Seals (11 page)

Why wasn’t he angrier with her?

He looked almost sad. She couldn’t see his
eyes, but it was clear now. He felt sorry for her, and she felt
angry again. She didn’t want anyone’s pity, especially not his.

Metatron studied her for a long time and
then added. “Where’s your beloved Davy? The two of you are usually
inseparable, like two peas in a pod, right?”

He laughed and raised his eyebrows. “So what
does he think about your latest look? Is he more or less inclined
to be with you? By the looks of it, I’m going to guess less.”

Kara knew he was only trying to get a rise
out of her, and she wouldn’t play his game. So instead she asked,
“I heard the legion’s planning a strike on the archfiends tomorrow.
I’m sure you’re very busy with plans and all. I wouldn’t want to
keep you from such an important thing.”

She wasn’t expecting him to answer, but she
figured she had nothing to lose.

Metatron frowned. “You heard? Ariel didn’t
inform you? That’s not like her.”

Kara’s face fell. Obviously he didn’t know
about their mission, and she was about to ruin everything with her
big mouth.

“Yes. Of course she did,” she lied
quickly.

“We’re all getting ready, physically and
mentally. It’s just…”

She faltered and cursed herself for being so
stupid. There was no
official
mission. Mr. Patterson had
sent them out himself, out of desperation, without the legion’s
knowledge. The legion hadn’t accepted his theory about the seals
and the knights. But now Kara and the others were in dangerous
territory—they had been on a secret and unauthorized mission.

For a moment she felt elated. She had never
been one to follow the rules when breaking them was much more
thrilling.

Still, Mr. Patterson should have warned
them.

“It’s just what?” demanded the
archangel.

“I thought maybe…I was hoping maybe you
could stop it.”

“Stop it? Have you lost your mind?”
Metatron’s face hardened.

“I
don’t want
to stop it. And why
would I? We need to hit these archfiends with everything we’ve got.
They’re a threat to us and to the mortal world. These creatures
want to
annihilate
us. Do you know that that means?”

“Of course I do.” Kara straightened and
resisted the urge to snap back, his foul mood was increasing by the
millisecond.

“We
must
destroy them before they get
a chance to attack first. There’s no other alternative. We’re going
to hit them hard. With the demon legions fighting alongside us, the
archfiends won’t stand a chance. It’ll all be over in less than a
few hours. I guarantee it. I’m confident we
will
win
this.”

“And you seriously
trust
the demons?”
Kara did her best to hide the skepticism in her voice.

Metatron went still, and a shadow passed
over his face.

“No, I don’t trust any demon and I never
will. But I trust that they need to vanquish the archfiends as much
as we do. They stand to lose as much as us if things turn our
badly. The archfiends have no love for the demons either. If they
don’t destroy the Netherworld, then they will bend it to their
will. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

“It just doesn’t feel right. They can’t be
trusted.”

“There is no other way—”

“But there
is
another way.”

Kara moved forward. She forgot the marks on
her face and ignored the stares of Metatron’s entourage.

“The demons have an ulterior motive. I know
they do. They’ll turn on us, on you. Maybe they want us to die, I
don’t know. But you can’t let the legion strike the archfiends now.
They’ll never win!”

Her voice rose. “They’ll be killed if you
don’t stop it. The archfiends will slaughter the angels! All of
them.”

The words rushed out of her mouth. “You must
stop them. Please. There’ll be nothing left! They’re more powerful
than anything in this world. I’ve only seen a glimpse of what
they’re capable of—”

She shut her mouth. She had said too much.
The secret was out.

“A glimpse?” Metatron’s voice became deeper
and more authoritative. Kara shuddered slightly under the power of
his stare. His entourage stepped back.

“What
glimpse
are you referring
to?”

“Well, it’s more of a feeling than a literal
glimpse,” she lied. She wanted to kick herself. “Call it angel
intuition. I get it from time to time, and I’m usually right.”

“Are you now?” Metatron’s face was
unreadable.

