Trust? I stared at her. I had put my trust in Rebecca, and she had run away with it, all the way to Hell. Now I was trapped in another universe, and the former Demon Queen was asking me to trust her? I looked into her red eyes, trying to find a hint of deception, a hint of insincerity. She was like me, she could lie all she wanted and I’d never know. How could I be sure she wasn’t plotting to leave me here?

  I had always felt a kinship to Charis, an understanding. We were so alike, yet so different. A mirror, she had said. Balance. Rebecca and Sarah were a serious tag-team. Nothing short of that would have even the smallest chance at stopping them. This wasn’t just about learning to communicate with Josette and Ulnyx, I realized. This was about a union to create the balance that was demanded, because without it everything was already lost.

  “I trust you,” I said, making my decision. The words flowed from my lips like molasses, my experience of time suddenly fluctuating.

  She moved in slow motion, her smile growing wide, her face set in resolve. The cave was small and we were already pretty close, but she moved in closer to that our chests were touching, and I could feel the heat of her body against my own. She was a little bit shorter than me, so she had to tilt her head up to keep eye contact.

  “I promise I won’t tell anyone,” she said, her eyes sincere. I didn’t know what she meant, but I had plenty of time to watch her tilt her head, lean up and forward, and press her forehead to mine.

  I took a single breath, the inhale pulling in the warmth of her, the smell of her, the touch of her skin against mine. The exhale felt like it took forever, and it plunged me into a cold darkness, like a cannonball into a frozen river. In an instant I understood what was happening, and my first reaction was fear.

  The darkness subsided, and I was a small girl standing on the street, watching a horse and carriage tumble by on a cobblestone road. My mum grabbed my hand and pulled me along, I was already late for lessons…

  I was a teenager, at a fancy party arranged for the children of the upper crust. My dress was so tight I could barely breathe, but I moved with confidence, the belle of the ball, my beauty undeniable…

  I was a young adult, in service to the King, laying unclothed in bed with a high-ranking American official. He was sleeping, and I rose quietly and went over to his desk to rifle through his possessions, in search of anything that could be of help to His Majesty…

  I was laying on a table in a hospital, blood pouring from the hole in my sternum where the musket ball had entered. I don’t know why I tried to save the General from assassination - we weren’t on the same side after all. Now I would pay with my life…

  I was in Purgatory with Dante, and he was talking to me about the history of Purgatory, and about the role of balance in keeping mankind from the edge of oblivion. He told me I was special, and promised to teach me everything I would need to know to return to life as a champion to humanity…

  I was in the midst of the American Civil War, fighting the demons that aimed to take the lives of the wounded in the night, and the angels that sought to save them…

  I was trapped by an archdevil, my neck nearly severed, about to die. The door burst in an the most beautiful man I had ever seen stepped in, wielding a sword that seemed to make him immune to the devil’s power. He cut the demon down, and set me free with a gentle hand that I would forever remember…

  I was standing over the body of my love, ravaged by the archvampire and the now fallen angel who had worked together to lure him into an elaborate trap. I swore then that I would have my revenge…

  I was struggling against the archfiend Reyzl, cursing him for his betrayal, fighting to remove the dagger he had planted in my back. I couldn’t focus, couldn’t breathe. I was powerless as he shoved me into the Hell Rift…

  I was trapped in Hell, in a prison of bone and anguish, crying out in pain while my keeper methodically cut away at me, over and over again as I regenerated, the pain unbearable and unending…

  I was laying broken on the floor, my bonds severed, my body feeling relief for the first time in ages. My captor stood over me, her dark face an empty mask of curiosity…

  I was in her arms, and she was professing her love for me. She was begging me to take her soul, to escape this place before another could be sent to take her place. She said she was sorry she had hurt me, and she handed me a dagger. I asked her name. ‘Vilya,’ she said…

  I was in the cave, alone, sitting prostrate on the floor, focusing on my breath, on letting go. I called her name, and heard her weeping. ‘Are you sad,’ I asked her. ‘I have never been happier,’ she said…

  Trust. That was why Charis had required it. It was her life, and I lived it, from the beginning to the present, every breath, every word, every feeling. I knew every instant of her existence as though it had been my own, from her greatest triumph to a trip to the bathroom with a bout of diarrhea.

