Angelus (8 page)

The demon by Angela's side—Lilith—gasped. “So that's the answer,” she said softly.

She turned and regarded Angela. A dangerous smile spread across her face.

Lilith must have also seen all Angela's past and memories. She now knew how to open Sophia.

Before Angela could even think of what to do next, the illusion finally ended, thrusting the world back into darkness.

Were you there in the Garden of Shadows
. . .

Angela awoke to those words, sung as if by a mirage in an unearthly, feminine voice.

Her eyes opened blearily and she took in the world around her. For a while, she lay where she was, too fearful to move. Perhaps this was just another illusion. Her bed was long and hard, and above her a great chandelier flickered in a pool of darkness. Beyond its light she could make out mosaics. One of them displayed the image of a feathered serpent twined around a tree laden heavily with red fruit. Another showed a dark gray angel she knew to be Lucifel. The Grail—the emerald Eye—seemed to glitter where it hung against Lucifel's chest.

Where am I? This isn't my own room.

Her chest tightened with fear. Suddenly, Angela realized sweat beaded her forehead and cheeks. She listened intently to the familiar song as it continued.

                   
Were you near when the Father took wing?

                   
Did you sigh when the starlight outpoured us?

                   
When the silver bright water could sing . . .

                   
Have you drunk from a river of amber?

                   
Or eaten the nectar of dreams?

                   
Where thoughts linger determining eons,

                   
And time stretches apart at the seams . . .

The terrible vision she'd lived through yet again flickered and finally died away. Her head throbbed and her temples ached. It felt like someone had pulled out her brain and stuffed it back into her skull. Even the familiar song echoing throughout the chamber made it hurt. Angela breathed softly, still too cautious to get up. The song stopped. Footsteps clattered to her side.

Quickly, Angela swung her legs over the side of the table she lay upon and grabbed her attacker, pinning the person's arms behind her back at the same second her own feet hit the ground.

“Angela!” a soft voice said. Curls smelling of incense fluffed against Angela's chin. More of the cloying scent wafted through the room.

“Sophia?” Angela whispered.

She let go, allowing Sophia to stumble and regain her balance.

For a second, they stared deep into each other's eyes. Sophia's normally placid face was drawn with anxiety. Fear tugged at all her delicate features. With a wild cry of happiness, Angela reached forward and clasped her tightly, unable to believe that they were looking at each other again just as meaningfully as in the past. Sophia held Angela against her chest, stroking her hair. “You're all right,” Sophia said, letting out a long and shaky sigh. “So it worked, then.”

“What worked?” Angela said, still in pain, but barely feeling it anymore.

Sophia shook her head. “Nothing. Never mind . . .” A haunted look flickered across her face. “All that matters is your memories should have returned completely. Kim and I suspected you were being secretly fed angel blood over time. Eventually, we knew for certain. But you're all right now.”

Yes. I'm all right now. But—

“Where is Kim? Where are we?” Angela said.

“Promise me you won't go crazy, Angela.”

Angela felt her entire body tighten. Sophia's new tone was alarming. “What? Why?”

“Just promise me. You have to.”

“Fine, I promise.”

“Like you mean it.”

Angela took a deep breath. She spoke slowly. “I promise I won't do or say anything stupid.”

Sophia squeezed her eyes shut, opened them again, and, seeming to find the courage to speak again, began to explain. “We're in Python's mansion. Kim has—well, I don't know where he is anymore—” She must have seen how shocked and upset Angela looked, because here Sophia paused and grasped Angela by the wrists. “Angela, calm down. It will be all right.”

This time, Angela knew she stared at her like they'd never seen each other before.

“It was the only way to restore your memories,” Sophia added hastily. Her voice cracked with pain. “Please understand. I went along with this only for your sake. It was Kim's idea, and I agreed to it of my own free will. Neither of us could stand seeing you suffer anymore. Your visions—I know they're frightening and terrible—”

“How could you know that?” Angela whispered. She slumped against the cold table that had been her bed, trying
to take everything in. Python had been the cause of all her misery mere months ago. He'd been responsible for luring Angela into Hell in the first place. And Sophia and Kim had bargained with him?

