by Sam Cheever
I stepped forward, counting on Enoch being too busy to help her with us. “Mother, stop this ridiculous play for power right now and release Enoch. You are way out of line on this.”
She smiled, slowly and sadly. “So I guess you’ve made your choice. You’ll side with him over me?” She glanced toward my father with a curled lip.
I shook my head at her. “How can you do this, Mother? He loves you. He’s always loved you. It’s been his downfall many times over.”
She waved a hand in disgust. “He is weak and simple, tied to the divine goal like a sacrificial goat. He disgusts me.”
The words were cruel and cold but I saw the lie of them in her eyes. She did love my father and I suspected that if she could find another way around it she would not kill him at all.
But getting what she wanted was more important to her than anything.
I saw Enoch move and looked at him. His face was pale and sadness filled his chocolate colored eyes. I saw in those eyes that he would change the current situation if he could.
He’d been duped by a beautiful and cruelly evil woman. Just as my father had all those years ago.
“I’m sorry, Astra. I have no choice. I must kill him.” His voice was husky with unshed tears and strained by weariness.
I stared hard at him for a beat and then shook my head. “You do have one choice, Enoch.”
He jumped as the meaning of my words became clear and turned away in shame.
My mother understood what I’d meant too.
I read her intention in her midnight eyes and lifted a hand to stop her. My power arrow hit an invisible wall and she laughed.
She raised a hand and my legs buckled beneath me. I hit the ground and was immediately consumed by pain. My entire body felt as if it were being shot through with a thousand volts of electricity and set on fire at the same time. I was pretty sure my skin was being ripped off my body a little at a time and my organs were melting into my body.
I screamed in pain, my body clenching uncontrollably on the cold, rocky ground.
Beyond the bone-melting pain, I was vaguely aware of the sound of shouting and of power shooting around me in a seemingly uncontrolled way.
I heard a scream of pain and felt someone hit the ground close to me.
But the Big Guy help me I couldn’t look, I couldn’t help whoever it was. I was melting on the spot and my body was quickly plunging toward unconsciousness in self defense.
Something cool and soft lay across my cheek and I forced my eyes open and turned my head, screaming at the pain it caused.
I nearly cried out with a different kind of pain.
Like midnight silk, long black hair mixed with mine upon the ground. Seeing it lying there, a memory sharp and sweet returned to me. Tangled strands of red and black on a stark white pillow, deep within the ground in the land of the fairies.
Roiling toward unconsciousness, my body clenched with pain, my mind screamed the word my lips couldn’t voice.
It couldn’t be. My Dialle couldn’t be lying dead beside me. It was finally too much. I dropped into a blessed fog of release.
Chapter Twenty-Five
No Rest for the Weary
Alas our lady tries to find, sweet succor from the pain,
But friends are still in need of her and call her back again.
Something beckoned me in my unconscious state.
Someone was calling my name.
I was dreaming. I was pretty sure. I felt hands under my armpits and my body was being dragged across something rough that tugged at my clothes.
But somewhere that voice kept calling to me and on some level I knew that I was leaving someone behind. I started to fight the hands that pulled me away.
The fog started clearing from my brain and I realized the crushing pain was gone. I slapped at the hands under my arms and forcibly cracked my eyes open.
My head pounded with a pain hangover but other than that I was all right. I sat up with Emo’s help.
He smiled down at me, relief clear in his eyes. “Hey, boss. You scared the hell out of me.”
I cracked my dry lips in a grin. “If only.”
He smiled back.
I suddenly remembered my Dialle and my head swung in an effort to locate him.
Reading my intention Emo shook his dark head. “He’s dead, Astra. We need to get you out of here.”
“No, he’s not dead!”
Mistaking my vehemence for irrational denial he gave me sad eyes. “I’m sorry, Astra, your mother blasted him pretty good.”
I pushed to my feet. “He’s not dead, Emo. He’s talking to me in my head. I need to get back to him.”
Emo grabbed my arm.
I jerked it away and glared at him. “I’m not kidding, Emo, he’s alive but not for much longer. I need to heal him. Are you going to help me or not?”
He sighed and nodded. “What do you need me to do?”
I reached down into the neckline of my filthy, tattered sweater and grabbed my cross, yanking it off over my head. “Use this, call for help. My father can’t hold them off much longer.”
He took the cross but he looked at it like it was a wriggling supra demon. “I can’t use this, Astra.”
I glared at him. “You have no choice, Emo. Just do it!”
His hand was shaking around the cross but I just turned away, praying he’d do the right thing and looked around to get my bearings.
Emo had pulled me behind a large rock but we were only about twenty yards away from the cliff face where Enoch and my mother still fired away at the angels.
I pulled a protective bubble around me and ran back to where I knew Dialle lay on the ground, near death.
Thinking we were both dead or at the very least unconscious, my mother had turned back to the business at hand and wasn’t paying any attention to us. I knelt down beside Dialle and placed my hand over his chest. As I started driving my power into him I felt the daemon hickey on my neck spark and, as he grew stronger, flare into life.
