Reckoning (38 page)

“
Eran,” I said, as I hovered over him. There was no place to land except on others, which I would not do.

When he didn’t respond, I said it again more urgently. “Eran!”

That was when I heard it. He was moaning, a lifeless, distant whimper. And almost unnoticeably rolling his body from side to side.

“
No,” I said. “No! NO!” I was screaming it now, enraged, refusing to believe this was my husband, my love, my rock when things became challenging, my guide when I needed direction, my savior when I needed help.

Incensed, I flew hard and fast towards the ceiling.

Having very little concept of what I was doing, I flew harder, faster. If I didn’t make it, if the rock above me remained firmly in place, at the very least it would make me feel better to ram something, hard.

My appendages moved with amazing power, increasing my speed until the rock walls around me became a blur. Whereas I hadn’t heard wind on my fall downward, my force skyward was creating it now. The sound of a freight train roared in my ears.

Closer…

I was almost there…

I straightened my arms and clasped my hands together, forming a latched ball of curled fingers.

Then I met the ceiling, the hard rock cave that kept my friends and loved ones held against their will, deep in oppression, giving way.

I never felt the jagged edges touch my skin. There was no impact. No tremendous pressure holding me back.

There, on the other side, I found sunlight, trees, grass, and a thunderous battle below me. Against the horizon stood the Alterum stronghold and I was stunned to learning I had breached the barrier meant to restrict me and my fellow inmates to this dimension.

Glancing down, I found that the ground was untouched.

This was when it dawned on me. My supernatural talent I’d brought with me to earth wasn’t simply the ability to visit the afterlife. That had never been it. Every messenger came with this ability. What distinguished me from the others was something I couldn’t have uncovered had I not been killed by Abaddon.

While attempting to send me to a place of death, he had ended up giving me life, awareness, knowledge.

Because of my death by his hands, because I was sent to eternal death, I now knew I could break through any dimension I chose.

The air was fresh, weightless in comparison to the everlasting death chamber I’d emerged from. As I sucked it in deeply, enjoying the clean feel of it, I knew I would need it for what I was about to do.

I turned and went back down.

Soaring downward, the rock face rushing by me once again in a blur, I reached Eran in seconds.

I didn’t bother talking to him, telling him of my plan. He wouldn’t hear me anyways.

Picking him up was a challenge, his body a dead weight in my arms. I drew him close to my chest and latched my arms around him, as I ascended.

The closer we came to the opening, the warmer he began to feel, the chill of the ground finally leaving his body.

At the opening, his head, which had been lolling to and fro, lifted and his eyes opened. A few seconds later, he spoke. His voice was groggy but adorned with its striking English accent.

“
Magdalene?”

“
It’s me, Eran.”

With that he heaved a sigh unlike any I’d ever heard. It was tantamount to taking one’s first breath, to the firm realization that life had begun again.

When we reached the sunlight, he moaned, as if he’d never experienced anything so magnificent.

“
How…How did you find me?” he asked his voice clearer now. He was coming to.

“
I felt you.”

“
From above?”

“
From below. Abaddon took my life.”

“
You…You…” He couldn’t seem to find the words.

“
I went through eternal death,” I confirmed.

“
Went through?”

“
Survived it.”

I saw Eran’s forehead furl in confusion.

“
I can breach dimensions, Eran.”

His jaw fell open and he let out a stunned chuckle which quickly grew to a deep, exuberant, bellowing laugh.

While I didn’t join him, I knew what he was experiencing. Triumph. My ability would allow us to bring back the other messengers, who could escort those dying on the battlefield to the afterlife, where they could fall again.

First, however, I needed to release them.

My plan had been to find a safe place where Eran could recover but we were rising over the battle now and he had an alternate plan.

“
The battle…” he said, referring to the conflict below us. “Get me down there.”

“
Eran,” I said in warning.

“
Magdalene.” His reply was calm. “I’m needed.”

Surveying the battle again, I knew what he said was true. While the Alterums were resisting our enemies, they were slowly being killed one by one.

“
I’m not letting you go without a weapon,” I stated.

Then I felt a hand on my hip, which took me by surprise, and I released a gasp because of it.

Eran snickered. “Even fresh from death, I can still excite you. Nice to know…”

Holding in a laugh, I replied, “Good to see you’re back.”

Our humor faded as we reached the outskirts of the battle and it was gone completely by the time Eran rotated his head towards me, giving me a firm kiss. It was as wonderful as it could be considering that I was releasing him to a battle in which our enemies’ strength came in four against one now. Eran would be badly outnumbered.

The moment he landed, three Fallen Ones were on him and the sword he’d taken from my hip was flying through the air.

That very scene motivated me. While I could help in the return of those souls held captive in the death chambers below, those here, in this dimension, fighting so hard in battle would suffer immeasurable pain before reaching that dark place of death.

I soared back through the breach I’d made and down towards the Alterums. Only a small shaft of light gleamed through the ceiling, directly from the hole I’d created, which made me realize something midway down.

There was no rock surrounding us, no true tunnels or caves or caverns. This dimension was a fabrication. Nothing I saw was actually palpable. It only held its prisoners through the emotional destruction it leached in to their consciousness the feeling of helplessness, immobilizing, eternal confinement.