“I know,” Sophia said, tears rolling down her pink cheeks once again. “All you need to do is believe me. Just like every other time. Please do that for me . . . Angela.”

Sophia gently touched her arm.

Angela bit her lip. She sighed and glanced at their surroundings. The gilded room was little more than a glittering prison cell. There were no windows. The velvet-draped furniture lay in heavy shadows, and the serpent mosaics on the ceiling played with her eyes this time. They watered as more incense drifted by. She spotted the doors on the far side of the room. Perhaps they were unlocked.

Angela's eyes widened.

“Lilith. She knows how to open you, Sophia. We have to get out of here!”

She ran to the doors and yanked on them hard. They didn't even budge. Locked, just as she'd feared. They were trapped.

“Do you know a way to get out of here?” Angela said. “Come on! Come on!” she shouted, stumbling as her grip slipped on the ornate door handles. “Help me open these doors. If we pull together—”

“That won't work,” Sophia said. “Python has a strong seal on the doors. Besides, he'll know if you break them and get out.”

“So that's it then?” Angela said. She glanced around the room frantically.

“Well—there is one way out. But it's not ideal.”

“Anything,” Angela said. “Just show me what to do.”

Sophia sucked in a deep breath. She looked around the room, as if suspecting eavesdroppers. Then she motioned Angela toward its center. Now Angela noticed that a slab of carved onyx lay flat in the middle of the room. It was large enough to be suspicious, but small enough to escape notice without proper attention. A coiled serpent with glittering garnet eyes had been carved on the surface. “Help me push,” Sophia said, and she knelt down, already starting to edge the slab to the left.

Angela knelt and helped her. The onyx scraped and screeched against the stones where it rested. As it moved, a thin strip of darkness appeared. A dank musky odor drifted up from the hole they were gradually uncovering. Finally, they'd pushed the slab completely to the side, exposing a circular hole resembling the mouth of a stone well. Angela stared down into the inky blackness that greeted them. “How in the world did you know this was here?” she said, turning to Sophia again.

Sophia continued staring into the hole. “I suspected this was a sacrificial chamber. Python probably sends prisoners here for sport. There were many demons like him in the old days. Lucifel eradicated most of them—they were wild, rebellious, truly dangerous types that even she found repugnant. Python, though, had his mother, Lilith, to protect him.” Sophia shook her head sadly, as if mourning for so many unnamed victims. “Typically, this hole would be uncovered. Despite the decadence and luxury of the room, eventually anyone would go mad from being confined for so long, especially without food. Once they can't bear anymore, the prisoner has no choice but to escape using this hole.”

Angela felt all the blood drain from her face. “And? Then what?”

Sophia looked back up at her. “Well—that's what we're going to find out, I suppose.”

Angela stared back down into the hole. She couldn't see a thing, and the Grail that was her left Eye wasn't helping or making a difference.

The incense in the room continued to nearly suffocate her. She'd hated smoke ever since her family had perished in a fire. Now, with those visions that had been assaulting her day and night, she'd grown to hate darkness as well.

Angela's vision began to swim again. “
Angela!
”

Angela jumped as Sophia's fingers brushed her cheek, revealing all her inner torment and concern.

Angela held Sophia's chilly fingers, and as she looked down, she saw that the white sapphire pendant she'd given Sophia no longer sparkled. “What happened to the stone in your necklace?” she asked weakly.

Sophia dropped her gaze to the floor. “Its fire has gone out,” she said. “Perhaps because we've been down in Hell for so long. Everything eventually changes in this awful place.”

Angela pawed her own chest, rubbing the gem of her matching necklace with her thumb. Even with her memories temporarily erased, her reasons for cherishing the symbolic gem had somehow never vanished. “Well,” Angela said. “We haven't changed. We're still together, right? We always lean on each other for the most important things, right? That means much more than a gemstone.”

