Queen Anne’s
Isobel could hardly contain her amazement as we entered the Angel’s sanctuary. Even then the public tours never went near the actual campus.
Jona stayed by me as we entered the sanctuary, he was frighted of the Angels. He had no concept of them except for the ones that had slaughter our parents and given me a smile.
Pack it up with ash and dirt
The Angel Mother’s mansion had its doors wide open. Inside, the sweltering heat was thick and humid.
I closed my eyes just in time to be splashed with a bucket of sweet smelling Holy water. Jonathan held in a curse and Isobel was trying to spit out the water.
and this cleansing ritual is never mentioned again.
“Mother”, I said bowing curtly, “I have news. One of my Demon brothers has taken a turn for the dark. He has used the properties of Angel Holy water in snowfire apples and Demon blood to reanimate dead humans into bloodthirsty daemons.”
Some of the Angels stirred and gasped but the Angel mother watched me carefully. Surely, she hadn’t expected this when she sent me on this little mission.
“What do you want Paris Prince.”, she looked at Isobel and Jona.
“Seraphina was captured and maybe killed by Isaiah. You must want vengeance”, I offered.
“How”, The Angel Mother demanded. Her harsh voice rang through the foyer, “How did she get involved. I told her not to bother herself.”
“She insisted on helping me---”
“An Angel helping a Demon. Blasphemous”, she turned to her Angels, “This is why I keep you girls safe behind these gates. Brutish Demons. Corrupt violent men who would rather have your neck instead of your body.”
She ripped Seraphina’s cloak in half and threw the pieces to the ground. She disowned it, she disowned her.
“Mother--”
“Quiet, Demon. We will not be dragged down into your vile war. You will not have our support. Our gates will protect us. Any Angel who disobeys this order will be banished. . . without their eyes.”
So the reasn Anne hates Seraphina so much is because Sera had no value in thier land. Her mother was a prostitute and Sera is . . . well non-compliant.
She takes Seraphina’s cloak and rips it in half again. An audible gasp comes from a few of the Angels
“Banished”. She says again
With that she turns to head back up stairs to her suite. The Angels still stood with ankles crossed and eyes down.
“What say you Sisters”, I turned to The Angels.
I sought out Hippolyta in the crowd and focused on her. She regarded me carefully and I stood right in front of her.
I mean Hippolyta likes Sera. . . but she doesn't want to die for her.
“He will kill your Sister. Is not one of you brave enough to avenge her ? As your Angel men did for your mothers during the war ?”
They were stone still, they didn’t even make eye contact. My shirt was dampening from the heat and I realized my efforts were useless.
“Brother”
I stopped at the soft voice.
Turning I saw The Angel Ariel softly running towards us.
“Come to join us little Angel”, I said
“No”, she stammered, “I. . .”
She
held her gold dagger in her hands and offered it to me. I wasn’t too
proud to accept it, but there was something else in her eyes.
“I’m sorry about Serap--”
“No”, she stopped me, “It’s my fault.”
Tears streamed down her youthful face.
“Speak, little Angel.”
“I let the boy in”, she said, “I saw him at the gate one morning. He was so handsome and charming. I was so curious about the humans and he was curious about the apples so I helped him take some.”
“What boy ?”, I said but I already knew the answer
“Caden”, she said, “ We met by the gate and we became friends. He bought me things from outside. We traded stories. . . it was wonderful. I helped him sneak in and we would spend time together in the snowfire orchard
It was our secret for three months. . .then Caden started changing. He tried to hide it but I saw he was growing horns and I saw him for what he was. I haven't seen him in weeks.
I’ve been to ashamed to tell anyone. I didn’t know.”
I surveyed the grounds. Manicured grass, white neolithic mansions, quaint garden, gleaming white gold gates.
“I don’t understand. . .where is the orchard ?”
I smiled internally as it was Isobel and not me who had asked the question.
