The City of Flame and Shadow

by Kim Richardson

With a final great heave, Alexa pulled her angel warrior through purgatory’s back door.

  She saw Milo’s mouth move, and then a wave of dizziness descended on her before she spiraled into darkness.

  CHAPTER 27

  ALEXA AND MILO SPRINTED OUT of the elevator on level 5 and dashed across the Counter Demon Division chamber, picking their way through cubicles and chairs. They stopped only when they reached the large conference table.

  A white dog was sprawled in one of the chairs at the head of the table. At the sight of them, he jumped down and stretched.

  “Finally.” The white German Shepard trotted towards them, his tail wagging behind him. “You know, I’ve been waiting for hours and hours, and everyone knows I can’t do the waiting thing. I shed and drool most of the time. It’s dreadful. What took you so long anyway? And where were you? Ariel was in a state when she found the two of you gone—”

  “What do you mean? Ariel knew where we were—”

  “—missing and nowhere to be found,” continued the dog as though Alexa hadn’t spoken. “How could you just leave and not tell anyone? Me? Why didn’t you tell me? I thought we were bosom pals, you and me. We’re supposed to look out for one another—”

  “Lance. What’s going on? Can you please stop babbling and tell us—”

  “Ariel went looking for you, her most trusted guardians, but then she couldn’t wait any longer and everyone had to leave—”

  “Lancelot!”

  The dog’s jaw snapped shut.

  “Where is everyone?” At the look of panic that she came to recognize on the dog’s face, she added, “What’s happened?”

  “Lots since the two of you disappeared,” said Lance. He looked at Alexa’s sword. “Since when do you carry a short sword?”

  “The bone sword,” said Alexa and Milo together.

  “The what sword?”

  “Never mind that now. It’s a long story. First, can you tell me where to find Sabrielle? I need to speak to her.” Just the mention of the archangel’s name sent hot fury through Alexa.

  “Sorry, but she’s gone with the rest of the archangels,” answered the dog.

  “All the archangels?” said Milo with a startled glance.

  “That’s right.”

  “Where did they go?” inquired Alexa.

  “London.”

  “London… London?”

  “If you mean, London as in the largest city in the United Kingdom, then yes, that London.”

  “What’s happened in London?” asked Milo.

  “Hades and his entourage of pagan gods and goddesses decided to take it, that’s what.”

  “What?”

  “Exactly,” nodded Lance.

  Alexa shook her head. “No, I mean, I can’t believe it.”

  “Well, you better believe it, baby, ‘cause it’s happening. It’s complete chaos. The mortals have already started to notice that something is amiss in their world—you know like ghosts and demons and things they shouldn’t be able to see—they can now see, thanks to the Helm of Darkness. He’s been using the helm to open Hellgates, with gods, goddesses, and all matter of nightmarish creatures, monsters and ghouls sprouting out of them like fireworks. With the helm, he doesn’t need mortal souls to feed the Hellgates to open their doors. And we know of at least three that are opened and fully functional. It’s hell on Earth, literally. Thousands of mortal souls have already perished. And it’s not like we’re close to stopping him either.”

  Alexa couldn’t suppress the shudder that rippled across her shoulders. She remembered all too well what a Hellgate was—a large portal, for much, much bigger evil, too great to escape through a normal Rift in the Veil from the Netherworld. A doorway to nightmares. Only a few months ago, she had tried and failed to close just one. Now there were three.

  “It gets better,” said the dog, waiting for their full attention, his large, golden eyes gleaming. “The Veil keeps trying to close them, but it can’t, you see, because the helm keeps pushing them back, so that power… that energy from the Veil has to go somewhere, right?”

  “And…” inquired Alexa, not liking the anxious tone in the dog’s voice.

  “Hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires, volcanoes erupting—you name it. It’s like natural disaster after natural disaster. It’s not pretty.”

  At that, Milo cursed, low and viciously. His eyes were bright in the glow of the light. Lance waited patiently for him to be done.