Finally he stirred beneath my hands and when he opened his eyes I placed a finger over my lips and jerked my head toward my mother.
He sat up, resting his dark head in his hands and finally stood. He looked at me and I couldn’t resist giving him a little nudge to see if he was back.
I shuffled my mental drawers, You look like you’ve seen a frog, Dialle.
Har, Astra.
I grinned at him. Sorry, just wanted to see if you were ready to kick some ass.
His lips curved upward in a sensuous smile. Is it kiss your ass time already?
Not kiss… Then realizing he was teasing me I just glared at him. Shall we get this bitch?
He frowned at my mother’s back. Are you sure you are up for this, Astra? She is your mother.
I tried not to let my feelings show as I nodded. Emo’s calling for backup, hopefully all I’ll have to do is distract her until they take care of Enoch.
He nodded. Then let’s kiss some ass.
I chuckled and shook my head. You’re an ass.
He cocked his head at me and I finally got it. Oh yeah, clever.
We turned toward my mother and raised our hands. Pulling our power forward together we sent it toward her full force. If she hadn’t been tied to one of the Universe’s most powerful angels it probably would have finished her off. But as it was it just pinged off a very strong power bubble and blasted the rocky ground on either side of her.
But it certainly got her attention. She looked only mildly surprised to see us again when she turned around. We continued to fire at her as she started walking in our direction. As she neared us, unbelievably, she grew and grew until she stood twenty feet tall. I’d never seen a royal do that. It must have something to do with being tied to Enoch. Dialle and I kept firing as we backed up.
She kept coming. The shimmering chain between her and Enoch just grew to accommodate the distance as she walked.
Another power arrow joined ours and Emo soon came shoulder to s
houlder with us. I now stood between the boys and the three of us gave my mother everything we had. Other than a quick ripple in the protective bubble when Emo upped the ante, she hardly seemed fazed at all by our impressive efforts.
I wondered again what the source of her incredible power was.
Our backs came up against the giant rock Emo had used to shield us before and we realized we’d have to split up to get around it.
Together we were barely holding off her power arrows. Separated we were dead.
“Where’s the cavalry, Emo?” My voice sounded just a bit shrill.
He shrugged.
I peered suspiciously at him. “You did call them right?”
He frowned and handed the cross back to me.
Just then the air behind my mother exploded with light and she jerked around. She shrank rapidly back to normal size and, after throwing me one last look and saying, “We’ll finish this later, Astra,” she ran back to Enoch.
We followed.
I grinned and high fived Emo as we looked at the sky above.
The sky was so filled with the celestial army that we could barely look into it. Their light burned the night away and seared outward to clean the skies of another, more sinister kind of darkness. Myra’s familiar form now floated beside my father.
I heard dark worlders dying by the hundreds below us and hoped the king and his guard had the good sense to take cover.
Knowing King Dialle, I was pretty sure those particular rats were already streaming back toward the Court.
My mother was only momentarily stunned. She turned to Enoch. “Call your dark army and let’s finish this.”
Enoch stood on the face of the cliff, whipped his massive wings once, twice and then pulled his horn from under his shimmering robes and lifted it to his lips.
The horn blared across the skies, bringing answering tones from all directions and the sky was suddenly even more full than before.
This time I could see that the dark angels’ light was slightly less bright than the Army’s light but certainly no less powerful.
Enoch turned to my mother. “It has come to this, Danika. All of our planning and plotting. You deceived and turned against me and now angel fights angel in the skies.” His dark head dropped to his chest and he shook it, his hands clenching into fists at his sides.
A bright light suddenly hit him and he cried out, lifting his face and raising his arms to meet it with his own light. For a moment he pushed them back but they were very powerful and he was tired and less motivated.
He turned his head and gave me a sad smile. “I am sorry, Astra. I don’t think I could have killed him in the end.”
I nodded and stepped forward, half tempted to stop him but knowing it was for the best. “Go in His love, Enoch, if not with His blessing.”
His eyes streamed with tears and he gave me a brief nod.
Then he turned back toward the celestial army and lifted his arms and wings high into the air. He raised his face to the sky as if in supplication and dropped his light. He didn’t make a sound as he was consumed by the white light of the celestial army.
Too late my mother realized what he was doing. “No!”
She watched him fade away and quickly severed the chain between them so she wouldn’t follow him to Hades.
Then she turned to me, her eyes dark and filled with anger. “This isn’t over between us daughter.” And then she was just…gone.
I slumped to the ground. My heart was filled with such pain I wasn’t sure I could endure it.
The battle raged on in the sky but the dark angels were sorely outnumbered and I knew it was only a matter of time until they were subdued.
Emo and Dialle both knelt beside me and each placed a hand on my shoulder but other than that they just let me grieve.
A warm light filled the air around us and I looked up to meet my father’s tearful face. I leapt into his arms. “He was sorry in the end. He didn’t want to kill you.” Most of all it seemed important to ease my father’s pain a little.
He nodded and gave me a sad smile. We stayed snuggled together for a few more moments and then Myra joined us.
