by A. Catherine
Today was not going to be a day that Seere would go easy on him.
“I’m saying, that if you so much as even try—I will carve you up into little angel pieces and lick your blood off the blade while you slowly heal on the floor.”
Seere leaned in closer to say in a quieter voice. “And that will be just a glimpse into the real Jazar Danti.”
Seere was taking a risk in saying her own name, though it wouldn’t invoke the challenge, it would ultimately result in a punishment she would have to inflict on herself later. But it was worth it to solidify her threat. If only to stall them just a little longer.
In reality, it would be better for her to incapacitate the two of them now before the archangel arrived. Against him she would be shark bait.
Duma’s stance was wide and there were weapons scattered around the floor around them. Seere could see his strategy before he even had thought of it himself. And, at the moment that he quickly ducked to grab one, Seere didn’t hesitate to swing her blade.
But the metal didn’t hit flesh, instead it was intercepted by a staff—held by Jade.
Jade pushed against her blade to throw Seere back a bit, and Seere willingly stepped back. She freed another sword from her side to fill her other hand as Duma armed himself and joined Jade’s side to go against the wrath demon.
Seere smirked as she bent her knees lower, her stature tiny compared to the two.
“Challenge accepted.” And then she lunged.
THIRTY-EIGHT
Heather
I WAS PRESSING THE WOUND as hard as I could, but it was still bleeding, the shard still inside it should have been staunching some of the blood loss—but it was not.
For what was supposed to be an imaginary wound, it sure seemed real. Especially when Kale was beginning to look sickly and pale.
“You’re worrying me, Kale,” I muttered. His eyelids fluttered and he coughed.
“Save it for when we actually have reason to worry,” he responded.
I looked down at my fingers, now soaked in the crimson liquid. Images of Mason’s death continued to flow right alongside this experience. What if Kale was dying? Could he die in here?
“Remember that in here your thoughts are wide open, you might as well be saying them out loud,” Kale stated weakly.
“Sorry.”
Kale grunted and looked down at the wound then winced when it hurt to do so. “I’m not going to die. I might just pass out.”
I sighed. “Mason died like this. What makes you any different?” I asked.
He put a hand over mine, staring up into the nothingness of my mind above.
“I’m a very different creature than Mason was. Much stronger too.”
I snorted half-heartedly. “We have no idea what the hell that thing was. You can’t be sure that it wasn’t capable of killing even you,” I argued.
“Even if I did die, I’m not so sure that would be a bad thing,” he coughed.
I chuckled darkly. “I should have known you were one of those suicidal types, goes hand-in-hand with your grim state of being.”
He chuckled this time. “I was created for the sole purpose of bringing chaos to the world. I’m sure even the angels wouldn’t shed a tear if I no longer were a problem for them.”
“Do you want to cause chaos?” I asked.
His eyes met mine. “Is this your subtle way of trying to find out if I’m truly trustworthy or not?” he asked.
I shrugged. “As you’ve pointed out multiple times, I don’t know you. But there’s no time like the present to remedy that.”
He laughed lightly. “That’s a long and tiring journey to take, halfsie-darling. I don’t think you’d have the strength.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well at the moment, I have more strength than you. So try me.”
Kale shook his head. “Not today, honey-eyes.” He took a short breath that I believe was meant to be a long one. He wasn’t far from unconsciousness.
Unconsciousness. Was that even possible when you’re in someone’s consciousness?
“Are you always this dense?” I asked.
“You ask a lot of questions,” he stated. “It gets annoying after a while.”
“It’s keeping you awake, isn’t it?”
He groaned, wincing from the motion. “Can you take the shard out, please? It might be what’s halting my healing.”
“Or it could cause you to bleed out,” I countered.
He waved his hand lazily in the air. “I’m bleeding out anyway, just do it.”
I sighed and eyed the black crystal shard still embedded in his abdomen. I lifted a hand to it and gripped it right above where it protruded, it was icy cold to the touch. He winced and groaned.
“Quickly, please,” he begged in a voice that was definitely not human.
“Okay, on the count of three. One—” I shoved it out before continuing to save him the anticipation. He cried out and pounded his fist against the ground next to him.
Once he regained his composure after a few breaths he said, “Thank you.”
I tossed the shard away from us and pressed against the bleeding wound once more.
“Is the Prince of Darkness actually thanking me?” I mocked.
A low growl sounded from deep in his throat. “Don’t push your luck.”
“Are you healing now? Do you feel any better?” I asked.
He looked down and then closed his eyes. I assumed he was focusing on his power.
