Black Night bw-2

by Christina Henry

  The tunnel ended in a T-junction and I turned right. I didn’t have a better plan. I wished Beezle was there to tell me I was acting like a dummy. I tried not to think about how much it hurt that he hadn’t even said good-bye to me. It had always been me and Beezle. I’d had Beezle with me longer than I’d had my mother.

  After walking for several minutes I started to feel like the Maze was trying to lull me into a false sense of security. I hadn’t had to deal with anything worse than the pressing darkness, and as long as I didn’t think about it too hard I was able to handle it. The companionable feeling of the sword helped.

  Then the spider came looming out of the darkness.

  There was no warning as there had been in the forest, no hiss and click of its pincers, no heavy thud on the ground. There was only a spark of red eyes and the silent scream of its open mouth as it descended on me. I saw a flash of its hairy legs a second before it landed on me and I fell to the floor, rolling away from its grasp. The nightfire in my hand winked out.

  I came to my knees and slashed blindly into the darkness with the sword. The blade connected with something solid and I felt it slice cleanly through chitin and flesh. The spider screamed and the blast of its breath stank of blood and rotten meat.

  I jumped to my feet and ran down the corridor away from the spider. I could hear it behind me now, stumbling and crashing against the narrow walls—thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump. Only seven thumps. I’d slashed off one of its legs.

  If I lit another ball of nightfire, the spider would easily find me. I was sure its eyesight was better in the darkness than mine but I wasn’t about to give it an advantage by lighting myself up like a neon sign. I gripped the sword in one hand and waved my other hand in front of me so that I wouldn’t run into a wall.

  My free hand scraped stone and vine. The spider was still several feet behind me, struggling in the tight confines of the Maze. I sincerely hoped it would get stuck.

  I turned right, and as I did the sounds behind me went silent. Had the spider given up, or had the Maze taken it back? Should I dare the light?

  After a moment of dithering I decided it was better to risk the light and know for sure what was going on. I conjured nightfire and cautiously peeked around the corner.

  That was when the spider struck me from behind.

  I had a moment to think, Oh, that’s not fair, and then the spider closed its pincers around my right leg. I screamed as its jaws pierced my flesh and it shook me around, slamming me against the sides of the corridor.

  The sword warmed under my palm until it felt almost too hot to hold. I was abruptly aware that the corridor was lit up like the sun and the light was coming from the sword. The spider screeched and dropped me to the ground, scuttling backward.

  I rolled over to see it receding down the hallway as quickly as its enormous body would allow. I wasn’t about to let it get away and sneak up on me again. I staggered to my feet, blood pouring from the wound on my right leg, and felt that leg buckle and give way underneath me.

  The heat of the sword was searing my skin. I was parthuman; my body wasn’t made to wield the sun. But I held on to the grip as tight as I could and raised the sword high. The spider flinched away from the light, its seven legs flailing in agony.

  I summoned my power and my will and pushed it through my heartstone. This was the magic that had destroyed Ramuell, and I let it flow through me.

  The spell hit the spider full on in its ugly face, and I had the immense satisfaction of seeing it burn molecule by molecule until it was gone.

  I leaned against the wall, panting and covered in sweat. Blood from my leg dripped onto the floor, making my sneakers slide around. I sank to the ground because it was easier than scrabbling for purchase in my own gore.

  The sword was still lit up like Vegas at night. I looked at it. “You could have done this earlier, you know, when I was freaking out about the dark.”

  A little pulse answered me, as if to say, “I didn’t know you wanted me to.”

  I examined the wounds underneath the ragged remains of my right pant leg. The cuts were almost perfectly round but tattered at the edges, where the spider’s serrated pincers had cut the skin. Blood flowed sluggishly, which was good because it meant I wouldn’t bleed out anytime soon. But I wasn’t exactly carrying a first aid kit with me.

  The sword winked at me, and somehow I knew what it was telling me. I pressed the blade to the wound on one side of my leg, and then I screamed, because it hurt like hell. But when I pulled the sword away the wound was cauterized. The other side was harder to do. It’s hard not to flinch when you know what’s coming.

