Shadows in the Silence (27 page)

“Always,” he said, green eyes bright. “Even if you stop loving me.”

I felt myself begin to crumble and I left the armory and him sitting on the floor.

The castle was eerily quiet as I wandered through the corridors and watched the dawn light peeking in through each window. I wondered where the others were. Ava was sure to still be hard at work uncovering the Naphil’s location and driving Marcus on like a workhorse. I imagined Cadan either took a room in the castle or returned to the hotel to rest during the daylight hours. Madeleine…I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know her well enough. I wondered how her conversation with Cadan had gone and if they’d made peace.

Footsteps interrupted my thoughts. My first thought should have been that the footsteps belonged to one of my friends, but instinct sent my nerves running on hot coals. I let my senses stretch out to feel for the identity of the wanderer. I held out a hand and a single Khopesh shimmered into my palm. I turned the corner and met a face I hadn’t expected to see in a million years.

It was Ethan Stone.

“YOU!” I SQUEAKED. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?”

Ethan wore a grin made of pure, sticky-sweet satisfaction. “I’m here to have a chat with an old friend.”

“How did you find me?”

He scoffed. “My spies are far better than Sammael’s. In fact, mine dispatched one of his in Liege. They’re hot on your tail, little fireball.”

I gaped in shock. “Your human soldiers can take on demonic reapers?”

“Mercenaries,” he corrected. “Technically. They’re ex-military, served in some of the most violent regions of the world. A few were on a special force that fought warlords in the Congo. They fared well against your own assault on my house, didn’t they? The reapers tend to discredit human power because we are, well, mortal. To creatures who have
the ability to live forever, mortality is a weakness. We may not have wings and claws, but we have explosives.”

“Are you going to tell me why you’re following me?”

“I’ve always kept tabs on you,” he replied in a disconcertingly casual tone. “It’s been in my best interest to. When you told me that you were looking to evoke an angel, I knew your next task would be to find Solomon’s Ring. I also deduced that Azrael would be the angel you would evoke to fight Sammael since he’s beaten the Fallen before, but I put my money on his answer being a big fat ‘no.’ Azrael was demoted—there’s no way he could take on Sammael—and since he’s the only angel with a tendency to bend the rules, you’ve got just one angel left that you can count on: yourself. Am I right?”

“Yes,” I grumbled. “You get a stalker’s gold star.”

“Brilliant.” His gaze shuffled toward both exits of the room. “I love gold stars and being right. Now, before your Guardian rushes in to remove my head before bothering to at least give me a good bollocking, we must move on. You spared my life and I would like to help you. Yes, you might have taken the next most valuable thing I possess, which was that magnificent book, but I have it in me to forgive.”

“I’m pretty desperate, so I’ll take what I can get,” I told him. “How can you help me?”

“Being the collector I am, I also collect information,” he explained. “I like stories, especially stories that happen to have truth to them. I learned a long time ago that you need the heart of a Naphil in order to ascend and so I deduced,
since the Nephilim had been exterminated, that one or more were spared. I wanted one for my collection.”

My jaw dropped. “You—
what
? You have one at your house?”

He laughed. “No, of course not. I found him and realized he wouldn’t fit in my house so I left him where he was.”

My brain grew numb with shock. “You know where the Naphil is?”

“That’s what I’m trying to say, yes.” All the humor washed from his expression and tone. “But I don’t just want you to find the Naphil. Give the beast some mercy. I have seen barbarism, Preliator, but nothing like this.”

My jaw set hard. “That doesn’t surprise me.”

“Another thing,” Stone continued. “Did Azrael tell you what to do with the heart once you had it?”

“He didn’t.” I paused in horror. “I don’t have to eat it, do I?”

“You can avoid that,” he replied. “But you’ll need a ritual out of the compilation of spells from the Antares grimoire your friend Nathaniel copied. I imagine he didn’t quite understand what he had when it came to passages about you. We corresponded more often once he learned you were Gabriel.”

I felt sad at the thought of Nathaniel. “We found you through a package you sent to him. Did you know him well?”

“We’re both collectors,” Ethan explained. “We understood each other. I’d been in contact with him for a number
of years. Most of my life, actually. I was sorry to hear of his passing.”

