Covenant (25 page)

“What will you do when you find her?” Kim said.

Angela said nothing, folding her arms and shivering.

“Will you try to open her—”

“One thing at a time,” Angela said shortly. He was asking far too many questions that wouldn't change a thing. She wanted to scream. This was her life. Instead of being a normal young woman, instead of kissing Kim in a corner and dreaming about the next kiss, she had to run through a rat maze to find her best friend and keep her from being killed. But she didn't regret risking her life for Sophia's in the least. Besides, the more she remembered those moments of passion in Kim's arms from the previous year, the more they seemed like a shameful dream. Right now, with Nina dead and Troy and Juno possibly gone, Angela's sole focus needed to be Sophia. Whenever Angela thought of Kim, Sophia's face overlaid his. Israfel was another matter altogether. Angela's bitterness toward him only grew the more she didn't see him anymore. But so did her pity.

Why had she seen him in pain, crying out, looking so very weak?

Kim laughed softly. “I know. I should keep my questions to myself.” He took a deep breath. “I only wanted to protect you, Angela. Whether or not you take Lucifel's place, I can see myself by your side and nowhere else. You can't give me anything else right now, but at least give me that.”

His anguished voice sounded genuine.

Angela walked over to him. Impulsively, she touched his face, gently brushing the dark hair from his eyes.

Kim closed his eyes and sighed.

“I treated you so cruelly last year,” she whispered. “I'm sorry.”

She bent down and kissed him softly on the mouth.

The sound of clapping forced Angela to rip herself away abruptly. She gasped. Python stopped clapping from his spot right beside her and leaned down, putting his face parallel with her own. “Very nice, but as I said, my dear, onward and forward. Besides, I'm starting to feel left out.”

He mockingly leaned in for a kiss.

What is he doing!
Angela pulled back instinctively, surprise and anger warring inside of her. Heat blazed across her face, and she remembered being locked in Python's arms on the ballroom floor. She breathed hard, shaking.

Python smirked at her, his orange eyes narrow with amusement. Then he turned to a visibly ruffled Kim, setting to work on his chains. “Touchy, touchy.”

Twenty-nine

Those moments Angela and I shared merely confirmed what I'd always known—She was the person I longed to be. She was a perfect reflection of the soul I might lose.
—K
IM
(S
ARIEL
)

The escape back into the labyrinth went smoothly enough that Python hadn't felt it necessary to run.

Kim held Angela's hand tightly anyway, helping her to step over fallen obelisks and scattered boulders that sprouted up in their path. She accepted his help without comment, often staring ahead of herself as if looking into a world more alien than this one. He wondered with a pang of jealousy if she thought of Israfel.

Angela's fingers strayed to a pendant resting against her chest. Kim saw it was a silver feather wrapped around a white sapphire star.

He let go of her hand and she strolled ahead, focused on her steps through the darkness. The tunnels here had been decorated with mosaics now half crumbled with age. Angela glanced at them, but she hadn't bothered yet with questions about what they depicted.

Python dropped back by Kim's side, and they watched Angela's progress together. The demon's face was cool, his footsteps on the stone even and measured. “You didn't lie,” he whispered to Kim. “I can tell by the look on your face that you have feelings for her. Not that I blame you—she's quite a catch. But let's not forget she is the Archon, after all. I doubt she will hold on to you much longer once your usefulness fades.”

Kim laughed with irony. “She told me so herself once upon a time. Unfortunately, unlike you, Angela is a bad liar, and she hides her feelings poorly. She's also much more compassionate than she behaves at times. She's someone who hides most of what she feels.”

“A sign of weakness,” Python said.

“That's only one way to look at it.” Kim stared ahead, still unnerved by the demon's intense eyes. “I can understand how she thinks because we're a lot alike. I also grew up in a world that didn't accept me. I was called a devil's child, tormented because my mother was a witch.”

Python raised an eyebrow. “Well, it was true, correct?”

Kim shook his head. “True or not, the misery other people inflicted on me shaped who I am. Just like Angela, I had to make hard decisions about my life and the direction I wanted it to go in. Eventually, I chose to break free of my torment—”

“With Mastema's help,” Python said quickly. “Which is hardly the compliment it should be. But since you've chosen to work against your arrogant foster father this time, I'm willing to overlook the annoying connection between you two. What a fool. Couldn't he consider you might feel like rebelling someday?”

“Yes . . . with his help, the darkest period of my life ended,” Kim whispered. He tried not to feel even guiltier than he did already. Now he knew Mastema's ideals for the insanity that they were—but Mastema had trusted Kim and raised him.

He shivered thinking of what would happen once Mastema realized centuries' worth of planning would be ruined by Kim of all people and things.