  “So, you see,” said Lance, “not only do we have to fight off the demons and pagan gods—and of course, we can’t forget our friends the belphegors—we have to save mortals from getting sucked up into tornadoes and hurricanes or burned alive by wildfires.”

  For a moment, no one spoke. Silence fell as the three angels stared at each other.

  “So, what happened to you guys?” asked the dog, as he cocked his head to the side like a curious child. “Where were you, anyway? Somewhere exciting by the looks of you. Are you going to tell me where you got that new sword? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one quite like it. Is that…” Lance leaned closer. “Is that a bone on the hilt?”

  Alexa raised the sword to give Lance a better view. “It is. Listen, it’s a long story, but we had to use the Healing-Xpress before we came here, which is why it took a little longer,” she glanced at Milo and wondered if he was still tormented by what had happened to him. Or had the Healing-Xpress healed his mind as well?

  Lance’s ears stood up on the top of his head. “You disappeared on a secret mission to get a sword and were injured. Which means you were faced with demons, or possibly something worse, much worse, by the looks you’re giving each other right now. How bad was it?”

  “It doesn’t matter anymore,” dismissed Milo, his shoulders tense. “How many guardian angels are in the field on duty?”

  “Nearly all the angels,” said Lance, “the ones that matter, anyway, but not the newest rookies. Ariel and Metatron spoke up against that, against Sabrielle’s wishes that every angel—the old and the new—should be fighting. She says that we need every available body present, but it still wouldn’t have mattered if she had her way. Won’t make a bit of difference how many we are.”

  “What do you mean?” Alexa asked.

  “The archangels can’t stop Hades,” said Lance, shaking his head slowly. “With the Helm of Darkness, he’s like a hundred times more powerful than any archangel, more powerful than the late and legendary archangel Michael. You know what I’m saying? The mortal world bleeds, and it bleeds black, black with demons and darkness, and it doesn’t look like we can stop it.”

  “Yes, we can.” Alexa gripped the bone sword, its hilt cold against her palm. “Hades isn’t invincible anymore. We can defeat him. And we will.”

  Lance eyed the sword in Alexa’s hand. “Why do I get the feeling that it has something to do with that mighty sword you’re holding right now.”

  “Because it does,” answered Alexa and she looked at Milo. “We didn’t go to purgatory for nothing.”

  “Purgatory!” Lance jumped, and the hairs on his back stood up. “You went to purgatory! To the realm of death and endless torment and of demon souls?”

  “Yes,” said Alexa as she turned and made her way through the chamber towards the Vega tanks. “Come, I’ll explain on the way.”

  “But how? I never heard of angels going to that realm,” he said. His voice shook slightly as he and Milo followed behind Alexa. “I didn’t even know angels had access to such a place. How did you get in? Or get out?”

  Ice licked up Alexa’s spine when she remembered the feeling of channeling the demons’ souls—the infinite, destructive power and feeling that she could destroy anything. No enemy was too strong for her to defeat. She had hardly dreamed that level of power possible when she’d summoned it, when she’d used the demons’ souls and controlled them.

  But it was gone now.

  When she had explained to Milo how she had managed to retrieve the sword once they were o
ut of the Healing-Xpress, he had looked at her strangely. She’d thought for a moment that there had been fear in his eyes before it had disappeared. Then his handsome face was looking down at her again with the half-smile she had thought she might lose forever.

  But they were a team again, a stronger team now with the bone sword, and Alexa was anxious to use it.

  “The faster we get there,” she said and quickened her pace. More adrenaline and suspense fed her with energy and a new sense of urgency. “The faster we can put an end to Hades.”

  Alexa knew she was going to defeat the pagan god, and her smile was fierce.

  Together the three angels dashed across the chamber, climbed up on the platform, and disappeared through curtains of green water.

  CHAPTER 28

  ALEXA HAD NEVER BEEN TO London on assignment, and from the elegant white stone buildings and townhouses that lined the streets, she guessed they were in some upscale neighborhood. She could see that some of the buildings had been converted into apartments and flats, but no light shone from their balconies or windows.

