The Revelation of Gabriel Adam (33 page)

Without another word, Micah followed him through the entrance.

Gabe watched from outside, the red curtain held back.

“Bloody fool I am. Here it is.” His father retrieved the two pieces from next to the throne. “If ever there was a time to unite the two . . .”

Micah took the sword from his dad and presented the forked tip to him. He held up the stone tip. The grooves matched one another like lock and key, sliding into place and connecting.

The hilt seemed to pulse in her hands. “The energy,” she said. “It’s amazing. I can feel it flowing through me.”

Gabe took a step closer. The sword responded to its connection with Micah. She held it out from her body, and the blade glowed white-hot, showering the room in light. Even from outside, Gabe could feel the power emanating from inside the temple.

“Oh, my God,” his father managed, moving back.

The sword and the stone melded together as if being forged anew. Seams between the two pieces disappeared in a smoldering heat, becoming one. The engravings on the blade burned the color of fire. When it was over, the sword was united into a singular whole. The metal shined so bright it was as if it cast its own light. Engravings in the blade had disappeared to leave behind only one—the symbol of the archangel Michael.

Micah turned to Gabe. “I think I’m ready,” she said.

“I’ll be waiting for you both when this is over.” His dad put his hands on the altar and tried to open the door to the tabernacle. It wouldn’t budge. “Micah, I can’t get it open.”

She laid her hands on it and seemed to concentrate, eyes closed, but nothing happened. Micah turned to Gabe. “We need Afarôt.”

He didn’t hesitate and ran toward the gate, desperate to figure out a way to get his father to safety.

Afarôt was standing his ground near the steps by the road, holding his hands out to fend off the hornets. A barrier of white energy hung in the air, projected from his hands to create a shield against the attack, but it was not enough. He only managed to repel one wave as the swarm re-formed for another assault.

The hornets moved too quickly and maneuvered around the shield faster than Afarôt could expand its coverage, rendering it useless. He abandoned the tactic and ran to Gabe as the hornets gave chase. He turned and with a parting energy bolt from his hand sent the hornets retreating into the sky.

“Afarôt, it’s my father. Please, we can’t get him inside the altar. It’s the only place he’s safe.”

The Ethiopian was out of breath, panting hard. “I’ll see to him. You have the ring. Have faith in it. Have faith in yourself, and you will know what to do. Now is your time, so do not hesitate,” he said and turned toward the temple. “Micah, bring the sword! Bring the sword!”

Gabe was left alone to stare at his hands, hoping for a sign—anything that might help him use his power. Yet he felt nothing inside.

The swarm organized above him. He heard his father’s voice yards away, shouting behind the temple’s red cloth.

Micah pulled the curtain away from the door, peering outside. “Afarôt, we can’t open the ark!”

CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT

No
, Septis thought.
The ark!
He heard the girl’s words and recalled the device’s use from an age long ago. It had been the treasure of Solomon, kept in his temple along with what gave him his power—the ring.
If they have found the ark, then they must have also found weapon
, he thought. His confidence wavered, and for the first time, he felt his victory might be in jeopardy.

No longer concerned with healers and fledgling archangels, he maneuvered the hornets and sent them crashing against the domed building, but the effect was in vain. They scattered harmlessly into the air and turned back to dust.

A singular thought rang in his mind like the alarm sounding in the compound.
They have the ring! They have the ring!
No longer, he realized, could he toy with his meal. They had to die before the weapon could be used against him.
But if I can obtain it for myself, I could rule over all, even Mastema.

Eyes closed as if in prayer, he called upon all the dark energy inside him. Shadows flowed back to him from the bodies of soldiers and the places hidden from the light cast by the towers and streetlamps. They found him where he stood and slithered up his legs and body, absorbing into his skin.

Septis could feel his power threatening to tear him apart as the shadows, fueled by the dark energies flowing inside the world, joined with his being, becoming part of him. Soon they could no longer be contained within his earthly shell. They came to the surface, churning over his skin in waves like an ocean in a storm.

Shock waves of invisible energy pulsated from his body, burning the air as they rolled out, hurling the remains of Afarôt’s soldiers into the air.

His rage focused on the building that housed the girl and Afarôt. Only Gabriel stood alone outside, but he looked lost, bewildered, and horrified by the display of power.

Gabe watched the streetlamps burst above the man, showering him with falling sparks. Septis seemed to be engulfed by a spinning darkness, like he stood inside the eye of a hurricane. It whipped around his form, furious and angry.

But what worried Gabe the most was the intensifying rumble in the earth. His enemy no longer looked at him. Instead, all his efforts seemed focused on the temple, where his father and Micah were being helped by Afarôt.

As the shadow continued to build around Septis, the man lifted his arm and leveled it at the small building housing the ark.

