Chapter Twenty-FiveLuna
Chapter Twenty-Five
Luna
Never, in my wildest imagination, did I think there would be an actual stairway to Heaven. I expected to walk through the elaborate iron gate and into the clouds. It felt as if I’d been climbing for hours, and even though I technically had no body, my legs ached and I was breathless. I stopped for a moment, leaning forward to hold my knees.
“Most people would have given up by now,” a male voice said from further up the stairs.
I glanced up to find a man with black hair and green eyes watching me. “I’m stubborn,” I replied.
“I noticed,” he said dryly. “Is your petition worth this constant punishment?”
I straightened to stare at him. “I assume there is no end to this staircase?” I refrained from calling him a dick even though my temper was slowly rising since I felt like a hamster on a wheel.
He shrugged one shoulder. “My brother would have called me a dick to my face. He doesn’t like the creatures who live in this realm.”
My lips twitched. “He sounds like a man with a lot of common sense,” I replied.
“Fabian refuses to conform to anyone’s rules. He believes that the only sacred law is to preserve the balance.”
“Are you just here to torment and ridicule me?” I asked, folding my arms across my chest.
“This staircase is on my watch list. I was growing bored watching your constant climbing, so I decided to save you any further trouble and tell you to turn back. The gate will appear on the next step down.”
“No,” I replied.
His head tilted slightly to the side, his green eyes assessing. “You will never reach the golden gates.”
“Then I’ll keep climbing until I can’t go any further,” I retaliated. “I came here with a purpose, and I never turn my back on those who need me.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Turn back.”
“No.” I went to push past him, and he grabbed my arm.
“Trust me, you will not get what you seek,” he said in a low tone. “No one has been allowed an audience in so many years that it has faded from memory.”
I shook his hand away. “My mate was stolen from me for four centuries, and just when I found him again, my asshole sister decided to hit me with a death curse. I’m having a really bad death since I can’t lie down and feel sorry for myself, and instead find myself on a mission to here because it was in a prophecy that some witch decided to write about me centuries ago. Now, unless you want to sprout wings and fly me to the end of this infernal staircase, I advise you to move out of my way.” I fixed him with my steeliest glare.
His lips lifted in a half smile that he tried to cover with his hand. “Who am I to stand in the way of a woman having a bad afterlife?” He stepped to the side and let me walk past him.
What felt like about two weeks later, I found him sitting on the stairs, his elbows resting on his legs and his hands grasped together.
I sighed, and stopped. “Is this a loop?”
“I did tell you that you would never reach the top. It doesn’t exist.” He stared at his hands.
Exhausted, I sat on the stair beside him. “I can’t go back,” I said.
“Why?” I felt the weight of his stare on me as he spoke.
“Because someone wrote a prophecy that my witch friends believe refers to me, so I need to stand before the karmic council to claim a key to the lost realm,” I replied.
“That sounds very noble. What’s the real reason?”
I turned to look at him. “Who are you?”
“Once upon forever ago, I was a shaman by the name of Faulkner. To save the life of someone I cared about, I agreed to ascend and become an angel.” His face was void of emotion, his voice flat.
“Was the sacrifice worth it?” I asked.
His eyes moved to look at me. “I would do the same again because family is everything. Are you going to tell me the real reason you’re here?”
“My sister was going to murder my mate with a death curse, which I jumped in front of. My friend is keeping my body alive while I’m here to fulfil some prophecy that is supposed to help the magical world.” I paused and closed my eyes. “I know I should be noble and tell you that I am doing this for the greater good, but in reality I just want to go home and spend time with my mate since we were separated for so long.”
It was selfish but the truth. I spent most of my life missing Salvator and fantasising about him. He was finally in my life again, and I wanted to find an isolated home far from the troubles of the world and lock the door for the next hundred years.
“The truth is always the best policy,” Faulkner said. “Come on, these staircases give me the creeps.” He held his hand out to me, and my brow furrowed in confusion.
He raised his eyebrows and wiggled his fingers. “These staircases are about admitting your truth. None of us can move on until we look inside and know why we are on our current pathway.”
I put my hand in his and allowed him to tug me up. There was a blinding flash of light, and I found myself somewhere that was too bright, making me squint. It almost looked as if there were white figures moving in the distance.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“The Gospel of John says in my Father's house there are many mansions. I suppose that is one of the better descriptions I’ve heard for this place. Heaven is a reflection of Hell in its structure with nine circles. We are currently standing in one of the middle realms.”
In my head, I had imagined a world of clouds with winged beings sitting on them plucking at harps. Faulkner chuckled beside me and I tried to neutralise my thoughts.
“Maybe you drive cloud cars and have a symbol on your tummy,” I muttered, throwing him a grumpy glare.
Faulkner stopped and studied me for several moments. “I only reveal my secret symbol to friends since it is the source of my power or when I need to participate in the Care Bear stare.”
I pursed my lips together to try and prevent my smile since he had understood my reference. “Can you tell that Grumpy bear was my favourite?” I asked.
He shrugged one shoulder. “The little raincloud over your head gave it away.” He walked on, and his deep laughter trailed behind him.
Angels were supposed to wear loincloths and wander around with their wings on display, which was definitely the rule in all the films I had watched and books I had read. Any I caught sight of appeared to be dressed in a suit, and wore a stern expression on their faces.
