Horizon, Soul Guardians Book 3 (2 page)

“
I don’t know what to
believe anymore. If you have some issue with Zadkiel—that’s your
problem. I have enough problems of my own. I don’t need this right
now. Maybe you should ask someone else to help you out.”

Kara threw a stone against the
opposite wall. She hung her head.

“
I cannot ask anyone else.
You are the only one. This is
your
task, and your task alone. You must believe me,
Kara, when I say that only
you
can do this,” said Legan. Kara heard an urgency
in his voice that made her feel uncomfortable. “Zadkiel didn’t
return your mother’s soul to the Hall of Souls—”

“
What!” Kara jumped to her
feet and smacked her forehead on the wall of her cell. “How did you
know about my mother’s soul?”

She remembered the disgustingly
satisfied grin on Zadkiel’s face when she had given him the glass
jar containing her mother's soul. She realized in a moment of
horror that he hadn’t smiled because he could return the soul to
the Hall of Souls—he was smiling because he wasn’t going to. It had
given her the creeps then, now she felt a chill pass through her
body. What had happened to her mother’s soul?

“
I knew a lot of things
that went on in Horizon, my dear.” Legan continued, “I’ve been
around, let’s say…for a very, very long time. Nothing gets past
me—well, nothing did get past me until they threw me in here. But
that doesn’t matter anymore. What matters is what you do now. Trust
me when I tell you, he did not return your mother’s
soul.”

The ground wavered slightly and Kara
hung on to the walls so that she wouldn’t fall over. The only happy
thought that had kept her going all this time in the prison was the
conviction that her mother’s soul was safe amongst all the other
brilliant hovering globes in the Hall of Souls. But now it was
lost. She set her jaw. What a fool she had been. She was locked
away in prison for absolutely nothing. Kara waited for the
lightheaded feeling to pass before she spoke again.

“
How do I know you’re
telling me the truth and not some fabricated lie from your damaged
mind? How do I know you’re not working with Zadkiel to get me
killed?”

“
You don’t. You have to
trust me,” he said in a gentle voice.

When Kara didn’t answer, Legan
continued. “You must believe me, Kara. I am telling you the truth.
Part of you knows I speak the truth—I can sense it.”

Silence descended on the room. Kara
ached to be with her mother again. If what the old man said was
true, then her mother was in grave danger. She had to do
something.

“
What … what can I do?”
said Kara, and she knew she couldn’t mask the trembling in her
voice. “I’m stuck here! How am I supposed to do anything? Do you
know a way out of here?” Kara threw her weight against the hard
wall, but it was like trying to move an elephant. She knew she
couldn’t break her way out. She thought about picking the lock. But
was there a lock to her cell door? She didn’t remember seeing one.
Desperation filled her. How was she ever going to get
out?

“
You will not be locked up
in Tartarus for long,” informed Legan, as though reading her mind.
“Soon you will be summoned to your hearing to face the charges laid
against you before the High Council. It will not be easy, since the
council has been misled by the poison from Zadkiel’s mouth. But you
must stop Zadkiel. This will be your only
chance—
our
only
chance. Do you understand? If you do not succeed, we are all
doomed.”

Kara felt another chill crawl up her
back. She shuddered involuntarily. “What do you mean exactly?” It
was bad enough that she was partly responsible for allowing demons
to cross over to the mortal world. She didn’t want to have the
downfall of the angel world on her conscience, too. It would be too
much for one soul to handle. “Uh … I’m completely lost. What is it
that I’m supposed to do?”

“
You must
touch
him.”

Kara shook her head.
“Excuse me? Are you mad?
Touch
him?”

“
Yes,” said Legan, “a
single touch on him from you, and the mark will show
itself.”

Panic welled inside her breast. She
couldn’t see how she could get close enough to touch him. This plan
was going from bad to worse. “They’ll never let me get close to
him. I’m the demon spawn; remember? They’ll kill me if I get too
close to the council. And then where will we be?”

“
But you must, Kara. You
must touch him and show the council whose master he’s truly
serving. They will believe you once the mark reveals itself. I
promise.”

“
I don’t know. This doesn’t
sound like a master plan.” Kara let her head fall against the wall.
An image of her mother’s beautiful face danced before her eyes.
Big-band music drifted in her ears. She remembered listening to
Billie Holiday while doing the dishes with her mother as they sang
along and spilled water all over the linoleum floor. Her nerves
fluttered inside her. She owed it to her mother to try. “Okay. I’ll
do it.”

“
Good,” said Legan, and
Kara was sure he smiled. “It won’t be long now.”

Kara wasn’t sure what he meant by
that. Was this all a madman’s scheme? How did he know when the
council would summon her? How deep were his connections to the
outside world? She had been locked up for so long that she had
started to forget what it was like outside these walls. Something
nagged at the back of her mind.

“
Legan. Why haven’t you
spoken to me before? Why now?”

“
Well, I wasn’t
here
before. That is to
say, I was in a different place.”

“
Like below a few levels or
something?” Kara wondered just how many cells belonged to the
concrete block they called a prison. It was an enormous structure.
She figured it must hold thousands of cells. Were thousands of
innocent angels locked away?

“
Hmmm … yes … I suppose.
Something of that sort,” said Legan. “Here they come. Get ready,
Kara. We shall meet again soon.”

“
What—?”

Kara heard a loud screech followed by
a deafening boom. The cell walls shook, and for a minute Kara
thought there might have been an earthquake, but she quickly
realized that was impossible because they were floating in a giant
cube. She whirled around. She wiped the dust and dirt from her eyes
and blinked.

Kara stared into the piercing golden
eyes of a giant eagle.

