Forgiven (Book 3, The Watchers Trilogy; Young Adult Paranormal Romance) (20 page)

“Why do you wish to have it?”

“To prevent Lucifer from using me in his plans.”

The mist floated around me as if it were judging me.  Finally it said,
“To pass through them you
must show no fear.  They
derive their power from
the fear of others.”

“I’m not afraid of them,” I said
, knowing he was talking about the demon souls
.

“We shall see,” the spirit said before
fading away
.

I continued down the hallway
until I reached a room with a stone box sitting in the middle of the room
.
  As soon as I stepped over the threshold, I felt them.  They whirled around me like a hot wind
on a summer day.
O
ne of them passed through my body sending a cold shiver of dread down my spine.  One by one the souls of the damned demons buried inside King
Solomon
’s tomb battered my body
like they were
searchi
ng
out my weaknesses
.

All of a sudden
,
I
found myself
standing on the old wooden half bridge back in
Dalton
.

I saw the Will of my
childhood
sitting with his feet dangling off the edge of the bridge.  He turned when he heard my younger version walk up behind him.

“Where’s
Tara
?” He asked.

“She fell asleep,” I told him.

“Oh well,” he said
, his eyes
filled with mischief.

“What are you planning, Will Allen?”

I watched as
my younger self
stood up and Will began to chase me
around
with his stupid garter snake.  My young counterpart tripped, hit her head on an old wooden post and fell into the water.

“Lilly!” Will yelled before diving in after me.

“You feel guilt over this one’s death,” one of the demons accused.

“It was an accident,” I said.  “It wasn’t anyone’s fault.”

“Yet, you feel as though you should have done something to prevent it.”

“There wasn’t anything I could have done,” I said, truly realizing for the first that it was the truth.  Will had died because of me but what happened hadn’t been a planned thing.  It was an accident, nothing more.

The scene melted away and changed to the moment I found
Tara
and Malik in the
forest Robert had taken them to
. 
Tara
lay on the ground with Malik transformed into his panther form licking the torn flesh of her wound.  Robert had r
ipped open
her throat
,
almost killing her because of me.

“
Proof that y
ou are a danger to your friends,” another demon accused.

“Robert is the one who put them in danger.  I did what I had to do to save them.”

The
dark forest
faded
to be replaced by a bright sunny day. 
I saw Malcolm about to kiss me on our day together. 
I didn’t try to stop him and knew I felt guilt over such a small indiscretion.  I shouldn’t have let him do it
,
but I wanted
to
know what it would feel like and let it happen.  I watched as we had our talk and relived the question which broke my heart the first time he asked me.

“
M
a
y
I have one last kiss, dearest Lilly, before I make my heart let you go?”

“You allowed
this
man
to
kiss you even though you had pledged your heart to another,” another demon mocked.

“I had a moment of weakness,” I confessed.  “But I never let Malcolm think I loved him more than Brand.  I did what I had to do to make him finally realize we couldn’t be anything more than friends after that.”

A vision of Robert and I struggling against one another materialized and I was forced to watch myself
discover my true power and reduce him to a pile of ashes.

“He tried to violate you yet you still feel guilt over his death.  Why?”

“You should never take j
oy in the death of someone else,” I said, remembering God’s words to me.  “
I don’t believe what I did was wrong but it brought me no joy either.”

The scene melted away
as did my guilt over the
events
in my life the demon’s tried to use against me
, to weaken me with. 
Now I knew why Horace had said only someone with a pure heart could get close to the ring.  No human can have a completely pure heart.  We all have things we regret.  We all have something from our past which makes us feel guilt.  But you can’t let regret and guilt rule your life.  You have to find the strength within to forgive yourself.  I let go of my guilt and regrets realizing some had been out of my control and some had been simple human
mistakes
. 

The spirits ceased the
ir
bombardment of my soul, fading into nothingness.

I stood and walked over to the tomb, sliding the
stone cover with more ease than I had expected.  Lying within were the bones of King
Solomon
still wearing his crown
around
his skull and the ring
on one of his hands.

I pulled the simple silver ring off his skeletal finger and looked at it in the light of
my
flashlight.

The ring was embossed with a pentagram and
six colorful jewels
which twinkled against the light to illuminate the stone walls with their brilliance
.

“Be careful with the power it possess
es
,” the
misty
white spirit said
as it
float
ed
into the room.

“I’ll bring it back
to you
when I’m done with it,” I
promised
, now knowing the spirit was that of King
Solomon
’s.

“I will be waiting,” he said, fading once again.

I phased back to the surface.

