by LJ Swallow
Screw magic. I launch myself physically at Seth, half-surprised when I manage to send us both flying through the air to the ground. As I look down at him, pinned beneath me. In response, my lungs constrict, and the pain in my body magnifies. Seth reaches to my face, trying to dig fingers into my eyes, and I snatch his hands away.
Someone yells from behind me for the angels to intervene. The energy inside intensifies now I’m closer to Seth. Something pushes against my stomach spreads through my body. I drag at my chest attempting to release the pain.
I need this out of me.
“Come on. Let’s see your real power, Order. Are you holding back? Trying to save Verity?” Seth undercuts me to the chin, and I reel, falling heavily onto one side.
My retaliation is immediate as I lift my hands and blast Seth with the Order he’s mocking. She grows in power with each time I give into, and use, the power. I stagger to my feet as Heath shouts at Erzla and Leoc to help.
Seth sneers up at me. “They’re not going to help you. They killed Breanna with that pretty weapon.”
I halt and stare around at where Erzla now holds the weapon. The blade glows, the way Ewan described. “What?”
“We had to,” replies Erzla. “She was going to betray you to Seth.”
“Bullshit!” sings out Seth. “Because she knew your real plans, angel face. She was going to tell them, wasn’t she?”
“You lied.” Tears spring to my eyes as I hear Xander’s voice. He’s cut up, limping as he walks forward, but alive. “The fucking weapon. It’s an angel’s.”
Seth pulls himself up and brushes the dirt on his clothes. “Now this is interesting. Let’s back up a minute.” He nods at me. “Temporary ceasefire?”
My head spins at his words. This is my—our—opportunity to strike but something more sinister trembles through me.
“You have the Four Horsemen at the gates of Hell.” Seth taps his lips. “That’s a coincidence. Don’t you think, Xander?”
Xander’s bloodied face pales.
“If they can’t toss me through the gate, this leaves four people around me who belong there.”
“What the fuck?” asks Xander.
“They don’t want you to help Vee,” calls out Seth as he stands. He
waves a hand at me. “I told you, Verity, they don’t care, they want you dead too.”
I rub my face. This is a trick. “No. Not true.”
The energy coursing through weakens my vision and charges through. I turn my hands over and yank my sleeves up. The faint white glow from earlier has grown, and I’m taking on a form glittering in the sun. I turn to Xander and Ewan. “Help me.”
“Don’t!” snaps Leoc. Her hazy figure comes into view as she stands between Xander and me. The harsh voice is unusual, and I look up through the curtain of her hair falling over my face.
“They can take some power,” I gasp. “We can still kill Chaos. We’re strong enough together.”
She stands and looks down at me. “You don’t know what will happen. What if you kill Xander or Ewan? Or both? Do you want that?”
“I don’t care,” Xander says firmly. “Let her try.”
Seth claps his hands together. “Omigod! Really? Are the five going to kill each other? This I have to see.” He sinks to the ground and sits crossed-legged as if a kid about to watch a puppet show. “I was about to take down the lot of you, but this will be fucking awesome!”
“I’m Order. Nobody kills me.” The words spill from my mouth, and I’m terrified how much I sound like Seth. I cough as my lungs fill and wipe a hand across my mouth.
Blood.
Xander drops to the floor beside me. He grabs my hand, and I double forward as some of the pain rushes from me along my arm. Xander swears, and his face pales. Ewan grips my other hand lessening the aching filling my body.
They’re taking Order from me. Will this kill them?
“You can’t.” Leoc half-screams the words at him, shooting disturbance through the air. “She has to do this herself.”
“Why?” asks Xander.
I place my hand over his, and he places his other over mine and grips. The pain subsides but only slightly.
Ewan places a hand on my head. “She’s burning up. Look at her eyes.”
I gasp as more energy leaves my body, but still, the pain wrecks me as if something’s trying to push its way through my eyes, through my chest, my hands. Everywhere burns with pressure.
“How can she stand and face him if she can’t move?” asks Ewan.