It was the reason I hadn’t heard, felt, or seen anything on my descent here.

The light straining in came from the other side, through the breach I’d created.

Glancing down at the number of Alterums below and back up at the breach, I knew something needed to be done.

We needed a bigger hole.

Pumping my wings harder and faster than I’d ever done before, I pummeled through the fabricated boundary that kept earth separate from the chambers of death below.

By the time I was done, light beamed through the cavern, warming it, illuminating it. And from high above, I saw a spectacle that took my breath away.

The bodies below, the hollow shells of Alterums, were stirring.

Soaring downward, closing the distance between us, I found their heads lifting, their wings shaking out and stretching. Then they began to stand and look around, helping those beside them to a standing position also.

Before I knew it, they were ascending, strong and powerful pumps of their wings lifting them off the ground and towards the light.

Hundreds of them, filtered upward, through the breach I’d created and back to the other dimension. I watched this sight, taken by such beauty in the depths of the darkest place in existence.

And then every last one of them was gone.

Knowing there were more, I made a search of the remaining tunnels, repeating this process where I found huddles of Alterums, avoiding those places where I found Fallen Ones, until I’d exhausted my search.

Then I returned to the other dimension, leaving as I found Alterums dying in the battle entering. I stayed just long enough to confirm my suspicions. Only when the Alterums landed on the cold, jagged rock below and sprang from the surface, towards the light, through the breach I’d created, and back to the other side did I leave.

The Alterums, messengers included, were now free.

Coming through to the other side, I didn’t hesitate, entering the fray and working my way inwards, killing off our enemies as I met them.

Doubt no longer weighed me down. I now knew who I was, what I was, and understood the power I held.

None of our enemies could hurt me. They never could. I was invincible, not only able to return from eternal death but capable of escorting those imprisoned there to freedom.

Abaddon had already lost his soul, and as I carved my way through the mass, meeting Eran in the middle, I realized something else.

Abaddon had also lost his war.

In the end, as the battle came to a close and the last of our enemies were being given their final rites at the end of messengers’ swords, Eran and I found ourselves surrounded.

From the billows of dust came the Alterums, the messengers, everyone of them familiar to me. Wiping dirt, sweat, tears, and blood from their faces, they made a circle around us, watching us for our next move.

Eran, knowing this, took my hand and lifted us off the ground. Rotating from above, we surveyed the thousands of Alterums who had become warriors, who had gathered, learned to fight, to defend themselves, and saved each other in the process. These were the victors, not us.

For them, he raised his free arm in the air, his fingers rolling in to a clenched fist as a sign of power and unity. And they responded. Raising their fists in the air in silence.

Then, from somewhere in the crowd, a shout echoed over their heads, followed by another and another, until our ears rang with their elation. Their energy they emitted was palpable, bringing goose bumps to my skin.

When Eran and I returned to the ground, we found ourselves surrounded by a single group of them in particular.

The messengers had gathered together and emerged. The very ones who had fallen at the hands of our enemies and had lived imprisoned in eternal death for centuries.

Two of them stepped forward, their faces so starkly familiar I froze in place. Their smiles, so welcoming, so endearing, I struggled to think straight.

These were the faces of my parents, the very same ones who had escorted me to earth on each occasion.

“
Maggie,” said my mother, taking me in her arms. “We have a lot to catch up on.”

I shook against her with laughter. “I’d say so…”

As my father embraced me, he had a different message. “Thank you…from all of us.”

I knew what he meant. He was appreciative of me releasing them from the gloom they’d endured for so long. But I couldn’t take the credit.

“
Thank the Alterums. Without them, none of us would be here.” And this was true. Because they had united, we had survived.

He nodded, a gleam of undeterred admiration still in his eyes.

Overhearing a sob, I turned to find Ezra and my mother embracing too, recalling they’d been friends long before I was born in to this lifetime.

But a quick glance around told me that the reunion wasn’t limited to them. Around us, friends were reuniting after being apart for hundreds of years, arms thrown over the shoulders of others, laughter echoing through the air.

“
Well, its over,” Felix clapped Eran on the shoulder. “It’s finally over…”

“
I prefer to think of it as just the beginning,” Ezra called from over my mother’s shoulder, breaking their conversation just long enough to, once again, counsel us to be positive.

That may have been the case for them but it was not for me.

I had one final trip to make.

My appendages flapped, lifting me skyward, but I moved across the ground with less urgency now.

This was an excursion for confirmation.

As I dropped through the hole I’d created and back down the chamber of death, I noticed it was empty now, and I smiled.

That smile, and the elation behind it, stayed in place until I passed through the tunnels and came across the chamber I was trying to find.

There, at the bottom of it, were thousands of Fallen Ones, all in the same hunched position, arms wrapped around their curled legs, wings enclosing them against the pain they were enduring.

Descending towards them, I searched for two faces in particular, coming across them at the same time.

Abaddon and Elam were side by side, moaning in pain, though it was evident neither one knew the other was there. Each cowered in the same position as the rest, their heads tilted down, their expressions showing only dread.

I watched them, neither of them aware of my presence. And I understood without having to be told that they, and all the other Fallen Ones and Elsics in this cavern, in all other caverns in this desolate place, would never move from their spot. They would remain in place, cowering in fear…forever.