Zane placed his hand on Nijah’s forehead. “Be still.”
She exhaled a ragged breath. “Yes. Heal me so I can avenge this treachery.”
Shit. Bella backed up a couple of steps, her skin prickling. Eblis might have told Zane she wasn’t to be harmed, but that didn’t mean he’d obey.
Before she got the chance to strike, Nijah stiffened. The whites of her eyes glowed crimson and her lips peeled back revealing her teeth before her head tipped to the side. Zane stood and their gazes clashed over the lifeless body of their former leader. He had picked his side.
“I take it you’re staying.” His voice was grim. “Do we even know who we’re fighting for anymore?”
She glanced at Nate. There were no fireballs or lightning bolts illuminating the scene, but silver sparks showered him and Dagan as their swords clashed. The echoes rasped around the atrium and the air hissed with unfettered menace.
Her heart clenched. Dagan wielded the sword she’d been searching for. The one that could mortally injure an archangel and most likely destroy one, too.
For so long she had wanted the Archangel Nathanael to pay for the wrongs he’d inflicted on her hybrid race. But she was the one who’d been wrong about him.
Terror that her wish might be granted lodged in her throat. Stop. She refused to think of it.
Nate was a feared warrior. He wouldn’t succumb.
But Dagan was a formidable match for him.
The clash of forged steel rang in the air as Nate countered the deadly blow that Dagan had struck. The demon’s face twisted in a maniacal grin as he was forced to step back to avoid the sweep of Nate’s counterattack.
Two immortals, fighting a remorseless battle reminiscent of Dark Age knights. Something that, since meeting Nate, she’d never wanted to witness. Except in place of medieval armor, their wings were unfurled, giving flight to their leaps across the stone floor and walls.
It was magnificent. Breathtaking.
Terrifying.
Armor. Realization struck.
“He’s wearing his armor.” And was slowly, but surely, maneuvering them both to the mountain entrance. And once inside, while Nate wouldn’t be able to use his powers, Dagan would. She grabbed Zane’s arm. “Dagan’s armor neutralizes the effect of the mountain.”
Forcing herself to remain calm, she opened her mind to Nate.
Watch your back. Dagan’s pushing you into the mountain.
Don’t worry about me. I know what he’s doing. Keep out of danger.
Of course he’d been aware. She dragged her gaze away as Zane stepped away from her, hugging the shadows of the wall. His face was set in a hardened mask as he moved with agile ease.
Zane. What are you doing?
Closing the gate.
It could only be closed manually and would prevent Nate from being backed into the mountain. Except Nate would never allow such a thing to happen.
But Zane didn’t know that.
It’s okay. You don’t—
Her words froze as Dagan tossed a dagger in Zane’s direction. It glinted silver as it sped through the air. She sucked in sharp breath. Zane didn’t stand a chance.
She flung every particle of telekinetic energy she possessed at the dagger. Pain spiked through her head as she focused on forcing it from its trajectory. But it was powered by a full blood demon, and instead of smashing into the wall as she’d intended, the dagger barely swerved.
It embedded in Zane’s shoulder, catapulting him to the floor. At least it had missed his brain. Dagan smirked and reached for a second dagger before Nate shoulder charged him, sending the demon sprawling. Panic caught in her throat as Dagan rolled on the ground and sprang to his feet several yards from where he’d fallen. Nate charged a second time, sword in front of him.
Zane let out a soft groan and Bella ran toward him and crouched by his side. “You need to stay out of sight.”
Zane gritted his teeth before inhaling a ragged breath. “I assume I owe you my life. Dagan wouldn’t have missed.”
“Do you want me to pull it out?”
“Leave it. I’ll do it.” He cast a stony glance at the battling immortals. “What the fuck are they doing? They can’t kill each other unless one of them lets down their guard. No chance of that.”
But it could happen. Panic flared and Bella shook her head. She couldn’t let Nate get hurt.
“There must be something I can do to distract Dagan’s attention.”
