Divinity (38 page)

“Why from Lori’s closet? Why not from the pond where you saw it more recently, and where it was fully grown?”

“There’s a chance we can follow its evolution and learn something that will help us destroy it. That’s my hope.”

Michael nodded slowly, letting her go and folding his hands in front of him. “So be it.”

Julia pushed her chair away from the table and stood.

“Time for bed.” Julia watched as Michael faded away, her stomach turning somersaults.

Julia stood in the clouds in full spirit form. That was how she had come to think of it when she walked in the heavens and had wings on her back. Their weightlessness still amazed her.

“You appear ready, girl,” Michael said, stepping up beside her. He gave her a stern look. “Don’t pull me this time. If you pull me from all the places I am at any given moment, you will throw the balance of the Earth off completely. It was fortunate I was able to catch up to everything I lost track of last time.”

“I won’t,” Julia said. “You don’t have to tell me again, Michael. There is only one thing I want to destroy, and the Earth is not it.”

“Good.” Michael nodded, satisfied. “I’ll follow you.”

“Wait,” Julia said, searching his eyes. “Before we go, I need you to know something.”

“I know you didn’t do it intentionally, girl.”

“Not that,” Julia said. “I need you to know that I would never do
anything
like that intentionally. I mean…I just hope you know I’m on your side.”

Julia averted her eyes. She didn’t want Michael to think she was weak because her eyes were a little watery. He scooped Julia’s chin up, forcing her to meet his gaze.

“I have never questioned your loyalty, girl. Nor have I questioned your strength.”

Julia straightened. Michael’s touch had lifted the weight from her heart. She hoped he could see the gratitude in her eyes.

Michael’s hand dropped away from her face and he moved aside; Julia looked up and was surprised to see her father, Gabriel, standing before her. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

He nodded once, holding her eyes with his. His wings opened slightly, framing his body. Reaching one arm out toward her, palm up, he spoke. “Be safe, my Child.”

Julia felt his words flow through her as though they carried his energy. They held a feeling of calm pride, and of love. The struggle to hold back the tears renewed as she mimicked his actions, nodding once and stretching one hand, palm upward, toward him. She trembled when their palms touched. For the first time she could remember, she felt the love of a child toward a parent.

“Thank you,” she said, her voice cracking.

Gabriel turned away and she composed herself. Raphael appeared next, and they exchanged a glance and a smile. Her mere presence was a comfort to Julia, and the kindness that shone in her eyes made it doubly so. Julia nodded once to her, then turned to see Ariel join them. She met his stern gaze, then turned to face Michael.

“Let’s go.”

Raphael caught her arm with a firm yet gentle grip. “Wait.”

Julia tilted her head toward Raphael, annoyed with the delay. “What is it, Raphael?”

“You are leading us into battle, and we are following you.” Raphael paused, watching Julia closely.

“Yes,” Julia said. She didn’t understand where Raphael was going with this. Did she need a thank you? “I am well aware. And thankful.”

“We have only ever followed one other into battle, and that was Michael.”

Julia’s eyes widened, the truth of Raphael’s statement sinking in. She wasn’t looking for thanks; she was telling Julia she belonged.

“You must understand the trust we have given you.” Raphael shot a glance at Gabriel. “The faith that we have in you.”

“I understand.” Julia took a deep breath, lifting her head and setting her majestic wings higher on her back. She was still nervous, but her confidence now soared. “I will not let you down.”

“Where are Uriel and Zachariah?” Michael asked. He and Julia had vanished, but his voice remained, questioning the others. “Were they not told?”

“I notified them personally,” Gabriel said, narrowing his steel blue eyes. “Shall I go retrieve them?”

“No,” Michael commanded. “We don’t know how soon we will find the
A’nwel
. We must be at the ready.”

As soon as Michael’s voice faded away, Ariel stepped up beside Gabriel.

“I am not certain of the reasoning behind your fondness for this Child, Brother,” Ariel began, “but I do not think it is a good idea to send an untrained human up against an unknown enemy.”

Gabriel opened his mouth to protest, but Ariel spoke over him.

“I think Michael makes a mistake allowing this girl to lead us in this battle. We do not know her motivations, and the balance is too fragile to unleash her.”

Gabriel’s wings trembled with anger and he turned on Ariel. Raphael caught Gabriel’s eye, and laid one hand upon his arm.

-
Leave this to me, Brother
,- she said privately to Gabriel, who glared at her for a moment, then acquiesced with a nod of his head.

“Ariel,” Raphael said softly, “you do not know of what you speak. I have spent time with her. She is as much one of us as you.”

“She is half-human, Raphael, and thus has free will.” Ariel sneered and turned his dark eyes on her. “You equate me with a Child? Are you saying that I am half of what I am?”

