by G. P. Ching
Hope’s heart pounded. This was wrong. All wrong. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
Swiveling around, Ms. D gazed at Hope, her eyes piercing. “I don’t think I need to tell you this, but as soon as we are on the other side, you need to call Damien. You are the only one who can do it. We are going to need his help.”
Hands on hips, Hope said, “The same goes for Theodor. We need him too.”
An unspoken admission passed between them. Victoria gave her a curt nod, raised her chin, and departed toward her office.
The bus bounced into existence on a road in rural Louisiana and Hope reached out for Damien. It wasn’t like the angel carried a cell phone. In the past, he’d simply shown up when she thought of him and sometimes when she hadn’t.
“Damien?” she said, looking toward the ceiling. Nothing. Not even a cool breeze to suggest the angel was near.
A curse from across the aisle drew her attention. Jenny was hanging her head into the aisle, calling her name. Hope crossed to Jenny’s booth and slid in across from her, next to Jayden. “What’s wrong?”
Jenny pointed at her earpiece. “HORU says that all the known demons she’s been tracking are on the move. Every single one of them is heading toward New Orleans.”
It was Hope’s turn to curse.
Next to her, Jayden shifted, his fingers sparking. “Didn’t you say before, when you were the Healer, the immortals thought the demons served a purpose?”
Hope nodded. “Yes. They thought they formed some kind of network to support Lucifer’s power. It’s why we’ve been trying to kill as many of them as possible. To weaken Lucifer.”
Jenny snorted. “This isn’t a good sign. If Mike did something stupid and went to Finn, then its very possible that Lucifer has all the pieces he needs to perform the sacrifice. Now he’s calling in the demons to intensify his power. And Hope, they are moving fast.”
With a tap of her finger, Jenny signaled to HORU to project the map for the others. Hope watched dozens of red dots from all over the world move steadily toward New Orleans.
Hope shook her head. “I prayed it wasn’t true, but I think I knew it in my gut. The Devil has Mike. Lucifer has everything he needs to drop the veil and he isn’t going to wait to use it. I think he plans to sacrifice Mike soon.”
“How do we stop him?” Jayden asked.
“I don’t know,” Hope answered.
Jenny raised an eyebrow. “We need Damien.”
Burying her face in her hands, Hope mumbled, “More than you know.” All she could think about was the feel of his arms, his wings, the way she felt safe in his arms. She longed for him intensely enough that she thought she could smell the citrus and cinnamon scent that followed him everywhere.
“Did you miss me?” She dropped her hands. Damien stood in the aisle, a smug grin twisting his lips.
She leaped out of her seat and tossed her arms around his neck. “You heard me. Oh thank the Lord.”
He kissed her lightly on the temple, his wings folding around her, cocooning her in his strength. For a moment, she was safe and all the problems of their world melted into oblivion. Then he backed away to address the others and it all came crashing home. She read too much in the tightness around his mouth. What he’d seen was bad. Really bad.
“I’m sorry I’m late. I’ve been watching the cemetery,” he said.
“Then you know what’s happened.”
“I know. Lucifer has Michael.” There was a collective gasp as their darkest suspicions were confirmed. “There’s something else. Jenny, do you still have HORU’s drones?”
Jenny nodded.
“Can you release them and send them to the cemetery? There’s something I think you all should see.”
Jenny reached into her bag and pulled out the marble sized drones. “Meet me in the conference room. This will only take a minute.”
While Jenny released HORU’s drones, the others gathered around the table. When she joined them again, HORU was by her side, tail twitching and face as worried as an AI unit could be. She passed right through Hope on her way to the center of the room.
“Show them, HORU,” Jenny said.
Hope planted her hands on the table as HORU projected the video feed. An aerial shot of the cemetery spread across the wall. Around the barrier Lucifer had in place, rows of people stood like statues, staring toward the cabin. They were all different ethnicities, some dressed professionally, others in casual clothing. Some looked like they’d been homeless before they’d come. All were in some sort of trance, catatonic, swaying like grass in the wind.
