Ethan held an arm out. “Shall we?”
Dr. Massi steered us toward the storm god temple, which was an unearthed pit lined with limestone walls. To me, it didn’t appear very different from the surrounding ruins, but Rebekah explained to us the intricate floor plan and what each room was used for. We headed to a section of the floor made of stone blocks that were free of dust, unlike the surrounding ground, and looked as if they’d been examined closely. She waved Ethan over and they both lifted the stones from where they fit, revealing a hatch made of wood that seemed to have been preserved in the scorching desert heat. I watched in utter fascination as the two carefully pulled the hatch open by an iron handle. Beneath was a shaft, barely large enough for a full-grown man to slip through, that descended into darkness.
“Cool,” I murmured, and exchanged looks with Will. He seemed just as excited as I was.
“Are you ready?” Rebekah asked, a wide smile on her face. “It’s a bit of a drop, but I’ve cleared the dangerous bank of sand that might have broken our necks and I’ve tossed down sacks to cushion our landing. I’ll go first.”
She reached into her bag and retrieved a propane lantern. She flipped a switch and a small flame flickered to life. It didn’t seem like much, but as she positioned herself through the shaft, that little flame illuminated the darkness more brightly than I’d have guessed. Then she was gone, and a moment later her footsteps hit hard-packed earth with a dry thud and rustling of the sacks. I peered over the edge, deep into the shaft. Rebekah smiled up at me, holding the lantern over her head so that the glow turned her caramel skin to gold.
“I’ll go next,” Stone offered. He dropped his pack through the hole and followed it.
“Go,” Will told me. “I’ll close the hatch behind us and watch the rear.”
“Or stare at it,” I teased.
He licked his lips and they pulled into a little sideways grin. Smiling up at him, I eased my body through the hole until my legs dangled in clear air and all I needed to do was to let go. He gave me a reassuring look and I let my body fall. My senses quickened as I dropped and landed on my feet with grace and effortlessness. I stepped out of the way for Will to follow me and strained to see where Ethan and Rebekah had gone. They were talking just ahead of Will and me, lit by the glow of their lanterns. To my amazement, the tunnel had been carved out of solid rock. The air down here was cooler and less dry, and frankly it was more pleasant than aboveground. I picked up my pack and turned on my lantern. I started to get the second out for Will, but he put a hand on my arm.
“Save it,” he said. “I don’t need one to see. Three are enough.”
“Show off,” I grumbled.
“The passages open up into hidden locations all over the Citadel,” Rebekah called to us from ahead. We walked a little faster to catch up. “I’ve found four that lead out into the city, but this one travels the farthest so far. on one of my explorations, I made the discovery of a lifetime: an ancient underground city between Ain Dara and Aleppo, much like the city of Derinkuyu, north of here in Cappadocia—now modern Turkey—which was once the homeland for the Hittite civilization. The Hittites seemed to have taken a preexisting city built by an unknown civilization and made it their home. I believe they have done the same with the city I’m taking you to today. I am itching to reveal the city, but not until I know what’s beyond the door in the Sanctum. That’s why I rang in Ethan.”
“Door?” I asked.
“An enormous one, twenty feet high, and made of solid basalt,” she replied. “There are engravings in a language I’d never seen before and reliefs of creatures I believed at first were cherubim, but upon closer inspection, were creatures I haven’t seen in any Mesopotamian structure, or anywhere else in the world. The written language cut into the stone is far more complex than any language within thousands of years of its dating. It is almost alien.”
“The language is Enochian,” Stone explained, glancing back at us, the firelight dancing on his face and making him look a little younger. “The angelic language. It was no astonishment that Rebekah didn’t recognize it.”
“You can read it?” I asked, surprised.
“Again,” he said, “I like knowing things.”
My gaze fell to the tunnel floor. “I don’t quite remember it. I didn’t think anyone knew it anymore.”
“You may again very soon.”
This time Rebekah was the one who glanced back. “Remember it? You’re a little young to be a linguist.”