  Trust. She had lived my life too; every embarrassing moment of my own, every failure, every success. She knew me at least as well as I knew myself, and probably better. She had that perspective that I would never have, just as I did for her. It was a frightening, incredible experience that left me feeling more bare than any nakedness could, yet more fulfilled than I could have imagined. When her forehead separated from mine, and she moved back far enough to look into my eyes I could see myself reflected in them.

  “I don’t know what so say,” I admitted, struggling to catch my breath. Such a deep understanding of another was a difficult thing to resolve. Knowing Charis, everything that made her who she was, and every decision she had made - I hesitated to call it love, but it was something like it.

  “You don’t need to say anything,” she replied. “Focus, and tell me how you feel.”

  I did as she asked, reaching out for my power. I grasped it easily now, and so much more securely. I could almost visualize it in a corner of my mind, not only able to touch it, but also pick out individual fibers like strings. I could see the way Josette and Ulnyx’s power entwined around my own, and with a thought I could begin to release them. As I did, I felt the clarity of their souls coming into focus, moving forward in my consciousness.

  “Josette?” I whispered tentatively.

  “Landon,” she replied, her voice clear in my soul. “I can hear you. I can feel you. You’ve changed.”

  My eyes were open, still looking at Charis, but I could see her in my mind, standing against a blazing white backdrop. I sharpened my focus, pulling Ulnyx forward.

  “Sucker,” he said, materializing next to Josette. “Are you sure you want to give me so much control?”

  That was the trick. In order to communicate with them, I had to extract them, at least in part. The more I let them go, the more will they could exert upon their surroundings, upon my soul.

  “Behave yourself, creature,” Josette said, smiling at the Were.

  He laughed and winked at her. “Not a chance,” he replied.

  Satisfied, I returned my attention to Charis. “This is what he wanted, isn’t it?” I asked her. “Dante?”

  “Yes. One diuscrucis is powerful, but adding a second and having them connect increases the output. It is because of our humanity, our unique strength that the other Divine don’t possess. That was why I told you I needed you, and why we need each other if we are going to stop the Beast.”

  I nodded and delved into her eyes. “Vilya is a daughter of Belial,” I said. “Yet she fell in love with you, and helped you escape.”

  “All creatures have the touch of God, and all creatures are capable of love,” she said. “Love and hate are how the universe balances. Sometimes people confuse these words with good and evil, but they aren’t the same, and they are all subjective. Her love saved me to be here with you now. What the effects of that decision will remain to be discovered, but it has no doubt altered the course of all time.”

  I knew it was true, and I had seen it before with Izak. “But that means…”

  She put a finger to my lips. “I know what you’re thinking, Landon, and it may be true. It also may not.”

  It was a weak hope to pin the future of everything on. “Then I guess there’s only one thing left to do.”

  “Fight,” she said.

  “Fight,” I agreed.

  “You may want to know what you are fighting,” the soft voice said from behind me.

  Charis and I turned as one to greet the archangel. He was a slight young man with dark olive skin and shiny black hair, a sharp, pointed nose and deep-set, dark eyes. He was wearing a simple black cassock sashed with a rope belt, and a sword hung from his hip. He regarded us with interest and curiosity.

  “Malize, the time has come,” Charis said. “The Pure One walks, and the servants seek to free the Beast.”

  He didn’t look surprised, maintaining his soft calm. “It is sooner than I had expected, but we knew this day would come. No secret can be contained for all time. Still, it is only a fool who goes into battle without knowing their enemy, and so I shall tell you what I can.”

