cart up short, doubled back and flew at him, throwing her arms around his neck. “Well, I’ll be damned. It’s Rooke,” she shouted. “It's been forever!”

  Rooke smiled at her as he returned her embrace, but grimaced when she laid a sloppy kiss on his forehead. He wiped it off with the sleeve of his shirt and she laughed at his reaction.

  “Yeah, plans changed just a little, Vethi,” he said sheepishly.

  The smiling woman stood on her tiptoes and looked around the crowded space. “Where’s Key and Tahir?”

  “They took the train this morning, so they should be in the suite now. We’re on our way up. I’ll tell them you said hello?”

  She hummed in response and raised a manicured eyebrow as she appraised Jin and Jon with a less than friendly sweep of her eyes. Her stare warmed when she looked at Aiden. Despite the fact that she’d almost run him over, she wiggled her eyebrows at him, her gaze sweeping from the floor up. Her smile turned appreciative. “Friends of yours?” She paused when Jin slid her hand into Aiden’s and offered her a cold stare. The woman’s hair danced around her shoulders as she laughed, holding up her hands in surrender. She turned back to Rooke.

  “Three humans here to see The Fallen,” he said.

  “Hmmm.” Vethi sent a look at Jin and Aiden over her shoulder. She pouted. “Who are they being mated to—and do they know they are being split up? I’ll take the guy…”

  “Vethi,” Rooke admonished.

  “Everyone calm down. I’ve quarantined my ‘excitement’ for the moment. I’m off to meet with my team leader. We’re heading down, finally. Haven’t had a decent mission in forever, so I’m off.” She threw twinkling fingers over her shoulder as she pushed her cart in the direction of the elevator. She paused and spun. “Oi, humans! Sorry, I don’t know your names! Enjoy Caeli. It’s… interesting.”

  “Humans?” Jon asked as he tilted his head to watch the woman’s retreat. “I mean, I get it. That’s what we are. But you people make it sound like we’re pets or something. Oh, look, the humans can talk. Will you take a look at that? They walk, too. Intelligent conversation! From humans? Who would have ever guessed? We have names, you know.”

  “Exactly. And you’ve been just names for a long time. But now you’re faces. Trust me, enjoy being ‘pets’ for a while.” Rooke looked around for another empty elevator and herded them into it. “Plus, we shouldn’t stay around here. The majority of Mutare traffic is through here, and if someone were to recognize you,it would be—”

  Jin raised a brow. “Why would they recognize any of us? We’re just the three humans, I thought. Not many humans come up here?”

  “On the contrary, plenty do. Visit, live, work here, but none of them are in the hist—” Rooke stopped abruptly with a small groan, and his eyes closed like he was in pain.

  “Hey, kid. You okay?” Jon asked.

  “Yeah, yeah. It’s just, the thing is that Jin’s mission was classified as a normal Causatum, and Luminary Mutare normally don’t handle those,” Rooke said hesitantly, squinting at them all in turn, “but we did, and there is a lot of talk about it.” He pressed the elevator button for his floor.

  “Why would you be sent out on a mission outside of your jurisdiction?” Aiden asked as he looked out the clear wall of the elevator, his distracted gaze sweeping over the metropolis.

  Rooke winced. “Why are you asking so many questions?” he muttered under his breath. “Because. Okay? That’s just the way it is. And—”

  The elevator dinged and they watched as Rooke squeezed through the slowly opening doors and dart down the hall. Jin glanced at Jon, who glanced at Aiden, who just shrugged before following him.

  They emptied out of the elevator into a short hallway lined with deep burgundy walls and plush, gold carpeting. Wood sconces with gold satin shades gave off subdued light, picking out the subtle gold trim. At the far end of the hallway was a floor-to-ceiling window.

  Rooke wa
ited in front of a door about midway down the hall that was decorated with a large gold fox head. “This is the Tower Barracks. Six Luminary teams, six floors. As you can see, it’s a lot quieter in comparison to the zoo the Hutch is.” He slid his badge in the door reader and waited until the door unlocked with a loud thunk.

  The foyer inside was small but it opened onto a wide suite, decorated in slate gray and a dark, deep yellow. The living room had gray leather furniture, and two flat screens on the wall across from the couches. To the right, in the living room was a sleek spiral staircase leading to a second floor. To the left and up a small set of steps was the kitchen, full of chrome appliances, dark wood cabinets, and marble countertops. A cookbook sat haphazardly across an apron on one counter, and it smelled like someone had just finished baking.

  Rooke walked over to the couches and plopped down on one. “Welcome to your new temporary abode. We got food, entertainment, and spare beds.” Rooke paused as he eyed his still-standing guests. “Well, I take that back. We have a bed in the guest bedroom. Key told me he set it up for the lovebirds.”

  Jon’s brows drew together. “Well, where the hell am I supposed to go?”

  Rooke blinked. “We have an air mattress.”

  “I’m…sorry. Did you say an air mattress?”

  “Yes. He said an air mattress.” Four heads turned as a fifth voice spoke from a doorway. “Unless you want to sleep outside.”

  Jon turned away from Key with a sneer. “Not complaining about the accommodations. A roof, you know, some food to eat. No problem. All I’m saying is that this isn’t the cradle of modern civilization. All of this”—he waved at the curved window that showed the sprawling metropolis beyond—“and you’re telling me you own an air mattress?”

  Jin held up her hands before the argument could escalate. “You can have the room if you want, Jon.”

  He snorted at her offer. “Oh no. Nevermind. Last thing I need to happen is to come downstairs for a glass of water and walk into some post-crisis sex.” Jon turned to Rooke. “Where’s the air pump? I’ll inflate it myself.”