The tether lines continued moving, settling into place. “There’s no time,” said Zachariah. “It can’t be done.” He stood up silently. Both his hands were swollen and red.
Marley shook her head and pressed her hand to her chest, then gathered up her emergency blanket. “It’s been done before.” Zachariah gave her a glance of acknowledgement. “It’ll be done before anybody notices.”
The angel opened its eyes again. “Sit down.”
Instead, Zachariah lunged for the angel, catching one of the celestial’s arms and spinning it around. Marley fumbled to keep up, almost as shocked as the angel by Zachariah’s burst of movement. She snatched the Sword in her protected hand and felt the instant shock of touching RAPHAEL. The green burned, turning the silver blanket into a thousand tiny wriggling worms that gnawed on her palm.
She let momentum carry her forward as she bit her lip to avoid screaming. Mustn’t frighten the children more than necessary, mustn’t frighten the kids…
The Sword fought her, drove its name into her mind, but distantly she heard Branwyn shout, “Marley!” Clumsily, she swung it at Zachariah and the angel as they grappled. White light flared around Zachariah but he was safe, he was safe, just like the twins, and Marley’s skin was burning as the light beat through her shield—and RAPHAEL sank into the angel’s flesh.
For an overwhelming moment, the essential truths of Hadraniel and the Sword surged against each other and against Marley’s own power. It was too much. The Sword would devour Hadraniel but she wasn’t sure she could endure until then. Even in dying the angel was capable of devastation.
Then tethering circle completed and sank its magic into Hadraniel, pinning it to the Geometry. The magic ritual locked the channel between the angel’s spirit and its body into place. Suddenly the truth that Hadraniel was a physical body intersecting a Sword mattered more than any other truth. Bodies impaled with swords didn’t work anymore. The failure cascaded up the channel to the angel’s spirit.
Hadraniel exploded into a radiance that knocked Marley flat on her back. She hit her head on the coffee table and couldn’t tell if the radiance was a manifestation of the pain in her skull or something else. She couldn’t even tell if somebody was screaming. She thought so, though.
Oh. It was her.
The remains of Hadraniel’s great working streamed away into the night. It hadn’t succeeded. They’d stopped it.
She wondered if it was over. But the power in the air still beat against her skin. Hadraniel was gone, but the weapons it had brought remained, unimaginably dangerous.
Dazed, she watched as two Swords started orbiting each other in the center of the living room. The light was wrong. It was too open. The walls were gone.
The twins were safe, though. She could feel that even through the pain splitting her skull. Safe, but scared. Scared, and angry.
“Well, this isn’t good,” said Severin, just beyond her line of sight. “She can’t manage either of them now. Might as well get out before everything goes boom.”
Kari reached out for RAPHAEL. “No, stop it,” she cried. “You’re going to break everything.”
Marley tried to sit up, and couldn’t. The distortion from the Swords was growing stronger. The weapons were celestial entities in their own right. They’d joined Hadraniel’s quest for a reason and they weren’t happy about what Marley and the others had done.
“What do you know anyhow?” demanded Lissa. “Shut up.”
“Stop talking about blood, stop it, stop it!” shouted Kari.
The Swords were talking to the children somehow. She couldn’t hear what they were saying. She couldn’t stop it.
“Zachariah,” croaked Marley. He was lying on the ground, his eyes half-open. Alive, he was alive, but he wasn’t safe. The Swords wanted to eat him.
“Hey, kids. If you want to stop them, you know what to do,” said Severin. Marley still couldn’t see him. She couldn’t see anything but the twins and Zachariah and the Swords.
“Shut up!” said Lissa a second time, and took BELIAL by the hilt as Kari took RAPHAEL.
The children’s hands were tiny on the hilts of the Swords, but the shadows they cast in the white light stretched into the night. Then all at once the light from the Swords went out. Darkness blanketed everything.
They were safe, they were safe. And so was Zachariah, so was everybody around here, pressing themselves into her subconscious. She wasn’t quite sure what had happened to the Swords. She could still feel lingering traces of their presence, but subdued. Controlled. Mastered.
Marley closed her eyes and let her breath out, her thoughts slipping away from her. As she relaxed, the aches and exhaustion of the day swept over her.
Kari said, “Uncle?” in a little voice and Marley opened her eyes again. A glow appeared around Kari, no brighter than a streetlight.
Lissa was already kneeling beside Zachariah. The Swords were definitely gone. Where had they gone? Marley couldn’t quite remember. She wondered when she’d get to go to sleep. The floor was hard but that didn’t matter.
