Orion spread his hands. “You are surrounded, Rylee. Your friends are dead, your shot at freeing the world gone. Do you surrender? I promise to not go too hard on you.” The demons circling us laughed, as if Orion had told a particularly funny joke.
I looked at my family, met the gaze of each soul I held as dear to me as if we were all born under the same roof. And in them I saw my own defiance reflected. We knew we were surrounded, knew there was no way we could possibly out-fight the horde.
They knew, as did I, this was the end for us all.
I shook my head. “Orion, you are dumber than a bag of bent, useless nails. Fuck you.”
“Yeah, yous fuckity fucker! We’s never surrendering to yous!” Charlie yelled, shaking a tiny sword in his fist. Blood dripped down his upraised arm, and his limp was worse than ever. But he stood with me still.
“Kiss my assy ass,” Alex snarled, his fur standing at attention along his spine as he stiff-legged walked toward Orion.
Mer, her eyes hard as stone, said, “Suck it, demon.”
Doran laughed. “Bite me.”
“Never.” Berget shook her head, her long hair floating on the breeze as if she’d come from the salon only moments before.
Liam looked at me, but he spoke to Orion. “To the end, Rylee.” My heart clenched, and I dared to Track Marcella and Zane. Liam nodded as though he knew what I was doing.
“They’re safe. I made sure of it. And the unicorn went with them.”
Relief flowed over me, and with it a renewed surge of strength. My mind cleared as each of my people—my family—said their piece, and the world seemed to hold its breath. Orion shook his head, but he was grinning with uncontained glee. “Well then, I suppose we’re almost done here.”
The horde around us shifted, tensing, waiting for his call to finish us off. Orion lifted his hand, his red eyes glinting. “It’s been a slice, Rylee. Let’s do this again sometime.”
Under my feet, the ground heaved, and I went to one knee, bracing myself. What the fuck was he doing now?
Orion whipped around, his back to me. “No!”
Behind him, the demons fell in a wave of earth that exploded in every direction, followed by a flame caught up into a tornado that danced through the horde as though picking partners.
I stared as the demons split apart, and opened a perfect aisle for us to see down.
Lark ran toward us, and she was not alone.
The elementals ranged out to all sides of her, and Pamela was with her, flinging fireballs and exploding the earth with every step she took.
Maybe we could pull this crazy-ass thing off.
I swung out my two swords, my broken fingers crying out for me to stop, but I knew an opening when I saw one and rushed Orion while his back was turned, attention on the incoming elementals. Leaping up, I came down hard, driving both swords into his back. “Go, get the fuck out of here.”
Orion screamed as he fell under my sword, but he didn’t dissolve. He spun, backhanding me and sending me flying into the first line of demons. They caught me gently and I saw the scars. Saw the demons attached to them nod. “Get him, Tracker.” They threw me back toward Orion. Like it was a sporting event, and I was the ball to catch and toss between opponents.
Around us, the demons scattered, bleating like an oversized herd of sheep as the elementals cut into them. Though they weren’t able to send the demons back, they were able to slow them, giving everyone a much needed breather.
Orion stared down at me as he pulled the two swords from his back, yanking them out. With a casual indifference, he held them out in front of him, then brought them down hard over his knee, snapping them in half. “You won’t be needing these.”
Shit, without my swords I was down to my whip and crossbow. Both good weapons, but not in close quarters. I scrambled to my feet, and Liam moved to my side. Orion spared him a look. “And you won’t be needing that, either.”
He took the broken tip of one of my swords and flung it toward Liam, driving it right through his heart. My mind stuttered; silver-edged swords could kill vampires. Liam was trapped in Faris’s body—a vampire.
Liam slumped, his fingers touching the edge of the sword. His eyes flicked up to mine and he whispered my name. “Rylee.”
No. Not again, I could not do this again. “You hang the fuck on, wolf; I’m not losing you twice!”
I reached down and jerked the blade out of him, cutting my hand open as I did. He grunted, but I looked away as I spun with the broken blade.
From the corner of my eye, Lark stepped into the circle. “Rylee, use this.” She pushed something toward me.
A blade. One I’d used before. My hand was slick with blood, but the grip on the handle was perfect. “Get Pam. Liam needs help.”
“You got it.” She scooped him up under the arms and dragged him backward, away from Orion. I couldn’t even watch them go. I didn’t dare turn my back on Orion, as he’d so stupidly done with me.
I gripped the sword and swirled it once. It seemed to whine with eagerness as I swirled it through the air, hungry to bite into something. Orion’s eyes narrowed. “It doesn’t matter what the blade is, you are going to be the one to die first. Not me. Isn’t that right?”
