by Harley James
“Yes, that’s brilliant,” Kat yelled over the crush of the humid wind. “Do you want me to add to it?”
“No, it’s a careful balance. Keep pushing the ocean back as hard as you can. Try to stop any more from coming inland. I’ll gather the remaining inland water into the cyclone and send it out to sea.”
She nodded.
“If this works it will only address the elemental portion of the problem. It won’t take care of Leviathan,” he said.
“Yes, but think of all the people we’ll be protecting. We have to start somewhere.”
She was right. And sometimes beginning was the hardest part of all.
The water shivered and frothed, violently churning against the competing directives. Palm trees bent and waved their fronds like a woman’s hair streaming in the wind. The air vibrated seconds ahead of Leviathan’s bellow of rage. The sound ran up Ari’s spinal cord, chilling him from the inside out. He gritted his teeth and dug deep into the power of the Chains, his element, and his bond with Kat, rotating the low pressure counterclockwise even faster, building a second spiral.
He glanced over at his soul mate, his skin growing clammy at the strain on her face. How long could she hold Leviathan back?
“S-stop your damn worrying, Grimm. Viking up.”
Ari smiled grimly as he shook the water out of his eyes. He reached for the warm ambient air temperature in the center of the dual swirling masses, feeding its power and his own need to rage and fight. Screams of the Valkyries sounded in his mind as his blood circulated furiously through his body.
Skål, motherfuckers.
Chapter 28
Katherine’s entire body was afire—her bones the kindling, her skin the accelerant. The Chains were melting her skin. Burning down past the multiple layers of dermis in excruciating waves of pain. Never had she deployed her strength so potently, jacked up like she was with both the Chains and Ari’s bonding energy circulating in her system.
Leviathan suddenly appeared on the roof of the building next to Aqua, her body now clothed in a flowing white shift, her face unnervingly calm. Was the archdemon that confident in her ability to defeat them, or was it another tactic to throw the Guardians off-kilter?
Katherine closed her eyes and focused all her strength and the energy pulsing from the Chains to push the water back into the ocean. Ari had directed his twin cyclones off the surface of the water into the air, and was getting the swirling masses into position on either side of Leviathan. Still, Satan’s daughter seemed unconcerned. Katherine’s heart pounded so hard she felt almost light-headed.
“Dorian will stay with the others inside, but let’s get Raj and drive her out to sea. We’ll finish this there,” Ari said.
It was the best way to minimize casualties. But the thought of going into the water with Leviathan…
Katherine shivered. “Don’t let me lose the Chains.”
“I’m right beside you, North.”
A black-eyed demon in a black pinstripe suit was crawling up the side of Aqua. Katherine yelped as Ari unsheathed his sword and ran it through. More full-fledged demons began scaling the walls of the cement buildings around them. Ari commanded his cyclones to flank the structures, sucking the snarling demons into the swirling masses while Katherine unlatched the vial of holy water at her side. Adding holy water to the cyclones would further weaken the soulless bastards until a Guardian could properly kill them.
She fixated on the first spot she wanted to stream to in order to get the holy water into the the cyclones, but she couldn’t move.
“I’m stuck!”
Ari frowned again, barely glancing her way. “What?”
“I can’t stream. Here!” She lobed the holy water at him.
Leviathan materialized on the far side of Aqua’s roof, just in time to intercept the bottle and knock it over the edge of the building.
“No!” Katherine yelled. The Chains smoked around her neck, impeding her view of the archdemon. Katherine’s vision blurred, her legs wobbly from the unrelenting pain of the Chains.
And she’d lost sight of her enemy.
The archdemon’s voice rang from all sides. “Aren’t you tired of all this yet? If you had only chosen me, you would have none of this pain.”
Katherine spun in a circle, enveloped completely now in thick, dark smoke, her superior senses unable to fixate on Leviathan’s position. “It’s hard to rise above wretched beginnings, unfortunate circumstances, but I’m trying to do that,” Katherine said. “I’d like to think you can do it, too.”