She patted my father on the back and gave him a sad smile. Then she gave him the best comfort she could. “He died honorably, James.”
My father nodded and swiped at his wet cheeks. “How goes the battle, Myra?”
She straightened her slim shoulders, returning gratefully to a role she was comfortable in. “The last of the dark ones have been taken to Peter. I doubt he’ll treat them kindly.”
My father shook his head. “It’s such a shame.”
I looked at Myra. “Hey, what took you so long to get here?”
She rolled her eyes. “Enoch had someone on the Council. He instigated delay after delay. Making us report and explain and then report and explain again.”
She smiled at Emo. “It wasn’t until Emo launched that very shaky and colorful request that we were able to convince Him that we were being delayed on purpose.” She looked at my father. “It was Vance.”
Emo and I both laughed. “Vance?” I said, wrinkling my nose. “No wonder he turned bad with a name like that.”
Myra glared at me. “Behave yourself, Astra. Anyway, Cherubim Vance should be on his way to see St. Peter by now too.”
My father sighed. “What of your mother, Astra?”
I shrugged. “She’s probably in the Shadows by now. But before she left she let me know she wasn’t finished with me. Happy thought that.” I pouted.
Prince Dialle stepped forward. “I’ll send my guard in to search the Shadows Seraphim James, we’ll find her.”
My father nodded. Turning to Myra he said, “Have the mess down there cleaned up and see to the report on those Witches. I want a full accounting of their activities in the big book. They must pay for their actions when they arrive at the gates.”
Myra nodded and turned, spreading her beautiful wings and taking off. I watched the play of colors over her wings, stared at the way they swayed in powerful arcs as she split the night sky at an unnatural speed and found myself teetering on my feet.
Dialle caught me when I almost fell. It occurred to me that I hadn’t slept or eaten for a couple of days. My eyes suddenly wouldn’t stay open.
My father gave Dialle the eye. “See her safely home and leave her to her rest.” His gaze was very stern and Dialle got the picture. No funny business.
Damn!
Dialle swung me into his arms and I suddenly found myself locked in space and time. Then I was lowered down until something wonderfully soft hit my back.
I settled down into my bed with a sigh.
Dialle pulled my boots off and folded the covers over me.
Then I felt his wondrously soft lips on my forehead and, just before I slept, heard his voice, husky with emotion. “Sleep well, Astra. And when you wake I’ll help you get rid of those giant panties.”
Half asleep I grinned and then fell all the way under.
* * * * *
I was in the woods again, under a fat moon. The clouds were skittering across the face of it at an accelerated rate, as if they were agitated. In fact the general feeling of the place was one of apprehension and dark anticipation.
Part of me wanted to stop walking. To turn around and leave the wood. But another part of me needed to face whatever was coming so that I had a better chance of beating it back.
I reached the place where the trees thinned into nothing and stood there, just at the edge, feeling my heart pounding in my chest at an incredible rate. The air around me pulsed with the deep bass of my heartbeats.
Ba boom, ba boom, ba boom, ba boom…
The reverberation grew until it became the thunderous sound of hundreds of witches chanting and I suddenly knew with a clarity that came from true vision what I would see when I entered that clearing.
It was all I could do to step through the last line of trees.
The crowd of witches was pressed tightly together, sw
aying with the rhythm of their chants. They were faceless, formless, creatures of the night. Purveyors of an evil so profound that it couldn’t bear a human face.
They stood shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip in that small clearing, filling it completely. From the altar in the center to the black line of dense trees at the clearing’s edge, the space was filled to absolute capacity.
Somehow, however, a pathway opened for me and I walked through the crowd unimpeded, without being touched by any of the dark celebrants.
When the last line of witches parted for me and I could see the altar I was not surprised to see myself on it.
But I wasn’t alone.
I was naked, on my back and entwined in obvious pleasure around a long, lean golden body with silky black hair that fell in soft curls and waves around a darkly whiskered face which was nuzzling my neck and therefore hidden from my view.
Though I couldn’t see the velvet of his black gaze or the finely chiseled planes of his well formed face, I felt as if I knew that long, golden form like I knew myself.
We writhed and moaned upon that altar, our passion obvious to all who watched. I smiled at the sight and silently celebrated its passage through the pages of prophecy.
I saw movement above the altar and looked up to find nearly transparent forms of silver floating above our heads. The angels’ gentle heads were bowed as if they were in pain and their hands clutched, clawlike, at the shimmery gowns of angelic fashion, which danced softly in a frantic wind created by the dark purpose.
I recognized many of the angelic faces, thought of calling out to them in greeting but the trail of silver liquid down their nearly transparent faces stopped me.
Angel’s tears.
Shed only for the most catastrophic of events.
I covered my mouth in horror and my gaze flew to the spot where I knew my aunt would be.
Her robes covered her from head to toe and only a single dark lock of hair fell from the front of the hood and rested across her breast in a soft curl. Her arms had been upraised in supplication to the dark purpose but she lowered them now and reached to push back her hood.
My Aunt Deirdre’s face emerged from the dark, rough cloth.