by Callie Rose
“Maybe they realized they need every warm body they can get on our side. Just because they haven’t passed their stupid fucking exams doesn’t mean they’re not qualified to fight. Doesn’t mean they don’t want to,” Kai said, and I glanced at the toffee-skinned man, warmth surging in my chest.
I cast my gaze over the group of students. It wasn’t the entire population of the school by a long shot, but I was guessing that the others would transport to the Barringer Crater directly from Mönkh Saridag.
Toland caught me staring at their small group and gave me a single nod.
I had caused him more headaches than I could count during my time at his school, up to and including my banishment to the underworld. But the expression on his face as he met my gaze across the large room wasn’t annoyance or even resignation.
Instead, it was something like… pride.
Respect.
Nodding back, I shifted a little on my feet. Truth be told, I was more comfortable playing my usual role of “royal pain in Toland’s ass.” At least I knew where I stood then. And there was a lot less pressure.
The countdown clock on the wall ticked down to zero, and a buzzing noise rang through the compound.
“All right, everyone.” Price came to stand directly in front of the countdown timer, her voice magically amplified to ring out over the packed room. “We’ve reached zero hour. According to our calculations and the intel we’ve received from those in the underworld, Gavriel’s army will be breaching the barrier between earth and the underworld sometime in the next hour. I’m sorry we can’t pinpoint it any more narrowly than that, but we need to work with what we have.”
She swept her gaze over all of us, her expression steely and determined. She was dressed in fight wear too, something that made me respect her a little bit more. There were plenty of things I was planning on sticking in the suggestion box here if I could ever find one, but despite my beefs with how the Custodians ran their organization, it made me glad to see that their leader was planning to fight alongside her troops.
Unlike Gavriel, who wouldn’t enter the fray until he was all but assured of victory.
In fact, we were counting on that.
“We will be sending people through in waves,” Price continued. “The element of surprise may be the best advantage we have on our side, so it is imperative that we allow Gavriel’s army and his generals to believe that their plan is working perfectly—that they’ve caught us flatfooted and that we’re scrambling to muster up a proper defense. We are monitoring the Barringer Crater, and as soon as the first wave of his army comes through, we will begin dispatching you in your assigned groups.”
Her expression softened just slightly, and she straightened her spine.
“Fight hard. Fight well. We get one shot at this, and humanity is counting on us.”
Instead of the war cry that might follow a speech like that in the movies, a low murmur spread through the room like a ripple as everyone repeated her words back to her.
Fight hard. Fight well.
My heart thudded hard in my chest, each heavy beat almost painful. Price stepped away from her place at the front of the room, and for several long moments, an almost complete silence reigned.
I felt antsy and agitated, so on-edge that I could practically feel myself vibrating, torn between wishing Gavriel’s army would just hurry up and get here already and hoping against hope that maybe we’d been wrong all along. That maybe they wouldn’t come.
Of course, that was a fucking fantasy.
Fifteen minutes later, the harsh buzzing sound erupted through the compound again, and I could practically feel the collective assholes of everyone in the room tightening.
“First wave!” Price called, her voice booming out. “Ready!”
All around us, people linked arms as portals opened up around them. A split second later, the room became much less crowded as nearly half of its occupants blipped out of existence.
I had wanted to go in the first wave. I’d been desperate to, actually. But Price had assigned the guys, me, and Hannah to the second wave.
My hands clenched and unclenched, and I did my best to keep my breathing steady and even. In the silence that settled across the remaining occupants of the room, I heard Xero’s voice from behind me.
“We’ve got you, Piper. We’ve got your back.” His muscled arm came around my waist, and he turned my chin slightly so he could press a kiss to my lips.
The moment my lips left his, Kai was there to claim them, whispering into our kiss, “For good luck.”
Jayce was next, and I breathed in his addictive sea foam scent as my lips tasted his. Then Kingston was there, completing the circle, sealing the bond with his own kiss.
“I don’t need good luck,” I said, turning to Kai. “I have you four. That’s better than luck.”
“Wave two!” Price called. “Ready!”
As she spoke, she stepped forward, joining a group of several other Custodians. She’d be coming through in this wave with us, leaving behind a team of operators to run the mission and serve as point from here.
I linked arms with Hannah, grabbing hold of Jayce with my other hand. Turning to the petite blonde girl, I asked softly, “You gonna be okay?”
“Hell, yeah.” Her voice was fierce. “Maybe I can’t ever see my grandma and sister again, but I can at least stop them from being attacked by some kind of flesh-eating monster, or whatever the hell kind of creatures Gavriel plans to unleash. I’m doing it for them, whether they know it or not.”
“Now!” Director Price boomed.
I held on tight to Jayce and Hannah, closing my eyes briefly as I envisioned the deep, broad crater in Arizona.
A portal opened up, swirling around us until it pulled us through space.
Then it spat us out—
Into chaos.
Sounds, smells, and sights assaulted me, coming into harsh focus so quickly that I almost felt like I had whiplash.
