by Ciara Graves
Lela tried to swallow, but instead spat up blood. A metal bolt jutted right through her chest.
“Mech,” she choked.
I held out my hands for her, but she was yanked away. I scrambled to get after her, but Bobby and Kexan grabbed my shoulders. I bellowed and snarled for them to get off me, but it was too late.
Lela’s fingers were wrapped around the end of the bloodied bolt protruding from her chest. Her eyes slowly lifted to mine.
The chain connected to the bolt was wound around Hadariel’s hand.
“Run,” she coughed, then yelled, “Mech, run!”
Hadariel grinned as he yanked on the chain. drawing a scream from her.
I dove forward, but Bobby and Kexan dragged me back. “Get away from her! I’ll tear you apart. I’ll kill you!”
“Not before I kill your beloved fallen angel.” Hadariel’s free hand grabbed hold of Lela’s hair. He tugged, exposing her throat.
She spat in his face, but he merely twisted the bolt until she was screaming and flailing to get away from the pain.
Red flooded my vision. I pulled Bobby and Kexan along with me. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be. It was a nightmare. That’s all it was. But when Hadariel let go of the chain, and a blade was shaped from corrupt holy light that had manifested in his palm, reality hit.
“Lela,” I breathed, my heart plummeting to the ground. “No. No!”
Her eyes stayed on me as Hadariel plunged the blade into her heart. Her mouth dropped open in a silent scream as blue light flooded her veins. It exploded from her eyes. Then she was gone.
Lela was dead.
Hadariel stared at the pile of ashes at his feet then ground his boot in them. My whole body went numb. I was vibrating with fury. I gnashed my jaws, ready to take on the entire army.
Bobby and Kexan were talking, but all I could see was Lela dying.
She was gone. I failed her. Lela was dead.
More hands wrapped around me and tore me away from the grisly sight just as Hadariel gave the order to destroy Dakota. Then we were through the hatch. Ilran was there with Nathaniel. Together, they blasted the door with a burst of hellfire and holy light, blocking off the enemy from following us.
Not that they would. Hadariel had won tonight, and he knew it.
I thrashed and shouted, begging for them to let me go back. If Lela was dead, there was nothing else for me. I was going to go down fighting the angel who betrayed her. Who murdered her.
“Mech, she’s gone,” Ilran shouted.
I snapped at her, rabid with grief.
“We need to get moving,” Kexan urged then shoved me into the tunnel wall.
I smacked my head against the stone, but all that did was blur my vision and piss me off.
I clocked him, but he took the hit and sent back one of his own.
My fury was about to override any sense of sanity I might have left when something heavy hit me on the head.
I slumped to the ground. A hot tear slipped from my eye, and then I let the darkness take me.
Chapter 9
Mech
Lela stood in front of me, close enough to touch. She was smiling as blood poured out of her mouth. I shouted and ranted at her, but she continued to smile as though dying was a good thing. She burst into a pillar of blue-white light and then was gone.
I sat upright with that image burned into my mind. My body shook, and I was on my feet, even as hands reached out to shove me back down.
“Mech, take it easy,” Kexan snapped when I pushed him. “Calm down.”
“How?” I snarled, running my hands madly through my hair.
Lela was dead. That wasn’t a nightmare. I saw her die. Hadariel killed her. I swore I’d keep her safe, but she was dead, and it was my fault. My heart broke all over again, and then I was on my knees as Kexan tried his best to comfort me. Words were pouring out of my mouth, but I wasn’t even sure what I was saying.
I knew deep down this war wouldn’t come without a cost, that if we were to end it, lives would be lost. I always told myself I’d be the one to die. And instead, it was Lela who was a pile of ash at the enemy’s feet. There was no bringing her back. He didn’t just destroy her human body; he obliterated her soul. I couldn’t even try to find her essence and preserve her. There was just nothing left. Bobby and Ilran moved into view, with Bryan and several others behind them.