Kim sighed. “My real father was a monster—literally. I would have never found the courage to escape him otherwise. No one in my situation would have been able to . . .”

“And your courageous hunter of a cousin,” Python said, “continues your Jinn father's legacy of terror.” The demon sighed and touched a cut on his cheek.

Kim couldn't stop staring at the cut. Cold fear shot through him. He stopped Python, gripping him by the arm. “
Was it her who cut you? Where is she
?
Where is Troy
—”

Python grabbed Kim's hand, wrenching it off him painfully. “Busy,” he said, continuing forward. “And she'll stay busy enough until I'm done playing with her. She's irritating, but also amusing to me. I don't get rats like her in my maze very often.”

Kim breathed hard. Already, he imagined Troy's intense yellow eyes peering back at him from the gloom. “You shouldn't underestimate her,” he said heatedly. He stepped in front of Python, stopping him again. “You should kill her as soon as you get a chance. Otherwise . . .”

“Otherwise ‘what'?” Python said dangerously. “If anything, half-breed, you would do well not to underestimate
me
. Remember, this is my little portion of Hell, and what I say goes. I say right now that the Jinn rat lives. Don't worry. I'll keep my part of our little bargain and kill her eventually. But you should think before you overstep your bounds.”

Kim couldn't help pressing his luck. Anger flared hotly inside of him, mixing with his growing and desperate fear. Even if Python sawed off Troy's wings and plucked out her teeth, she was now too close for comfort.

Kim struggled to keep his voice lower. “Even your mother sees Troy as a threat. If Troy kills me—then what will you do? So much for freeing the Prince from her cage.”

“My mother,” Python hissed between his teeth, “is currently out of the picture.”

“Do you really want to see Lilith dead?” Kim snapped.

Now Python's eyes narrowed to deadly slits. He stepped forward, leaning over Kim. “Don't get personal with me. I've already done you more than a favor by turning a blind eye as you took my mother to bed for your own personal gain.”

“
YOU TOLD ME TO DO THAT. You said she wouldn't trust me unless I
—”

“Quiet,” Python said, grabbing Kim by the mouth. The demon's fingers pinched Kim's face with a searing pain. “Quiet.”

Kim burned to rip Python's head off. Instead, he looked at Angela who continued to pace cautiously ahead. He trembled and did his best to calm down.

“Good boy,” Python said. He let go. His snakelike eyes bored into Kim. “When it comes down to it, you've grown soft, haven't you? You've changed. That blazing fire behind your eyes, the anger and bitterness that propelled you forward, it's all fading fast. You're right. You need all the protection you can get. You've grown tired, half-breed. If the Jinn does in fact reach you, there's no doubt in my mind as to who will emerge victorious from your little battle.”

Python broke away from Kim and walked ahead of Angela.

She stepped backward in alarm but allowed the demon to pass without saying anything foolish. Python's lithe figure melded briefly into the darkness.

Kim caught up to her, rubbing at the blossoming bruise on his chin.

“What happened?” Angela said, real concern on her face. “Did Python hurt you?”

“We had a little argument,” Kim muttered. “Nothing to get worked up about. He knows it wouldn't be smart to kill me.”

They paused for a moment. Angela glanced at a mosaic to their left. It had been made with glittering black, purple, and silver stones and depicted a gigantic snake within a shining garden.

“The Garden of Eden,” Kim said slowly, gazing at it with her. “Before it was tainted by lies . . .”

Angela stared at the mosaic snake's orange eyes.

She then looked down the shadows of the tunnel where Python had gone ahead of them. She resumed walking and her pace was quicker this time.

“How do you know him?” Angela demanded. Her beautiful face, all sharp angles and large blue eyes, seemed even more severe in the ominous half-light. “What bargain did you make with him, Kim? Was it all about Troy?”

Kim couldn't lie to her now. Not with so much already keeping them apart. “Just like his mother, Python promised to kill Troy for me. But in exchange I'm to free Lucifel from her prison.”

Angela skidded to a halt. Her expression was incredulous. “You can't do that.”

“You don't understand,” Kim said grimly. “I have to. If I don't . . . so much for helping Sophia.”

“I really don't see how the two are connected,” Angela said angrily.

“It's very simple,” Kim said. “If I don't free Lucifel, you can't kill her either. She will take what is in the Book, Angela, and then she will silence the universe with it. Somehow. All I know is that my adoptive father believes in that insane ideal of hers, and I suddenly disagree. Lucifel knows now you are truly the only one who can open Sophia. She wants you both down here beside her for a reason. This is all one big convoluted trap. But better to take the opportunity while we have it.”

Angela's voice grew louder. “Did you write that poem about a Covenant and Ruin and leave it in my dorm house so that I would find it? Stephanie said that was your writing . . .”