“He didn’t ‘
pass
.’ He was killed.”

“Yes,” Stone said, voice gentle. “I imagine you’re very familiar with loss.”

I didn’t want to talk about everything and everyone I’d lost so far. “So, you and Nathaniel were friends? I know he kept in touch with psychics and you told me that you’re a psychic.”

“I told you ‘in a manner of speaking.’”

I glared at him. “It’s extremely annoying that you have to give me the most confusing response possible every time.”

“I’m old and bored and running out of hobbies. This is a new one.”

“Who are you, Ethan Stone?” I asked in a very serious tone. “Or should I say,
what
are you?”

He smiled. “That is the question, isn’t it?”

And then it hit me. “The bloodline in America that Nathaniel told me about…you’re one of the scions, aren’t you?”

His smile widened. “I’m happy to know that I’m not descended from a moron.”

My brain reeled as I circled him, gaping at him, studying him, picking out resemblances in his features that I saw in my own. I saw everything now. This was why Lauren had detected my presence in his psychic signature on the envelope, and why the energy was so intense and violent. She’d
had a similar reaction when she used her abilities to sense a connection between myself and the sarcophagus Sammael had been entombed in. only an angel had that kind of power. It made perfect sense for Nathaniel to keep in contact with Ethan Stone, and why he knew so much about our world even though he was psychic. But he was more than a psychic mortal. My power—angelic power—was in his blood.

“How long have you known?” I asked him, still breathless.

“Even as a young boy growing up in Surrey, England, I’ve always known I have abilities that normal people don’t,” he said. “But it wasn’t until my mother introduced me to Nathaniel that I knew what I was. Your angelic blood has flowed through my mother’s side for over three hundred years. Nathaniel had kept track of my entire family tree, since you married a mortal man and bore a child before that incarnation of yours was killed in battle.”

Despite the incredible discovery of one of my descendants, this information stung ripe and raw. I hated thinking about the men I’d loved who weren’t Will. If I’d known how he felt about me, I never would have even considered anyone else. I remembered what Will had told me when he found out Cadan had feelings for me:
“For centuries I’ve watched you with everyone but me.”
Thinking about his words now made me so angry with myself, but he never told me he loved me until the night after we’d thrown the sarcophagus into the sea. If I’d
known
…

“Ellie?” Ethan Stone’s voice shook me from my thoughts.

If I’d known and given my heart only to Will, then Ethan Stone wouldn’t be here. His ancestors—my descendants—never would have lived. I couldn’t regret what I’d done that gave life to others. I was the archangel of new life. Nothing was more precious to me. I was more than willing to give up my own to save all life on Earth.

Ethan Stone laid a hand on my shoulder. “That’s a lot to absorb. I understand.”

He didn’t understand everything, but it was a nice gesture.

“Actually, I do,” he said. “You and your Guardian fool no one, not even an old fool like me.”

“Is being a creepy mind invader your only talent?”

“Of course not,” he replied. “I’m also a talented smartass.”

“That one has been apparent enough,” I grumbled. “Nathaniel told me that my scions can’t control angelfire, so what else can you do?”

“Enable my inherent laziness,” he said with ease. He lifted his right hand and small objects zipped around my head toward him, very nearly nicking my skin. The objects—small rocks collected from the debris littering the ground—settled into his open hand. “I could have merely picked them all off the ground, but I don’t need to. Brilliant, I know.”

“In all seriousness, it is,” I said, marveling at the rocks in his hand. I touched one and it prickled my skin with energy,
like static electricity. “How strong is this ability? Can you pick up things that are heavier than little rocks?”

“Like a person?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Could you pick up me?”

“I can do more than lift you,” he replied. “When I was younger, I had less control over it. I had to learn quickly.”

I cringed. “Did people get hurt?”

“They had it coming,” he said with a dismissive wave. “Most of them, anyhow.”

“Could you defend yourself from a reaper?” I asked. “Like if you were attacked?”

He shrugged and then he backed away several paces. “Rush at me.”

I gaped at him. “What?”

“Attack me.”

“Again, what?”

“Just
run
at me!”