“You’ll fail, Guardian. Like you always have.”
Katherine froze. The demon had said it like she knew something Katherine didn’t.
“Don’t let her play or distract you. Keep your force woven to the Chains.” Ari’s voice sounded more strained than she’d ever heard it.
“Are you okay? What’s happening?”
She couldn’t hear if he answered, but she could feel his force hooking into the smoke molecules, slowly pushing them apart.
“Give it time, and you fail at everything. This nightclub will fail, too. You know that even the sacrifice you made that transformed you into a Guardian turned out to be a failure, right?”
No. All sounds faded—the rush of the wind, the howls of the trapped demons in the cyclone, even Ari’s voice reaching for her in her mind. Katherine held her breath, all her senses tuned into Leviathan.
The archdemon smiled as she advanced through the dissipating smoke. “Your sacrifice didn’t actually save the woman you gave your life for, because she killed herself two days later.”
Katherine shivered as sadness and shame bled through her. Taking the knife stab meant for that deranged man’s wife had been the first truly decent thing she’d ever done. She couldn’t stand the idea that it hadn’t done any good, after all.
Ari landed beside Katherine, his eyes flashing blue fire. “That’s a goddamn lie. Don’t you dare listen to her, North. The woman you protected from her sadistic husband remained free and unharmed and went on to raise her children successfully. Was it easy for her? No, but she did it. And her children grew up and had babies of their own.”
“How do you know?”
“I’ll tell you how he knows, it’s called ‘controlling, misogynistic asshole,’ that’s what,” Leviathan spat.
“I found her and looked after her for years, Kat. I couldn’t let the woman you’d died for suffer or struggle too much,” Ari said.
Katherine felt dizzy.
Maybe it was the Chains? “Thank you for that, Grimm. Truly.”
Leviathan made a rude noise. “He wants to do nothing but control you, Katherine. He’s doing it telepathically right now. I can feel it. He’s coming between us, saying he wants what’s best for you. Why are you letting him make that decision? He pillaged villages and captured thralls. He’s a human trafficker. That is everything you and Susan B. Anthony worked so tirelessly to overcome.”
Katherine clamped her hands over her ears. “Shut up! You know nothing of love or selflessness.”
“I really wanted to befriend you, Guardian. But I’ve come to see you don’t know the meaning of the word.” Leviathan’s eyes glimmered with unspent tears, her cheeks and neck blotchy red.
Katherine shook her head to forestall a wave of compassion. She’d known her own face had worn that stamp of despair many times when she’d shut herself up in her room. But now she understood that she’d been the only one responsible for her loneliness. She had alienated people because it was safer that way.
“You long for connection. I understand that. But your way of going about it is wrong. Leave this island and never come back.”
“Believe it or not, I regret to say I can’t do that.” Leviathan took a step toward her, her eyes on the Chains of St. Peter.
The hum of power inside Katherine dimmed a notch. Her fingers singed as they wrapped around the iron, her hair lifting from the twin cyclones that Ari moved closer to Leviathan.
Leviath
an raised her hands, sucking water from far out in the ocean, then redirected it in one enormous rush at the cyclones, barreling them and the demons within them out to sea. Ari groaned as he tried to build new cyclones, but the air only swirled sluggishly. Kat struggled to pull the archdemon’s waves off Ari’s slow, twisting air mass, but she wasn’t strong enough.
Leviathan strode toward them across the roof. Ari stepped in front of Kat, but she could feel his strength flagging. Her heart knocked against her rib cage. More black-eyed demons had begun to swarm up the sides of the buildings again, clinging to the cracked and pockmarked cement like insects. Screams from people inside Aqua were fewer and far between now. Katherine’s gut turned to jelly.
Into the water, Kat. Now or never.
She knew. It was where her power was the strongest, and it was their only chance to defeat Leviathan.
