by G. P. Ching
Victoria raised an eyebrow. “The first one inside wins bragging rights.”
“You know how much I hate to lose.” The corner of his mouth curled upward.
“Wendy?”
“I’m ready,” the girl said.
Side by side, they waged war on Lucifer’s shield.
“Finn, touch my hand. Don’t do this.” Strapped to the stone table, Mike panicked, his heart pounding, his breath flailing in his lungs. He couldn’t get through to Finn. The tip of the obsidian dagger was raised high, poised over his heart. Lucifer’s chanting had ended, on a crescendo that he suspected was Finn’s cue to drive the business end of that thing through his heart. There was no coming back from that. The obsidian blade didn’t merely kill the body: it killed the soul.
Sweat beaded on Finn’s upper lip. He was fighting it, but he wouldn’t last long. Mike was going to die. Worse, Lucifer was going to use his death to merge the realms. The Soulkeepers wouldn’t last long in Hell. Some, he supposed, would be corrupted, like Finn and Kirsa. Others, like Hope, would never bow down. She’d be lucky to meet a swift end.
He should have listened to her. What was he thinking trying to be the hero?
Thing was, he thought he had a foolproof plan. Before he’d gone through the tree, he’d filled a vial with holy water. Water from Eden should have been strong enough to break any curse or influence Lucifer had over Finn. He’d even managed to get some in both his water and wine glass at dinner. Actually he’d put it in his own, then switched the glasses when he purposely knocked over Finn’s wine. Finn had been so afraid of Mike touching him, he hadn’t even noticed.
Unfortunately, although Finn drank from his cup, Mike had observed no effects from the holy water. Which meant he had made a terrible mistake. Either Lucifer’s influence was too strong or the water was too weak. It didn’t matter anymore. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He eyed the point of the blade. This was going to hurt. He was going to die, with pain. He forced himself to look away, straight up toward the full moon.
A flash of purple lightning cut across the night above him. Not across, around. Purple lightning followed the arc of Lucifer’s protective enchantment leaving a fissure in its wake. For a moment, he got the distinct impression of being inside a fragile and cracking egg. Magic.
“Finn, look. They’re coming! You don’t have to do this!”
“Ravenguard, kill!” Lucifer ordered. Ravenguard took off toward the border at a run. “You.” He pointed at Kirsa. “Shut him up!” Lucifer pushed Kirsa toward Michael. Lucifer strained, directing all his mental energy at Finn whose spinning tattoos told Mike he was doing everything in his power not to obey.
Kirsa reached Mike, positioning herself behind the top of his head, and placed her hand over his mouth. “Shhh,” she said, her eyes meeting his. That’s when it dawned on him; she was touching him skin to skin. He looked at Finn, then at her. His best friend focused on the space over his heart.
“Stay absolutely still,” Kirsa whispered in his ear. “Whatever you do, do not move.”
Mike felt the binding around his wrist give way, then his other wrist. He obeyed and did not move. What was she doing?
His mind flashed back to dinner. He’d knocked over the wine. Finn had leapt back and Mike had switched the water. “Sorry. Here, have mine,” he’d said, putting his wine in front of Finn. He dabbed at the tablecloth, moving the glasses to reach the spill. Then Finn had snapped his fingers and the stain had cleaned itself up. It had cleaned itself up and the glasses had rearranged themselves on the table. The setting had become perfect again.
Mike had missed it. The glasses he’d placed in front of Finn, had moved in front of Kirsa. Finn never drank the holy water. It was her. It was Kirsa!
“Now, Finn! Do it. Do it!” Lucifer stepped into the fire, his body transforming into something monstrous with horns and hooves and talons that clacked toward the moon. He extended razor-sharp claws toward Finn.
“I’m sorry,” Finn cried, plunging the dagger toward Mike’s heart. Faster than Mike thought possible, his body was shoved across the stone. With power only the resilience instructor could have mustered, Kirsa thrust him off the table, away from the fire and Lucifer. Mike’s shoulder hit Finn in the gut, and he ricocheted into the pool of blood at the base of the table, his ankles still bound.
