Hear No (Hidden Evil, #1)

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Amira sat in the corner of her room at the Rosewood Center, eyes on the moonstone that glittered and glowed in the light from the hallway. The steel door and enclosed space didn’t upset her the way she thought it would. She was the last person who thought she deserved to be in a mental health institution.

But this center was special, run by a tenth generation reincarnated angel and his son. They’d been the only people she knew to come to, even if she didn’t tell them who – and what – she really was. Reincarnated angels helped people, and this center was a regional haven for troubled former angels. Scott said she was safer here than she would be anywhere else, and she wasn’t certain who else to trust, aside from other former angels.

A first gen herself, she was new to the aspects of the human world that angels were blind to: avarice, negative emotions, fighting and death.

Evil.

She shivered and looked around again. The moonstone lining the floor of her cell in the mental health ward would’ve been forbidden at any other center, but the owners of this one understood the power of moonstone - its ability to draw the protection of any guardian angels nearby and repel evil.

Amira rose from her spot on the bed and crossed her small room to sit with her back against the door. She wasn’t able hear the scrape of a key in the lock or the sound of a code being typed onto a keypad, but she could feel the vibrations of those who walked passed her door and anyone who might be opening it. There were no windows in her cell, aside from the one in the door, and her seat directly beneath it was a blind spot to anyone peering in.

No one could sneak up on her here and if someone tried, she’d be able to rely on her other enhanced senses to see them before they got her. She had flawless 20/10 vision, the nose of a bloodhound and an innate empathy towards humans possessed by all first gens that was enhanced by an even more special gift. Unlike other first gens, she retained the ability to channel some of the energy from the Other Side, the way Scott could. She’d already learned she could bypass her lock to open her door at will.

Assured no one was coming, she turned her attention to the reason she’d been allowed to keep some of the abilities she had as an angel.

The velvet dice bag was in her hands. She dumped its contents into her palm and then set the pouch on the floor before her, placing the stones on it. Three were blue, one half green and half blue, and the final one red-orange.

“Where are you?”

She didn’t have to worry about people outside the cell overhearing her. On the initial tour of the facility, the owner’s son, Evan, had told her the rooms were sound proof. Which meant she could talk to herself without people making the shushing sounds that indicated she was speaking too loudly. Unable to hear herself, she always seemed to talk too loud.

“I am here.” She picked up one blue rock and set it on her knee. She picked up another one and held it tightly in her hand, closing her eyes to concentrate.

It was the one of the stones that didn’t communicate with her. She’d been puzzled about it for almost two months now, since the stones came alive. Three of the five began trying to share their messages. It took her a while to realize that each of the three spoke to one or two of her senses. Was it possible the silent ones made sounds? How was she supposed to find and warn the girls the stone led to, if she couldn’t hear its secrets?

It was the other two light blue ones like hers that hummed with energy but didn’t communicate with her, making her wonder if she was supposed to be able to locate them at all. Was this a safety measure to prevent discovery of the others’ locations through the stones, whose secrets were as old as creation? The latest in a long line of protectors, Amira found herself praying her predecessor had told her everything there was to know about the stones.

Disappointed, she set the two blue ones aside beside hers. That left two she could read: the two-toned one and the red one that scared her.

“Pestilence, War, Famine,” she repeated, eyes falling to the blue-green stone. She dreaded picking it up. The blue stones were warm, friendly, happy, like the first gen angels they represented. “Death.”

His two-toned stone wasn’t just cold, it sucked the warmth from her. The moment it came alive, her whole world changed. She didn’t understand why half of it was the same colors as hers – indicating an angel stone – and the other was the pale yellow green of the horse Death would ride out of Hell to start the Apocalypse.

In all the years since creation, the stones had allegedly been dormant, according to her predecessor. How was she supposed to know that this era was when the four archdemons of the Apocalypse would make their move?

“I’m failing you,” she said to the three blue stones, heart heavy with the fact she hadn’t understood immediately what it meant when the stones came alive.

A day after they did, four spirit guides – who normally worked their assignments alone – showed up on their doorstep in southern Maryland. Scott had welcomed them, introduced Amira, and sat down for coffee with them.

Zyra. He’d called the leader of the guides. Zyra was a gorgeous blonde with cold eyes that had seen right through Amira.

They weren’t there for coffee, she recalled darkly. They were his colleagues and friends – there to kill him to get to her.

Scott who saved her, took her away and hid her for a week until the horrible night at the hotel in southeast DC.

Trying not to think about that night, she was unable to prevent the memory of Shadowman from returning. The archdemon was only in spirit form, unable to claim his place as a full archdemon in the human world yet. He was getting stronger, though, if was able to take a human form.

He was after her to get to the red stone. It would lead him to the portal between Hell and earth where the spirit of the second archdemon – War – could emerge. She didn’t know if he could read the blue stones or not to discover the location of the other girls who held the secrets to the locations of the remaining two archdemons, but she couldn’t take the risk he did. None of the stones could fall into his possession.

She wiped tears from her eyes, still haunted by the sight of her friend and mentor being killed. She hesitated then picked up the green-blue rock.

All her working senses were engaged when she touched this one. It held the location of two, a duality she didn’t yet understand. One was the inside of an apartment, with a TV playing, the scent of autumn spice lotion, a laptop. It was someone, probably a woman, based on the pink laptop.

The location of the second spirit was starkly different. Soaring overhead, floating over apartment buildings, a forest, a busy highway. She felt the cold of the fall night on her skin, the wind ruffle her hair.

This was Shadowman. If what she’d been told was true, he was trapped in spirit form in the human world, until he found the other three archdemons. When the four of them were together, they’d be able to summon their demon steeds from Hell and unleash the Apocalypse upon the world.

She shivered and set the two–toned stone down.

She left the red stone alone, fearing its secret.

Amira put them all away in the pouch and rested her head against the door.

She needed help. She couldn’t hide forever. Soon, either the bad people tracking her or Shadowman would find her. Soon, she’d have to find the other girls. The first of the four archdemons from the Apocalypse was here. She’d been handed down the ancient secrets of her stones, except for the one that told her how to reverse what Shadowman was trying to do.

Did the other girls know? Was the secret to stopping the archdemons divided among the three guardians of the stones, just like the locations of the remaining three archdemons?

Pestilence. Death. War. Famine.

They were coming, and she had no idea what to do.

Stay alive. Keep the stones safe.