“What you are, Brother, is unable to see beyond your stilted belief that things must only be one way or another.” Raphael relaxed her wings as she smiled. “She has the strength of several of us combined, and the stubborn will of…”

Raphael looked toward Gabriel. He had turned away, seemingly focused on keeping track of Julia and Michael.

“…her father.”

At that Gabriel shot Raphael a brooding look, then turned back to his viewing.

“That alone does not make her one of us,” Ariel said.

“She also has a spirit older than all others, save for ours,” Raphael continued. “A trinity of factors.”

Ariel regarded Raphael sternly for several moments. At last, he nodded. “I will stand where I am needed, Sister.”

“You are needed to protect your little Sister, Ariel. We all need to stand behind her now, Brother,” Raphael said. “This battle will take all of our strengths. And if we lose, there will be no balance. There will be nothing left to balance.”

Ariel stepped off to the side, his wings tense and his brow furrowed. He kept his expression the same even though Uriel’s voice suddenly inside his head surprised him.

-
What have you learned, Ariel?
-

-
Only that we are up against an unknown foe and relying on a Child to deliver us,
- Ariel answered. He made no effort to conceal the contempt in his voice, though it wasn’t clear if it was for the situation or for Uriel.

-
You had better not be lying to me
,- Uriel’s voice came through in a growl. -
I know what you have done
.-

-
I have done what I have done, Uriel. This crisis is bigger than that. We must stand together now
.-

Though Ariel couldn’t see the other, he was certain that Uriel was pacing and glowering, as was his norm. He didn’t hear anything from him for several minutes, then finally Uriel spoke.

-
Fine. We shall put it aside for now, Ariel. But this will not remain forgotten. You committed the very crime that saw Lucifer banished
.-

Ariel sighed. -I
am well aware of my crimes, Brother. Are you aware of yours? Pride? Vanity? Lust for power? All things we scold the humans for feeling. You behave as a petulant child, and for no other reason than that you feel slighted. Put it aside. We must fight as one today
.-

-
Today we will, Ariel. Tomorrow, we shall see
.-

XXXIX

J
ULIA
reappeared in Lori’s living room and immediately crouched at the spot in front of the closet where her grandfather had died. The sight of the closet once again filled her with rage, but she fought it down and focused on her mission.

She reached out with her senses and found the imprint of the darkness that had been left behind so long ago. She followed along its path, feeling it seep through the floorboards, then further into the ground through rock and clay. It moved east through the ground toward the ocean. She felt the places it had stopped. Each time it was underneath a spot where someone had died and shed evil residue. The dark substance collected more energy, gaining in size with each stop.

Just like a rolling snowball
, Julia thought. It was fascinating, but didn’t give her anything that would help her destroy the thing.

As it grew, it became easier to follow. The trail came to the eastern shores of the United States and Julia felt the path take a turn downward, cutting underneath the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, speeding ever south and east. Julia noted that the substance clung to the earth under the ocean, and wondered if water would damage it. Probably not, she decided. That would just be too easy.

As her prey’s trail neared the coast of Africa, it rose toward the surface, travelling at an angle. Once again, it began to make stops along the way, collecting bits of evil and gathering strength.

When she finally broke through and resurfaced, she found herself in the middle of a desert, dunes all around and not a soul in sight.

The sun beat down on her, the waves of heat bouncing off the sand and blurring her vision. She’d lost the trail.

“Michael?”

“I follow you. You must pick up the trail again.”

“It’s so hot. There’s nothing here. Why would it have surfaced here?” Julia frantically spun around, desperate to rediscover the dark path she had been following. A scorpion skittered across the sand in front of her, and she put all of her energy into focusing.

“We could go back,” Michael offered.

“No.”

As though Michael’s suggestion had made her more determined, Julia began to see the memory of energy, light and dark, play out before her eyes. “There was a battle here,” Julia said, turning to find Michael standing inches behind her. “Mass genocide.”

“One of the Twelve died here, many years ago,” Michael said gravely, “cut down in his infancy. The one you replaced.”

“I don’t like it, Michael. It has hunted us longer than I thought.” Julia shivered, her wings twitching involuntarily. “But it wasn’t the thing that did the killing.”

“Perhaps another predator beat the
A’nwel
to it. I am beginning to think it has always known we are its natural enemy.” Michael shook his head and rested one hand on Julia’s shoulder. “And I don’t like it, either, girl, but we won’t find the answers here.”

“No, I suppose not,” Julia said. She scanned the area and smiled when she picked up the path of the
A’nwel
again. “Let’s go, then. It heads north from here.”

Julia sped along the trail. It fell back beneath the surface, shooting through sand and eventually bedrock, and under the Mediterranean Sea. Again Julia made note of the fact that it stayed below the water. And there was something else. The earth and the stone seemed to propel the dark energy forward, as though they were two parts of the same machine.