Katherine didn’t even take a breath before she attempted to demolecularlize again. This time it worked. She stopped at the bar and stuffed several vials of chrism oil in her pockets before streaming away from Aqua and reforming on top of the waves. She gagged as a rush of nausea ripped through her. “Ari!”
“Here. Above you.”
She looked up to find him and Raj levitating. Another new trick. She hoped she lived as long as these two did to see what kinds of badassery her water element would develop.
“You are right where you belong.” Ari’s deep voice soothed. “You are of the water, North. Remember that.”
Leviathan jumped off the building, her mass of brown fuzzy hair quivering, her white shift flapping violently in the wicked winds. She landed on top of a pile of rubble with a loud thud that rocked the buildings and made the water roil and foam. Then she strode down the devastated beach, the water parting in front of her as she moved toward the Guardians.
Katherine breathed slowly—in through her nose, out through her mouth—in an effort to remain calm as she found her balance on the waves. She concentrated on the thread of her power, feeling it warm and wrap more tightly around the power of the Chains. “I want to heat the water, but I need less air pressure. Can you do that, Grimm?”
“You got it. I can even do pockets of different pressures, just let me know where you want them.”
Leviathan’s eyes turned black, her hair lifting, writhing around her head like serpents. As she stalked closer, the water at Katherine’s feet bucked harder though she tried to calm it. Clouds built, lightning threading through the darkened skies. Goose bumps broke out along Katherine’s arms. “Ari?”
“It’s me. Lightning will energize the water. Raj and I will protect you from it. Don’t lose your focus. You do your part, we’ll do ours. I’ve also sent out a call for Alexios and any available Guardians to help, but so far I haven’t had any response.”
Katherine sent out an SOS on the main Guardian frequency with the same negative results. No response. The pathway felt completely vacant. Had to be Leviathan.
“She’s isolating us, isn’t she?”
“I think so. But we have Dorian and Raj, North. We can do this, and we will.”
“Would you stop with the positive affirmations? God.” She didn’t want a freakin’ pep rally. She wanted several other pissed-off, fighting Guardians to help them kick demon ass.
Stupid, damn, telepathy-blocking Leviathan!
Katherine created a small rippling wall of water in front of her to hide her actions from the Devil’s daughter. She slipped two vials out of her pocket and pulled out the stoppers. Old words spilled quietly from her lips as she closed her eyes and slid one end of the Chains into the water beneath her feet to build heat.
As the last of the words were spoken, she poured the vials of chrism oil and holy water into the ocean. “Now.”
Ari and Raj shot lightning into the streams of oil and water. As the blessed liquid hit the water, it sizzled at her feet, the temperature soaring, the voltage raising her hair, but not electrocuting her because of Ari and Raj’s insulating powers.
“North, you need to move away from the heat.”
“The Chains will protect me.” If they didn’t melt her alive first. “Wait for my next signal.”
“I’m always waiting for you.” His chuckle warmed her, but she still felt sick. “She’s closer than I want her to be to you,” he sent.
“Just wait.”
The water boiled, steam rising from the top so profusely she was forced to create a dry molecular field in front of her so she could see.
Leviathan paused and narrowed her eyes. “You think you’re so smart. Three elementals working against me? You’re still no match.”
“As much pressure as you can possibly muster! Now, Grimm!”
Katherine bore down on the Chains and her element, bringing the walls of boiling holy water crashing down on Leviathan. The archdemon shot out of the water like a rocket, her screams merging with the booms of thunder from Ari and Raj’s storm, the glow of her melting skin blending with the lightning until, even with her enhanced vision, Katherine couldn’t see her. Then the archdemon plunged down out of the sky into the water, blasting a dry crater in the ocean, which quickly filled in with a swirling backwash of red water.
The water under Katherine shook and rippled as though something was rising.
“Kat!”
In a single heartbeat, Ari poured images of himself as a child into her mind. Sitting around a fire, listening to old maritime warriors speak of Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent. The most grizzled of the Vikings warned young Ari that when the Serpent released its tail, Gods would die.
