‘So, you just decided it would be a good idea to go marching into a universe of lost souls and pluck her out?’ Onyx asked, taking a deep drink of whatever was in his crystal tumbler.
‘Rainer plucked her out, I was just the taxi service,’ I explained, accepting the coffee Dapper passed me.
Onyx shook his head and took another – large – sip and I noticed how his shoulders dropped when Dapper placed a discreet hand on his back.
‘Rum?’ I asked, unimpressed.
‘Oh, don’t even,’ he snapped. ‘I brought you back here to get Spencer, not risk his life by endangering your own.’
I flinched.
‘Hey!’ Steph piped up, sitting forward now. ‘That’s not fair and you know it.’
Onyx glared at Steph and then back at me. ‘Isn’t it?’
‘Onyx, enough,’ Dapper chided. ‘How is Nyla doing?’ he asked me softly.
I pulled my eyes away from Onyx, who was staring daggers at me. He was such a contradiction.
‘Rainer’s watching over her until she wakes up. Only time will tell.’ I’d popped my head in the door quickly before leaving the Academy, but I was so conflicted about whether we’d done the right thing, I hadn’t been able to get out of there fast enough.
I tucked a few strands of hair behind my ear, keen to move on. ‘Dapper, do you know anything about an exile named Sammael?’
‘Not much, I’m afraid. Like you’ve been told, he’s supposedly the arch-enemy of the angel Michael. But no one knows what he’s been doing for the past several thousand years. Some thought he’d been killed, while others claimed he’d found some kind of land and made it his own. All we know for certain is that he’s a purist.’
‘In what way?’ Steph asked.
‘He’s an exile of light and he believes in their superiority over dark. He drives the war.’
‘The tournaments?’ I asked.
‘It would seem.’ Dapper began to flip through a book in front of him, pulling out some loose-leaf papers and handing them to me. ‘Take these with you. It will give you some of the history on New Orleans. I’ve been looking through them and it seems possible that this might be the land once spoken of.’
‘Why there, though? I mean, why America and not Europe or Asia?’ Steph asked.
He shrugged. ‘It’s a good question. Maybe he had foresight to know what America would become and saw the value in controlling a port city. Maybe it was something else. The land is some of the newest territory in the world – rising up out of the water only five or six thousand years ago. And now, it’s gradually sinking again, as if …’ he slowed, ruminatively.
‘What?’ I asked, dread building in me.
He shook his head, then changed tack. ‘Sammael found a way to cross the realms after he’d first exiled – did they tell you that?’
‘No.’
‘Most believe he only exiled because he knew the way to return.’
‘Why exile if he only planned to return?’ Steph asked.
‘Because he knew that once he assumed a physical form the angels would need to appear that way to him in the crossover as well.’
I nodded in understanding. The angels always appeared in human form when they saw me.
Sammael had wanted a physical fight.
‘Somehow, he opened a gateway and used his magic to summon a great dragon, riding it to a battlefield between the realms.’ I shivered when he mentioned the dragon, remembering my dreams. ‘He fought Michael and was defeated. Michael stripped part of Sammael’s power so he could never open the realms again, but Sammael escaped before he could be thrown into the pits, swearing he would rebuild the world, and man, in his image.’
‘What do you mean when you say “crossover”?’ I asked, my voice tight.
He nodded, sagely. ‘I believe it would not be dissimilar to the crossover you are able to create with the angels.’
At least he couldn’t do it any more. But then, that left him here, with us. And he had Spence. ‘So, even Michael couldn’t defeat him completely.’
Dapper smiled sadly, as if he too suspected what lay ahead: nothing good. And a lot of blood.
‘Sammael is said to be a magician with the ability to go beyond mere illusion to something much more tangible. It’s possible that this land he inhabits was never intended for this world.’
My mouth fell open. ‘You mean he made it?’
‘Unlikely. But perhaps he brought it up from beneath the sea.’
‘Why? Why there?’ Steph asked again.
‘Because it was so close to his slaves and worshippers.’ Even though Steph seemed to understand this, Dapper saw my complete lack of comprehension and elaborated. ‘Read the pages I gave you. But in short, New Orleans is just across the water from Haiti, where Voudon was born – a religion that worships the dead. There are some who argue that it was Sammael – the angel of death – who created the religion and brought it to New Orleans, turning it into Voodoo.’