Helda was not so generous. Mimi did not know to whom she owed this great gift. She was just grateful for another chance.
As an immortal she could live forever—she did not need her soul to survive—and so had given it up without knowing the consequences. But when she felt its return, she understood what she had lost. Her love. Her reason for living.
What happened? Where was Kingsley? Had he managed to escape from Hell? Had she succeeded? She couldn’t remember anything. Her heart hurt thinking of him. She wanted to see him so badly, to make sure he was safe and sound.
Mimi looked at her brother. Jack was breathing heavily, and he had an ugly cut on his face. They had faced the blood trial and still the bond lived between them.
“Are you okay?” she asked Jack, who sat up, groaning.
“A few bumps and bruises, a broken back, but nothing fatal, it’s healing quickly. Luckily we’re vampires.” He smiled.
“I’m glad you didn’t kill me.”
“Yeah, yeah. But what do we do now? Since we obviously failed at destroying each other.”
Jack stood up and helped Mimi to stand as well. “There’s only one way out of this bond.”
“You don’t mean.” Mimi blanched.
“Yes,” he said. “Our former master is the only one who can unmake what was made.”
The bond was bigger than them—bigger than their wants and desires—and they had no choice.
“Maybe it’s for the best,” Mimi said. “There’s something going on down there. maybe we can stop it from the inside.”
“Double agents, you mean?” Jack asked with a smile.
“Sounds kind of dorky when you put it that way, but yes.”
She brushed off the sand from her jeans. She wanted to see Kingsley again before she went back down into the underworld, but she knew that was not possible. Still, she could feel that he was alive—on earth—and that she had succeeded in bringing him back. As long as the bond lived, neither she nor Jack could be with those they loved. “Well, I’m ready if you are.”
“No time like the present,” Jack agreed.
They disappeared into the glom, and just like that, the Twin Angels of the Apocalypse went back down to Hell.
Gabrielle’s Secret
TheKeyoftheTwins.Schuyler’smindraced.Shethoughtof everything that her mother had told her about the Van Alen Legacy and the Order of the Seven. The Key of the Twins.
Allegra Van Alen and Charles Force. Michael and Gabrielle. The strongest angels who had ever lived. The Uncorrupted. The Archangels of the Light.
“They Key of the Twins is Michael and Gabrielle’s key,”
Schuyler said, a little awed. “The Almighty left a path open for them because they were vampires by choice and not sin. A way back home.”
“How do you know this?” Kingsley asked, looking a little awed himself.
Schuyler could not explain. It was something Allegra had said all along, right from the beginning—in those dreams Schuyler had had of her mother, and during their last conversation before Allegra sent her on this quest to fulfill her legacy.
She realized this was her true legacy, a secret so important, Allegra could not tell her herself. She’d trusted Schuyler to find out on her own. The Van Alen Legacy was part of it—searching for the Gates of Hell would lead her to discover this. It was all there, a puzzle whose pieces were hidden, but were slowly locking into place. Allegra had said of Charles:
There is
something broken in the universe that only we can fix together. That is part of your journey as well.
And what was the last thing Allegra had told her?
My daughter, I am in you. Never
forget that.
“It’s in… me,” she said. “My mother was the keeper of the Gate of Promise. I know that now. It’s right. That’s why there were two gates—because she hid one from the Order.” Allegra had hid the knowledge of their salvation in her daughter.
Whatever made Allegra the keeper—she had given it to Schuyler for safekeeping.
The Order of the Seven had been sent out into the world to find the Paths of the Dead and build gates to keep the demons in the underworld. But what if one of them had found something else… not a path to the dead but a path back to Eden. What then? Why had Allegra not chosen to use the key herself ? What was she hiding? Why did she hide it in her daughter?
Gabrielle’s daughter will bring us salvation
, Lawrence had told her.
She will lead the Fallen back to Paradise.
It was all up to her. Schuyler Van Alen was the keeper and key. The Key of the Twins.
“We have to find it before the Silver Bloods and Nephilim do. And we have to defend it. Oliver, Kingsley… you have to help me.”
“Already there, Sky,” Oliver said. He looked up from notes that Lawrence had left, and read the passage that had led them to Cairo. “‘On the shore of the river of gold, the victor’s city shall once again rise on the threshold of the Gate of Promise.’ The Thames is named after Isis, the golden goddess.
And as for the victor’s city—the City of London was estab-lished by the Romans in A.D. 43.”
“What do you say, guys?” Schuyler asked.
“Londontown,” Kingsley mused. “Good place as any.”
“I’ll get our tickets changed,” Oliver said, standing and feeling exhilarated to find himself useful again.
Schuyler felt her heart calm. There was so much to do before the end. She thought of Bliss out there—she had been charged with finding the wolves—but from what she had seen of the Hellhounds, she knew that her sister had a tough task ahead of her. They would need the Hounds of Hell in the end, if they were to destroy the Silver Bloods, her mother had said.
When the time came, when the battle was fought, she hoped she would find Bliss by her side.
Kingsley gathered their empty cups and tossed them in the trash. Schuyler took a moment to herself while she was alone. She could not feel Jack in the glom anymore. The telepathic bond between them had gone dead, and she did not know if he was alive or dead. She had to carry on without him.
She had promised him that. Just as before, she would have to find a way to survive, and she was glad she would have her friends with her this time.
Bonded Servants
The Dark Prince sat on his golden throne. One day, not far in the future, he would no longer need this facsimile of Paradise. One day, he would return to his former glory.
“I was wondering when you both would realize that the Uncorrupted will never appreciate you like I do.” Lucifer smiled when he saw the latest additions to his royal court.
Abbadon and Azrael shone in their golden raiment. They were dressed for battle, as they had been that day so long ago, during the glorious rebellion, when Lucifer had first tried to take Paradise for his own.
Their wings beat against their backs, and their golden armor glowed like beacons in the night. Their faces were calm and serene, extraordinarily beautiful. His lovely dark angels.
Lucifer sat in his white robes, gleaming, shining with a light more wondrous than anything they had ever seen. This was the morning Star. The lost prince of Heaven.
They walked up to the throne and knelt at his feet.
“We come to pledge our allegiance in return for an unmaking,” Abbadon said.
“Our swords are yours to command,” Azrael added.
“What proof do I have of your loyalty? You betrayed me once before,” Lucifer demanded.
Jack was prepared. “You shall hold our souls hostage until we are free. When our debt is paid, we will regain them along with our freedom from the bond and each other.”
Mimi nodded.
“So be it.” The Dark Prince smiled. With Azrael and Abbadon at his side, his return to Paradise was assured. “Arise, my friends. Welcome back to the fight.”
Allegra waked into the White Darkness. It was over twenty years since she had broken her Bond. Not long ago, she had left her two daughters back on earth with their tasks, and she had journeyed down to the center of Tartarus. She found Charles in a smoky nightclub. They had not seen each other since that night when she’d left him in New York.
“There you are,” she said gently.
Charles wore a sharp black suit and was sitting in front of a piano, idly playing the keys. “How did you find me here?” he asked.
“It’s one of our favorite memories, isn’t it?” Allegra looked around. “1923. The Cotton Club. Before the fire.”
Charles sighed.
“Shall I play you something?” Allegra asked, sitting next to him. “Will you sing for me?”
Charles nodded. He stood to take the microphone and began to sing. “‘Unstop the day, you’ll rise again…’”
Allegra listened, her eyes glistening with tears as she played. When he was done, she clapped.
“Shall I tell you the story? Of Florence,” Charles asked. “I do not know if you are strong enough to hear it.”
“Begin from the beginning,” Allegra said. “I only know my side.”
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