Blue Bloods: Keys to the Repository (14 page)

turned—that Cassius was just jealous as usual—but then . . . we saw it.”

Kingsley nodded. Caligula and his crimson eyes with the silver pupils. The unmistakable sign of Corruption. Agrippina Azrael and Valerius

Abbadon had led the emperor down to the path, down to the newly forged gate, where Cassius—Michael—was waiting. The battle had not been

easily won. But they had done it. Sent the Devil down to Hel .

“But what does Rome have to do with what happened in the Repository?” Mimi asked.

“Wel , for starters, since the incantation worked, it proved that Silver Bloods stil existed, and that they had a way into our world. Because Charles

didn’t believe it—not at first, not even with al the kil ings. I don’t think he truly accepts it now. And he wanted to keep it from the Committee. But he had

to do something if he was wrong—so he sent me to Corcovado. Because if they were back, that’s the first place they would go—to free Leviathan.”

Mimi nodded, taking it al in.

“Do you know anything about the gates? About the Order of the Seven?” Kingsley asked.

Mimi shrugged. “I don’t think I was privy to that meeting. I was surprised as anyone to find that Michael had chosen to father us for this cycle. He

knows we weren’t huge fans of the so-cal ed Uncorrupted. At least, I never was.”

Kingsley fil ed her in on what he knew about the Gates of Hel and the guardians ordered to protect them, as wel as his part in it. “The gates

keep the paths secure and the demons in the underworld. The gates should have stopped the incantation from working. But they didn’t. That was the

test. The Silver Blood was able to break through the barrier. Charles suspects that Lucifer has been able to find a way into our world that we did not

expect, did not foresee.”

“But how?”

“How indeed . . . especial y since the Conclave took care of the biggest threat.”

“Oh god. I had total y forgotten about that.” Mimi said, her palms at her cheeks, as if to hide from the truth. “It was you, wasn’t it? You were the one

who took Gabriel e after I wasn’t brave enough to do it myself.”

Kingsley nodded. The twins had been given the task, but had balked at the very
wrongness
of it—and so he and Forsyth had kidnapped

Gabriel e from her room. He remembered everything. The silent birth, the frightened midwives, then Charles and Lawrence taking the baby . . . the

burned swaddling clothes, the ghastly smel of death al around. Then Gabriel e waking up with no memory of her ordeal or even that she’d borne a

child.

“I don’t think any of us have ever forgiven ourselves for what we did that night. Not me, not Lawrence, not Charles, not Forsyth. War is a terrible

thing. There is no room for mercy.” Kingsley’s face was drawn, hol ow. He didn’t feel much like talking anymore. Poor Lawrence, his friend and

mentor. And now Charles, lost as wel . “Wel . That’s everything.”

“Oh, Kingsley,” Mimi said gently.

Kingsley looked up, surprised to find Mimi with tears in her eyes. She put a soft hand to his cheek.

She looked at him in silence, and in her eyes he found forgiveness and understanding, the two things he hoped for the most and expected the

least. In Rio, Kingsley felt he had taken advantage of the situation a little bit—they had been so tired after their trek through he jungle, she couldn’t

have been in her right mind when she’d knocked on his door that night, when she had sought comfort in his kisses. That was why he had kept her at

arm’s length ever since.

But she was here now. And she was the one leaning toward him. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, baby,” Mimi was saying.

They were words he had waited a lifetime—many lifetimes—to hear, and that they came from Azrael, she who had spurned him for centuries

(Abbadon wasn’t the only one who had pined for one he could not have). She had mocked him in Rome—haughty, beautiful Agrippina, who had no

time for Gemel us, no time at al for a weakling such as himself—a rare, solitary soul, never bound. Gemel us, who had loved and worshipped her from

afar, she who was in his arms now. . . .

Victory was sweet. Who knew that the path to a woman’s heart was through the soul of an honest man?

