I wasn’t given to making big speeches like Cyon. Instead, I addressed the souls of the Atlanteans the only way I knew how.
“Who’s ready to kick some demon ass?” I cried. “That’s right, you’re going down, you ugly son of a bitch!”
The weapon flared, bright as all the lights of the Cursed City put together, as the Atlanteans prepared to get their revenge.
Uncertainty flickered in Morgal’s slitted gaze. Good. I wanted the archdemon to be afraid.
My arm shook with the power of thousands of souls demanding justice. Hell Breaker continued to power up, absorbing the spirits of the dead.
The fury of the dead.
Holding the disk was becoming more painful with each passing second. I still refused to let go. I had to hold out a bit longer. And once Hell Breaker was fully charged, I would unleash the pent-up energy and direct their righteous anger against Morgal like a laser beam.
I had waited my whole life for this moment. This chance at vengeance was the final gift Cyon had given me. I had never wielded such a powerful weapon before.
New voices filled my head. Hate-filled, angry whispers. Raging, seething, demanding to be unleashed. The dead Atlanteans craved a chance to strike back at their tormentor. Demanded justice. Sought the peace denied to them for so long.
Not yet…
I felt like the pulsating disk was going to yank my arm right off my shoulder. The voices became deafening, a cacophony threatening to tear my mind apart.
NOT YET!
More souls came. More and more and more…
The last few remaining spirits in the temple joined Hell Breaker. Only me, Archer, and the horned monster remained. Morgal towered over us, a nightmare made flesh.
I traded a final glance with Archer. My whole body was shaking. I knew the moment had come. I wouldn’t be able to hold on to the collective power inside the disk any longer.
“Hey,” I whispered. “I know you don’t remember what we had together, but just in case this ends badly…I love you, Jane.”
Before she could respond, my lips twisted into a savage snarl, and I flung Hell Breaker with all my strength at Morgal like an ancient Greek discus thrower.
The spinning disk leaped toward the demon like a bolt of lightning.
Headed right for his throat.
Powered by the rage of a thousand wronged souls and the sacrifice of one noble demon. It glowed with the power of the sun, a light that represented all that was good and right and just in this world.
I could picture it in my mind’s eye. Hell Breaker cutting into demonic flesh in a burst of searing energy. The glowing disk taking the demon’s head off in one fell swoop and ending his reign of darkness once and for all.
Unfortunately, none of that actually happened. Morgal sidestepped the weapon and caught it inches before the spinning blades would have torn into his reptilian skin.
Hell Breaker shrieked in his hand and spun madly like a trapped fly. With excruciating effort, he twisted the disk away from his face and pointed it at me.
Horror gripped me. It hadn’t been enough. Ten thousand souls, and still Morgal had stopped Hell Breaker.
I hated to admit, but I was fucked.
18
Morgal towered above Archer and me, a mountain of glistening muscle, fangs and claws. My eyes should be inured to hell-born horrors after all these years, but there are sights no one could ever get used to. Should ever get used to.
I knew this was only one of the archdemon’s many incarnations, but it was one of his most fearsome. Reptiles had terrified humanity since the beginning of time, haunting the collective consciousness of our species. Deep in our brainstems, we feared things with scales and teeth—and for good reason.
Hell Breaker pulsed with radiant energy in his raised claw, the shimmering disk bathing his leathery skin in a sickly glare.
“Nice try, monster hunter. You now belong to me. Body and soul. Soon you’ll wish you’d have perished all those years ago when I slaughtered your parents.”
Despite my terror, I shook with rage. I’d blown my best and only chance at defeating Morgal. I turned to Archer and tried to mask my sense of defeat, offering her a weak smile.Morgal lurched toward us. The glowing disk thrummed steadily in his claw, still desperate to tear through his demonic flesh. Muscles flexed and strained as Morgal fought back against Hell Breaker’s white magic.
The archdemon’s shadow engulfed us. What fate awaited me? Whatever Morgal had in store for me, it wouldn’t be pretty. I was public enemy number one around these parts, and I was about to experience the full wrath of Hell.