  The evening skies were angry and dark gray, casting a gloomy darkness over the city and deepening the sense of urgency on the band of angels.

  Lance hadn’t exaggerated when he said that it was literary hell on Earth. Everywhere Alexa looked, catastrophe lay in their path. The remains of buildings lined the streets with concrete and debris carpeting the sidewalks. Pavement was torn open with long gouges on the edges as though something large had crawled out of the depths of the Earth. Fires burned, and the air smelled of burnt flesh, sulfur and death.

  Alexa didn’t have to smell death to know it was there. She felt its icy fingers crawling up her spine like thousands of tiny prickly needles. Death was everywhere. In the air and on the ground, it clung to her like a mist, only this mist didn’t go away like morning dew.

  Lance led the way with confidence, keeping to the middle of the street. His white fur shone brightly against the gray somber skies.

  Nerves didn’t pound through Alexa’s body as she marched alongside Lance and Milo, but excitement did, a thrill that she would finally get her revenge and would finally put Hades back where he belonged—in death.

  Alexa wasn’t afraid anymore to face Hades. She could almost feel the delight of cutting him through with the bone sword. She would get her memories back, heal her fractured soul, and the world will be right again, she promised herself.

  The streets were deserted. Only a few mortals dared to walk them, under the threat of hail the size of golf balls, and the lightning bolts that fell around the city like gleaming hot rain.

  It was better that way, Alexa told herself, less mortals to worry about.

  An electric zap reached her, and when Alexa looked up, several of the streetlights lining the sidewalk went out.

  “Stay alert,” said Milo as he drew his sabers. “Death is near.”

  For almost five minutes, they strode up empty, deserted streets. The only sound was the clacking of their boot-nails on the cobbles. There were no birds or animals. Not even insects. Just ruin, decay, and bodies—

  Alexa let out a little gasp and froze where she was. “Are those… are those….”

  “Dead angels? Yes,” said Lance. The horror was plain in the sound his voice. “It’s always hard the first time you see a dead angel. We’re told we’re immortal, so we think we can never die, but it’s not true. Any of us can suffer our true death. Each one of us can die.”

  Alexa stared at the bodies, Lance’s words echoing in her ears. Slowly, Alexa moved towards the bodies although she could barely feel her legs. She stared down at their faces. One was a young man in his early thirties, and lying next to him was a girl who couldn’t be more than twelve. Their eyes were open and vacant. Both had been ripped apart, their M-Suits shredded in ribbons, and both lay in puddles of translucent white liquid, their angel essence. She’d never seen so much lifeblood spilled from an angel body. It was clear that they had suffered major wounds that couldn’t be healed in time, or they were too weak to look for a source of water to get back to Horizon.

  She didn’t care to hide the horror and guilt that spread through her like a sickness.

  Alexa had expected to see the bodies of mortals, but she wasn’t prepared or had even imagined that she would see dead angels.

  “Alexa, we can’t stay here,” said Lance urgently. “We need to find Ariel and the others. It’s not safe. There are hundreds maybe thousands of demons in the city, only too happy to do to us what they did to them. Come away now. Hurry.”

  Alexa couldn’t look away from the dead angels. “We can’t just leave them here. It’s wrong.”

  “We can’t take them with us either,” said Lance. “If their souls survived, they’ll be reborn. That is the way of angels. And it’s the best we can hope for.”

  With the lack of conviction in Lance’s voice, Alexa knew he believed their souls had been consumed by whatever demon had done this. Why else rip them apart, if not to taste their souls…

  She felt a hand on her shoulder and then Milo’s voice whispered above her. “Come, Alexa. There’s nothing we can do for them, but there’s still time to save many others.”

  After a moment, and with a small nod of her head, Alexa rose to her feet and followed Milo and Lance down the street.

  But Alexa’s nausea only worsened the deeper they ventured into the city. The dead were no longer partially mortals, but all angels.