We were in the caves. Being here was too hard. Everywhere I glanced, I saw Lela. I pushed to my feet and staggered away from them all, heading for the entrance.
“Where are you going?” Kexan demanded as he followed, Bobby at my other side.
“I can’t,” I muttered. “I can’t stay here.”
“You are not going out there. It’s not safe.” He marched around me and planted his feet. “Mech, you have to stop.”
“Why?” I shouted, throwing my arms up. “Lela’s dead, Kexan! She’s dead. Dakota has fallen. They’ve won, alright? Hell is gone. The ones we swore to protect are gone. We lost. It’s time we admit it.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“Don’t I?”
“You’re going to stand there and tell me with a straight face that this is what Lela would want for you?”
Something snapped inside me.
The audible crack echoed in my ears, though no one else seemed to hear it. I grabbed Kexan by the shirt and threw him into the nearest cave wall then held him there with my arm across his throat. “Don’t you dare talk to me about her,” I seethed. “It doesn’t matter what she’d want because she’s dead. She died for nothing.”
“She died to get you and the others out,” Ilran said. She rested a hand on my shoulder. “Mech, I know it’s hard right now, but you have to stay strong.”
My lip twitched as I released Kexan and backed away. “What I need is for Lela to be alive.”
“But she’s not.”
Ilran’s words were another stab to the gut. “What did you say?”
“She’s not, Mech. Lela is dead, and so are countless others. They’re not coming back, but you running off to get your stupid ass slaughtered is only going to be an insult to their memory. To what they died for. Is that what you really want? Is it? You are not the only one hurting here, but now is not the time to lose your shit.”
A whirlwind of agony and loss rampaged through me, thinking of the last time I held Lela in my arms, not knowing it would be the last. Growing dizzy, I fell into the wall and held myself there, breathing deep. I swore for a second I smelled her, the oranges and vanilla she always seemed to smell like. I always wondered what Koreth felt like when he lost my mother.
Now I knew, and I hated every second of it. How did he keep going for so long? No wonder he turned into a cold-hearted bastard in the months that followed. Throwing up walls was the only way he must’ve been able to hide the seemingly endless anger and agony that filled me now.
“I don’t know what to do,” I finally said as I faced Ilran and the others.
“We don’t let him have an easy victory,” Kexan stated as he grabbed my arm and righted me. “If we’re going to die, then we’re going out with one hell of a bang.”
“Is he even in Dakota still?”
Footsteps sounded behind me. Several demons rushed through the falls and into the cave, all of them out of breath.
“Well?” Ilran asked.
“He’s there,” Travis said.
“Where?”
“In Dakota,” he replied. “Hadariel, Zeraxin. Their entire army seems to be there, what he didn’t leave in Hell, at least.”
“Why would he stay in Dakota?” No one had an answer to my question, but then it hit me. That rotten sack of shit was going to do everything he could to destroy whatever Lela had held dear. That compound, those humans, they had been her whole mission. Killing her and destroying her soul wasn’t enough.
He had to remove anything she ever touched in this world.
I glared past the scouts, then started walking again.
“Me
ch, where are you going?” Kexan, Bobby, and Ilran sprinted around to block my path. “You’re not going to Dakota to get yourself killed.”
“Never said I was,” I told Kexan. “But if he’s in Dakota, then he wants us all to see what he’s up to. Don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being a step behind. I want to know exactly what he’s planning so we can make our final attack because it is going to be our final attack.”
The weight of my words didn’t make any of them shy away. Instead, Kexan clenched his jaw and said he was going to fetch weapons. Travis and the scouts who appeared to still be recovering from their sprint back here stepped forward.
“We’re coming, too.”
I hadn’t taken time to see how many people we had left from Dakota. We’d scout the compound, then come back and anyone who wanted to fight could come with us. The others would at least get a head start before Hadariel and his forces went after them.
“Let’s get going then.”
