Execution (The Divine Book 6)

by Forbes, M. R.

  I reached out with my power, sending it into the pond and finding the Fist of God there. I didn't trust Gervais. I knew whatever was going to happen; it wasn't going to be everything I was expecting.

  What choice did I have? I couldn't worry about Abaddon and the fiend.

  "Okay."

  "Good. Good. And Landon, should you die, I will mourn you." He smiled. "I always wanted to be the one to do it, and I don't want to lose this world."

  "At least, we can agree on that last part," I said.

  "That is Rebecca in there?" Gervais asked, pointing at the trap.

  "Yeah, she's in there."

  He came close and rapped his knuckles against the lid. The scripture burned him, but he didn't seem to care.

  "Serves you right for your failure, Rebecca," he said. "I hope you never get out of there."

  I didn't know if she could hear him or not. I pulled the trap away. "Just get in position. He's on his way."

  "Of course," Gervais said. He jumped, grabbing the limb of the tree and climbing into the higher branches where he couldn't be seen.

  I walked fifty feet away from the tree, staying close to the edge of the pond. I put the trap down on the ground, leaning it against a rock so it would be visible from a distance.

  Everything was in position.

  There was nothing to do but wait.

  Fifty-Two

  We didn't wait long.

  I knew he was coming long before he appeared. His anger was in full bloom, and the world around him felt his wrath. The sky darkened, the wind picked up, and the grass began to die beneath my feet, everything around me becoming dead at his proximity. I could only guess at the number of innocents who had fallen to his power as he had traveled from Rebecca's apartment. Thousands who had done nothing more than be in his path.

  They were unfortunate casualties. I hated to be callous, but their deaths would hopefully save millions of others.

  I glanced over at Gervais' tree. It too had succumbed to Abaddon's power, the trunk turning gray, the leaves wilting and hanging from dark branches. Gervais was hiding up in it, and he managed to remain that way despite the change. The runes remained visible and ready, carved into the bark.

  I stood beside the trap, stone in hand, heart pounding an intense rhythm against my chest. The fear was reaching me as well, and I relaxed my power against it, letting it wash away. I could manage it for now. Would I be able to once he was on top of me?

  I looked up to Belvedere Castle. The others had vanished, gaining some distance to escape the power. Was Rose still watching Gervais for me? I hoped so.

  He crested a small incline, appearing before me, draped in his cloak, its tendrils spreading out two hundred feet ahead of him, writhing and twirling, snapping like snakes or scorpion tails. His face was hidden behind it, his form ethereal and inhuman. I stayed calm. I had to stay calm.

  It was time.

  "You came," I said, as the tendrils shrank back toward him and he neared my position.

  "You knew I would come."

  "I don't want to fight you."

  "Because you know you will lose. This was your challenge, diuscrucis. Your decision to make. I did not ask for this."

  "You asked me to destroy you. You made me promise."

  "And I released you from that promise."

  "I haven't released myself."

  He chuckled, soft and low and terrifying. "And you have found a way, now that I wish to survive, to join my Judith in Heaven?"

  "I have," I lied. Why not? "God will never let you ascend into His Kingdom. Archangel Michael will also not allow it. He would consider Rebecca, but never you. You destroy all that you touch. All that you become close to."

  "That is not my fault. Lucifer made me this way."

  "Did he make you destroy Judith when she was still alive?"

  His silence was all the answer I needed.

  "She's here," I said, tapping the trap with my foot. "If you want her, you need to get past me."

  "Very well. Let us do battle with honor."

  A sword sprouted from his hand, a black thing made of pure evil and death.

  The obsidian spatha appeared in mine. I crouched into one of Josette's favorite stances, glancing over at the tree again. I only had to get him close.

  He bowed to me, so I returned the gesture.

  Then he attacked.

  He kept this power contained, at first, coming at me only with the sword. He was good, ridiculously good, and we had done this dance once before. I had lost that time, and within seconds, I knew that if I tried to fight him straight up, I would lose this time as well.

