righteous.
The Conoscenza was most likely destroyed in a deadly ritual in 1698 in France, where there was a powerful coven led by High Priestess Tara Rafferty and her common-law husband, Detrich Ehrenbach. Neither Rafferty, Ehrenbach, their coven membership, nor the six priests and demon hunters from St. Michael’s Order survived. Everything in the immediate area was destroyed-obliterated. To this day, some believe that those grounds are either haunted or cursed. No one lives on the desecrated site, all attempts to do so end in violence.
Though Lieber didn’t believe that the Conoscenza still existed, he knew a lot about what was within its evil covers. It was a grimoire-a book of spells. These dark spells were specifically aimed at conjuring spirits, summoning demons, and controlling both.
The origin of the book was in dispute. Some scholars felt it had been compiled over time with contributions from multiple generations of magicians, the spells evolving and gaining strength. Others believed that it had been written many thousands of years ago during the time of Moses in an ancient language that could not be understood without demonic guidance. And still others, including Father Philip, believed that the book had been written in demon blood only a few generations after the fall of man, in the language of the fallen angels, unreadable to all except the few who had been chosen by Satan himself.
But it was certain, at least during Anthony’s five hours of intensive research, that the Conoscenza contained the ritual to unleash the Seven Deadly Sins into the world.
And he’d yet to find any theorizing on how to send them back. Lieber opined:
The one certainty we know, should the Seven be freed, is that, according to the legends, they will disperse, spread themselves far apart. Logic dictates that they would be stronger together, but in truth they gain their strength from psychic unions with humans. They cannot compete for the same person, for the victim would die without fueling the demon. This seems to be the antithesis of all we know and understand of the adage of strength in numbers, but for the Seven they are equals and cannot share the same space without devastating results for them and humans. They seek the weak and are lured by sin. Sin makes them stronger. Lust finds lust; greed finds greed. The longer they are free, the more powerful they become.
The Seven are not demons who can be exorcised using traditional ritual exorcisms, because they do not need to possess a body to survive. They are spirits. They laugh in the face of the Faithful and do not obey orders of those who summon them. They are the Tricksters of Hell, Fallen Angels, among the highest order of angels who plummeted during the Great Battle. Woe to the world who sees the Seven on earth.
Anthony learned two important things.
The first was why Fiona’s ritual had taken place at the ruins on the cliffs. In a handwritten diary of an Olivet graduate nearly three hundred years ago, shortly after the book was thought destroyed, he read:
Any place where the blood of the righteous is spilled in the battle of good and evil, heaven and hell, and where also a human being is sacrificed, weakens the protective barrier between earth and the netherworld. At such a place, with the proper ritual, training, desire, and power, a fearless magician can open a gate for demons to pass through. Some magicians believe that they can move freely between the demonic world and our own, a deadly proposition. Many things must align for all the elements to be in place for such a gate, and there are only a few known gateways over the last millennium, all of which have been sealed and consecrated. But there will be more. Magicians will continue to create these openings when possible, and the greater in number, the weaker the entire threshold. Some believe that a great battle on earth will ensue, spilling the blood of the righteous and leading to murder and desecration. The battle will weaken the barrier between earth and Hell until the End Times, allowing free movement of demons through the membrane. Chaos will reign. This will, some believe, be the signal of the Second Coming.
Some will wait and watch and not impede the successes of magicians.
Some, including this scholar, believe such a strategy sets up many for eternal death through inaction.
Though none of the scholars Anthony read had specific knowledge of how the ritual worked, they all were in agreement that to summon the Seven at one time there was the need for not only a powerful magician, but two sacrifices: a vessel and an arca.
The vessel, also called a “key” by Lieber, was a magician who used her powers combined with the others in the coven to draw out the Seven from Hell. Her death was a sacrifice necessary to bring them forth, as no one could survive such a violent spiritual assault. Her soul in exchange, according to Lieber, would have strength in the afterlife, which could be used by the coven as tenuous control over the Seven-in theory.
Was Abby Weatherby the key? The means to draw out the Seven? It would appear so, but Anthony didn’t know enough about what powers she may have had. Everything he knew and understood about the afterlife put souls in two places: purgatory en route to Heaven. or firmly in Hell. There were hierarchies of angels and hierarchies of demons, but human souls with power in Hell? He had never heard such a thing, and it greatly disturbed him.
If Abby was the key, that meant there had to be an arca.
The girl Moira spoke of, Lily. The teenager who went to the cliffs to save her cousin, Abby.
Anthony was poring over everything he could find about what the arca was-if in fact it was a person and not a thing-and how it was used. There were far fewer specifics about the arca than the key, but based on subtext he determined that the arca was a human ‘container’ that trapped the Seven.
The arca must have been consecrated for the purpose. Arcas, like other warriors for the underworld, are conceived during rituals. Some believe such individuals, whether they know of their purpose or not, must be sacrificed by the just or the end result will be devastating for many, many innocent souls. Others believe such individuals can be saved. But as I live and breathe today, it remains the truth that none have been saved; once told of their position and potential for power, they grow in darkness. The allure of evil is great, and the lies of demons many.
Moira O’Donnell.
Anthony slowly shut the heavy book.
None have been saved.
Father Philip must have known the truth about Moira before Peter died. Moira had sought him out; they all knew she was a witch.
Such individuals … must be sacrificed by the just …
Anthony couldn’t kill Moira without cause. He wasn’t a cold-blooded murderer, and one opinion in an old book didn’t provide adequate justification. There had to be another answer. He would find it. Not to save Moira, but to save them all.
He frowned, staring at the stacks of faded books and papers spread across his desk at the mission. He knew enough of Moira’s past, how her mother had conceived her to serve as a liaison between the covens and the underworld, but what of the arca last night on the cliffs? If Lily Ellis was the arca, she was one of the unsaved.
He refused to believe it. God didn’t work that way. Everyone could be saved.
None have been saved.
That didn’t mean they couldn’t be. He opened an old, thin tome about demon traps. The Seven were not traditional demons, and Anthony needed to better understand all types of spirit traps.
His phone vibrated and he grabbed it, startled. It was Skye.
“Working?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“You have answers?”
“I’m getting there. It’ll take a little more time.”
She didn’t say anything.
“Skye? Are you there?”
“Rafe Cooper left the hospital last night. Walked out, just after midnight. No one has seen him since.”
Anthony rose from his chair. “You’re certain he left on his own? After ten weeks in a coma?”
“I saw him leave on the security tape. He’s gone. I put an APB out on him, and need to get him back in the