“You’ve been speaking to that oracle again,
haven’t you? What’s that one’s name again?
Mr. Patterson
,
that’s the name. What do oracles know of combat and warfare? Of
battles? What do oracles know of military strategies? Nothing.
They’ve never really partaken in any wars. They’ve never fought
side by side with angels. They spend their days scrying through
crystal balls! Crystal balls! They don’t know the first thing about
battles or how to win the war against the archfiends. And instead
of filling young minds with foolish ideals of war, they should
stick to fortune telling.”

Kara knew she had struck a nerve. She
guessed that Mr. Patterson and the other oracles had interfered
with the legion’s war plans over the centuries. Was Metatron
opposed to the oracle’s recommendation to go after the knights of
the apocalypse? She hoped she hadn’t made this more difficult for
Mr. Patterson.

“I will have a talk with that old fool and
set him straight once and for all.”

Kara was stuck. There was nothing she could
say to help Mr. Patterson without revealing too much about their
mission.

Metatron’s oily stare fixed on her again. He
clicked his tongue. “This just won’t do.”

“Excuse me?”

The archangel moved away from her. “Your
face, those marks, your wings…all of it. It’s clear to me now. This
causes a problem for our
deal
.”

Kara winced. The infamous deal.

She hadn’t forgotten about it, but she
hadn’t really thought it was relevant any more. Metatron had agreed
not to torture David because he wanted to get information from her.
He had offered her a deal in exchange for David’s safety, and she
had taken it. She had never told anyone, not even to David. She had
hoped that the archangel had forgotten about it. Cleary he
hadn’t.

But did he just say that there was a
problem?

Kara couldn’t stand this any longer. If he
hadn’t been the overall legion commander, and if she hadn’t been
linked to him because of the deal they had made, she would have
punched him.

“
Yes,
our deal,”
he purred. “
You do remember our deal, don’t you?”

Kara
clenched her jaw. She wanted to scream.
This was insufferable.

“I could have overlooked the wings,” he
continued. He took a long drag from his cigar, “But I can’t have
you looking like
that
around me.”

Gray smoke billowed from his lips. “It would
make my
girls
uncomfortable.”

Kara looked over to his entourage. They
leered at her. Their red, bulbous lips were turned up in smiles
that were not friendly.

“So…regrettably…and I mean it in the most
sincere way because you
were
quiet beautiful…”

Kara leaned forward. She was going to punch
him.

Metatron tapped his cigar. “The deal’s
off.”

Kara felt relief, anger, and ultimately,
excitement. This couldn’t have happened at a better time.

It was odd. She thought she heard
resignation in his voice. Did he regret his decision? Was there
something else? Despite herself, she felt a tingle of hope.

“We’ll be in touch.” Metatron turned on his
heel and disappeared down the corridor with his entourage.

Kara stared after them in a cloud of cigar
smoke.

She felt like someone had given her the
moon.

She smiled wickedly.

Chapter
9

M
r. Patterson
stared at Kara’s face, his eyes wide with alarm.

“Dear souls! It is worse than I feared.”

David, Peter, Jenny, and Ashley lingered
behind Kara, but she could feel their fear for what was happening
to her. The thought that they felt sorry for her made it worse. She
didn’t want anyone’s pity. She just wanted to confirm her
suspicions that she might have some kind of link with the knights
and that the connection might enable her to break her dreaded
curse.

If
she was right.

“What does it mean?” Kara pulled her hood
back over her head.

The oracle fumbled with his crystal ball
nervously. “I’m not sure. It seems the mutation has progressed more
rapidly than I had hoped. It’s almost as though something
triggered
it.”

Kara knew what had triggered it. She
had.

“Do you think there’s more to come?” David
stepped in beside Kara.

He had taken the words right out of her
mouth. But she could barely look at him for fear of what the oracle
was about to say.

Mr. Patterson blinked the sadness from his
eyes and looked back to Kara. “It’s hard to say. Hold this.”

He handed his crystal ball to David who took
it carefully, surprised that the oracle trusted him to hold one of
his precious crystals.