“Those have to be demons,” Jayden said. “The humans can’t see the cemetery. They walk around it.”
“There are more than a hundred of them. What are they waiting for?” Hope asked.
Damien spoke up. “They’re not waiting for anything. They’re doing what they were made to do, channeling power to Lucifer.” The room grew quiet enough to hear a pin drop. “They are here for the sacrifice.”
It was even worse than Hope expected. There was no time for a rescue mission. The Devil was sacrificing Mike… tonight.
30
The Sacrifice
As Kirsa and Finn led him into the graveyard at knifepoint, Mike shivered and not from the cold. When he’d gone through the tree with Archibald to come here, he’d been operating on adrenaline. He’d felt nothing but bravado and exhilaration over the possibility of rescuing Finn. Something else too. Part of his haste was in reaction to the Soulkeepers Draconian imprisonment of him on the island. He’d wanted to show them, to demand their respect through actions. Only, he hadn’t considered how hard it would be to heal Finn or to convince his friend to save himself. Every part of him had believed he could change Finn.
He should have known better. Once Lucifer had his hooks in you, he didn’t let go. Clearly, Finn was brainwashed. Or maybe the Devil had succeeded in collecting his soul and now controlled his every move. Either way, Hope and the others were right. It was stupid for him to come here. So then why had the immortals and every whisper of intuition in his body led him to believe that this was the way to stop Lucifer?
In a clearing beside the tree, Lucifer had set up a stone altar at the place where the ground dipped. Strange symbols were etched into the edge of the stone. Those weren’t there for decoration. A thrum of power rippled around him when he studied them, and they seemed to dance in his vision although he could not read them. Crimson liquid pooled at the base, in the depression under the sacrificial table, as if the stone slab was the top of a twisted and morbid fountain. Blood, he was sure of it, although human or animal he couldn’t say. He didn’t want to know. The altar and blood were at the center of a symbol formed using stones, a five-pointed star.
“A pentagram? How cliché,” Mike said sarcastically. If he were going to die anyway, he wanted to get a few jabs in before he did.
Lucifer turned slowly, his wicked smile falling lazily on Mike. “Ravenguard, since our friends Finn and Kirsa wisely wish to avoid touching our guest, could you do the honors? It seems young Michael would like a closer look at the ritual altar. We’re almost ready to begin.”
From the shadows, Ravenguard appeared like an apparition, glasses first, then face and fangs, then the red riding coat he always wore. “My pleasure,” he said, closing in.
Mike flipped his arm over and looked at Ravenguard through Fate’s web. All he saw was darkness. He cursed. Of course, he couldn’t pluck Ravenguard’s strings. The man had none. He’d long since lost his soul, lost his history. He was a killing machine. A demon. Mike reached for his triquetra. He cursed when he remembered it was gone, ripped from his neck by Lucifer himself.
As easily as if he were a child, Ravenguard tossed Mike over his shoulder; his gloved hands roughly gripped his legs. Mike struggled, slamming his elbow into Ravenguard’s back with enough force to break a human’s spine, but the man didn’t even slow down. With unnecessary force, the hunter slammed Mike’s back against the stone. The sick
ening crack and searing pain of his bones breaking left Mike unable to breathe, but that didn’t stop Ravenguard from strapping him to the stone. He wrenched his arms and legs apart without mercy, growling through his distended fangs.
Healer or not, the pain was intense enough that when he did finally take a breath, it came in the form of tiny sips inside aching lungs. The heavy blanket of air over him stank of dirty copper and wood smoke, blood and burning. Lucifer snapped his fingers and a bonfire flamed to life in front of the altar. The fire held the same green tinge as the ones he’d seen inside the cabin. Hellfire.
On the other side of the fire, Finn waited, his blue eyes reflecting the flames, his pale hair seeming to glow in the light.
“Finn, help me,” Mike pleaded.
But Finn ignored him. He kept his eyes locked on the fire. Kirsa, however, stared at him from outside the symbol, her expression unreadable. Oddly, Lucifer and Ravenguard hardly seemed to notice she was there. Mike wondered if she was invisible to them now that they didn’t need her any longer.
