Trick Of Light by Mary Calmes

TWO

When we made it back inside, Jael informed us that the assault on Dylan, trying to outright kill him, had been the first of many attacks.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“It seems that a spell or a curse has been used on Julian. He’s contracted a parasitic infection that’s poisoning his blood, turning his body against him.”

My head swiveled to Ryan, who was trembling as Julian held him.

“And it’s not a normal infection?”

“No,” Julian replied softly, and I noticed then, now that I was really looking, how pale he was and how exhausted he appeared. I waited. “We heard from the doctor today after weeks of tests. At the rate the infection is progressing, he’s conservatively given me no more than a couple of months to live.”

“We have to track her down and kill her,” Raphael told him. “I can find her now that I know she’s alive.”

Ryan nodded. “We have to determine who will help you.”

“What else have you discovered?” I asked Jael. “Who else has been afflicted?”

“You know,” Raphael interrupted, crossing the room to Julian and Ryan and sinking down in front of them, “in Limbo, all curses conjured on the mortal plane are nullified.”

Ryan lifted his head and took a shuddering breath. “I don’t understand.”

“It would be hard for Julian,” Raphael said, his eyes flicking to the midnight-blue eyes of Ryan’s hearth. “The climate is harsh, the creatures too—the demons and wraiths and others—but the disease wouldn’t progress because it’s magical and not physical.”

Ryan grabbed his shoulder hard, nodding, smiling through his tears. “Thank you. Yes, I knew that. I just… I knew that.”

“Well, then”—Julian smiled wide—“I guess I better take some medical leave and get out my camping stuff.”

“There is another option,” Raphael apprised them as I joined him, putting my hand on the small of his back when he stood up.

Ryan was staring at him. “Tell me.”

Raphael seemed hesitant for a moment, like he was thinking better of whatever he was going to say, but then he cleared his throat. “Anahel, the angel of the third heaven, is in my debt. His villa is… It would be an honor for him to host a warder and his hearth.”

“I don’t understand—third heaven?” Julian questioned him.

“I never got this either,” Ryan told him. “I hated all the lore we had to read along with learning how to fight. But this, the angel stuff, was the worst. Third heaven, sixth heaven, what even is that?”

Raphael was squinting at him.

“I’d like to hear as well,” Marcus admitted, looking at my mate.

“I, of course, know all the histories,” Jael chimed in. “But it’s abstract at best. If you could better explain, I would love to hear.”

Raphael glanced at me.

“Explain the universe to us,” I teased Raphael, and he scowled at me. “Oh, c’mon,” I whispered, bumping him with my shoulder.

He exhaled sharply. “So, heaven is vast. It’s a plane, just as hell is, but in hell, each area or place has its own name—Purgatory, Limbo, Gehenna, Kur, Irkalla, and so on.”

No one said a word, all of us listening.

“In contrast, heaven is split into numbered provinces—sixth heaven, twelfth heaven—each protected by a member of the Seraphim. It is infinite, as is hell.” He waited a moment, letting us take in the information. Once he was certain we were following, he continued. “In each heaven, under its Seraphim, are the Thrones.”

“But between Seraphim and Thrones are Cherubim,” Dylan spoke up. “I think you forgot about them.”

Everyone looked at him.

“What? You have to read the Bible when you take philosophy and history classes in college to know what all the references are about.”

Joe chuckled. “Yes, you do,” he agreed. “What about the Cherubim, Raph?”

“Cherubim form the army of the individual Seraphim. They’re quartered in each heaven, they have a commanding officer, and are there for the protection of that particular realm.”

“Okay, this is making more sense,” Julian told Raphael. “A hierarchy makes sense, and so does a standing army.”

Raphael smiled at him. “So each heaven is inhabited by…” He thought a moment. “I dunno, souls? People? Whatever you want to call them. Citizens is the word I use, but basically, when they have an issue or a complaint, they take their problems to the Thrones. They’re the ones doing the day-to-day ruling.”

“Basically the Thrones deal with people issues, domestic issues, and the Cherubim deal with threats that are more military, like, I’m assuming, since it’s heaven, demons or something,” I summed up. “Yes?”

“Yes,” Raphael agreed, grinning at me. “And if there’s an issue that escalates on either side, that’s when the Seraphim, the angel who oversees and rules that heaven, steps in.”

