Horizon, Soul Guardians Book 3 (14 page)

“
Nice job.” David’s eyes
glistened. “Think you could do that to all the demons? Maybe even
higher demons?”

Kara brushed the hair from
her eyes. “I don’t think I can control higher demons. I think this
only worked because these are the
same
demons Asmodeus released by
using the mirror … and me. I doubt it’ll work on new breeds or
higher demons.”

“
Well, that’s too bad. But
I’m glad it worked for this stinking lot.” David shrugged and
searched inside his jacket. He pulled out a blade. “I wonder what
Gabriel’s gonna say about all this.”

Kara frowned. It still felt a little
strange that she had been able to control those demons. She didn’t
want to be associated with Asmodeus. If the Legion found out, would
they think she was playing for the other team? Was this what
Zadkiel had meant about her being more demon than angel? She wasn’t
sure how she felt about all this. She was glad it had worked, but
it left her wondering if there was something more to being part
elemental than she knew, if she was ready to accept it.

“
David, do you think you
can keep this between us? Until I figure out what to do about it. I
don’t know what Gabriel or the Legion would think about my
new
ability
. Can
we keep this just between the two of us for now,
please?”

David looked at Kara kindly. “Of
course, Kara. I won’t say anything if you don’t want me to. They
don’t need to know about this. I’ll leave this part out of my
report to the big man, don’t worry,” he laughed softly. “Probably
wouldn’t even believe me anyway.”

Relieved, Kara stared at the dark
opening on the east side wall of the castle. “Do you still want to
check it out?” Kara glanced at her watch. “We still have a half
hour before we have to report back.”

“
Yeah … I think we should.”
David dusted off his jacket. “We can’t leave without knowing if
he’s in there or not. I don’t want to disappoint the big man on my
first mission as a CDD field agent. I can’t do any more begging …
it’s beginning to affect my reputation.”

Kara ignored him. She looked down at
her hands and wondered if this new ability was part of Asmodeus’s
plan. Was he going to use her to control the demons on Earth? What
if he, too, could feel what she just did to his demons? If he did,
that meant he might be waiting for them inside the castle. The
elemental power had already left her, and she didn’t have any other
weapons. She brushed the tall grass with her boots and searched for
her soul blade.

David handed her his blade. “Here—take
this one. We don’t have time to search for yours. I have another
one.” Kara took the blade and clasped it in her hand.

“
Thanks.”

“
Let’s go inside and look
for lord dumbass.”

Kara followed David along a small
stone walkway overgrown by weeds and grass. It led to the opening
in the wall. Large jagged rocks projected from the top like fangs,
a warning to those who dared to enter. Kara shivered involuntarily.
Hiding her fears from David, she followed him in.

They stood in a dark lobby with narrow
walls. Soft light flickered from the lanterns on the walls. Someone
or something had been in there for sure; they had taken the time to
fire up the lanterns. Dirt covered the floor like a grey carpet.
The air was hot and stuffy. Kara suddenly felt claustrophobic. She
didn’t want to stay there for much longer. Thankfully, David crept
forward and the air cleared up a bit.

They walked silently for ten minutes,
both with their weapons out and ready. The light from the torches
flickered on their soul blades. They didn’t meet any other demons.
The tunnel was as silent as a grave. Every so often they would pass
collapsed walls. And Kara wondered what supported the upper levels.
The light weakened up ahead. David slowed down and pressed his body
against the wall. Kara followed his example. Together, they moved
slowly towards the waning light, careful not to make any sudden
loud crunching noises with their boots.

They entered a large round chamber.
Yellow light spilled in from the roofless top. A large pile of flat
stones lay crushed on the floor. The roof, Kara guessed. Weeds
sprouted from cracked floor stones in a tile pattern of moss green.
Trees had found spaces to grow and flourish in the room. Four stone
columns rose from the ground and reached the open sky. Birds’ nests
rested on the tops like crowns made of straw. Bird droppings
painted the floors and columns in a sticky whitewash.

A raised marble platform stood in the
center of the room. A great wooden chair with carved legs in the
shape of lion’s paws, rested upon the dais.

A man sat in the chair.

Slumped casually against the chair, he
gazed at them with dark, unblinking eyes. He wore a light grey suit
and light pink tie. His hair was dark brown and cut short. He
wasn’t moving.

“
Stay behind me.” David
walked towards the man cautiously. He balanced his soul blade
between his fingers. With each new step he looked around the room
nervously, as if expecting to be ambushed any second.

Kara felt something was wrong.
Something was definitely wrong with the man, but she couldn’t
figure out what. The closer she got, the stronger she felt that
something was amiss. She looked over her shoulder nervously. What
if this was a trap? Still the man didn’t move or blink.

Flies buzzed around her face, and she
waved them away impatiently. She bumped into David’s back. His face
was drawn into a frown. Kara realized he was staring at the man.
She stepped aside and gasped.

A mortal man sat in the chair. His
flesh was dark grey and covered in sores. Decaying flesh peeled
away from his face and hands, leaving exposed wet wounds. Large
gashes oozed green pus. Buzzing sounds echoed around them. He was
covered in flies. The smell of rotten flesh burned Kara’s nostrils.
His eyes had been removed, Kara noticed. But it was the expression
on his face that terrified her. It was frozen in an expression of
pure terror. Kara knew he had suffered. Sadness welled inside her.
He didn’t deserve this. No mortal deserved to die and be exposed
like this. A single yellow post-it was stuck to his forehead. Kara
edged closer and read;

Your love for the monkeys
has blinded you from the truth

“
What does that mean?”
David ripped off the post-it, crumpled it and threw it on the
ground. “Is this some sick joke? You think this is funny—you demon
lunatic!” His voice carried throughout the chamber.