“She doesn’t need to. Order will leave Vee. Let Order go!” snaps Erzla. The angel storms over and stands over our group, pointing the knife at us. “Before you regret your stupidity.”
“You fucking dare!” snarls Xander. Xander releases my hand and swipes the blade from Erzla’s grasp. The weapon flies far with War’s force away from the angels and lands in the rubble by the chasm to the gate.
Leoc steps towards the blade but backs off as the ground close to her feet crumbles.
“Fuck, this hurts,” gasps out Ewan.
“How much do you think this hurts Vee?” Xander mutters back.
I moan in pain and double over again.
“This is so cool!” says Seth. “Hey, Feathers, kill Death. He’s the one you want out the picture first. Joss is pretty easy to kill right now too. Look at him.”
Joss and Heath. I struggle to look over at them. Joss remains still, with Heath’s hands still resting on Joss’s chest.
Seth clicks his fingers, and the shadow bond surrounding Joss and Heath dissipates, swirling into a circle like a small tornado before it drops away.
“It’s not their bodies that matter,” Erzla marches over and kicks a still-prone Joss. “Their souls do.”
33
EWAN
Erzla disappears from my view, and I bow my head, combatting the pain from Vee’s energy. The power connects to me if it’s intravenous, pumping through my veins. There goes the theory that sex transferred Order’s power back again because this feels nothing like any connection with Vee before.
We had to need to do it. We had to override our safety.
I stroke Vee’s hair. My beautiful girl, her plump lips blue in her pale face. I push away the dread inside when her eyelids flutter open. Shining white eyes stare up at me.
This is Vee, but she isn’t. Opposite me, Xander’s bows his head too pain in his face and I hold on to hope that we’re enough for now.
Behind me, Joss screams, and the noise will stay with me for the rest of my days. I’ve heard similar screams before, in my minds dark recesses, over and over, filling my day until they became a sickening background noise. This is inhuman. Agony and terror mix into an anguished noise that pierces through the air and stops us all.
Even Seth.
I turn my head, still gripping Vee’s hand. Joss opens his eyes, arms flailing with an expression as frightening as his scream. Heath attempts to catch his arms but Joss struggles, not recognising him. “Get off me! You promised. We signed.”
Heath leans over him and holds him down by the shoulders, talking in urgent tones. Joss lashes out and pushes Heath to one side. “You don’t understand. You don’t remember.”
What’s worse than Joss’s scream is the following silence and stillness. Heath rakes a hand through his hair, frozen by indecisive shock
Erzla strides to me and drags me from Vee. Leoc approaches Xander who pulls him away from her too. The last thing I see before the darkness takes me is Vee’s body with the white light growing around her bleeding face. The light from the energy we tried to take.
Someone screams again, but this time it’s not Joss.
The scream comes from me.
I’m hung, a hook in the back of my neck, feet off the ground as something scorches my feet. The screams I heard from Joss and myself fill the air around, like fingers digging into my brain and scraping. I can’t see anything, and I touch my face. Where my eyes once were, there’s pain and blood. Partly I
’m relieved I can’t see what’s around me, but I don’t need eyes to see the second part of my vision.
People lying in the streets, some piled against broken buildings. Children in their mothers’ arms, men lying face down on the road. Others wander by the bodies, clutching possessions as they evacuate the town. Their harrowed looks show these people are aware they could join the others in death soon.
The town’s infrastructure was unable to cope with the sudden and devastating disease that cut a swathe of death through the area.
A reporter’s voice drones over the footage with theories: what wiped out entire towns and villages? Was this a gas? Biological warfare? How did symptoms take hold so quickly?
In my vision, I turn away from the footage and close my laptop. I look at the gun on the table in front of me and a calm I haven’t felt for months overcomes me. I’m sure now. I curl my fingers around the metal. I needed to watch what I’d helped others achieve. One last reminder before I ended this. Before I took the one life, I believe the world deserves to lose. Mine.
The vision fades, and I’m dragged back to the blind agony where the voices shriek in the air around. I can’t move. Can’t touch the floor. And I can’t remember how long I’ve been here.
