“Places become unpopular. Newer temples supplant older ones. It’s the way of the world,” Ash said. “This place is creepy, though.”

“It’s on higher ground,” Niel noted. “Might have had quite a view, at one point.”

Shadow shouted, “It’s all clear down here. No Nephilim traps or anything, just cracked stone. Marble, I think. The leaves are half a metre deep, sludge at the bottom, so it’s slippery.”

Ash waded through the leaf detritus and stood in front of the statue, checking every detail. “It’s the same as the one in the temple last night.”

Gabe was next to him, eyes lifted to stare at Belial’s head. “I think you’re right. It’s uncanny. It looks just like him. It captures his haughty, heartless expression.”

“His eyes are fixed behind us.” Ash turned, looking in the direction that Belial faced, but the way was blocked with trees. “It’s facing northeast. The same as yesterday’s statue.”

“Why is that important?” Shadow asked.

“I don’t know that it is, but the fact that they are both facing the same way suggests it has significance. If it was just east, I wouldn’t question it. Facing east was a common part of Christianity, and other religions, actually. It was Godly, the direction of the rising sun. But northeast?”

Niel stood next to him, also staring through the trees. “A direction for a reason, perhaps? To mark the way to somewhere of significance?”

“Perhaps.”

Nahum was scrabbling about the base of the statue, moving leaves. “There’s a big, square plinth down here, with an inscription. A large one.” He pulled his torch from his pack and shone it on the surface, as one hand cleared moss from the words. “It’s some kind of call to action. Lots of text.”

Ash frowned. “A manifesto, perhaps? Like Barak found?”

Nahum looked up, surprised. “Maybe. Help me clear it.”

Over the next ten minutes, they all cleared away the debris, scraping back moss to reveal the text that ran across the base, and Ash started taking photos. “I think it is. Whether it’s the same…”

He trailed off, trying to comprehend what it meant.

“Niel,” Gabe said, summoning his attention, “shine your torch straight upwards. I’ll see if I can climb through the canopy and then fly. I want to orientate myself up there, see where he’s looking.”

“I’m going to explore further afield,” Shadow said. “Check if there are other buildings or temples. Don’t worry! I won’t be long.”

“Half an hour,” Gabe instructed, “and then we’re out of here. If necessary, we return in the light, tomorrow. There’s nothing to worry about now that we know it’s deserted.”

Ash nodded, and once satisfied with his photos, focussed on the marble floor. He wanted to inspect every inch of this place, just in case something happened, and the wrath of Belial brought the place down over night.

Five

Gabe peered over Ash’s shoulder as he expanded a map of Europe on his laptop screen.

“So, we’re where?” Gabe asked him.

“Here,” he said, entering the name Palazzuolo sul Senio into the search bar. A small, red triangle popped up. “That’s where we are right now. So northeast is roughly that direction.”

It was Saturday morning, and Gabe, Shadow, and his brothers had just eaten breakfast and cleared the table in the small villa that Jackson had arranged for them to stay in for a few days. Nahum was phoning Jackson and Olivia with an update, and Niel and Shadow had returned to Amato’s house to search in daylight.

Gabe nodded as he orientated himself. “Where is the church in Florence?”

“There,” Ash said zooming out and scrolling across the page.

“Bollocks!” Gabe traced a northeast route from the church to their current location. “It’s on the same line.”

Ash swore in Greek. “I’d like a physical map to mark it out properly, but it’s damn close.”

“It must be significant, right?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps?”

Gabe sat back, rubbing his stubble, and wishing he’d had more sleep. Unfortunately, his dreams had been plagued with memories and visions of Belial, and he’d slept poorly. “Two statues don’t really make a case, do they?”

Ash turned to face him properly. “No, and as there was nothing significant to see—within easy view at least, last night—we’re at a dead end for now.”

Gabe had flown across the entire grounds of Amato’s country house and then beyond it the previous evening, specifically searching the northeastern route, but nothing presented itself. No unusual buildings, or churches, or anything of note. “Potentially, there could be something that’s miles away. Florence, after all, is an hour or two from here.”

“There could be, yes. However, we should focus on the text for now.” Ash pulled up the photos he’d taken the previous night and transferred to his computer. Then he accessed the photos of the manifesto that Barak sent. “The manifesto is convoluted and verbose, but there is that unnerving reference to the House of Belial.”

“From what I can gather, Jackson was pretty cross that Barak didn’t tell us about it yesterday, but I think Barak is right. Surely, we’d be aware of Belial’s Nephilim by now.” Gabe phoned Barak earlier and had a long discussion about what that reference could mean.

“Or maybe we’re being naïve. Why should we know? We keep a low profile, why wouldn’t they?”

“Perhaps.” Gabe considered the implications of their use of the Fallen Angel’s jewellery. “However, using his jewels has alerted someone to our presence. It certainly alerted Belial. He attacked Olivia, and had to be expelled. And Amato knew about us!” That had chilled Gabe more than anything. He felt under scrutiny again, as if Belial were watching him from afar.

“True, but no one has come for us. If anything, you would think his acolytes would go into hiding, but Amato didn’t. He knew we were following him and set us up.”

“But he underestimated us, and he—they—didn’t know about Shadow.”

Ash laughed. “Our secret weapon.”

“Herne’s horns! She loves that. It’s no laughing matter, though, Ash. Without her, we’d have been stuck in that trap, and it did seem as if Belial was trying to manifest through Amato. How long do you think that temple under the church has been there?” They had barely talked about it afterwards, focussing only on searching Amato’s apartment in Florence, and then his country house. Gabe had pushed it to the back of his mind, but he couldn’t ignore it any longer.

“Hundreds of years, maybe over a thousand. It was old, hacked out of rock, deep beneath the church. Maybe something stood above it once, before the church was built. Or there was an earlier version of it.”

Gabe voiced something else that had struck him. “It couldn’t have been carved by Belial, though. It was hewn by hand. Belial would have made something like The Temple of the Trinity if he could.” Memories of Raziel’s temple still haunted him.

“Agreed. So it was carved by humans, or Nephilim.”

“But that was after the Flood, so if they’re responsible, some Nephilim must have survived.”

“That’s a reasonable assumption. It doesn’t mean they’re alive now, though,” Ash reasoned.

“I think we have to consider the fact that they might be, however unlikely. Best to be prepared.”

“Perhaps we should always carry one of Belial’s jewels, just in case they are here.”

“Perhaps.” That was a last resort as far as Gabe was concerned. It had taken him only a few hours to shake off Belial’s influence after destroying the count’s castle, but it was long enough. Barak and Estelle had argued about it, and even Shadow wasn’t impressed with the effect it had on Gabe.

“Come on,” Ash said, turning back to the laptop. “Let’s consider the manifesto and what’s written on the base. They are similar, but the manifesto is much longer. They both essentially say the same thing, though. They exalt Belial and proclaim themselves his acolytes. But there is a different word used on the base of the statue in the woods.” He pointed at a portion of text on the photo, difficult to read in the light of a phone torch, especially with dirt still ingrained in it. “It says fraternitas.”