“Take that to your master, you lying dog of hell,” she snarled. Matthew threw back his head and howled, releasing her as he used both hands to claw at his face. The noise of his cry was terrible, like a mortally wounded animal.
JD shoved away from him, arched her back, flung out her arms, and watched in horror as Matthew seemed to shoot away from her like a bullet. Something glinted in the moonlight off to her right, and she saw the rings spinning away, just out of her reach. She glanced back up at Matthew, he was blacker than the star filled night. Starlight outlined his dark form.
A desperate hope raced through her panic-stricken mind that Nathan would be there to envelope her in his arms, and save her again from a horrible death, but she knew, realistically, that he was nowhere nearby. She really was going to be smashed to pieces on the rocks below. Either way, her irrational thoughts told her, she would see Nathan again. In this life or the next, she’d be with Nathan, and perhaps this was the only way to be free of Quabin afterall.
JD shut her eyes and waited, hoping for Nathan’s warm arms to materialize around her, refusing to think of the cold, hard ground that waited below. Peace filled her being as the wind whistled past her and the moments to impact shortened. To her astonishment, arms did encircle her at the last possible moment. Her eyes fluttered opened to see the snarling visage of Matthew’s fury.
That didn’t work out so well, she thought.
Chapter 23
JD screamed and kicked at him, trying to claw her way through his granite-like skin. Matthew swung her away from him, holding her only by the hair of her head. She grabbed onto his wrist, to ease the tension on her scalp. Matthew’s wings pumped furiously, and below her dangling feet, she could see the yawning blackness of the canyons fall away beneath her. Her stomach lurched as he swooped and swerved through the twisting canyons. Though she could not see it clearly, she knew where he was headed. It was where he had tried to take her before; Cassidy’s Arch.
Matthew stopped abruptly, causing her to slam into his side. She cried out in agony as she felt hair ripping from her scalp. He cursed as he hovered, wings pumping and wind whooshing about them. She twisted around to see what the matter was. Ahead of them, a white glow emanated from the apex of Cassidy’s Arch, a glow that was vaguely human in form. A flash of white light brightened in the darkness. Matthew threw his arm up to shield his eyes from the assaulting light. JD blinked, not nearly as blinded as Matthew had been by the flash of light, and realized it was the light from Nathan’s sword. Nathan! She felt a surge of hope.
Matthew glanced about him, and when he found what he was looking for, darted there, dropping JD on a narrow outcropping of rock. She fell, nearly sliding off the precarious perch. Scrambling back against the rock wall, she glanced around and saw that there was no way up. She peered over the edge and felt the world reel when she saw how far up she was. There was no way down. She was trapped.
JD scooted away from the edge until her back pressed against the cold rock of the cliff face, ironically warmer than Matthew had been. With her knees under her chin, and her arms around her legs, she shivered nonetheless.
“It is finished tonight!” Matthew’s voice shook the walls of the canyon.
“We don’t have to do this, Matthew. Stop this right now,” Nathan answered.
Unexpectedly, a spear of flame shot across the darkened canyons from where Matthew hovered, illuminating the canyon walls as it hurled toward Nathan. She inhaled sharply in surprise. Nathan whirled, swinging his sword around, deflecting the fire spear into the canyon walls beside him. The impact of the projectile sent reverberations throughout the canyon, its sound echoing offensively as rock exploded. JD clapped her hands over her ears.
“Never,” Matthew hollered.
Since he was dark as the night itself, she couldn’t easily spot Matthew until a flash of flame pinpointed him toward her left and above her. A flaming spear in his left hand. Nathan swung his sword one way and then another as Matthew launched a volley of the infernal javelins; a volley of red hot hatred. Nathan, enveloped in a glowing aura of power, moved steadily closer to Matthew, effortlessly dodging the spears hurled at him, or striking them down with his sword.
It must have dawned on Matthew that hurling spears at Nathan was accomplishing nothing. Matthew tossed back his head and roared again. JD hated the sound. It hurt to hear it, not so much with her ears, but her soul ached when Matthew made that unworldly noise. Nathan was affected by it as well, for he turned his head away, cringing.