The hand that touches my head next doesn’t hurt, and when I open my eyes, the smug angel smiles down at me. If I had the energy, I’d punch Erzla in the fucking face. Instead, I roll onto my side and reach out for Vee again.
“Do what we say, or you’re going back,” whispers Erzla in my ear. “Let Order go.”
I suck in a ragged breath and keep my head bowed, pulling Vee onto my lap. Xander’s unconscious beside her, with Leoc standing over him.
Their manipulation won’t work. I’ve lived in this damn human world and suffered as I attempted to exist day to day. There’s nothing more horrific than the Hell he showed me, but no amount of fucking my head with memories will pull me away from what I need to do today.
“Xander.” I kick out, and my foot collides with his chest. I need to rouse him. Have the angels locked his mind in a personal hell too? “Xander!” I kick him in the stomach harder when he doesn’t move.
Xander groans and the cold terror in his opening eyes answers my question. The angels did. Instantly, he reaches out to Vee, and we both hang on to her as if she might slip from our fingers.
“Really, I should’ve brought popcorn,” says Seth with glee.
If I were sure Vee would be safe when I let her go, I’d tear that smug smile from his face. Right here. Right now.
Erzla continues, “Don’t you understand, Ewan? Chaos and Order must both die. We can’t risk either staying in this world.”
“You promised us you’d help.” I clutch Vee closer.
“They lied!” calls Seth. “Oh, man. You didn’t believe them, did you?”
Erzla crouches down. “Let Vee go. Step back from her.”
“No,” Xander growls. “And if you put your hands on me again, you’ll regret it.”
Erzla steps back and sneers. “Sure.”
“Take an angel down, please.” Seth’s ‘please’ sounds like a child asking to watch his favourite movie. “I want to see one die.”
This is fucking insane. For days, I’ve plotted in my head, and enjoyed visions of us kicking Seth’s arse. Watching him suffer as we obliterate him forever. This last day, I’ve had a dumb image of us surrounding Vee, holding her and channelling her energy into us. Destroying the bastard together. And now this.
I look around where Joss and Heath pull themselves over to join us, struggling and weak. Not the Horsemen I know.
“Let her go. Let the natural order happen, or you’re going back,” Erzla continues.
Joss looks up, wide-eyed. “Back?”
“To Hell, Joss! Don't you understand?” snaps Leoc. “Kill Chaos and end Order. The portals will remain permanently closed, including the seventh to Hell, and all threat to the world will be gone. You can stay. You won't lose your souls to Hell."
My breath rushes out as readily as if she'd hit me full-force in the stomach. “What are you saying?”
“You shouldn’t care,” snaps Erzla. “This shouldn’t be happening. This is why we had to come down here. This is how you fucked up.”
Vee chokes and blood trickles from the edge of her lips. In alarm, I stroke the blood away with my thumb and kiss her face.
“Look at you! This is wrong. You were supposed to all fuck her, get the power joined and move on. How did this bullshit happen?” Erzla’s words from his rising temper interfere with my concentration on Vee.
“She’s part of us,” says Xander through gritted teeth. “We’re part of each other. Vee isn’t Order. She’s Vee.”
Leoc lets out an exasperated noise. “Fine, but you Four Horsemen have a choice. Hell, or your lives. Ensure Chaos and Order destroy each other, and you’re free. Interfere, and we’ll throw you back." She jabs a finger at the nearby gate. “And I think you your memories just showed what that’s like.”
The frozen silence engulfs us all.
"What's more important? One girl's life or the world?" asks Erzla.
"That's where you have no clue about our situation. Vee isn't just ‘one girl’. She's a part of each of us. If Vee dies, something inside will destroy us. What use will we be then?"
“That makes no difference to us. We can find new souls. Make your decision."
"There's no decision to be made," says Joss.
“Order can’t survive,” she shouts at Xander. “We won’t allow that. Our superiors sent us here to clear up this mess. This ridiculous situation where you’re hell-bent on stopping what needs to happen. Order and Chaos both need to die. Vee needs to die to release Order. If you interfere, try to split the power, we will make your life worse than the Hell you imagined. Your role is done. She’s here. She’s whole. Let her go, and we’ll allow you to go too.”