  She tried not to flinch as she walked past a guardian angel, who she recognized as Carol, from the Counter Demon Division crew. They’d never really talked, and she wouldn’t have considered her a friend, but seeing her now on the ground and broken filled her with murderous rage. Fury seethed in her, anger and fear fueling her struggle, but the dead angels were everywhere, all around her.

  More and more bodies of angels scattered the streets, and Alexa, Milo, and Lance picked their way through bodies and the rubble. Alexa felt as though she was stepping through a monument to evil, as though she was back in purgatory.

  Finally, they reached an iron-gated fence that ran around the base of a large park the size of Central Park in New York. A sign read Victoria Gate, Hyde Park.

  Swords clashed nearby in a violent battle amongst the shadows of tall oak trees. The sharp cries of the dying sliced through the cool evening breeze. Roars echoed from the distant boundary of the park as what sounded like hundreds of angels in hand-to-hand combat with demons uttered low war cries.

  Swords tore demon flesh, splintered bone, knocked the demons down and over, but still they came until they were literally ripped apart and shredded into pieces. Suddenly, the fighting slowed, but before it could entirely cease, another wave of demons came thrashing and clawing at the angels.

  Alexa could smell the acrid scents of both fear and hate from those who fought for their lives. She tasted the rotten tang of demon that had sunk to into the ground, and a sweet citrus smell that she couldn’t identify.

  “There’s Ariel,” said Lance suddenly, “over there, inside the war tent.”

  Alexa looked across the park and spotted a white tent made of heavy-looking canvas. Standing in the center of the tent was the archangel Ariel. There were other archangels with her, and Alexa recognized the shorter stockier shape of Metatron. She could see angels lying on the grass outside the tent while oracles tended to the wounded. Alexa had never seen the oracles without their giant crystal balls. They looked more human now, more mundane.

  The three of them dashed across the grounds towards the tent. As they neared, Alexa saw papers scattered over a long table illuminated by two lamp-size crystal balls. Alexa saw that the archangel’s clothes were covered in black ichor. She had a deep gash along her right cheek and an assortment of vicious knives, swords, and daggers was strapped to her body.

  At the sound of them approaching, Ariel whirled around. The archangel studied them for a moment. Her face was dark and, Alexa had to admit with a stir, a bit terrifying.

&nb
sp; “Where have you been?” she said, her eyes flaring like embers and with barely controlled anger. “We looked everywhere for the two of you. Angels are not supposed to leave their posts—ever—and not without a direct order from me. How could you leave at a time like this?”

  Alexa flinched at the harshness in Ariel’s voice. “But I thought…” she said carefully and then added, “The archangel Sabrielle said—”

  “What did Sabrielle say?” inquired Metatron as he moved closer, blowing smoke from his cigar. Alexa could feel his glare pinned on her behind his dark sunglasses.

  Alexa looked back at Ariel. “I thought you knew,” she said, surprised that the archangel had no idea where she and Milo had gone since it was supposed to have been on her orders.

  “Knew what?” Ariel tossed a sheet of paper that she was holding on the table. “That you like to disobey the Legion? That you think yourself above rules and regulations? The Legion has tolerated your involvement with the pagan god Hades and what’s happened to you, but don’t think for one minute that this little excursion and disobedience is going to go without a severe punishment.”

  Alexa threw a covert glance at Milo. He looked as puzzled as she was. Lance looked as though he was about to go dig a hole in the ground and hide in it. He cowered behind Alexa’s legs and tried to be invisible.

  She felt her insides tighten. Why would Sabrielle keep this from the Legion? They could all benefit from the bone sword, from Hades’ demise. Still, there was something wrong about this whole thing. Sabrielle knew that if Ariel had known about their trip to purgatory, she would never have let them go. Sabrielle had known all along. It was why she had gone behind the Legion’s back and risked their lives in secret.

  Alexa looked down at herself and felt ashamed at how clean her clothes were and how unspoiled she and Milo were compared to the archangels and angels.

  She slid her gaze outside the tent and saw several angels that she knew from CDD stare openly at her and Milo, not caring to hide the revulsion and anger in their faces, as though she and Milo had run away from the fight like cowards.