Flashes of Yuri turning on Carlyle by the River Wear ran through Gabe’s mind. In an instant he was running toward the gated garden, desperate to reach his father and friends. He screamed in desperation, “Get out! Get out of the temple!”

Septis watched the boy run, laughing as the sensation of the power’s release became impossible to hold back.

A jet of dark energy and shadow erupted from his outstretched hands like a cannon and traveled in a continuous trajectory over the ground toward the temple. With a precision hit, it collided with the building, sending a concussive blast rolling out from the impact. The explosion threw brick and wood in every direction. Glass and metal shattered out into the compound, knocking Gabriel from his feet.

With all his power released, Septis felt a sense of euphoria wash over him. He staggered slightly, winded from the effort, and steadied himself to survey the damage of his wrath. Smoke billowed up from a pile of rubble in a clearing where the temple had once stood. Almost certainly, everyone who had been inside was dead and all the dangers of the ark had been quelled.

Septis approached the steps leading to the gate. He mastered control of his growing excitement, remembering his mistake in New York when he’d been too quick to celebrate his victory. The mission, after all, was still incomplete. Gabriel remained alive.

Not for long
.

CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE

The ringing in Gabe’s ears was real this time, the hurt beyond that of any bruise or kick to the chest. He tasted blood, felt the cold electricity in the nerve endings of torn flesh. Blood trickled into his eye from a gash on his brow.

He lay on the ground amongst the debris of the former building. Gabe tried to sit up, but a knifing sensation in his arm traveled over his body. Then he saw stars and heard a cry of pain—his own. His right arm folded in an unnatural way, and he collapsed back to the ground.

It was broken. Badly.

Yet despite the severity of his injuries, he focused on what remained of the temple. Nearby, amongst the wreckage, he could see his father, thrown from where the temple had stood. He lay unmoving on top of a mangled and twisted part of the temple’s steel gate. Memories of the future given to Gabe by the Entheos Genesthai found their way into his mind. Adrenaline surged through his body as he was struck by the realization—the vision had come true. His father was dead.

Gabe pushed his body into action, ignoring the debilitating pain in his arm, and crawled to his dad. As he approached he could see dust and smoke moving away from his father’s mouth.

He’s breathing
, Gabe thought. Tears filled his eyes from the relief.

His dad opened his eyes. He made eye contact but didn’t move.
Run
, he mouthed.

From the street, laughter bellowed out into the night from Septis. The sound was getting closer.

Scanning the wreckage, Gabe saw a wisp of black hair dancing amongst a pile of rubble entwined with uprooted plants and flowers in what had been the garden. He used all the strength he had to overcome the pain in his broken body and tried to get to his feet but buckled from the pain. His knees gave out instantly, unable to support his own weight. He managed to catch himself before collapsing and stumbled to Micah. Under a large slab of wall he found her, hair spread out on the ground and matted with blood, her sword gone, likely buried amongst the rock and debris.

She gasped for air, and Gabe could tell she was dying. All the color had drained from her face. She choked and coughed up blood, which trickled down her chin.

Gabe wiped it away. “Hold on, Micah. Please hold on. Everything will be okay,” he said.

Her breaths came in short and fading gasps. Her eyes met his and told him everything. She didn’t have long.

Gabe bent down and tried in vain to move the slab. It was as big as a person. He grabbed it with both hands and gritted his teeth through the torture of using his lame arm, but it was impossibly heavy and would not budge.

Tears streaked down the dirt on her face. It was a familiar look, not unlike the one Gabe had seen in Carlyle before Yuri struck him down. The same feeling of helplessness to stop the inevitable consumed Gabe.

She knows.

“No,” Gabe said, falling back to her side. Tears flowed uncontrollably down his face. “Please stay with me, Micah.”

She reached up and touched his face, as if telling him it was okay.

Micah’s eyes widened as the end took hold. In an attempt to draw in one last breath, she opened her mouth, struggling to find air. Then her eyes rolled back. The moment seemed to last a lifetime. Finally, her jaw slacked and her eyes shut.

CHAPTER SEVENTY

Something inside Gabe came alive, coursing through his veins like the warmth from the Entheos Genesthai.

In his refusal to accept what was happening to Micah, he felt himself surge, change. Anger turned to strength and found its way to the muscles in his body. “You’re not leaving me,” he shouted.

Gabe grabbed the slab again with his one good hand. The concrete crumbled in his grip. With enormous effort, he hurled the slab into the air, freeing Micah’s broken body.

He didn’t waste a second trying to make sense of anything, and in an instant he was on top of Micah, breathing air into her lungs. Her chest rose and fell with every breath he put inside. After a moment he stopped. Nothing happened. Her eyes were still open, vacant.

He tried breathing into her mouth again. Her chest filled with air once more, rising and falling with his efforts. He pulled away and waited. Still, nothing.