"I'll be right back," I tell her before phasing to Catherine's rooms in Cirrus.

Opulent was too tame a word to describe the chambers of the onetime Empress of Cirrus. A 'display of gratuitous wealth' was the phrase that came to my mind. The floors were made of the rarest of granite. It was a mixture of blue tones with white and inlaid with streams of gold. The walls were sheets of hammered gold with decorative mirrors to give the already large s.p.a.ce the illusion of being infinite. I walk from the sitting room over to the doorway I know leads into Catherine's bedchambers.

The room is quiet, like a tomb. When I walk further in, I see Catherine has fallen greatly from the glory she once held.

The former empress is lying on her bed balled up into a facedown fetal position. Her hair is matted to her head and doesn't look like it's been washed in days. As I approach her bed, I can see her body is trembling slightly like a frightened animal. I feel an intense anger wash over me at the pitiful sight of Auggie's mother.

"I know you're here," I hear Levi say in a singsong voice meant to taunt me out of hiding.

I look over to the entrance and see him standing in the doorway scanning the room, searching for me. I hold back a gasp at the grotesque sight of him. Death does not become this particular Prince of h.e.l.l. His cheeks are sunken in as well as his eyes, causing the illusion of dark shadows against his pasty white skin. He looks like a ghost of the man he once was.

"Don't you want to come out and play with me, Anna?" Levi sneers. "Why are you hiding in the shadows like a coward when we always have so much fun with one another?"

"You're lucky I don't kill you where you stand," I tell Levi, knowing I probably should have remained silent but allowing my temper to get the best of me.

Levi looks at the quivering form of Catherine on her bed. A slow smile spreads his thin, sickly lips into a self-satisfied grin. The once proud Empress of Cirrus looks trapped inside her own mad little world. She doesn't show any outward signs of hearing our conversation.

"What did you do to her?" I demand.

Levi nonchalantly shrugs his shoulders and casually leans up against the doorjamb while crossing his arms in front of him.

"A little physical torture. A little mental anguish. Nothing I haven't done to a million other victims a million times before now. I guess she's just been so pampered most of her life that she wasn't prepared for what I had in store for her."

"Why did you torture Catherine?" I ask. "What did you hope to gain from it?"

Levi smiles tauntingly. "Your anger, dear wife."

"I don't understand why that's so important to you. Why do you keep trying to test me in every way you can?"

"Because, my little dove, I want to hurt Lucifer, and you're a surefire way to do that."

"How does making me angry at you achieve that goal?"

"I hope to make you face who you are actually meant to become."

"And who do you think that is?"

"The true master of h.e.l.l."

Levi's answer catches me off guard. I wish myself to become visible because I want him to look me in the eyes when he gives me the answer to my next question.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you feel it, Anna?" Levi asks, smiling at me smugly as he pushes away from the doorframe to walk closer to me. "Don't you feel the power you're gaining from collecting the seals? I mean you only have two of them, but surely you've already noticed the change."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I lie, knowing all too well what he's referring to but not wanting to admit it to myself much less him.

Levi laughs. "You're a horrible liar, Anna. That power you feel. That strength inside of you will only grow stronger as you collect more seals. Hasn't Lucifer told you what will happen if you gather them all from us?"

"He's told me some of it," I admit.

"Then let me tell you the rest. Do you know what the seals are?"

"Evil."

"You're thinking far too small because they're so much more than that. The seals are pure energy, my dove. Energy fueled by all the hate in the universe. Time makes them grow stronger as people become more dissatisfied with their lives and the conditions they have to live under. Why do you think Lucifer hasn't unleashed them yet?"

"I don't know."

"Because he was waiting for the universe to reach a boiling point where the seals would be so powerful not even G.o.d himself could stop them from opening."

"Is there a way I can destroy the seals as I gather them?"

"Even if there were, you wouldn't want to do that."

"Why?"

