“Is that possible?”
“Not without your help. I thought that I could do it alone, but after what he showed us today, I’ll need you. You were remade for just this purpose. A special killer.”
“If I’m a killer, why was I given a conscience?”
His eyes darken with a grim shadow. “So you won’t fail.”
I feel as if he’s burying me alive. “I need to talk to Reed.” Anguish and fear at the discovery that I’m here to kill Emil is doing bad things to me.
Xavier is by my side, pulling me into his arms. “Breathe,” he murmurs in my ear as he rubs my back. “You can do this. You’ve trained for it in every one of your past lifetimes.”
“I’m terrified of Emil! He’s a freaking monster!”
“You never back down from monsters, Evie. Never.”
In a daze, I rest my cheek against his sculpted chest. “Emil is the same as me, isn’t he? A half-breed, right?”
“Yes, but I don’t know what his range of abilities are...however, I didn’t like what I saw a few hours ago.”
“He can annihilate my soul, too, can’t he? I could cease to be.”
“That won’t happen. I won’t let it,” Xavier promises.
I lift my cheek from him, looking up into his eyes. “How will you stop it? Emil has been waiting for me for a long time now, hasn’t he? He knew I was coming back. It was preordained.”
Xavier gives me a solemn nod. “I don’t know how much he knows. We began by hiding you here,” Xavier looks around my bedroom, “but some scouts found us once you became a teenager. Things got interesting after that.”
“How come I never knew? How come no one trusted me enough to tell me? ”
“Your father didn’t want you burdened with it until you began your evolution into angel. He just wanted you safe. That’s all. I was forbidden to tell you.”
I step out of his arms. “You should’ve told me anyway! Emil has probably known who he is since he was reborn. His freaking parents probably told him everything from the beginning!”
“That doesn’t give him the advantage. Your strength lies in your ability to love.”
“You make me sound like a saint, which is a bad thing, because what I know from history is that they all die horribly.”
“Not this time. I won’t allow it. We need to find out how Simone died, Evie.”
“Why?”
“Because therein lies the connection. You were specifically called upon—no one consulted me—even when I was a part of the last mission, too.”
“Maybe Sheol requested my soul or something,” I say with sarcasm. I see his eyes narrow. “What? You think they specifically named me for some reason?”
“You asked if you thought you were seeking revenge. Maybe it’s not you who wants revenge.”
“Emil wants another crack at me—wants to crush me?” I straighten my slouched shoulders as I look into his eyes, cobalt blue and bottle green. “What do I get for accepting this mission? Is this the price of my freedom? Annihilate Emil’s soul, and then it’s done? Do I get to walk away from Divine service? If I had to guess, that’s what I was after. I’m so tired, Xavier. Deep-down-to-my-soul weary. I can see me risking everything to put an end to my eternity of servitude.”
“You’re a fighter; it’s woven in every fiber of your being.” Xavier’s soft tone does something to me. I want to hide beneath it, wrap myself in it and rest.
“Maybe I’m a fighter because that’s what you’ve made me—lifetimes of fighting for you. Was that the price we paid for being together? Did we have to agree to mission after mission just to see one another?” It’s in his eyes. I’m right. I put both my hands to my face and cover my weary eyes for a moment. When I pull them away, I ask, “Did it get to be too much for me? Was the price too high to pay? Maybe I can’t remember us because I wanted it that way. Did I decide to cut my heart out rather than to have it die slowly?” I feel like sobbing.
“No. You’d always fight for us,” Xavier replies without a hint of doubt. “The answer lies in Simone—in her memories.”
“You want me to go back there to him! Back to Lille with Emil!” I begin to pace again, biting my thumbnail anxiously.
“I want you to find out what happened,” Xavier says in an even tone.
I point my finger at him. “No. You’re asking me to relive what happened!”
“If it means defeating Emil in this lifetime then, yes, that’s what I’m asking. I need to know the debt owed to iniquity.”
“The debt to iniquity—to wickedness?” I murmur aloud.
“Emil’s power is a concession—that’s plain to me. I want to know why.”