“This is very helpful,” Deidre assured him.

“Thank you,” he said with an exhale. “So the Thrones hear issues and resolve them in their halls, and there are many in each heaven. So, for example, Duena, a Throne I know well, she rules the sixth hall of the seventh heaven. The entire seventh heaven is governed by Adriel, a mighty Seraphim, and because that heaven is near one of the entrances to hell, Michael put her there because she’s a great warrior.”

“Angels and demons aren’t still fighting, are they?” Jael asked him.

“Of course they are. That won’t ever end. It began when Lucifer led the rebellion, and it hasn’t stopped since.”

“But demons can’t get out of hell and into heaven?” I asked him.

“They can if the Seraphim aren’t vigilant. But as I said, every part of heaven has its own angel and those beneath them, and so the concern has never been that the demons rise up and punch through into heaven, but instead that they push through into the human realm and get a foothold here, hence you warders. You stand between the demonic hoard and humans. It’s why every major city in the world has its own clutch of warders.”

“No pressure,” I teased him.

“None at all,” he said, chuckling.

“So your friend Anahel,” I began, “he’s a Seraphim, not a Throne, and he rules the third heaven in heaven.”

“That’s correct.”

“And he owes you?”

Raphael nodded, turning to look at Deidre. “You’re an angel scholar. Have you heard of Anahel?”

“How did you know I was a—”

“Have you?” he prodded.

“Yes,” she said, taking a breath. “Yes, I have. He’s the one who gave refuge to the angel Sariel and his love, and in so doing received the sigil of the path of the moon.”

“The angel and his love?” Leith asked.

“Sariel was a watcher angel, and he fell in love with a human. A man. Other watchers, as you know, comported with women and thus birthed the Nephilim.”

“This is getting way out there,” Malic chimed in.

“Not really,” Deidre countered. “Every warder has angel blood, and that is thanks to the watcher angels that came here to keep an eye on humans.”

“If I remember my Bible right,” Julian said, “all the Nephilim were destroyed in the flood.”

“Not all the offspring of women and angels were Nephilim,” Deidre corrected him. “And contrary to the Bible, not the entire earth was flooded. From a scientific standpoint, how would that even work?”

“Oh, I’m not arguing. I was just asking if—”

“So what you’re saying,” Dylan interrupted Julian, smiling wide, “is that Malic has angel blood in him?” He sounded so excited, and everyone smiled at him.

“Yes,” Deidre told the youngest member of our group. “All warders, every single one, and every sentinel, has angel blood. It awakens to the call of their sentinel, fights evil, and is the source of our power.”

“Did you know that?” Malic asked Jael.

“Of course I knew that,” he grumbled.

“How come you never said?” I sounded almost accusing, which I didn’t mean.

“It never felt important,” Jael answered me. “And would you have believed me?”

I probably would have thought he was nuts.

“But back to your friend Anahel,” Deidre began, her focus on Raphael, “from all the books we have in the Labarum, it’s noted that Anahel’s heaven is considered neutral. He parleys with demons, does he not?”

Raphael shook his head. “Only with the fallen, not with those made since.”

“Still,” she said, grimacing. “One should not speak with demons lest the evil overtake them.”

Raphael scoffed. “Anahel is a Seraphim, just under the archangels. He’s beyond corruption, which is why his realm can be neutral.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Dylan interrupted. “What do the archangels do?”

“A whole lot of nothing,” Raphael made clear.

“That’s not true,” she scolded my mate, smiling at him because, like everyone else, she found him charming. “The archangels are fearsome and amazing, but you’re right about Anahel. I’m putting human attributes on an angel, and that’s not even possible. It would be a wonder to meet an angel.”

“How is he right? Neutral is not good,” Leith said.

“But neither is it evil,” she countered, then turned to Ryan and Julian. “Which, especially if he owes Raph a debt of blood, would keep you quite safe in his realm.”

Ryan looked at Raphael. “He owes you for what, saving his life?”

“The debt is not your concern, only the fact that he will honor it. Angels don’t enjoy being honor bound to do anything.”

“I would suspect not,” Julian said, smiling at him. “But really, you trust him?”

