A Temptation of Angels (6 page)

Helen was surprised when a curve in the tunnel opened onto a large room where Galizur, Darius, and Anna waited. The ceiling now rose far above them, the space expansive in every direction. Hulking machinery lurked in the corners and against the walls, a low humming resonating from its steely forms.

But none of this, as strange as it was, is what commanded her attention.

It was the globe, enormous and rising all the way to the ceiling, that stopped her in her tracks. A perfect, massive replica of the Earth, the orb glowed from within, turning slowly in place on an invisible axle. The wind was not so much a wind
as a breeze, and it was not rushing through the tunnel because of a draft. It moved softly
around
the globe through the sheer force of its size and movement. Helen’s hair lifted in the current caused by its turning. She took a step back almost without realizing it.

“I… It… What
is
this?” She did not even have the presence of mind to worry about sounding like an idiot in front of Darius.

Griffin led her gently by the arm. “Galizur will explain.”

She stumbled forward, even as she wanted to shrink in fear. In the end, her hesitation had no hope against the part of her that was drawn to the object as clearly as if it were calling her name.

It was beautiful, the azure oceans seeping into the green and gold landmasses that morphed slowly into ridged mountains. As the globe turned, the water seemed to undulate, the sand of the Sahara sifting from one side to the other. She caught the scent of salt water, wet earth, wind, and rain.

“It’s the Terrenious Orb.” Galizur’s voice broke through the trance brought on by the object in front of her. “It’s a measure of our world and how secure we are in it.” He gestured at it with one hand. “And as you can see, things aren’t going very well at the moment.”

G
alizur paced the floor in front of the globe before stopping, his gray eyes piercing hers.

“Let us begin with a story of sorts, shall we?”

Helen nodded. “If that will help me understand all this.”

She didn’t believe anything would help her understand everything that had happened in the last few hours, but clearly Galizur had information. And information was her only hope of making sense of it all.

“A long time ago, a group of lesser angels were—”

“Lesser angels?” Helen interrupted.

“They were not archangels,” Griffin explained, “though they were of the same blood.”

“Quite right.” Galizur nodded, continuing. “In the beginning, three of these lesser angels were appointed to watch over the Earth. To keep it working, so to speak. Of course,
the world quickly became too complicated for only three of them to manage, so that number grew, until finally, there were twenty, as there are today. Now known as Keepers, they’re chosen before birth by a counsel of spiritual leaders known as the Dictata. The identity of each Keeper is kept secret—even from themselves—until they reach Enlightenment.”

“Enlightenment?” Helen couldn’t help repeating the word. It carried almost mystical connotations.

“At seventeen, the point at which the Keepers learn about their position,” Galizur said. “After which they don’t age, though they can still be killed by certain rather extraordinary means.”

“What kind of extraordinary means?”

He waved the question away. “Let’s not worry about that for now. Suffice it to say that on the rare occasion such a thing comes to pass, another Keeper—always a descendant of the original lesser angels—is appointed in their place. For eons, it has only been mildly worrisome. A new appointment is not often required, and there are always nineteen other Keepers to keep the world turning until the new one comes of age.”

Griffin spoke softly from Helen’s left. “But that was before.”

Helen looked from him back to Galizur. “Before what?”

A sigh escaped Galizur’s lips. “Before someone began murdering them.”

Helen thought of her parents. Of the intruder who had killed them but had obviously been looking for her.

As if reading her mind, Galizur’s eyes found hers. “You are one of the last Keepers, my dear, as are Darius and Griffin. The only three to have survived a string of mass executions that have taken place over the last few months.”

The words hung in the room, winding their way around her like the smoke that had threatened to choke her in the hidden room of her burned home. She wanted someone to say something. To laugh aloud or even accuse her of being too young, as Darius had done.

But no one said a word. She allowed the silence to sit among them until she couldn’t stand it any longer.

She stood up, pacing away from them. “That is… well, it’s nonsense, that’s all.”