Branwyn stumbled through the wreckage of the house’s outer wall and lunged for something on the ground. “Got it!” she crowed as she rolled and slid across debris.
“Very heroic,” commented Severin, standing on the remains of the side wall. The other three remaining kaiju climbed up behind him. All of them looked down at the nephilim in the crater-like remains of the house.
Branwyn clutched something to her chest, glaring up at them. Her hammer was in one bloody hand. Blearily, Marley realized Branwyn had the divinity circuit, and struggled to move her shield over to Branwyn so her friend could have the chance she needed.
But her shield was gone, exhausted. She had nothing left.
Max took a step down the pile of rubble, and Severin put a hand on his shoulder.
“I won’t give it to you,” said Branwyn.
In response, Severin laughed, and all of the kaiju vanished.
“This isn’t a game,” shouted Branwyn, outraged.
Corbin climbed up where they’d been. “They’re gone for real, Branwyn. It’s all right.”
The night wind blew across the cratered house. Slowly Zachariah sat up, both of his children nestled in his lap.
There was the sound of a van parking, and Grendel’s rough voice. Corbin said something back and crunched through broken glass to kneel down and stroke her face.
Marley closed her eyes again. All was well.
Epilogue
Two days later.
The big bandage wrapped around Branwyn’s hand made using her phone inconvenient, but it was so much better than her previous ways of contacting Severin that she made do.
“What do you want?” he said by way of answer, his voice coming from behind her. She knew better than to look.
Tartly, Branwyn said, “I already told you what I wanted in exchange for helping you. And I’ve been waiting two days and that stupid mark you put on me is still there.”
“Where’s the divinity circuit?” he asked in response.
“I took it apart, of course.” Mostly true. True enough for the likes of Severin. She tried not to think about how awakened key at the core was in her pocket. She knew how to shut it down now, after agonizing over Titanone, but— “I still helped you.”
“And I saved you, usually from mortal stupidity,” he pointed out. “Over and over again.”
“That doesn’t give you the right to brand me like I’m your personal property,” Branwyn countered.
“Ah. A willful misunderstanding, cupcake? The mark is literally what saved you.”
Branwyn had been trying not to think too hard about that, too. But now she did. “By claiming me, right? By telling your friends that if they messed with me, you’d be unhappy. Well, I’ve paid you back for saving me. I don’t know why you wanted Hadraniel to go down so badly, but it’s done and I’m done.”
Severin sighed. “You really don’t know? Well, consider it self-preservation, c
upcake. Hadraniel had already stolen one of my siblings and used him against Senyaza. Angels can’t be allowed to use us as weapons. If we didn’t get involved, we all would have paid for the way X was used.”
“Whatever,” said Branwyn. Then she remembered the lengths she’d went to in order to save Penny and hesitated. “Where is X now?”
“He’s sleeping until it’s safer for him to be awake again.”
“Safer for who?”
“All of us,” he said wryly.
Branwyn thought about that a moment, then stopped. “Anyhow, we were talking about this mark and how you’re making it vanish right now.”
Severin was quiet for a moment, and Branwyn felt a flash of hope that he was just doing as she asked. Then he said, “Find a mirror for a moment, will you?”
Branwyn said quickly, “You’d better not come here.”
“As if I wanted to,” he said, his voice cooling. “Find a mirror so I don’t have to visit your squalid little den.”
Branwyn went to the bathroom and stood in front of the full-length mirror, still holding her phone to her ear. Her hair was wild from being towel-dried after her shower, but she was fully dressed. The bandage on her primary hand looked ridiculous.
The image shimmered and changed, becoming an image of Severin. He wasn’t holding a phone, which didn’t surprise Branwyn at all.
“All right, I see you. What do you want?”
He reached up to the collar of his snug black t-shirt and pulled it aside to bare his shoulder. There was a mark burned into his shoulder. Branwyn’s mark, in fact: the stylized A that was her maker’s mark and engraved into the face of her hammer. She remembered resting the hammer on his shoulder in her mother’s house.
“Huh,” she said. “Serves you right.”
“Have you dealt with your sister yet?”
Branwyn had talked to her yesterday. It hadn’t been fun, even in a big sisterly way. “She’s going to split paying for Meredith’s school with me. She’ll have to get a roommate and stop putting money into a retirement account, she says.”
Severin’s mouth twisted into an amused smile. “I don’t know if my siblings will approve of such a… banal punishment.”
“They’ll love it if she gets fired by her angel and still has to pay her share,” Branwyn said. “And she’ll keep paying. I’ll make sure of that.” If she wasn’t going to work for Senyaza any more, she needed Rhianna to contribute. Meredith’s smiles would keep her from softening.
