ALEXA STOOD UP. The bone in her arm had repaired itself without her even knowing. Ashes of her demon attacker still fell around her like dark snow. She stared at her shaking hands, but the strange specter whose light had flowed into her and had killed the demon had disappeared the moment the demon had exploded.
What had the specter done to her? Why had it looked familiar?
Alexa looked down at the crumbled body of the mortal man she’d tripped over when she had been fighting. His chest rose and fell slowly. He was still alive. When she looked at his face carefully she realized she had seen his face. The specter had worn the face of this man. She was certain of it. It had taken the shape of this man, and then it had helped her defeat Kali’s demon husband.
What had happened to her?
“Alexa!”
Milo ran over to her. His clothes were drenched in sweat, and ash covered his hair and face. “What happened to the demon? How did you do that?”
Alexa frowned. “I’m fine thanks.”
Milo’s expression softened. “No. I mean. Yes, I’m glad you’re okay…but—”
“But what?”
The anger that had flared inside her had vanished, but she was still frightened.
What the hell had happened?
While she stood in silence for a moment and reflected upon what had happened, she realized she didn’t hear the cries of the ghoul demons or any other sounds of battle.
Then she heard a loud buzzing noise, and all the ceiling and wall lights flickered on in the hall. She could see piles of demon ash and human bones on the floors, but the demons were gone.
“Alexa? Are you listening to me?” Milo was trying to get her attention, but her thoughts were elsewhere.
“This man needs help.” She gestured to the man who had shared the specter’s face.
Before she realized what she was doing, she ran over to Rachel’s body and knelt in the pool of blood beside her. She clenched her jaw as she looked at Rachel’s blood-soaked shirt. With trembling fingers, she reached out and pressed them against Rachel’s neck. She felt a pulse.
“Thank god,” said Alexa. “Milo, help me with her. She’s still alive.”
She started to slide her arms under Rachel when a hard hand jerked her back.
“Don’t touch her!” It was Erik, and he spoke in a voice that was barely recognizable. He let go of Alexa’s arm and said with barely contained rage, “I’ll take her.”
Alexa didn’t understand the hatred in his voice, and in her confusion she was unable to feel the joy she should have felt at discovering Erik was alive at all. For a moment she just stared at him. Her chest ached as though she’d just had the breath knocked from her.
Did he think she was going to hurt Rachel?
“I just wanted to help her—”
“I said I got it.” Erik slipped his arms beneath Rachel and lifted her as though she weighed no more than a child. He walked away without another word, and he did not even glance in Alexa’s direction.
“Damn this body,” she whispered, as the artificial tears clouded her view of Erik’s back as he walked away. She felt numb and cold and dead. Her world was crumbling around her. Erik…
It was an effort to keep her knees from buckling, but she managed to stand. She watched him move farther and farther away. At the end of the foyer, Matt bounded into view, but his dark skin paled when he spotted Rachel limp in Erik’s arms. He and Erik disappeared down the staircase that led to the medical wing.
Alexa heard the surviving Sensitives weeping and murmuring as they rushed the injured to the medical wing and said prayers for the dead.
But she didn’t really see them. She didn’t see anything.
Everyone was watching her. It was exactly as it had been when she’d first stepped into Hallow Hall. They were all spectators to her torment. She was shocked at the mistrust and hatred she saw in their faces. It was as though they blamed her for all this death.
Was she to blame? Had she brought this upon them?
Maybe they were right.
Alexa felt sick with self-loathing. Blinking quickly, she focused her anger on the one responsible, the one who’d started it all.
“I’m going to kill you, Ryan,” she whispered to herself.
Alexa dashed past the angry mortals and sprinted across the hallway in the direction where she’d last seen Ryan disappear. Her cheeks felt wet, but she didn’t care who saw her cry now. They all hated her anyway. But somehow, she would make this right. And Erik would see. He would understand that she’d never meant for any of this to happen.