She must have meant the poem Python had forced Kim to write. Kim had felt it was underhanded, but the demon had claimed they could use it to encourage Angela through the door that much faster. He'd also made enough threats that Kim never really had a choice. “Yes, I wrote the poem,” Kim said softly.

He refrained from saying that he hadn't been the person who'd delivered it. That had been Python's responsibility. Kim could only imagine what poor soul the demon had bribed to do it. Probably a student who knew Angela personally.

But Angela didn't need to know that just yet. She was already worked up enough, and confronting Python was far from a good idea.

“I think you're insane,” Angela spat back at him.

Kim touched her long red hair. “What will you do then?” he said sadly. “Kill me?”

Angela stared at him. Swiftly, she slapped him across the face. She breathed hard and fast, her eyes glazed with tears. In stormy silence, she sped off down the tunnel.

Kim closed his eyes, touching another painful spot on his cheek. He trembled. Angela didn't understand. He didn't want this either. But for her own good, there was no turning back. It was his unfortunate destiny, after all. Sucking in a painful breath, he started after her.

They were both brought up short by Python. The demon stood in front of two giant double doors made of black glass. He crossed his arms, searching Kim and Angela with his eyes by turns. “Have the little lovebirds finished their quarrel?”

Before Kim could hold her back, Angela strode up to Python fearlessly.

“What kind of lies have you been feeding me? You told me you wanted to keep Lucifel in her cage—now Kim tells me you want just the opposite?” Angela shouted in his face.

Kim knew better than to interrupt. He could only pray.

Python's expression tightened coolly, but he never lost his composure. “Death is as good a cage as any other. It is probably the only one Lucifel will never really leave. But I'd suggest you keep your voice down and your suspicions better placed. The Prince has spies everywhere. Sometimes the walls literally have ears . . .”

Python slammed a fist near what Kim had thought was the carving of a spider.

The insect's green eyes flared to life. Then it hissed and scuttled like lightning across the walls and down the tunnel.

Angela watched it go, horror written all over her face.

“My, my . . . what would you do without me?” Python said, smirking at her.

Forced to give up on confronting him, Angela peered at the glass doors behind the demon. Kim feared she might try to bust right through them without a thought, but she glanced at him and checked herself for a moment.

“So what is this? An exit? I
hate
doors now,” Angela said, still trying to sound angry. “There's never anything good behind them.” She nearly shoved Python aside, examining the latest obstacle to her freedom. “I don't want any sneaky half-truths anymore. This had better be the way out of here.”

“It is,” Python said. “At least—if you can get past the guards. We've reached one of the many exits from the labyrinth. Yes, there is more than one way out. That's the fun of the process, of course. A few ways out, only one terrible way in. After this threshold, consider yourself one step closer to the lowest reaches of the demon city of Babylon, and unfortunately for Lucifel, the Abyss. She's a smart god, however. The Watchers guard this way into Babylon. Regrettably, there are no shortcuts around them . . .”

“The Watchers,” Angela repeated. She shivered. “What are they?”

She glanced around, apparently realizing what Kim had known for a while—that the hieroglyphs on the walls and the mosaics tiled beneath them had been established in sequence, as if telling a story.

In them, Kim recognized angels. Humans.

A tall figure with many wings confused him, but Angela stared at it keenly. Even he could see that its face vaguely resembled her own.

She gazed at it, seeming to remember something as her face grew paler.

Kim swallowed nervously. He looked to her, trying to remain calm as he explained. “The Watchers are angels who defied God by coming to Earth and interbreeding with humans. But the resulting offspring were either stillborn or died shortly after birth. Initially, God punished the Watchers by forcing them to guard the gateway separating the Underworld from Heaven for all eternity. However, after Lucifel's revolt in Heaven, they sided with her, hoping she would be their salvation. She merely moved them into Hell, where they now help guard the demon city of Babylon.”

“They are beyond reasoning with,” Python said. “Trust me.”

Angela gazed up at the words hastily scrawled in demonic Theban over the odd doors. “What does that say?”

Kim read the words aloud.

One exit of many has been found

That much nearer to the infernal crown.

Python repeated the words, and smiled. “It's such an ominous but clever rhyme.”

Angela glared at him. “There really is no other way but to go past them?”

“Only if you don't mind turning back and retracing your steps,” Python said, regarding her with curiosity. “But that's up to you. If it were me, I don't think I would be that optimistic . . . especially considering your circumstances. But that's the mystery, isn't it? What would happen if you were to turn back and choose another path? Perhaps we'll never know. I suppose it's just another part of what makes a maze so much fun.” He said those last words licking his bottom teeth and staring at her. “Mazes and stories are a lot alike,” Python said. “So many twists and turns. And you never quite know if they'll end happily.”