An alarm began to blare.
“Dayna, the gates have been breached,” Ida said.
“Send out the distress call to all reapers and alert the Beyond,” Dayna ordered Ida. “The wards are down, and we have incoming.”
This was it. This was their goal.
My voralex.
A doorway to the Beyond.
But why use Azazel? My mind was a buzz of questions as Cora and I ran toward my voralex. The Dread were here, in Deadside, and they would be heading to the doorway.
We had to protect it.
The crowd of souls still lingered by the gates, drawn to the doorway’s power.
“Get out of here. Go!” I shooed them. “Get in your homes and don’t come out.”
“What’s going on?”
“What’s happening?”
Shit, no time for questions. “The Dread are here.”
“What?”
“Who?”
They had no clue, and I had no time to explain in detail. “They feed on souls.”
That was enough to get them moving. They backed up and began to disperse.
I stood with my back to the gates, scythe at the ready.
“I feel like this is one of those doomed missions,” Cora said. “How many Dread?”
“I don’t know. But backup is coming. We just need to fight them off until it arrives.”
“Can’t the damn celestials just close the portal?”
“I don’t know. I hope so. We’ve sent the message, so maybe.”
The ground shuddered, and my body broke out in gooseflesh. The souls who were in the process of leaving faltered, turning their heads to look east toward the main entrance.
Oh, fuck.
“Do you feel it?” Cora asked.
“Yes.”
It was a dark foreboding, an ache at the back of my neck. It was despair and hunger and longing, and it was headed this way in a cloud of darkness. How was this possible? How were they doing this?
The fucking souls needed to get out of here. “Run!”
Their paralysis broke and they turned to run, but too late. The cloud swallowed them. Pinpricks of light bloomed in the seething darkness before winking out one by one.
Cora’s hands fizzed and lit up with power, ready to attack. My scythe glowed brighter, reacting to the threat because it was headed our way. And then it wasn’t a cloud, it was a fucking army.
Dread draped in black flowing garments, some ridge-nosed, some beautiful—second- and third-generation Dread, nephilim and their creations. They walked toward us, and leading the charge was Vale, the ex-reaper and blood of Samael.
His smirk said it all. We were nothing. We were two against a horde. He raised his hand, and the army halted while he came forward. He stopped several meters away, his gaze flicking to my scythe.
“Seraphina Dawn. Blood of Samael. Blood of my blood,” he said.
“Hello, Vale.”
“We have no quarrel with the Underealm. There doesn’t need to be any more death.”
“No quarrel? You attacked us in the warehouse.”
“But we didn’t hurt you. We simply needed your scythe power, and if you’d just let us have it, then there would have been no need for us to resort to attacking Azazel. It wasn’t an easy decision, but it was one life to save the many.” He smiled. “I see, however, that you circumvented our plan. It served its purpose, though. It powered the sigil on your walls long enough to drain your wards.”
Wait. “You used Azazel and his voralex to power the spell to bring down the wards.”
“It had to come from somewhere, and human souls are potent sources, as the Beyond is very much aware.” He sighed. “We feed so our ancestors can live. That’s all. We take what we need and no more.”
“Really? Didn’t you just devour a host of human souls.”
“We’ll need that energy to break open the doors. The voralex is merely a crack.”
“And what about Evelyn? Didn’t she get the memo on not killing for sport?”
I was stalling, and it was working, because the longer I kept him jabbering, the more time backup had to arrive, and maybe the Beyond would get their arses in gear and shut their crack. Fuck, that sounded weird.
“Evelyn was temperamental,” Vale said. “I don’t hold her death against you.” He sighed. “And as much as I’m enjoying this conversation and your attempt to stall in the hopes that the cavalry arrives, it’s time for us to take our ancestors home. Through us, they will ascend.”
“Um, Fee,” Cora said from the corner of her mouth. “Shouldn’t backup be here by now.”
“Oh, they’re here,” Val said. “They just won’t be able to get in. Your wards may be down, but ours went up as soon as we entered.”
Horror pooled in my stomach.
“So you have two choices. Either you get out of the way and live. Or stand your ground and die.”
Fuck. Where was Dayna? No, it was better if she stayed away. “Vale, I’m sorry for what happened to the Dread. I am, and right now, I have no sympathy for the Beyond. If your actions weren’t going to ripple into this world, then I’d step aside and let you through, but I can’t do that. Because if you do this, it will upset the balance. It’ll mean more human souls will be needed to power the Beyond. If you do this, you’re sentencing millions of souls to burn.”
He tilted his head to the side as if considering this argument. His brow pinched in a frown, and for a moment, I thought I’d gotten through to him, that maybe he’d see sense. He’d been one of us once. A reaper. A demon. He’d protected humans.
His brow cleared, and he shook his head. “We’ve suffered long enough, and we will suffer no more.”
They weren’t his words. They were the Dread’s words—the original celestial army speaking through him. My time was up.
“Move or die,” Vale said, and then he advanced, bringing his army with him.
“Fee?” Cora asked.
I squeezed my eyes shut. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I’d thrown her into danger once, I wouldn’t risk her life again. Never again. “Go. Get out now.”