“Sure. If you want him to melt your brain.”
“He won’t if he doesn’t know I’m doing anything.” She scanned the area, drew in a deep breath, and ran to the nearest column. Heart banging, she flattened her back against the cool marble before risking a quick glance at the oblivious immortals. She couldn’t afford for Dagan to see her. She dropped into a crouch and inched forward, every strike of the swords causing an eerie glow to illuminate the enemies.
Dagan’s armor glinted in the light and an idea glimmered. If she loosened the buckled straps around his vambrace, and then ripped it off at the right moment, it might be just enough to work.
She focused all her energy on the buckles. Her head throbbed and mouth dried, and her entire body shook with the effort.
But it was working. In her mind’s eye, they loosened.
Don’t let go.
Seconds stretched into eternity. Sweat dripped from her temples.
So close. Almost there.
It was done. She released the pressure that was keeping the vambrace molded to his forearm, and the armor hurtled across the atrium. For a split-second Dagan stumbled, his attention fractured, and Nate attacked, whipping his sword beneath the guard, and twisting it from the demon’s grasp. The immortal forged sword flew from Dagan’s hand and Nate caught it, aiming the tip of both blades at the demon’s throat.
Instantly, an invisible fist closed around her own throat. She gasped and her hands flew to her neck, trying to release the pressure. Nothing. She tried to scream but her voice was frozen as she was unceremoniously dragged across the floor to Dagan’s side where he suspended her on her toes.
“Release Isabella.” Nate’s voice was low and deadly. In her mind he spoke.
Can you breathe?
She hitched in a fractured shred of oxygen.
Yes.
“The hybrid interfered. That’s against the rules.”
“We have rules?” Scorn dripped from Nate’s voice. “Isabella has nothing to do with us. Let her go.”
“Ever feel like history’s repeating itself?” He flashed her a grin. “I knew you’d allow him to escape the dungeon. Thank you for being so predictable.”
She tried to respond, but all she could manage was a strangled gurgle.
“You had no way of knowing that. Is this why you returned here tonight? To see if I was still imprisoned?”
“The bond between you is so amusing. It’s the only reason I allowed her to live.”
“You’re a perverted bastard.”
“I know. And you’re the only one who ever had the balls to tell me to my face. Frequently.”
Why was Dagan reminiscing about the past? He sounded as though he was enjoying this exchange.
“I should have left Maahes’ knife in your neck.”
“No. You should have come with me, Nate. You know it.”
Nate bared his teeth. “You stabbed me in the back.”
Dagan shrugged, and his grip on her relaxed a fraction. Hastily, she sucked in more oxygen and the fog in her mind faded. She tried to teleport out of his grip and failed. Dagan had bound her power.
“It wasn’t personal. I was handed the key to avenge my race. What would you have done?”
“It was the sole reason you came to Earth.”
“I didn’t lie to you that day. I was being hunted by the Council. Earth just so happened to be the planet I ended up on. It was dumb luck when I met you and found passage back to Ama-gi. The birthright of demons.”
“It was our goddess who cast you
out. Not archangels.”
“And my actions ensured she lost her precious archangels for all time.” A trace of bitterness seeped into each word. “There was no way archangels would forgive her for her final, ultimate betrayal.”
The destruction of the beloved Nephilim. But Dagan had lived in Ama-gi. He must have known the archangels’ half-human children. Yet he’d still gone ahead with his egotistic plans for vengeance. It was reckless, but she couldn’t stay silent any longer.
“Didn’t you care at all about the loss of the Nephilim?” she said, her throat ragged from where he held her.
“The abominations of nature?” His teeth flashed in a mirthless smile. “Hybrids. Like you. I cared nothing for them. Their demise was merely a means to an end, and the humans were collateral damage. And the best part? It was all down to a natural disaster.”
“If that’s true, why are you helping the Guardians to hunt down forgotten descendants of archangels for their blood?”