“Well, you’ll find out in a year. Won’t that be fun? Let’s revisit the topic of our mutual markings after that.”
Branwyn chewed on her lip, staring at Severin’s smirking face. “Why do you care this much about whether I live or die?”
His wicked eyes crinkled at the corners. “There you go again, asking questions you don’t want to hear the answer to. Bye, Branwyn. I’ll talk to you again in a year or so.”
The image in the mirror became her own reflection as the phone at her ear buzzed unpleasantly. Branwyn felt like she ought to be annoyed, but she wasn’t. Instead, she was puzzled. It had been… odd, seeing her mark on his flesh. Celestials built their bodies, healed wounds on themselves and others with equal ease. What did it mean that he was marked by her hammer?
Then she shook herself. No point in worrying about it. She’d find out eventually, and it would probably be hideous. Best to be prepared.
Her phone chimed, and a pair of messages popped up on the screen. The first one was from Titanone.
Will you come visit soon?
She tapped back an answer. No. But I’m always here for you this way.
I thought you’d say that. :( I am very sad!
You’re talking, though. I’m very glad about that!
It’s harder now. I don’t know all the words.
Branwyn again remembered a moment in that fiery confrontation when Titanone had known the words again. Strange words. You said something to Hadraniel. Convinced him to not destroy you when you were otherwise barely able to talk. Can you tell me what happened then?
The other angel told me what to say, the screen flashed.
Umbriel, perhaps? Branwyn wasn’t sure. She couldn’t imagine why Umbriel would interfere to save Senyaza’s headquarters when there was a war brewing between Umbriel’s organization and Senyaza.
What was the angel like?
Dark, said Titanone. Darker than Loki. A shadow that stretched across me. Cloaked in wind. That’s all I can say.
Branwyn filed the description away. She’d dig more later, in less direct ways. Thanks. You’ll be fine, Titanone. I’m not going to leave you. I just won’t be right there anymore.
Mr. Black is angry. He thinks you and Marley and Corbin should be in our hospital.
I’ve spent enough time there already. She was at her apartment, with Penny staying in Marley’s room while Marley and Corbin stayed at Penny’s house. Because, Penny had said firmly, Marley and Corbin needed some quiet, private time.
She glanced at the message from her brother, then tapped out another message to Titanone: How are you feeling? Any sign of the virus?
I don’t think so. How can I know though?
“Good question,” Branwyn muttered, and looked at Howl’s message again:
Be careful on the web right now. Hacker pal says there’s a new virus going around.
Afterword
Thank you for reading along.
As usual, reviews are very welcome; they can make the difference between a book and a reader getting together. Even the shortest of reviews helps! And if you don’t like writing reviews, you can just tell a friend instead.
If you’re not yet on my mailing list and would like to be, you’ll be able to sign up at my web page. I only use this list to announce new books and it’s definitely the best way to find out when those books are out.
If you’d like to talk to me, you can always find me on Twitter and Facebook; I love hearing from readers.
The next book in the Senyaza Series is not yet written. I’m thinking about telling a story about Rhianna and OX. But if you have suggestions for what you’d like to read about, do let me know!
In lieu of a chapter of an unwritten book, have what didn’t quite make it into the dedication:
You’ve got a monster in your head
so I thought you should know
I love you
I kind of love your monster too…
Acknowledgments
Thank you, Ravven, for your fabulous covers.
Beta reading and editing I owe to Kevin, two Rachels, Suzanne, Beth, Kisha, Jenna and Michelle.
Additional thanks to my housemate, my husband and my kids for their patience and tolerance.
As for Robin, Mikaela, Catie, Di, Laura Anne, Pooks and the others… well, they know what they did, and I certainly hope they know how much I appreciate it.
There are other people, too. I appreciate everything. I’m so lucky. Thank you.
About the Author
As an Air Force kid, Chrysoula went to twelve schools in twelve years and spent a lot of time wondering what made people tick. Books, it turned out, helped with that question.These days she lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family, which includes many small and demanding creatures who fight over her attention. This is Chrysoula’s seventh book.
For more information
@chrysoula
chrysoula.tzavelas
www.dreamfarmer.net
Also by Chrysoula Tzavelas
Senyaza Series
Matchbox Girls
Infinity Key
Wolf Interval
Etiquette of Exiles
Thrones of the Firstborn
Citadel of the Sky
Guardians of the Precipice
Nightlights
ks on Archive.
Divinity Circuit (Senyaza Series Book 5) Page 32