  He turned his back to us and waved his hand, and we were transported in this universe to a world newly born, covered in verdant green but devoid of any other life.

  “There was a time before time,” he said. “When this world was newly created, and mankind did not yet exist. My Lord looked down on what he had wrought with pleasure, for He knew how good it would come to be. There were no angels then, nor man, nor beast. Only the promise of life, and His love.

  “He began to lay the seeds of humanity, bringing life to this realm; the creatures of the sea and the land and the sky. He prepared this world, stocked it for those He would create in His likeness, to bestow His love upon them and to follow His own nature as a creator. The world was young, but it was vibrant, and He was very pleased indeed.”

  The scene changed, to dark skies filled with smoke and clouds, and fires raging as far as I could see.

  “There would have never been a need for the seraph, if it hadn’t been for the Beast,” he said. “Perhaps even Lucifer would still call us brother.” He shook his head sadly. “It matters little. At one time, there was no Beast, and then there was. It saw what my Lord had created, and it was intent on destroying it, for that is its nature.”

  “Where did it come from?” I asked.

  “Another place,” he said. “Perhaps like this one. My Lord is the Lord of all things, but there are an infinite number of all things, and as such he cannot keep a constant watch on them. It has been said that it revealed itself to Him and begged Him for amnesty and protection; that it had been exiled from this other place for attempting to defend the name of the Lord. It claimed that others like it, but calling themselves the true gods would follow after were it not hidden.

  “My Lord, His heart filled with mercy granted its request. He allowed the Beast to settle in your world, to hide under His wing. Ages passed and all was good, until one day this realm began to burn, and the Beast rose up to challenge Him.”

  The scene changed again, now showing Malize and another seraph, an incredible figure of beauty and light, dressed in golden armor, their wings spread in magnificent white glory, standing before a dark figure. It didn’t really resemble a beast. It looked like a man, but even in the recreation of the history I could feel the coldness and despair.

  “We were the first of the seraph, Lucifer and me. We met the Beast in battle, and we lost. Other seraph were made, and in time we had an army. We marched on the Beast, but it had created its own army from the remains of the dead, and again we lost. As we died, its power grew, using our casualties as soldiers, feeding off the destruction of the world. We were nearly helpless against it.”

  This wasn’t making me feel any better. “You trapped it,” I said.

  He nodded. “Yes, but it required a new way of thinking. When my Lord would grant His power to us, the Beast would know, and it would grow its own, such that we would fall against it. So we devised a new weapon - a language. A special language that could siphon its power too quickly for it to adjust. This was the Templar script, the first language from which the scripture of the seraph is derived, and the runes of the demons derived from that. This was to be our path to victory.”

  Now we saw the battle. We watched as legions of angels fought against legions of the dead, knitted together in haphazard fashion, a grotesque motley of flesh and bone.

  “There were thousands of us against it. We accepted the casualties, we accepted the loss. We moved in, Lucifer and I, getting past its armies and confronting it one final time. Lucifer tricked it into chasing him, and led it straight into a trap. A cage of words, symbols, and numbers, not unlike this cave, where my Lord’s power overwhelmed it and held it in His grasp. There it has remained, trapped for all of eternity.”

  A final image of the Beast, curled up on the floor, quaking in fear, surrounded by light. I shivered, chilled by the visage.

  “Time passed. Lucifer sought to record the history of the seraph, and so he created the angelic scripture and wrote the first book, that of the origins of the angels. In his book he included the symbol that the Beast had given as its name; to serve as a warning so that we would never forget all that we had nearly lost.”

  “Satan’s Bible,” I said.

  “That is what they are calling it?” he asked. “The scroll was lost when Lucifer was cast out. They have said it fell to the mortal realm, and there it must remain.”

  “The servants of the Beast have used Lucifer’s words to encrypt their own,” Charis said. “They may have located its cage, but without the Bible, we cannot follow.”