A massive battle raged around us, Custodians going toe-to-toe with hundreds of fallen. The pentagram in the air shimmered softly as bursts of magic lit up the space beneath it. Shouts, growls, and death cries all rose up into the air in a jumbled mess of noise, and the coppery tang of blood stung my nostrils.
To my left, several massive cyclops were swiping out with their clubs, sending Custodians scattering. On my other side, two minotaurs swung their horns like angry bulls about to charge. The tips of the horns had been sharpened to a razor point, and a black, viscous fluid gleamed in the sunlight. Some kind of poison, probably.
Sand and dust had been kicked up by all of the movement, and it stung my eyes and choked my breath as I gazed at the havoc around me.
Price had sent the second wave through just in time. It looked like the Custodians who’d been sent first had been barely hanging on, but now that their numbers had doubled, the tide was already beginning to turn.
And it’ll keep turning, if I have anything to say about it.
Raising my voice in a battle cry, I charged into the fray. My men were right behind me, and Xero hurled a blast of fire as Jayce shifted into his hellhound form and Kingston turned into a massive dragon. I had a feeling he was straining the upper level of what his dragon form could sustain, but I was grateful as hell for it when he opened his mouth and unleashed a huge blast of fire, clearing a path for us as we ran.
The ground shook with the weight of his footsteps, and a second later, he leapt into the air. He would keep us covered from the sky, allowing us to fight better on earth.
Kai had shifted into full vampire mode, and he moved as quickly and silently as the deadliest of predators.
We neared a group of Custodians who were barely holding off the group of demons assaulting them, and without even hesitating, Kai leapt for one, wrapping his arms and legs around the demon’s massive, dark red body and sinking his fangs into the monster’s neck.
I did the same for a demon that was tall and lanky, with skin so pale gray it was alm
ost see-through. Except instead of leaning in to tear through flesh with my teeth, I put my lips close to his ear and murmured, “You’re fighting for the wrong side. You’re attacking the wrong people. Turn around and fight the true enemy.”
The demon shook his head, trying to reject the influence of my persuasion, but I was powered up like a damn battery at full charge. I had power to spare at my fingertips, and I poured all of it into him, willing him to do as I suggested.
Suddenly, he wheeled around and began fighting against the several fallen behind him. They cried out in anger and surprise, but I kept whispering in his ear, urging him on as he fought with deadly precision, cutting them down.
I whispered a few more words into his ear, then hopped off his back to search for my next opponent. Without me feeding more persuasion into him, my influence would fade pretty quickly, but he should be able to get a few more kills in before then.
Above us, Kingston let loose another massive blast of flame, and on the ground, Hannah was using her levitation trick again, knocking demons over like dominos.
Price and her group of Custodians had nearly managed to take out all the cyclops, and everywhere I looked, the fresh fighters were helping those who’d arrived first turn the tide in our favor.
I didn’t have a chance to celebrate that though, because a moment later, the very air around us seemed to split.
A massive portal opened—not just right in front of us, but all around us, on each side of the pentagram that hovered over the crater. From all directions, new underworld monsters began to charge into the fray, running down the slopes of the crater and letting momentum and gravity carry them right toward us.
My sweaty, dust-covered skin chilled.
This was it.
We had sent our second wave of fighters.
And Gavriel had sent his.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Holy motherfucking shitballs.
That was the most articulate response my brain could come up with when faced with the sheer, horrifying volume of fallen that raced toward us now.
Michael had been calling us with reports—hell, I’d seen the army for myself—but nothing could’ve quite prepared me for the sight of that army barreling toward me and my loved ones and allies like an unstoppable wrecking ball.
All of a sudden, my grand plan seemed like the stupidest idea ever. We were supposed to survive against this army long enough for Gavriel to arrive?
How?
“Stay steady, Pipes,” Xero murmured softly in my ear. He was in his demon form, his skin decorated with smears of blood and sand. “We can do this.”
“Any sign of Gavriel?” Kai’s voice was tense, his vampiric eyes moving quickly as he scanned the massive crater, searching out the familiar, horrible face of the lord of the underworld himself.
“Not yet. Damn it.”
My stomach was one big knot, and it was hard to draw in a full breath as the ground beneath us began to shake. It felt like an earthquake as the combined footsteps of the charging army thundered toward us. My men and I gathered close together, Hannah at my side, protecting each other’s backs. Even Kingston had landed and taken a slightly smaller dragon form so he could maneuver easily on the packed earth.
Gavriel’s plan had been a good one.
All of the Custodians—pretty much the entire organization, except for those who were running point back at the headquarters—had come to fight off the invasion. We had used portals to transport directly into the basin of the crater, and now that his second wave had burst into existence all around us, we were trapped, surrounded on all sides by our enemies and the steep walls of the crater itself.
Those who could fly would be able to escape, but most of us didn’t have that power. We were sitting ducks.
Jesus fucking Christ. I can’t believe we did this on purpose.
What had felt like a long shot before seemed like a suicide mission now, and I tried desperately to quiet the thundering of my heart as the combined fear of all the Custodians around me hit me like a tidal wave.
Come on. Fight, damn it. Fight.
