Page 245 of Caelum

“We weren’t the only ones handed nine incarnations. The sins of the fathers and all that…,” Ava explained with a grimace. “We’ve all been working to resolve the Original Sin, but it’s difficult when themajnunare unstable.”

So, wait.Each incarnation had the potential to last tens of thousands of years?

My mind felt like a car wreck at the thought. How much had they seen? They’d been a part of evolution itself, so what hadn’t they come to know?

“Why are you telling us this? I mean… I know we came here for answers, but this is information you can’t share with anyone you just meet. Why us? What makes us worthy?” I whispered, my voice low and husky as the ramifications of what they were telling me hit home.

They’d probably never shared this story, yet here they were, opening up to me like I was a chat show host or something. And this was no lie.

I felt their truth.

In my bones.

My eighth soul throbbed dully in recognition, and that more than anything terrified the life out of me.

Then, when Avalina looked me square in the eye and told me, “Because you areJannah, and you are our means of salvation,” I wished I’d never asked.

TWELVE

REED

Eve looked as though she were on the brink of passing out, and I couldn’t blame her.

This was a lot for anyone to process, but for me, I was just relieved to have answers.

There was plenty of shit in this life that didn’t make sense, and in our world, there was even more because weknewthere was more out there and still didn’t have answers.

Where did mates come from? Who even picked them out for us? Why did Caelum have a portal that infused us with a goddamn internal translation system? Why did that portal act as the literal gatekeeper for graduates of the Academy?

Yet, we’d also just received some answers to those unanswered questions.

According to this duo, and if they weren’t telling us a complete and utter furphy,theywereourcreation story. Our beginning. A story we’d never heard.

There were theories, of course. But this wasn’t a theory. Not according to the professors.

If I was eying them with suspicion, that’s because Iwassuspicious. This was a level of information that wavered between impossible and bullshit.

Before I was a believer, they’d have to come up with some proof, something that made these claims a lot more solid than the hot air they were currently spouting like kettles that had been on the stove for too long.

But, one thing was really pissing me off, so I told them, “Creatures aren’t religious. Caelum tells us to recant our religions at the door.”

Avalina’s mouth pursed. “That’s because God isn’t religious. Man made religion. God is God. Trust me, we’d know. Sometimes he’s nice; sometimes he’s mean. He’s not Catholic, nor is he Buddhist. He just is. You either have faith or you don’t, but regardless, you came from somewhere, and it started with us.” Apparently done with a conversation I’d only just started, she pushed herself off Bartlett’s lap and walked over to Eve. The second she approached, I tensed, waiting on an attack that didn’t happen—she just held out her hand and said, “May I see your arm?”

Eve, still looking shell-shocked, blinked but did as asked. Soft fingers, which were far too youthful, traced over the leaf on Eve’s hand that curved around her wrist then curled about her forearm. Some were large, some were small, but all were made out of letters.

“Caelum is founded on territory that Nicholas discovered a hundred years or more ago. In his last life, he did well, and God was pleased and gifted him Caelum as a result. The gates act as a barrier. God set his sights too high, didn’t realize the perfidy of the devil. Ghouls were beginning to outnumber creatures a long time ago, and when Nicholas did him a service, his reward was a means of helping others with a place that would become amajnun’shaven.

“More than that, it was a means of building an army. Something that had the capabilities of tactically undermining the growth in the Ghouls’ population. It came in many ways, but one of the most important was bridging the gap in knowledge. Language is at the heart of all knowledge. When you cross through the portal, you speak the common parlance amongmajnunbut also, it means you can speak with anyone on this realm and be understood. Something of that nature is beyond the means of any man.” She cast me a withering look then shared it out among my brothers. “You can choose to believe we speak false, or you can recognize the hand of something that is larger than us all.” She traced the leaf on Eve’s hand with her thumb. “Studying and lecturing what we do, we get a lot of kooks coming through our door. But the second we saw this in the pictures you sent? We knew what you were.”

“That language is the first we ever spoke,” Bartlett informed us when Avalina’s words waned. “It is known only to Eve and myself, and our sons.” His lips tightened. “You are not the first, Eve, but you will be the last.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I demanded, my Hell Hound’s temper surging to the fore at the implied threat in his words.

Bartlett grunted. “Calm yourself, Hound,” he drawled. “She is the lastfor there is little chance we will survive to see another.Jannahsare rare. So rare they are taken on as prophets by religions around the world, but in the past, there was never any means for us to connect with them.”

Frazer blinked. “Wait a second. Jesus?” Bartlett nodded. “You mean to tell me that if Jesus had Google, we wouldn’t be having this problem with the Ghouls?”

My eyes widened at Frazer’s question, and fuck, it was beyond hard not to laugh. Avalina was apparently the queen of withering glances, however, because she snapped, “Have some respect!”

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