Ethan Stone gave an uncomfortable cough. I hadn’t realized until now how poorly informed this archaeologist was about what was happening out there. I’d need to be careful about what I said from now on.
“Who are you again?” she asked, growing a little suspicious. “You also seem a little young to be a university student. Will, I can see it, though he doesn’t look the type. A little brawny, he is. You’re both quite curious.”
“We’re what he says.” I wasn’t sure how to explain myself, so I kept my mouth shut. The only reason Rebekah had even joined us was to help navigate this maze of tunnels since she knew it best. We continued for miles, for so long I began to sing songs in my head to pass the time. The passages branched off randomly and we took a couple of turns here and there. The floor rose and fell, and sometimes the tunnel grew wider or more narrow. We passed a few places where the ceiling had partially collapsed, forcing us to climb over fallen rock and debris. Every once in a while, we passed statues of sphinxes and even one of a winged man who had to be an angel. We must have been getting close.
A heavy rumble shook the tunnel walls and floor, and dust sprang free in thick clouds. Rebekah gasped and Ethan swore. Will remained silent and closed the distance between him and me.
“A cave-in?” I asked fearfully as I pushed my hands into the wall to catch my balance.
Stone frowned, studied the ceiling. “That didn’t feel like a cave-in.”
“Nor did it sound like one,” Dr. Massi added.
I spun around to Will, who looked right at me. “Reaper.”
A small noise of confusion escaped from me as I stared past him and into the blackness. I laid a hand on his arm, instinctively drawing my body closer to his. “Will?”
“It’s not behind us,” he said in a low voice. “It’s up ahead.”
I whirled the other way and looked past the two humans with us. There wasn’t much room down here to fight and to protect our companions, but neither was there an escape route for the four of us. “Ethan, Rebekah,” I said. “Get behind us.”
“What?” she asked, gaping at us all. “Why? What’s going on?”
Ethan took her by the arm and steered her past us despite her protests. “We should listen to them.”
A second rumble reverberated, but this time the sound was very clearly a bestial roar.
“You both should start running,” Will said. “Just keep going until—”
“Will!” I shrieked, cutting him off.
A figure appeared out of the blackness behind Will—a female vir—and grabbed two fistfuls of the back of Will’s shirt and yanked him farther down the tunnel, her wings beating thickly in the narrow shaft as they disappeared. Rebekah screamed high and piercing as she flailed backwards, dragging Ethan Stone with her, and her lantern clattered to the ground. It took me the longest moment of my life to decide whether to protect them or run after Will, but I trusted Ethan to get Rebekah out of here. My Guardian needed me.
All around us in the tunnel, debris began to fall, small bits of rock and dust hit the floor. The sound of battle and thudding of bodies against stone made the tunnel rumble. Seconds later, chunks of rock tumbled from the ceiling. I stared in fear at the direction the humans had run.
“Ethan!” I screamed. “Cave-in! Get back this way!”
I could hear Rebekah’s piercing cries as Ethan struggled to steer her around. The tunnel roared and shook as the ceiling caved in from somewhere in their direction. I spun and headed for where Will had gone with the vir. At the very
edge of my lantern light’s reach, Will shoved the demonic reaper into the wall of stone, his sword sparking against hers as she struggled beneath his strength.
“Move!” I yelled at him.
He tore away from the reaper, who was left in confusion, and darted farther down the tunnel and out of the way. I chucked the lantern at her head and she hissed and swung her sword to deflect the object. The blade punctured the small propane tank and it exploded. Fire engulfed her torso and she screeched and ripped at the flames burning away the flesh on her face. I called my swords, lit up the angelfire, and charged at her. She clawed through the last of the flames, her face scorched and raw and twisted with undulated rage. I lifted a sword and slashed it across her chest, splitting her skin and clothes wide open.
Will’s sword crunched through her rib cage and jutted out the front of her body. She gasped and moaned in agony, staring down at the blade. She looked up at me, blood dribbling down her burned chin. She snarled as his sword withdrew.