Raphael nodded. “I do, and you and Ryan would do better in his villa than in some inn on the side of the road in Limbo, where he would have to watch you ’round the clock. I mean, once anyone gets close enough to realize you’re human, Ryan will have a fight on his hands. Let me take you to heaven instead.”

“That sounded weirdly sexual,” Dylan commented. “Like a bad pickup line.”

“It did,” Ryan agreed, exhaling a breath and grabbing his hearth, holding on tight while Julian buried his face in the side of his neck, telling him over and over that everything would be all right.

“I love you,” Julian told Ryan, who could only nod and shiver.

“Simon bears a mark,” Jael spoke into the silence.

I looked at Leith’s hearth and saw him comforting his warder too.

Simon forced a smile. “I, um, have what looks like a lesion on my hip. I thought maybe it was a mole that was turning into something, so I went to see my doctor.” He dragged in a breath. “The biopsy says it’s not cancer, but it must be something, because suddenly I’m anemic and my doctor doesn’t know why. Now, though, I’m thinking that if Julian’s curse is internal, then perhaps mine is instead beginning to rot me from the outside in.”

Jesus.

Leith’s eyes were tortured, and I finally realized what I’d been looking at for the past month. Cold terror.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” I whispered to Leith.

“We didn’t know what it was until Dylan was attacked and we all started talking about what that could mean.”

And he’d let none of us in because he showed only Simon his heart. Even Marcus only saw pieces, and only his hearth was privy to his soul.

When Simon put his head on Leith’s shoulder, my friend and fellow warder’s eyes flicked to Raphael’s.

“You should come with Julian and Ryan as well,” Raphael told them. “Simon’s lesion won’t get any bigger, and Julian will get no sicker. Both will simply cease as soon as we make the jump to the planes of Ibos and then on to heaven to Anahel’s villa.”

Leith was struggling to keep his emotions in check, but it was there, on his face, the fight between hope and hopelessness. “Does the debt he owes you cover us as well?”

Raphael nodded.

“You’re certain you’re not overpromising or that you won’t be in Anahel’s debt for—”

“The debt is great,” was all Raphael said.

“Okay,” Leith agreed, looking over at Jael. “But it means we’ll be gone, and time moves differently in heaven. We may be changed men when we return, Jael.”

“We have no choice.” Jael sighed. “Deidre, we need to message the council for others to guard the city.”

“I’ll do that now.” She smiled at him, reaching up, hand on his face, before she placed a gentle kiss there. “It will be fine. We should also ask the council for others to accompany Raph and Jackson on their hunt for Moira.”

“What?” Malic barked at her. “Marcus and I are going with Jackson.”

“Exactly right,” Marcus agreed.

“No,” Jael told them. “I need at least two of the warders who know the city to be here and stand guard. I have to stay and monitor the portal Raph opens to take everyone across the planes. If the portal closes on either end, they won’t be able to get back. Humans aren’t made to cross planes in a corporeal state, only in a disembodied one upon death, so it’s crucial the portal remains open.”

“You won’t be able to leave your home?” Malic was stunned.

Jael shook his head. “I’m to be a gatekeeper until the task is concluded.”

Raphael shook his head. “No. That’s not necessary. My portal won’t close, Jael, not until we cross back or either Jackson or I die.”

It was up to Jael to inspire and be stalwart, so the first words out of his mouth were, “No one’s going to die.”

“Of course not,” Raphael agreed for his sake. “But again, it won’t close. It’s not a vortex or a wormhole or a pocket dimension; it’s a true gateway from your dimension to Ibos. I promise you, the portal will not close.”

“You’re certain?”

Raphael nodded.

“It won’t collapse without me holding it open?”

“No.”

Jael’s brows furrowed. “Raph, my understanding is that a kyrie doesn’t have that kind of power. How are you—”

“If I was going to one of the planes of hell, or deeper into a hell dimension, like where Leith and Simon were lost, I couldn’t hold a portal there for long. Hell is shrouded to all but demons. But in Limbo, and in all the in-between spaces of the world, I can keep a gateway open like I did when I was looking for Marcus.”

“How?” Deidre asked him.

“I don’t know. It’s what makes me better than most,” he said dismissively. “But that’s not the point. The important part is that you, Jael, can patrol the city, as nothing else can use my gateway without me.”

“How do you know?” Malic asked.