The young Angel turned back to the mansion and motioned for us to follow her toward the back of the campus.
I recognized the hidden section of the campus where I had taken that awful bath. The Angel shimmied between two manicured azalea bushes and disappeared.
It was a hidden staircase. That went down.
This hidden orchard inside of Queen Anne's has to come up in NAAU one day.
Slowly we descended into a well lit rushing cavern. It looked as if it had originally been built as a subway tunnel but was never finished.
“The water there is from angeli stagno. It’s the only originally water we have left.”, Ariel said.
“The Angel Lake”, I said for Isobel’s sake.
“One day Caden put something in the water. He said it would make it better. It was so pretty I didn’t think it would harm anyone”
I peered over the edge of the basin and ran my hand through the water. Quickly I bought it up to find my hand had been lightly pricked in tiny places.
‘Sheltered vapid angels’ went through my head automatically.
“I see.”, I said.
Isobel looked at my hand and Jona blanched from the sight of the blood.
“White gold dust”, I said, “Caden added white gold dust to the apples water supply. ”
A realization set over me.
“. . . but the white gold doesn’t hurt humans. It’s the transformation that’s killing them”, Isobel said, “Why bother ?”
“It wasn’t meant for the humans. . . it was meant for The Demon Father. Isaiah is behind Father’s illness.”
Every month The Demon Father visited The Angels to commune with The Angel Mother. He ate several of these apples, he had unkowingly ingested several grams of white gold dust. I imagined the tiny gold particles tearing apart his stomach and immune system.
Kill The Demon Father
Murder The Prince
Then what ? Did Isaiah really think he was next in line ? It would be Jona to take my place.
I looked at Jona. Of course, he could control Jona.
I stood.
“The Angel Seraphina killed many of Isaiah’s daemons. He will need more apples to make them. Jona you will stay here encase he sends a new errand boy.”
“What ? Why”, Jona protested
“You will be safe here and I’m sure The Angel Ariel will watch out for you and keep you hidden.”
“I will”, shes said in her tiny voice, “If Sister Seraphina trusted you then so will I.”
I took Jona by the arm and lead him to the far corner of the cavern.
“Jona, I want to be sure Isaiah isn’t able to do this again. Snowfire apples can not exist anymore.”
He looked back at the trees. Though there were only three the trees were heavy with perfect white fruit.
“You want me to destroy the orchard ?”
“When the time is right. . . I want you to blow it up. I’ll have Lysander bring in the materials”
He nodded and we turned back to Ariel and Isobel.
“Now.” I said solving our other problem, “I have one more thing to ask of you Ariel”
+3+
“Bane is a goddamn dissenter”, Ashe shouted among the crowd, “He hasn’t been back in two days.”
I nodded and walked along the edge of the roof. Ashe’s words of course echoed through the crowd of Brothers gathered along the rooftop with us. It was a small army of 47, but of them I knew I could trust them.
The week that followed Isiah’s betrayal moved slowly. The others had made excuses for my absence. I’d laid low hiding out in the Madison Ave tailor shop covering for Jona and Levit who were building a bomb for the apple orchard. I told myself I’d deal with the consequences later.
We'd been looks and preparing to take on Isaiah and his army.
“I don’t think Bane is a dissenter”, I said stepping back down to the roof.
“Why is that ?”, Brother Able said skeptically from the crowd.
“I think he was turned into food.”
An uneasy murmur went through the crowd.
“I say this”, I said, “Because it is essential we understand what a threat these monsters are. They are the predators. . . and we are the prey.”
At
the last bit I looked over to Isobel who was sitting on the other side
of the roof. She shook her head and didn’t make eye contact with me. She
wanted to save all the daemons. . . I couldn't guarantee that.
I made a gesture and Lysander and Able brought over a chest, tipping it over hundreds of white gold bars sharpened into stakes spilled onto the rooftop. The bars served a better purpose as stakes than they would as part of Queen Anne’s gates.
