“You see,” he continued, noticing my ease. “We all have a role to play. An alliance to form. Mine was never spelled out for me, so I had to seek it out on my own.”
He gently took the journal and began leafing through the delicate pages. My eyes widened when he faced an open page in my direction. Three names took up the entire page. Hadrian’s name was the first, though for whatever reason, it was crossed out. The next two names gave me chills, for they were bold and dark, as if written in blood, and lacked the black streak striking them out.
The second name was Lucifer.
As I read the name, a chill swept through the room and continued down my back.
The third was a name I knew all too well. A name I tried to avoid for years. I looked down again, the five letters burning themselves into my head.
Brynn.
“The earth is a footprint of the heavens. It works like a mirror.” Nate’s voice was pitched with unnerving excitement. Finally, he had found someone to share his secret with and he paced feverishly across the uncluttered sections of the study. “Are you familiar with the trinity?”
I slowly nodded my head. Church had ingrained the trinity in me since I was small.
“Three is a powerful number. There are legends, stories of its sacred power, and I have come to learn that those stories should not be taken lightly.”
He made his way over to the tall wall of shelves and earnestly began searching the spines on the lower shelves. If the bookcase was arranged in some sort of order, I would never know. The titles seemed to be placed randomly and only he seemed to know the code. He pulled a small black book from the shelf and thumbed through it.
“The Rule of Three, the karmic law that what you send out comes back to you threefold, or at three times the power under which you sent it out.”
He replaced the book and chose another. That one was reddish-brown and ripped, having seen much better days.
“Three, as in the maiden, the maid and the crone …”
Another book came down from the shelf and Nate read from its pages,“The number “3” is used many times in Chinese culture. As mentioned in the I Ching, pronounced E Ching. It stands for Heaven, Earth and Man. When we bow to offer incense, it is always done three times. In bonsai and ikebana, the patterns follow an irregular triangle to represent the trinity of heaven, earth and man.”
He replaced the last book and looked at me long and hard. “The fallen believe in the power of the trinity as well. In this case, it consists of three names.
If you were to double the power each one holds within himself, it is the same as counting the person twice.” He pointed to each name and began counting by twos. Two, four, six.
“Now give each one the final number,” he instructed me.
“Six, six, six,” I whispered.
There was silence as he allowed me to take it all in.
“It is Lucifer’s mark. See how he stands between them,” his finger pointed to the name in the middle.
“I don’t understand. Why is Brynn’s name here?”
To me she was a stuck-up girl who harbored a lot of issues. To see her name on this list had me completely confounded.
Dr. Dean’s shoulder’s dropped. “I’m not sure how she fits in. Somehow she’s managed to channel Lucifer’s darkness into her own life. Acknowledging his existence has given her some sort of destructive purpose.” He moved in closer and cautiously took my hand, exposing my lemniscate. “Do you see the mirror image you hold, Teagan?” He drew a line down the middle of the lemniscate with his finger, splitting it in two lengthwise. For a brief second I could envision it - the eight became a different number altogether. A three.
“It may be impossible to destroy such power but at least you can change it.”
I stared back at him puzzled.
“You are the stake to split the darkness. You are the light.”
Light. Memories of Garreth filled me.
“To offset the power of the three, you must rely on three of your own. Do you know who I speak of?”
“But Hadrian, he’s on this list. How can he help?”
“The opposite of light is dark. Some may think they work against each other, but they don’t. In fact that is the only way they can work. To balance.”
I thought of Garreth. How could I get a hold of him to even think about helping me? He was practically ignoring me. Except for that look he gave me tonight at the dance. Was the Garreth I knew regaining control?
“As Hadrian has turned away from Lucifer, Garreth has begun to turn away from you. It is the mirror of light and dark. You must reach him in time before he totally succumbs to true human essence.”
I nodded. My brooding had been masking how I truly felt about us. I was surprised to realize that everything we had been through, everything we had meant to each other could quickly be pushed aside. He was in my world now and I needed to step up and help him somehow. Once again, I was feeling the bond between us resurface. I missed him so much.
“Teagan,” Nate interrupted, “you must go after Brynn. She has no idea what she has done.
“You, and only you, can give her what she seeks. It is the only way to undo what she has started.”
“I don’t understand. What could she possibly want from me?” I was worried now, but ready to fight for an end to this.
Nate opened the journal about three quarters of the way toward the end and ripped a page from it. The gesture took me off guard. He had gone through great lengths to protect this book and now he was ripping it apart. But with one glance at the page he offered me, I understood why. It was the map. The same map Brynn had stolen earlier this evening.
On it were sketched trees, a whole forest full, and a river at the base of a long, curved line. I took the drawing and studied it, feeling my heart quicken as I recognized a clearing in the middle of all the tiny trees with a small square drawn in the center of it. The shape of a cross had been drawn directly above it.
“There’s a ruined chapel in the woods. It was called Saint …”
“Saint Anne’s,” I whispered. “I’ve been there.”
A smile tugged at his mouth.
“You know how to get there then?”
“Yes, of course.”
Dr. Dean raked his hands through his messy hair and walked to his desk. “I was going to stay here, in case Brynn came back, but I’ll go with you. It’s late.”
“It’s fine. I’ve been there plenty of times. I’ll go and you stay here. You know, in case she comes back.”
But his eyes said it all and we both knew how unlikely it was that Brynn would come back here. She had the map, an evil plan, and a very determined mind. And apparently I was the only one who could help her.
I didn’t mind that Nate stayed behind to wait for Brynn. I knew these woods well. Plus there was no way I was going to be chaperoned by my mom’s boyfriend just because of some trees in the dark. Although, I had second thoughts when he reinforced the significance and power of my mark, insisting I was the only one strong enough to fight Brynn’s demons. But it was only because he said the word demon.
Without a doubt, I knew the small scale drawing on the map was Saint Anne’s. It wasn’t that hard to recognize. I also understood I wasn’t meant to do this alone. So, of course I wrestled with myself emotionally the entire drive, weighing the possibilities if I would find Brynn there, still believing she had discovered something important, and if so, would I find Garreth there as well?
My answer soon came to me, but it wasn’t Garreth waiting for me.