No.
Ari grabbed her armpits and streamed toward the low-slung clouds as a giant mouth filled with three layers of razor-sharp teeth breached the surface where Katherine had stood. Leviathan!
The monster’s brown leathery tongue shot up, wrapping around Katherine’s ankle. She screamed, sweat running down her face, her shoulder sockets rending apart between Ari and the monster’s tug of war.
Ari shifted his hold, wrapping one arm around her body while both he and Raj hacked at the Leviathan’s tongue with their swords. The pain in Katherine’s ankle made her vision blur. She gasped and tried to look down. Jesus, the monster dangling above the water, hanging by her tongue. “Let go, Ari! You can’t hold us both like this!”
“I’ll never let you go!” Ari yelled hoarsely as his sword slammed into Leviathan’s tongue. It bounced off as though it were a toy weapon. Lightning forked down, slamming into Leviathan’s massive, gray, dragon-like body. The monster shrieked, her clawed, webbed feet pawing the air. Ari hacked, again and again, but his sword didn’t so much as nick the beast’s tongue.
And his power was draining at a rapid rate.
Raj shot downward, driving his sword hilt-deep into the crease where one of Leviathan’s legs met her underbelly. The monster roared, her long, sharp claws swinging wildly, the last swipe impaling Raj through the chest. She flung him across the super-charged air to crash into the water where he sank insensate into the stormy depths.
“Raj!” Kat screamed, uncontrollable tears flooding her eyes.
“You fucking bitch!” Ari yelled, sending an air bubble down into the water after Raj and striking at the archdemon’s eyes like an out of control berserker.
A sudden crush of pain made Kat gasp back a flood of bile and look down. Streaks of black climbed up her ankle. She looked ashore to Aqua where demons were beating at the wooden shutters with broken pieces of patio furniture.
God, no. No! She was not losing to this monster.
“Ari!” She stared into his wild eyes. “Cut me. Cut off my lower leg. You have to do it!”
“Not happening!” He bellowed, veins standing out in his forehead as his sword came down so hard on the tongue that Katherine screamed at the piercing reverb. All three of them began slipping toward the water. Leviathan thrashed harder.
“I’ll heal! Do it!” Katherine pleaded.
The clouds swirled and clashed, translating Ari’s fury. Rain and hail p
elted them. “I can’t, North. I can’t hurt you.”
“She’s killing me. You have to, it’s the only way. Hurry, before your power runs out!”
“Fuck, I’m so sorry, baby. I’m—”
Her body seized.
PAIN.
White-hot and breath-robbing, it seared up her body like she was dropped feet-first into a fully stoked cremation furnace.
Then…
Blessed cool.
Her eyes closed. Then snapped open. Another shriek from Leviathan, a colossal splash below.
Skin, cold. Head, woozy. Body, lighter. Less pain.
She tried to focus her blurry vison. Above the clouds?
They were rising.
Ari groaned low, the sound lighting an urgency inside her.
She twisted in his hold, blinking, squinting. His face was contorted in agony. She put her hands on his cheeks, feeling the echoes of pain he’d taken from her.
“Damn you, Viking!”
His eyes cracked open to reveal crimson irises. She sent her healing element inside him to pull some of the pain back into her body. She gasped, but it was manageable now since he’d mitigated most of it, and she’d already started to heal. He peeled her hands from his face. “Don’t.”
“Stop the heroics. We’ll share it. We both need to be functional to get Raj and finish this.” She let Ari into her mind as she probed the water with her element for any sign of the ether Guardian.
Nothing.
Ari sent an emergency call to Alexios, but he didn’t answer.
“If she killed him, I swear to God, North—”
“He’s ancient and strong and your air will help him breathe as he heals. We have to believe that. But right now, let’s fuse our elements.”
Ari’s thunder rumbled inside her chest. “There’s no going back from this,” he warned. “Once you share your element with me, I’ll always be inside you.”
