Reapers (28 page)

“
Augura,” said Niri, “I
would like you to meet—”

“
Kara,” said the
Augura.

Her voice was deep and commanding. It
was a young voice that didn’t match her face. Kara flinched at the
mention of her name.

The white oracle focused on Kara for a
second longer and then moved over to David.

“
And David,” continued
oracle, “And of course, Jim.”

Mr. Patterson smiled kindly and bowed.
“Augura, how nice to see you again.”

David leaned toward Kara and
whispered, “How did she know our names?”

“
Because the crystals told
me,” answered the white oracle, clearly not suffering from any
hearing loss. “Because I have seen the future, and you are both in
it.”

Kara looked away. She knew that the
white oracle could see the darkness in her.

“
And what does the future
say?” asked David.

Augura closed her eyes and
concentrated for about twenty seconds.

Without opening her eyes, she reached
down and grasped the crystal that hung on her large golden chain.
Within seconds, a tiny light flickered inside the crystal. It grew
steadier and finally shone like a little star.

Finally, the white oracle opened her
eyes.

“
It is strange, very
strange. But I cannot
see
who did this. Just when I’m about to reach that
memory of your past, Kara, the visions stop and there is a
blackness. It is a cold blackness, like a great wall that cannot be
breached… even by me. Something is
blocking me. It is very powerful, and I
cannot break through it. I’m sorry, but I cannot reach inside your
mind any further.”

Augura met Kara’s eyes.

“
You have the wings of the
archfiends, of that there is no mistake. I cannot tell you how they
did this, but I can tell you that they want to get something
from
you.

“
These creatures possess
an anger that has been brewing for many millenniums. It is an anger
that can only lead to devastation. They want to avenge themselves
on us and to destroy the world with fire and death.”

The oracle’s voice softened as she
spoke next. “I do not know your full purpose, Kara, in this life or
the next. These creatures have done something to you, and yet I
don’t know the full extent of what they have done.”

For just a second the oracle looked to
Mr. Patterson, and they shared something. It was then that Kara
knew that the white oracle was holding something back.

Augura looked back at
Kara. “What I do know is that you are
still
changing.”

Kara felt like she’d been punched in
the face by a brick fist.

“
I’m afraid it is true,”
agreed the oracle with the light blue robe.

Kara felt a tug on her wings as the
oracle rubbed Kara’s wing between her fingers. “I still see traces
of the change like a thin film of silk over your wings, like a
chrysalis. You have not yet finished your
transformation.”

“
I believe you are
correct, Annabelle,” agreed Niri. “Her wings bear all the signs of
the archfiends.”

She looked at Kara. “If we are
correct, you will continue to change until the transformation is
complete.”

Kara forced the words from her mouth.
“And what is that? What will I change into? Will I become one of
them?”

The oracles watched her uncertainly.
Only the white oracle spoke.

“
We are not sure,” said
Augura. “You are different from them. You must take comfort in
that. Perhaps your difference will set you apart.”

“
Can’t you remove the wings or something?” said David. “Why
did we come here, if they can’t help us?” he growled at Mr.
Patterson.

“
We came here for answers,” said Mr. Patterson. “And now we
have them.”

David
kicked the ground. “Not good enough. These are not answers. I want
to know what’s going to happen to her. What happens after she
changes?”

It was as though
David had taken the words right out of Kara’s
mouth. She wanted to know, too.

Augura was silent for a
moment, and then she looked at Kara and said, “The images are
broken. I cannot break through the blackness. I cannot
see
your past, but
perhaps…”

In a flash, the white oracle moved
toward Kara, faster than she thought an old woman could move. She
pressed her thin, bony fingers on Kara’s forehead.

“
Close your eyes and relax
your mind,” said the old woman. “Empty your mind. Go on. Empty
it.”

Kara gave in and closed her
eyes.

The cool touch of the oracle on her
temples sent a shiver down Kara’s back. Nothing was happening, and
she felt a little foolish. But then her skin tingled, as though
millions of tiny ants were crawling all over her body. The cold
touch of the oracle spread into her head like a bucket of ice water
had been poured over her.

And then images flashed in her mind’s
eye. She saw herself as a mortal. Then she saw the bookstore, Mr.
Patterson, the dead bat, the forest, her wings. It was like a movie
played in fast-forward behind her eyelids.

Although her eyes were closed, Kara
was aware of the oracle standing in front of her. And then
something happened.

Kara’s head pounded as a fog appeared
in her mind. It got thicker and denser with each passing
moment.

A figure moved, but then it was lost
from sight.

And then she saw it and recognized it.
It was her.

She stood in the middle of a road.
There were buildings on either side of her. The road was cracked,
and the buildings burned and smoked. It was a dead city. Mortals
lay dead in piles, splayed out on the streets and in their
cars.

She heard muted shouts in the
distance. And then screams. People were screaming. The screaming
was coming from everywhere, from above and from below. It was the
sound of people dying in battle.

Dark figures were visible now,
running, fighting, killing each other.

Kara recognized the silhouettes of the
reapers.

Then she saw angels.

The reapers were slaughtering angels
and oracles.

Horizon burned. It lay in
devastation.