I lunged toward him, but I only took three steps before his hand flicked up and my body was hurled in the opposite direction. My feet hit the ground the same instant his were lifted. Will had wound his entire hand around Ethan Stone’s throat and he now held the man high over his head.

“It was just a friendly demonstration, I assure you!” Stone gargled, barely able to breathe.

“You attacked her,” Will snarled, adding just a hair more pressure to make the man’s eyes bulge.

“Will!” I shouted at him as I caught my balance. “Let
him go. He wasn’t hurting me—just showing me his powers. He’s one of my scions.”

That didn’t seem to make Will want to pummel Stone any less. In fact, Will glared even harder, but I understood. This human was descended from me and a man other than Will. Will had no reason to like him. Even so, he set Ethan back on the ground on my order and folded his arms.

“Thank you,” Ethan said, and smoothed out his suit and his hair. Will didn’t give him any room. I rolled my eyes. The stupid macho crap would never end.

“What do you want?” Will demanded.

“To help you!”

“He knows where the Naphil is,” I explained. I turned to Stone. “Which is…where, exactly?”

“The Temple of Solomon,” Ethan Stone said. “You really liked Solomon, I must say.”

“But no one knows exactly where that is,” I told him. “It’s the same temple that protected the Ark of the Covenant for a long time. No one has ever been allowed to excavate the Temple Mount. If there’s a Naphil buried alive in there, then there’s no way to get to it.”

He seemed unconcerned. “No, no. The temple in Jerusalem was sacked by King Nebuchadnezzar—completely plundered and destroyed. But there were two temples built. The one in Jerusalem protected the Ark of the Covenant, and a second in Aleppo, Syria, housed the last Naphil.”

“Ain Dara,” Will said in a low voice.

I stared at Stone, confused. “But that temple was built by the Hittites, not the Israelites.”

“Parts of it, yes,” he replied. “The twin temples are nearly identical if you look at the excavated ruins of Ain Dara and the descriptions of Solomon’s Temple on Zion in the Hebrew Bible. The Hittites in the area Ain Dara was built believed the Naphil was one of their more destructive gods, a storm god called Addu. They worshipped him, built gigantic basalt lions and sphinxes around the cherubim reliefs, and carved enormous footprints into the earth leading toward the Sanctum, which is the inner holy room of the temple.”

“Solomon built twin temples,” I repeated, astonished. “Can you take us there? Can you help us find the Naphil?”

“I can do that,” Stone agreed. “I have contacts in Israel and Syria.”

“Will,” I said, and caught my Guardian’s attention. “Once we’re finished at Ain Dara, we can head to Har Megiddo.”

Ethan loosed a long whistle. “That’s really where it will all end, is it?”

“It is indeed,” I said dimly. “I’m tired of playing tag with the enemy. I’m doing everything I need to do in order to give our side the best chance to win this war and then I’m heading to Armageddon to face Sammael and end this once and for all. I’m just afraid that we won’t have enough soldiers to help us fight Sammael’s army. He will have thousands of demonic reapers to fight us there.”

“All of the demonic spawn to meet the angelic,” he
mused. “We need more angelic soldiers. I’m certain my mercenaries would be delighted to fight with you. I don’t believe they’ve ever battled an army of reapers before. It’ll be like Christmas morning for them, the bloodthirsty beasts.”

“Ava and Marcus can rally the angelic,” Will suggested. “My mother has her contacts, as well. While we find the Naphil, they can gather our friends and allies and
their
friends and allies. We can build an army within a week—days. We’ve all been waiting for this.”

With a beam of hope, I realized that maybe we could do this after all. “Do you know where everyone is?” I asked. “Let’s get the group together and figure this out. While the idea’s fresh in our minds, we can organize how we’ll assemble as many angelic reapers as possible.”

“We can fly to Syria later this evening,” Ethan offered. “We’ll take my private jet into a military base I used the last time I traveled to Ain Dara. A lot of money can persuade many men to be very uninterested in our business. I warn you, this won’t be any milk run.”

“For now, let’s get some rest,” I said. “A lot is about to happen for all of us.”

For the first time in a while, Will smiled at me.

I gave him a skeptical stink eye. “What?”

“Nothing,” he replied. “Just proud of you, that’s all.”

Then I smiled back at him.