by Harley James
Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle…
The Chains burned and hummed. Behind her closed eyelids, a soft blue light expanded. The sound of crows. Hundreds—thousands?—of them, cawing. The rough vibrations wrapped around her, energizing, comforting and mysterious. The blue light faded with the sound of wings taking flight. A moment of silence. Then,
A sky ablaze with the vivid poetry of twilight. Two men standing on the edge of a craggy cliff beyond a city’s high, shadowy stone walls. The details were extraordinarily clear even though she stood below the men on a dusty plain halfway between the cliff and the city walls. One of the men—a bent, bearded man of advanced age—wore a long tunic, his feet in sandals, his ankles and wrists bloody, the lines of his face indicating struggle and exhaustion, but his eyes were filled with an unmistakable hope.
The taller one, young, unsmiling, dangerous. He, too, wore sandals, but a warrior’s scarred greaves girded his shins. Something dark dangled from his grasp. He raised a powerful arm and opened his hand. Iron chains dropped from his fist, falling from their great height and shaking the ground far more than they ought when they hit, stirring up choking clouds of dust.
When the debris finally settled, the chains were at her feet. She shivered, glancing back up at the cliff. The soldier gave her a cold look before unfurling midnight black wings.
She fell to her knees beside the holy iron shackles that had imprisoned the Apostle.
“Rise, Guardian, and fight.”
Katherine’s eyelids flew open as the deep voice flowed around and through her consciousness.
Michael. The archangel stood before her, lit by the glowing Chains around her neck.
“You are humanity’s first line of defense. Do not fail.”
Michael’s body filled the entire hallway, seemingly untouched by either the water or detritus. His blue eyes burned like the hottest part of a flame, his lips a cruel slash on his hard features. In his hand, he held the deceptively simple sword she imagined he’d used in his most epic task at the beginning of time.
He’d escorted Lucifer to Hell. And he’d released the apostle from these chains.
“Why did you let me see you and Peter on the cliff?”
He stared at her for another endless moment while she became conscious of every biological process in her body. Individual cells regenerating, electrical currents racing along her nerves, the rush of her blood through every chamber of her heart. Was the archangel creating this awareness? He was a strange, frightening being. Did he ever feel—authentically feel—anything?
She glared when he remained silent. “Well, are you going to help us, or stand there and watch us flounder?”
Michael raised his chin, bringing the sword in his fist to rest against his chest as though he were offering a pledge. “I let you see because love and hope are powers which darkness always underestimates. Unleash them, and you will overcome.”
Then he was gone, and everything—the amplified underwater sounds, the push-drag of the frigid currents, the dead bodies floating grotesquely through the water, even the city’s emergency sirens—everything came back online, loud and scarier than ever.
Katherine wanted to scream. Talk about vague. How was she supposed to “unleash love and hope”?
“Makes no damn sense, Michael!” When she didn’t get a reply from the archangel, she took a deep breath in Ari’s bubble, trying to regroup. At least now she wasn’t in the dark anymore, since the Chains shone as brightly as spotlights.
When Michael spoke of not failing, did he mean he knew that she wouldn’t fail, as in a pre-knowing sort of thing? Or did it mean, she’d better not fail…or else?
All Guardians knew what the “or else” meant.
If they botched things up, the archangels would have to get involved. If that happened, Lucifer would be automatically released from his cage, and those horrific trumpets would blare, indicating the start of Armageddon. And as much as they despised their existence at times, none of the Guardians wanted to be responsible for the end of the world. They had way too much pride to let that happen.
Well, that, and they knew what fate awaited them if they were unsuccessful.
A tug at her waist. “Boss, can we get the fuck outta here?”
Clearly Michael hadn’t let Dorian see him or hear their conversation, otherwise the young Guardian would’ve had questions. “Shush, I’m concentrating.”
She continued pulling them along the ceiling tiles until she’d wedged herself and Dorian in the nook between the kitchen and the storage room. Then she shut everything down—the fear, the uncertainty, the guilt—to turn inward, touching the hot metal links around her neck.