“Feisty little thing, isn’t she?” Dagan returned his attention to Nate.
“The question stands,” Nate said through his teeth.
Dagan gave a dramatic sigh. “Everyone needs a hobby, right? I like being worshipped on countless worlds. The one who will lead the mindless rabble back to their rightful place in paradise. My underground network is spectacular. Kala might have cut off one head, but there are a dozen more in her Sector that she doesn’t have a clue about. The Guardians approached me, by the way. I’d no idea any Nephilim had survived. But since archangels had abandoned them, hunting them down gave the believers another avenue where they could prove their devotion to me.”
“But what about the Watchers? We’ve never worshipped you and we sure as hell don’t hunt Nephilim for you.”
“Nijah had been working on her most trusted of Elites for decades. Sounding them out. Evaluating their loyalty to her before she moved forward to the next stage of initiating them into my cult.” He rolled his eyes, clearly unimpressed by Nijah’s methods. “Talk about pandering to the ignorant. In the end, she was less than fucking useless.”
“And what of the vampire, Sakarbaal?” Nate demanded.
“That bloodsucker was a twisted fucker.” Was that a thread of admiration in his voice? “He was obsessed with destroying Az. Did you know Sakarbaal had a side hustle going on with the Guardians? Something to do with transcending dimensions. Fascinating. In exchange for information on what those perverted little shits were up to, I offered him custodianship of the sword.”
“So he could destroy Az?”
Dagan shrugged. “To be fair, I didn’t think he stood a chance against an archangel. Az must have really slacked off over millennia. But it was entertaining, nevertheless.”
“It’s all been a game to you?” Nate’s words throbbed in the air.
“There was a time when life was nothing but a game to you, too,” Dagan shot back.
“That was before you showed your true colors. I only regret that I didn’t kill you the day we met.”
“You’re going to regret that more in a minute.” Dagan’s smile was chilling as he released his ironclad hold around her neck. Bella sucked in precious oxygen. The welcome air burned against her damaged throat and it wasn’t until her second gasp of air that she realized his intention. His psychic grip hoisted her above his head and slung her high into the night sky.
She flung her arms up, desperately trying to steady herself as air rushed past her, but it was useless, and wind whipped her hair across her cheeks as gravity sucked her back to the earth.
“No.” Nate roared from somewhere below, his wild voice whipping through the sky like an arrow. Bella gasped as the cool air turned warm and the wild rushing descent slowed. Unseen energy cocooned her. She was no longer falling. Instead she was feather light, hanging in the air. Safe in the protective bubble he’d made her. His gaze locked on her and she let out a choked gasp.
“Watch out,” she tried to scream, but her damaged throat was hoarse, and she was forced to watch as Dagan charged at Nate.
Nate staggered and fell to his knees, the swords clattering to the ground as he grasped his head. No longer cushioned within his power, Bella crashed into the wall before falling onto the floor. Panting, on her hands and knees, everything was blurred. Everything except for the way Dagan towered over Nate, ruthlessly pulverizing the essence of his being.
Get up.
She willed Nate to stand as primal fear clawed through her. It couldn’t end this way. If she hadn’t been so stubborn and insisted on accompanying Nate, Dagan would never have discovered a chink in Nate’s shields. But the raw agony ripping open her chest wasn’t the only thing tearing her apart. Ice burned her flesh, and as waves of nausea rolled through her, she pulled the glass phial from her pocket.
It was cracked, and the noxious substance oozed through the fissures, turning her fingers numb. The essence that had the power to destabilize archangels and demons alike.
“We need to get out of here.” Zane grasped her arm and hauled her to her feet. “They’re pulling the mountain apart.”
Rocks tumbled down the walls and fractures raced across the floor as the two immortals battled on the psychic plane. Storm clouds rumbled in the lowering sky and a desert wind whipped through the atrium, scorching her skin.
“No. I won’t leave him.”
“There’s nothing you can do.”
She raised her hand, and Zane recoiled at the sight of the phial.
