Chapter 10

Vince replayed the events that had just taken place but it was Chris who showed the most, if any, emotions as she stood up from a chair and embraced him. He didn’t know what to feel and he told her that it was all right, that everything is taking place as the prophecy would have it.

“So, we don’t know where she is and what she’s going to do?” Karl stared down into his cup of water. He was partly upset that Vince didn’t look harder, but he was more frustrated because the weight of the world lies in Mykella’s hands and they don’t know where she is.

Vince shook his head and sat down on the cot. “No; but I have a feeling she may be heading to Orion’s castle.” He didn’t like the sound of it any more than Karl.

Karl looked up at them. “Then it’s time,” he said.

“What’re you talking about?” Chris didn’t like the look in Karl’s eyes when he spoke – it looked as if life had run out of him.

“You know what I mean, Chris.”

Vince shook his head. “No; we don’t have enough manpower to wage the battle. And the ones we have, they’re not prepared to fight yet.”

Karl stood up and faced Vince, for the first time, like he was ready to die for what he thought. “Were any of us prepared when we took the plunge to the gate? When you told us to let go and let will power take over, were we ready?” He paused to sigh. “Humans are never ready for war when they come face to face with it.”

“We just need more time to organize what we have.” Vince knew that Karl was right. He didn’t think he was ready to face that battle yet.

Agnes had been standing next to Samantha’s door watching the scene in silence. This wasn’t her battle. She closed her eyes as she felt a tremor within her body. “She’s coming back,” she said and they looked over at her. “Mykella’s coming here, now.”

Vince looked at her with anxiousness in his eyes. “What are you talking about?” But before she could answer, the door creaked open and he turned and saw, “Mykella.”

He rushed over to her before she fell to the floor. When he saw her tired and exhausted manner, he helped her to the cot. He didn’t trouble her with questions, nor did he yell at her for running off.

Karl walked over and handed her a cup of water, which she took with a half-hearted smile.

She took a sip and Chris came to her with a dry towel for Mykella’s hair. “Are you okay?”

Mykella looked up at Vince. “Ben’s dead.”

He gave her a confused look. “How,”

“He died yesterday, sitting with me.”

“How did he find you?” Karl was curious to know how a seventy-odd year old man could have found her – one that they haven’t seen in over a year – whereas Vince couldn’t. He was beginning to become suspicious of Vince’s priorities. First, he couldn’t find her, now he wants to hold off the imminent attack.

“I found him,” replied Mykella after finishing her water. “He was looking for Ilias.”

Now Vince understood why Krieger had been absent for so long. Searching for an angel, especially one that doesn’t want to be found could take an eternity. Still, he was curious to know how she found him and he asked her once he got her another cup of water.

“That doesn’t matter,” she said and stood up. She walked over to her mother’s door, next to Agnes, and listened to the silence from within. “Why didn’t you tell me the truth?” She wasn’t looking at them, only at the door. The memory of the dream had been haunting her since she left the hut; leaving Ben Krieger to decompose in the tomb made of stone and wood.

Vince understood that she knew her story and he felt guilty as he went over to her. He detected no anger, only disappointment as he looked down at her. “I wanted to protect you as long as I could.”

“Protect me?” She looked up into his face. “Did you know I killed your sister last night? Cut off her damned head!” Mykella’s voice had risen to just under a shout. “She wanted to kill me and Mom last night.”

“What are you talking about?” Vince was angered by his daughter’s words, but he knew she wouldn’t make something up like that just to make him angry. “I haven’t heard from or seen Xan in twenty years. She must be dead by now – like all the others.”

“Well, she is now.”

Vince felt like they were running in circles. “Why are you telling me this?”

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A voice from inside the closed room answered for Mykella. “Because she’s telling you the truth.”

His knees grew weak as he opened the door as quickly as he could, thinking he might as well have tore the door off its hinges. He saw Samantha sitting up in her bed with a tired smile on her dry lips.

Tears fell from her eyes as Vince rushed to her side and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. “Mykella saved me,” she whispered into his ear.

He knew the others were watching from the doorway and he tried to force back his tears. He looked back at Mykella and beckoned to her to join them, a mournful smile across his face.