  I fell back, barely able to get the spatha in position to deflect a flurry of thrusts and jabs and cuts. I managed to turn my back to the tree, keeping my feet going and doing everything I could to avoid being hit.

  "You were better last time," he said, his sword arcing over and nearly cutting through my neck. I barely bent myself to avoid it, kicking my leg out toward his knee, only to find it immovable. I pushed off, throwing myself backward to avoid a second attack, landing on the grass a few feet closer to the tree.

  "I don't use the sword much anymore," I said. I was tempted to use my power, to throw him back with it, or pull his legs out from under him. What would be the point? Perhaps he would submit if I stabbed him, or perhaps he would simply release his contained power and batter me to nothing with it.

  "It shows."

  He caught my blade with his, throwing out his hand and catching me in the chest. The blow knocked the wind out of me and sent me another ten feet back toward the tree. I smiled inwardly. He was helping me, and he didn't know it.

  Perfect.

  I scrambled back to my feet, charging him before he might notice the runes. He brushed my first three attacks aside without effort, but I managed to catch him in the arm with a fancy move Josette had only used when she was sure it would win the day. He cried out in surprise but didn't slow, and I had left myself wide open. The sword came in at my heart.

  I pushed against it with my power, throwing his arm wide and ramming him with my shoulder. He stumbled back a few feet and paused.

  "It that how you want to fight, diuscrucis?" he asked. He sounded disappointed in me.

  "I would have lost right there."

  He chuckled darkly again, his power beginning to swirl around him.

  We were ready for round two.

  Fifty-Three

  I had been losing sword against sword. I was completely outmatched when it came to his power versus mine. He hit me with a whirlwind of dark energy, fear and death and terror unlike anything I had experienced before. I fought to deny it, to transform it, to let it wash past and remain unaffected.

  It was impossible.

  My heart pounded faster than any living mortals could survive. My skin broke out in a cold sweat, and my eyes became blurry with panic. I threw my power out at him, and he swatted it aside with his like it was nothing more than a nuisance.

  Round two?

  That was a joke.

  I had turned the fight into a massacre.

  I stumbled backward, heading for the tree, desperate to get away from the onslaught. It wasn't a question of whether or not he would defeat me. The only question was if I could double-cross him before that happened.

  Honor?

  There was no honor in desperation.

  "I like you, diuscrucis, and so I will give you a chance," Abaddon said, hitting me with another wave of power and knocking me to my knees.

  I glanced back at the tree, still twenty feet away. Was I close enough? I couldn't be. If I were, Gervais would have done something. Wouldn't he?

  "A chance?" I asked, buying time to recover from the blow.

  "Surrender. Tell me that I have won, and I will spare your life. I will take Judith, and we will complete our plan without your intervention."

  I didn't answer right away. He was giving me a chance to catch my breath. Why not? We both knew I couldn't win. At least not fairl
y.

  "I can't," I said. "Don't you understand? The entire world will burn. Everyone will die. You and Rebecca still won't be in Heaven. I'd rather die trying to stop it, then to watch everything I care for wither to nothing."

  "Good," he said. "If you had agreed, I would have labeled you a coward and drained you more slowly."

  He stepped toward me again. I bounced back to my feet, crouching low, sword out and up. His tendrils whipped around and shot at me, and I sprang up and forward, a heavy, hard charge right at him.

  I avoided the tendrils, knocking his sword aside and getting into his guard. I stabbed down with the spatha, and his hand came up and caught the blade.

  I had made it further than I expected. I yanked the sword back, unwilling to lose it, hitting his shoulders with my feet. I pushed off him, making him lose a few steps while I carried myself back. I had seen Josette pull of a similar move when she had fought Ulnyx, though she had managed to stab him, and I had failed in that.

  I landed at the base of the tree.

  Abaddon recovered from the move, bowed to me with respect to the effort, and started toward me again. His power shrank back into him.

