Every nerve-ending in my body was on alert. Conflicting feelings raced through me at being in her presence. When I’d walked away from Belias fifty years ago, I’d walked away broken, beaten, and…
“You look good, Gadreel.” Belias stepped into me, her lips moving near my ear.
The icy rush of her breath on my skin awakened the other feelings. The conflicting ones.
“You smell good, too,” Belias murmured. Her cold tongue flicked across my earlobe.
Dom moved forward, whipping the pickax in an arc right for the queen’s head. Belias lifted a single finger and sent the axe flying.
“Ah, ah.” Belias clenched her fist in Dom’s direction, a satisfied smile crossing her face as Dom fell to her knees.
She screamed, collapsing into the fetal position as if her entire body were in pain.
“Stop!” I barked, shoving Belias. Smart move, that—I had a fucking dagger in my hand, and I shoved her like a schoolyard bully. I should have sunk the knife in her cold-ass heart.
Belias lifted a pale brow, barely moved by me. “I beg your pardon? And what authority do you have over me, angel?”
I bent over Dom. “Just stop, Bel.”
Belias smirked. “Oh, sweetie. It’s been so long since someone used that nickname. If I remember correctly, the last time I heard it, you were deep inside me.”
I froze as she spoke the words out loud. Dom tensed beneath my hands and turned tortured eyes on me.
Fuck.
I whirled on Belias, whipping the bone dagger from my waistband.
But she was too quick. She darted away, the dagger glancing off her blue cloak.
“You think you can defeat me?” She cackled as her body turned to ice and melded into the floor.
I whipped around in a circle, staying close to Dom who was still trying to regain her strength.
Belias’s voice came from everywhere. “You couldn’t defeat me half a century ago, Gadreel. What makes you think you can now?”
“I’m not here to die this time,” I said, my voice booming off the throne room’s walls.
Belias giggled. “Well, boo. I guess that means I have to kill you this time.”
I jerked around, following the tinny sound of her voice. It came from everywhere and nowhere—the dumb bitch was in the walls. And in the floors.
Dom finally rolled to her knees. I kept my eyes on the room but reached a hand down to help her up. She slapped my arm away and got to her feet on her own.
“Don’t touch me!” she snapped, brushing ice shavings off her pants.
Before I could speak, Belias formed from the floor between me and Dom. Quicker than I could react, she slammed a fist into Dom’s face.
“No!” I launched forward, taking Belias down by her waist.
The momentum sent us skidding over the icy floor. She squirmed like a snake in my grasp, but I held tight. To her. The bone dagger, on the other hand, slid away from me into a shadowy corner.
The thing about demons was if you could get them in your grasp and not let go, you could defeat them. But with the bone dagger halfway across the room, I was at a definite disadvantage.
Drake, if you’re there, I could really use your help.
But I got no response. Not that I expected one from a dead man.
Belias melted beneath me, her form seeping into the ice of the floor and vanishing from my grasp. I roared my anger and slammed a fist into the ice.
“I can’t believe you came here thinking to defeat me.” Belias’s voice came from the walls again. “What made you think this time would be any different than the last?”
I stood, gaze roaming the room. I noted the bone dagger’s location. “I have friends. And a magical decree from God.”
Belias tinkled with laughter. “Right. As if a magical decree from that ingrate has any weight here in my realm.”
“It does in my world.”
“You aren’t in your world,” Belias snapped. “This is my world. And in my world, God has no place and no say in who lives or dies.”
I eased towards the bone dagger. I wasn’t dumb enough to think she wouldn’t realize what I was doing, but I didn’t have much option.
Belias appeared from the ice coating her throne. She leaned back and crossed her leg, the slit of her dress opening over her thigh. She looked at me as if I were a bug on her shoe.
“You’re even more broken than I remember,” Belias said. “Kremlin Circle has done a number on you. I’m so proud.”
I took a step away from the dagger, feigning another direction.