I didn’t care so much about myself. I’d had a good run, all things considered. I had helped some people, saved the world once or twice. But Archer deserved better than this. By failing to kill Morgal, I had failed the woman I loved. There would be no escape for either of us. We were screwed.
There was only one option left. Point my blessed pistol first at Archer and then at myself. End it now. But I still couldn’t bring myself to do it. Skulick had taught me to fight to the bitter end, to never give up no matter how bad the odds might be.
I steeled myself and leveled Hellseeker at Morgal’s ugly face instead. I knew my blessed bullets would merely annoy a demon of his stature, but man, would it feel amazing to unload another full magazine into this demonic bastard.
And then a sudden idea hit me. Instead of aiming at the demon’s head, I targeted the demon claw clutching the vibrating disk.
And fired.
The bullets hit their target and achieved the desired effect. They might not cause any permanent harm to a Duke of Hell, but they sure stung. Morgal let go of the disk, which whipped out of his hand. A split-second later, it tore into his flesh like a shark gripped by a feeding frenzy. The whirring circle of light blasted right through one of the archdemon’s wings, punching a ragged hole into the leathery membrane. Hell Breaker arced through the air, trailing black blood, and came around for a second attack, the weapon possessed of a mind of its own.
Ten thousand minds, actually. All under the command of Cyon.
Aiming for Morgal’s throat, the weapon dive-bombed again. The archdemon brought up his arm in a defensive motion, and the disk sliced right through muscle, bone, and tendons in an explosion of shimmering light and demonic blood.
The archdemon brayed in agony as Hell Breaker took off his taloned hand. The disk buzzed around him, a chainsaw made from pure energy. It rippled toward him again…and stopped in mid-attack.
I gasped. What had happened?
The answer was simple—Morgal had regained control of the battle. His monstrous lips mouthed eerie words. He was fighting magic with magic.
The archdemon was casting a spell.
I realized the spinning disk hadn’t completely stopped after all. It was still moving, one lugubrious inch at a time. I felt like I was watching slow-mo playback of the attack.
About three feet separated the energy weapon from Morgal’s neck, but the archdemon’s strange chanting continued unabated.
Red streaks of light danced around the frozen disk. The energy radiating off the whirling weapon was changing color. Was Morgal’s magic strong enough to shatter Hell Breaker? And would he be able to complete his spell before the disk took his head off like a guillotine? With each passing second, the red light grew brighter and brighter, threatening to incinerate our only chance of destroying the archdemon.
Shit!
I would have to get closer. Maybe a well-placed blow with the Seal of Solomon, my trusty magical ring, would break Morgal’s concentration. All I could do at this point was try to make him botch the spell.
Before I could put this latest strategy into effect, Morgal’s bestial eyes widened, and the strange words froze on his lips. His massive chest stretched and distorted, and once again, a face pressed against the skin from inside.
Skulick’s trapped soul.
With Morgal focused on the slowly approaching energy disk, his hold must’ve weaken
ed on my partner.
Never give up. Never stop fighting. It ain’t over until it’s over.
I could hear his voice in my head as clearly as if he’d spoken aloud. Those were words Skulick had raised me on. Words he lived by himself.
A heartbeat later, Skulick’s spirit form burst from Morgal’s chest and shot toward the disk, spectral arms outstretched. His hands closed around Hell Breaker, and he drew his own soul into the weapon, adding his life force to the considerable power of the demon-killing weapon.
The red light faded as Morgal’s spell shattered for good. The light emanating from the disk turned a brilliant white again, and a split second later, Hell Breaker roared toward Morgal’s neck at full speed. Light flashed and crackled as the blades sheared off his head.
For an eternal beat, the headless archdemon stood there, the body unaware that the head was missing, and then the gargantuan form toppled over. The impact shook the foundation of the temple, and Archer and I struggled to maintain our balance.
Morgal was dead.
