he nodded. "and the harbingers? already here."

"huh?" i asked, feeling my eyebrows pinch.

"your darkling friend, nightliss, is obviously allied with you-"

"and ivy has daelissa," i said.

"aye, and read this corollary foreseeance," he said, pointing to another paragraph beneath foreseeance 4311.

as the alliance splinters into factions, so come the destroyers. none shall be strong enough alone to withstand their might. for they once ruled here and once again shall they rule. unless the half-damned soul reunites the dissolution, all shall once again descend into the shadow of the light.

after i read it, maclean said, "the overworld conclave-the alliance-is splintering. vampires fighting arcanes, the templars divided and on the verge of civil war, and my people, the illuminati, are barely a shadow of what they once were." he stared mournfully at the symbol on the table. "we used to fight the templars, you know. the seraphim created the organization-well, daelissa did. it was all to protect herself while she was vulnerable."

"you don't fight them anymore?" i asked.

"no need. the organization took on a life of its own and became too large for her to control." he snorted. "she lost to bureaucracy."

"according to this foreseeance, i need to reunite the alliance," i said. "somehow make the arcanes, vampires, and templars all one big happy family again."

"or your sister does." his eyebrow rose. "if she does, it wouldn't bode well." his finger moved to another passage.

i see not one, but two half-damned upon this plane. one is wreathed in the dark, the other in the light. both gather their armies for the fight. in the end, two choices will be decided, but only one will matter. and the sacrifice must be made.

"both sides are gathering armies," he said. "i think daelissa wants to bring the vampires to her side. if your sister unites them, we'll be left without much of an army at all."

my stomach clenched at the thought of the conroys in control of everything.

"there's more," maclean said, pursing his lips. "we know of at least four seraphim still alive and kicking." he counted them off on his fingers. "daelissa, alysea, fjoeruss, and one whose name we do not know."

"wait a minute," i said, "alysea-"

his lips curled into a smile. "your mother's true name, lad."

my heart skipped a beat. i had almost forgiven mom after she'd saved me from jeremiah in maximus's compound, but why hadn't she told me more? why had she left me to feel my way blindly through a maze of glass and daggers?

"what else do you know about her?" i asked, eager to know.

"i'm sorry, lad, but not much. the illuminati didn't find out about her until a century or so ago when the conroys came into power." he looked up at me. "even then we didn't realize she wasn't human right away."

"are the conroys seraphim?"

"no." maclean gave a firm shake of his head. "of that, we're bloody sure. we think alysea was still incredibly weak from the desecration-that's what the seraphim call the destruction of the grand nexus." he scratched the back of his neck. "the conroys must have nursed her to health somehow. she might have suffered from extreme memory loss, so they could have made her believe anything, i suppose." he spread his hands. "even so, there's a huge chunk of time in her life we can't account for, considering this whole bloody mess started in biblical times."

i blinked as the information soaked in. how old are you, mom? "i think daelissa did something to her while she was vulnerable." i had to believe mom wouldn't help the evil bitch.

"aye, perhaps. unfortunately, the detailed records vanished a long time ago. all i know is the darklings, daemos, and humans united; they fought the brightlings and barely won. they couldn't beat the brightlings by force, so they disabled the portal the seraphim used to travel to this world-the grand nexus-by removing a vital component called the cyrinthian rune. when they removed the rune, it caused a tremendous backlash that husked all the humans, angels, and daemos anywhere near the nexus or the network of alabaster arches connecting them."

i shuddered at the thought of husks, the nasty little infantile creatures. i'd faced hundreds of them beneath thunder rock and el dorado. "did it destroy the grand nexus for good?" i asked.

he shook his head. "it's possible returning the rune to the nexus will repair it. for centuries, arcanes passed down the responsibility of hiding the rune, and it eventually fell into the hands of ezzek moore, the father of modern arcanes."

a puzzle piece clicked in my brain. "the conroys are looking for the rune."