With an oomph, Finn bent in half from the blow, but the dagger continued its descent. As Lucifer bellowed from the fire, the dagger hit its mark. Only, Mike’s heart wasn’t there anymore. Kirsa’s was.
When she’d swept him off the table, she’d leaned forward for leverage. The dagger slid into her back, left side, under the shoulder bone. Mike cried out and reached for her hand. Their fingers tangled beside Finn whose eyes had gone red and glazed. Mike’s gaze connected with Kirsa’s. “No!”
“I feel it,” she said to him, her expression genuinely astonished as blood gurgled over her bottom lip. To Mike, she seemed more surprised than anything else. After decades of being invincible, Kirsa’s time had come. Her abilities had failed her. Mike watched the light fade from her eyes. Her last words were, “I’m sorry.”
“I forgive you,” he said. Her last breath blew cold across his face. She’d tortured him, even tried to kill him once. He felt no pleasure in watching her die. She’d saved his life. No matter what she’d done in the past, she didn’t deserve this.
Finn blinked, his hands still gripping the dagger buried in her back.
Mike would not wait for a second blow. With Soulkeeper speed and strength, he tore the bindings from his ankles and scrambled to his feet. But Lucifer took no interest in him. All of his attention was on the swirling vortex of power hovering over Kirsa’s body.
“Oh no,” Mike mumbled. Kirsa drank the holy water. Something from Heaven. And her soul was the Devil’s. She may not have been a Healer, but judging by the tear opening between the Devil and Finn, she was enough to complete the spell.
Lucifer gave a wicked laugh. He reached his hands into the swirling magic and pulled.
32
Battle
“It’s cracking!” Hope yelled. Purple lightning branched across the sphere of power protecting the cemetery, and Hope was ready with an army of vines growing in and through the cracks. She flexed her muscles and tried to use the new growth to spread the fractures. She wasn’t strong enough.
“Damien, help!” She turned her face to her angel, her love, teeth gritted.
The angel clapped his hands together, a sword forming between them out of heavenly energy. Flying to the top of the barrier, he came down hard, stabbing through the crack she’d created with the help of Theodor, Victoria, and Wendy. A few yards to her left, the three caught on quickly to what Damien was doing. They redirected their magic at the fracture point.
“Eviscerate!” Theodor dealt the deadly blow with the toss of a single card. A hole formed right under Damien’s cut. The angel slid down the side of the barricade, slicing the magic as he went. By the time the card was back in Theodor’s hand, a spiderweb of cracks had branched out from Damien’s cut as if they’d shattered the ward like an egg. Hope heard the cracking. It spread up, across, and around, painting the night sky with a series of branching forks. Damien landed beside her, sweeping her into his arms and out of the way just in time. From beneath the shelter of his wings, she watched the shield fall like broken glass, purple fragments washing out and over them.
They were sharp as glass too. She saw Theodor shield Wendy and Victoria from the debris. Paul and Amuke were able to race away in time, and Jayden and Fuse produced a wall of fire that absorbed the sharp energy. When it was over, Hope knew Damien was hurt. He’d shielded her at his own peril. Shards of the magic stuck out of his back and wings. Hurrying, she removed them, gasping as silver coated her fingers.
“You’re bleeding,” she said.
“It’s nothing. I will heal.”
Her stomach turned at the sight of his silver blood dripping near his feet.
“No. You need to rest.”
Ignoring her, he whirled on the cemetery. “There’s no time.”
A chill rocked Hope’s body as she saw what Damien had seen. Near the center of the graveyard, a cyclone of magic had opened a hole in the night sky. Under the glow of the blood moon, a crimson circle was rimmed with electric yellow lightning. They’d killed most of the demons. They’d taken down the shield. But they hadn’t been quick enough.
“Oh no, it’s already happened! Mike. Oh dear Lord, Mike.” Hope turned to Damien, tears flooding her vision.