  “When Gabriel heals me, it’s a lot nicer than this,” I muttered. “There’s usually kissing involved.”

  The sword would have shrugged its shoulders if it had any.

  “Now I’m anthropomorphizing a weapon,” I said. “If I keep this up, I’ll be talking to my buttons before it’s all over.”

  I pushed wearily to my feet and tested my leg. It hurt like hell, and the muscles were still torn even though the wound was closed. But I was sure the Maze had more surprises for me, and that I wasn’t even close to the end. I limped forward.

  At least this time the sword provided light for me, so I was able to see the demons when they attacked.

  They came crawling down the walls and the ceiling, a horde of seeking tentacles and flickering tongues and razortipped claws. Some of them were small, some large; some squished and some walked. They were covered in boils and lash marks and burn scars. Some of them hissed, some of them drooled, some of them gnashed blackened teeth. All of them had their slitted yellow eyes focused on me.

  There were so many of them I didn’t have time to think about what I needed to do. I just started blasting away with my magic with one hand and hacking away with my sword with the other. Demon blood splattered my hands and demon saliva burned my arms. Heads rolled beneath my feet and clawed hands grasped at my ankles. I kicked out, slashed down, parried up, poured my magic out in a steady stream like a machine gun without the safety on. My sword hand worked without my knowledge or skill, led by the will of Lucifer long ago embedded in its crafting.

  I don’t know how long I fought the demons, or how many I killed. I only know that after what seemed like hundreds of corpses were piled in the corridor behind me the attack abruptly petered out and I was alone again.

  I limped away from the stench of dead demons, my right leg dragging behind me. I tried to call my wings but they wouldn’t come for me. So the Maze would let me have my magic, but only to a degree. I guessed my wings would make things too easy. I hoped the Maze gave Antares a similar disadvantage.

  I managed to make it down a few corridors unmolested. Once I was sure I was well away from the site of the demon battle, I stopped and took stock of my injuries.

  My long-sleeved tee had been burned in several places on my arms from demon saliva. Long shiny welts on my arms and hands peeked from underneath the torn cotton. One demon had managed to get a good hold on my left leg and tear the denim at the knee. It had also left a long shallow cut that had mostly clotted up.

  The ragged pieces of my clothing were now more annoying than protective, so I ripped the sleeves out of the shirt at the armholes and used the sword to turn the jeans into cutoffs. I looked sadly at my favorite sneakers, which were so covered in demon gore that I would probably have to throw them away. If, that was, I actually survived.

  My sword arm felt sore and the sword itself weighed a ton now that the adrenaline of battle was spent. I was afraid to put it in the scabbard since the Maze seemed to like surprising me, but it was hard to carry at the ready. I limped along with the sword hanging loosely at my side, the tip just barely clearing the floor.

  I was starting to feel tired and a little delirious. I hadn’t had anything to eat except a granola bar and a few almonds in more than twenty-four hours, and I’d spent a lot of that time under extreme stress. I just wanted to close my eyes f
or a while and rest. If I could sleep a little, I would feel better.

  But the Maze sensed weakness, and that was when Antares rounded the corner.

  “Still alive, little sister?” Antares hissed.

  He looked completely unharmed by the antics of the Maze. Unfair, I thought for the second time since I’d entered Amarantha’s sadistic toy. Why should he be raring and ready to go when I was ready to fall flat on my face?

  It would never do to show weakness to Antares even if I was at a low point. “Are you lost, little brother?” I said, and held the sword up and ready to attack. “I was sure you would have run home crying to Focalor by now.”

  Antares just smiled at me, and moved closer. I called for my magic, but there was nothing there. This wasn’t the feeling that I had when I had overworked myself and used too much power at once. Despite the continuous stream of demons I hadn’t felt my magic growing weak.

  This was different. It was like the magic just wasn’t inside me, like it had never been inside me. But that was impossible. Even without the new powers awakened by Lucifer’s sword, I still had my Agent magic.

  Then I understood. The Maze had taken my power from me. J.B. had said that the Maze would find my worst nightmares, and being powerless in the face of Antares definitely qualified.