Belias rolled her eyes. She flicked her fingers, and the ice around Drake’s bone shot into the air, driving the dagger way beyond my reach.
Wonderful.
“I’m not an idiot, Gadreel. You know this.” She slithered from the throne and walked towards me. Everywhere her bare feet touched the floor, ice crystals formed as if her skin was frost itself.
I backed away, my attention turning from the out-of-reach bone dagger and to my regular knife.
Belias sighed, and her control of the ice seemed to do the same. A stalagmite of solid ice formed at my feet, and I tripped. I sprawled across the floor, the worst of the impact absorbed by my chin and knees.
I flipped over, but before I could get up, Belias was on top of me.
She had the same dense, stone-like weight as her nymphs. She straddled my torso and grabbed my neck in one hand, effectively neutering me of any means to fight back.
Her white eyes stared into mine. Funny—they looked a lot like Yulian’s in the hours before his death, with the color visible but nearly as pale as the irises. Unlike Yulian, however, Belias could see everything perfectly.
She grinned, baring her sharp teeth at me.
“Go be with your wife, Gadreel. You’ll be happier there. I’ll take care of things here.” Belias slammed her palm to my chest.
A storm with the might and temperature of an arctic blizzard opened inside my chest. I screamed as the ice ripped through my organs, freezing sinew and tendon, turning my blood solid in my veins.
This was it. I’d failed in my mission.
I’d gotten Yulian killed. Once Belias finished me, she’d take out Dom. The Circle would be a cesspit of terror and pain for another fifty years.
And I’d be dead.
At least I’d be with my family.
33
I had already given up, decided to give my soul up to God and the universe, when a shadowy form appeared behind Belias.
Dom grunted as she whipped her pickax at the demon queen’s head.
I closed my eyes, sure the blow would take off my face—which would have been a small price to pay to beat the shit out of Belias.
But Dom’s aim, however clunky and awkward from being punched by the demon, was true. The pickax slammed into the side of Belias’s head, sending shards of bone and chunks of ice-blonde hair flying. The demon queen rolled off me, then catapulted across the floor three times before coming to a deathly halt.
Dom offered me a hand. “You okay?”
“Are you?” I stood and ran my fingers over her bruising face. “That’s going to be a shiner.”
“You slept with her?” Dom screeched then punched me.
Jesus. This was my life now.
I rubbed my jaw as pained tears sprang to my eyes. “I deserved that.”
“You’re damn right you deserved that!” Dom snapped and punched me again, this time in the arm. “You’re disgusting!”
I slapped her hand away before she could hit me a third time. “I didn’t sleep with her willingly.”
Dom crossed her arms. “No? She tripped, fell on your penis?”
I glared. “She tied me up and seduced me.”
“And your dick was just happy to inhabit any available hole?”
I sighed and rubbed my brow. “I deserve that, too. What do you want me to say? I’m a man. We think with our dicks, even if it’s not the smart thing to do.”
“That’s a start
.”
“Okay. But could we do this after we defeat the evil queen?” I motioned to the still motionless Belias. “Before she wakes up and kills us both. A shattered skull isn’t going to keep her down for long.”
Dom stomped across the room to the tower of ice that held the bone dagger out of reach. She slammed the pickax into it, over and over, taking out what I imagined were some pretty intense frustrations. It didn’t take long for her to fell the ice tower, and the bone dagger skated across the ice right to my feet.
“Kill her,” Dom snapped, throwing the pickax down. “And then you’re going to spend the next fifty years groveling. Got it?”
I tried not to smile. Really, I did.
As I kneeled over Belias, the demon queen groaned and lifted a hand to her demolished head. She blinked at me, her pale white eyes zeroing in on my dagger.
Putting the entire weight of my body behind the blow, I sank Drake’s femur bone into her chest.
Magic detonated from the point of impact. The blast threw me across the room—for the second damn time that night—where I hit the ice hard on my back and skidded into a wall headfirst.