Roaring across the span between them, Matthew hurtled himself toward Nathan. His wings were folded back as he shot like a bullet toward Nathan, who seemed to await him calmly, swinging his sword in an arc. Matthew dodged the upswing of Nathan’s sword, and bowled into him.
An amazing display of sparks exploded from the impact, causing Nathan to lose his grip on the sword. Nathan’s sword spun wildly away and disappeared into the depths of the canyon.
Matthew took on a reddish glow, as if he was a massive chunk of coal, smoldering in a blackened hole, waiting for something to set on fire. Then, he lunged at Nathan, trying to throw his arms about him, to embrace him into the field of flames that had become his chest. Their aerial combat spun closer to JD. She tensed for their impact. Matthew was clearly larger than Nathan, by almost a third. The strain of holding Matthew’s arms back was evident on Nathan’s face as they spun and wrestled.
Finally, Matthew broke the grip Nathan had on him by dropping like a stone, the flames about his body vanishing. Nathan didn’t hesitate to follow Matthew into the darkness below, but then Matthew shot upward right in front of JD. She cried out as she watched him sail overhead and disappear over the lip of the cliff above her. She reached forward to peer over the lip of her ledge to look for Nathan, just as Nathan soared past, locking eyes with hers for just a briefest moment. She gaped at him, wanting to call for him, but she was unable to string two words together as she waited for the outcome of the horrific battle.
Before Nathan cleared the edge of the cliff above, a huge rock flew straight at him, hit him in the chest, and sent him crashing backward and down into the canyon once more.
“Nathan,” JD screamed as she scrambled again toward the edge of the ledge and peered over. She heard a whoosh of wind above and Matthew plunged after Nathan. The force of the wind generated by Matthew’s passing pulled her over the edge. She threw a hand out and caught the edge, but her grip wasn’t sure. She reached with her foot at the cliff wall to find purchase as her toe caught a small crevice. It was enough to support her enough so she could get her other hand onto the edge of the rock shelf. She could hardly catch her breath as she hung there trying to figure out what to do next.
JD could hear the commotion of battle below. Matthew’s roars, the crashing of rock against canyon wall, the sound of a body being slammed against the cliff. The constant rumblings and shakings in the canyon were weakening her grip.
“Nathan!” she screamed as her fingers began to slip. “Matthew!” She figured they both had a vested interest in keeping her alive. Surely, one of them would take a moment and save her.
Almost immediately, she was shoved back onto the ledge as Matthew came rocketing past her into the night sky. Nathan was right behind him. JD lay on her side in a fetal position on the rock shelf, trying to catch her breath and willing herself to calm down so she could think rationally and figure out a way to escape this nightmare.
Nathan looped back down quick as lightning, catching Matthew on his horns. Matthew flung back his head, tossing Nathan over and down toward the arch. Nathan spun wildly, like a doll tossed carelessly aside, before he crashed onto the Arch. He rolled across it, but caught himself before he went over the other side. JD held her breath as she watched him regain his feet, clutching at his side in pain.
Without wasting time, Nathan flung out his right hand, and his sword appeared. Matthew reeled himself about as Nathan charged forward. Lowering his head, Matthew pulled his elbows to his side, and then,
with great effort, he shoved his hands forward, as if pushing some great, invisible weight in front of him. A strange, circular wall of fire erupted and raced like a tsunami wave toward Nathan. Nathan threw up his sword to block, but the concussion of heat and power knocked him off the arch and sent him wheeling into the darkness below.
JD crouched on her ledge. “Nathan,” she whispered. “No.”
Matthew threw back his head and roared triumphantly.
From the light of the full moon, JD could see a darkness below the arch begin to billow. Like a thick cloud of blackness darker than the night, swirling and coalescing into a funnel-shaped mass, a vortex began to appear. With sickening dread, she could see individual dark shapes in the swirling vortex. Demons.
