Skye grinned and something unhinged danced behind her eyes.
“Oh no, I don’t like that look,” I told her.
“I have an idea.”
Famous last words. “What is it?”
“After you are done looking through Apollyon’s life book today, you steal it and bring it back to Harley so she can see the arrangement her mother had with him. She can also see how your mom was treated. It will bond you two.”
Word traveled fast; Skye must have heard my talk about all of that to Drea.
“Steal Apollyon’s life book from Avalon!” I shrieked.
Skye put her hand over my mouth, but it just passed through me, causing chills to break out on my neck.
“Okayborrow,” Skye said. “Just so she can see some of it and then we can return it.”
Stealing something from Avalon seemed like an epically bad idea, but letting her see the truth for her own eyes might actually work… assuming she didn’t portal out and back to Shade City the second I took her in there.
“Worth a shot,” I shrugged.
With that, she did her soul magic thing and we stepped through the portal and onto the front steps of the Hall of Angelic Records. This time, Aurum was waiting there.
“Hey,” I smiled when I saw him. If it weren’t for him and Skye, Apollyon probably would have gotten to Harley before I did. “Thanks for helping stall Apollyon so I had time to get my sister.”
He inclined his head. “Of course. Are you ready to find Tartarus? Your mission depends on you finding it, remember?”
Oops.“Yes. I won’t get distracted this time.” My cheeks went red as guilt washed over me.
Aurum flicked his head toward the doors of the records hall, and I took in a deep steadying breath.
“I’ll hold off Cael,” he said, and I didn’t even want to know what that entailed.
Skye followed me up the steps and inside. Entering the cavernous room, I again marveled at the stacks of books that went all the way up to the ceiling.
Darius was gone, but Apollyon’s life book lay closed on the small reading table in the middle of the room, with a leather glove next to it.
“You got this.” Skye gave me two thumbs-up. I took in a shaky breath before stepping up to the table.
I slipped the glove on and then carefully opened the book, flipping to the front this time. My plan was to work my way forward chronologically and look for when he first started to divert souls.
The first page was labeled:Apollyon is created.
Weird, I’d never really thought about how the Angels of Avalon were created. I scanned the first page to learn that their bodies were formed fully grown and then life was breathed into them. I was a little jealous they didn’t have to suffer through puberty or live through old age like Watchers. That was kind of unfair.
I flipped a couple of pages and there were stories of the heroic deeds Apollyon had performed. He saved a village in Greece that was hit by an earthquake. He stopped a tsunami from destroying an entire island in the Pacific. The whole first part of Apollyon’s book was so stuffed full of amazing things he did for humanity that I couldn’t help but wonder where it all went wrong.
“Anything yet?” Skye asked anxiously as she shifted nervously from one foot to the other. Chewing her lip, she cast a worried glance at the door we’d entered from.
I shook my head and sifted through more pages, wishing I had time to really dig through Apollyon’s life but knowing that I needed to work quickly. We could be discovered at any moment.
Apollyon the Fallen.
Okay, headed in the right direction.
The first soul Apollyon stole from its resting place was in 1005 AD.
Bingo.That’s where I had to go.