  He was ready to finish it.

  So was I.

  I reached out with my power, finding the Fist once more and pulling it up from the bottom of the pond. Abaddon didn't notice. He was so focused on me, and all the action was happening at his back. I dropped the armor on the grass behind him, undoing the clasps that held the prison closed.

  I heard Gervais' incantation above me. The fiend remained hidden in the slack branches of the tree, but the runes began to glow with hot fire. I did my best to fake surprise until I caught movement over Abaddon's shoulder.

  Rose was running my direction at full speed, pointing up into the tree.

  My blood turned cold in an instant. If she was coming, it meant Gervais was doing something I wasn't going to like.

  And then it happened.

  Abaddon came up short, his power exploding out from him, sending dark tendrils writhing past me. "Avriel," he shouted, his voice harsh with rage.

  "Diuscrucis," I heard a voice say, and my cold blood froze to ice.

  I turned slowly, not quite believing it, but powerless not to.

  "Hey there, pardner," the Beast said. His face was twisted into a scowl, and he was reaching for me with one large, electric hand. The other was holding a head.

  Charis' head.

  I froze.

  "Landon," I heard Rose shout.

  Then he was on me.

  Not the Beast. Gervais.

  He landed behind me, grabbing my arm.

  "My apologies, Landon," he said, his lips right against my ear. "But I am what I am."

  With one quick, precise motion he cut off my right hand.

  I wanted to scream in pain, but I didn't. I was still as he bent down and grabbed the hand, pulling the control ring from my finger at the same time he morphed into the vampire he had killed.

  He didn't look back. He sprang over Abaddon, who didn't even seem to notice him in his quest to fight the angel he thought he saw.

  Rose had her dagger out, and she tried to intercept him. It was a brave and stupid thing to do, and he didn't even slow, slashing her across the chest before reaching the Fist. He hefted it easily in one hand, the vampire's strength becoming his own, carrying it away from us.

  Rose fell to the ground, the demon's poison leaving her still.

  I wanted to scream out in frustration. I wanted to rip the whiny little French asshole's head from his skinny, demonic body.

  I didn't understand. What the hell was he doing, anyway? He had the Fist. He had Abaddon. All he had to do was grab the distracted demon and throw him in the armor.

  Except he didn't.

  He kept going until he reached the trap.

  Rebecca? Did he want Rebecca? Why? It didn't make sense.

  No. It did make sense. He didn't need Abaddon in the Fist to control him. Not if he had Judith. He would use her to make a deal with the demon, and all would be well in his twisted world.

  "Abaddon," I said, fighting to block the Beast's voice from my head. "It's a trap. We were both tricked."

  He wasn't responding. Damn it.

  I grabbed the spatha from the ground with my remaining hand, ignoring the blood and pain from the empty stump. I could regrow it later. I had other business right now.

  "Abaddon," I shouted again, skipping in and grabbing him by the neck. He noticed that, and his attention shifted to me. "We've been had. Turn around."

  I let him go, and he spun to see Gervais drop the Fist of God next to the trap. He picked up the trap, his hands sizzling from the scripture as he did, and brought it close to the armor.

  Time. There was no time. Abandon's power lashed out toward Gervais, but he had gone too far, and as soon as Rebecca was trapped he would stop Abaddon's attack. He would turn the demon on me, and he would win. Maybe not right away, but he would find a way.

  I clenched my jaw in frustration. There were no more choices. No more options. I had given Gervais a little bit of leash because I needed his help. Should I be surprised he had bitten me? I had to salvage what I could of the mess.

  "I'm sorry," I said to Abaddon, as I plunged the spatha into his back, continuing to push it through as my hand sank into his flesh. I could sense the core of his soul with the third-eye, and I dissolved the sword, moving my hand up to it and wrapping my fingers around it.

  He tried to spin again, but I held on fast. I felt the white-hot fury of his evil in my grip, and I made myself calm around it. "Rest," I said, willing the power to transform, to change, to balance. "Rest."