TUNK, TUNK, TUNK, loud creaking noises from the foundation of the house interrupts Xavier just as a wave of power surges into the room. A screech, the whine of straining pipes, echoes within the plaster walls. Magic surges heavy in the air; it saturates me in a deluge of fear. I draw some energy into me so that I can use it, but the feel of it repulses me. It’s like the sweaty, overheated embrace from someone you hate. I expel it immediately. My flesh wants to crawl off me.
Xavier holds out his hand to me. “It’s Emil. Let’s go. I have a portal to your father.”
I feel Emil everywhere in the air, a thorn in my side in a very literal way. I groan and grasp my side below my ribs as if I’ve been stabbed—or hooked. An invisible force yanks me forward. My feet slide across the floor, the tips of my toes curl under as I’m dragged. Xavier latches onto my waist from behind and tries to hold me back, but he lets go of me when it becomes apparent he’ll snap me in two if he doesn’t. I stop only when I’m pressed to the half-open window.
A lone figure is in the yard below. Strawberry-blond hair lifts in wisps in the crisp wind. His blue eyes engage mine, and he smiles a wicked grin. A heavy, gray coat that reminds me of the officer’s dress uniform he owned a century ago covers his broad shoulders. Beneath his collar a dark, soft scarf is tied in a meticulously elegant knot; it brushes against his smooth cheek. The lines of matte buttons on either side of the wool coat are impossibly straight.
Emil smiles, his lazy eyes hood with pleasure. I exhale in a rush. He could be his own great, great grandson; he looks so much like his old self. Swiftly, he elevates off the frozen ground, not by the use of wings, but by an invisible force of power that I’ve only ever seen Brennus accomplish—or clones. It takes him just a moment to be inches from me, studying me like a scientist studies a germ under a microscope.
“Simone,” he murmurs. The muffled resonance of his voice filters through the glass. The tone is so familiar. He causes a shiver of revulsion to run down my spine.
“Emil,” I snarl, my lips taking the shape of hatred, “I’m not your Simone anymore!” I don’t see anything but him, and as for feeling, there’s nothing inside of me but pure, unmitigated rage. Punching my hand through the glass that separates us, I clutch a broken shard of it in my fist. Thrusting it forward, I use it to stab him in the neck.
A gush of red spurts from Emil’s throat as the glass in my hand tears his flesh away. It feels like a knife cutting through watermelon rind as I drive it upward into his gaping mouth. Blood oozes from him. His eyes widen in shock, causing a grim smile to stretch my lips. It only lasts an instant before I’m ripped through the windowpane by Emil’s power. Twinkling, broken pieces of glass shred my cheeks like razorblades.
I tumble through the air under Emil’s power, smashing into a tree in the yard. Branches and bark cut into me before the trunk gives way and topples over. Instead of falling with it, Emil reels me back towards him as if I’m a fish caught on an invisible hook. Levitating in the air, he forces me to the space above the street. Opening his mouth wide, he pries the shard of glass out from beneath his tongue and tosses it aside. Spitting blood, he snarls and casts his arm back, the invisible hook inside me cuts deeper and I cry out in pain.
My wings spiral and beat in an attempt to break free of his magic. His arm casts again and I lurch to the side, s
lamming into an oak tree. The trunk splinters, sheering in half as wood and snow explode into the air. Teetering, the top of the tree falls over, smashing the parked car beneath it. The car’s alarm goes off, shrill and deafening. Hovering above it, my hands go to my head, trying to hold it so that I’ll somehow stop seeing double. Emil takes exception to the noise from the alarm. He magically lifts the car up off the street and tosses it into the Sansbury’s’ living room. The noise abruptly ends as the car catches fire and explodes, blowing the roof off their house.
That’s when I notice the rooftops lining the street. They’re covered with angels—fallen angels. Dark wings spread wide as every hierarchal type of fallen angel watches me struggle to break free from Emil. The door of my house opens. Divine angels pour into the yard with their wings outstretched in the golden glow of a waning sun. Xavier bursts forth from the window from which I was dragged. All the Fallen take flight, attacking him like vultures do a corpse. The divine Powers are quick to move into the fray, skewering Fallen to protect their Seraphim commander.
