FIFTY-FIVE

The Hidden Gatekeeper

“Where will you and your parents go?” Schuyler

“I’m not sure yet. Our whole life is in New York. I don’t think they can really survive out of the city.” Oliver smiled.

“How about you?”

“I don’t know either,” she said. “Is that… Kingsley martin?” she asked, seeing the dark-haired Venator making his way toward them with three huge cups of coffee.

“I forgot to tell you, I’m here with Kingsley. Mimi got him out of Hell. But she had to sort of give up something to do it. I think it was her soul or something.”

“She had one?” Schuyler asked with a small laugh. But Oliver did not join her, and she knew something had changed.

They were still friends, but their experiences had transformed them. “I’m sorry,” she told him. “I didn’t mean to make light of things.”

Kingsley sat between them and set down the drinks.

“Hey, Schuyler.”

“Hey,” she said. “We’ve already got coffee.”

“Oh, this is all for me.” Kingsley smiled. “So here we are.

Hazard-Perry keeping you up to date?”

“Sort of,” Schuyler said coldly, not sure if she trusted the smooth-talking Venator.

“It’s okay. Kingsley’s cool,” Oliver assured her. “He’s one of us now.”

“Glad I have your stamp of approval,” Kingsley said.

“Anyway, I just bumped into my old team. The Lennox boys are here with their wives—didn’t know the guys had it in them to pull that kind of tail.” He winked. “Anyway, they told me what happened down there, with the angel being killed and all.”

Schuyler frowned. “His name was Mahrus.”

“Raphael,” Kingsley said. “Never liked me. But that’s neither here nor there.” He took a long sip from his coffee.

“Look, I checked in with a few more of my Venator friends around the globe. Things are pretty bad everywhere, it seems; Covens falling and all that. But there’s something more important. Did you tell her, Oliver?”

Oliver shook his head. “No, but you can.”

Kingsley told Schuyler what he’d learned during his time in the underworld.

“That’s it, then,” Schuyler said. “I think the Nephilim—this whole business with taking the girls, as terrible as it is—I think it’s just a distraction. Even the destruction of the Covens is just a way to keep the vampires looking the other way….”

“You’re absolutely right,” Kingsley said, slamming down his cup. “It’s a trick.”

“Because, according to you, and what they tried to do in New York—find the key of the star, which is called the Key of the Twins, by the way—is the same thing that we’re doing.

They want the Gate of Promise.”

“And I think they’ve found it, which is why they were so confident,” Kingsley mused. “Now all they need is the gatekeeper.”