Kara picked up the creased note and
evened it out against her thigh. She studied it for a moment. “It
doesn’t make sense. Why go through all this trouble? Why was this
place guarded if he was never here?”

David kicked the chair. “Because he’s
a sick bastard! This is a game to him! He’s probably hiding
somewhere having a good laugh.”

But Kara wasn’t convinced. None of
this made any sense.

“
But why hide? He’s
supposed to be strong, right? He believes he’s more powerful and
cleverer than any of us. He’s not afraid of you or me, or the
Legion. It—it just doesn’t make any sense.” She thought for a
moment, and then she read the note again out loud, desperately
trying to decipher the meaning.

“
I’m telling you, he’s
mocking us! He’s not here. It’s just me, you, and this poor
bastard.” David smoothed the top of his hair down with his hands.
Kara thought he was going a little mad.

Kara squinted down at the note. It was
written in the form of a riddle. She was never good at cracking
riddles. Their hidden meanings always gave her a headache. “Would a
king hide away from a weaker opponent? No. Asmodeus is smart …
really smart. He’s testing us with this, I’m sure of it. This note
is a clue. It means something … I … I just can’t figure it
out.”

“
It means we’re
fools.”

Kara ignored David as she
focused on the note. She kept repeating the words over and over
again inside her head until she chanted them. The truth. What was
the truth?
Your love for the monkeys has
blinded you from the truth
. And then it
hit her.

Kara’s face paled. “David. I know what
it means.”

David whipped his head around and
stared at her with wide eyes. “So … tell me? What’s the dumbass
trying to tell us?”

Kara crumbled the note in her hand.
She stared at the floor for a moment, as though preparing herself
for what she was about to say. “It means … he was never after the
mortal world. The attack on the mortal world was just a
diversion.”

Kara watched the realization flicker
across David’s face. She knew he thought she was right. “Think
about it. He hates mortals. Why would he want to control a world
filled with so-called monkeys? That’s something he never wanted.
He’s been planning this all along.” Kara met David’s
eyes.

“
He’s going after
Horizon.”

Chapter 11

The
8
^th
Plane

D
avid’s eyes were cold and determined. “We have to warn them.”
He secured his blade inside his jacket. “We have to move fast,
Kara. I saw a creek not too far away from the castle. Let’s
move.”

Kara only nodded, still numb with the
truth of what she had discovered. It was the truth. As soon as the
words had escaped her lips, she knew it was true. She shivered. Her
dear father was going after Horizon.

They ran back through the tunnels and
out through the east side of the castle, faster than Kara would
have imagined possible. The M-5 suits proved themselves yet again.
The sky was a dark brown, and Kara instantly knew without looking
at her watch that they had taken up their full hour. Gabriel had
warned them to be back within an hour. Jenny and Peter were
probably already back from their mission by now. Most probably
they’d announced that their location was a decoy—and had been left
wondering if Kara’s and David’s was the real deal. No one would
have suspected that Horizon was the real target. Asmodeus had
played his cards right. The question was: when did he plan on
striking?

They galloped across the main grounds,
and Kara soon heard the soft rush of the creek. Most of the
Legion’s guardians were out in the mortal world, saving lives. They
had left Horizon unprotected. It would be an easy target. The
father she hated had come up with a brilliant plan. It would be a
massacre. The Legion would have to call in all the troops and ready
themselves for an attack. She had to warn them. Time was running
out.

Kara’s mind raced faster than her
legs. Gabriel would know what to do. They had to reach him
first.

“
There’s the creek!” Kara
heard David call up ahead.

The stream rushed down purposely, as
if commanding them to make haste.

David grabbed Kara’s hand and
squeezed. “Ready?”

Kara squeezed back gently.
“Ready.”

Together they leaped into the air and
landed with a loud splash in the icy spring waters.

Kara opened her eyes moments
later.

A grey haze masked her vision. She
blinked several times. She shivered and looked around. Fog lingered
waist high above the ground. A thinner mist stirred slowly from
above like moving clouds. It was everywhere. There was no sky, and
no sun. The fog appeared to go on forever.

She looked down. Fog coiled around her
legs like snakes. Through the vapors, her feet pressed down against
grey concrete floors. She remembered having a dream like this once,
where she stood alone and lost in a vast field of rolling fog. A
strange metallic smell lingered in the air.

Something felt wrong to Kara. She was
definitely not in an elevator, so where the heck was she? She had
always found herself in one of the elevators with a snotty primate
when she had jumped back from a mission. But there was no primate
to greet her this time, just a field of fog. How did she get
here?

She remembered David’s handsome face.
She remembered jumping into the creek with him moments ago. She
couldn’t see David anywhere.

“
David! David, where are
you?”

No reply.

Panicked, Kara ran blindly
into the wall of fog calling out David’s name but just an eerie
echo answered her.
Strange
, she thought. She stopped
running and flailed her arms in the fog, searching for David or
anything solid. She cursed the mist.

A dull thud came from far in the
distance. Kara strained her eyes to see through the mist. It was no
use. It was like trying to see with a blanket over your face.
Kara’s chest ached. Where was she? And what had happened to
David?

She heard a tapping sound. It sounded
like footsteps. They were coming towards her. She couldn’t see. Who
or what was coming towards her? The footsteps became louder. She
remembered that she still carried one of David’s soul blades, and
she pulled it out. She waved the blade easily in her hand. No
matter what was coming, she was going to put up a fight.

The wall of mist separated.