“I know,” Raphael stated, and the certainty in his voice reassured everyone. He wasn’t prone to exaggeration or making promises he couldn’t keep. If he said the portal was secure, it was. No one had any reason to doubt him.

“So I can help with patrolling of the city,” Jael said, sounding relieved. “And I’ll be in charge of the revolving warders coming to help.”

“Yes,” Raphael agreed.

“Thank you,” Jael husked, putting his hand on Raphael’s shoulder and squeezing gently.

“So who will go hunting with Jackson and Raph?” Malic wanted to know.

“The Labarum council will send us men.”

“It should be us,” Malic growled. “Fuck the city. Leave it to other warders.”

“You don’t mean that,” Leith said. “You’ve spent your life protecting this city and the people here. You would never abandon it.”

“But I have to go with you,” Malic ground out, like it was painful. “I can’t abandon my brothers either.”

“We’re not abandoning them,” Marcus insisted. “And are you suggesting we leave Joe and Dylan here alone?”

“No, they’d come with us.”

“On a hunting trip through hell?”

“Yes! Why are you arguing with me about this?”

“Because you’re being short-sighted.”

“How so?”

“You actually think that hunting while trying to protect Joe and Dylan is smart?”

Malic turned his back on him, clearly frustrated. “We could protect them and—”

“You want revenge,” Marcus told him, turning Malic to face him. “So do I. Moira kept me from Joe and all of you, my family, for so long. I want to see her suffer too, but not at the cost of losing what I have.”

“Dylan could have died,” he rasped.

“I know,” Marcus soothed, pulling him into a hug.

“Listen to me,” Jael ordered. “The fact of the matter is that Ryan must make the trip to Anahel’s realm, as Julian will be safe there. Leith has to go as well, as the same is true for Simon. Both Ryan and Leith have been building power for over a year, and I didn’t understand why, but now I do. Even though we thought the threat had passed, our power, tied to senses we have no conscious connection to, knew better.”

No one said a word.

Jael looked at Ryan. “The part of you that is a warder and not human knew Julian was sick, knew you had to care for him and be prepared to live on another plane to keep him with you.” His eyes met Leith’s. “Your power grew as well, as you share the same fate, for Simon too will be well on another plane.” He took a deep breath. “But, Malic, you’re not building power, as you’re meant to stay here and protect the city, same as Marcus. Both of you, sensing the safety of your hearths, stayed as you are.”

We all looked at Marcus.

“Has anything happened to you or Joe?”

“I don’t know,” he answered solemnly, turning to Joe as his hearth moved up beside him. “Joe’s fine, his family is as well. But seeing all of you suffer…perhaps that’s my piece of the curse.”

“I think you did yours already,” Raphael told him. “I think that was the actual beginning of all this. You were gone close to a year, Marcus. That was the first working of the curse, the separation from your hearth.”

“That makes perfect sense,” Deidre agreed. “That suffering is what Moira truly delights in. When she killed my warder, she watched her hearth suffer until he too died of a broken heart.”

Marcus said, “Perhaps with some of you gone hunting, others living in heaven, and me here with Malic and Jael, maybe that will be my curse to suffer if we’re attacked.”

I looked at Joe standing close to Marcus and wondered. “If warders build power, do hearths as well?”

“Yes.” Jael nodded. “The longer they’re together, the stronger the bond, the stronger the hearth.”

Raphael and I were closing in on a year together, Leith and Simon two, Julian and Ryan had just made a year and a half, and Malic and Dylan were right around the same. But Marcus and Joe had been together seven years. They knew each other backward and forward, inside and out, they finished each other’s sentences, talked in code, had entire conversations in murmurs and grunts, shrugs, and touches. It would be hard for a witch to find a vulnerable place to strike. So maybe Raphael was right. Maybe the horror of Marcus being away had been the beginning of the curse and we had all missed it.

“The only reason I made it home,” Marcus said, “was because of Raph. He found me because he can fly, and maybe Moira doesn’t know that.”

But that made no sense. She was a witch, and more importantly, Raphael had killed her mate. How would she not know everything about a kyrie? What made Raphael different, beyond his being loved?

“We have a plan,” Jael announced and looked at Deidre as she walked back into the room. “Is it all arranged?”

She nodded. “Help is on the way.”

There was some comfort in that.