JD glanced about for Matthew, but didn’t have to look far. He rose before her and hovered, breathing heavily, red lights flickering within his eyes like tiny flames. His body still radiated an aura of red. She could clearly see the imprint the wedding bands had left on his cheek−an angry, black and swollen mass of flesh. He reached for her, but she threw herself backward, kicking away his hands. He snarled and snatched her by the ankle, the same one he had broken earlier, and jerked her painfully across the ledge. Once he had her secure in his arms, Matthew twisted toward the Arch, pushing through the sky with a heavy swoosh of his wings.
He didn’t go too far before he hesitated and cocked his head to one side, as if listening for something. All JD could hear was the growing roar of the wind whipping up from the canyon bottom, and the faint whoops, and clamors of creatures emerging from the vortex. JD squinted to see better, but all she could make out were vague shadows of Quabin’s demons.
Chapter 24
The swirling mass below captured JD’s attention, and she prayed feverishly that Nathan would rise up from it, but something told her he was in trouble. The demons were whooping and clamoring in a fury. Matthew’s hesitation caused JD to look up at him and then follow his gaze on upward.
She almost cried out with relief. Angels, male and female, each with a flashing white sword, hovered above them, gazing down with pure disdain, at the evilness erupting from the earth
Matthew’s lips peeled away from his fangs with a snarl. Gripping JD like a football under his arm, he spun about and shot like a spear toward the vortex of darkness. Whether he could get there before the legion of angels could reach him, JD did not know. The velocity at which Matthew flew threatened to rob her of her senses, and she began to black out.
When Matthew reached the outer edge of the vortex, he slowed. The other demons became more defined in appearance. JD saw hideous faces snapping at her, cackling, and crying as greedy fingers reached to snatch at her. Matthew smacked away a few of the smaller demons that strayed too close to their circular trajectory, sending them sprawling and howling. She flinched and shut her eyes, the commotion of bodies swirling and bumping against her was too much for her reeling senses to handle. She prayed fervently that the Host would hurry. If Matthew reached the point of the vortex, JD knew it would be too late.
Something collided into Matthew. He grunted and swatted away a smaller goat-like demon. JD peeked to see what was happening. Ahead of them, she could see a relatively calm, glowing red spot on the ground, and a figure in black at the heart of it.
Quabin, JD comprehended.
Another demon rammed into Matthew’s side. Matthew growled and whirled about, flying backward to kick off the hordes that descended upon them. But in turning back to fend off the mass of demons pressing against his back, she saw that the demons weren’t trying to get Matthew, they were fleeing from the angels that swung their sword blades through their demon bodies. In their panic to flee from the advancing Host, the demons were colliding with each other and Matthew.
Demons fled in all directions. JD looked toward the end of the vortex and saw Quabin waiting with open arms. Matthew redoubled his efforts, wings straining to pump as fast as he could to put JD into Quabin’s waiting arms. JD could not let Quabin take her.
JD began searching her pockets frantically for something to fight with while tucked under Matthew’s arm. Her fingertips grazed the edge of a ballpoint pen she had clipped onto her pants pocket. She snatched it and clicking the writing tip forward, she drove it into the most vulnerable place she could reach−Matthew’s groin.
Matthew reacted instinctively by shoving her away from him and grabbed at his groin to remove the pen she had imbedded there, howling in pain. He flapped away from her as she crashed and bounced against a horde of demons that fled the angelic Host.
If she had hoped Nathan would be able to reach her before she slammed into the rocks below, her hopes were in vain. Striking all those demons on the way down slowed her descent, preventing her from dying upon impact, but she hit the rocks with such force, she felt several bones break and something wet pool beneath her head instantly. Red tinged the outer edges of her vision as she absorbed her situation.
She lay on her side, unable to move, unable to feel anything, which was a blessing of sorts, she decided. Hands touched her, and she thought it might be Nathan after all. She was pushed onto her back, and the face that filled her dimming vision wasn’t Nathan’s at all. It was Quabin, wrapped in a red hooded cloak. Quabin pushed back the hood to reveal a tumble of thick, black hair that fell about her shoulders. She knelt beside JD and smiled with blood red lips. Large, violet eyes ringed with thick lashes regarded her coldly. She was very beautiful in a deadly way.
