Great White Throne (26 page)

“Then why attack Don?” Naomi asked.

Chris shook his head, but his mouth was drawn tight, determined. “I’ve said it before. No one knows for sure what to do in these days. Many believers went into hiding. They have been hunted down and killed. Others have fought. They have been killed. What can we do but follow the Spirit’s leading? Prayer is my greatest weapon, but I must do something with my body. I will not sit idly.”

“But you and Zhang Tao are the last of the leaders who live,” I said. “Don wants to kill you.”

“Do you suggest I hide?” Chris challenged. “No place is safe. I must do everything I can to fight him.”

“You cannot charge recklessly into death,” Naomi said.

“
Reckless?
” Chris asked, his voice rising. “He destroyed everything I had. He killed my children. Next he will try to kill my wife and me, and both of you. Do not judge me as reckless for fighting evil.” He rose to his feet, and his eyes settled on me. “I soldier on until the Lord returns. What about you Elijah?”

Stay
, Gabriel had said. If Naomi was going to be on a rooftop with her child, that’s where I was going to be. “Naomi and I will stay together.” I rose beside her. 

“I understand.” Chris motioned for us to draw closer. “You must follow His lead. Let’s pray together before I go.”
 

Naomi and I went to him, and he put his arms around us. I put my arm over Naomi. Then Chris prayed. The words were a blessing, a plea for protection, but they felt like a goodbye.

AN HOUR LATER Aisha, Naomi, the baby, and I sat together on the roof of the old city building. The sound of war surrounded us—gunshots, shouts, and the metallic rumbling of machines. Most of the conflict came from the hill above us, the heart of Jerusalem. I had a clear view of the dragon on the Dome. The creature’s body was motionless, while its head swiveled and surveyed the city around it. Several times the dragon’s red eyes passed over us, but it did not stir.
 

“Why doesn’t he cry more?” Aisha asked, eyeing the baby skeptically. “Through all these things, I’ve heard him cry only a few times. It’s weird.”

“He’s special.” Naomi rocked the child slowly in her arms. “Sometimes I think he senses more than we can. It could be—”
 

“Look.” I pointed to the dragon. It had unfurled its wings. Bigger than I remembered. The whole city seemed to fall under their shadow.

“The dragon?” Naomi asked.

I nodded. They still couldn’t see. “It’s been still, but the wings are moving, like it’s ready to fly.”

Aisha’s eyes locked on the Dome. “What else is happening?”

“You see the robots repairing the towers?”

“Yes.”

“And what’s around them?”

Aisha studied the sky. “There’s smoke everywhere. It makes the sky dark and gray.”

“Do you see the smoke swirling?”

Aisha shook her head. “What do you mean?”

“Within the smoke and clouds there are thousands of threads of black swirling around.”

“I don’t see that.”

“Some of it’s in shapes, like shadows of winged creatures … like ravens. And woven through it all is the dragon’s spirit, black threads extending and crossing in every direction.”

Aisha was staring at me. “How do you sleep?”

“It depends on the dream,” I said. “All that darkness and black and evil can’t compare to the light I’ve seen.”

“You mean the angels?”

“No, they’re as bright as all this is dark.” I motioned to the sky and over the city. “They’re in balance, but the man I saw, Jesus, is different. When I remember him, I forget the darkness. It’s as if none of the darkness, none of the evil, even exists compared to him.”

“But what you see now sounds horrible.”

“It is, but it will pass. The light won’t. It—”
 

Gunshots fired out rapidly, close to the dragon. Thin trails of soaring missiles zipped past overhead, straight at the Dome. The dragon draped its wings around it, forming a black wall.
 

BOOM!

Missiles exploded against the wall. The force of it rippled through the sky, shaking the rooftop where we sat. Smoke billowed out, obscuring the dragon, covering us in a pale mist.
 

We pressed closer together. We didn’t speak. Aisha was trembling. Naomi’s hand found mine, held it tight. For a moment, everything fell silent.

The smoke made it harder to breathe. I coughed. The baby did, too. It whimpered lightly.

Aisha held her sleeve over her mouth. “Did the attack work?”

I shook my head uncertainly, but as the smoke began to dissipate, I knew the answer was no. I knew it because a pair of giant red eyes appeared through the smoke, right beside us.

I started to shout, but before a sound left my mouth, something slammed into my body, knocking me back hard. An instant later Aisha crashed down beside me. I sprang to my feet, wincing and holding my chest. I rushed to where Naomi and Adam were.

But the dragon had them in its onyx claws.