The images changed.

A shadowy figure with great wings
soared through the blackened and smoky sky. It flew over the dead
city and dropped lower and lower toward the silhouette of someone
running. It was a woman carrying a child in her arms.

The woman and her child stopped
running and looked around, as though she had heard something. The
dark figured loomed over them, spread its great black wings and
black tendrils shot out and coiled around the woman and her
child.

Their bodies shriveled and broke,
before they could even scream in agony. And then they lay dead,
their souls a blackened pile of dust.

With a great beat of its wings, the
creature climbed high above the dead and burning city.

Kara saw movement in the street, and
the great creature dove again.

Angels. She recognized their faces. It
was Peter and Jenny, and they were fighting off reapers.

But then the winged creature lashed
out with black tendrils that shot out like shadows and wrapped
around Peter and Jenny. Their eyes blackened and their bodies
withered away and crumbled to the ground in piles of
dust.

The creature turned for just a second,
and Kara could finally see the beast that had killed her friends.
Red veins covered its gray, glossy skin. Long black hair billowed
around it. It was humanoid with the black leathery wings of a
bat.

And it had
her
face.

“
No!” Kara stumbled
backwards and fell.

The cool feeling washed away, and Kara
felt the oracle’s touch leave her.

“
No,” she repeated,
devastated. “No, it can’t be! It isn’t real!”

David rushed toward her and helped her
to her feet.

“
What? What is it? What
did you see?”

Kara’s lips trembled.

She looked at the white oracle and
shivered.

“
It can’t be. I…I don’t
believe it. I wouldn’t—I
couldn’t
…”

Augura frowned.

“
This is the future as I
have seen it,” she said, “as we have
both
seen it. But the future can be
changed. Not everything we see comes to pass.”

David shook Kara’s shoulders. “Kara,
what did you see? Tell me!”

But Kara couldn’t find the words to
describe what she had seen.

“
You can change it,” said
Augura. “You
can
change the future.”

The images of Jenny and Peter’s death
haunted her. She felt sick. She wanted to rip off her wings. She
wanted all of it to end.

“
I know this was difficult
to watch,” the white oracle continued, “especially for a non-oric.
Your mind was not programed in the same way as ours. You don’t have
the ability or training to fully understand what you saw. Nothing
is what it seems when dealing with visions of the future.
Everything is subject to change and to interpretation.”

“
I saw what I did.” Kara
winced. “It was me.
I
killed them.”

“
Not yet,” said Augura
gently. She took Kara’s hand in hers.

“
Remember who you are,
Kara. You can still change the future.”

Chapter 20

Into the
Streets

A
fter returning with Mr. Patterson to his ruined bookstore,
Kara and David made their way back to Horizon.

It was hard, but in the end Kara had
told David and Mr. Patterson what she had seen in the visions. All
of it. She didn’t leave anything out. Why should she—if she was
going to murder her friends. She begged them to leave that part out
when they told Jenny and Peter. She had a feeling it wouldn’t go
down so well with either of them. And then she had thought of
something.

“
You should move the key,”
she said suddenly. “You should find another keeper and not tell me.
It’ll be safer that way.”

“
I hate hearing you talk
like that,” David said. “You heard what the oracle said, you
can
change
the future. It doesn’t mean you’re going to do
all those things.”

Kara stood quietly for a
moment.

“
You should move it.” And
then she added, “And then you have to tell the legion about
me.”

“
Kara…” Mr. Patterson
began, but she had stopped him.

“
The legion has to know.
You know what you have to do. It’s okay. It’s better this way. Tell
them.”

Kara tried really hard to hide her
feelings from David as they went to find Ariel. She felt devastated
and needed to cry. She barely said a word in the elevator. Was
David watching her carefully because he was afraid of her? Was he
looking for signs that she was becoming even more of a
monster?

She
was
still changing. She could feel
it.

It was only a matter of time before
they threw her in Tartarus. She thought about volunteering to go
first, before the change was completed; it might be best. For all
she knew, Mr. Patterson was probably spilling the beans at this
very moment. But in the end, she decided she would leave it to the
legion. The archangels would know best. She placed her trust, her
future in their hands.

Kara didn’t bother to try and hide her
wings this time. She wore them out in the open so the entire legion
could see the monster. And yet there was no one to show them
to.

The chamber was quiet and
empty when they stood in front of Ariel. When Ariel looked up at
them, Kara could see that
the news of her wings had already reached
her.

That
’s it
, she thought, she was going to Tartarus. Although she
hadn’t expected it to be so fast, she knew it was coming, and she
began to prepare herself for the gloomy stone walls of the angel
prison.

Ariel
jumped up from her
chair.

“
Hurry,” she said and made
her way toward the vega tanks.

Kara and David ran to catch up to the
archangel.

“
I’ve been waiting for the
two of you. I just got word that Peter and Jenny are in serious
trouble. They’re with one of the new units with Gabriel. I’m
sending you two to get them out of there. I just
can’t
lose Peter and
Jenny, not now.”

David looked at Kara uncertainly. “So,
this is a search and rescue mission?”

“
Yes,” said Ariel. She
looked troubled.