45. ZARA
ZARA
I’d been expecting Zeus to come with me to see Thea, but when I materialised in the middle of the same library-come-office I’d visited before, I was on my own. Thea didn’t seem at all surprised to see me though, so presumably he’d sent her some kind of magic message to let her know I was on my way.
“Zara! I’m so glad you’re here.” She sounded like she really meant it, and I relaxed when I realised I wasn’t in for a telling off after all.
“Come and sit down.” She patted the space next to her on the blue and gold brocade sofa she was sitting on. “I’ve wanted to come and visit you, but I wasn’t sure if I’d be welcome after last time.”
“You’re always welcome,” I said as I settled myself down next to her. “I shouldn’t have spoken to you the way I did. I know you were only trying to help.”
“I was, but I should have known better than to trivialise it the way I did. Tea?” She thrust a teacup and saucer at me, and I was disappointed to see it contained actual tea this time.
“Sorry, but we need to stay sober for the discussion we’re about to have.
What are you planning to do about getting Seth back?
I’m assuming you asked Zeus to help and he refused, so it’s down to us girls now. ”
“Would you really go against Zeus to help me?” That was the last thing I’d expected.
“Seth is my son, Zara. Of course I’m going to go against the old goat. So will Artie and Affie. He’s deluded if he thinks otherwise. But then, he has his head so far up his own backside sometimes it’s a wonder his horns don’t puncture a vital organ.”
“Does Zeus have horns?” I said doubtfully and she waved off my question.
“Figure of speech. Never mind that. What are you planning on doing next?”
“Honestly… I don’t think there’s anything we can do to get him back and things have changed now anyway.”
“In what way? Has something happened I don’t know about?”
“A few things.” By the time I’d finished filling her in on Seth’s visit on my birthday, and the events of the last few days, she was pacing up and down on the ‘irreplaceable Persian carpet’ she’d cautioned Seth about wearing a hole in the last time I'd been here and muttering to herself under her breath.
“This doesn’t feel right,” she said when she finally stopped pacing. “Something’s off.”
I frowned. “What do you mean by ‘off’?”
“Well firstly, why is Michael angry with you just for asking Gabriel to let you see Seth? It seems a perfectly reasonable request to me. Why doesn’t he just ignore you instead of threatening you?”
I sighed. “I don’t know but does it really matter? I won’t do anything to put other people at risk and besides, every single person I’ve spoken to apart from you has told me that I need to drop it. Jed thinks Seth very likely has his own backup plan and we should just wait and let him handle it.”
“Knowing Seth, that’s more than just likely.
I’d say it’s a given. He’ll be furious about Gabriel refusing to bring him back for another visit of course, but it’s not as if he’ll be in any real danger unless he spontaneously combusts in the middle of one of his mantrums.” I couldn’t help giggling at that.
“You said firstly,” I reminded her. “What else?”
“Gabriel. When he was telling us about the Prophecy that day, he didn’t strike me as someone violent, or particularly cruel.
A little arrogant perhaps, certainly irritating, but there were a few times when he looked genuinely sorry about the way things had turned out.
The way he treated Raquel just seems out of character.
But of course, you’ve had more to do with him than I have.
Maybe you’ve seen a different side to him. ”
“I hadn’t really thought about it until now, but I suppose you do have a point. He definitely seems to enjoy riling me up, but he’s been nothing but patient with me when I’ve been pestering him. And he did warn me not to make Michael angry, or I wouldn’t like the consequences.”
“Which brings us back to Michael. What is it about you that’s got him on the defensive?
He must think you pose some kind of threat, otherwise you’d be nothing more than a minor annoyance.
We really need more information about these Watchers.
What does that book so many people obsess over in the mortal realm say about them?
You know, the one with that Noah guy in it. ”
“I think you mean The Bible,” I said faintly, barely resisting the urge to ask her if she’d ever met that Noah guy.
“That’s the one. Have you read it?”
“Only snippets,” I admitted, “but maybe I could do some kind of research online to see if it says anything about them.”
“I don’t blame you for not reading it,” she said with a shudder, “I only skimmed it myself. There wasn’t one decent sex scene in the whole book.” I didn’t know quite what to say to that, so I didn’t say anything.
A vague memory of my father – my adoptive one – telling me a story about the Nephilim started to surface.
“I think I might remember something actually. My father talked about a Book of Enoch which was supposed to tell the story of how angels came down from heaven and procreated with humans to create the Nephilim. But I don’t know if it’s readily accessible or something only scholars get access to. ”
“I might be able to help with that. One of the guardians who lives in Italy has access to the Vatican archives. She might be able to get us a translation of the original scroll.”
“Do you mean Evangelina?”
She looked at me in surprise. “Yes. Have you met her?”
I shook my head. “Seth has mentioned her a few times. She was trying to help him get more info on the Prophecy.”
“Well in that case, I shouldn’t have any trouble persuading her to help us. And in the meantime, you need to talk to Gabriel and try and find out exactly what’s going on with Michael and why he’s so afraid of you.”
“That’s not going to be easy. The manor is warded against him now and besides, even if I did manage to see him, I’m not willing to risk Michael finding out about it and making good on his threats.” She gave me an impatient look.
“You’re not thinking clearly, Zara. Where’s the one place you can connect with others without anyone else knowing?”
“You think I could connect with him in his dreams?” That wasn’t something I’d even considered, but now she’d said it, it made perfect sense. If I could get into Gabriel’s dream space, there was no way Michael would ever know. Unless Gabriel decided to tell him.
“Do you really think I can trust him not to go running to Michael?”
“I don’t know, but I do know that if you leave things as they stand you’re going to spend the next however long until Seth comes back worrying that you’ll inadvertently do something to put your friends in danger.
At least think about it, and while you do,” she waved a hand over the top of my untouched tea, and I smiled as it transformed into something far more palatable. “I think we deserve a proper drink.”