She expected Galizur to answer. To soothe her worries, as he had done since she arrived. But he didn’t. Even Griffin remained silent. It was Darius who dared to speak the truth she couldn’t deny.

“So you’re just a normal girl, then?” He continued without
waiting for her answer. “It’s normal for someone to come into your home in the dark of night, kill your parents, burn down your house? It’s normal for you to make an escape and to follow directions on a piece of paper to find refuge?”

She relished the coldness in his voice. Only reason could help her now.

“And I suppose if you look back on your childhood everything else will seem normal as well. You had a childhood like any other? There were no strange games? No specialized lessons? Nothing to make you think you might have to escape one day or perhaps even fight to protect yourself?” His eyes dropped to the pendant visible atop her gown. When he spoke again, his voice was a notch softer—perhaps even kinder—than it had been before. “No inexplicable gifts?”

She swallowed against the lump that formed in her throat, thinking of her parents. Of fencing and chess. Of Find the Way Out and tea at Claridge’s followed by strolls through the very same neighborhood she had traversed in her nightdress to find Darius and Griffin.

None of it—
none of it
—was an accident.

Darius’s eyes burned into hers in the moment before she dropped her gaze.

“I thought so.” His voice was missing the satisfaction she expected.

This time, she didn’t let the silence settle for long before lifting her head to look at Galizur. She was grateful that her voice sounded stronger than she felt. “I’m listening.”

He nodded.

“Over the past months, the Keepers, along with their families, have been executed, one by one. It was alarming enough in the beginning, for with the loss of each Keeper, Earth’s future grew more and more uncertain. At first, the Dictata appointed replacements right away, but they, too, were killed, almost as quickly as they could be appointed. Now, new appointments have been suspended until the executioner can be found.” Galizur gestured toward the Orb. “And as you can see, the demise of the Keepers has had a profound effect.”

Helen’s gaze slid to the massive, rotating globe. She was captivated by its beauty, yet its movement suddenly seemed laborious, even to her. She felt it struggling to stay alive. To keep turning.

“Assuming I believe you, what can we do?”

Darius’s voice came from her right. “For now, stay alive.”

“How do we do that? If what you say is true, I haven’t even come fully into my… knowledge.”

Helen was surprised to hear Anna’s voice, soft but strong. “We’ll help, Father and I. It’s our task to oversee the Keepers. To ensure their safety and continuity. It has become harder, of course, but it’s still our charge. One we’ll die fulfilling, if necessary.”

Darius flinched at her words but said nothing.

“There is one more thing,” Griffin said.

“What is it?” Helen could not imagine anything stranger than what she had already heard.

“Those who hunt us are hunting something else as well.”

“What?”

“Perhaps it will be easier to show you.” Helen followed Galizur to the Orb. Stopping in front of it, he gestured to the floor beneath the Orb. “This is the gateway to the Akashic Records. And there is only one key.”

Helen looked down, her eyes settling on a tiny pinprick of blue light emanating from the ground. She didn’t know how she had missed it before. The light seemed to pulse with an energy that made the floor buzz beneath her feet.

“The Akashic Records are an accounting of everything that ever has happened or ever will happen in the history and future of mankind,” Griffin explained, his voice ringing through into the cavernous room.

“I know what the Akashic Records are,” Helen said softly. “But I thought they were a myth. A legend.”

Galizur nodded. “It’s standard protocol for things of this nature to be presented in such a way to the young Keepers.”

She lowered her eyes to the blue light in the floor. “If they’re as real as you say, how can they be accessed from here? And what does this have to do with the murders?”

Galizur tipped his head toward the light. “This is simply the gateway. The gateway to everything.”

Anna approached, her eyes kind. “It’s dangerous for mortals to have access to the records, Helen, which is why no one knows where the key is hidden.”

“But that’s not keeping someone from trying to find it,” Darius added. His voice still held a trace of boredom, but she could hear the tension in it, as if it took effort to seem so apathetic.

Helen steadied her voice. “How do you know?”