My heart feels like it’s about to separate from my chest. I raise my hand throwing a white-hot beam of light at the Fallen who are nearest to Xavier. Orange flames and smoke curl the white feathers of the archangel on Xavier’s back, turning them black. He cries out in agony as his flesh melts from him. My magical light lasers through the hatchet-wielding fallen Power about to cleave Xavier in two.
I lose my focus on them when Emil cracks an invisible whip of magic and embeds a second searing hook into my other side. I scream in pain, before gritting my teeth and focusing on the evil bastard once more. My hand wraps around his invisible energy as I try to yank it from me without success.
Emil shakes his head, acting as if he’s concerned about me as I writhe in pain. “Now look what you’ve made me do. We’ve made a mess and I only wanted to reunite with you. I’ve missed you, Simone,” he says with red spittle coming from his mouth. “I’ve missed hurting you. You shouldn’t have run from me. You know how I hate to have to come and find you.”
“Inconvenient?” I ask with a pant of pain, hoping the look in my eyes kills him. “How’s this?” I growl. Pulling energy to me, I focus it all into a pulse of light that flows out of my hand. Intending to fry him with it, he merely lifts his palm, deflecting the intense heat of my magic, redirecting it into the Martindale’s’ two-story colonial. The house explodes into flames, melting a gaping hole in the aluminum siding.
“Simone, did you just try to murder me?” Emil smirks. “And here I thought you’d be happy to see me.”
“You’re sick.”
“I remember the time when you couldn’t take a breath without my permission.”
“You enjoyed that.”
“I enjoyed you.”
I lower my head and beat my wings harder, no longer fighting his pull on me, but using his magical force to propel me right to him. I use my legs to coil around his waist. Driving my arm forward, blood spatters my face as I punch a hole through his chest and pull out his still-pumping heart. “Well then, how do you like me now?” I ask as his mouth opens in shock. His evil, hooded eyes meet mine as his body crumples. I unwind my legs from him and let his body fall to the street below with a sickening thud.
The throbbing pain in my abdomen eases as I pant, my wings beating to keep me in the air. Wildly, I look around at the street below. Mr. Kendrick, the retired postal worker who organizes our annual block parties, is on his front porch, staring at me with a look of horror on his face.
I hold up my hands to him, inadvertently displaying the waning heart in my fist. As blood drips from my wrist and elbow, I try to reassure him. “It’s okay, Mr. Kendrick.” Frozen for a moment, he just stares at me. The front of his pants darken as he wets himself. “I won’t hurt you,” I say, but I only scare him more. He stumbles back with a lurch, bumping into the yellow wood siding of his house before he pivots to his door. He rattles the black handle, his shaking hand like a club. When he manages to open it, he backs inside before slamming the door shut.
Numbly, I look down at Emil’s body in the street. As I drop his dead heart on the ground, I look for signs of life in him, but he’s still. A thousand different emotions assail me; the most prevalent among them are hope that he’s dead and fear that he’s not. All around me, the war between the angels has taken to the street. They’re tearing each other apart, hundreds of them, staining the snow red with their need to destroy one another.
Slowing the beat of my wings so that I land on the pavement, I stay well back from Emil’s body. I glance over my shoulder, looking for Xavier; he’s taking apart a fallen Seraph with his bare hands. The other divine angels are wreaking havoc on their enemies, too. I move to help Xavier, but I hesitate as Emil’s corpse begins to change. His coat alters from a gray military trench to a short, black leather jacket. Emil’s features shift as well. His hair turns from strawberry-blond to black, his skin tone darkens, his small, straight nose grows larger and becomes aquiline. Dark hair sprouts from his chin as his lips widen and lose their perfect symmetry.
My bloody hand comes up to cover my mouth as I rush closer to him. Crouching near, I pick up his cold, dead hand, and stare at the face of Owen Matthews—my date to the Delt formal in what feels like a lifetime ago. Tears of horror come to my eyes. His throat has been ripped open where I had stabbed Emil.
Mr. Kendrick’s front door opens as Emil emerges with his hands shoved in the pockets of his gray trench coat. He strolls toward me with a sanguine smile on his lips. Chaos swirls around him as angels pounce on one another, slashing and cutting. Dappled brown feathers are being shred from a divine Power angel as a fallen archangel’s fists tug on them while they wrestle in the snow. Emil ignores everyone, walking around flailing forms before stopping next to me. I rise to face him.
