And Nadya? She went on with such poise you’d think she was asking us to sit down for tea. The arena, filled to the brim with demonic beings, was absolutely, breathlessly still. Listening to every word.
“If you want me back…” Her gaze dipped down, almost seductively, submissively. She was playing him, showing him the girl he craved. My gut tightened. Then she lifted her gaze on Vladek but nodded to me. “Then fight for me.” Her tone hardened, flinty as a mountain’s heart, jagged as broken glass. “If you want to punish me, then you’ll have to win me first. Fight for me.”
“Oh, I’m going to punish you, kroshka,” he ground out.
I took a step, ready to decapitate him here and now. His personal guards lurched forward, one putting the tip of his sword against my shoulder. I pressed into the blade, slicing my own skin before pulling away.
“Let’s do this, Vladek,” I commanded. “You know you want to gut me yourself.”
His burning gaze cut to me for a second before returning to her, his obsessive thoughts and dark longing filtering through the air with menace and violent lust. It was almost a living thing that threatened to choke me with fear. For her. Instead, I inhaled a deep breath, whispered a prayer to the heavens, and focused on my goal.
“Fight me, Vladek.”
His sinister gaze cut to me, narrowed, his eyes bleeding full black—whites and all. He stared at his greatest nemesis, me, but snapped his fingers with a command to two of his men at his back.
“Get her.”
“Stop!” she rang out, holding up the locket held between her index finger and thumb. “I will drink this poison before they reach me.”
“Wait,” hissed Vladek to his men who’d only taken a few steps. His chest expanded and sank with deep gulps of air. “You wouldn’t do that, Nadya.”
Her throaty laugh, a bitter song on the wind, fell down to us, frosting my heart with ice. “You know I will. In a heartbeat, I’d kill myself before I let them take me. Just a few drops of this, my refined concoction of monkshood, and I’ll die in minutes.” She glanced at the small vial, what I’d thought was a sentimental token from her grandmother, holding death in her hands. “It’s also known as Devil’s Helmet, you know.” Another small laugh. A bitter one. “It’s my own personal shield from you.” She glanced away from him to me, love now shining there, but it slipped past me on the Russian winds, because I knew that she actually would do this. This was part of her plan she’d kept from me. She’d die before she let herself be taken. She’d planned this all along. To bargain with her life, a foolproof strategy to get him in the fighting pit. And if he didn’t agree…
“Nadya,” I whispered, shaking my head, a fist-sized lump in my throat.
“If I fight him…and kill him,” growled Vladek. “Then you promise to drop the poison and come to me.” His question came out as a command. “Promise,” he ordered in a sibilant hiss.
A stiff nod of her beautiful head. “I promise.”
Vladek’s attention snapped back to me. “Fine, you fucking thief. There’s nothing I’d love more than to cut you to pieces myself.” He glanced back. “Blade!”
A guard on the dais pulled a curved cutlass from a scabbard hanging over the back of his throne and rushed forward to hand it to his master. He made a show of stripping off his vest to fight me shirtless, awing his sycophants with a massive, well-muscled body.
I laughed. His need to flaunt was an innate trait. He could strut a circle around the entire fucking arena. I didn’t care. All I knew was that this moment had come.
“Finally.” I grinned, readying my stance, double-fisting the hilt of Silversong and facing my enemy with all the black revenge I held in my heart.
There was no dancing or circling or predatory flaunting. Vladek charged like the demon lord he was, swinging his curved blade down toward my head. Rather than dive and evade, I met him with a defensive swing, my blade clashing against his, sparks flying in the air.
A rumble of thunder bowled across the night sky, dark clouds pressing lower. The audience lurched to their feet, cheering for their king. The cacophony of demons yelling for my blood, the battle drums pounding loud and strong, and the rolling thunder was a siren song I’d been yearning for since the fateful day Vladek had caught me and made me his slave.
