“What do you think it means?” Levi was tracing his fingers over the patterns, following them. “It’s like a maze. Each of the symbols has a shallow channel leading to the next one and to the next and so on. But they all lead here, to the middle, to this stone.” He crouched where the channels all led to a white stone embedded in the stone platform. Placing his palm flat, he lowered his face and squinted along the surface. “I think everything slopes towards the center. Only by a fraction, like a drain.”
“So we need a liquid to flow through the channels?”
“Could work. What sort of liquid? The water?” He stood, hands on hips and looked out at the body of water. It too was black like the sand and I didn’t fancy touching it. Who knew what was beneath the surface? “Let’s see.” Kneeling on the edge of the platform, he leaned over the edge, cupped his hands and scooped up the water.
“No, Levi, don’t!” But it was too late. I held my breath, but nothing happened. His hands didn’t sizzle as if burned by acid as I’d feared. Carefully he poured the water onto the platform, watching as it flowed into the channels and made its way through the maze to the white rock in the center.
“I was right.” He grinned triumphantly and I smiled at his enthusiasm.
“Yeah, but nothing happened. The wrong type of liquid.” I hated to burst his bubble but as quickly as the water had flowed through the channels the quicker it simply evaporated.
“Good observation, sister of mine.” The voice behind me was oh so familiar yet not. Gabriel. Spinning on my heel, I faced him.
“Are you responsible for this?” I waved my hand at the egg.
“No hello? No hug for your brother after all this time?” Like me, he hadn’t aged. He was still gorgeous to look at with his blonde hair, blue eyes, and golden skin, yet there was something different about him. I could feel it.
“Fine,” I huffed, stepping forward. I wrapped my arms around him, felt him do the same, then felt an excruciating pain in my lower back.
“Lucy!” Levi screamed my name and I staggered back, out of Gabriel’s embrace to see the glowing sword, once more dripping with my blood, in his hand. Levi had almost reached me when Gabriel swatted him away as if he were a pesky fly. I turned in time to see him slide on his back across the platform and off the edge, into the inky black water.
“Levi!” I rushed to the water’s edge, pain slowing me down, and peered into the dark depths. Where was he? Suddenly his head broke the surface, coughing, and spluttering. I closed my eyes in a silent prayer of thanks that he was all right. Swimming back to the platform, he heaved himself out of the water.
“Are you okay?” He was by my side in an instant, spinning me, lifting my shirt to examine the wound on my back. It hadn’t closed, my blood was running thick and fast, and the pain was disorientating. Like before, I wondered if I were dying.
“Why?” My knees gave out and Levi lowered me to the ground, holding me close as I glared at my brother who hadn’t moved except to cross his arms over his chest and watch us with interest.
“Always with the questions, Lucy-loo.” He sounded so goddamn chirpy I wanted to wipe the smirk right off his face.
“Am I dying?” I asked, for the bleeding wouldn’t stop. And then I noticed it. My blood, pooling in the channels on the platform, making its way through the maze of symbols, toward the center. “Look.” I nudged Levi and he too turned his attention to the red pattern my blood had created.
“Relax. You’re not going to die.” Gabriel shrugged, strolling closer, knowing I was no threat to him while I was bleeding out on the ground.
“Tell me. About the egg. Where did it come from?”
“I suppose it can’t hurt to tell you. You’re going to find out anyway.” Gabriel stopped, watched my blood as it slowly wove its way along the platform. It wasn’t moving as quickly as the water had. Goes to show blood is thicker than water. “You’ve had to notice Earth is a mess?” His eyes met mine. “That you’re getting more business than us.” I nodded slightly. I did agree with his assessment. Earth was out of control and I’d wondered more than once why Father had let such atrocities happen in this realm. The way the humans were destroying their own realm and pissing off Mother Nature, who Father had put in charge of the planet itself.
“Through my research, I discovered this”—he nodded at the egg—“in another realm. It has the power to fix everything. So I brought it over—”
“How? How didn’t I notice?”
Gabriel laughed. “I told Mother Nature she looked fat; she predictably got mad and triggered an earthquake, and I slipped it through with no one noticing.”
“When?”
“Oh, about ten Earth years ago. It needed time to charge.”
“Why here? Why Shadow Falls?” Levi asked.
“The veil is thinnest here. It was easier to get it through quickly, unnoticed, and undamaged.”
“Why all the tunnels and chambers?”
Gabriel shrugged. “Not my doing. This was already here.”
“What does this have to do with the soul stealer? Is the egg from his dimension? Did you do a deal with him?” I could feel the flow of blood was slowing. I was healing. But I didn’t move, lay leaning against Levi.
“Always so fucking smart.” Gabriel’s smile slipped. “That’s why he picked you.”
“Who?”
“Father. I should be running Hell, not you. It’s my right. I was the first. The heir. You stole Hell from me.” His words were laced with cold hard fury. Still. Still he held that against me.
“He chose me. I didn’t ask for it,” I reminded him.
“You were always his favorite. He made you different, gave you dark hair when the rest of us are light.”
“For fuck's sake, Gabriel, get a grip. We all have different hair color; no two of us are the same. You know that. You’re just grasping at straws, trying to find fault so you can continue to hate me when you and I both know you have no reason to.”
“Bitch.”
“Asshole,” I shot back. This reminded me of old times.
Our name-calling drew to a halt when Levi nudged me and whispered, “Look.”
My blood had reached the white stone. It pooled under it, then climbed up the sides, defying gravity and completely covering the stone. I watched wide-eyed as the blood sank into the stone and then…disappeared. The blood that had been weaving its way through the channels was gone, vanished. And the white stone was now…a red crystal. My blood inside it.
“It’s time.” Gabriel smiled and I could see his excitement. What the fuck was going to happen now? I was worried. For Levi. For myself. For all of mankind.
With an audible click, a ray of light shot out from the red crystal, hitting the egg. I struggled to my feet, Levi supporting me as we watched. The faint blue markings on the egg glowed red and I couldn’t help but shiver at the resemblance to my own magic, for it glowed red too. Then the egg slowly began to spin.
“What’s happening?” I asked Gabriel, who was practically rubbing his hands together in delight.
“It’s working!”
“What’s it doing?” I persisted. This couldn’t be good.
“It can control time. I can control time,” he gloated, “and I’m taking Earth back to when it began before Father put his precious humans here. The angels will rule this realm.”
“What about Heaven? Their home?”
“Heaven is dying.”