“Yes, there is.” It was a shit plan, but she was out of options. And it was her fault that Dagan had been given an advantage over Nate. “You should go, Zane. If this doesn’t work, you don’t want to be here.”
He opened his mouth, but she ignored him, and she ran at the demon.
Dagan had his back to her, and golden sparks shattered in the air around him, as he held Nate in his psychic grip. Fury and terror of what he was doing to Nate burned through her. She leaped, her momentum carrying her forward, the same second as Zane’s body rammed into her, giving her the extra impetus to smash against Dagan’s shoulders.
She slammed the phial into his neck, shattering the glass.
Blood splattered where the glass tore into his skin and she pushed the phial in as deep as she could. Dagan roared, and it echoed around the crumbling mountains.
He rolled his shoulders and unfurled his wings as he stretched out his arms. His fist connected with her check and pain flared through her as she fell back onto the floor, Zane following her. She groaned and tried to sit up as Dagan staggered.
Black threads appeared under his skin, spreading across his neck and face, and turning the whites of his eyes ebony.
Nate pushed himself to his feet, his chest heaving, and without taking his gaze from Dagan, moved between her and the demon. Protecting me.
But she could still see Dagan. His wings drooped, dragging on the ground, the color fading to ash. As he took a couple of unsteady steps toward them, a handful of charred feathers floated to the ground.
She had done this to him. A powerful demon, a member of her noble race, to save the archangel who hunted rogue demon bloods.
Nate. The archangel she loved.
And I’d do it again to save him.
Dagan grasped Nate’s shoulder, and leaned in close. For an endless moment his gaze caught hers, but instead of the crazed gleam she expected, there was a strange flicker of regret in his eyes.
Then he pressed his mouth against Nate’s ear. “Forgive me, brother. I already knew. And tell her I’m sorry.”
Her?
“Tell who?” Nate demanded, but there was no reply and a different kind of fear gripped her.
I just killed a demon.
Chapter 29
Nate
Nate grasped Dagan’s arm, the demon who had been both his friend and his enemy, his dark blood coating his fingers.
Pain erupted through his hand as Dagan’s blackened skin turned red. Nate snatched his arm away as the demon’s skin began to smoke
. Searing heat blasted out and in a fiery shimmer, he vanished, leaving behind a thousand ruined feathers that floated to the ground like spectral condemnations.
He spun around and pulled Isabella into his arms. She held him close, the warmth of her body slowly seeping into his frozen blood.
“Are you hurt?” He’d seen her plummet from the sky and had been unable to do anything to save her. For that alone, Dagan had deserved his fate.
But is he truly dead?
“No.” Her voice was hoarse, and she pulled back, so she could trace her fingers over his face. Briefly, he closed his eyes, and her gentle touch sank into his soul, healing the jagged wounds even if he didn’t deserve it. “Are you?”
“I’ll survive.” He glanced at Zane. The demon blood had proved his worth and was no longer in his sights. “You need some help?”
Zane gritted his teeth and pulled the knife from his shoulder.
“No.” He dropped the knife to the floor, swept his gaze over them, and then teleported.
“Is Dagan…” she hesitated, her beautiful eyes filled with concern. “I had to do it, Nate. I thought he was destroying you.”
“He was.” It was a brutal confession. Dagan had found a crack in his defenses and used it mercilessly. Yet even then, as they had fought each other’s psychic powers, Dagan’s offer had remained, a deadly beacon in the darkness.
Pledge me your loyalty. Come with me.
Except this time, unlike eleven thousand years ago, Nate hadn’t been tempted. And Dagan had known it.
He pressed his forehead against hers. He’d told her so much. But he hadn’t confessed all his sins. Not the one he kept buried so deeply that sometimes he even managed to fool himself that he had forgotten it. “When our goddess called her archangels home, Dagan asked me to go with him, instead. The two of us, against the universe.”
Salvation: A Realm of Flame and Shadow Novel Page 25