She rounded the corner and halted. A single white door without a handle stood ajar in the hallway. The chair-rail moldings on the door matched the ones on the adjacent walls. If the door had been closed, Alexa knew she would never have seen it. A secret compartment, she realized.
She made for the opening and peeked inside. The space was large enough to fit maybe ten people without being too crowded. Alexa stepped into the room. She didn’t expect Ryan to be here, but her intuition told her that he had been here.
What had he been looking for?
It was a small room that was filled with shelves of dusty books, carved objects, and artifacts from around the world. Boxes were piled in the far corners. Alexa guessed it was some sort of secure storage room for special artifacts. An antique looking desk with lion-shaped legs sat at an awkward angle, as though someone had pulled it aside in haste. Another smaller door behind the desk revealed a secret safe, large enough to fit a small box. Even from where she stood, she could see it was empty.
“There’s nothing in there that requires your attention,” said a stern voice behind her.
Alexa whirled around and met the scowl of a small, white-haired woman whose fierce blue eyes would make any normal person flinch. But Alexa wasn’t normal.
Valerie, the Head of House Uriel stood in the doorway. Her usual neat hair was disheveled. Her clothes were torn, and blood stained her white top.
“What was in there?” Alexa pointed to the small opening. She hoped the Head of House Uriel wouldn’t throw her out. “He took it, whatever it was. So what was it?”
Some of the pieces had started to fit together: the ghoul demons and Kali must all have been diversions so Ryan could take whatever was in that safe.
“What does it matter now? He took them,” said Valerie.
Alexa noticed dark circles under her eyes and more lines around her mouth. Her eyes were red, and she looked on the verge of tears. She pushed Alexa out of the way and entered the small space.
“Them? What them?” asked Alexa. When Valerie didn’t answer she pressed, “If I know what he took, maybe I can stop him. Please. Tell me what was in that safe.”
Valerie’s face flushed, and in two strides she was but a hair away from Alexa’s face.
“In the name of the souls, tell me why you angels murdered the very people you were supposed to protect.”
Alexa’s chest tightened. “I can’t. I wish I could. But I don’t have the answers. I don’t know why they would do such unspeakable acts. I’m truly sorry.”
“You’re sorry?” Valerie was incredulous, and for a very petite woman, she was suddenly frightening, large, and imposing. “Tell that to the children whose parents have just been murdered.”
She turned on her heel and stormed out the room.
“Valerie, wait!” Alexa ran after her but froze when she got into the hallway.
Crowds of Sensitives lined the hallways and the lobby, more than she ever imagined had lived in Hallow Hall. She had never seen many of them before. All eyes were on her again, and she didn’t have to meet their gazes to feel the gut-wrenching sorrow they felt.
They blamed her. And maybe they were right to do so.
Even Ash and Karen, the two young operatives she did recognize, looked tense, fierce, and coldly indifferent. The animosity was so thick she could almost see it.
Alexa looked to Milo for moral support, but he leaned against the opposite wall with his arms crossed over his chest and said nothing. There was something haunted about his look, as though he were struggling with something internally. He wasn’t looking at her directly. She followed his gaze and saw a familiar figure cut a path across the room.
Michael was still strikingly beautiful and as fit as a warrior. His long raven-black braid swung as he walked, and Alexa could see the P-like sigil of House Michael on his collarbone. He was the mortal she’d first blamed for the deaths of all those girls. She flushed with the shock of seeing him now. He was covered in blood, and it wasn’t his. The look of loathing he gave Alexa now almost made her change her mind about speaking. But this wasn’t the time for regrets.
Alexa focused on Valerie.
“The Legion didn’t do this. You have to believe me.”
Milo didn’t help her. He just stared at the large puddle of human blood on the floor. Alexa looked away from him and addressed everyone.
“Listen. I don’t know if the Legion told you, but Ryan’s in league with Hades. He’s the one who raised the pagan god from the Netherworld. He betrayed us. He betrayed the Legion. Milo and I had nothing to do with what he did today. I swear.”