Chapter 2

Zadkiel

K
ara walked along the endless corridor leading to the High
Council chamber. Tall grey walls dressed with colorful tapestries
and the occasional portrait of some important angel official
surrounded her on either side. The stale air was hot, and dust
tickled her nose. Her boots echoed through the empty corridors,
cutting the eerie silence like a knife. The exquisite wooden doors
of the offices reminded Kara of the monumental Chateau Frontenac
hotel where she had spent a day exploring the different levels on a
school trip. She peered through an open door. It was an office, she
realized, and she stepped inside. It was cluttered with papers, and
books were piled all the way to the ceiling like crooked ladders.
Light leaked from a large window at the far end, lighting up
thousands of dust particles floating in the air like miniature
snowflakes. The office seemed deserted. Kara felt uneasy. Where was
everyone?

Unlike the other times she had been
summoned to the council, when the halls had been filled with
curious onlookers, this time the halls were deserted. Not even an
oracle came to greet her on the landing platform to escort her to
the council, as they always did. No one came, and she felt a nasty
chill roll up her back. What was going on?

Kara walked out of the office and
continued to make her way towards the council chamber. She reached
out and dragged her fingers along the walls, reassuring herself
that they were real, and that she wasn’t back in her cell
hallucinating. She wondered if she had gone mad—and this was all in
her mind. Kara shook her head and pressed on. She figured that once
she arrived at the council things would become clear. It would all
make sense.

She spotted the giant metal doors of
the council chamber at the far end of the hall. They stood before
her, majestic and accusing. They judged her before she even pled
her case. She walked up to them and pressed her trembling hands
against the cold metal. Uncertainty flooded through her. She
questioned what would happen once she entered the chamber. Would
the High Council believe her now or would they simply lock her up
again until she withered away, mad as a hatter. Why they had locked
her away for so long, kept her guessing.

She steeled herself. She’d fight for
the truth, even if it meant they’d throw her back in prison. But
she couldn’t forget what Legan had told her... how important he had
made her feel, the hint of desperation in his voice. She had a job
to do. She had to get near Zadkiel somehow. She had to touch him.
Once the Mark was revealed, the council would believe her—Legan had
told her so. She decided to take that chance. Legan had handed her
an opportunity; she had to take it. She fought to control her
nerves. She readied herself and pushed the metal doors.

The doors screeched on
their hinges as she pressed them apart. She sauntered into the
chamber and stopped. The great round room was empty, save for seven
archangels who sat behind a glistening black desk raised on a dais
at the opposite end of the room, like a giant black diamond. Yellow
light spilled through the rounded glass dome above her, like an
enormous greenhouse, filling the room in a soft light. Spasms
erupted all over Kara’s body, and she forced herself to stay calm.
She didn’t want the archangels to notice her fear.
Be strong.

Kara scanned the room again quickly.
David wasn’t here either. She wasn’t sure why she actually expected
him to show up. He hadn’t come to see her in Tartarus. But she
wasn’t even sure if visitors were allowed. They probably weren’t.
Maybe he had to lie low? She convinced herself that David was
occupied elsewhere, or that he didn’t even know her trial was
today... which was really unlikely...

She set her jaw. Legan’s words echoed
in her head. She lifted her eyes and met Zadkiel’s gaze. She
flinched. His black eyes stared back at her. A mixture of
satisfaction and disdain painted his face. He was searching her
face, reading the fear in her eyes. His bald head stood out against
his red robes, like a severed head above a bloody stump. She forced
herself not to look away. She didn’t want to give him the
satisfaction. Hatred filled her. What had he done to her mother’s
soul? He would pay for this. Her chance had come. She knew exactly
what she had to do.

Kara clenched her fists and walked
forward. She knew the drill, and she walked over to the lonely
bench conveniently placed below the council members. She figured
they sat on a raised platform so that they could look down upon the
poor soul who happened to be summoned—a power trip. But it was her
turn now. She let herself fall onto the bench. She sat calmly with
her hands on her lap and looked up. She met Uriel’s eyes. She
watched him raise his eyebrows, but his face was as unreadable as
ever.

“
Kara Nightingale,” said
Uriel, in a musical tone. “How delightful to see you again so
soon—”

“
This is soon?” blurted
Kara before she could stop herself. She pressed her lips together,
eyes wide. She saw annoyance flash in Uriel’s perfect face
momentarily, and then it was gone. His dark eyes glimmered as he
studied Kara. The light from above illuminated his delicate
features and silky brown hair.

“
There are two serious
charges laid against you.” Uriel interlaced his fingers. His golden
robes glistened in the light, and Kara thought he looked like a
golden statue. “Both are very serious indeed, and I find myself
very disappointed in you, Miss Nightingale. We had high hopes for a
guardian of your special talents, who showed so much promise. We
are faced with terrible times, and this is very
unfortunate.”

Kara stared back in puzzlement. She
wasn’t sure what he meant by terrible times. Had she missed out on
something? Was he referring to the mass release of demons into the
mortal world? She fidgeted in her seat, and tried not to feel
culpable. She knew that striking Al had been an accident, but
escaping from Tartarus wasn’t. She hoped the council didn’t know
that David or the others were involved in her break out.

“
The council has had time
to review your cases extensively,” continued Uriel, his mouth
pressed in a hard line. “After listening to the eye witness
accounts and reviewing the evidence in your first case, the council
has voted and has found you
guilty
of the crime of attempted murder of a fellow
guardian—”

“
What! You can’t be
serious!” Kara couldn’t hide the anger in her voice. She jumped up
and threw her hands in the air. “It was an accident! Who are your
eyewitnesses? Did you speak to David McGowan? He was there … he can
tell you it was an accident. What about the archangel, Cassiel? He
can tell you—”