“Yes, we do share everything with each other,” Sophia whispered. But her smile was faint and sorrowful.

“Then I think it's about time you told me,” Angela finally said.

Sophia paused. She peered carefully at Angela, clearly startled. “Tell you what?”

“What that lullaby you sing really means. Israfel sang it, using it to guide me to him the first time we met in Luz.”
Yes,
Angela thought,
on that long, long ago day in Luz
. “And you told me it was a lullaby. And that even he, the great angel that he was, doesn't know what the lyrics really mean. Because it's your song. So tell me what they mean, and how in the world Israfel's song can be your song at all.”

Sophia's eyes went glassy. Her face masked over with distress.

“Well?” Angela said insistently, unable to stop. “Where have you been for so long that Israfel learned a lullaby from you, Sophia? How did you survive in the Abyss so that Raziel could find you?”

They should have left by now, but Angela couldn't help thinking about her vision whenever she looked at Sophia. As if the answers were right in front of her. But nothing about it really made sense. Even though Lucifel had remarked on Angela's likeness to the Father more than once, Angela was a human being, not a god. Her soul was said to be mysterious, but Raziel had chosen her to be the Archon because it was the best choice available to him at the time.

She wasn't special. Or maybe she just didn't want to be. Angela wasn't sure she even knew anymore.

Sophia's lips parted. She looked at Angela and back to the black hole in the floor, as if tempted to jump inside to avoid the question. Then she shook her head. “No. You wouldn't understand. Not yet.”

“
That's
what I don't get. How could I not understand? I've understood everything else about you, haven't I? I think I'm more than ready to grasp the rest. Why are you trying to evade the question?”

“Because you're not ready to know everything about me,”
Sophia said softly. “That's why.” She sighed painfully. “It's time for us to leave, Angela—”

“No. I've had it. Enough secrets.” Angela held her tightly by the hands. “What was the punishment you suffered, Sophia, that was so great? What could you have done to merit being in darkness that deep? When I look at you, all I see is kindness, and compassion, and beauty. You're not a murderer or a thief. So what did you do and how could you be so impossibly ancient?”

“I told you I died in childbirth,” Sophia whispered. “And that wasn't a lie. And that's why I'm what you see before you now. I'm just a soul trapped in a body made from scraps of my original one.”

“Fine, scraps then. But what does that mean? I hate these riddles!”

Sophia set a finger on Angela's lips to silence her. “See? There's no way you can understand right now. But trust me when I say you'll know everything, and you will understand, soon enough.”

“And then?”

Sophia stared deep into Angela's eyes. She pushed away some blood-red hair from Angela's cheeks and then cradled her face with both hands.

“You're so sad again,” Angela said softly. “Why are you always looking at me like that?”

Sophia kissed her on the forehead. Angela's eyes watered and she looked down at her feet.

“You've come such a long way,” Sophia said to her. “From that self-loathing girl I met at Westwood Academy not so long ago. That young woman couldn't separate dreams from reality. She'd been abused by parents who'd labeled her as a freak and a murderous monster even before she was born. So
she shut herself off and shut people out. Because she thought it was better to be alone forever than to feel the pain of a broken heart. So what happened? Well, once she saw that even angels aren't perfect, she learned to forgive herself. She stood taller every day and grew prouder of how she'd survived so much pain. Finally, she walked tall and I could only walk feebly by her side, admiring what she'd become. That was the young woman who braved Hell and the Devil to save me from death—or what she thought would be my death. That was the person who said she couldn't murder me to save the world, because she'd learned there is light in that world and hope. Angela, you asked why Raziel chose your soul to be the Archon's. You asked why he chose
you
to make the ultimate decision to save the universe or silence it like Lucifel wishes to.

“Have you ever stopped to consider, it's because of the person you are?”

Sophia caressed the matching pendant resting on Angela's chest. “I never knew how, I never knew when, but in the end, I always, always believed you would set things right.”