Heat and a popping sensation—like little bubbles at the bottom of a pot right before it begins to boil—started to simmer in her solar plexus. She summoned that energy, pulling it through her vital organs, streaming it up her spinal cord, wrapping it around her heart, weaving it across her shoulders. Heat licked around the edges of her power, growing into a fiery dance that brought together points of conflagration that built inside her, more potent than anything she’d ever experienced. Katherine hurried away from the wall and jerked her hands in front of her, commanding the water to retreat before her.
A giant sucking sound erupted as the water frothed, barreling backward, out of the hall, beyond the dance floor, and out into the poolside terrace as though in a movie rewind.
“North, whoa!” Ari’s strangled gasp told her exactly was happening.
She pushed her hands apart to force a channel through the water where Ari was making his way toward her. Dorian released her and abruptly sat down on the wood floor. She’d driven all the water from the building by the time Ari ran the rest of the way to her, his black T-shirt and jeans plastered to his body. His eyes widened, his body tensing when his gaze fastened to the Chains. “What the hell?” He quickly looked into her eyes, assessing. “I should give you an ass chewing for this risk. You’re okay?”
She nodded as he curled down around her, his wet hair dripping on her face and neck. “The greater the risk, the greater the reward,” she whispered.
“Touché,” he whispered back. The Chains hummed between them—a low, comforting ring like from a Tibetan singing bowl. He pulled back to assess her one more time before his muscles finally relaxed and one side of his lips curled up. He stared at the still-humming relic. “I think it likes me.”
She slapped his hands away. “Of course you do.” But she was likewise pleased by the Chains’ response to her soul mate. When she turned to survey her devastated club, her stomach dropped. She hurried to the first group of bodies lying in unnatural positions over the short wall that separated the first-row seating from the second. Three young women and two men, their whole lives before them.
I couldn’t save them. Families would grieve.
A hand on her arm. She looked up through a blurry lens.
“I couldn’t get here fast enough. I’m sorry, North. Siolazar proved more difficult than I’d hoped. We’ll take the time to feel all of this later, but we don’t have that luxury right now.”
She brushed at her eyes and refocused on him, turning him around like he’d done to her. The back of his shirt was torn and bloody. “You’re hurt.”
He shrugged. “Already healing. Leviathan’s outside. We have to do this now before she destroys the entire island. Are you ready?”
“Michael was here.”
Ari’s eyes sharpened. “I know. I felt him.”
She wasn’t surprised. “He doesn’t do reassurance well.”
Ari smiled grimly. “Sounds like him. What was his counsel?”
“To ‘unleash the power of love and hope.’ I have no idea what that means.”
“You will when the time is right. Trust your gut and the angel. Let’s roll. You, too, Dorian.” He grabbed Katherine’s hand, and together the three of them ran upstairs to the upper terrace where Stark, Jade, Konani, Makoa, Maddox, and Raj were keeping the clubber
s corralled.
Up here the roar of the winds and crash of the waves against the building was much louder. Stronger. Shaking the foundations of the building so hard people reached out to grasp onto railings, countertops, and anything else that was cemented or bolted down. Father Angus mingled in the middle of everyone, his energetic singing voice weaving calm among the group.
From her position on top of the bar, Konani saw them first. She waved, jumped down, and ran toward them, talking a mile a minute. Katherine wanted to hug each member of the team, but was afraid to let them touch the Chains.
“Is that what I think it is?” Jade reached out to touch the relic, but Katherine put her hands up and moved back.
“Yes. But I can’t let anyone touch them. It’s fused to my body with a ward, and I don’t know how it’ll react. Sorry.” The last word felt awkward on her tongue. She turned back to where Ari spoke in rapid undertones to the other two Guardians. Raj’s eyes widened as he considered the relic around Katherine’s neck, but made no move to touch or comment on it.