With a look of determination, Damien lifted her into his arms, his silver blood soaking her shirt. He grunted in pain as he took to the sky and flew over the cemetery wall toward the expanding portal.
Victoria Duvall watched the shield crumble, hand in hand with the man she once loved and could easily love again. Theodor was changed. She could see that now. He was putting everything he had behind undoing the damage he’d caused—damage that began with the two of them the day they’d started Revelations.
With a revolution of his hand, he cast an arcing purple shield, protecting her and Wendy alike. A quick check told her the others were safe as well, although Damien had taken on substantial injuries protecting Hope. As soon as the barrier was completely gone, she watched the angel take to the sky with Hope in his arms.
A growl ripped through the night, as Paul and Amuke, in the form of two tigers, wasted no time taking down the last three demons to her left. The men’s orange fur was blackened with the oily remains of the demons they’d killed that night. With the help of Jayden, Fuse, Hope, and Damien, they now had clear access to the cemetery.
“Jenny texted,” Wendy said. “HORU’s drones show there are no more demons around the periphery. She warns it is possible that some have survived by jumping bodies.”
Victoria turned to the girl, noticing the dark circles under her eyes, the fatigue that came from overusing magic. She discreetly nudged Theodor.
“Wendy, I am afraid for Jenny and the others on the bus. They don’t have anyone there with magical ability to protect them. Orelon can fly but he can’t fight. Will you go?”
The girl nodded. “I won’t let anything happen to them.”
She was gone before Victoria could thank her.
Theodor grabbed her elbow hard. “She needed a break,” Victoria began but soon realized Theodor was not looking at Wendy.
“Do you see what I see?” he asked.
She scanned the graveyard through the bars of the front gate. A streak of red darted from one mausoleum to another.
“Ravenguard,” she said through her teeth.
“We are not the only two responsible for what happened at Revelations.” He led her toward the gate, unlocking it with a simple touch of his hand.
“No, we are not.” She followed Theodor across the threshold and into the graveyard.
“I think it’s time we take care of Revelations’ unfinished business,” he said.
“I agree. I should have fired that bastard a long time ago.” She raised her hands defensively and walked deeper into the graveyard. The streak of red appeared again, but like a true coward, Ravenguard ran for the gate.
“Bind,” Theodor yelled. The gate slammed shut and locked before Ravenguard could sneak through. He slammed into the bars, then whirled around, hissing. He’d always dressed like a hunter: khaki pants, red riding coat, white shirt and ascot. A hunter of children. A killer. A demon. He and Applegate were the ones who’d enforced Lucifer’s edict that they start the school. Everything about him made her feel ill.
“Not so tough without your dogs and Applegate to back you up,” Victoria said. She took a step toward him.
Ravenguard drew his dagger and bared his fangs. He rushed Theodor. Victoria tried to blast him with a pulse of energy, but he dodged the purple mass that flew from her hand and leapt onto Theodor. Both men toppled to the ground and rolled along the pebble walkway. Sparks of magic flew between them as Theodor tried to block the attack. Ravenguard’s fangs drew closer and closer to his neck.
Victoria’s stomach twisted at the thought of losing Teddy again. She’d watched him get stabbed and dragged to Hell by Ravenguard once before. It wouldn’t happen again. She may not be able to deliver a direct hit with her magic without hurting Theodor, but she had other weapons at her disposal. She rushed the two and delivered a kick to Ravenguard’s ribs with all her Soulkeeper strength. Pain shot through her foot, but the move worked. The hunter grunted. The distraction gave Theodor room to manage a repulsion spell, sending Ravenguard flying back a few feet.
Circling her arms, Victoria blasted Ravenguard with icy magic. It plowed into him, taking her breath away and turning the tips of her fingers blue. Ravenguard froze, icicles forming off the tip of his nose and the lobes of his ears. She raised her hands to finish him off, but Theodor did the honors.
“Eviscerate!” He tossed a card at the center of the hunter’s red coat and Ravenguard, admissions counselor and disciplinarian of Revelations, shattered like glass. Red shards the color of blood sprinkled onto the pebbles between the mausoleums, turning to ash when they hit the stones before sinking into the earth.
