The Belial Ring (The Belial Series 3) (24 page)

Laney darted a glance to Henry and away.
Actually, that wasn’t entirely true. Henry had killed Gideon with a piece of metal. He’d shoved it into his chest with such force that the Fallen’s heart had been all but obliterated.

“
They can at times be killed without the aid of a gun,” Henry said quietly.

Laney nodded at him before turning back to Victoria.
“Were there any Fallen or nephilim working on Helen’s side?”

“
A few. Just like today.”

“
Her brother, Pollux,” Jake said.

Laney looked over at him.
“And Castor?”

Jake shook his head.
“No. Just Pollux. Pollux was alleged to be the son of Zeus. Castor was mortal.”

Patrick nodded. “
You have to remember, the Bronze Age was the age of heroes and gods. There are tales of incredible strength and abilities. Maybe the gods and the heroes were more than human.”

“
Some were. Some weren’t,” Victoria said. “Some were simply figments of people’s imagination. But it was much harder to kill the Fallen back then. In fact, they didn’t know how to do it. They weren’t even sure if it could be done.”

“
So how did they get the Fallen to Egypt?” Henry asked.

Victoria smiled.
“Poison. It was Helen’s idea. She knew they couldn’t fight the Fallen the whole way to Egypt. Once they went down, she needed them to stay down. So she had them continually poisoned until they were in their coffins. Then they sealed them in tight. And they stayed there until they died. When they were reduced to only bone, their bones were smashed to dust.”

“
Achilles. The great hero. He was poisoned—brought down by an arrow to the heel,” Patrick said.

Victoria nodded.
“He was believed to be immortal. No weapon could take him down. He was the fiercest of fighters.”

“
He was entombed there?”

Victoria nodded.
“As was Agamemnon.”

Jake jolted.
“He was a Fallen?”

Victoria nodded.
“Yes. There were many during that time that came together. Most on the opposite side of humanity.”

“
So if the war wasn’t about Helen, what was it about?”

“
Oh, it was about Helen, just not about her beauty. She was the general. She pushed back the Fallen.”

A tremble ran through Laney.
A general. “The Egyptian word for bull is
ka
. Which is pronounced exactly the same as another ka which is interpreted as a person’s double and holds their creative energy.”

Victoria nodded.

Laney continued. “So a tomb created for sacred bulls would be the perfect hiding place for the energy of a person’s double. A perfect place for the ring.”

Victoria nodded.
“Yes. It’s there.”

Victoria said it with such confidence that Laney believed her.

“But . . .” Victoria drew out the word.

“
But? But what?” Jake asked.

Victoria looked at Laney.
“The ring
is
in the Serapeum. But I do not know where in the Serapeum it is located.”

Laney pictured the archaeological site.
It was huge, consisting of both the newer section and a much older section. And maybe there were even more sections that had never been uncovered.

Another thought struck Laney.
“The renovations.”

Her uncle nodded, concern on his face.

“What renovations?” Jake asked.

Patrick answered.
“The Serapeum underwent an extensive renovation from 2001 to 2011. Radon gas had been found in the underground necropolis and walkways had collapsed. During the renovations, crews created walkways and metal skeletons for each of the granite sarcophagi. People were all over that place for over a decade.”

Laney looked at Victoria.
“Is it possible the ring isn’t there? Could it have already been found?”

Victoria shook her head.
“No. It’s still there. It’s hidden in a place known only to the ring bearer.”

Laney swallowed as all eyes turned to her.
She shook her head. “Well, I don’t know where it is.”

Victoria smiled.
“Yes, you do. You just have to remember.”

Laney
’s eyes flew to Victoria’s. “Remember?” Her conversation with Patrick came back to her. “How can I remember something from someone else’s life?”

Victoria
’s voice was gentle. “It wasn’t someone else’s life. It was yours. You do realize by now, the ring bearer is always the same person.”

“
No, I hadn’t realized that,” Laney countered.

Victoria
’s voice was gentle but insistent. “The dreams aren’t dreams. They’re memories. You just have to open yourself up to them and you’ll know all you need to know.”

“
But I don’t
want
to know.” Laney realized with a shock that she had said the words out loud.

Victoria nodded.
“You never do. But eventually, you always accept your destiny.”

“
Always?” Laney asked, still hoping there was a way to avoid what Victoria was telling her.

Victoria
’s voice was firm. “Always.”

CHAPTER 47

A
fter Victoria had finished with her “you just have to remember where the ring is” speech, she’d told them she’d have the plane ready to leave early the next morning. Laney had wanted to leave immediately, and just get this over with.

But it would take at least twelve hours to reach Egypt.
If they left right away, they would arrive in the morning and have to wait almost a full day before they could safely go to the Serapeum without detection.

So, they
’d all trooped off to bed. Laney had slept a little, but every time she began to dream, she’d yanked herself out of sleep. She just couldn’t handle another dream from her former selves.

Laney stared at the ceiling as Jake slept quietly next to her. Was this all possible? Was she the ring bearer? Had she been alive multiple times before? Or, from the way Victoria explained it, had she always been alive?

