46. ZARA
ZARA
As soon as I got back to the manor I tried calling out for Nero. I’d only given it a fifty-fifty chance of actually working, so I nearly jumped out of my skin when he appeared in front of me within seconds.
“Why so startled? You did just call me, didn’t you?” he said with a confused look. “Oh, you didn’t think it would work, did you? I told you, Zara, I will always come if you need me. What’s happened?”
“I just got back from Olympus. Zeus won’t do anything to help, but Thea had some interesting insights. Can I run them past you?”
“I’m not even going to ask how you found your way to Olympus on your own.” He shook his head and I couldn’t tell from his expression if he was impressed or exasperated. Maybe it was a bit of both. “What have you and Athena been cooking up between you?”
“Well firstly, she said the same thing Theo did about me possibly being a threat to Michael and that maybe that’s why he’s so keen to shut me up.”
“That’s certainly a possibility. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to why they’re so determined to stop you from interfering with them too. It doesn’t make any sense unless they believe you do actually present a threat to them in some way.”
“The second thing she said was that she thought Gabriel’s behaviour was out of character for him.
Which is a fair point. Like she said, he can be infuriating, but he didn’t come across as cruel or violent at our first meeting.
And he’s been very tolerant with me. Which means it’s possible Michael is pulling his strings.
But I need to speak to him somewhere Michael can’t listen in before I can be certain. ”
“I hope you’re not going to ask me to let him inside my wards, because that’s not happening. Once you let Gabriel in, you wouldn’t be able to get him out again unless he agreed to go.”
“No, that’s definitely not the plan. As Thea just reminded me, I’m a dream walker, so that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to try and pay him a dream visit.”
“I see. And what exactly is the purpose of this little chat you want with him? And don’t try and lie to me or you know what will happen.” Little sparks danced on his fingertips, and I winced inwardly as I remembered how it had stung last time he zapped me.
“Well firstly, I need to try and find out why Michael is scared of me. If he even is. Once I know that, I’m going to propose a deal.
I won’t do anything to try and interfere with what’s going on in the Underworld if he allows Seth one more visit to the mortal realm so I can see for myself that he’s okay.
And if they’ll give me their word that they’ll leave the people I care about alone.
I can’t bear the thought of them being at risk because of me.
” I still couldn’t get the look on Eli’s face when he’d realised Rachel and Jules might be in danger out of my head. “Do you think he’ll agree to it?”
“Maybe, if you can convince him you mean it. That rather depends on why he’s so focused on controlling you in the first place.
But are you sure that’s what you want to do?
If you do manage to connect with Gabriel, there’s no guarantee that he won’t go running straight to Michael.
It could make things worse instead of better. ”
“It could,” I conceded, “but I don’t think it will.”
“There’s also the possibility that he could trap you in a dreamscape,” he warned. “We know very little about their abilities.”
“We don’t know much more about mine,” I shot back.
“Having the battle cry and the dream walking together is rare though, that much I do know, and with the way everything in my life has led to this, it’s hard to believe there wasn’t a reason for it.
And there’s something else too. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but when Gabriel left the other day, he said something right before he disappeared.
He said, ‘keep dreaming, Zara’. At the time I thought he was just being a prick, but now I think he meant something else.
I think it was his way of telling me to dream walk to him without Michael catching on. ”
I settled down on the bed and closed my eyes, taking a few deep breaths until I felt the familiar darkness of the void swirling around me. Where are you Gabriel? I gasped as I felt a sharp tug on my consciousness and forced myself to relax and let it take me wherever it wanted.
“Well it’s about time. For a supposedly intelligent being you can be incredibly slow on the uptake, can’t you?”
I looked around and found I was standing in a small pavilion in the centre of a forest clearing.
“Hello to you too, Gabe,” I said, refusing to rise to the bait. “We need to talk.”
He snapped his fingers and a chair appeared behind him, although throne was probably a better word for it. I felt a little nudge from behind and turned to see he’d conjured up one for me too.
“What’s going on, Gabriel?” I demanded as I perched on the edge of it. “Why is Michael scared of me?”
“I don’t know. And I’m not sure scared is the term I’d use. But he’s got it into his head that you could ruin everything and there’s no way he’ll allow that to happen.”
“Would he really hurt my friends?”
He sighed. “Before the Prophecy was unlocked I’d have said no without a second’s hesitation.
Now though… I really don’t know. He’s always been overzealous when it comes to protecting the mortals, but lately he’s become fanatical.
And the way he behaved with Raquel – it was like he became a different person.