  “Looking for something, sister?” Antares taunted, and it was then that I realized something else. This wasn’t the real Antares. This was a manifestation of the Maze drawn from my own mind.

  “Yeah, your head on a plate,” I snapped back. Even when I was exhausted and injured, my mouth ran away from me.

  “Come and get it, then,” Antares crooned, and crooked one clawed finger at me.

  I rushed at him with my sword up and held in both hands. I don’t know what I was planning to do but Antares kicked my legs out from beneath me before I even got close. I landed hard on the back of my head and saw stars spinning above me.

  Antares yanked Lucifer’s sword from my hand and tossed it away. It still lit the corridor, but its brightness dimmed a bit once it was away from me. I tried to stand and get away but Antares kicked me in the stomach.

  It was like the first time I had met him, before I knew he was a demon, before I knew he was my brother or that I was Azazel’s daughter. He had beaten me within an inch of my life and the only thing that had saved me had been Gabriel’s magic.

  But Gabriel wasn’t here now, and I was just as powerless as I had been the first time. I held my hands up, trying to protect myself from Antares’s vicious kicks, but I was so tired and hurt that all I could do was roll feebly away. He kicked me in the ribs again, and I coughed, tasting blood in my mouth.

  He’s going to kill me, I thought.

  I rolled to my stomach, tried to inch away in a crawl. Antares laughed behind me.

  “What do you think of your beloved heir now, Father?” he asked.

  I raised my head and saw through blurry eyes that two other figures stood farther down the corridor. I blinked to focus and saw the frowning faces of my mother and father.

  “I should not have put so much stock in her,” Azazel replied. “I should have chosen you, my son.”

  Antares laughed, grabbed me by the back of my shirt and turned me over. He punched me in the face and I heard my nose crack. Blood rushed out in a torrent.

  “I’m sorry that I bore you such a weak daughter,” Katherine said to Azazel.

  “Mom?” I said weakly. “Mom, help me.”

  “Help you?” Katherine scoffed. “I should have never had you in the first place. If not for you, I could have spent a lifetime with Azazel.”

  I knew it wasn’t my mother. My mother was dead. It was the Maze, trying to break my will. But it still hurt to hear something with my mother’s face and my mother’s voice say such things.

  “No one is going to help you, little girl,” Antares said, and he held his claws above my throat for the strike.

  “Help me,” I said, and I held out my hand.

  Lucifer’s sword was in my palm before Antares could blink. I swung the blade without thinking and his head separated cleanly from his shoulders.

  I fell to the ground as Antares’s grip loosened in death. I turned to my stomach, choking on my own blood. I coughed out the mess backing up in my throat and felt oxygen entering my brain again.

  I lay on the floor, the cool stone of the Maze pressing against my swelling face. If every part of my body had hurt before, it felt three times as bad now. If Antares hadn’t broken any ribs, it would be a miracle.

  There was a little pulse in my hand from the sword.

  “I’m getting up,” I said.

  It pulsed again when I didn’t move.

  “I’m getting up,” I repeated, and this time I pushed myself up to my hands and knees. It was hard to breathe. Yup, I was pretty sure Antares had broken a rib.

  A little match flame burst to life inside me again. The Maze had given me my magic back. Gee, thanks for nothing.

  The sword pulsed again, this time more urgently.

  “What now?” I said wearily, and used the wall to help me stand.

  I was still there, eyes at half-mast, the sword furiously pulsing at me, when Ramuell entered the corridor.

  16

  I LAUGHED, AND I SOUNDED A LITTLE CRAZY. “OF course it would be you.”

  Ramuell grinned at me. His teeth looked sharper than they had before I’d killed him.

  “Not broken yet, little Agent?” Ramuell asked, and somehow I knew it was the voice of the Maze talking through him.

  I stood away from the wall and held out my arms, showing the Maze my injuries. “Bruised but not broken.”

  “I have defeated more powerful beings than you in my time,” the Maze said in Ramuell’s voice.