Our blades locked, we faced off, wrath holding us both in tight fists. With a lunge, I hit him in the chest with my shoulder, the momentum knocking him away with a zing of our blades as we slid apart. He came at me quick again, swinging his blade at a horizontal angle, going for my throat. Ducking, I swung my leg up with a swift kick to his face, snapping his head back at the exact moment a crack of lightning splintered the sky. He stumbled back a few steps, swiping his thumb across his lip and coming away with a smear of black blood. Arrowing his baleful expression on me, he spat a wad of inky blood into the dirt.
“By all the demons in hell, I’m going to slice you up nice and slow this time.”
A whirling tempest of ghost-gray clouds swirled over Ivangorod. Otherworld energy saturated the air. The storm would break before this was over.
“There aren’t all that many demons in hell anymore,” I countered. “Most of them are cavorting up here.” With a casual swing of Silversong, a rotation of my wrist, I said, “You caught me off guard last time. That’s the only reason you had any power over me. Besides, this time, I have much more to fight for.”
“What’s that?”
“Nadya.” Her name was a soul-scream, a prayer, a goddamn war-hammer slamming down between us.
I grinned at the naked hate in his eyes before he came at me again.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Nadya
“Hurry.” Skaal ushered me down the steps and across the short space of yard to the archway leading back into the halls of the fortress.
Just as we nearly made it, Vladek’s soldiers barreled out, the guy who knew Skaal at the back gate leading them. “Stop, Skaal! Hand her over.”
“This way!” Carowyn stood twenty yards away in an opening between the scaffolding bleachers, waving us over.
Skaal grabbed my hand and we ran. Right as we reached her, Dommiel zipped from between the bleachers, sprinting straight past us with serrated knives in both hands. No. His mechanical hand was an actual long black-steel blade, shaped like a Bowie knife—a sloping curve on one side and jagged teeth on the other. Not having time to wonder at that, I kept pace with Skaal before he pulled me to a stop.
A band of demon guards surrounded us from the front. Skaal went at them with a wicked-thin blade that looked more like an oversize icepick than a dagger. He cut the throats of two demons at once, black blood spraying the air. Carowyn grunted while kicking out and sweeping one to the ground before firing a handgun aimed at her opponent’s head. The green ether fire flashed right before his skull exploded.
I backed away between the shelter of the scaffolding toward the arena. The crowds behind me roared and cheered at the ongoing bout between Uriel and Vladek. As much as I wanted to peer over my shoulder to see what was happening, I kept focused on the threat in front me, sliding the dagger Carowyn had given me from the sheath at my hip.
“Ahh!” Carowyn screamed when an attacker cut across her back with a long swing of a sword.
Dommiel was there, gripping the guy by the throat while plunging his hand-blade into the demon’s chest five times in and out in quick succession. I gasped at the quick and efficient brutality.
Someone grabbed my arm. I yelped and turned, plunging my dagger into my attacker’s chest, then I froze at the open-mouthed shock on my sister’s face. I looked down where my hand still gripped the hilt, the blood pouring out of her the darkest shade of purple. She was more demon than human now.
“Lisabette.” I shook my head. “Why?”
Why did you sell your soul? Why did you betray me? Why did you hurt the archangel I loved more than an
ything in this world?
Lightning flashed across the sky in splintered light, a torrent kicking up the gray clouds overhead. My sister laughed, blood gurgling from her mouth, the burn scar stretching tight.
“It would have to be you, Schwester.” She staggered out of my arms and gripped the hilt slick with her own blood. “I suppose that’s what I deserved.” She fell to her knees. “I suppose that’s how it ought to be.”
“Why? Why did you do it?”
Her eyes rolled white before she focused on me. “You don’t get it, do you?”
I shook my head.
“You were always the good girl, the golden one. I could never live up to you.”
“What are you talking about?” Lisabette had always been bold and beautiful, and me the timid, shy one.
“Grandmother loved you best, because you were her golden one.” She reached up and trailed her fingers through strands of my hair.