“Any possessions or demons in the near vicinity?” she asked. If so, they’d need to be exorcised ASAP, otherwise Leviathan would be able to exert some measure of control over them. What the hell was the archdemon up to, and where had she gone? Katherine felt like she’d lived a hundred lifetimes in the twenty minutes since Leviathan’s colloidal form had exited Dorian’s body and Siolazar had cornered her in the sanctorum.
“No demons up here. Father Angus finished the exorcisms with Stark’s assistance, and we’ve safeguarded the area the best we can,” Raj replied.
Katherine turned a startled look at Stark. He returned her gaze with a half-smile. Since he didn’t look too worse for wear, she said nothing. “Nice work.” She inhaled hard and walked away from everyone toward the door that led to her private quarters. She felt Ari at her back. She left her door open behind her when she walked into the library, going straight for the windows to look outside at the dark, wreckage-strewn water streaming over the grounds.
She removed her shoes and paused, raising her gaze to her Viking. Her heart was pounding. Never had she ever felt so responsible for the well-being of others.
Not even when her sister had drowned.
Ari walked to her and tried to take her hands.
She folded and then unfolded her arms, fighting not to put up a wall like she always did. She finally placed her hands on his chest. His heartbeat was steady. “Is there anything that rattles you?”
He didn’t say anything for a moment. “The thought of losing you. I love you, North.”
“Even after everything I’ve done?”
“Your eyes are telling me everything I need to know right now.”
She blinked fast, the urgency of the moment—what was inside her soul and what was outside these walls—making everything so raw and honest. Like she was finally waking up from a long dream. “You’re too good for me. You always were. I’m sorry for the way we bonded earlier.”
He shook his head. “I understood. We can talk about all this afterward, okay?”
Her pulse pounded furiously in her neck under the heavy Chains. She looked into his beautiful eyes, touched his face. “I need you to know something in case this goes bad.”
A bone-chilling wail seeped through the walls. Out on the upper terrace, the humans began to scream. Ari’s rough hands palmed her cheeks, bringing her gaze back to his. “We will make it. We will.”
Her lips trembled, her soul wanting to hide. “But if we don’t, you need to know you’ve always been my true north, too.”
Chapter 27
The wind, the storm, the world with all its pressures, obligations, and ugliness faded away as Ari looked into Kat’s teary eyes. “I don’t need the words, North, but I love you for them anyway.” Complex emotions pulsed inside her, ricocheting through their connection into his own system.
It was more than he ever imagined he’d be able to share with her.
Her gaze skipped to the windows that groaned from the battering elements, then quickly back at him. “You are the best thing that ever happened to me. I don’t know why you love me. I’ve tried to push you away not because I don’t love you back, but because I was always afraid I’d fall apart every time you need to leave to be whole.”
“Oh, no, elskan, I—”
She pressed her fingers to his lips. “Let me finish. I want to face whatever comes next with a clear conscience and an unburdened heart.” She clutched his hands to her chest, her face so uncharacteristically earnest his chest squeezed. “I love your restless soul. Your sense of adventure, your need to explore distant shores. It’s so opposite of me, but I long to have your sense of freedom. I’d never, ever want to change that about you. These last few days, I’ve come to realize that I’ll take you whenever you’re here.” She smiled slightly, though her eyes remained somber. “I think you would be too much to have underfoot all the time anyway.”
He couldn’t believe it. This was everything he’d ever wanted to hear from her, though she was definitely overstating his wanderlust. His extensive travels had been a means to fulfill his misunderstood promise to his father. And, after their breakup, a way to occupy his mind so he didn’t go crazy thinking about her rejection.
She’d learn about all of that soon enough.
“Release the Chains into our joint care. Let me share your burden.”
Kat paused. “It would put your life in jeopardy.”
“If something happened to you, I wouldn’t want to live anyway. Think of this as extra insurance for the Chains.”
She nodded, then chanted a new canticle ward, including him in the Chain’s protection. Now, even if they were separated from the relic, Leviathan would have to kill both of them in order to take it.