And with the lord of this infernal realm defeated, Morgal’s nightmare kingdom crumbled. The temple shook and swayed wildly as if the whole structure was about to come down. And that meant we need to get the hell out of here.
I turned toward Archer…
And heard a by now familiar buzz above me. Without looking up I raised my hand.
Snap! The energy disk landed in my open palm. Hell Breaker’s incredible power ran up my arm and filled my whole body. It was almost too much to bear.
I was now in possession of the most fearsome weapon Hell had ever seen.
Armed with this bad boy, I could to do some real damage.
“You’re getting ahead of yourself, kid. First, make it out of here alive.”
I froze. Whose voice was now ghosting through my mind? It sure as hell sounded like Skulick. Understanding filled me. My old partner’s soul still was inside the mystical weapon.
“Run! Before it’s too late. Get the hell out of here, kid!”
Almost as if to lend weight to Skulick’s disembodied words, the alarm on my watch went off. Which meant forty-five minutes had passed since we arrived in the bone city. And we had only had fifteen minutes to make it back to the warehouse before it phased back to Earth.
Skulick wasn’t kidding. We had to get our asses in gear.
Archer and I ran as the temple rained down on us in a thunderous roar, both of us choking on bone dust. We cleared the length of the nave in one piece and escaped the crumbling temple just as the massive structure began to collapse. My heart hammered with a mad joy as we tore out of the exit and surged toward my waiting car.
Archer was on my side. We had done it. Defeated the beast. And hearing Skulick’s voice emanating from my new weapon filled me with a new sense of relief. A part of my partner had survived.
I tore open the door of my car and slipped behind the wheel as Archer joined me in the passenger seat. I punched the accelerator, and the engine revved. A second later, we were on our way. Behind us, I saw lacelike spires crack and bone towers topple, clouds of dust engulfing the roads behind me. The images made me think of 9/11, when the Twin Towers had come down. I kept pushing the engine, the speedometer inching toward ninety.
Within minutes, we’d cleared the collapsing city and drove in silence through the black desert stretching out before us.
“Where are we going?” Archer asked.
Home, I thought but refused to say it out loud lest I jinx us.
Archer didn’t ask me again.
A quick glance at my watch revealed that we were down to the wire. Only eight minutes left. Ending up stranded in Hell after all the battles we fought and sacrifices we’d made would suck.
The warehouse jumped into view. A bleak, stark desert surrounded our destination, a sky of fire silhouetting the square building that seemed surreally out of place in this forlorn wasteland.
The warehouse was still there, which I took as a good sign. We’ll make it, I told myself.
My heart sank as I spotted the ring of Soulless blocking the bone-paved road leading up to the warehouse. I was driving too fast to dodge the evil spirits, and the Equus slammed right into the hovering spooks. The wards on the windshield lit up, and spectral energy enveloped the vehicle. Metal buckled and twisted. It felt like we had slammed into the back of an eighteen-wheeler.
The steering wheel whipped through my hands, and I lost control over the vehicle. A second later, we were airborne. My car twisted in midair and hit the ground upside-down in a cacophony of rending steel and breaking glass. The impact rattled my body, chattered my teeth. My seat belt bit into my shoulder but kept me from going through the cracked windshield.
The Equus Bass spun across the dark desert floor, tumbling end over end until we finally ground to a smoking, belching halt in a cloud of black dust.
My ride was done for.
I glanced at Archer. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
A thin line of blood trickled from her hairline, but miraculously we both appeared unharmed. But that could change in seconds if the fast approaching horde of spooks had a say in the matter. Their moaning forms encircled the crash site, determined to finish us once and for all. With the car windows shattered, the wards would prove far less effective against the incoming horde.
My jaw tightened with rage. I had had enough of this shit.
I unsnapped my belt and began the painful process of freeing myself from the wreck. My whole body ached as I crawled out of the overturned car and faced down the spooks. Spectral mist swirled around them, clinging to the floating spirit creatures. Their master might have perished, but the soulless still represented a threat. The things would still feed on my good memories if I let them get too close. I had way too few of those to lose them.