"exactly, lad. they need it and think i'm the only one who can find it."

chapter 18

the confusing conversation i'd overheard between ivy and dear old grandma suddenly made a lot more sense. i knew why jeremiah was here and why bigglesworth didn't want me breathing. they probably thought i knew something about the rune and was playing the part of meddling kid. well, they had that part right. i was a proven meddler even though i'd learned the hard way just how hazardous it was for my health. i zoned back into reality from my wandering thoughts and caught maclean's eye. "when did they figure out daelissa was still alive?"

"that happened near the end of the roman empire," he said. "daelissa posed as a woman named lissa and became ezzek moore's lover during his struggle to unite arcanes under the council of seven and build arcane university. she nearly tricked him into revealing where the rune was before he discovered the ruse."

"talk about a crazy girlfriend," i said, shuddering.

"aye. she killed moore's favorite apprentice and several of his close friends before they drove her away." his lips curled. "they were bloody lucky she wasn't anywhere near the strength she is now, or she would've killed them all." he paused for a swig of ale. "ezzek realized they needed a much better way to hide the rune. he took his most trusted people and formed a secret organization to protect it and fight the templar army daelissa was creating."

"the illuminati," i said.

"exactly, lad."

"so, where's the rune?"

he shrugged. "we lost that secret centuries ago. the only thing i know for certain is it's somewhere in queens gate." he gestured vaguely around the room. "could be here at the university, over at the academy, or maybe down in the valley somewhere. bigglesworth somehow found out about my ability and figured i could spot the disturbance the rune has on the world around it."

"how large is the rune?" i asked.

maclean shrugged. "maybe the size of an acorn." he made a circle with his thumb and forefinger to illustrate.

"talk about a needle in a haystack," i groaned. ice shivered down my spine as i remembered the towering murals of the angels in el dorado. they depicted human sacrifice and all sorts of horrors. if daelissa and her peeps took over and resumed using humans as food and live entertainment, there were no limits to the horrors they could commit. humans didn't throw spears and rocks at each other anymore. they used jets, bullets, and nuclear weapons.

"my god, they could annihilate us." i shook away the thoughts. "can you find the rune?" i asked. "and if so, can it be destroyed?"

he gave me a shrewd look. "if ezzek could have eradicated it, he probably would have. in all likelihood, he probably worried destroying it might cause another light-draining shockwave and husk even more people."

"we need to find it." i stood and paced, thinking. "we can leave it where it is, but it's vital we know for sure daelissa doesn't have it." i leaned against a wall as my mind raced. "where exactly is the grand nexus? is it in thunder rock?"

maclean shook his head. "no. but ezzek discovered even without the rune, the alabaster arches still work to a certain extent. if you take any of them, they all lead to one place."

"the grand nexus," i said.

"bright lad. his surviving journals don't say where the true nexus is, but you could find out easily enough."

i laughed. "easily? i'd have to wade through husks and shadow people to get to one of those arches." i'd already told him the details of my adventure at thunder rock and how i'd tested the alabaster arch there. "the conroys are trying to repair the smaller arches in the normal control rooms so they can take one through to thunder rock. at least now i know why."

maclean leaned back, ran both hands through his thick hair. "that wily old bastard, jeremiah."

"look, i know it's best if the rune stays hidden, but we need to know where it is. what if jeremiah or bigglesworth figures out another way to find it, and we don't know until another blast wave wipes out half the planet again?" the thought sent a shudder through me. "do we even know for sure how many alabaster arches there are? or how many people would be affected by another blast wave?"

"i believe there are five, including the grand nexus." maclean shrugged. "i know for sure thunder rock and el dorado have them. if only our records hadn't been destroyed." his fists tightened. "one is in australia, but i don't know the location. and the other, maybe china."

"gee, that really narrows it down," i said, pulling up a map on my phone and scrolling. "we don't have much of a choice, then. looks like thunder rock or el dorado would be the best places to go."

"agreed."

i rubbed my tight forehead. i was well on my way to getting premature wrinkles if my stress levels stayed this high. "if i can do something about bigglesworth, would you be willing to track down the rune? you can save all the little children in the world."

"can't stand the little buggers." his lips peeled back in a grimace.

"then why the hell are you a teacher?"