He reached for the relic when suddenly the air pressure deadened. A split second later, a gargantuan-sized cannon of water barreled into the window. He took Kat down to the floor as the balcony door shattered inward. The influx of water and glass ripped Kat from his grasp and stole his breath, somersaulting him until he slammed into the far wall. He reached outside himself to establish an air bubble and spun in a circle underwater, looking for the bright light of the Chains to find Kat.
Water continued to pour in, but Kat had managed to hold the water back so she was dry. She didn’t need his air bubble this time. And she still had the Chains around her shoulders. “That’s my shield-maiden!”
She didn’t smile. “Let’s take this outside. I’m tired of this bitch.”
He followed her out the window to stream to Aqua’s rooftop. Up here the devastation Leviathan had unleashed on the city was even more apparent. Water had surged into the harbors, the debris of broken docks piled in drifts with ruined boats, uprooted trees, and the twisted metal of cars. All around, buildings were swollen with water, the ground floor damages especially extensive. Glass doors and windows were blown out, patio furniture wedged into their empty frames. The skies were dark and wet, but no lightning threaded through the moody clouds overhead.
“It doesn’t seem like Leviathan can control the atmosphere. Just the water,” he said.
Kat nodded. “Hopefully, she’s not saving it as a secret ace in the hole. Do you see anyone who needs help?”
Ari looked around, then closed his eyes, going inward to try to sift through the noise to detect cries for help in a three-block area. He shook his head. “I can’t detect anything close by. Only a wandering Nephilim and a few demons. Raj and I sent out pulses of mind control to direct people to emergency tsunami shelters. Hopefully there’s enough room for everyone, and they’ll stay put.”
“Do you suppose Siolazar is with Leviathan? And what about other Rephaim? I’m sure she can control as many as she wants with the Rod of Moses.”
He had no answers for her. He looked around at the crowded structures along the narrow strip of Waikiki Beach, then turned his gaze out to the massive waves still rolling miles out in the ocean. “All I know is, we have to stop this
soon or the whole island will be underwater. Do you remember how we tried to fuse our elements together that time we faced a succubus at Spencer’s club?”
“I don’t want to remember. We tried and failed.” Kat pointed to the left toward Diamond Head, the iconic natural monument rising 762 feet above the ocean. Water was crawling up the extinct volcanic crater in a freakish manner as though pulled upward by some unseen force. The hairs on the back of Ari’s neck tingled. “She’s got to be over there somewhere.”
Kat rolled her shoulders, her knuckles whitening as she gripped the Chairs. “Why is she hanging back? She could have attacked when Siolazar had me cornered in the sanctorum.”
“I wish I knew, but we’re both stronger now than we were in San Francisco. Joining our elements will work this time.”
She swung to look at him, her face tight. “I have the Chains. We can come at her from different angles. I don’t want to try knitting our forces again.”
He opened his mouth to argue. Then shut it. Her turf, her choice. Unless she was about to die. In that case, all bets were off. “Okay. But let me know if you change your mind. I hope you do.”
“Fine.” Kat turned back to Diamond Head. “Oh, shit.”
Ari glanced over, and his gut dropped. The water wasn’t scaling Diamond Head any more. “Get ready!”
The growing wave was the largest wall of water he’d ever seen. When it broke on shore, it rolled over buildings and streets, sweeping along everything but cement structures in its forceful wake. Katherine thrust her hands toward the water, pushing back the deep gray lip of the advancing edge, curling, churning and spraying the water in all directions as it found itself sandwiched between Kat and Leviathan’s opposing forces.
Ari moved beside her and began to build and rotate low pressure in the atmosphere to try to get the water to evaporate, fueling energy for a cyclonic storm. Once he had the winds swirling, he recondensed the water into clouds and guided the mass in tune with the earth’s rotation, flowing the heavy, wet air inward toward the axis of rotation. The Chains made it easier than it had ever been.