I would never have taken her to him if I’d thought he would hurt her. ”
“From what she said, you weren’t much better yourself. You may not have physically attacked her, but the things you said to her were cruel, Gabriel.”
“I know they were and I hated hearing myself say them. But if I’d stood up for her against him, he would have started to suspect my loyalty too.
He’s becoming more paranoid by the day. By agreeing with him and suggesting using her to send you a message, I at least gave her a chance to get out. Is she okay?”
“Physically, she’s fine now. Emotionally, not so much.”
“I’m sorry.” He looked like he really was, but I refused to let myself soften towards him. “I wish I could see her and explain, but I have to keep toeing Michael’s line if I’m going to be of any use to Luci and Seth.”
“Are you saying you want to help them?”
“I’m saying I will help them, but I can’t just openly go against Michael until we have a proper plan.”
“But there are four of you, Gabriel, and only one of him. Why are you all letting him be like this? Why is he the one calling all the shots?”
“Because he was the first of us. Because our maker put him in charge when he left. Because after all these eons, following him is ingrained in us. And honestly, until now he’s always been a good leader.
He’s always taken his duty to protect the mortals very seriously, we all have, that’s how we ended up creating the Underworld in the first place.
But he’s convinced that granting the demons access to the mortal realm would be a disaster, and he’ll do anything and everything he can to make sure that doesn’t happen.
None of us know why he’s being so irrational about it, and if we asked him it would just make him worse. ”
“So you don’t agree with him?”
“Not about this, no. There are good and bad in all races, but it’s not fair to make the majority suffer for the small minority who ‘might’ cause problems. After Seth badgered me into bringing him to you for that visit, my curiosity got the better of me when I took him back.
I decided to stay and talk with Luci and see how much he’s really achieved over the last few thousand years, and frankly I was impressed.
But Michael refused to even let me tell him what I’d discovered, let alone visit and see for himself.
He is absolutely set against any relaxation of the ‘quarantine’, as he calls it. ”
“Then what’s the point in Seth staying there? If Michael is set on everything remaining as it is, and none of you are prepared to stand up to him over it, nothing is ever going to change. The gateway will still need its guardian. Tell me the truth, Gabriel. Is Lucien forcing Seth to stay?”
He shook his head. “He’d let him go tomorrow if that was what he wanted, but it isn’t.
Seth believes that if he stays they can still work towards opening up the realm to some degree, even if they don’t get everything they want.
He has been pestering me even harder than you have to bring him back for another visit though, so he can explain everything to you. Michael won’t allow it.”
“In that case, I want you to arrange a meeting with Michael for me. I don’t know what it is he thinks I can do to ‘ruin everything’, and I don’t really care.
I’m willing to give him my word to stay out of it if he gives me two things in return.
You will bring Seth back to the mortal realm for another visit so he can tell me himself that he’s okay, and I want a sworn oath that none of you will come after anyone I care about. ”
His brow creased with worry. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, kitten. Michael is volatile right now. I’m not sure I can guarantee your safety if you say something he doesn’t like and it sets him off.”
“Well unless you think you can persuade him to agree to a deal on my behalf, I don’t see that I have a choice.”
“I could only do so much,” he admitted reluctantly.
“If he agreed to your terms, you’d still have to meet with him so the oath could be sworn.
If you’re set on doing this, you’ll have to openly summon me and state your intentions before I can approach him about it though, otherwise he’ll start asking questions about when I spoke with you.
How good are your mental shields now by the way? ”
“What’s that got to do with anything—oh!” How had I forgotten that Gabriel had been able to read my mind the day we first met.
I slammed down the barrier Taryn had been teaching me to use to filter out the sea creatures’ babble, praying it would work in reverse too. That’s if it even could work while I was dream walking. I felt a little flash of pride when I heard Gabriel murmur ‘impressive’.
“Are you able to shield some thoughts and not others or is an all or nothing deal? Try and let something through while the rest of your thoughts are still shielded.”
I immediately tried to project an image of my middle finger at him and was disappointed when he didn’t react.
“Nothing. We’ll have to get you a projection stone then.
Michael will certainly try to get into your head if he agrees to meet with you.
He’ll want to be sure you aren’t hiding anything from him, and he’ll be suspicious if you’re completely blocking him out.
I’ll get one that’s full of thoughts about Seth and make you seem as whiney and pathetic as possible, so he won’t want to hang around in there. Leave that to me.” Charming.
“Have your pet god remove his wards around the manor so I can get in when you call me. Oh, and we’ll need to make it look believable when you do. Try to forget you like me now. We don’t want Michael getting suspicious.”
He was gone before I could tell him that I absolutely did not like him now.