“Sammael knows what you’re doing,” she hissed. “He knows of your planned ascension.”
“Does he, now?” I asked. “He’s invited to the party, if he’s down.”
She made a hideous, brutish sound. “You will never see the ends of his armies. They blanket the Earth as a storm blankets the sky, but the sun will never rise again.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, yeah. You demonic all think you’re Shakespeare. Really nice. Good-bye.” Then I took off her head and the rest of her burned up.
29
IT HAD TAKEN DR. MASSI SOME TIME TO CALM DOWN and speak in a reasonable tone of voice. She sat on the ground with her back to the wall while she devoured her sixth granola bar and we explained to her what she had seen. Ethan Stone returned after a short trek to check on the tunnel condition.
“The passage is completely blocked,” he explained and exhaustedly took a seat beside Rebekah. “We can only keep going. I’m sorry about the reaper. I’d hoped I’d be right about the daylight.”
I shrugged. “There’s no daylight down here.”
“She must have been waiting for us,” Will said. “Sammael knows Ellie is trying to ascend and if he knew where the Naphil has been kept, then it’s likely he’d have stationed demonic vir to intercept us. We’ll need to be more careful and prepared for anything.”
Rebekah began murmuring something and I had to face her in order to understand what she said. “Angels, demons, they’re real. I believe in God, but never monsters.”
Will stepped over to her and held out a hand for her to take and helped her to her feet. “This is the Holy Land,” he said. “We all believe different things when it comes to God.”
“We have to keep going,” I told them. “We have four hours to sunset and a lot more tunnel to navigate. And now we need to find a way out of here that isn’t the way we came.”
“This is the only channel into the city,” Rebekah argued. “The Sanctum has only one exit and that’s our entrance.”
I gave her a hard look. “There’s always a way out. These passages can’t all lead to nowhere.”
“What are you even looking for beyond that door?” she asked, turning to Ethan Stone. “What is in the Sanctum?”
He took a deep breath, knowing his answer would sound like insanity to her. “The Sanctum of Air Dara is where the last of the Nephilim is imprisoned. I’ve seen him.”
Dr. Massi didn’t say or do anything at first. Then she laughed. “Nephilim? The half-angel beasts God flooded the world to kill?”
“Not with water,” I added. “With angels like me. I am the human form of the archangel Gabriel. My brothers, sisters, and I wiped them out on God’s orders to cleanse the Earth. I kept one of them alive in the event that I’d ever need to ascend to my full angel form.”
“How are you an angel?” she asked, disbelieving. “You’re a teenage girl.”
“I became human to fight monsters on Earth,” I told her. “Take it or leave it.”
She shook her head in confusion. “How would this thing help you become an angel again?”
“I have to use his heart somehow,” I answered grimly. “Right now, I just have to get it. one step at a time, right?”
“This is all absurd,” she said.
Will hoisted Ethan’s and Rebekah’s belongings and presented them to their rightful owners. “Deny all you’d like, but you saw what happened here minutes ago. Now, we have to move. You can stay here, but I’d advise you to stick with us since there may be more reapers.”
She gaped at him, clearly fearful of him since witnessing the battle, but she had to know he was right. There was no way out the way we came, and in case another monster showed up, she wouldn’t want to be alone. After a few moments, she took her backpack and lantern from him and began walking alongside him.
“You’re one of them, aren’t you?” she asked. “Ellie is an angel, but you’re not.”
“No,” Will said. “I’m a reaper, but I fight for her. I fight for Heaven.”
Behind them, I moved nearer to Ethan. “You shouldn’t have brought someone with us who doesn’t know about our world,” I told him in a low voice. “We put her in danger, and now she’s slowing us down.”
“Rebekah knows the underground system far better than I do,” he said. “We will never find the city without her. She’s an invaluable asset. I never imagined I’d ever be required to tell her about the reapers. Most people don’t want to know that monsters exist.”