Then I knew nothing but darkness.
I stood on a cliff overlooking a sea so blue it merged with the sky.
The view took my breath away. A ribbon of white beach stretched into the distance, and the sun sank on the horizon, casting the entire scene in a surreal, purple glow.
A hand slipped around my arm. Catie leaned into me, anchored to me as we stared out over the ocean.
“Is this real?” I asked. “Or am I dreaming again?”
She laughed. “It’s always been real, Gad. I’ve been with you every step of the way. You’re so dense sometimes.”
I turned, wrapping my arms around her waist. She wore the same denim cutoffs and white tank top she’d worn the day she died. Her auburn hair was in a messy ponytail, her ginger freckles marching proudly across her chest and shoulders.
“You’re beautiful,” I told her.
“So are you.” She touched my face and gave me a sad smile. “You were my everything. From the moment you barreled into my life with those giant wings.”
I pressed my forehead to hers. “I miss you so much.”
Catie gently pushed me away. “Stop. Stop pining for me, Gad. You are alive. You have an entire life ahead of you. We had a beautiful life together. I wouldn’t change one moment of what we shared. But you have to move on.”
I brushed an errant strand of hair from her forehead. “Why? I could join you. Raphael said if I defeat Belias, God will grant me my wings. I could come to you.”
“And be what? An angel who pines for a dead woman but can never have her?’ Catie shook her head and disengaged my hands from her waist. She clutched my hands between hers and stared at me earnestly. “You accomplished what you set out to accomplish. You saved the Circle. You’re falling in love again. Go be with her in the new world.”
“But what about you?”
Catie touched my face, sadness creeping in around her eyes. “I’ll never forget you. My time on earth is done. I’ve decided it’s time I move on now.”
Panic crept in. “I’ll never see you again?”
She moved her hand to my heart. “You will. Just not here, in this in-between place. I’ll be with you always.”
“And Gretchen?”
Catie laughed. “Gretchen. Our little firecracker. She wants to come back to you. So I worked something out with Raphael. I hope you don’t mind.”
Confused, I asked, “What do you mean?”
Catie smiled. “She wanted to be a boy this time. You’ll meet him in about nine months.”
When I opened my eyes, Dom waited for me.
She smirked. “Took you long enough.”
“Where’s Belias?” I sat up too quickly, and my head swam.
“Chill,” Dom said sternly, shoving me back to the floor. “You hit your head pretty hard. Belias is dead. She’s a pile of goo.”
“What happened?”
“You stabbed her with Drake’s bone, and magic flooded the room. It was like a nuclear blast—the mushroom cloud exploded through the walls. I think it… I think it ended the curse.”
I stared at the ceiling, floored. Quite literally.
“I’m wet.”
Dom rolled her eyes. “Always the observant one. The ice is melting.”
I tilted my head on the stone to look at her. “You think it’s melting outside, too?”
“Yeah. I do.”
I sat up for a second time, taking care to move slowly and carefully. Dom helped me to my feet and supported me as my knees wobbled.
I groaned and gingerly touched the back of my head. “I think you might be right. I have a concussion. We need to empty the building. I don’t know how many humans she might have locked up here.”
“You’re in no shape to do any such thing,” Dom argued. “Let’s get out of here, and I’ll bring back a few of the guys from the Invidia to sweep the building with me.”
“We’re already here. Let’s just do the shit and get the fuck out.” I took a limping step toward the door. “I’d like to walk out of here and never step foot in this building again. Maybe we can burn it down. Rise from the ashes or some shit.”
“Or some shit,” Dom agreed, sliding an arm around my waist.
We cleared the subfloor quickly, then worked our way up. Every time we found a locked door and demolished it, we found a prisoner inside. Sometimes the prisoner was still alive; sometimes, they’d been dead a while.
Nothing prepared me for opening one door and finding Liliya standing wide-eyed on the other side.