“We are no longer in need of your services,” Theodor said, kicking the stones to make sure nothing of Ravenguard remained. He brushed a hand over his dark jacket as if to ensure that none of Ravenguard’s remains clung to the clothes.
“Are you hurt?” he asked her, rushing to steady her by the shoulders and look her in the eyes.
“My foot is sore, but I don’t think it’s broken,” she said. But he didn’t let go of her and his face… his expression was almost pleading. “What’s wrong?”
“Before another thing happens, before something else tries to kill either one of us, I must tell you Victoria, I love you. I have always loved you. I will always love you. This ancient flesh will not take another step without making sure you know.” She’d never seen him look as human, as fragile. When a man like Theodor trusted you with his heart, it was important not to take it for granted. She didn’t leave him twisting in the wind.
“I know,” she said. “I love you too. I have since the first time I met you. I should have left with you that night at the cabaret. I should have listened to you.”
He kissed her then, in a way he hadn’t kissed her in decades. Magic, Victoria thought. This thing between them was pure magic, larger than life and completely invincible.
Thunder rumbled behind them. Not thunder, the portal. Theodor pulled away as the red hole that had started as a slit in the night sky widened, crackling with power. “It’s getting bigger. I don’t think this is what Lucifer intended to happen. It’s taking too long. Something has gone wrong. We may have a chance yet to change the outcome this night.”
“How do we stop it?” she asked.
“I don’t know.” He turned his face to hers again.
She shrugged. “Not knowing has never stopped us from trying.” He held out his hand to her in invitation. She smiled and took it. More determined than ever, they took off at a sprint, straight toward the Devil and the sacrifice.
33
Finn
Finn clutched the hilt of the dagger, the sticky warmth of Kirsa’s blood oozing from her back over his hands, but he couldn’t move. Every time he tried to let go and pull away from the nightmare in front of him or even think about doing so, hot pressure squeezed his brain. He blinked. Stared at the blood. At Kirsa. At the fire in front of him that still housed Lucifer. He should feel something, shouldn’t he? But he didn’t. It was hard to think at all.
On the bright side, whatever curse he was still under was an old one. The Devil was too busy trying to wrestle the portal open to worry about him now. The ritual’s magic was weaker than he’d expected. But then, the sacrifice of the Healer was supposed to fuel this magic. That hadn’t happened. Kirsa was an adequate substitute but far less powerful. It looked like Lucifer was trying to finish the job himself.
“Oh God, Finn,
” Mike said from beside him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mike staring at the portal above their heads. It was the size of a beach ball and blazing like a small sun. Lucifer clawed and pulled, forcing it open. A rush of molten power wrapped around his head and Finn winced. He was not supposed to look at the portal. He looked back down at the blood.
“Sorry, buddy,” Mike said. “This is going to hurt.”
Cold hands touched the bare skin of his ankle, and a different kind of rush flooded Finn’s body. It felt like cold water was being pumped up his leg and into his torso, enough that it clashed inside him with the hot magma that had coiled around his brain like a snake. The pain was instantaneous.
He released the dagger and clutched the sides of his head, a scream catching in his throat. Kirsa’s blood matted sticky and warm in his hair. His brain couldn’t grasp what was happening, but he moaned against the pain, his voice drowned out by the chugging mass of energy that was the portal above him. Mike did not let go of his ankle.
“Finn,” Hope’s voice came from somewhere near the crypt beside him. “Finn, look at me.”
Finn tried but when he attempted to turn his head, the pain intensified. He glanced at the fire. Damn, the Devil was big. In his natural form with the horns and the teeth, he was truly terrifying. The tear between the realms was getting bigger, and Lucifer was too. He was drawing on the power from the other side. Finn could see that now.
“Hope, I’m totally blind, girl. I can’t hold on,” Mike said. The grip on Finn’s ankle loosen and then slip away. The cool feeling abated and he doubled over from the loss.