“Lisabette. You chose this life. That wasn’t my fault.”
She gulped hard, blood seeping from the corner of her mouth. “I did.” She grinned maniacally. “And it was worth every…sinful…moment.”
No matter what she’d done to me or to Uriel, I couldn’t stop my nature. I fell down to my knees and helped her fall to her back. My heart splintered, knowing the evil my sister had done but also unable to divorce myself from my last kin. I hated her and I loved her all at the same time.
“Tell Master, tell—”
“No, Lisabette!” I yelled, barely able to hear myself over the raucous crowd in the arena, the battle taking place behind me, and the oncoming storm rumbling above us. “Your last words won’t be about him. Not him.”
She sneered and shook her head at me. “He owns me, Nadya. Just like he owns you.”
“The hell he does,” I gritted out.
Her gaze shifted to the stormy sky. “Best run, baby sister. He has great plans for you. Plans you won’t enjoy.”
A trickle of dread poured down my spine like glacial water. “Lisabette?”
A crash of light filled the sky, casting my sister ghastly white, her eyes glassy with death. Even though she’d sold me into slavery for a life of luxury and sin and had done harm to my dear Uriel, I still couldn’t send her into the afterlife with hatred on my heart. She’d be paying well enough for all she’d done.
“Goodbye,” I whispered, pressing a farewell kiss to her forehead, the wind whipping my hair around my face.
“There she is!”
I gasped and lurched to my feet. Five of Vladek’s men had broken away from the circle around Carowyn, Skaal, and Dommiel, coming straight for me.
Best run, baby sister.
Ducking beneath the towering scaffolding, I ran and leaped between the rafter beams holding up the giant bleachers. The demons following weren’t as small and agile, falling farther and farther behind.
As I crossed out from under one bleacher onto the path, I plowed directly into a dark-haired, tattooed demon.
“Hey, baby, what’s your hurry?”
He was half drunk, a tankard in one hand, his arm around my waist. Right when the dawn of recognition skittered over his face, I pushed away with both hands, knocking him back, and ducked back under another bleacher.
“Sorry!”
“Hey, you’re Vladek’s girl!”
“Oh, no I’m not.”
I ducked around him and glanced over my shoulder, spotting Vladek’s men still far behind, not as fast as me. I smiled when a deafening sound stopped me in my tracks.
A screeching roar shattered the sky, rolling into another throaty growl of thunder. Gasps from the demons above me in the stands. Then screams. I came out of one set of scaffolding, peering between the sections toward the arena where Uriel and Vladek still fought.
Everyone was looking up. So I did, too. Then I smiled.
…
Uriel
My pent-up rage finally had an outlet, and it was fucking glorious. I swung Silversong again, clanging against Vladek’s sword and shoving him off. He twisted out of reach, but I still got a quick knick of his torso, then circled wide.
He touched the cut and looked at the black blood on his thumb, surprised that I actually got him. I laughed.
“You won’t be laughing long, fucker.”
I sobered quickly. “You won’t be, either,” I promised him.
The demonic horde clamored with insane noise, yelling for their king to do all kinds of heinous things to me. It only made me laugh. I just walked a predatory circle and smiled, when something else finally caught their attention. A booming roar broke across the sky. I didn’t need to look up to know it was my girl, Circe, breaching the demonic wards like cutting through paper.
“Didn’t know I took your brother’s spawn, did you?”
Vladek whirled, his chest heaving as he circled in the opposite direction. “Rook’s pet?”
“Seems she’s more devoted to me than she ever was to your brother.”
Another roar and a flare of dragon fire from the sky pulled his attention upward before he fiercely turned back to me. He caught a glimpse of what made my heart pump faster with determination, with actual joy—his imminent defeat.
Then his grating words punched me hard. “You think you have her?”
He wasn’t talking about Circe, and I knew it.