The kid screeched like a raptor and rushed me. As weak as I was, I stumbled under the force of her embrace, caught only by Dom’s quick-thinking arms.
“You came for me,” Liliya said through heavy sobs.
I pushed her away and knelt to look her over. Besides a few bruises and minor cuts, she looked mostly unharmed. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”
She shook her head. “They locked me in here. The queen said she wanted to make me nymfa, but it took a full moon.”
I fought back the urge to go punch Belias’s dead face. We were almost too late, but because I had pressed to do this spell with this full moon… Thank you, God.
I pulled the kid into my arms and breathed her in. “You’re okay now.”
Dom supported me around the waist as we limped from the Kremlin.
I held tightly to Liliya’s trembling hand, incredibly thankful the kid was alive. I hoped Belias hadn’t done any irreparable damage to the girl. I’d spend the rest of my life making sure she knew only love.
The sun shone down on the Square. And not the muted, cloudy light we were used to. This was actual sunshine. Rays of brilliant light emanating from a cloudless sky and a sun bigger and brighter than I even remembered from before the rift.
Liliya gasped and stuffed her face in my side. “What is it?”
I encircled her with an arm. “That’s the sun.”
Dom sniffed as a single crystalline tear slipped from her eye. “God, it’s beautiful.”
I leaned over and kissed her head.
We took our time walking through the Square. The warmth coming from above felt like heaven—as if heaven had come to illuminate the dark corners of our hell. Snow crunched and melted under our boots. Melted. Rivulets of water soaking cobblestones we hadn’t seen properly in fifty years. Loud cracks echoed through the city—ice giving up the ghost.
A crowd of people met us in front of St. Basil’s. Nikolas clapped me on the shoulder with a big smile beneath his auburn beard. Dom greeted her friends from the Invidia by name and thanked every one of them for their assistance.
“Come on,” I said to Liliya, squeezing her against me. “Let’s go inside and clean those cuts.”
A smaller crowd waited for me as I led Liliya towards the front door of the cathedral. Twelve black-robed figures.
A small, petite form rea
ched for me with a petal-white hand. “Is it over?”
I recognized Ana’s musical voice. I wrapped my fingers around hers. “It’s over.”
Slowly and hesitantly, all of the tithe-bounds removed their hoods and stood blinking in the sunlight, marveling at the sky.
I guided Liliya around the crowd and up the front steps of the cathedral. We both turned to look out over the Square.
More people had arrived. They navigated dead ice demons and nymphs, shocked gazes taking in the destruction. But despite the shock, there was something else palpable in the air. A sense of excitement. A breath of relief.
“Are we free?” Liliya asked.
I touched her nose. “Yeah, kid. I think we are.”
She leaned against me. “Freedom is beautiful.”
Epilogue
“We’re going to be late!” I yelled back into the cabin, checking my watch for the fifth time.
Julian tapped his own watch with a long, slender finger. “If I miss bible study, I’m blaming Mom.”
“You try doing anything with a belly the size of the Kremlin,” I said, taking up for my wife. “Also, don’t blame Mom. She’ll turn it back on me, then we’ll both be in trouble.”
Liliya, taller than Dom and looking more like an adult with every passing day, texted furiously on her phone. Talking to a boy I would have to punch, most likely. “I think God won’t mind if we’re a little late.”
Well, she had a point.
Dom appeared in the doorway and leaned on the edge of the frame, huffing a lock of her long dark hair from her eyes. “I hate you for doing this to me.”
I smiled and kissed her thoroughly, cupping her pregnant belly between both my hands. “You act like you haven’t done this before.”
“Julian was a helluva lot easier to carry. I was young then.”
“You’re still young now. And just as beautiful.”
“That’s gross,” Julian observed, turning away from us. He rolled his green eyes and bounded down the front steps to take one last look at his chickens before we began the walk to church.
The Shadows and Sorcery Collection Page 38