“Elijah!” Naomi shouted, her face frantically searching for the creature that held her. Her arms wrapped tight around the baby at her chest, protecting him.

I started to charge for her, but the dragon’s face emerged again through the smoke. It froze me where I stood. Petrified. With a victorious snarl, the creature leapt off the building and flew away. It disappeared into the smoke. And just like that, Naomi was gone.

I fell to my knees in desperation. Smoke stung my eyes. Tears streamed down my face. I was supposed to protect her, to be with her through the end. Losing Naomi wasn’t in my dreams. This wasn’t what the angel showed me.

I cried out to God. I raised my arms, pleading.

I began to hear words in the wind, in my mind.
You are a failure
.
Elijah, the prophet, the seer, the failure.
 

I shook my head, trying to make the words stop. They didn’t.
 

God is not coming. He is not coming. You are a failure.
 

The dark and powerful words wrapped around me and became true. I could not deny them. It was my fault. I was the one who could see the dragon, and I didn’t even mutter a warning. I’d set this up and watched it happen.

Well done, prophet. Well done, seer. You have always served me.
 

I felt a hand on my back. I turned and saw Aisha’s face through the blur of tears.

“Was that … the dragon?” she asked.

I nodded and pointed to the Dome. “The devil has them now.”

She propped up on her elbows and gazed at the Dome. She turned back at me with hard eyes. “What are we waiting for? We have to go there.”

Her words were like a slap across my face—in a good way. No use staying here, no use mourning. Despair and failure were the devil’s weapons. God was still with me. So was my friend, Aisha. I took a deep breath, steadied myself. I wiped away tears. “Let’s do it.”

“I know which path Zafar and the others took. It’s a tunnel. I can show you the way.” She glanced down at her paralyzed legs. “Can you carry me?”

I knelt down and pulled her body into my arms. I rose slowly, steadying myself to balance her weight. Her slender frame was not heavy, but my legs were still unsteady after the dragon’s attack. My chest still burned with pain. Bruised ribs, I guessed.

She smiled up at me. “I’m glad we still have each other. I always knew you were something special. I think part of me always hoped …”

The look in her almond eyes caught me off guard. “Aisha, I—”

She put a finger over my lips, then moved her hand to my cheek. “I know, Elijah. I know. You don’t have to say anything.” She broke our stare and looked to the side. “It’s that way. Down the stairs.”

I moved toward the stairs. “You’re right. I’m glad we still have each other.”

She nodded. “Now let’s go get Naomi.”

I CARRIED AISHA off the roof, down the stairs, through the abandoned building, and into the room with the hidden hatch. We descended more stairs and reached a dark, stone-walled tunnel.
 

I scanned both directions. “Which way?”

“Right.” Aisha pointed. “It’ll be hard to see, but the floor is smooth. I’ll tell you where to turn.”

I began the way she’d pointed. In a dozen steps the pale light of the stairwell behind us was gone. My steps blurred into a rhythm of dull thuds. We seemed to be heading uphill. The darkness invited a flood of feelings about what had happened: terror about the dragon and Naomi; doubt about whether we could do anything now; awkwardness about what Aisha had said; weariness from the weight of her body; warmth from the closeness of her; coldness from the empty tunnel; and, glowing underneath all that, a smoldering ember of faith and hope. I believed Jesus was who he said he was, and that kept the ember burning, my feet marching.

“That way,” Aisha said. An open doorway lay ahead of us, on the left. “We’re almost under the Dome now.”

My arms and legs were aching as I turned to the left, down another dark tunnel. But light was ahead. “And take this right,” Aisha directed.

After a few more steps I rounded the corner. We entered a larger room, a cavern. I’d hardly taken in the surroundings when a beam of light flashed over my face, leaving my eyes no time to adjust. I staggered back.

“Eli,” whispered a man. “Thought I’d never see you again.”

“Jacob?” My uncle. Maybe the last of my family alive.

“It’s me,” he said, lowering the flashlight. He wore military fatigues and a helmet. Dark hollows sank beneath his eyes as he glanced down at Aisha. “Zafar said you’d stayed back with the other girl and the baby. You were supposed to be our cover.”

“The dragon came. It took them. Don must have them now.”

“Cristo has everyone.” Jacob pointed up to the ceiling. I could see better now—a ladder led up through a shaft in the carved-out stone. “We’re staging our final assault,” he continued. “We’d be a lot stronger if you’d sent some funds, like I asked.”

“What do you mean?” But the memory came to me—what he’d said the week of my Dad’s funeral.
Our city is Jerusalem, and it could use your help
. “I’ve had my own troubles getting here. I don’t think I could’ve been much help.”