  I narrowed my eyes. “And beings more powerful than you have underestimated me before.”

  The Maze laughed, a long and sinister chuckle. “We shall see. I am not about to be laid low by a mere human.”

  The sword pulsed, and the magic inside me surged up in answer to its call. I smiled at Ramuell, and echoed the taunt Antares had made at me.

  “Come and get me, then,” I said.

  Ramuell laughed again, and as he laughed the form of the nephilim slowly disappeared. “Oh, I will, little Agent. I will.”

  I waited, braced, but Ramuell’s form didn’t reappear. “Just an errand boy, then.”

  I started forward, trying not to think about how much every part of me howled in pain. I wished Gabriel had taught me how to heal myself the way the angels did. Of course, the Maze would probably have taken that ability from me anyway, so there was no point in wishing for it.

  “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride,” I said. My mom used to say that. It was one of those phrases that made sense if you thought about it, but sounded kind of weird to say.

  “Okay, now you’re rambling,” I said aloud.

  The silence of the Maze was getting to me. I never realized how much I depended on the constant stream of chatter emitting from Beezle. As friendly a companion as the sword was, it definitely lacked something in the conversation department. It had been kind of a relief to exchange villain/hero wisecracks with Antares and Ramuell.

  I walked for a long while, my feet dragging, my free arm wrapped around my broken rib. The sword emitted a steady glow of sunlight so that no surprises could pop out of the darkness. I turned right whenever I could and hoped that I was getting closer to the center, and Gabriel.

  I didn’t hear him approach. All of a sudden I rounded a corner, and Nathaniel stood there, looking implacable. My magic winked out again, and I felt a surge of panic. All I had was the sword.

  Then the sword betrayed me.

  Nathaniel held out his hand and the sword struggled out of my grip and into his.

  “I believe this belongs to me,” he said. “And so do you.”

  He stalked toward me, and I froze, recognizing the look of intent on his face. I held out my hands, but I had no sword and no mag
ic. This time he was relentless, and I really was powerless to stop him.

  When he finished and stood up, I felt like something in my soul was broken forever.

  “Get dressed,” he said.

  I pulled on the ragged remains of my clothes, tears I couldn’t stop falling from my eyes. He reached for my wrists and clamped a pair of handcuffs over them.

  “You belong to me now,” he said and pulled me to my feet.

  Gabriel stood before us, a look of contempt in his eyes. He was disgusted by me, and I knew he had seen what Nathaniel had done.

  “Gabriel,” I said, and reached toward him, my hands bound together. “Gabriel, help.”

  He spit in my face, and then he turned and walked away. Amarantha waited for him and he entered her embrace willingly.

  I howled in pain and in anguish, all the shattered pieces inside me splintering into shards. “Gabriel, Gabriel, no! Gabriel, DON’T LEAVE ME!”

  Nathaniel jerked at my handcuffs, pulling me like an animal. “You are mine, now and forever.”

  Gabriel disappeared around the corner. The light of the sword seemed to dim, and the light of my heart sputtered and died.

  I heard a long, sinister chuckle. Ramuell stood where Nathaniel had been.

  “Had enough yet, little Agent?”

  Had enough. Yes, I’d had enough. Had enough of always being the helpless one, the powerless one. Had enough of being human in an alien world, had enough of seeing the only man I’d ever wanted walk away from me.

  Gabriel wouldn’t walk away from you, a little voice in my head said.

  He did. He always does.

  No, he wouldn’t walk away if you needed him. He wouldn’t leave you to Nathaniel, to danger. He would never go to Amarantha.

  He wouldn’t leave me. That’s what I told Beezle. He wouldn’t leave me.

  “He wouldn’t leave me,” I said aloud, and I flexed my wrists. The handcuffs broke and fell away. The sword returned to my hand.

  As I looked into Nathaniel’s surprised face, I swung the sword that the real Nathaniel had given me. I can’t say that I didn’t feel a ton of satisfaction in watching his head roll way down the corridor, even if it was only a puppet of the Maze. I felt my magic surge up inside me once more as I gazed into the eyes of the foe I had vanquished once before.