With a nod toward Owen, Emil assesses, “Your boyfriend. You killed him.”
“Owen was never my boyfriend! He was just a random blind date!” I gnash my teeth, realizing what Emil says is true. I killed him. I tore Owen’s heart out with my bare hand. Taking a deep breath, I smell the scent of urine on Emil. I realize what’s happening. “You possessed him!” I accuse. “Mr. Kendrick—you’re in his body—somehow. It’s all an illusion.”
Emil’s smile is blasé. “They’re so willing to let me in, Simone. They’re weak,” he replies with a casual shrug as he looks at Owen. “All I had to do was promise your boyfriend here that I wouldn’t hurt him if he let me in. It was really that simple. Humans are so willing to cooperate with us.” He looks at me then. “They so rarely say no.”
“And if they did say no, you’d kill them.”
He shakes his head. “Not true. If they say no, then the laws of Paradise protect them. It’s not like it was for you in Lille. When we reunited there during the war, I would’ve killed you had you defied me, just like I’d killed your aunt. You and I were both humans in that lifetime. Now, I can’t touch a human unless they allow it.” His head dips conspiratorially towards mine. “Fear is the best weapon. You see? They, the humans, have to agree before I can possess them, but it’s not hard to convince them. Most people are willing to do anything out of fear—agree to anything—hurt someone else just to save themselves. The irony is that it is what truly damns them.”
My mind reels. “Freddie—Alfred—he was an angel—a reaper—he killed my uncle—my human uncle!”
“Did he?” he asks with a smile. “That’s not how I heard it. I heard that he convinced another human to slaughter your uncle while he watched. Otherwise, he’d have had to pay the consequences for his actions from both Sheol and Paradise. They’d never let him live after that. We just can’t openly kill humans. It’s not how this is done. It’s a game of souls, Simone. Sheol doesn’t like it when our angels give Paradise an uncontested soul, especially one that we’ve been after for several lifetimes. Given the right set of circumstances, your uncle could’ve been ours.”
“He’d never be yours!” I retort, tasting bile.
>
“Everyone has a price, Simone. Everyone. Your uncle included. What’s more, he could’ve been your price, wouldn’t you agree?” Emil studies me. “I know you. You’d have done anything to save him...anything.”
What he says scares me, not because he’s wrong, but because he’s right. “I’m going to kill you,” I promise.
Emil laughs with delight. “How?” he asks. “You’re so much weaker than me—always have been and still so very guileless. I do admire your iron resolve, however. It keeps me entertained in every lifetime I spend with you.”
My eyes widen is surprise.
“What—” he smiles with delight, “you didn’t know we’ve been together before? You don’t remember us, do you? You don’t remember me!”
“It was in Lille—”
His laughter causes me to fall silent. “Oh, you really are at a disadvantage, aren’t you? Sheol must have negotiated it all from you! Everything! So...you remember nothing before Lille?” he asks me. He tries to tuck a piece of my hair behind my ear, but I evade his hand, stepping farther from him. “You’ve truly come here blind!”
“I know enough about you to know that you need to be destroyed at any cost.”
“Any cost? Are you quite certain about that? You couldn’t do it in our last lifetime, and I was merely a human then. Now I’m a god.”
“You’re a coward,” I snarl. “You hide behind humans.”
He’s a mere breath away in a millisecond with his hand wrapped around my throat. He lifts me up to his eye level as my feet kick out wildly. “You have no idea what I’ve become. I’m going to kill everything you love, Simone, and I’m going to make you watch, helpless to prevent it. Then, I’m going to destroy you until there’s no more you—just me.”
I reach out to him and put my hands to his face, sending out all the energy I can gather into one, intense pulse. Mr. Kendrick’s body is blown away from me as if I were a live grenade. Emil’s essence separates from his human host into a black, smoky cloud. Mr. Kendrick lands on the icy pavement of the street and slides across it until he comes to rest in a snow bank.
Iniquity (The Premonition Series Book 5) Page 9