Мелисса де ла Круз - Keys to the Repository

“But what does Rome have to do with what happened in the Repository?” Mimi asked.

“Well, for starters, since the incantation worked, it proved that Silver Bloods still existed, and that they had a way into our world. Because Charles didn’t believe it—not at first, not even with all the killings. I don’t think he truly accepts it now. And he wanted to keep it from the Committee. But he had to do something if he was wrong—so he sent me to Corcovado.

Because if they were back, that’s the first place they would go —to free Leviathan.”

Mimi nodded, taking it all in.

“Do you know anything about the gates? About the Order of the Seven?” Kingsley asked.

Mimi shrugged. “I don’t think I was privy to that meeting. I was surprised as anyone to find that Michael had chosen to father us for this cycle. He knows we weren’t huge fans of the so-called Uncorrupted. At least, I never was.”

Kingsley filled her in on what he knew about the Gates of

Hell and the guardians ordered to protect them, as well as his part in it. “The gates keep the paths secure and the demons in the underworld. The gates should have stopped the incantation from working. But they didn’t. That was the test. The Silver

Blood was able to break through the barrier. Charles suspects that Lucifer has been able to find a way into our world that we did not expect, did not foresee.”

“But how?”

“How indeed . . . especially since the Conclave took care of the biggest threat.”

“Oh god. I had totally forgotten about that.” Mimi said, her palms at her cheeks, as if to hide from the truth. “It was you, wasn’t it? You were the one who took Gabrielle after I wasn’t brave enough to do it myself.”

Kingsley nodded. The twins had been given the task, but had balked at the very wrongness of it—and so he and Forsyth had kidnapped Gabrielle from her room. He remembered everything. The silent birth, the frightened midwives, then

Charles and Lawrence taking the baby . . the burned swaddling clothes, the ghastly smell of death all around. Then

Gabrielle waking up with no memory of her ordeal or even that she’d borne a child.

“I don’t think any of us have ever forgiven ourselves for what we did that night. Not me, not Lawrence, not Charles, not

Forsyth. War is a terrible thing. There is no room for mercy.”

Kingsley’s face was drawn, hollow. He didn’t feel much like talking anymore. Poor Lawrence, his friend and mentor. And now Charles, lost as well. “Well. That’s everything.”

“Oh, Kingsley,” Mimi said gently.

Kingsley looked up, surprised to find Mimi with tears in her eyes. She put a soft hand to his cheek.

She looked at him in silence, and in her eyes he found forgiveness and understanding, the two things he hoped for the most and expected the least. In Rio, Kingsley felt he had taken advantage of the situation a little bit—they had been so tired after their trek through he jungle, she couldn’t have been in her right mind when she’d knocked on his door that night, when she had sought comfort in his kisses. That was why he had kept her at arm’s length ever since.

But she was here now. And she was the one leaning toward him. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, baby,” Mimi was saying.

They were words he had waited a lifetime—many lifetimes —to hear, and that they came from Azrael, she who had spurned him for centuries (Abbadon wasn’t the only one who had pined for one he could not have). She had mocked him in

Rome—haughty, beautiful Agrippina, who had no time for

Gemellus, no time at all for a weakling such as himself—a rare, solitary soul, never bound. Gemellus, who had loved and worshipped her from afar, she who was in his arms now. . .

Victory was sweet. Who knew that the path to a woman’s heart was through the soul of an honest man?

Kingsley Martin would never understand women. But that was all right. He didn’t need to understand Mimi. All he had to do was love her, and he could do that.

THE VAN ALEN LEGACY

AND THE PATHS OF THE DEAD

With his dying breath, Lawrence Van Alen revealed a secret to

Schuyler: she was the heir not just of the Van Alen name but to a very important legacy. He instructed her to find out more from

Charles, but during the Silver Blood ambush at the Bal des

Vampires in Paris, Charles became trapped in the subvertio, the White Darkness, and was unable to disclose what he knew.

However, when Schuyler returned to New York, Allegra woke up from her coma, stirred from her unconscious state by a deep memory of another daughter, and within the safety of the glom, she was able to tell Schuyler the history of the Gates of

Hell and the Paths of the Dead.

In the days before the battle in Heaven and Lucifer’s fall, the paths between the worlds were open. Angels moved freely between Heaven, Earth, and the underworld. After the Fall, when Lucifer and his army of angels were cast out, the way to

Paradise was shut forever. But the seven paths to the underworld remained open. These were the Paths of the Dead.

In Rome, before Caligula was revealed as the Dark Prince, Michael, as Cassius, served as the emperor’s closest adviser.

When Caligula found that one of the Paths of the Dead was anchored below the city of Lutetia, Cassius convinced him to let him forge a gate there to keep the demons at bay. Caligula stole the key from Cassius and, revealing his true nature as

Lucifer, unleashed Abomination upon the world. The battle of

Rome ensued. At the end, Agrippina and Valerius (Azrael and

Abbadon) were able to coax Caligula to the newly forged gate, where Cassius (Michael) sent him to Hell, locking the gate behind him.

After Rome, Michael ordered the Blue Bloods to locate the six other paths and build gates upon them to secure the divisions between the worlds and keep Earth safe from the creatures of the underworld. The guardians, keepers of the Gates of Hell, were known as the Order of the Seven, one from each of the seven original families of the Conclave. The guardians scattered across the earth, unknown to one another but passing down their knowledge through the generations.

The guardians were to keep the gates secure, and the gates, imbued with the celestial power of the angels, were supposed to keep the world safe from the Prince of Darkness and the legions at his command. But with the growing number of Silver Blood attacks over the centuries, Lawrence suspected that somehow, the gates were failing and that Lucifer was plotting a way back from the underworld.

Schuyler must now continue Lawrence’s search for the gates and their guardians before the Silver Bloods are able to destroy them all and bring about a second Great War. This is the Van

Alen Legacy. Charles resented the Van Alen Legacy, displeased that Lawrence harbored deep doubts concerning the strength of the gates he forged centuries ago. The Gates of

Hell must hold, or all the world will fall with their destruction.

THE GATES OF HELL

The Gates of Hell are located around the world, placed upon the seven paths to the underworld. The following are the three known gates so far:

The Gate of Vengeance was Leviathan’s prison on

Corcovado. Lawrence Van Alen was its gatekeeper. With his murder of an innocent (Dylan, in the guise of Lucifer), the gate was opened, but it was a solom bicallis, which can only be used once. Once Leviathan came through it, the path was closed to all.

The Gate of Time was created during the reign of Caligula, who had discovered a path underneath the underground city of

Lutetia (now located in present-day Paris). Lucifer and

Leviathan assumed that Michael was its guardian. The Silver