“You said you became an angel to save a loved one. Do you not have baby angels?” I knew that hellspawn reproduced, but everyone up here looked humanoid and adult.
“Angels are created, not procreated,” Faulkner said, slowing his pace to allow me to catch up with him. “A soul is assessed to determine if it is worthy. When they die, they leave their physical body on the Earth realm and their soul ascends and creates a new body.”
The light figures gained more characteristics, their outline clearer and coming into focus.
“The karmic council has their chamber not far from here. Are you ready?” Faulkner asked.
“Not even remotely,” I muttered, apprehension brewing deep in my stomach. “I think the altitude is affecting my brain.”
Faulkner laughed, and it transformed his features. “That’s one way of looking at it. The other is that you are too far away from your body.”
I stopped walking, my hand covering my chest. “First I was dead, then I was somewhere in between, and now I’m too far away from my body. Will I die because I’m here?”
He rolled his eyes. “You worry too much. There are a lot of very skilled witches working their asses off to keep you alive. You should be more concerned about yourself.”
It felt like he had thrown a bucket of cold water over me, because suddenly I was freezing, dread creeping up my spine. The unknown was a fear-filled place, and I had endured a lot of pain and suffering in my life. Salvator may have been able to remove some of the physical scars, but the emotional scars still resided on my soul. They were as fresh today as when they happened.
Air whooshed around me, and it felt as if we moved rapidly forward. My head spun when the air stopped, and I held my hands out at my sides to try and stabilise myself. When I opened my eyes, we were in a white room, with what I could only describe as beings of light standing along one side.
Multiple voices spoke in my head at the same time, the noise becoming too much to endure. I held my hands over my ears to try and fend off the intrusion.
Suddenly, pain pierced deep into my abdomen, making my legs weak, and me to fall to my knees. Memories from my life flashed before my eyes, the pain from my torture creating a map on my body. Four hundred years of experiences coalesced into this moment, fusing my physical, emotional, and mental experience together.
It was too much. I had endured a huge amount in my lifetime, and forcing them into one moment was an overwhelming agony. A scream echoed around the room, torn from the depth of my soul.
I had believed the lords of karma would ask me questions. I had never expected this.
They didn’t evaluate a soul with questions and queries, they weighed the pain you lived through, and it felt insurmountable. Voices screamed in my head, visions of past, present, and future swarmed together until I couldn’t separate them.
Then suddenly, I was devoid of sound and sensation, floating in nothingness. I tried to remember who I was or call on a memory, but there was nothing. I hung for what felt like eternity, but could have been a few moments.
I searched through the limbo world, reaching out for something, but I didn’t know what. The first image that flashed through my head was dark chocolate brown eyes that seemed to have the ability to see into my essence. The image expanded slowly until the eyes were set in a handsome face surrounded by black hair that contained a natural wave.
Salvator.
My eyes flew open and I found myself lying on a floor in a room flooded with white light, surrounded by golden spirits.
“You have been judged,” a male voice said to my left. “The karmic council will now rule.”
Faulkner appeared beside me and held his hand out to help me up.
“A long time ago, when the worlds were one, balance existed,” a female said, her form materialising from one of the golden spirits as she walked toward me. “Then, the deadly sins corrupted souls, and the worlds began to move apart to form the realms.”
She stopped in front of me, stealing my breath with her beauty. Her golden hair reminded me of the sun, and her blue eyes of the sky on a perfect day.
An angel.
“The magical realm nourished and grew, but to light there must be dark, and that is the void. Chaos exists there, locked away for a millennia, and allowed to evolve without restraint. Every void witch that has been born in the last thousand years was killed at birth.” Her gaze bored into me. “Yet, none of us knew a witch was born under a blood moon. She was hidden from our sight, and shielded from our visions.”
I opened my mouth to speak but she shook her head.
“We have viewed your life, and even when faced with torture and anguish, you never once tapped into what was inside you to destroy your enemy.” She turned and walked away, a window appearing to the side of the room for her to stand and watch out. “You are a conundrum.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, wrapping my arms around myself as I felt naked and vulnerable after they plundered through my memories and emotions.
“It means the void is ready to open, and nothing we can do will stop that. Dark magic users found the location to the entrance a long time ago, but it refused them entry. It has been waiting for the chosen one who will protect it.”
The more she said, the more confused I became.
She turned to face me, her eyes glowing bright blue, but she wasn’t looking at me, more beyond me. “The black knight protects his queen as he moves across the board of destiny. Enemies gather at the doorway and a sacrifice must be made.” She blinked several times and the glow dissipated from her eyes.
“You have to go,” Faulkner said, tugging my arm. “Your body grows weak.”
“But I came here for a key,” I said, looking between him and the angel at the window.
She smiled, moving toward me to place her hand on my chest. I felt a warmth there that I hadn’t noticed before. “The key was inside you from the moment you were born. You just needed to accept who you were and learn to stand in your own power.”
I went to speak, but the floor opened and the bottom fell out of my world. Faulkner and the woman stared down at me as I frantically tried to stop myself from falling.
“Trust yourself,” the female angel’s voice sounded in my head. “Follow the golden cord back to your body.”
I closed my eyes and fell, my focus only on Salvator, because I instinctively knew that he would be waiting for me.
Fate had designed a long and troubled road for us, but Salvator was the prize. War was brewing, and I would protect him with my life.