Celestial Storm

by Emma L. Adams

  “You’re wasting your time, Devi,” said Lythocrax.

  “Piss off.”

  I burned another point into the floor, then another, until five points surrounded the glass. The light would keep any demon contained, but wouldn’t stop a swarm.

  Or an arch-demon.

  “In two days, I will rise,” said Lythocrax.

  “That would be creepy if you were actually him, but you’re talking out of your arse,” I said. Maybe he’d slip and give away his identity if I talked for long enough. “Invisibility magic doesn’t last forever, and neither do illusions.”

  “I’m not invisible. I’m right here.”

  A ripple passed across the surface of the glass. Despite myself, I found my gaze following the movement, as the light disappeared, sinking into shadow. Within, a pair of furnace-like eyes momentarily appeared.

  Mother-fucker. I wouldn’t forget those eyes in a hurry.

  What if he was right? If part of him had survived…

  Don’t be stupid. I’d slit his throat with his own demonglass, for the Divinities’ sakes. His body had turned to ashes right there in the street. And yet…

  A creeping sense of dread filtered through. Maybe… maybe, like Azurial, part of him had survived after all.

  Triumph that wasn’t mine rushed through me, and the sensation of wings behind my shoulders flickered in and out of existence.

  I tripped backwards away from the glass, my own fear momentarily swamping the weird rush of emotion that wasn’t mine. “You shouldn’t be in my head. You shouldn’t be here at all.”

  Some demons could affect emotions. Rarely, but they did exist. Maybe I faced the fear version of an incubus, which took my own fear and multiplied it tenfold. But that voice—

  “I am creation, Devi. I cannot be killed. And I will return to finish you off.”

  “Stay in hell where you belong.” My voice trembled, despite my best efforts to calm it. Hearing his voice from the glass, feeling his emotions in place of mine—it was like looking into a vast gulf and knowing I was about to fall into it. And not being able to stop it. “I suppose it was you who turned Harvey into an angel. That’s cheating, you piece of shit.”

  “Nothing is cheating in this war, Devina. The Divinities chose to limit their servants: I chose to let them shine.”

  Seven hells. Either someone was playing an elaborate joke, or he really—

  I swore, hitting out at the glass. Pain splintered my knuckles, and rage and fear fought for dominance. I wanted to run. I wanted an enemy to slay face to face rather than a disembodied monster. I was built to kill demons, not phantoms which didn’t, shouldn’t exist anymore.

  “Do you fear me, Devi?” he whispered from the glass.

  I snarled and drew on Abyss’s power, turning into the winged arch-demon I’d destroyed. Lythocrax’s feelings swamped mine—righteous anger, depthless as the abyss… and below that, unmistakably, fear.

  “You’re the one who’s afraid,” I said, in disbelief. I’d destroyed him, reduced him to nothing and the idea of looking into oblivion terrified him beyond measure. He was clinging onto existence by a fragment—but he was still here, still alive. I’d been looking for faceless Divine Agents, when my true enemy had never died after all.

  “I am everywhere, Devi,” he growled. “Every piece of demonglass I touch contains a piece of my magic. When I died, my power dissipated…”

  “Bastard,” I whispered.

  His magic was in this realm. Infecting humans… infecting Earth.

  No wonder he’d let me kill him. I’d sown the seeds of my own world’s destruction without him needing to survive. When I’d spread that demonglass around the city, I had no way of knowing it contained Lythocrax’s own essence.

  “You can’t turn the glass into a portal,” I said, my voice raspy. “You’d need a thousand bloodstones to power a source this size.”

  “I don’t need bloodstones when I have the divine light on my side.”

  Oh, seven hells. Celestial light could power a portal, and he had no shortage of willing celestials waiting to help him. Who knew how many others he’d turned into angels?

  “You’re a demon,” I said. “You shouldn’t be allowed to turn anyone into angels.”

  “I was once divine, and that magic lingers still, Devi.” His triumph flickered through me again, unencumbered by fear. “You will feel what I feel when your world dies, Devi… I will make sure of it.”