“No,” he grounded out. “My power in here is still weak, it should be enough to heal—but it’s not.”
“Great,” I grumbled.
Kale turned his head, looking off at nothing. “Good news is I can sense Seere again. But that’s about all the good news I have,” he explained. “Looks like our alliance is being tested.”
“What does that mean?”
He didn’t get a chance to answer before the sound of crashing thunder vibrated around us. I winced, resisting the urge to cover my ears. The initial crash of it settled, but the rumbling didn’t, the ground shaking under our feet.
I made a pained sound. “You have got to be kidding me,” I whined.
Kale was looking around. “Guess I didn’t get rid of it for very long.”
“We can’t fight it in this condition.”
He shook his head. “No, we can’t. I can barely stand, let alone set off another blast. Even if I could, my physical form would be toast.”
Heather? A deep voice called, echoing around me as if in a large dome.
“Wait! Do you hear that?” I asked.
Kale winced when he tried to turn around. “Besides the rumbling of our fate?”
“No, shh.”
He stilled, not making a sound. Heather? Kale? Where are you?
“It’s Daevas! Why can’t you hear him?” I asked.
Kale breathed. “You have to let him in, until then I can’t hear or see him.”
“But I’m not in control in here.”
Kale shook his head. “You always have control of your mind. Focus on his voice to pinpoint where he is and let him inside,” he instructed.
“But the wall—”
“Just do it!” Kale snapped.
I sighed and closed my eyes. Daevas? I blinded sent out into my thoughts.
Heather! Where are you?
I don’t know, some dead field. How do I let you in? I asked.
You already did by reaching out. I’m only seeing rock structures, a dead field? he asked.
I sighed audibly. We were in a gazebo, but it’s pretty much blown to smithereens at this point.
“He says he’s near some rock structures. I have no idea what he’s talking about,” I told Kale out loud.
“DAEVAS!!!” Kale screamed out loud.
I blocked my ears from the sheer volume of it. My head was beginning to hurt from all of this.
We waited for a couple seconds in silence.
“What the hell is going on in here?” Daevas asked from the opposi
te direction we were looking.
We both whipped our heads around and in sync sighed with relief. “Thank god,” I said.
“As helpful as his presence would be, God’s unfortunately not here.” Kale rolled his eyes. “Did you see anything strange on your way?” he asked Daevas.
Daevas shook his head, crouching to assess Kale’s state. “I can feel the ground shaking, but nothing appeared. You look like shit,” he stated.
Kale snorted. “Thanks. Things as bad as they feel on the outside?”
“Your injury is real, and not healing. Plus, Seere is currently holding off Jade and Duma from ripping into the wards she put in place on you. We should get out of here before Gabriel arrives, he’s on his way—and he may not be happy.”
“What about the wall?” I asked.
Daevas placed a supporting arm underneath Kale’s, putting one of his arms over his shoulder and heaved him upwards. The Prince moaned loudly against the pain.
“What wall?” Daevas asked once they were steady.
“So it’s down. Good, that’ll make it easier to get out of here,” Kale groaned.
Daevas looked between us confused. “You’ll have to tell us the story later. Let’s go.” He began walking away from the field towards where he originally came from.
“Can’t you just blink us out of here or something?” I asked.
Daevas huffed, not turning to me. “Not without shoving you into a dream. If you want to come out with us, we need to go to the edge of your consciousness,” he explained.
I sighed and began following. “So many rules,” I muttered quietly.
I heard Kale chuckle and the two of them exchange a small look.
“She’s not gonna like all the other forty-million rules of our world,” Kale mumbled.
“Not one bit,” Daevas agreed.
The field must have just been a chamber of some kind inside my mind, because as we approached a darkened fog ahead of us, I could see the edge where the dirt of the field stopped abruptly and then turn to gray concrete or stone.
I followed Daevas as he carried Kale further into the darker fog, slowing down when we started passing what looked like ancient stone ruins that used to be buildings. Crumbling columns that resembled those of the Acropolis and Temple of Zeus in Athens.
“Am I the one who creates these locations?” I asked quietly.
“Your mind naturally fills space with things it’s familiar with. If you’re not in a memory, your subconscious will fill in the blanks. Sometimes the spaces take an emotion or stress and morph it into a landscape. If I had to guess, I’d say that dead field might have been concocted from your fear or the anxiety you were feeling,” Daevas explained.
“And this one? These ruins?”
“You tell us,” Kale coughed.
I was about to tell them about the ruins’ resemblance but I stopped short when another thundering roar rolled past us, closer this time. All three of us turned to look behind us to see a growing mass of shadow in the distance, moving towards us.