“All right, you bastards, let’s see what you got!” My voice shook with rage and burgeoning madness. Losing my car on top of everything else had pushed me to the edge and beyond. Not in a million years would I let this place take one more thing from me.
With an animal roar, I attacked. I hurled Hell Breaker at the Soulless, my new weapon cutting an energetic swath through their ranks. The disk sliced through the first five spooks, who had almost reached me, dispersing them on impact.
Hell Breaker ripped through the air and returned to my hand like a boomerang. In one fluid motion, I spun toward another spook who had tried to sneak up on me from behind. Inches separated us, its bony hand outstretched. Almost as if Hell Breaker could sense I wouldn’t be able to use the disk in a close combat situation, it morphed back into a sword, the blade bursting through the ghost seconds before the creature could steal my best moments.
I pivoted, sword turning back into a disk, and flung my new weapon at another wall of ghostly attackers. As the shrieks of the Soulless filled the desert, I circled the wreck toward the passenger side. Archer had freed herself from the mass of twisted steel. I offered her my hand, pulling her back to her wobbly feet.
Hell Breaker completed its deadly flight pattern through the horde. The last spook evaporated, and the disk wheeled back toward my waiting hand. Fucking badass.
There was no time to bask in my victory. The alarm on my watch went off, a string of loud beeps filling the air. Nearby, the warehouse became transparent as it started to phase out of existence.
“Run!” I shouted at Archer. “Run for your life!”
I exploded into motion. Beside me, so did Archer.
Tapping into everything we had, we ran toward the shimmering warehouse. The structure was changing, turning into a photo negative.
Fuck, we wouldn’t make it. No, no, no.
Hell Breaker seemed to sense that we wouldn’t clear those last twenty feet in time, and once again the sentient weapon came to our rescue. Possessed of mind of its own, it shot out of my hand. Beams of light ignited from the whirring disk as it lifted into the red air. After a moment, I realized the mystical weapon was unloading the souls stor
ed within it to slow down the speed at which the warehouse was phasing back to our world.
It was buying us precious seconds. Encouraged, Archer and I kept sprinting through this radius of magical energy.
Somehow we reached the building and stumbled into the open garage bay. I chanced a glance at the desert outside. Thousands of Atlanteans circled the structure. The once pitiful figures now projected hope and strength, their wasted forms returned to their former glory, as they must have looked in life. And standing among them was Skulick. My partner smiled proudly back at me.
“You did good, kid. As long as you remember what I taught you, I will always be with you.”
Understanding slashed through me. Skulick and the Atlanteans were staying behind in this place. The collective power of their souls had prevented the warehouse from zapping back to our world without us, but they were trapped on the other side of the veil.
Before I could do anything or even say goodbye, it was over. The ghostly figures vanished. The wards and runes Cyon had painted all across the warehouse powered up. Reality stretched and bent again. I was about to experience my second interdimensional jump. Can’t say I’d gotten used to it. Or ever wanted to.
I took Archer’s hand in mine and squeezed hard. She eyed me with surprise. But even if she didn’t remember our relationship, she appeared to appreciate the gesture. She squeezed back, and together we braced ourselves to return home.
After thirty mind-bending seconds that would have rivaled the most intense LSD trip, the familiar asphalt and grey skies of the Cursed City appeared outside the open garage bay.
We had defeated Morgal and returned to Earth.
But at what cost?
19
Two weeks had passed since their narrow escape from Hell. Two weeks in which Archer had spent every waking moment looking for Dianna McKendry. She’d made a promise to the woman who’d helped her back in the bone city, and she intended to keep it.
Archer took a deep breath and entered the Starbucks near the University of Maine, where Dianna was a student. She’d spoken with Dianna’s roommate an hour ago, and the young Indian girl with the purple dyed hair and nose ring had suggested Archer should look for her at Starbucks. Mid-terms were coming up, and the twenty-one-year-old pre-med student had set up shop at her favorite coffee shop, where she was mainlining caffeine.
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