He glanced to the left, and I followed his gaze. The final one of the four horsemen, Death—an older woman with graying hair pulled back so tightly, it gave her a free facelift—nodded. “The Tracker will die. I see it. And when she dies, Orion, so will you.”
He grunted. “I know. But my people will be free.”
She laughed. “Your people? Ah, Orion, you always were a dreamer. We are no more your people, than we are hers.” She pointed at me and I took a step back. I couldn’t help it. I didn’t know if she was really Death or not, but I didn’t want to take the chance and find out the hard way.
A roar lifted the air around us and the death dragon swooped out of the sky, its claws narrowly missing me as I dropped to my belly. The corn stalks under me flattened and a few silk strands tickled my face. I rolled in time to see Death picked up by her dragon.
Orion was gone. Again. “Motherfucker!” I screamed as I pushed to my feet. “Ophelia!”
The dragon snaked her head toward me and I grabbed the scales on the back of her neck as she leapt into the sky and flipped me into the air. I landed near enough to the harness, but didn’t use it; instead, standing on her back, balancing. The poison from the demon blades, the wounds to my hands, the kicks to my head; every injury fought to pull me down.
You have strength still, Rylee. Center yourself, draw on your core. You are a warrior. Do not let the wounds define you.
Her words seemed to help block the pain and I refocused on the dragon flying ahead of us. One more horseman and we’d be down to Orion.
I pulled my crossbow off and raised it, sighting down the shaft.
I had only ten bolts, and they had to count.
“Ophelia, we need to take Death out before I can truly deal with Orion. He’s using her to stay alive, despite the injuries I inflict.” At least, that was what I suspected was happening.
Agreed. She snaked her neck out and roared, the sound shimmering over the horde below us. A battle cry, a charge of dragons. I felt the emotion from her, calling out the dragon that carried Death.
The demons fell back from her wings sweeping toward the ground, and the unicorns used the opening to push our people toward Orion at the ceremonial slab; a few feet at most, but it was in the right direction.
Death looked at me, her eyes a bottomless pit of darkness that, even in the growing night, were fearsome and black.
The death dragon lifted its rotting head and roared back at Ophelia.
Challenge accepted, dumbass. The beast launched toward us, Death never taking her eyes from me.
“You will die, Blood of the Lost. And with your death, we will rule.”
I smiled at her, and flipped her off. “Fuck you.”
Ophelia laughed and let out a roar. Yes, fuck you.
The dragons rose together, high into the skies above the battlefield. Lightning arced around us, dancing through the clouds, thunder chasing the forked death. I tucked my feet into the harness, wrapping the leather around my ankles, as Ophelia’s muscles bunched under me, her intent flowing through my mind.
She reared back and then shot forward like a slingshot, using her head as a battering ram right into the solar plexus of the death dragon. It grabbed at her, raking his claws down her sides, aiming for her wings. She tucked her wings back, keeping them safe; but also then taking away any lift we had. The two dragons spiraled downward, picking up speed with each loop we spun in the air. I went to my knees and slid my hands into the harness, clinging for all I was worth as the G-force continued to pick up.
The speed was too much and I slipped. “Ophelia!”
I’ve got you.
A front claw shot out and caught me as I was ripped from her back. She rolled in the air and the world inverted. I lost all sense of time and space for a few seconds. I couldn’t make heads nor tails of where we were until Ophelia got us straightened out and was winging after Death and her dragon, who seemed to be heading for the hills.
“We can’t leave the battle!” I yelled.
If we don’t take them out, Orion can’t be killed; I believe you may be right about that.
I couldn’t help the groan that slipped out of me. “Then let’s kick it into high gear, ‘Phelia.”
Stretching herself out, she shot after the death dragon. Within seconds, she had its tail in her mouth and she back winged hard enough to yank it to a stop. The death dragon spun in the air, its mouth open and jagged teeth coming straight for Ophelia. She flipped me into the air, toward the dragon’s back.
I will keep him busy; you take care of Death.
“Deal,” I yelled as I ran up the death dragon’s spine. Death waited for me, calmly.
I held up my sword, waiting for her to lift a weapon. She didn’t move. “What are you waiting for, Slayer?”
I paused. “You aren’t going to fight?”
“No. The words I spoke were for Orion’s ears, so he would not know what I planned. I do not wish Orion to win this battle. We do not belong here. And as long as I am alive, only a Slayer can kill a demon and send it back to the seventh Veil. You can injure the bodies they are in, but all that does is slow them down. Your people will die if I am not sent back.” She shook her head slowly, reached up, and pulled her hair loose from the overly tight bun. On her face, a pale scar emerged of two lines intersected by a single dash. She was one of Moloch’s friends. “My death will mean that you will truly have a chance at stopping this madness.”
In that light, the way her hair curled softly in waves around her face, she looked like Anna, the necromancer who’d stolen dying children to raise as her own. She knew she needed to die for the greater good, and had offered herself to me.