It was strange—she’d inflicted what seemed like endless horror on him at Revelations. Now, she was his only relief. Her pale features were fixed in an expression of empathy, her blond eyebrows washed out by the light of the fire. He’d never seen Kirsa pity anyone before and he wondered what he’d done to earn that expression from her. Perhaps it was nothing more than disappointment that she couldn’t be the one to wield the blade. Still, he locked eyes with her and breathed. Neither said a word, but there was an exchange in that stare. Two human beings saw each other for what they were. It was the only comfort Mike had to hold on to, the only part of this that seemed the least bit human. His heart pounded. His chest rose and fell quickly with his mounting panic.
Pain radiated through him. Half his body, the half next to the fire, was too hot, burning. His other side shivered from the eerie cold of the cemetery. It was a strange and subtle torture. No matter how he tried to shift, he could not relieve the burning. He closed his eyes for a second to say a prayer for God’s help. When he opened them again, Kirsa was gone.
“You’ll need this,” Lucifer said, pulling the obsidian blade from the fire. Its surface blazed with symbols brought to life by the heat. The twisted, roughhewn stone blade corkscrewed toward the fire. This wasn’t surgical steel. This dagger was designed to hurt as well as kill. Lucifer shoved the weapon into Finn’s hands.
The hot stone must have burned. Lucifer had handed it to him straight from the fire. Hell, Mike could hear the sizzle and smell of burning flesh. But it didn’t even faze Finn. He walked around the fire mechanically, stopping only when he was centered on Mike’s cold side. Finn flipped the dagger over to point toward the ground, both hands gripping the hilt, his eyes vacant as some kind of robot. Was he even in there?
“Finn… Finn, listen to me. If you do this, you’ll regret it. You’ll never forgive yourself.”
He didn’t flinch. Was he breathing? The reflection of the fire licked in Finn’s pupils. The full moon was in position and Mike could feel a change in the air, like the humidity had grown thicker with the fog. A gray wisp passed over his chest and Mike winced when it paused to look at him. Not fog but a soul. A damned soul. The veil was thinning.
Out of the corner of his eye, Mike saw three thick oily demons rise from the ground. Without hesitation, they began drumming instruments he supposed came straight from Hell. The eerie rhythm was anything but soothing, the music made even more disturbing as Lucifer started to chant. The Devil paced around the stone table as he sang. It occurred to Mike he was reading the symbols off the side, the ancient magic rising from its stone home as it had before and feeding the words to Lucifer.
At the center of the ritual, everything else seemed to melt away for Mike. It was Finn, him, and the dagger. His only hope was the boy standing beside him. The boy on the verge of becoming a man. The friend who had drifted from him, who he’d pushed away. They had so much history. If he could just make Finn see.
“Don’t you know who I am, Finn? Do you remember the day I had an accident on the bus and you switched pants with me? We’ve been friends ever since.”
Finn didn’t show a twitch of recognition.
“Remember when those guys were bullying you after basketball? They poured ice down your back and threatened to beat you up after the game. I put a rest to that without saying a word.” He flexed his fists remembering how he’d punched both boys defending Finn.
If Finn remembered the incident, he didn’t react.
“Deviant Joe!” Mike yelled. “We started it together. You, me, Jayden, and Wyatt. Nobody could pull a prank like us, Finn. No one could do what we did because no one trusted each other like we did. Like I’m trusting you now. You can’t do this. You gotta fight it. Don’t listen to him. Don’t do what he wants you to do!”
The corners of Finn’s mouth twisted downward, and a bead of sweat drew a trail from his hairline to his chin. His lips parted. “Can’t.”
The word was nothing but an exhale, yet Mike heard it. It was true, then. Finn’s will was not his own.
“Touch me. Touch my hand. I can heal you. I can break the curse.”
As the chanting grew louder, stronger, Mike’s head started spinning. The Devil’s face passed in front of his, around and around to the rhythm of the music. With his eyes, he traced a path between the moon, the Devil, the dagger, Finn.
