Demon Bound

saved. She would be a murderer.
    And either way, she was damned.
    But not yet. Not until she was dead—or Teqon was. Until then, there was hope.
    It would not do, however, to think of how very little hope there was.
    Seeking a distraction, Alice stepped back from the granite frieze, gaining a wider view of the sculpted panels so that she would not see Michael , but the story illustrated by the stone, in which he merely played a part.
    When she’d found this temple, she’d been gripped by the same anticipation and excitement that had accompanied each of her discoveries. But aside from one—very large—difference, this temple did not tell her anything new.
    Her battery-powered lantern illuminated the dozens of friezes that covered the walls of this enormous stone chamber, but every Guardian was familiar with the tale they told. At the far end was a panel representing the First Battle, with Lucifer leading his rebels against the angels loyal to Heaven.
    Other scenes filled out the history—the transformation of rebel angels into demons and the descent into Hell. Here, and in every other temple Alice had found, scenes from the Second Battle were shown more often than any other. The frieze directly in front of her celebrated the moment Michael had slain the dragon. The artist had styled the Doyen’s hair in classical Greek curls rather than shorn close to his scalp, but his hard features were unmistakable. Other panels depicted Michael and several companions, who must have been the first Guardians he’d transformed.
    The sculpted pieces were a mystery, but only as to their creation. Though almost two decades had passed since she’d found the first temple, she still did not know who had built them.
    And she could not account for the missing pieces of the timeline.
    Alice glanced toward the early panels. One of those rebelling angels in the First Battle had become the demon known as Belial. Once Lucifer’s lieutenant, he’d turned against the other demon, and had begun a campaign to take Lucifer’s throne.
    That much had been recorded in the Scrolls—but Alice did not know when Belial had turned against Lucifer. How she would have loved to put it all in order.
    And there were other pieces that had not been mentioned in the Scrolls, pieces that she and other Guardians had not learned until the past year—such as the nephilim. There was no indication when Lucifer had created the strong race of demons whose purpose had been to assist him in enforcing the Rules. At some point, the nephilim had tried to overthrow Lucifer’s throne. With the help of Belial and his armies, Lucifer had defeated the nephilim and imprisoned them in Hell—but Alice had no idea whether their insurgency had been before or after the Second Battle.
    Some time after the nephilim’s imprisonment, a prophecy had been delivered to Belial and his followers, assuring him that he would prevail over Lucifer after the nephilim were destroyed. Nothing in these friezes or the Scrolls said anything of that prophecy—not who had foreseen it, or any details regarding how Belial would triumph. Alice only knew of the prophecy because Belial’s demons had revealed its existence to a fellow Guardian—but since she’d learned of it, she’d thought of little else.
    Not now, though. Alice closed her eyes. Not now.
    That hope was so very small, a thin thread in a fragile cloth. Tugging too often might unravel it all.
    She took a long, steadying breath, and looked again at the sculpted wall. What else was missing?
    Ah, yes. None of the friezes showed when—or how—Michael had lost the sword he’d used to slay the dragon.
    The recovery of the powerful weapon from an English manor in the early nineteenth century was also missing from the history, but that omission was easier to explain: this temple had been abandoned more than two thousand years before the sword was found.
    The hem of Alice’s heavy woolen robes brushed the gleaming stone floor as she walked along the panels, studying the final scenes. Most depicted battles between Guardians and demons or Guardians and nosferatu. A few included Michael, but there were also other, unknown Guardians. The last was of a gathering in Caelum—hundreds of Guardians stood before Michael’s temple. Behind them, the city rose in spires and domes; even in black granite, Caelum’s beauty was breathtaking.
    She’d sketched the panel, but her precise drawings could not convey the skill of these artists. How, she