"Because," Levi says, stopping just a foot away from me carrying with him the stench of death, "destroying them would in effect destroy parts of your own soul."

"What are they doing to my soul now?"

"Destroying it in a different way."

"How?"

"When you kill one of us and send our soul to the Void, you sever our connection to the seal we carry. Its energy has nowhere else to go but inside you. Every time you take in a seal, its power becomes tethered to your soul. You're the perfect host, Anna. "

"I was told there's a way for me to take the seals without having to kill you."

"We can give you the seals of our own free will, but none of us will do that. We know what you would become with that much power. If you think Lucifer is a fiend, just wait to find out what you'll become, my little dove. I have to say. I hope I live long enough to see it. I hope you do too."

I'm silent for a moment. I'm afraid to ask my next question, but I know I have to.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're part human, Anna. There's no guarantee your body will survive absorbing that much pure energy. Even Lucifer wasn't stupid enough to risk keeping all the seals. Why do you think he divided them among us and didn't just retain all of that power for himself? No one being is meant to possess that much power. And, if I were a wagering man, I would bet that the seals will end up killing you in the end. Pity that. I do so enjoy our little conversations with one another."

Honesty probably isn't one of Levi's strong suits, but even without my ability to distinguish the truth from a lie, I can see that he's telling me the truth.

I feel like I've been given way too much information at once and need some time alone to evaluate it.

"I'm taking Catherine away from here," I tell Levi.

"Please do. She's become a bit of a turn off now anyway," he replies, sounding bored. "All she seems to be able to do is whimper. I think I've completely broken her spirit. So, be my guest in trying to pick up all the pieces and put her back together."

I look back at the sad form of Catherine on the bed and place a gentle hand on her shoulder. She doesn't flinch away which is something I take as a good sign. Perhaps Levi hasn't completely severed her mind from the real world, and she knows it's me touching her.

"I hope you believe what I just told you, Anna," Levi says. "Maybe you won't be so eager to kill me now."

"There's nothing that will stop me from killing you, Levi," I tell him. "You marked yourself for death the moment you took my father away from me."

"I don't know why you're going on about that," Levi says in exasperation, rolling his eyes. "It's not like I put him somewhere dangerous or even uncomfortable. He's perfectly fine where he is. I'm simply holding him over your head so you don't kill me. Can you really stand there and say that I would still be alive if I hadn't kept Andre as my hostage?"

"No. I can't. I probably would have killed you the moment I found out you murdered my best friend."

"See," Levi says as if I just proved his point. "It was a good thing I kept Andre around then, for your sake and mine."

"I'm leaving now, Levi," I tell him. "The more I'm around you the more I want to kill you."

"Then by all means leave, my little dove. A permanent death is not the wedding gift I want from you."

I phase Catherine to my bed in Malcolm's home. She's so far gone mentally that she doesn't even seem to realize she's been moved.

"Vala, would you please go get Millie?" I ask.

"Ok, Anna," Vala says walking to the entrance of my room. "Could you open the door for me?"

I turn away from the bed to do as Vala asked when something strange happens. I hear the click of the latch bolt slide inward just as the door swings open. I expect to see someone walk in, but the s.p.a.ce in the hallway is empty.

"Anna," Vala says, looking back at me, "what just happened?"

I look from Vala to the open door and swallow hard, hesitant to give voice to what I'm thinking.

"I'm not sure," I tell her as my heart starts to pound against the walls of my chest. "But I think I may have just discovered a new power."

Chapter 4.

While Vala seeks Millie out, I attend to Catherine the best I can.

"Catherine," I say, sitting on the side of the bed and gently gliding my hand up and down her back, doing my best to soothe her, "you're safe now. No one here will harm you."

She doesn't move at all, just lies curled up face down and trembling.

I have no idea what I can do for Auggie's mother. I find myself in a position I never thought I would be in with Catherine. For most of my life, she played the role of authority figure, making sure I was fit to become the next Empress of Cirrus. Now, our roles have been completely reversed, and I find myself at a loss to know how to help her.

