Heather Terrell - Eternity (v5)

Cutting through the crowds like a knife, Tamiel headed straight for the doors at the rear. Clearly she had brought us into Quincy Market only as a diversion and a way to shake Ezekiel. Michael and I kept her pace and fol owed her to the far end of the marketplace. I was so happy when I final y saw the exit doors next to a smal stage.

Just as Tamiel reached for the door handle, I heard a loud slam reverberate throughout the busy hal . We spun around. Al the doors to Quincy Market had simultaneously shut and locked. But the people continued eating and drinking and chatting as if nothing had happened.

We turned back toward the exit doors. There, on the stage, stood Ezekiel. It was the scenario I most feared.

Ezekiel pasted on that sickening smile of his and started pacing the stage. He stared at us, but spoke to Tamiel in a triumphant voice. “I am going to tel them who they are.”

“Please don’t, Ezekiel.” I heard begging from the seemingly invincible Tamiel, and it terrified me. I looked over at Michael, but he didn’t meet my gaze. He was transfixed, watching the showdown between two angels.

“Does it scare you to think of them knowing the ful story, Tamiel? Oh, I forgot. You would rather they learn the pretty little bits and pieces that you and the others feed them in sanitized places like the Harvard libraries.”

“Have you no care for what wil happen if you tel them everything?”

“Do you mean what might happen to you, Tamiel? And the other fal en?” He gestured around the room. The people were oblivious to us; he must have used some trick to cloud us from their view. “Or do you mean what might happen to al of them? Oh, I was al for keeping Michael and El speth in the dark at first, but now they probably know enough to start the clock. So I would like to be the one to share the entire story—instead of the watered-down versions those simpering fools who cal themselves their parents wil tel them. Michael and El speth should know the truth and the role they are destined to play at the end.”

Her voice became a thunderous clap. “Stop, Ezekiel!”

But her voice was no match for the roar of his own. He yel ed back, “You wil let them listen! Or I wil set this place into a conflagration that matches hel ’s own fire. And that wil only be the beginning.”

Tamiel stayed where she was, but she withdrew from the fight. Ezekiel’s voice quieted and took on that lul ing tone that he seemed to find effective for his purposes. Then he met our eyes for the first time since we saw him in Quincy Market.

“Michael and El speth, I have hoped to find you for a long, long time. Ever since that day when He”—Ezekiel spat out the word like a curse

—“destroyed your fel ow Nephilim, your brothers and sisters, in Noah’s flood. From the very moment I learned about your conceptions, I’ve been looking for you. The people who claim to be your parents made my search difficult, surrendering their immortality so that your presences would be dark to me. They shrouded you in humanity that made you hard to find. But I final y found you, when your own powers surfaced. You became like a beacon to me. Or Michael did, at least. And through him, you, El speth.”

Ezekiel then asked, “Shal I tel you why I have longed for you?”

Michael and I didn’t reply. How could you react when evil itself told you that you are the answer to its prayers?

“The key lies—in part—in the Book of Enoch.” He smirked, and said, “El speth, I believe you uncovered that during your little research today.

“When the congregation of the righteous shall appear,

And sinners shall be judged for their sins,

And shall be driven from the face of the earth;

And when the Elect One shall appear before the eyes of the righteous,

Whose elect works hang upon the Lord of the Spirits,

And light shall appear to the righteous and elect who dwell on the earth. . . .

From that time those that possess the earth shall no longer be powerful and exalted; And they shall not be able to behold the face of the holy,

For the Lord of the Spirits has caused his light to appear

On the face of the holy, righteous, and elect.

Then shall the kings and the mighty perish

And be given into the hands of the righteous and holy.

And thenceforth none shall seek for themselves mercy from the Lord of Spirits For their life is at an end.

“Do you know what that means?”

Michael and I had absolutely no idea, and Tamiel hadn’t uttered a word since Ezekiel had shut her up with the threat of fire.

“No?” Ezekiel said with a smile. “Let me explain. El speth, I believe that Hananel and Daniel told you that God cursed certain of us angels when we descended to earth and created a race of our own by mating with humankind; that race was cal ed the Nephilim. God—in His infinite hubris—

was so furious at our act of creation that He wiped out al humans, save for his pet Noah and his kin. God then prohibited angels from procreation and banished us from heaven, leaving us here on earth as the so-cal ed fal en. Did Hananel and Daniel tel you of this, El speth?”

I nodded.

“The Book of Enoch describes how the fal en angels—like me and like your parents and even like Tamiel over there—wil rule mankind until the end of time. Then, at the end, a select being wil emerge whose purpose wil be to judge the fal en angels and mankind. That select being—who Enoch cal s the Elect One—is a Nephilim, part man and part angel.” He smiled. “So you see, Enoch tel s us that, regardless of God’s specific command that the angels not procreate, the Nephilim wil indeed come again. And one of those Nephilim wil decide the fate of al beings on earth

—angels and humans.”

I felt sick. Suddenly, I knew where Ezekiel’s story was going. He stretched out his hands toward me and Michael. “You are those Nephilim. And one of you is the Elect One.”

Chapter Forty-six

Come on. I had gotten used to the fact that I was different, something other than human. But this? Ezekiel expected me and Michael to believe that one of us was a chosen being, here to judge al creatures on earth at the end of time.

I shot Michael a look, but he seemed mesmerized once again. So I glanced over at Tamiel to gauge her reaction. She looked defeated. She also looked as deadly serious as Ezekiel.

“How does this explain why I have longed for your births? For centuries, even mil ennia?” Ezekiel said as he paced back and forth across the stage, lecturing to his captive audience.

He continued. “I knew that, once I found you, and the Elect One stood at my side, the fal en would be judged fairly at the end. For when the Elect One has learned what I have learned and has seen what I have seen, the Elect One would understand that the fal en are not sinners, but indeed the

‘righteous and elect,’ as Enoch said. And the fal en would continue to possess the earth—maybe even the heavens again.”

It al became clear—whoever control ed the Nephilim control ed the end. But why did Ezekiel think that Michael or I would ever judge him to be

“righteous and elect”? Ezekiel would be at the top of my list of sinners.

Ezekiel took center stage. With a flourish, he stretched out his hands in our direction and announced, “The answer lies in your name, El speth.”

What on earth did he mean?

He chuckled, as if I’d said my question aloud. I guessed that my face spoke volumes. “El speth means the Chosen One. You are the Elect One.”

“Me? Why not Michael?” The words just blurted out.

“Oh, Michael has a special role. But more in the nature of protector, a knight to his lady, if you wil . Except you are so much more than a lady.”