Darius studied his fingernails, and she had the strangest sense that it took effort to compose himself in the moment before he met her eyes.

“Because they’re killing us to find it.”

The words echoed through the room, bouncing off the concrete walls of the underground bunker.

“Well, don’t look at me,” Helen finally said, glancing at the point of light glowing at the base of the Orb. “I don’t have it.”

“You don’t know that,” Darius said. “None of us knows, which is the point of the whole thing.”

The blank look on Helen’s face must have said everything, because Darius continued. “The Dictata always keeps the Keeper of the key a secret. It’s safer that way.”

Helen tried to make sense of all the disparate information that had been thrown at her. “So we have to find the key to keep it safe from whoever is killing us?”

“No.” Griffin shook his head. “There will always be those who want the key. It doesn’t matter who has it. In fact, it’s better not to know.”

“Then what are we supposed to do?”

“Eliminating the immediate threat is the most important thing,” Griffin said.

And now Helen understood. “Find them before they find us.”

“Want to jump?” Griffin asked his brother as they emerged from Galizur’s some time later.

Darius shook his head. “Not with the girl. Not yet. Besides, the lamps will be turned off soon. We should be safe enough.”

Griffin nodded. The exchange didn’t make sense to Helen,
but she was too tired and overwhelmed to ask about it. She focused instead on keeping pace as they continued away from Galizur’s building.

Dawn was beginning to lighten the sky in the distance, though overhead it was still a deep and mysterious blue. Helen was grateful the brothers didn’t try to speak to her on the way back to the house. She couldn’t have borne more conversation about angels, demons, and executions.

They moved swiftly through the streets of London, though Helen’s exhaustion made it feel as if she were moving her body against a very strong current. She had to trot to keep up, all the while clutching the long wooden box Galizur had given her. But while Griffin sometimes looked at her with sympathy, Darius didn’t spare so much as a glance. Still, she refused to give Darius the chance to feel smug by asking him to slow his pace.

Helen’s instincts screamed as they skirted the streets with lamps in favor of those as black as pitch. Finally, in one particularly dark alley, she managed to gasp a question in spite of their pace.

“Why do we keep to the darkest streets? If we are in danger, wouldn’t it be wiser to stay in the light?”

Darius, a few feet in front of them, snorted at her comment.
She ignored him, waiting for Griffin to answer instead.

He kept his eyes on the street in front of them, his eyes scanning the streets as he answered. “It’s not safe to walk in the light right now.”

She shook her head. “Isn’t it safer than the dark where someone might sneak up on us?”

“No, it isn’t,” he said. “Light is another means of travel for us. And we’re not the only ones who use it.”

She didn’t know what to make of the answer, but then she thought of Darius, appearing in the light of the lamp on the way to Galizur’s. She scoffed inwardly at the idea taking shape in her mind. That Darius might have moved from one light to another wasn’t possible. She wanted to tell Griffin so, to dismiss it as nonsense, but it was all she could do to keep up. She added it to the growing list of questions to ask later.

They came to the end of the alley. Darius stood, surveying the street in front of them. While it was far from brightly lit, the streetlamps cast their murky light across the road, making it seem infinitely brighter than the backstreet from which they’d just come.

Griffin stopped beside his brother. “I’ll keep her with me.”

Helen looked from Griffin to Darius and back again. “What do you mean? Where are we going?”

“Across the street,” Darius said. “Now be a good girl and stay with Griffin, will you?”

She was so shocked by his patronizing tone that she didn’t answer right away. By the time she’d gathered her fury, Griffin had a firm but gentle hold on her arm and Darius had already stepped into the street.

“Don’t mind him.” Griffin followed his brother with Helen in tow. “You’ll get used to it.”

“I highly doubt that,” she said. “And for the record, I have crossed a street before. All by myself, too.”

Griffin looked around, and she had the distinct impression that she was trying even his patience. “I’ll explain everything later. For now, you’re just going to have to trust me. The safety you once took for granted is gone. If you want to stay alive, you’ll stay with us and do as we say.”