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It was the silence that unnerved Imorean the most. The incessant ticking of his watch was almost maddening, but it was noise. Something to break this awful quiet. He adjusted his position. Next to him, Tadhiel was either sleeping or roaming the astral plane. In either case, his breathing was low and even. Imorean looked up. Toddy lay in the far corner of his cell. Cell. Imorean looked to his right, to the last cell on the row. His mother. Had she been there? Had Rachel or Isaac been there? He swallowed. Alive. They were all alive. He took a shuddering breath. It should have been an absolution – hope. But it wasn’t. Alive. Still under Vortigern’s grasp. Not simply prisoners, but actively with him. Bring them home. He had to bring them home. How much had he missed them by? Days? Weeks? He played Vortigern’s words over in his head. Vortigern knew he would arrive – that his drive to save his family would outweigh any sense of duty. Maybe he should have gone to Peru with his friends. It would have stopped Vortigern from knowing the scattered status of the Archangels.
From the cell, there was a shuffle. Imorean looked up. The least he should do was focus on the task he had been given. It seemed Toddy was asleep, albeit lightly. Imorean inclined his head and extended his senses, wondering if he could get a better read on Toddy. If there was some emotion he could detect. If there was something would help him vouch for Toddy if the time came. Anything to distract him from thoughts of his family. He focused himself and pressed on Toddy’s mental state. For a moment, there was a horrible sense of blankness. Abyss and nothing. No emotion. He swallowed. Toddy felt cold, alien. Then one emotion rose. Small, little more than a flicker of feeling, but there. Relief. Toddy was relieved. A smile made its way across Imorean’s face. Human emotion. There was humanity left. Maybe ... maybe Vortigern hadn’t ruined Toddy.
“‘Morean?” murmured Toddy, rolling over and opening his eyes.
Imorean perked up and made eye contact with him through the glass. “Toddy, you should be asleep.”
“And you shouldn’t be here at all,” sighed Toddy, limp gray wings shifting. “He ... he’ll know you’re here now. Now that you’ve seen me and I’ve seen you.”
“I don’t think that matters all that much at this point,” shrugged Imorean. Of course, Vortigern knew he, Raguel and Raguel’s team were here. Vortigern had known from the moment that he used Toddy as a mouthpiece. Imorean swallowed. The final conflict between him, Michael and Vortigern was approaching. That was inevitable. This may have simply been a catalyst for it.
Toddy coughed once, then pushed up on one elbow. “I know why you’re here.”
Imorean swallowed and inclined his head. “Yeah?”
“Guarding. They’re scared of me.”
“That’s not true, Toddy.”
“Then why am I still locked up? I was an intended science major, Imorean. Don’t patronize me, please. I’m not an idiot.”
“It’s just a precaution.” Imorean looked away, guilty. His first instinct had been to lie. Maybe he had become more like Michael than he realized. He stood up and crossed the narrow hallway to the glass front of Toddy’s cell. It felt good to move. Toddy flashed him a small smile and pushed off the floor, shaking his wings. Imorean rested a hand against the glass as a few mottled, gray feathers fell from Toddy’s wings.
Toddy gave a quiet laugh. “Been happening for a while. Don’t worry about it.”
“What happened to you down here, Tod?”
“You mean you don’t think I’m jacked up enough?”
“No! That’s not what I meant,” replied Imorean, his voice sharper than he had intended. Toddy gave another small laugh and moved closer. Only a few feet away on the other side of the glass.
“Truth is, not much really happened to me,” said Toddy. “Vortigern came down and kicked the shit out of me a few times. Probably just blowing off steam. Did that to a lot of us down here. There are periods of time that I don’t remember – and I don’t know what happened to me, but I suppose, in a way, it’s best that I don’t remember. He wanted to try to use me to get to you, the Archangels and the squad. But I became pretty useless when he realized I didn’t know as much as he hoped. I think he kept me alive just so he could possess me and taunt you from, you know, inside me.”
“Tod, I’m sorry I didn’t find you sooner. I should have tried harder.”
“Can’t argue with you there. What took you so long?”
Imorean swallowed. He didn’t miss the bitterness behind Toddy’s tone. There was no excuse for him not finding Toddy sooner. None. “I don’t even know. I guess ... I guess I lost hope of finding you.”
Toddy looked away and half flared his wings again. Imorean’s eyes traced the falling feathers. “You don’t know what it means to lose hope, Imorean. I haven’t seen the sun in months. There’s been only me, Vortigern, and these four walls. The thought of you, Roxy, Baxter, Ryan, Colton, Mandy and Dustin was all that got me through.”