  Abaddon screamed. The sound of it echoed across the park, so powerfully sad that even Gervais paused in what he was doing at the sound of it.

  I had never considered that I could do this before Gervais had forced my hand. But why not? Rebecca was a spirit, a free soul, and I could destroy her in the same way. I could destroy any soul like this if that were my will.

  The power began to fade away from him, dissipating and sinking back to Hell. Within seconds the cloak and tendrils were gone. A few more and his black face became human again. I remembered it from our meeting in the Box.

  "Diuscrucis," he said, his eyes old and sad. "Judith."

  "She isn't Judith," I said. "She never was."

  "I... I feel..." He paused, tears springing to those eyes, turning more human by the second. "Free."

  He smiled. There was no malice in the smile. No evil intent.

  "Thank you, diuscrucis," he said. "Thank you."

  The last of his soul transformed to my touch, and his body fell away in a burst of light. It rose and dispersed, headed not to Heaven, but to join the rest of the universe.

  He would know peace at last.

  I wasn't so lucky.

  Fifty-Four

  I scanned the area for Gervais.

  Of course, the bastard was gone. So was the Fist.

  The trap lay open and discarded in the grass, the soil spilled across it. Empty.

  I turned my attention to Rose. I ran over to where she was laying. I knelt beside her, fighting my own tears.

  "Rose," I said. "Rose."

  She was dead.

  I let the tears come then. I crouched over her, lamenting everything the universe had made me. Foremost of all, a failure. I had hoped to help mankind learn to save themselves. I had only managed to get my first and only student killed.

  I felt a hand on my shoulder.

  "Signore," Dante said, his voice low.

  "I failed her," I said.

  "No, Signore. You saved her. You gave her purpose and pride."

  "The demon that killed her sister killed her, and he got away with the Fist."

  "Yes. It is unfortunate. But you stopped Abaddon, and I know you will stop him."

  "I'm not going to settle for stopping him," I said, getting back to my feet and facing the poet. "I'm going to end him like I did Abaddon. I have the
power, and I know how to do it."

  "That is the Landon I know," he said, smiling. "Do not worry too much about Rose. She will be with me, and you know I will take care of her."

  "Her soul is in Purgatory?"

  "Si, Signore. Unfortunately, she can't return from there to see you, but I will tell her how sorry you are."

  I shook my head. I could picture what she would say, and how she would say it. "I'm sure she knows."

  Jane and Alyx joined Dante a moment later. Alyx jumped into my arms, holding me tight and kissing my cheek. She was soaking wet.

  "He took Rebecca and the Fist," I said to the angel.

  "You stopped Abaddon from reaching Heaven. That is a good day's work."

  "Did you see where Gervais went?"

  "He jumped into the pond," Alyx said. "That's why I'm wet. I followed him. He had hidden a rift under there. He took the Fist through it."

  "He put a rift underwater? I didn't think he had the power to make his own rifts."

  "He doesn't," Alyx said.

  I closed my eyes, sighing. "Zifah?" I asked.

  "Yes."

  They had been quarreling the whole time they were together. It was all one big lie.

  I really, really, really hated demons.

  Alyx kissed my cheek again.

  Okay, I hated most demons.

  "We have to find out where they went."

  "I will contact Alichino," Dante said. "We will work on it. Again."

  "Jane, what do you intend?" I asked.

  "I will inform the archangels of the outcome, and of the demon Gervais' betrayal. Beyond that, I do not know. I suspect we haven't seen the last of each other, and I would prefer not to forget about this."

  "You won't," I said, making it so. "I may need your help again."

  "As long as you are fighting on the side of good, you can call on me anytime."

  "Thank you."

  Jane bowed to me, her wings spreading behind her as she did. Then she took to the sky and vanished once more.

  "I want to get out of here for a while," I said. "Away from New York. There's too much destruction here. Too much chaos. You saw the television. Something is going to change, and we need to be better prepared for when it does."