  “I won’t.”

  My fist hit the glass, over and over. Blood streamed from my knuckles, on both hands, but I couldn’t break it. Not with my own power.

  “Two days,” whispered Lythocrax. “Two more days until I will be reborn, and Earth will fall. Two days, Devi…”

  His voice faded away. Nothing remained but bloodstained demonglass, showing my own shell-shocked reflection.

  The doors crashed open behind me, and a different kind of light flooded the room, the light of a setting sun. Two people strode in: Nikolas and Rachel.

  “You were supposed to send up a smoke signal,” said Rachel. Then she saw my face. “What is it?”

  “I can’t move this source.” My voice sounded distant. “Guys… we’re in serious trouble.”

  14

  It took most of the drive back for me to explain what Lythocrax had said. My hands shook so badly, Nikolas had to take the wheel. At least they didn’t think I was going mad, but the alternative was worse. For me—and for Earth.

  “The snake,” said Rachel. “He shouldn’t have survived. You killed him.”

  “He did,” I said. “He’s a demon of creation. That’s how he brought me back. He did the same to Harvey, too.”

  “If he was going to be reborn, surely it would have happened right away?” Nikolas said. “That’s usually how it is.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know why he didn’t come back right away, but I used his own power against him. Maybe it weakened him. Or maybe it’s because he died on Earth, which isn’t a demon realm. He turned to ashes, and I guess whatever was left of him latched onto any piece of demonglass it could find. That’s what it sounds like.”

  “So he’s in the glass?” said Rachel, from the back seat. “That’s crazy.”

  “Crazier than maggot demons possessing people?” I said. “Or him creating a glass clone of me? This is the netherworld we’re talking about.”

  Nikolas steered the car around a corner. “Exactly, but it sounds like he was severely weakened.”

  “He still said it’ll take two days for him to come back,” I said. “And he’s in the source. It’s a hell of a powerful one.”

  “He can’t use the source to create a portal, though,” Nikolas said. “Like you said—it’d require a significant amount of power. And if he is reborn, he wouldn’t be able to manifest in a realm like this for long.”

  “If he had a portal, that wouldn’t be an issue,” I said. “Besides, he has a bunch of celestials who’ll do whatever he says. Celestial light can power a portal.”

  “I’m not sure even they can power the rebirth of an arch-demon,” he said, though his hands clenched on the wheel. “I called my contacts and they took Talon’s associates in for questioning. They claimed ignorance about other sources.”

  “There might be others,” I said slowly. “Outside the city.”

  “Then we’ll find them,” said Rachel. “Drive all night if you have to.”

  “Not if we can’t destroy them,” I said. “I think it’s safe to say he planned this way before he actually died. Without a body, though—you’re right, Nikolas, he’d need one hell of a boost of demonic magic. It was only his consciousness that survived. Kinda like Azurial, but he didn’t need saphor demon eggs or vampire bites to do it.”

  He survived. I should have known that the arch-demon who’d brought me back from the dead would have had one final trick up his sleeve. It’d seemed too easy to take him down. His own source of power might be his weakness, but it was also his greatest strength.
/>
  Damn him.

  “But what did he mean by two days?” asked Rachel.

  “He said it’ll take him two days to regain his lost form,” I said. “I guess that means getting his body back or making a new one. Or he plans to take someone else’s. If he can create a clone of me out of demonglass, creating a new body isn’t beyond him. Demonglass is his power source. I guess it kept him alive—”

  “In the road!” yelled Rachel. “Stop the car!”

  Nikolas hit the brakes and we skidded to a halt. There was someone in the road—a human, his hand glowing with white light.

  A celestial. One of the rogues stood in the middle of the road, jerkily swaying to the side as though drunk or injured.

  Rachel gagged. I turned on my own celestial light, warily pushing the door open. Then I gagged, too. The light from my hand illuminated blood splattered around the celestial’s feet, and the reason he was stuck in that position was because someone had hammered glass shards into his feet. Not regular glass, either.