Kingsley Martin would never understand women. But that was al right. He didn’t need to understand Mimi. Al he had to do was love her, and he

could do that.

THE VAN ALEN LEGACY

AND THE PATHS OF THE DEAD

With his dying breath, Lawrence Van Alen revealed a secret to Schuyler: she was the heir not just of the Van Alen name but to a very important

legacy. He instructed her to find out more from Charles, but during the Silver Blood ambush at the
Bal des Vampires
in Paris, Charles became trapped in the
subvertio
, the White Darkness, and was unable to disclose what he knew.

However, when Schuyler returned to New York, Al egra woke up from her coma, stirred from her unconscious state by a deep memory of another

daughter, and within the safety of the glom, she was able to tel Schuyler the history of the Gates of Hel and the Paths of the Dead.

In the days before the battle in Heaven and Lucifer’s fal , the paths between the worlds were open. Angels moved freely between Heaven, Earth,

and the underworld. After the Fal , when Lucifer and his army of angels were cast out, the way to Paradise was shut forever. But the seven paths to the

underworld remained open. These were the Paths of the Dead.

In Rome, before Caligula was revealed as the Dark Prince, Michael, as Cassius, served as the emperor’s closest adviser. When Caligula found

that one of the Paths of the Dead was anchored below the city of Lutetia, Cassius convinced him to let him forge a gate there to keep the demons at

bay. Caligula stole the key from Cassius and, revealing his true nature as Lucifer, unleashed Abomination upon the world. The battle of Rome ensued.

At the end, Agrippina and Valerius (Azrael and Abbadon) were able to coax Caligula to the newly forged gate, where Cassius (Michael) sent him to

Hel , locking the gate behind him.

After Rome, Michael ordered the Blue Bloods to locate the six other paths and build gates upon them to secure the divisions between the worlds and

keep Earth safe from the creatures of the underworld. The guardians, keepers of the Gates of Hel , were known as the Order of the Seven, one from

each of the seven original families of the Conclave. The guardians scattered across the earth, unknown to one another but passing down their

knowledge through the generations.

The guardians were to keep the gates secure, and the gates, imbued with the celestial power of the angels, were supposed to keep the world

safe from the Prince of Darkness and the legions at his command. But with the growing number of Silver Blood attacks over the centuries, Lawrence

suspected that somehow, the gates were failing and that Lucifer was plotting a way back from the underworld.

Schuyler must now continue Lawrence’s search for the gates and their guardians before the Silver Bloods are able to destroy them al and bring

about a second Great War. This is the Van Alen Legacy. Charles resented the Van Alen Legacy, displeased that Lawrence harbored deep doubts

concerning the strength of the gates he forged centuries ago. The Gates of Hel must hold, or al the world wil fal with their destruction.

THE GATES OF HELL

The Gates of Hel are located around the world, placed upon the seven paths to the underworld. The folowing are the three known gates so far:

The Gate of Vengeance
was Leviathan’s prison on Corcovado. Lawrence Van Alen was its gatekeeper. With his murder of an innocent (Dylan, in

the guise of Lucifer), the gate was opened, but it was a
solom bicallis
, which can only be used once. Once Leviathan came through it, the path was

closed to al .

The Gate of Time
was created during the reign of Caligula, who had discovered a path underneath the underground city of Lutetia (now located in

present-day Paris). Lucifer and Leviathan assumed that Michael was its guardian. The Silver Bloods planned to open the gate by destroying its

keeper. But when they released the
subvertio
, al they found was an intersection, which created a time vacuum. The true keeper of the Gate of Time is

Kingsley Martin, who had moved the gate underneath the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City; an unfinished church, which meant it was

not ful y consecrated, and was a place of worship that a Silver Blood like Kingsley could enter.

The third gate is known as
The Gate of Promise
. Lawrence, who left more than fifty-five notebooks with his Conduit, Anderson, believed its

guardians are stil in Florence.

There are no other gates known to the Repository at this time.