“She needs me.” He swung his sword with a twist of his wrist. “She craves me.” He laughed, his fangs flashing under the bolt of lightning that lit up the sky. “It’s the only reason she came back.” He licked his lips. “Because she wants me.”
“You dumb asshole.” I stopped moving, planting my feet apart. He stopped, too, and mirrored my position. “She came to watch me rip your fucking head off.”
“Tell yourself that if you want. I’ll ask her when I’m fucking her in my bed tonight.”
White-hot rage sliced through my gut, but I wouldn’t let him change reality with his filthy goddamn words. Deep breath in…and out. Then I looked up as screams from the bleachers erupted and demons started running.
“I’d rethink my plans if I were you.” He took the bait and followed my gaze up, seeing not only Circe but a legion of black-winged angels riding the storm behind her and pouring through the broken wards.
Raising my arms at my sides, I whispered, “Veni ad me.”
I summoned the old magic in a blink—the oldest—pooling my power from every corner of the heavens, then pointed a fist toward Vladek.
“And now you’re going to know what pain truly is.”
Then I punched a blast straight from my body, leaving me in a fireball of burning, scalding power.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Nadya
Vladek was looking up. That’s when Uriel raised an arm and punched out with a white-hot blast of electricity that sent Vladek flying and screaming across the arena floor at least thirty feet.
Descending from the skies was the red-scaled dragon, Circe. On her back were three people I was so happy to see I could cry—Xander, George, and Kat. But behind them was what must’ve had the whole arena screaming and running. Riding the winds alongside Circe were two ghastly creatures—Acheron and Styx, two of the soul collectors. Just as Xander and George had planned, they flew through the wards with Circe, looking like a banshee and the angel of death, their currents of power breaking the wards wide open from above. Lightning crashed again, illuminating the hundreds of winged silhouettes behind them, black-winged angels diving straight through the now broken-warded skies over Ivangorod. Maximus and Anya led the charge, careening straight down toward the arena floor.
Uriel was stalking across the arena, demons now pouring out and preparing for battle. A flicker of Vladek’s horns rose above the crowd as he stood and faced Uriel from far away. His men poured around him, gunning for Uriel.
“We’ve got
you now, bitch.”
Glancing back, my chasers were still coming. That guy Damian was close, his feral grin sending chills down my spine.
I zipped underneath another scaffold, fleeing fast with the sound of Vladek’s soldiers driving through the outer gates, the cries of demons running, and the constant barrage of ether gunfire and the clanging of steel on steel. Coming out into another opening between bleachers, I looked up, laughing at the beautiful sight.
Warrior angels poured down with a deluge of rain. Dozens were shooting their crossbows at Vladek’s men below as they flapped great black wings to slow their descent. I scanned over the arena quickly, now teeming with demon soldiers battling Maximus’s legion. The downpour of rain soaked through my clothes to my skin, dousing the torches. Only the sporadic crack of lightning and ethereal green gunfire blasts illuminated the battle on the arena floor.
There! Wiping the rain from my eyes, I caught sight of Uriel’s white, steel-armored wings. He searched for me over the clashing battlefield.
“Uriel!” I screamed.
He looked, following my voice.
I screamed his name again, waving my arms. He found me immediately, his expression sagging with relief and flashing a smile. He took two steps toward me, then his stricken face froze, eyes widening in panic.
“Nadya!” He tore off toward me, lifting into the sky at a sprint, having to weave around another angel midair.
I knew what put that look on his face. I felt it, like the cold hand of death raking a ghostly finger up my spine. I started to run, not even taking the split second to look over my shoulder. Too late.
A hand caught me by the hair, wrenching me backward into a hard body I recognized on impact. He wrapped the other hand around my throat and hissed in my ear, cold rain dripping from his lips onto my ear.
“Got you, baby.” He squeezed my throat till I couldn’t breathe. I clawed at his wrist. “Wave goodbye to your lover.”
Coldest Fire (Dominion series) Page 22