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29
AZRAEL
It’s been three weeks since the Disciples attacked. Willow and Bec have stayed at the Wildblood house during that time while the house was deep cleaned. Emmanuel and I also took this time to clear out Salomé’s room, burning most of her belongings but holding on to what I guess was a sort of diary of hers. I am not sure if I’ll ever read it, but I set it aside for now.
The wooden carving over my bed had split in two the day Shemhazai’s statue fell. It lay in solid pieces on my bed.
Throughout the house, we took down the Delacroix insignias that contained the crescent moon being split in two. The one over the front door is the only one that stayed since it was the original before Isaiah added his mark. I gathered all the things that have to do with the Tithing, and have set The Book of Tithes itself aside. I want to destroy it, but I owe it to the Wildbloods to have the chance to see it, to learn the true fates of their ancestors. They may choose not to read it, but it is up to them.
I’d thought the dagger Abacus had used to cut out his birthmarks lay at the bottom of the lake. I was wrong, however. Salomé had had it all along. I wonder if, in my distraction that day, I’d just assumed it was unreachable. Or, hell, maybe it was Shemhazai all along. That’s what she’d have said, at least.
The stained-glass window in the library is the only thing I kept as is. If I look at it the way Bec does, it feels different, like the angel is standing over his fallen beloved. I can almost make myself see it as that angel watching over her in sleep. That may be fanciful, but I like it. If Willow wants it taken down, then I’ll take it down, but for now, it stays.
The authorities cleared away the bodies, Larissa handling every aspect of that. Salomé’s ashes sit by the door of the kitchen, outside where she used to keep Benedict. I picked them up this afternoon because I didn’t want to leave the stain of her where she could infect other lives but I won’t have her in the house again.
All in all, between our house and the Wildblood home, nine Disciples and twenty-two Society guards were killed, most on our property and most with Salomé’s help.
Ezra finally got back to me with the information he’d been verifying as far as Caleb Church’s early release from prison. Alfred Noyes had received a transfer of funds from Salomé Delacroix’s bank account. With those funds, he had made a significant donation to the re-election campaign of the judge who helped secure Caleb’s early release with the parole board. I wonder how long Salomé had known the details of Caleb’s attack on Willow. She’d been in touch with Noyes for the last few months, offering her assistance in their witch hunt in exchange for Caleb’s help in the matter of Willow.
Ironically, the judge who had presided over the case and had sealed her files and sentenced Caleb was the very same judge who helped to secure his early release. He has since been dealt with and, just before his untimely death, he generously donated all of that money to the families of the victims of the Disciples, benevolent soul that he was.
The news channels fell on this story like pigs in slop, outing the Disciples of a radical and violent cult led by the deceased Alfred Noyes. Noyes was the mastermind of the attacks, they reported, but his own Disciples turned on him in the eleventh hour.
The location of the events are being kept secret. I don’t want photos of either of our homes circulating on the internet for years to come. The names of the victims are also being kept secret. Being a Sovereign Son does have its privileges, although I will be in Hildebrand’s debt. I don’t much like the idea but it was worth it to protect the privacy of both Wildblood and Delacroix families, and to keep Caleb’s name out of the news story.
As far as anyone is concerned, Alfred Noyes was the insane man responsible for the attacks. His Disciples have also been linked to the majority of the murders of women over the years, that carved cross condemning the killers. As far as the public is concerned, Caleb Church has simply vanished, erased from this earth as if he never existed at all.
And very soon, that will be true.
I park the car at the IVI compound and turn to Willow. It’s the middle of the night and the courtyard is deserted, the buildings mostly dark except for one light that remains on in the Tribunal building.
