“Most, I think,” Gabe said. He looked uncomfortable. “I didn’t want to, but they talked so remorselessly about their plans that I couldn’t stand it. It was like a game to them, and Beneventi said their aim was to cleanse the Earth of unbelievers. He was deranged. There was no way to save them.”
Shadow nodded in agreement. “If they had all been initiated as Lamberti suggested, they were already possessed by Belial’s madness. It struck me that they were his eyes. He’ll be weaker without them.”
“Not weak enough.” Niel poured himself more coffee. “He still has his Nephilim. Well, some of them. Even less, if Ozan will join us.”
Ash hated putting his faith in others he didn’t know, but if they had someone on the inside, it could change everything.
Gabe continued. “We stick with the plan. Tomorrow—or rather, later today—Niel, you meet Mouse in Istanbul, and we’ll fly to Elba. Estelle, Barak, and Lucien will join us. Everyone else will remain at JD’s for protection, while Nahum will stay to help with the translations. Zee and Eli will remain in Cornwall. I don’t want those jewels to go missing. Then, if we can contact Ozan, well, we go from there.”
“Which means,” Niel said, darkly, “I can’t join you in Elba, because I have to get the horn back to Cornwall.”
“Exactly. You cannot bring it to Elba.”
“If I don’t find it, though, I’m coming.”
“Fair enough. And Ash, there’s more news.” Gabe looked at Ash again, his expression unreadable. “They found something else in the emerald cave. Something weird.”
Olivia sipped overly sweet tea in the wreckage of the marquee, wishing she could drink hard spirits like everyone else.
She wasn’t sure why they were all in the marquee instead of JD’s house, but it seemed everyone wanted to be close to the emerald cave and have a good view of the garden to ensure their attackers wouldn’t return. They had righted tables, swept broken glass aside, and lit a multitude of lamps. The dead were on the lawn. Most of their team were injured. She had cuts and bruises from where she had rolled across the floor and dived under broken tables. Nahum and Barak looked the worst. They were covered in cuts, grazes, and ugly gashes. Nahum had an especially deep cut along his abdomen. It was now bound and dressed, and Estelle had cast a little healing magic. Fortunately, his own naturally accelerated healing was already having an effect. Barak had glowed from within, his healing abilities different to Nahum’s, and it had healed an ugly cut across his forearm in no time.
Lucien had fared better. His weird, metallic skin rebuffed even the heaviest blows, and their Nephilim attackers had looked at him with ill-disguised unease. Estelle remained the least affected, but she was drained after using so much magic. Olivia also suspected that killing Nephilim had taken its toll. She looked defeated, despite their success. At least they were safe. The grounds hummed with power now that JD’s weird dome had fully activated, and it was invisible, thank the Gods, after its initial pulse of green.
Nahum was sitting so close to Olivia that she could feel his heat, and her skin tingled as his arm brushed hers. He was solicitous, unconcerned about his own injuries. She felt loved. Seen. She liked it. But he didn’t love her. He was just being Nahum, and that thought pained her more than anything.
Her thoughts were all over the place, but she focussed on the conversation as Jackson asked JD, “How long will the dome thing last?”
“As long as I want it to. It’s a source of constant power. But, as I said, birds will die, and I don’t like that.”
“Better them than us,” Harlan drawled sarcastically. He also looked rumpled and bruised after the battle on the lawn.
“They won’t come back,” Maggie said with certainty. “That remaining Nephilim, the one who was lit up like a bloody star, knew he couldn’t cross your barrier. Unless they find a way, of course. Have you warned your brothers in Cornwall?”
Barak nodded. “The witches are confident that their protection spell will work. Plus, they might not have identified our home. With luck, this will be over in a couple of days if Ash is correct about where Jiri’s base is, and Emre wasn’t lying. Let’s hope we can contact Ozan tomorrow and make a deal.” They had accessed Emre’s phone using his fingerprint, and found the number of the Nephilim they hoped would help them. Barak stifled a yawn. “I need to go to bed and get some sleep if we’re to be rested for our flight later today. JD, are you sure about having beds for all of us? You don’t exactly own a hotel.”
JD waved off his enquiry airily. “A couple of you might have to share, but it will all work out. Anna is organising it now.”
“She is wasted as your housekeeper,” Maggie said. “She’s a mean shot with the catapult.”
“Ah, yes.” JD smirked. “She’s helped me test things over the years, but she doesn’t like violence.”
“Well, she sure steps up when she needs to. With a little provocation,” she added slyly. She cocked an eyebrow at Olivia, who laughed. There must have been a lot of swearing on Maggie’s behalf.