  “The Pure One,” I said. “You’re referring to Sarah. Where does she fit in?”

  “There is only one way to open the cage,” Malize replied. “One who is mortal, who possesses the power of both the Lord and the First Fallen must spill their life’s blood into His cup, which must then be emptied into the seal. Know this now, if the seal is broken, it can not be replaced. It will take some time for the Beast to regain its former strength, but when it does, there is no soul on this world or any other that will be able to stop it.”

  “Their life’s blood?” I asked. My own began to run cold. “You mean…”

  “She must be destroyed for the Beast to escape,” Malize said. “It feeds on destruction.”

  I looked at Charis, whose face had gone white. She hadn’t known, or I would have already. “How much do you want to bet Sarah doesn’t know?” I said. “They are betraying her too.” I had no proof, but I was sure of it.

  “Malize,” Charis said. “How can the Grail be used to break the seal? It didn’t exist when the cage was created.”

  The archangel shook his head. “It has always existed. It is made from the soul of the Lord made tangible, and was delivered to His son to aid him on his path to join his Father. The Lord’s power holds the Beast, and only the Lord’s power can release it.”

  Charis took my hand in hers. “Landon, it’s time to go.”

  “Wait,” I said. “I don’t understand. If the Beast is such a threat to God, why would He make it at all possible for it to be freed?”

  Malize said a single word in reply. The word I should have expected.

  “Balance.”

  Chapter 21

  “Landon, help me seal the tunnel,” Charis said. We had left Malize and the cave behind, the door returning to our vision through her focus. “We can’t afford for the Beast’s servants to find this place.”

  “Right.” I focused on the rock above the tunnel, pulling at it, ordering it to expand and collapse. Charis brought it up from below, and together we buried the entrance in no time.

  “Not enough,” Charis said. “That door leads to one of the most important artifacts in existence. We have to bring down the entire tunnel.”

  “I see why you needed my help,” I replied.

  We moved back along the corridor, pulling and lifting the rock down behind us, until there was just enough space left for the two of us to stand in front of the elevator doors.

  “It’s going to be weird for anyone who comes down here,” I said. We had boarded the lift and finished filling in the tunnel, leaving the doors to open on a wall of rock.

  “There shouldn’t be anyone else coming down here,” she replied.

  We returned to the room at the top of the tower, and Charis called for Zeek while I tried to get a hold of Lylyx. The phone shunted directly to voicemail. It could have meant anything, so I tried not to worry about it.

  I had lived through Charis’ life in the cave, and although in my mind it had seemed as if over two hundred years had passed, in this universe it had been little more than thirty seconds. It was strange to be back where I had started so soon after I had left, yet having experienced and learned so much.

  “We’re going to save her,” I said.

  “I know,” Josette replied.

  I smiled. I had always been able to feel her soul, to touch it and use its power. It was nothing compared to her actual presence. If anything could bring me comfort, it was her.

  “Are you okay with this?” I asked. “I know what Charis did to you, to your fellows.”

  “It is difficult, but I will accept it as His will, if you believe her actions were righteous.”

  She had done it in order to begin her pursuit of the Demon Queen title. Being sent to Hell hadn’t been part of the plan, but it had worked out to her advantage.

  “I wouldn’t say righteous,” I replied, uncertain that there wasn’t another way she could have accomplished the same thing. “For whatever it’s worth, her intent wasn’t grounded in evil.”

  The door to the suite opened, and Charis walked in with the huge Templar trailing behind. She had a blessed sword across her back, and a cursed dagger at her side. She offered me the same.

  “These belonged to Joseph,” she said.

  I knew it as soon as I took hold of them. I remembered the first time I had seen the simple longsword, stabbing into the chest of the archdevil. I accepted the blades in silent reverence, and altered my clothes to better accommodate them - combat boots, a pair of paratrooper pants, a black t-shirt, and a rig to hold the weapons.