I only hopped The Angel Mother didn’t notice the missing bars, Ariel had been more than helpful in showing us how she and Caden had sawed away at the gate.
“Isaiah will answer for his crimes. Do not kill him. He will suffer a fate worse than death.”
I picked up one of the white gold stakes, the weight in my hands was heavy but not for the usual reasons.
There was a hushed silence and in that moment I saw Damien climb onto the roof. He moved easily through the crowd of Brothers. They stepped out of his way and Damien’s eyes connected with mine.
There was a sudden silence in air, a wild kind of silence.
Damien stood before me and bent down on one knee, he lowered his eyes and bowed to me. Brother Lysander followed suit, placing a hand on Ashe who did the same. Soon all of the Brother’s followed.
I’m not ready
“It was the white gold in his system, I. . . I don’t know how I missed it. I have failed you, My Prince”
I braced on the edge of the roof as Damien answered to me as leader of The Demon Brotherhood.
“I must see him”, I said, “Before the cremation. I must--”
“We have it here”, Ashe says regarding the plan and gold stakes, “Go.”
I look at him and wonder if he can even cry ? I know he is sad by the tone of his voice but I wonder if he wishes to express the anguish.
Isobel follows me as I climb down the roof. I know she wants to stop me, to tell me it is to dangerous for me to return to St. Lilith’s where Isiah is sure to find me.
I must say good-bye to my Father. I must.
“Paris, wait”, Isobel jogs to catch up with me.
“I must see him”, Is all I can say. I try to remember the last words I said to him. I was a boy fortunate enough to have two fathers and could not reacall my last words to either.
"I shall return”, I pledged to him. My check on his slowly heaving chest, “You will not die without me.”
Those has been my last words to him ?
“I know”, she says, “I’ll drive you.”
I break out of my trance and follow her to her car. Why did she have to be so intuitive and caring. Why would The Fates collide us together at a time like this ?
There is silence as she starts the car and pulls on to the parkway.
“Isobel
. . .”, I start. I want to tell her everything. About how we are fated
to love one another, about my fate to change the Brother and
Sisterhood. I almost want to to tell her that I love her. . . wish is so
foolish.
“You’re grieving. . . don’t say or do anything you might regret later.”
I stop at this.
“Have you done something you regret ?”
She takes her eyes off the road for a second and looks at me, then back to her mirror.
“I don't think so”
My heart hammers in my chest when she pulls off the Riverdale exit. .
I jump out the car before it stops and run up the pathway. My feet comes to a sudden half when I see the glimmer of silver in the night.
Isaiah's two demonic servers dressed in impeccable black tuxedos are waiting by the door. They stand tall and stern.
I open my mouth to speak, after all this is now my home. These vile creatures have no right to be here. Then the creatures step aside.
Disturbed I walk inside and straight into Father’s bedroom. Isaiah is perched on the side of the bed. His unruly dark hair is swept back and he studies me.
“Why”, I ask him, “Why this madness, Brother ?”
“This will be our world. Join me and The Order, Paris. Help me nourish our army and we will be great.”
“Never”, I decide.
“Well then. You will be commended for your sacrifice.”
Darkness shrouds me and I’m being pulled back. I feel a prick in my skin and let out a scream my mind slowly going.
The last sound I hear is Isobel calling my name
A/N
Yes, I know I made Sera a damsel in distress and may have taken the blade-in-shoe thing from Vice . . .oops.
Just a State of The Eric, In chapter 8 Isobel's roommate is originally named Alex and Paris thinks it's a girl, so he's surprised when Isobel is able to find Men's clothes so quickly (then he is all jealous). THEN I realized it's the 21st century let's just make it obvious it's a male roommate. I needed a name and I figured Eric would be a fun addition.
Long
Story Short, Eric only appears because I needed there to be a reason
for Isobel to have men's clothes in her apartment. Actually at one point
Isobel had a fiancee but that was cut.