“Vee,” calls Seth in a sing-song voice. “I told you so, didn’t I? Why, oh why, did you trust the shiny people? You still have a chance. Join me.”
"Shut up!” Leoc snaps at him. “Listen, Horsemen. You can help Order survive or lose your souls to Hell again. It’s your choice."
I summon the strength to stand and step forward, face to face with Leoc. "I will give my life for Vee—and my soul if I need to."
Xander's harsh tones join me. "We all will.”
“Wrong answer.” Erzla pulls me away and drags me to my feet. I stumble after him as Leoc pulls Joss too. The pair marches us towards the gate. The chasm grows closer, and with the view, the memories spark again. The thick heated air beneath me, the darkness I look down on hits a familiarity inside.
I know this place.
I look back. Seth stands by Xander, Heath and Vee like a bizarre watchman. Leoc holds Joss too, whispering the same taunts.
The angel, the guy who swore he’d help us, who brought us here to end Chaos, instead wants to end me.
“Let this happen, Ewan. It’s the only reason Vee is here. The oblivion won’t hurt her.”
“It’s hurting Vee now,” I say through gritted teeth. “She’s in agony.”
“Because she’s fighting to stay. She needs to give in to Order. And you need to stop helping her.” Erzla pulls my hands behind my back and tightens, pushing so my feet slip at the edge of the gate.
“No.”
“There’s a very special kind of torture waiting for you. Do. Your. Job.”
My hair dips into my face as I fight with myself. I fight with the primal survival instinct sending fleeting doubt through my mind. With the memories. With staying true to who I am now.
I smack my head backwards, and the angel stumbles. Before he can grab me again, I seize him around the throat and squeeze. Vee may have weakened me, but I’m willing to take on this arsehole. “The answer is no.”
His next words are half-choked. “You need four of you to do what you’re planning. Joss doesn’t want to help.”
“Bullshit!” I shout. “Joss
?”
Joss crouches at Leoc’s feet with his head in his hands, unmoving, not speaking. Leoc squats beside him and strokes his hair, whispering.
No. No fucking way would Joss go against everything we agreed. He wouldn’t. He can’t.
“Hey. Leoc. Want to see my kill your friend?” I call.
Leoc turns her back to Joss and stands in alarm. “Let Erzla go or—”
Her mouth parts in silent surprise and she sinks to the floor. A shaking Joss stands behind, bloodied weapon in hand as he watches. The blade we found the night Breanna disappeared. My mouth parts as I stare down at the dark patch spreading across Leoc’s back.
Joss nods at me, and his hand shakes as he holds the weapon in Erzla’s direction. “Looks like this was useful after all. It kills angels.” He clutches the blade to his chest and looks at Erzla. “Do you think any one of us would stand back and allow Vee to die? Don’t you understand what you created in us?”
“Me, me!” Seth holds his arm in the air, again like a child in a classroom. “I know.”
Erzla looks around at him in confusion.
“You didn’t just connect their energy. You connected the five souls. They would never help you.”
“We intended to keep our word to you four,” growls Erzla. “How did this happen? How could you sacrifice everything for one girl?”
“Because she isn’t just one girl.” Xander stands and helps Vee to her feet. “Because she’s our world. You created us to keep our world safe, and that’s what we’ll do.”
“You made us human,” says Joss. “We love her,”
“He’ll win, you stupid bastards,” yells Erzla. “You’re weakening Order by forcing her to stay in the weak human body.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Stop whining.” Seth walks over and smashes his fist into the angel’s chest. Twisting his hand around, he looks directly into Erzla’s eyes as he pulls out the angel’s bloodied heart.
I sidestep around Seth and back to Vee while he’s distracted by his gleeful assassination of an angel.
Seth wipes his hands on his jeans and grimaces. “Right, who’s next?” When nobody replies, he approaches before looking down at the five of us. “This is such a cute scene.”