“We really need to go!” I yelled.
Daevas turned again and tried walking faster, but Kale was weak and dragging his feet.
I tried not to look back as I kept behind the two. My instincts screaming at me to run, but only Daevas knew where we were going. Rushing ahead would help no one.
We passed by a broken stone wall that used to be part of a building. At least that was what my mind fabricated it to be. Daevas stopped, causing me to glance ahead. It was an edge, complete darkness with no end in sight.
I walked up to stand next to him and looked down. It was like the world just ended, and a sheer drop into darkness was all that remained.
The ground shook again, and I turned back towards the mass of shadow and smoke that was quickly advancing.
“Now what?” I asked, having to raise my voice over the sound of the ground breaking.
Kale’s eyes were barely staying open, his body going lax. Daevas had to use both hands to support him.
“Grab hold of me,” Daevas instructed.
My eyes were still on the growing shadow creature, fear tightening its grip on my chest. I couldn’t look away from it, sensing its faceless form staring me down once more.
“Heather! Grab onto me!” Daevas called.
I blinked and turned away from it. I reached out my hand and barely gripped the fabric of his shirt.
“Go now!” I yelled.
Daevas nodded. The ground beneath my feet shuddered and then it was breaking apart. Daevas and Kale’s physical forms began to fade, but the ground between us split.
I stumbled back, losing grip on Daevas. He turned just in time to see that I was no longer connected; it was too late, he was already fading away.
“No!” he yelled.
I swayed as my feet lost balance and then fell onto the ground. Flying dirt and dust flooded my vision, choking the air from my lungs. I blindly flung out my hand to reach for him again but the distance between us grew too large.
The thundering of the earth was so overwhelming I couldn’t hear anything else, not even the sound of my own breath.
Eventually the dust cleared enough for me to open my eyes. For me to see that Daevas and Kale were gone.
I gasped and rolled to face the creature right at the moment I saw it rear up above me and descend upon my fallen form. And, as its fluid-like shadow cocooned around me, the sound of my scream was cut short.
THIRTY-NINE
“DUMA, JADE—STOP THIS! There’s no reason to fight.” Iaoel tried to reason with them, but their efforts were overshadowed by the clashing of steel and iron.
Seere wasn’t holding back, moving quickly to combat two different and skilled opponents. She had to hand it to the angels, their training was effective.
She spun and twirled, kicking Duma hard enough to send him flying a few feet away only to have to do a back handspring to avoid getting hit by Jade’s staff.
The Guardian Master huffed as she spun the staff to throw off Seere’s footing. Seere tossed her blades and punched Jade’s gut, and when that caused Jade to bend over Seere reached up and gripped both ends of the staff.
Both of them pushed and pulled, equally trying to use an end to break from the other’s grasp. But they both held firm. Jade shoved her knee up to break Seere’s balance, but Seere anticipated the move, using her own leg to catch Jade’s in mid-air.
Hooking it and pushing the staff towards her at the same time. Jade lost her balance and fell onto her back.
Seere didn’t miss a beat before mounting Jade’s fallen form, pinning down her legs with hers, and pressing the staff against Jade’s throat. Jade struggled but didn’t make an immediate move to shove her off.
Seere kept her focus on the Guardian Master, even as in her peripheral she saw Duma recovering and approaching to pull her off—or to use the opportunity to get to Heather’s body. When he strode right past the two of them she had her answer.
Duma saw his chance and he took it. Iaoel made a step to stop him, but hesitated.
“Duma, stop. You cannot interrupt.”
“Stay out of this, Iaoel. Since you’re so good at it already,” Duma snapped.
Duma easily broke the protection wards on the floor, releasing the barriers that would have kept him out by burning him.
He reached his arm out to grab Daevas’ shoulder when he halted; frozen as a set of long, sharp nails wrapped around and pinned against his throat.
Iaoel gasped when they saw Lillith poised behind Duma. In all of the ruckus none of them had noticed that the mother of demons had quietly snuck into the room. Her stealth allowed her to get the better of them.
The red-headed temptress had one clawed hand gripping Duma’s bicep, her lips right at his ear.
“Make one move, pet. I dare you,” she purred in his ear.
“Unhand me,” Duma grounded out through his teeth.
She chuckled darkly. “Careful, angel. I may not be able to kill you, but Aspis won�
�t hesitate to put you to sleep for a little while.”
Duma tensed as the small snake necklace she wore came to life, slithering onto his collarbone and neck. Hissing softly as it readied for the order to strike.