“Well, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you, JD,” the False One murmured as she brushed the hair from JD’s eyes. “It’s a shame we don’t have more time to get to know each other better. Come now, be a good girl and hang on long enough for your friends to patch you up. We’ll meet again soon enough.” Quabin leaned forward and kissed either side of her cheeks. Her kisses burned her flesh, much like Drogo’s had. JD just stared at her, her mouth refusing to move, her jaw surely broken. Quabin removed a golden cylinder from inside her cloak, uncapped it and laid the end of it against the back of JD’s hand. A sting bit into her, before Quabin withdrew the cylinder and tucked it away. Then, the False One casually glanced upward, her long, white neck flashed in the eerie, red glow surrounding them. And then she was gone, caught away in the commotion of the battle around them.
JD would have given anything to have lost consciousness then and there, but for some reason, her body refused to cooperate. Perhaps it was for a reason, she comforted herself, that she remained cognizant and alert, because Nathan’s face materialized before her. She could see that he laid his hand on her shoulder and cupped her cheek with the other, but she could not feel his touch.
“Stay with me, Julia. We’ll get you help.” Nathan looked up and around. JD didn’t know who Nathan was looking for, but she saw someone step into her field of view above Nathan’s shoulder. It was Gramps! JD wept to see him. He was a younger version of the man she had known in life, but she recognized him instantly.
Nathan looked back down at her, his eyes roving over her body, and she could tell from his expression that what he saw wasn’t good. Gramps held out his hand to her. JD moved her hand toward him, she was only mildly alarmed that she could see right through her arm and that it passed through Nathan as if he were made of mist.
“Julia,” Nathan said, grounding her for the moment in the here and now. She shifted her eyes to Nathan. He didn’t seem the least bit aware of Gramps standing behind him. Nathan leaned closer to her. “Stay with me, Julia. Don’t leave me. We have to finish this or else the False One wins.”
JD drew in a deep ragged breath. The action set fire to her lungs and felt like it burned a hole through her chest. Tears of pain slipped down her cheeks, and her mind was a fog, becoming detached from the pain and agony that she could feel.
Gramps looked at her with a small smile on his lips, waiting. She closed her eyes, but she could still see her grandfather. She drew in one last breath, and with the last ounce of strength she had, she uttered her last words.
/> “I’m sorry Nathan. I was wrong, and I failed.” Choking on her own blood, JD’s head lolled to one side.
“No,” Nathan said urgently. “No, Julia, you were right. Please. If you die, both Matthew and I are trapped here. Stay with me, please.” JD sucked in a desperate breath and choked. The taste of blood filled her mouth.
“No, Julia−stay!” Nathan pleaded, bending his head and resting his forehead against hers. “Please,” he wept. JD could see her grandfather clearly standing before her at the end of a long, dark tunnel.
“You can choose,” her grandfather said. JD closed her eyes. Sweet oblivion.
Chapter 25
The gleaming, golden scissors snipped through the fluttering, red ribbon. A cheer erupted among the City and County Representatives, residents of Torrey, contractors, and tourists who had gathered for the grand opening of the Torrey Schoolhouse Bed and Breakfast.
Mrs. Blackwell held up the scissors triumphantly, a huge smile pushing her reddened cheeks up, crinkling her eyes into small slits. A rare grin played across Mr. Blackwell’s face as he wrapped an arm about his wife’s shoulders.
Holding her end of the ribbon, JD glanced at Rick who stood opposite of her, holding the other piece of the cut ribbon. He winked at her and grinned as well. A biting breeze snatched at the severed ribbons, tugging at them as Mrs. Blackwell turned and opened the doors of the schoolhouse to admit the group inside for refreshments and entertainment.
If I Fall...: Will You Forgive Me? (Angelore Saga Book 2) Page 13