She rolled onto her side, crushing a pillow to her chest. Shouldn’t she be better prepared, then? If this were true, shouldn’t it be less impossible to believe?

Her doubts assaulted her throughout the long night. At five, she
crawled out of bed and headed to the airfield with everyone else. From the looks on everyone’s faces as they boarded the plane, she didn’t think anyone had gotten much sleep.

Laney stared out the window of Victoria
’s Gulfstream G550. It was a lot like Henry’s jet. Idly, she wondered if Victoria and Henry had gotten a family discount.

Patrick was asleep a few rows behind her.
Henry was sitting with his mother a few seats ahead, talking quietly. And Ralph was up with the pilot. Laney tried to sleep, but it eluded her. Her mind was simply too full of questions to shut down.

“
What is it?” Jake mumbled from next to her.

She glanced over at him.
His eyes were still closed, a blanket pulled over him. “I thought you were asleep,” Laney said. It always amazed her how Jake seemed to be able to fall asleep at the drop of hat.

“
Nah, just resting my eyelids. So what’s going through that pretty little head of yours?”

What wasn
’t? Destiny, Helen of Troy, the triad, the Fallen. You name it, she was thinking about it. But right now one thought was taking center stage: Victoria’s comments about her previous lives. “Helen.”

“
Helen’s always been a fascinating character,” Jake said.

“
You mean because of her beauty?” Laney asked.

Jake shook his head.
“Not just that. From the very beginning her story is enigmatic. Even her birth.”

“
Her birth? How?”

“
Well, according to the tales, Helen was the daughter of Zeus, as was Pollux. But in the story, Leda, Helen’s mother, wasn’t impregnated by a man, but by Zeus in the form of a swan.”

“
A swan? Seriously?”

He smiled.
“Yup. And Pollux and Helen had company. Because Castor and Clytemnestra were also alleged to have been conceived that same night, but by Leda’s actual husband, Tyndareus.”

“
Quadruplets?”

Jake shrugged.
“According to the tales. And all of them were born from actual eggs. So I guess hatched is a better term.”

“
Huh,” Laney said as she leaned back against the couch.

Jake squinted over at her.
“Okay, I know that look. Your wheels are turning. What are you thinking?”

“
I guess it’s the question Clark asked a few days ago about the relationship between genetics and human development. Biology has been marinating in the back of my brain since then.”

Jake smiled.
“And?”

“
Well, think about it. If someone asked you to explain the difference between identical and fraternal twins, what would you say?”

His eyes got larger.
“I’d say fraternal twins came from different eggs, while identical twins came from the same egg.”

Laney nodded.
“Maybe the story of Helen and her siblings’ birth just got confused by a storyteller who didn’t understand science.”

“
So, what? They understood the science of reproduction thousands of years ago?”

Laney shrugged, thinking about what Victoria had said about civilizations being destroyed over and over again.
“Why not? After all, we know that civilization existed much earlier than we realize, probably predating 10,000 BC. And we think that those people may have even had aerial power. Is it really that crazy to think that they understood biology as well?”

“
I never thought about that. Whenever you guys talk about earlier civilizations, it’s always their advanced technology that you mention. I guess it stands to reason that if they were advanced in one area, they’d be advanced in other areas. But we’re talking about the Bronze Age, right?”

Laney nodded.
“Yes. The Bronze Age extended from around 3,300 BC to around 1,000 BC, give or take.”

“
And the ancient civilizations we’re talking about predate that time period by at least seven thousand years. So is it really possible they were talking about the science of reproduction?”

“
Who knows? Maybe someone who had already lived some previous lifetimes was there.” She smiled. “Apparently that’s a thing.”

He took her hand.
“So I hear.”

“
And maybe that someone explained the science to everyone else.”

Jake leaned over and kissed her.

“
What was that for?”

“
I love how your mind works.”

Laney snuggled into him, needing his warmth.
“You know what Victoria said about me remembering?”

Jake nodded.

“
My uncle said the same thing earlier. He thinks my dreams aren’t just dreams. He thinks they’re memories of my past lives.”

“
What do you think?”

All of her doubts crowded into her words.
“I think if that’s true, they’ve got the wrong girl. If the women I’m dreaming about were previous ring bearers, they didn’t just defend the ring; they led nations, armies. The world went to war. Is that what I’m supposed to do? Is that what’s going to happen next?”

“
I don’t know, Laney.”

She looked into his eyes, searching for something, anything
to tell her it was going to be okay, but that comfort wasn’t there. It couldn’t be.

She leaned into his side.
“Ever since I spoke with my uncle I’ve also been thinking about the War Scroll.”

Jake raised an eyebrow.
“Because of the stolen folio?”

“
In part. The War Scroll was written by the Essenes. They were this apocryphal cult that existed around AD 30.”

“
Okay.” Jake drew out the word. “So what about has you thinking?”

She played with his hand, tracing his fingers with hers.
“It tells of the final battle between the Children of the Light and the sons of Belial.”

Jake glanced down at her, his eyebrow
s raised. “‘The Children of Light’ sounds awfully similar to Cayce’s Children of the Law of One.”