‘No, but I can feel her presence when we communicate.’

‘And she’s told you about Mick?’

Evelyn nods. ‘Take my hands in yours and close your eyes. Quiet your mind. Breathe in through your nose as slowly and deeply as you can, then gently out through your mouth. Focus on your feelings for Michael. Extinguish your sadness and feel him in your heart. Center yourself upon your love for him.’

Dominique breathes. She thinks of Mick and how much she misses him.

Evelyn registers Dominique’s increased energy flow as she meditates. She centers herself, moving deeper into her own meditation.

In due course she speaks: ‘Dear Lord, hold us in Your loving light. Allow Your angels to guide us, so that our experiences may be for the highest good. We thank You for all You have done, and ask You now to reveal our dearly departed, Maria Rosen-Gabriel, to us.’

A long pause, then Evelyn speaks again, this time in a higher, raspy voice not her own.

‘My son has not passed into the spiritual realm. Michael has imprisoned himself in purgatory.’

Dominique’s eyes flash open. ‘My God … Mick’s in Hell?’

‘There is no Hell. Michael’s soul is shackled with anger—an anger that comes from a life devoid of love. He was asked to make a great sacrifice. Now he loathes the decision and curses his existence, marooned on an island of space-time surrounded by an ocean of evil.‘

‘Is … is he safe?’

‘He is in great danger. A powerful poltergeist tortures him and the Nephilim—a population of lost souls. Michael’s internal rage blinds him, preventing him from defeating the poltergeist, and yet he feels compelled to remain, for it is his heavenly light that comforts the Fallen Ones. All are trapped in an equilibrium of existence, a higher temporal plane, what you would call Hell. It is Michael’s presence within this existence that has created a third-dimensional loop of space-time. The loop must be broken to save Michael, the souls of the Fallen, and humanity.’

Dominique’s fingers ache within Evelyn’s steely grip as she stares at the tears streaming down the old woman’s cheeks. ‘Maria … will I ever see him again?’

‘The Creation Story foretold in the Mayan Popol Vuh rewrites itself. The final battle will again be waged. The journey of good and evil begins anew with the rebirth of your sons. It is your role to prepare them for a battle that was waged and lost eons ago. If they are successful, then Michael will be resurrected. If they fail, then humanity is lost.

‘But beware, for another shall be born on the day of the twins’ birth. Negative energy shall flow to this child, tainting its soul while strengthening its spirit. It is this abomination that imprisons my son and disrupts the space-time continuum. It is this unholiest of unholies that tortures the Nephilim, feeding off their life force.