Mykella went to them and sat down at the foot of the bed. She thought that her father would hate her, but she was mistaken as he took her in his arms and whispered, “I’m sorry – thank you.”

* * *

The atmosphere in the apartment was more optimistic as Mykella, her Watchers, and Agnes sat around the table. They had moved the couch and cot over to allow more seats.

“You’re right,” Vince said and looked at Karl. “The time has come.”

Karl liked being right most times; it gave him an ego boost. But being right about the final battle – the Armageddon as they had referred to it – he was sickened by the thought.

“We need just a little more time, maybe a couple of days, to gather new allies and inform them what’s going on. Then we’ll need to organize a front.”

“Mykella,” replied Agnes. “There will be a lot of people who will not accept who you truly are. Will you be alright knowing that?”

Mykella grinned. “It doesn’t look like I’ve got a choice – it was already planned out for me.” She still hadn’t quite accepted the truth herself.

“You don’t understand why it has to be you.” Agnes gave Mykella a soft smile of understanding. Mykella nodded behind embarrassment and Agnes reached across the table and took Mykella’s hand in hers. “I’m not sure you’ll ever know what you want to know. That’s the bitch of it,” she said with a smile.

“When I was a younger woman, early in the Sisterhood of the Tainted Angel, I didn’t understand why I was chosen to be a member. It wasn’t until much later I learned that I was a direct spawn of Queen Nanaac. As are you,” she said and looked Mykella directly in the eye to get some kind of reaction.

“Excuse me?” Mykella wasn’t sure what she had just heard. It sounded like Agnes was implying that Queen Nanaac was a direct ancestor of Mykella’s.

Agnes nodded and she looked around the table.

Vince couldn’t believe what he was hearing as well. There was no way Samantha was royalty. He would have known it.

“I think it’s time for you to know who you belong to, my dearest one.” Agnes looked back at Mykella. “Queen Nanaac had a sister who might have been Queen had her sister not hidden her from the world.”

Vince shook his head. “Sounds kinda like The Man in the Iron Mask to me. Did she lock her away in the dungeons and put a mask over her head so no one knew her?”

“I’m surprised you remember that old film.” She smirked as she glanced over at Vince. “But, no. She was not, in fact, locked away from all eyes. She was hidden, yes, but by her choice. She was a year older than Nanaac, first to bear the crown. But Nanaac tended to be conniving and told her sister horror stories about assassinations, which did happen, I suppose. But her sister got so traumatized about it that she hid herself inside the Tower where she was visited by only several people.”

Vince stood up. “I don’t buy it.” He went over to the sink and got himself a cup of water. “What was her name?”

“Lady Samantha.” Agnes didn’t need to see Vince’s surprised expression; she could feel it. He looked over at the closed bedroom door. “Yes, she was named after her great, great, and so on grandmother.”

“She never said anything,”

“Her parents knew that Lady Samantha was their ancestor. What they didn’t know was that Nanaac was her sister.” Agnes turned back to Mykella.

Her ancestors…Nanaac’s sister...

“Can I talk to you out in the hall?” Vince went over to Agnes and looked down.

Agnes stood up and they went to the door. He opened it for her and once they were out, he closed the door behind him.

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

Agnes smiled. “What do you think I’m saying?”

“Orion was Nanaac’s son. Mykella is a direct descendant of Nanaac’s sister.” Vince formed a disgusted expression on his face. “They’re related.” He didn’t want to say it aloud.

“I don’t like the sound of it any better than you. But, yes, it’s true; they share the same bloodline.”

Vince sighed and leaned his back against the wall. “What does it mean? There has to be some divine meaning to it all.”

“I wish I knew, Vincent. But I’m afraid it will be Mykella who must get the answers she needs.” He agreed and she continued. “I don’t think she needs to know about what you have learned. If she is to fight Orion, she needs to have a clear mind.”

“Will you help her?”

“What do you mean?”

“When Mykella chooses to fulfill her prophecy and fight Orion, will you take her on that journey?”

“I will go with her not as a crazed old nun who was overseeing her prophecy, but as a friend.”

Vince smiled and took her hand. “I can never repay you enough for coming here.”