  “Help….” He gasped. “He’s here… he’s here.”

  I swallowed bile. “Lythocrax is fucked in the head.”

  The celestial turned to me, his eyes glowing with divine fire. “He said… he said tell her there are five, five points. When five ignite, so do I.”

  “The hell does that mean?” I moved closer, but even if I removed the glass from his feet, his wounds were too deep. He wouldn’t survive.

  “It means you’re too late,” Lythocrax’s voice whispered in my ear. The light at the celestial’s feet gleamed brighter, then there was a horrible crack. The celestial fell backwards, blood spilling into the road, his legs destroyed. He was dead.

  I heard Rachel vomiting and gagged again. Nikolas moved behind me, wrapping an arm around my shoulder.

  “I’m okay,” I said, shuddering. “More than he is, anyway. Rachel, I recommend you don’t look at this.”

  I swallowed hard, squeezing my eyes shut. Then, gritting my teeth, I approached the dead celestial. At his feet, the glass had exploded into fragments. Like at the warlock bar, there was nothing left. It’d burned out from the inside out, leaving no traces behind.

  “Nothing there,” I said, returning to the car. “I guess Lythocrax is going to keep leaving me creepy messages for the next two days delivered by his unfortunate followers.”

  “Five points?” said Nikolas. “There are five points on a pentagram.”

  “There are.” I cast my mind back to the odd metal contraption the demonglass had been trapped in, fixed to the wall. “If they wanted to turn that thing into a portal, they’d need to use something similar to a pentagram to contain it.”

  An image entered my mind—five celestials, each holding a burning light as they transported Faye and me into Purgatory. Five points on a pentagram could also be five separate sources, if it was a particularly big portal. If five celestials surrounded that glass, they’d be able to turn it into a portal…

  When five ignite, so do I.

  “Figure it out later,” said Rachel, from the back seat of the car. “That guy is giving me the major creeps.”

  “Seconded.” I got back in the front passenger seat. “You two heard him then, right? Lythocrax.”

  “Yes,” Nikolas said darkly, taking the wheel. “He wasn’t trying to hide his presence.”

  “No kidding.”

  We found the second celestial on the outskirts of town. This one had been nailed to a wall by a shard of demonglass deep in his shoulder. As he spotted our car, he choked out the words, “Two days, Devi…”

  “Fuck off, Altheare.”

  He didn’t react to my use of his true name. Lythocrax’s creepy laugh tore from the celestial’s throat, and when Nikolas stopped the car, a burst of light engulfed the celestial’s right-hand side. The glass exploded again.

  I leapt out the car and sprinted to his side, but the entire right side of his body was a bloody mess. The celestial teetered on the spot, falling to his knees. With his last breath, he gasped, “Look below, not above, for heaven was built on hell’s ruins, and light and dark are both divine.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” I stepped back as the celestial fell onto his face, his body still. Dead.

  “He said, ‘look below’,” said Nikolas. “Underground? The netherworld?”

  “Maybe the netherworld,” I muttered, turning away from the celestial’s body.

  Once again, I climbed back into the car. I didn’t appreciate being toyed with, and Lythocrax was getting on my last nerve. What the hell was he killing off his own people for? It wasn’t like I’d mourn their deaths. But if the celestials found them, it’d freak them out even more than it did me. After all, the missing celestials were supposed to be dead. You’d think he’d have more sense than to sacrifice his own people, but when it came to Lythocrax, nobody seemed to stay dead.

  “Heaven was built on hell’s ruins,” said Nikolas, getting behind the wheel. “This city was rebuilt by the celestials. Heaven’s soldiers. Maybe he means the city itself.”

  “Maybe, but it wasn’t hell’s to begin with,” I said.

  I don’t think so, anyway. I hadn’t exactly paid attention in the celestial academy’s history lessons. And the celestial cities had traditionally been built on sites where the demons had waged war and lost.

  Talon’s words came back to me. They built the city on top of what used to be ours.

  “It wasn’t hell’s,” Nikolas said, “but it wasn’t the celestials’ either.”