Kexan returned, handed out rifles, daggers, swords. The shotgun he saved for last. When I saw it, I had to bite back another snarl of grief. Hand shaking, I took the weapon and gripped it hard. Kexan handed over a bandolier filled with shells. I slipped it over my head, so it rested across my body. I loaded the weapon one shell at a time, promising Lela I’d do my best to avenge her death before I joined her in oblivion.
The stench of rotting meat, burning flesh, and sulfur hit us about three miles from Dakota. The closer we grew, the worse it became. A few of the demons and humans tagged along, Bryan included, had to stop and vomit from the overwhelming stench. Bile rose in my throat several times, but I merely gagged and kept moving.
Lela’s voice whispered in my ear, as if she was somehow lingering in the burnt-out shell of a city.
And that’s all Dakota was when we finally reached it.
The compound we believed we’d turned into a fortress was nothing but ruined walls, collapsed buildings, many still on fire, and columns of thick, black smoke rising into the air.
“Shit,” Bryan whispered.
His gaze was focused on something to the right of the city. A chorus of more curses went up in our scouting party, and I nearly charged down that slope into Dakota to slaughter every evil being. They’d dragged the dead out of the streets and piled them up haphazardly. Two angels marched to the pile. Corrupt holy light flared to life in their palms. Bryan let out a strangled yelp that was quickly quieted by Travis clapping a hand over his mouth. He fought against him, but he wasn’t getting away.
“We can’t do anything for them,” I said sternly. “Bryan, look at me.”
Travis lowered his hand to free Bryan’s mouth. “Their souls, Mech. They’re going to burn away their damned souls.”
My heart that was already in so much agony over Lela’s death, I had no more room to feel pain for the number of humans about to be obliterated. There was no more room for sympathy.
“Don’t watch,” I told Bryan, not sure what else I could say.
His neck strained as he continued to try to get away from Travis. The moment the holy light struck the bodies, furious tears welled in his eyes, and he sank to his knees. All those we lost would never have a chance to be at peace. Melinda, Xavier, Tim, countless others. We failed them all, and they were still paying the price, even in death. Unable to keep my back turned any longer, I spun to face the burning pile of bodies. The holy light ate through them quickly, and soon there was nothing left but a smoldering mountain of ash and chunks of bone that hadn’t burned all the way. The holy light continued to burn as the evil angels kept guard over it, as if they knew we would come back and try to stop them.
“Let’s keep moving,” I said, the words coming out roughly. “We’re here to do a job.”
Travis let go of Bryan and patted him on the shoulder. He wiped at his eyes and nodded. We traipsed around Dakota, staying as far back as we could. There were several roaming patrols of angels, hounds, and those horrible demonoid hordes, but they stayed close to the fallen walls. Every step I took closer to where Lela had met her end made me numb. The stench of death fell away. The suddenly cold wind gusting across the wastelands blew my hair across my face, but I didn’t shiver. Even my hands, still holding the shotgun, were without sensation.
Kexan tapped me on the shoulder. “Look.”
We’d circled around to the west side of Dakota. The wall was completely torn away, and the entire area had been cleared of debris. Wraiths had gathered, making a large circle that stretched into the streets as well as far outside what had been the boundaries of the compound. They hovered a foot off the ground, black hoods covering their heads. It was eerie, and the quiet murmuring of voices we’d heard since we arrived fell silent. Even the wind seemed to die down, and the crackling of dead branches and leaves ceased.
I glanced at Ilran, not wanting to say anything in case the noise carried. Hadariel and Zeraxin emerged from Town Hall and walked toward the ring of wraiths.
Zeraxin and Hadariel seemed to be having a heated conversation until Hadariel finally silenced him. He reached the circle alone. The wraiths parted to let him inside. Zeraxin’s eyes narrowed, and he glowered at Hadariel’s back. I waited for him to attack and take care of one of our problems for us, but he backed away, standing amongst the ranks of his army.