I simply sit there and do what comes naturally. I begin to hum a tune Millie would often sing to me when I needed comfort as child. Eventually, Catherine's trembling subsides, and I'm given a glimmer of hope that her mind is working its way out of whatever dark corner of h.e.l.l Levi pushed it into. I may not have liked Catherine very much, but being tortured by Levi was something I would only wish on my worst enemy. Unfortunately, Levi is my worst enemy so such a fantasy will never come to pa.s.s.

"Oh my," Millie says from the doorway before she makes her way over to the bed. "Do you have any idea what he did to her?"

I look over at Millie as she comes to stand next to me.

"Nothing good I'm sure," I tell her. "But I haven't tried to examine her yet. I just got her to stop trembling. We should see what exactly he did to her though."

Millie places her hands on her hips and considers Catherine's state for a moment.

"Well, first things first then, let's turn her over and see what we find. She doesn't seem to be in a state of mind to know what's going on around her anyway," Millie says.

"Let me turn her over," I tell Millie, knowing my strength will make it physically easier to handle Catherine.

I gently roll Auggie's mother onto her side and see that her eyes are open but staring blankly at nothing. She's holding her right arm up against her breast but it's missing something vital, a hand.

Millie gasps at the sight of the mutilation, and I have to hold back my own rage over Levi's cruelty.

"Why would he take her hand?" Millie whispers, almost as if she's afraid Catherine will hear us speaking about her condition.

"Mostly to just cause her pain would be my guess," I say, realizing I'm learning how Levi's mind works far better than I really want to. "He may have wanted to make sure she couldn't use any of her holographic controls to teleport away or contact anyone for help."

I look down the length of Catherine's body and notice a random pattern of bloodstains on her white nightgown from the chest down. I slowly lift up the hem of the skirt to continue my examination of her injuries. A myriad of open slash marks crisscross her thighs and abdomen. Some of them look like they have already become infected and are oozing a yellow-green puss.

"I'll get the healing wand," Millie says, sounding breathless at the sight of our gruesome discovery.

Millie runs out of the room and is back far quicker than I would have thought someone her age could move. She glides the wand over the wounds, but the magic of modern technology does nothing to heal them.

I sigh in disappointment, having already guessed this would be the outcome.

"I was afraid that wouldn't work," I say. "Levi must have used his lightning whip on her."

"Then how do we heal these wounds?"

"They'll have to heal on their own," I hear Malcolm say behind us as he walks into the room, obviously having overheard our conversation. Of anyone in the world, I know Malcolm knows the pain Levi's whip can inflict.

When I look over my shoulder and see Malcolm, I instantly feel as though the weight pressing against my chest is lifted. Malcolm comes to stand beside me, and I take one of his hands into my own, desperately needing the comfort and strength I feel when we're together.

Malcolm examines the torture Catherine has endured by Levi's hands. A dark, murderous scowl contorts his features. Neither of us ever had much love for Catherine, but she's become an unwitting victim in a war very few people know is being waged right in front of their eyes.

"Desmond is downstairs," Malcolm says. "Let me get him up here to see what he can do for her with traditional medicine."

Malcolm phases away from my side but quickly returns with Desmond in tow before I even have a chance to miss him.

We move away from the bed to give Desmond room to perform his examination of Catherine's injuries.

Malcolm takes me into his arms, and I lean into him, resting my head against his chest.

"I guess I don't have to ask what you did while I was away," Malcolm says in a resigned voice.

"I had to get her out of there," I tell him. "Auggie would have wanted me to protect his mother."

Malcolm sighs, but refrains from saying anything else. I think he's coming to terms with the fact that there are certain things I have to do. He may not like them, but my conscience will always propel me to do what's right.

"Malcolm," I say, reluctantly pulling away from him to look into his deep blue eyes, "we need to have a talk."