That wasn’t something I could argue with. I’d fought to keep this world a secret from Kate, but because I’d also fought to keep her in my life, that made it nearly impossible. Now she might have neon nightmares of that black light party at Josie’s for the rest of her life.
“The entrance to the city is just ahead,” Rebekah called to us over her shoulder.
Now that we were down to two lanterns, the underground passage seemed so much darker, and when the ceiling and floor began to widen, our lighted way became more and more dim. At last we came to a set of stairs that led into a large chamber with rows of support columns and archways that branched off into many rooms and hallways.
“We’ve excavated hundreds of underground cities throughout Turkey,” Rebekah explained. “Many are connected through miles of tunnel systems like the one we came through from Aleppo. They’re something like beautiful patchwork quilts, containing pieces from many different civilizations and expanded through the ages. I’ve found examples of Phrygian, Hittite, and even Byzantine period artifacts here. This room was likely an area for trade. The rooms off to the side were once stables and a granary. The underground temperature preserved food and kept living conditions comfortable. I don’t believe these caverns were used much for housing, but mostly for storage and religious purposes. The Sanctum door is clearly marked.”
She guided us further through the city, which was dark, cold, and quiet. I could hear the echoes of trickling water in the distance. We passed reliefs of Mesopotamian gods and demons, and when the door came into view it was even more gigantic than I had imagined. Jewels had been inlaid into the stone, and since they hadn’t been stolen, I believed that no one had found this door before Dr. Massi and Ethan Stone. It was carved from floor to ceiling with images of the war against Nephilim: bodies of giants littered the bottom of the relief below a layer of images depicting a violent battle of Nephilim carrying stocky, archaic weapons against winged, armored angels wielding swords. At the very top, a winged figure surveyed the carnage from the crest of a hill, hair flowing, and both hands carried flaming swords. At the figure’s feet was the name, the only Enochian word I remembered because it was tattooed onto Will’s arm. My name: Gabriel. I swallowed hard, recalling Azrael’s memory of me at the end of this battle, a frightening reflection of the carving I now saw with my own eyes.
“As soon as I saw this door,” Ethan said, his voice breathy with excitement, “I knew what lay in the Sanctum beyond, that the legends were true.”
“Not all legends are made
from honorable heroes,” I said quietly. “What does all of this say? I can’t read the rest of this script.”
“The Enochian along the edge of the door described the angels’ victory over the Nephilim and says ‘This barrier shall yield only to the flesh and blood of the Left Hand.’”
“Me,” I said, gazing at the beautiful language describing such horrible acts of violence.
“For the most part,” he replied. “It means that your human form, the vessel of flesh and blood, is meant to open this door. I believe I was able to open it because your mortal blood flows through my veins. We share genetic material.”
“How does it open?”
“A pass phrase must be spoken,” he explained. “And then you must offer your blood.”
“Then go ahead,” I instructed. “You’re the one who speaks the angelic language.”
“Enochian didn’t work,” he said. “In any case, we are here for your purpose, not mine. You were always meant to open this door.”
“Which language worked?”
“I tried a handful of languages, but old Hittite was successful. Your pass phrase will be different from mine, because your connection to the Naphil, the creature believed to be a god by the people who built this temple, is different from mine. They thought the angels were gods and you should regard yourself as such.”
I stared at the door thoughtfully. “I should demand that the door open for one of their gods, for the Left Hand.”
“I would guess that you need only tell the door who you are,” Stone suggested. “And prove it with blood.”
That sounded completely absurd. As if the door were a guard instead of just a door. What did one say to a door? I decided to take Ethan Stone’s advice and tell the door that a battle among gods happened and I, leading my armies, won. Here went nothing.
I opened the skin of my palm with a sharp stone and pressed my blood against the door. I cleared my throat and made a silent prayer that I wouldn’t trip over my words. Then I said: “Huullaanzais siúnaan tarsikemi kisaat. Lim dingerlim halziihhuun nu lukuran huullanuun.”