Ilran nudged me and gave Hadariel a questioning look. I had no idea what he was doing. He walked the length of the circle, then around it. There was no way to hear him from this distance, and I knew Ilran wasn’t going to risk using another glyph to eavesdrop. Whatever he said caused the markings in the dirt to glow. They spread out like a spider-web, covering the entire area surrounded by the wraiths. A loud hum started, then turned into a buzz, like a swarm of bees was flying over the wastelands. The volume increased, and the buzzing turned to a howl, high-pitched and piercing. The ground cracked and dust shot up, carving deep rivets in the circle. Hadariel quickly stepped out of it and stood side-by-side with the wraiths.
“Mech,” Ilran breathed, “those symbols, don’t you recognize them?”
I squinted, taking in the symbols that were left glowing when they collapsed completely into the hole that formed. They matched the ones on the platform at Blood Falls, and several other locations in Hell. Symbols demons and angels shared.
“No,” I whispered, not willing to believe Hadariel was going to follow through with his plans. “He can’t.”
But even as the words left my mouth, a mass giving off an enormous amount of blue and orange-red light rose from the depths of the earth.
“Bring them,” Hadariel bellowed.
Shouts and screams reached us from the center of Dakota. An abomination led a long line of angels bound in dark chains toward the circle. I thought Hadariel had burned them all with the rest of the dead. Apparently, I was wrong.
“Mech.” Ilran grabbed my arm, her nails digging in.
“I know, but we can’t save them. There’s too many.”
“So we just stand here and watch?” Bryan snapped, but his anger wasn’t directed at me. He glared at Hadariel, the same look of horror in his eyes I was sure was in mine. “He’s going to slaughter them, and we have to stand here and do nothing.”
I swapped my shotgun for Kexan’s rifle. I put my eye to the scope and focused on Hadariel. From this distance, I’d be lucky to hit him and make it count. If I did, all of Dakota would be after us. We’d be surrounded, killed, and then they’d eventually track down those we saved. I lowered the gun to see every face looking at me, half of them hoping I’d take the shot, the other letting out a sigh of relief when I didn’t.
The angels tugged on the chains, kicking and fighting to get free. Hadariel’s face was void of all emotion. The wraiths parted more, creating a ten-yard gap as the lights in the hole grew brighter. The air became charged, and I clutched at my chest as a collective chorus of growls came from me and the demons.
“What… what is that?” Kexan gasped.
There was no point in answering. A few
seconds later, the sources of the light became visible. Two massive, floating orbs of swirling blue light and orange-red flames appeared. Dark, green grass grew under the blue while the ground beneath the flames was blackened stone.
“Hellfire and holy light,” Ilran whispered beside me. “He’s brought them to the surface.”
He had, and even as I watched them swirl within their invisible containment, I sensed they were much smaller than they should’ve been. The sources had been drained. Eventually, they’d run out if Hadariel wasn’t careful. Around the orbs were stone archways carved with the symbols of creation for both races.
Between them was another, smaller orb where the two sources intermingled and became one before flowing back out to their own side. I was awestruck to see them here on the surface, shit, to see them at all.
A memory floated through the haze in my mind. A memory of my mother telling me about the location of our power.
A shimmering substance appeared in the archways.
“I don’t remember that from the story,” I told Ilran.
“Because it’s not supposed to be there. It’s a veil of some kind, blocking us off from the power. Stopped us from finding them.” She stretched her hand out and closed her eyes. “Can’t you feel the wall? We should be able to embrace our hellfire with it being this close, but that veil is cutting us off.”
I closed my eyes and let my senses wander, trying to pull on my hellfire. It rose within me, but I flinched when it hit a barrier I couldn’t see. “You think that’s why we haven’t been able to access our hellfire all these years? Because of that veil?”
“He would’ve had to put it in decades ago. Maybe centuries,” she said quietly. “It’s not possible.”
“After everything we’ve seen, you’re really going to tell me that?”
She scowled.
The captive angels screamed louder. When we turned back, they were at the circle’s edge. One by one, they were shoved forward and passed around to the wraiths’ waiting hands until each wraith held a prisoner.
“Bring the last,” Hadariel yelled.