  “Never mind that,” said Rachel. “Lythocrax is toying with us. It wasn’t the Divine Agents at all, was it? Not even screwing with the rogues and promising them power.”

  “Nope. It’s him, all over again. It’s always been him.”

  The celestial’s words echoed in my mind. And light and dark are both divine. What the hell did that mean? Both heaven and hell’s rulers were both divine? Not hardly. Arch-demons were the polar opposite of the Divinities. Unless Lythocrax still saw himself as divine despite falling from grace. He was certainly egotistical enough.

  “Two days seems too generous,” said Rachel.

  “Don’t speak too soon,” I said. “I’ll bet he has other plans in motion. Like those humans with celestial powers. And even then, we can’t destroy the portal, not without…”

  “Without what?” asked Rachel.

  “There’s only one way to destroy that glass,” I said. “The shadow arch-demon’s magic.”

  We pulled up at Nikolas’s house, and Rachel shook her head at me. “That’s not just a bad plan, it’s suicidal.”

  “Got a better idea?” I looked at Nikolas. “Believe me, if there’s another option, I’ll gladly take it. Casthus’s power can destroy the glass. If I get my hands on some of it, I can drive right back to that warehouse and wipe the source out.”

  “I doubt robbing the shadow demon will go as well as the last time did, Devi,” he said. “You were exceedingly lucky.”

  “When I took the fallen?” I asked, an uneasy flutter going through me. I’d been sure I’d got them safely out of the way, and yet… Lythocrax wasn’t supposed to survive. All my plans to keep them safe had hinged on him no longer being alive. I couldn’t even keep the people on Earth I loved safe, let alone anyone else.

  Two days. Two days to save the world.

  “I’ll look at my resources,” said Nikolas, getting out of the car. “Devi, you’re worn down. If you try to confront anyone tonight, you’ll make careless mistakes. Besides, it may be that there’s a solution that doesn’t involve the shadow arch-demon at all. I got the impression Lythocrax was giving you a hint.”

  “Or just screwing with me.” I climbed out of the car, sighing. “I can’t make heads or tails of what those celestials said, which is probably the point.”

  “Don’t let him get to you, Devi,” said Rachel.

  I turned to lock up the car. “He crept up on me and killed two people. And he’s supposed to be dead. Also, I can still sometimes
feel what he does, and it’s creepy as hell.”

  “I didn’t know you could still feel it,” said Nikolas, waiting beside the unlocked door to his house.

  “Not all the time.” I walked in and flicked the light switch in the hall, making for the living room. “He’s scared shitless of dying. That’s why he’s hanging on so hard. I guess being the demon of creation isn’t necessarily a failsafe.”

  “Guess not.” Rachel flopped into an armchair. “Okay, what clues did he give you? Five points… he must have meant a pentagram.”

  “Everyone knows you need a more than a source to power a portal, though,” I said. “That isn’t news.”

  “No.” Nikolas turned the kitchen light on and approached the shelf above the cabinet where he kept his collection of old books. “I don’t think an arch-demon could possibly come through a source even that size, however. He’d need a far bigger portal to come to a realm with as little demon magic as Earth. Bigger even than the one that covered the guild’s headquarters when the vampire king created that bridge on Babylon.”

  “How big?” I asked, a new possibility hitting my heart. “The size of a building?”

  “Bigger.” Rachel lifted her head, her gaze connecting with mine.

  “The size of a city,” I whispered. “Five… he didn’t mean a pentagram around that source. He meant five sources.”

  The demonglass itself wasn’t the portal. The city was. And if it was true… if his power was inside the glass, waiting to ignite… maybe five sources, powered by celestial light, would be enough to bring him back.

  Rachel drew her knees up to her chin. “That would take some major planning.”

  “He’s had ages to plan this,” I said. “That source at the warehouse has been there for weeks. I’d need to see a map to figure out where the others are… does anyone have a map of what the city looked like in its original form? Before the celestials modernised everything?”

  Rachel frowned. “They did? I thought the city was built over fifty years ago.”