Nahum spoke up. “Before we sleep, I really want to see what you’ve found.” He directed this solely at Lucien. “Your shield was once a Nephilim’s.”
Lucien nodded. “I thought as much. Follow me.”
They crossed the enormous cave and reached the back wall, where Lucien led them to a dark, shadowy area where the lamplight didn’t reach. He pointed at the wall. “Can you see the archway leading to another room?”
“Archway?” Nahum asked, puzzled. “There’s nothing there. Are you seeing things?”
Lucien just laughed. “Look at this.” He bent down and gathered up a handful of emerald dust. “You’ve all said that I looked different. That my enhanced abilities looked, well, even more enhanced than normal. Look at this.” He rubbed the dust up his arms and onto his bare chest, and as he did so, his skin bloomed with a metallic hue. “I can’t explain how, but it enhances me even more. It’s like adding a double layer of metal skin.”
“Herne’s hairy bollocks,” Harlan said, reaching forward. “Can I?”
“Sure. But it still feels like skin.”
Harlan ran his fingers along Lucien’s arms, pinching slightly. “It’s so weird. But what has this to do with an archway?”
JD and Jackson were already tapping the wall.
“It’s changed my sight,” Lucien explained. “I seem to see with extra depth perception. The Nephilim we fought, even you two,” he said to Nahum and Barak, “look odd. I can see your energy, the flow of angelic magic in you. As for this this cave? Well, everything is glowing. The pillars seem to have light inside them, and I can see that there are other rooms here.” He laid his hand on the wall, and it shimmered and then vanished, leaving a doorway into a room beyond.
Rather than rush inside it, everyone hesitated at the threshold. Olivia shivered, suspicious that it would seal her inside somehow. It was twice as tall as she was, the archway oriental in design, the pillars that formed the frame, fluted and ornate.
“God’s breath!” JD exclaimed, examining the entrance closely. “How did you open it?”
“I don’t know, but the emerald dust makes all the difference.”
JD stared at him, absently stroking his trimmed beard. “You must be attuned to this cave through your alchemical enhancements. This place is, after all, made through alchemical means, too. I was never able to completely determine exactly what gems were used to make your tattoos, but emerald must be one of them. It has interesting qualities.”
“Such as what?” Olivia asked, intrigued.
“Well, it’s always been popular in alchemy. We believe that it helps to manifest visions, and it also shields against conjurations and malevolent spirits. It provides inspiration and balance, enhances creative and mental abilities, and more importantly, increases psychic sensitivity and clairvoyance. What you are experiencing right now,” JD said thoughtfully, eyes narrowed as he assessed Lucien, “is exactly that. You are seeing beyond the veil of normality.”
“Will the effects last?” Nahum asked.
“Perhaps.” JD shrugged. “Time will tell. I suspect, though, that once away from this place for a while, it will not. Unless you take the emerald dust with you.” He patted Lucien on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. None of it is bad. Now, let’s see what’s inside.”
Harlan laid a hand on JD’s arm, stopping him from crossing the threshold, his concerns echoing Olivia’s own. “Is it safe? I don’t want to get stuck in there.”
“I’ll come in with you,” Lucien said, confidently, “just in case.”
The room was circular, again carved from pure emerald, its surface polished to a glassy shine, and once again covered in lines of script. And there were heaps of weapons, much like in Raziel’s Temple. They were piled on the floor and displayed on shelves carved into the walls. Everyone started to pick them up, examining the engravings and quality. They were in good condition, polished and untarnished, as if they had been stored there for hours rather than centuries.
“Herne’s horns,” Barak said, lifting one of the shields from a haphazard stack of them. “There are so many. I don’t understand why they’re here.”
Nahum ignored the weapons and instead read the script. “Ancient Aramaic,” he noted with a frown. “These are lists of Fallen Angel Houses and their Nephilim.”
“All of them?” Jackson asked.
“Perhaps.” Nahum scanned the walls. “There are hundreds, maybe thousands listed here. Unlikely that there are weapons for every House, though. There’s nowhere near enough.”
Barak nodded in agreement. “This is a sample. Why?”
“Thoth, or Hermes, or whatever the fuck you want to call him,” Maggie said, “must have collected them. If there were as many of you as you say all those years ago, it would have been easy, right?”
Olivia nodded in agreement as she examined a richly engraved dagger with a polished horn handle. “This place isn’t just a place of learning. It stores history, too.” She glanced up, aware that the others were staring at her. “What? It makes sense. The lists of angels, the histories of Biblical figures, and probably those we’ve never heard of except in myth, and there’s so much more here that we don’t know about yet. It’s like a museum!”