Gavriel’s army flowed toward us like water, and we met the threat with everything we had. I redoubled my efforts to turn the fallen against each other, pulling on every bit of power I had to make the persuasion stick. Nearby, Jayce leapt from creature to creature, his hellhound jaws snapping like mad. Blood coated his muzzle, and although I knew what a gentle soul he could be, there was no hesitation as he sank his teeth into the neck of a gorgon who had turned several nearby Custodians to stone.
I swallowed hard.
Maybe that wouldn’t be the end for them. Maybe we could find some way to reverse the magic once this was over.
Assuming any of us were still alive to do that.
The battle raged around us, the air tinged with desperation as the Custodians shifted from fighting for victory to struggling just to stay alive.
Where the fuck is Gavriel? Why hasn’t he shown up?
Maybe I’d been wrong. Maybe he wouldn’t come until all the fighting was over, until our corpses littered the battlefield and he could walk the earth unimpeded.
But that didn’t make sense. It didn’t fit with what I knew about the evil lord. He was, above all, an egomaniac. He thought highly enough of himself to believe he was worthy of ruling not only the underworld, but the human realm too. A guy like that would want to see the victory, to be present for the moment when his enemies finally fell.
He might not’ve been willing to stick his neck out by joining in the fight at first, but now that the Custodians were obviously losing ground, he would want to come and gloat, wouldn’t he?
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Toland and a bunch of Fallen University students all fighting off a massive creature that looked like a cross between a spider and a rat. His bushy mustache quivered as he bellowed out directions to the less experienced fighters.
Together, they could take the spider-rat out. But what about the next one? And the next?
We need to end this now. Now, goddamn it!
Finally, as if called by my desperate thoughts, a flicker of light caught my eye at the lip of the crater to my right. I looked up, my heart lodging in my throat when I saw the tall figure dressed in a long, sweeping black cloak.
I might’ve thought it was highly mockable that Gavriel dressed like a cartoon villain—if he weren’t so damn terrifying. He could’ve dressed in jeans and a ripped t-shirt, and the effect would’ve been slightly odd, but no less terrifying.
“There!”
Jerking my chin, I drew the guys’ attention to Gavriel. They barely had time to look before they had to turn their attention back to their own fights, but I could see the renewed energy that seemed to fill their bodies as hope bloomed inside them.
This thing wasn’t over yet.
“Did Price see?” Jayce called out, swinging his massive, dog-like head toward me.
“I think so,” I grunted, ducking under a blast of magic that flew over my head. “Even if she didn’t, the team back at the headquarters should’ve picked up on his signature. They’ll know he’s here. Now they just need to tell Michael where he is.”
The werewolf we had befriended was using Kingston’s cell phone. He had called the point team just before the countdown timer ran out, and as far as I knew, he’d stayed on the line, waiting for the signal from them.
Come on, Michael. Come on.
When he blipped into existence on the rim of the crater, several yards from the evil lord, I almost cheered. In a flash, dozens of other fallen stepped out of the ether too, surrounding Gavriel—isolating him.
Other fallen resistance members joined the fray in the basin too, helping the Custodians hold their attackers off.
But I couldn’t look away from where the fifty or sixty fallen, led by Michael and Vee, surrounded Gavriel.
This was the final part of our plan.
Isolate Gavriel and destroy him.
As I watched, our fallen allies
surrounding Gavriel all unleashed an attack on him at once. And as they did, Vee worked her magic to encase him in one of those bubbles she’d used to trap me and my bond-mates.
He was too strong to take out in a fight, too fast and powerful to be overwhelmed, even by dozens of fighters. But if we could incapacitate him, however briefly, we could kill him.
Magic swelled on the air as Vee’s bubble settled around him. Several other fallen cast spells as well, and they all hit the dark lord at once.
He froze, and for just a second, my heart swelled with relief.
But then a pulse of magic erupted from his body, exploding outward and disrupting every single spell that had been cast on him. A shockwave of power radiated from him, knocking the fallen over and sending them stumbling back.
“No.”
The word fell from my lips on a breath, inaudible over the sounds of battle that raged around me.
No. Fuck, no!
Vee was powerful. I had seen her work first-hand. And she’d had some of the best underworld fallen Michael had been able to recruit on her side. That should’ve worked.
But Gavriel was just too powerful. Nothing would hold him.
And now we’d lost the element of surprise.
Vee and the others were on their feet in an instant, lobbing more spells at Gavriel. But he moved in a whirlwind, blocking them all.
I couldn’t let this happen. Maybe I wouldn’t survive the fight, but I couldn’t let them face him alone.
Without even realizing what I was doing, I began to move, my feet carrying me forward. It was only when a hand wrapped around my wrist that I jerked to a stop, wheeling around.
Xero stood behind me, his dark eyes wide. Reds, oranges, and golds sparked in his irises as his nostrils flared.
“Piper, I—”
“I love you too,” I panted, my heart cracking as I tugged my wrist free from his grip.
It was the end of the line. The odds of any of us surviving beyond today were almost nil. But I wanted to go out fighting, and I hoped he and the others would understand that.
He reached for me again, fire burning in his eyes.