She gave me an incredulous look. “Like hell. If I go, you go.”
I slipped backward through the gates, then shut them on her. “Jasper!” I screamed his name with intent.
He appeared beside Cora.
“Get her out of here.”
He glanced at the advancing horde.
“No,” Cora cried, but Jasper grabbed her, and then they were both gone.
The horde was almost at the gates, and they’d get through, no doubt, but the narrow opening would create some kind of bottleneck.
I’d take down as many as I could. I wouldn’t be able to stop them, but I’d cull the fuck out of their numbers. Every Dread down would be one human soul saved, and once this was over, the Beyond would pay for all the souls they’d burned. They’d pay for what they did to Aunt Lara.
I exhaled as the gates crashed open, and the horde poured in.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Azazel
“Fee!” I wake up in a cold sweat, heart pounding, blood rushing in my ears. Something is wrong with Fee.
“Azazel?” Uriel joins me in the lounge. “Fee and Cora went to Deadside to stop her aunt’s ascension.”
The lift pings, and Grayson comes running out. His face is as white as a sheet, and his gaze locks with mine.
“Fee,” we both say in unison.
“Something’s wrong?” he says.
I’m on my feet in an instant. “We need to go to Deadside now.”
Alarm bells are going off in my head.
The air fizzes and Cora appears by the pool table. She screams, clawing at Jasper.
“You bastard. You fucking bastard. I hate you!”
“Cora, what the fuck?” I rush over, and she flings herself away from the malevolent spirit and into my arms. “What happened? Where’s Fee?”
She looks up at me with rage-filled eyes glistening with tears. “She’s in troubl
e, Az. The Dread have her cornered. They’re going to kill her.”
My body freezes, and then fire is rushing through my veins. I release Cora and head for the exit, wings itching to burst free.
“You can’t get in,” Jasper calls out. “New wards. Dread wards. You won’t get in.”
Grayson fixes his furious gaze on Jasper. “You got in.”
Jasper sighs. “I play by different rules.”
Cora grabs his lapels and shakes him. “Take us back. Take us in. Dammit, Jasper, if you don’t help me save her, I swear to you I’ll never forgive you. I’ll fight you. I’ll find a way to hurt you, I’ll—”
“Fine,” Jasper snaps. “But I can only take one at a time. Who wants to go in first?”
“Me,” we all say at once.
“It’s my duty to protect her,” Keon states.
I open my mouth to argue, but Grayson cuts in.
“Azazel goes first, and I go next.”
Keon doesn’t argue any further. He’s smart enough to know that every minute counts.
Cora makes a sound of protest, but Grayson grips her shoulders. “I need you to rally the pack. We need them all. Do you understand?”
She nods. “I got this.”
Jasper bridges the distance between us and grabs my wrist, and the world fills with ice.
Fee
My scythe was a fiery arc cutting a path through the air, slicing at Dread. But for each one I brought down, another got past me.
“Fee!” Dayna landed beside me, her daggers moving so fast they were a blur.
Ida was somewhere here too, and the other HQ reapers. No time to think. No time to help anyone. Just fight.
I wanted to get to Vale, to take him down, but he was evasive, keeping a distance as he herded his Dread toward the voralex. How many had gotten through? Why the fuck hadn’t the Beyond shut down the doorway?
I took two more heads.
“Stop her!” Vale screamed. “Kill her.”
Yep, that was me he was talking about, and now the Dread stopped beelining for the house and surged toward me.
Fuck.
A blade here, a talon there. I used the scythe to keep them back, but there were too many. Pain ripped the back of my thigh. I lost my balance for a second, but it was enough for a Dread to get under my defenses, and then fire pierced my side, tearing a scream from my throat. I twisted, pulling my body off the blade, and swiped with my dagger, cutting the Dread’s throat.
“Fee, watch out!” Dayna cried out.
The back of my head exploded with pain, and I hit the ground with my knees. My scythe winked out as the world darkened.
“Fee!”
Dayna…
There was a band around my neck, squeezing and making it impossible to cry out, making it difficult to breathe, and then I was being hauled up. The darkness trying to claim my sight retreated, and Vale’s furious face filled my vision.
“You should have walked away,” he said.
He opened his mouth, and the world was filled with light. I’d been here before. This floating place. This wonderful place.
Just let go. Just let go and float.
And then the light winked out because Vale’s head was gone. Azazel stood in his place, eyes blazing with righteous fury.
Yes, we’d been here before.
Vale’s body dusted into embers, and with it, the force holding me aloft vanished. My body gave out on me, legs buckling.
Azazel grabbed me around the waist and kissed me on the mouth. Ice filled me like cold fire in my blood, ripping through the effects of the Dread’s kiss and bringing me back to life.
He pulled away. “Hold on.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck as he gripped me with one arm, spinning to decapitate a Dread.
He wielded his blade with power, keeping me out of harm’s way. “Put me down. You can’t fight while holding me.”
“I fucking can.”
The roar and snarl of wolves tore the air.
Grayson…My pack.
They were here too.
How was everyone here? Were the Dread wards down?
Azazel twisted to the side, and I heard the wet whoosh of his blade cross another throat.