A chill rushed Imorean’s chest. Mandy and Dustin were dead, and Toddy ... Toddy didn’t know they were gone. Toddy and Dustin had been close – good friends. Heat pricked the backs of Imorean’s eyes as a memory surfaced. Toddy and Dustin sitting together on one of the couches at Felsenmeer, battling each other in a video game. The ghost of their laughter rang in his ears. It was a moment preserved only in hindsight. It would never live again. They were gone, never to come back. He swallowed as a sharp wave of guilt crashed over him. He couldn’t push further along this line of thought – for both their sakes. He leaned one shoulder against the glass and shuffled his wings, cutting Toddy off as he opened his mouth to speak again. He hadn’t meant to, but he had to try to steer the conversation away from Dustin and Mandy. Telling Toddy two of his friends were dead didn’t seem conducive to making him feel safe.
“Was Bethany here?” Imorean asked.
Toddy’s face darkened. “Oh, you bet she was. Delighted to see me down here, for sure. She said she saw you in Mexico.”
“Yeah, we were there. What was she here for?”
“She told Vortigern that she’d seen you. Seen what you were doing. They were in the cell next to mine and I overheard.” Toddy paused, as though considering his words for a minute. Imorean raised one eyebrow. “They were in there with your mother.”
“She was next to you?”
“Mhm. We spoke a couple of times. Through the walls. Couldn’t really hear each other. These things are almost soundproof. Became no point after a while.” Toddy looked around. “Not much point to anything down here. Existing becomes a burden.”
One corner of Imorean’s mouth twitched down and he looked away. “Was it Bethany who told Vortigern what we were up to?”
“I could hear her laughing as she told him. Something about beating him?”
Imorean laughed humorlessly. “I don’t doubt she was delighted to tell him. We’ve been trying to find a way to stop him. Or slow him down. How are you feeling, overall?”
“Stable. Weird, but stable. Everything feels kind of surreal – like I’ve just woken up from a nightmare and I’m trying to ground myself again. I guess, in a way, I have. I’m just looking forward to leaving.”
Imorean nodded and glanced at his watch. It was nearly five in the morning. A silence settled over them. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael should be here anytime soon. He swallowed. Michael’s verdict on Toddy would be absolute. Was there any chance of mercy? He took a breath and shuffled his wings. He would vouch for Toddy, of course he would, but how much weight would it carry? His human mercy versus Michael’s Archangel rationale. He jumped as Toddy broke the silence.
“Haroel.”
“What about him?” asked Imorean, confused. Their old professor from Gracepointe, Felsenmeer and Upper Morvine was nowhere nearby. Imorean couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen him.
Toddy took a breath and stood a bit straighter. “Haroel. He was the one who made me, changed me. Chose me.”
“How do you know?” asked Imorean.
“Vortigern told me. I know, I know. Take everything he says with a grain of salt, but he has records of his own – shaky and patchy records, but they exist. He knows how all the hybrids were chosen.”
“What?” breathed Imorean. The how of his existence as the only part Archangel hybrid, if not the why. It was at his fingertips. “How? How do they do it?”
“None of us are supposed to be here. Michael and the other Archangels, they choose the hybrids and assign a maker for them. Haroel was assigned to me. They choose an area, a year and analyze the fates of all the children born in that area. They choose the ones who are supposed to die before they’re eighteen. Imorean, none of us are supposed to be alive.”
Imorean closed his eyes and reached out with his mind. Something green touched on the horizon of his consciousness. Michael was on the way, drawing close. Inbound. He pulled back and a muscle in his jaw twitched. This, this, was the knowledge that Michael had been blocking him from. A fury seized his chest. It couldn’t be right. Random chance would almost have been better than this – his choosing had been premeditated.
“So, they chose all of us deliberately?” he asked, the words rising like bile.
“From what I can tell, yeah,” nodded Toddy.
Imorean shook his head. “But what about Bethany? How did she get past them? If we were all chosen so carefully, that doesn’t make sense.”
“Bethany is possessing the girl who was supposed to have gone to Gracepointe. None of us know the real Bethany. She’s long gone.”
“That’s sick,” replied Imorean. He didn’t try to keep the disgust out of his voice. “That’s really sick.”
“I know. Vortigern offered for me to side with them, but ... I couldn’t do it. I don’t know which side is worse. The Archangels who conscript children from birth into their forces or the demons who destroy and possess people they want to use.”
Imorean swallowed. There was no answer he could give. The green at the fringes of his mind pulsed a bit brighter. Michael was nearly here. Toddy seemed to shudder and Imorean glanced at him, concerned.
“He’s almost here, isn’t he?” asked Toddy.
“Yeah. I’m going to wake up Tadhiel.” Imorean turned, but drew short as his companion stirred.
“I wasn’t asleep. You go on up above. We’ll be fine,” said Tadhiel.
“You’re sure?” asked Imorean, his eyes meeting Tadhiel’s. A flash of understanding passed between them. The words Raguel had said the night before raced to the forefront of his mind.
“Of course we will,” nodded Tadhiel. “I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
Imorean gave a nod to Toddy and Tadhiel and turned down the long hallway, locking his eyes on the distant door. His heart skipped a beat in his chest. Annoyance. Michael was annoyed. Imorean took a steadying breath. He wasn’t the only one with actions to answer for. Michael had eighteen years’ worth of actions to answer for. It was time to face the music, however furious it may be.