Then Mr. Patterson reached out and took her
hand. He brushed his fingers over the black veins carefully,
inspecting them. His fingers were soft and warm on her skin.

“Have more marks developed since the last
outbreak? Since they last appeared on your face?”

The oracle inspected her hands closely.
“Have you noticed if they keep progressing, is what I mean”

“I…I don’t think so.”

Kara stared at the bulging veins on her
hands and tried not to make a face. They disgusted her. She
disgusted herself.

“It’s not like I’m keeping count, but they
look the same. I mean, I don’t think there’s more. I think it
stopped.”

“Hmmm.” Mr. Patterson watched her silently.
“Or maybe just slowed down.”

“Slowed down?” asked David, his brows
furrowed. “So you don’t think it’s stopped yet?”

Mr. Patterson looked at Kara sadly. “We’ll
never know for sure. Not until we know precisely what these
markings mean.”

“Fantastic,” growled David.

“But will Kara be okay?” Jenny’s voice
sounded from the back of the bookstore.

Jenny’s face was drawn, and she gave Kara a
tight smile that Kara found hard to return. Peter and Ashley were
watching her, too. They looked worried that she might suddenly blow
up or something.

Kara looked back at Mr. Patterson.

“I will speak to the oracle mothers about
this,” said the oracle with some urgency.

He let go of Kara’s hand. “They are the
wisest of our kind. They might have better answers for you. I
wish…I wish we had more time. I could run some tests, maybe find a
temporary remedy to slow the mutation…maybe even find a cure.”

A cure.

“There’s something I have to tell you. All
of you.” Kara waited until she had everyone’s undivided attention.
She had hoped that the oracle would have made the connection
between her and the knights. But he hadn’t. Now, she had no choice
but to tell them what had happened.

Kara braced herself. “I think I have theory
about a cure.”

“You never told me this?” said David with
surprise.

“That’s because I didn’t know, well not for
sure until I fought with the knight.”

Mr. Patterson snatched his crystal back from
David. “Go on.”

They all gathered closer around her. “It’s a
working theory. I could be wrong—”

“But you think you’re right.” David’s face
was unreadable.

Kara’s throat tightened. “When I injured the
knight with my blade, I cut a deep wound into its left bicep. Well,
it left a mark on me, too.”

“What kind of a mark?” asked David
quietly.

Kara kept her eyes on the oracle as she
answered.

“A wound. Exactly like the one I left on the
knight.”

She watched as the oracle’s eyes widened.
She could see that his mind was working overtime. She could
practically hear him think.

David raked his hair with his fingers. “What
are you saying?”

“I’m saying that when I hurt the knight,
I
felt the pain, too. The cut. As soon as my blade
perforated its skin—a gash opened up on
my
arm.”

Mr. Patterson’s face paled. “From what you
are telling us, I fear you share a connection with these creatures.
A physical connection.”

Kara had suspected that she shared a
connection with the knight, but hearing it confirmed by the oracle
made it more likely to be true. She had been right. There
was
a connection.

Kara nodded. “I know. Well, at least that’s
what I thought. I’m linked to them somehow. The knight saw the
wound on my arm, and it was just as surprised as I was. It wasn’t
expecting it either. So, for whatever reasons, I appear to be
linked to the knights. But the fact that the knight didn’t seem to
know that I was linked to it in some way is even more
confusing.”

“So if you
are
linked to them,”
Ashley began, “couldn’t you have warned us before it appeared?
Didn’t you
sense
it?”

“No. It doesn’t work like that.”

Kara didn’t really know how it worked. It
just did. She wasn’t thrilled about it either. However, she hoped
that her bond with the knights might provide her with a clue as to
how she might rid herself of her mutation.

A shadow passed in the oracle’s eyes.

“Kara, listen to me. I don’t know what you
are planning, but this…this dark supernatural energy is the worse
there is. There is nothing more foul in all the worlds. The knights
were forged from the archfiends’ darkness and wickedness.
Everything about them is evil. If you truly do share this
connection, it could be very bad for you, and for the legion.”