“Cora!” Azazel called.
Cora was back?
Azazel kissed my temple, and then he threw me.
I arced through the air until I made contact with something, and then the world splintered.
I materialized outside the gates to the voralex.
Cora grabbed my shoulders and squeezed, her face a mask of fury. “Don’t you ever fucking do that again.”
I gave her a weak smile. “So, my plan worked.”
“What?”
“For you to go get help.”
She frowned. “You planned this?”
I grinned through the sting of my knitting wounds. “No, but that would have been a cool plot twist, right?”
“Bitch. I hate you.” She hugged me.
My wounds zinged as they finished healing, and power flooded my limbs. “We have to get back in and help.”
Cora helped me up, and we ran toward the gates.
We never made it.
A flash of blinding light shot down from the sky, striking the earth between us and the voralex. The force of the impact threw me back several feet. My ears rang shrilly, and the rest of the world was a muffled place.
“Cora?” My voice sounded far away. I blinked against the dark spots, hands out searching for my friend. My fingers brushed someone’s hands.
“Cora?”
“Fee?”
The spots shrank, and I could see again. But Cora wasn’t looking at me, she was looking at the sky.
I followed her gaze to see armored wings, fiery spears, and blades descending on the voralex.
The Righteous army was here.
“Looks like the cavalry finally arrived,” Cora said. “Are we going to let them have all the fun?”
My scythe appeared in my hand. “Like hell.”
The Righteous army were relentless, cutting down Dread with their armored wings, slicing down into the fray, and spinning until heads flew off.
We were simply backup, and it wasn’t long before every Dread that hadn’t made it through the voralex was dead.
We stood, bloody and exhausted, in the midst of embers and ash. The Righteous army left one by one, launching themselves back into the air, all except one.
I recognized him as he drew near.
Cassius. The Dominion who’d shoved me out of the Beyond. The one who’d told me to forget about Uriel.
Azazel and Grayson flanked me as the celestial approached. Thank God Uriel hadn’t come to help. Keon stepped in front of me, blocking Cassius’s path. He hissed in warning.
Cassius frowned and looked around the Blade. “We need to talk.”
“It’s okay, Keon. I need a word with him.”
Keon stepped out of the way.
“You took your time,” Azazel said. “I would have thought you’d have shut the voralex down.”
“We tried,” Cassius said. “It was taking too long.” He pressed his lips together. “The voralexes have been tainted, and celestials are working on shutting them all down. There are Dread in the Beyond who we will now have to hunt.” He narrowed his eyes. “If you’d done your jobs as reapers and regulated the Dread threat, then this would never have happened.”
Was he fucking serious? “Regulate a threat that you placed here? One that you lied to us about.”
He blinked sharply. “Uriel was hiding you. You have him, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I have him, and he stays with me. You tortured him just to keep your disgusting secret.” I stepped up to him, rage a hot kernel in my chest. “You feed off human souls. You burn them up and spit out what’s left into purgatory. You fucking make me sick. Don’t you dare stand there and try to put the blame for this on us. Maybe if you’d been upfront about the Dread, we’d have had a chance to preempt their plan. But it’
s all about the power for you guys, isn’t it?” Heat pressed at the back of my eyes. “You just fucking burned through my Aunt Lara!”
His lip curled. “You think this is just about us?”
“I don’t see anyone else using souls as batteries.”
His jaw ticked. “If not for us, humanity would have fallen into darkness a long time ago.”
“What are you talking about?” Azazel asked.
“The Beyond and the earthly realm are irrevocably entwined. If the Beyond falls, then the earthly realm will unravel too. We did what we had to in order to save both realms.”
I didn’t buy it. “You’re lying.”
“Celestials can’t lie,” he said.
I looked to Azazel, who nodded. “He’s telling the truth.”
“With the voralexes down, the Beyond will fall,” Cassius said. “And when it does, all this”—he waved an arm to encompass our world—“will follow, but then I guess all great civilizations must come to an end someday.”
He sounded weary, as if he was done with it all.
It was a defeatist attitude. “There has to be something we can do.”
He smiled wryly. “We need human souls, and the voralexes were the last of their kind. With them gone, we have no means to siphon and convert souls to energy, and all the energy stored in them has been corrupted. Once we shut down, it will be swallowed by the ether.”
“Then we find another source of energy.”
He snorted. “I suppose I should applaud your optimism.”
“You’re saying there is nothing else that can power the Beyond?”
Something passed across his face. A knowledge that he tried to bury. But why? Why would he want to hide a solution from us?
“You know something.”
He looked torn.
“Cassius,” Azazel said. “If there is any hope, however slim, we must pursue it.”
“There is something I heard a long time ago. A rumor. I’m not sure how much truth there was to it.”
“I thought celestials couldn’t lie,” Cora said.
Cassius pursed his lips. “No, but we can make mistakes.”
“What did you hear?” Azazel asked.
“When the divine left, when we realized what was happening to the Beyond, a small group of Powers were sent to the Underealm. I have no idea why, but it’s said they never returned.”
Reaper Undone (Deadside Reapers Book 5) Page 22