Valerie was still angry and skeptical. Alexa could feel she was losing her.
“I know you’re upset, and you have every right to be. There’s nothing I can say that’ll make this any easier,” said Alexa gently. “But I promise you—he’s going to pay for this. But to do that, I need your help. Please, tell me what he took.”
Valerie hesitated before she trusted Alexa with the information.
“He took the Deus Septem, our most sacred books,” she said finally. “I don’t know how he knew where to find them, but he did.”
Alexa shook her head. “But that doesn’t make any sense. What would Hades want with these books? Aren’t they just the book of rules that the archangels gave you to follow?”
“They’re much more than that.” Valerie looked exhausted, but she continued, “In addition to our history they contain extraordinarily powerful spells and secrets. People have been looking for them for a very long time. These books could do serious damage in the hands of the wrong people.”
“But wouldn’t it have been easier to crack the Elder Codex?” asked Alexa.
When she saw Michael’s eyes widen she added, “Daniel showed me the program when I asked him to help me with the Hellgates.”
“Not all the contents of the books were transferred into the program,” said Michael bitterly. “That’s why the books were kept safe and secret.”
“And somehow Ryan knew this,” Alexa wondered out loud. “You said there were secrets in these books. Let’s say that somehow he did find out where the books were hidden. Do you know what specific parts he’d be interested in? Which secrets? Can you think of anything that Hades might want from them?”
She couldn’t help but wonder if these books had anything to do with The Crowns of the World who had been murdered. Maybe they had everything to do with it.
“I don’t know,” said Michael, frowning. “But he killed the innocent for those books.”
“What if they come back?” asked a woman Alexa had never seen before.
Michael’s eyes darkened, and his fingers grazed the hilt of his sword. Alexa wondered if he was planning on using it on her. But then he said, “Angels can’t stay in our world indefinitely, Tara. They’ll weaken if they can’t return to Horizon. They’ll weaken, and when they do—we’ll kill them.”
Milo’s head snapped up, his jaw clenched, and Alexa knew exactly what he was thinking because she was thinking it too.
Alexa wasn’t about to tell the Sensitives how Ryan and his minions could extend their stay on Earth by ingesting the souls of mortals. She was still having a hard time believing it herself.
The tension around them worsened. The Sensitives watched the angels. They were still twitchy with adrenaline from the attacks, and it was clear from their unguarded expressions that they wanted to slaughter the angels. They were waiting for the order from the heads of their houses.
Valerie and Michael exchanged glances, and she could have sworn Michael’s hand twitched toward the hilt of his sword again. All the Sensitives were casually reaching for their weapons. They wanted to kill the angels who’d slaughtered their families. She saw the challenge in Michael’s eyes. This is where it stopped. The Sensitives had drawn a line.
For a long time, no one said anything.
Valerie finally turned around. “You should leave. Now.”
Her voice was harsh and impatient, the voice of someone talking to a child.
“But we want to help—”
“Leave. And I wasn’t asking.” Valerie’s tone was final.
Alexa opened her mouth to protest and felt a hand grip her elbow.
“Time to go, Alexa,” said Milo. His breath brushed her neck. “A good angel always knows when to leave. Especially when they’ve outstayed their welcome.”
Alexa tried to wiggle out of his grip, but he just tightened it more. She looked at him and said in a low voice, “I want to help,” she pleaded. “Why can’t they see that?”
“Look at them,” he whispered so that only she could hear. “Look at their eyes. You’ll find no love of angels there. We need to leave before they decide to kill us. This is a fight we cannot win. Come now, we’re leaving. We’ll help them in another way. Come.”
Alexa had seen mistrust in the eyes of the mortals before, but it was nothing compared to the rage she saw now. It seeped from the very core of them, like a sword that had been drawn.
If they didn’t move away now, the Sensitives would slaughter them.
With a final glance at Valerie, Alexa stopped resisting and let Milo drag her away.