As he met Finn’s widening eyes, he knew it was over. “I forgive you,” he said, loud and clear.
The chanting stopped.
Finn raised the dagger above his head, aimed at Michael’s heart.
31
Theodor
Every magical barrier had a weakness. Theodor had created enough of them to know. If he understood Lucifer’s magic better, he might be able to reach in with his own and pull the string that would unravel the entire thing like a ball of twine. But he did not understand this magic. It was ancient and it was strong. Strong enough to make the hair on his arms stand on end as he neared it.
As he stood outside the cemetery, behind two rows of demons entirely preoccupied with what was going on inside, Theodor examined the unseen force with Wendy at his side. They had to find a way in. If he was to atone for what he’d done to Finn and the tree, he must save Michael. His entire life had prepared him for this. He was a powerful magician and the piece of the star that glowed from the pendant around his neck had restored his strength, thanks to Victoria. He owed her.
A ripple traveled through the dome of power. “Interesting,” he said. If he could get to the barrier, he could test a few spells, see how the magic reacted to the manipulation of various elements. Unfortunately, that would require battling the demons that blocked his path shoulder to shoulder around the graveyard. Right now, they were alligators sleeping in the sun. He had a feeling they wouldn’t stay that way if he tried to get inside.
“Wendy, do you have your phone?” he asked.
“I’m sixteen years old. We don’t leave home without it.” She reached for her back pocket. Theodor glanced at the device in her hands and entertained the fleeting thought that if he survived this mess, he might need to learn to use one.
“Send a message to Victoria,” he said. “I believe the barrier is weakening. The closer Lucifer gets to the sacrifice the weaker he becomes and therefore the weaker his wards become. With her help and a little luck, we might be able to take it down.
“No need for an email. I am here.”
Theodor spun around. Victoria Duval, wild gray hair flying, stood like a force of nature behind him, her eyes reflecting the ripples in the boundary. She wore her favorite purple suit, the one she often wore at Revelations when she was playing the role of ringmaster. Her body put off a thrum of magic he could feel in his bones.
“How did you find us?” Wendy asked.
Victoria clasped her hands in front of her waist. “HORU. She’s monitoring this place with her drones. We saw you on her recording.” She pointed toward the shimmering barrie
r beyond the rows of demons. “Shall we?”
“Where are the others?” Theodor asked.
“Taking advantage of the fact that these demons are woefully distracted to clear us a path.”
She took a step back as a head tumbled between them. Jayden arrived, his blazing sword connecting with the dark wave that emerged from the broken shell of a human body. The thing was responsive but slow, and he had no problem reducing it to ash.
“They can still fight,” Jayden said, “but they’re lethargic.” He ran a hand through his red hair and swiveled back toward the demons.
Before the next demon could react, two vines shot from the earth and tore its cloned human body in two. Jayden slayed the darkness within. Hope stepped out of the hole they’d created in the ring of demons, her vines holding the others back to give Theodor, Victoria, and Wendy access to the barrier. She grunted with the effort of holding the demons back.
“A little help here! Paul? Amuke?”
Two tigers bounded to Hope’s side, tackling two more demons and shredding them. Hope tore another three apart, breaking a sweat now. Theodor raised his hands to help her, but Ms. D gestured for him to wait. “Save your strength,” she whispered. “Look.”
Out of nowhere, Damien appeared in the clearing and used his light to finish off the recently husked demons. Now the hole was larger, their path to the barrier fully accessible.
“Get to work, you three,” Hope said. “We’ve cleared your way. Use your magic to take that thing down and let’s save our Soulkeepers.” She raised her clawed hands and new vines shot from the earth, corralling a fresh set of demons.
Theodor looked at Victoria, purple magic sparking from his fingers. Wendy followed his lead, her magic smaller, less powerful, but there nonetheless. Victoria nodded and ignited her own magic. He met her gaze. The buzz of her power was music to his ears. They’d accomplished a lot together over the last century. Beaten the odds again and again. Practiced the impossible on a regular basis. It was ironic really that Lucifer was responsible for making them what they were, yet the Devil truly didn’t know what he was dealing with.