Brand and Malcolm immediately made me put the ring on.  It was large so I had to place it on my thumb.

“Try it out,” Malcolm encouraged.

“O
n
what?” I asked.

“Horace of course,” Malcolm said
,
gesturing to the jinn with his hand.

“Now wait just a damn minute,” Horace said, filled with righteous indignation.  “I didn’t say you could do that.”

“How do I control him?” I asked, having my own reasons for wanting to control Horace.

“
Just tell him to do something,” Brand said.

I looked at Horace and said, “Sit down.”

Horace sat down on the packed sand without argument.

“Tell me what favor you want me to do for you,” I said, still wanting to know what type of bargain I had struck with
the jinn
.

“I want you to make Faust give me my ring.”  Horace clamped both of his hands over his mouth but it was too late.  I knew what I wanted to know now.

“How do you know he has it?” I asked.

“Because another jinn saw him with it,” Horace said, then quickly covered his mouth again as if that would stop him from answering
any more of
my questions.

“We did promise
to do his favor
, dearest,” Malcolm reminded me.

“But if he gets his ring back he’ll start making bargains with people and ruining their lives.  You saw th
e
actor Faust was using.  He lost everything
when Faust left
,
but he didn’t care
because
h
e
finally
had his freedom back.  How can I let
Horace
do that to people?”

“Anyone Horace tries to trick is looking for an easy way to obtain something,” Brand said.  “You shouldn’t pity people like that.”

I knew both Brand and Malcolm were right.  We had struck a bargain with Horace.  He kept his end of the deal.  Now I had to keep mine.

“Where is Faust?” I asked.

“I don’t know just yet
,
but I’ll find him,” Horace said
fervently
.  “Can I get up now?  This ground is cold.”

“Get up,” I said in irritation.  “Go back to your shop and don’t contact me until you know where Faust is.”

“Got a phone number?” Horace asked.

Brand gave him his cell phone number.  Horace memorized it and quickly phased back to his shop.

I looked at the ring on my hand and asked, “Now how do we test it out on
Lucifer?”

“
Are
he and your mother back from Vegas
yet
?” Brand asked.

“I
’m not sure
.”

“
Try to call her and arrange a night where we can take them out to dinner. 
It
’ll give us a good excuse to
meet with them
without him being
too
suspicious
of our motives
.  We need to catch him off guard to truly test the rings affect on him.”

My
m
om wasn’t back from Vegas yet
,
but we did arrange to have diner with them that following Monday.

“I have some wonderful news for you,” my mother said to me over the phone, sounding happier than I had ever heard her sound before.  “But I
’ll wait until I see you to tell you what’s happened.
”

When I got off the phone with my
m
om, I told Brand what she had said.

“I
’m
worried,” I confessed.  “What do you think he’s done to her?  Can he brainwash people?  She’s never sounded that happy before.”

“I know you haven’t had the best relationship with you
r
mother in the past, but just because she’s acting happy doesn’t mean Lucifer is influencing her more than he would any other human.  He can’t make people do what he wants unless he’s possess
ed
them.  Whatever he is making her feel is genuinely making her happy.”

“But isn’t that reason enough to be worried?
”  I felt on the edge of hysterics.   “
You and I both know this can’t end well for her.  She’s going to get her heart broken one way or the other.”

“Then let her enjoy the happiness she thinks she has
for however long it lasts
.  All you can do is be there to help her pick up the pieces
afterwards
.
”

I pulled Brand in close to me.  “I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“Well, that’s something you will never have to worry about.  I will always be with you.”

As I stood close to Brand, feeling his love like a physical bond between the two of us, I decided
it was time to tell him about my touch.

“I learned something about my power when I was with Mason,” I said, pulling away from Brand slightly.

“What was that, my love?”

I raised my hand, now lit with the fire o
f
my power
.

“He called it the Touch,” I said.  “He said I was a conduit between God and whoever I touched, that you could feel what God fe
e
l
s
for you from it.”

Brand looked at my hand and took a step back.  The cautious way he stared at
it
told me he wasn’t sure he wanted to know exactly what God thought of him.  Like all the Watchers, Brand still held the guilt of his sin in his heart.  Even though he had spent his life here on Earth trying to be the best person he could, Brand wasn’t sure it was enough to atone for going against God’s law.

Taking a deep breath, Brand nodded his head, giving me permission to touch him, to finally let him know where he stood with God.

I reached out and cupped the side of his face with my hand.  Brand closed his eyes as he took in a sharp breath and fell to his knees in front of me.  When he looked back up at me, I saw
the shimmer of
tears
in
his eyes.