Now Death was doing the same. Her dragon slowly landed. She reached down and patted him. “It’s all right. This is the way it must be, my friend.”
We landed and she slid off the dragon’s back. I looked to Ophelia. She was to my left and I could tell she didn’t trust this anymore than I did. But it looked like Death truly was one of those demons Moloch had spoken about. A demon who wasn’t all bad.
Death went to her knees and bowed her head. “Do it now, Slayer. Save this world and ours. I will not die like the others, but be reborn on the other side of the Veil.”
I raised my sword, the blade lighting up the sky like a beacon of hope as my emotions raged through me. I whispered a single word. “Peace.” The blade cut through the air in a flash of light like a falling star, and the back of her neck held no resistance to the edge. A blinding flash of light rippled out from the contact between blade and bone. Death was swallowed in a tiny super nova, her dragon dissolving the same time she did.
I put a hand to my eyes. “Fuck, that was bright.”
Ophelia scooped me up and put me on her back. Hurry, the night is fading. The time of the ceremony is now. We must get you back.
Already?
I gripped the harness for all I was worth, my heart beating harder than it had probably in my entire life. This was it, the moment was now, whether I was ready or not.
I took a deep breath, held it for a moment and slowly let it out. “Then let’s end this shit.”
CHAPTER 44
LARK
BESIDE ME, PAMELA healed Liam, though I could see the toll it took on her. Her lips were pressed tightly together in a thin line as she closed the wound. He sat up, reaching for his cutlass before Pamela’s hands had even fallen from his chest.
Around us, the demons began to die as they fought our allies. Not dissolve, not go down in a massive twitching of limbs that could re-spawn. No, they were dying, and the elementals roared with a fierce and wild glee.
Fiametta met my eye and nodded, pride filling her face; her fire elementals were a wicked force to be reckoned with, and were showing how very dangerous they were. From the weakest of them to the strongest, they’d blasted a line through the demons in order to get me to Rylee in time, to get the sword into her hands.
Somewhere behind me, Finley worked with her Undines, and they in turn were assisting the queen of the Sylphs. I was still surprised she’d come. Mind you, she’d stayed as far away from me as possible, but that was fine.
A swirl of a black cloak ten feet from me drew my eye. Blackbird had come as he’d sworn, and as I stared, he killed the demons around him. I hesitated, my spear in my hands as I considered running him through.
The time is not now, child. For this moment he stands with you, and has earned his life. The mother goddess spoke firmly to me, as if perhaps I wouldn’t listen. It would not be the first time I’d ignored her.
“Until tomorrow then,” I breathed the words out, spun, and took a demon’s oversized rat head from his shoulders.
Rylee and Ophelia winged above us, heading for the ceremonial slab. Orion was hot on her heels, ripping through his own people to get to the slab before her. I gathered the power of Spirit, but held back at the last second. I could not use it, the fear of what it would do to me stopping me.
A demon that looked like he’d possessed an ogre’s hulking mass roared at me. I screamed back at him, driving the shaft of my spear into his groin and dropping him to his knees. On his back was a black and gnarled bow that I ripped off. Kicking him in the neck, I pushed him the rest of the way over and took his arrows as well.
Orion mounted the steps of the burnt farmhouse.
Rylee dropped from Ophelia’s back, not seeing him or his raised sword.
I lifted the bow, sighted the arrow staring at the back of his neck where it joined the base of his skull. I released the bowstring and the arrow flew straight and true, slamming through him.
My vision blurred as I was tackled by two demons at once. “We’ve got her. Master will like us for this. Blackbirdy, we’s got her!”
Hell no, this was not happening.
I called the earth up under us, pulling all three of us down deep. With very little effort, I pushed myself back out and shook the loose dirt off. The two demons were buried; the tips of their fingers the only thing visible.
“Blackbird, you bastard.” I snarled. The time was soon coming that I would have to deal with him.
Not yet.
No, I was rather busy making sure the world didn’t get overrun by demons. But as soon as that was done with . . . Blackbird would get his comeuppance.
One way or another.
CHAPTER 45
RYLEE
I SPUN AS ORION came at me, his sword over his head, already in a downswing toward me. There was no way I’d get my weapon up in time. The moment slowed, and I stared up at him.
But at the last second of his swing, his whole body jerked as though he’d touched an open electric line.
“No, I won’t let you win,” he spit out, blood flecking his lips. He twitched and turned sideways, the arrow
protruding from the back of his spine dancing like it was a fishing line with a large catch. Lark saw me, gave me a nod, and then was tackled to the ground by a couple of hulking demons.
I raised the katana. Orion was dying, and I needed a wound from a demon to kick start the ceremony; but I finally realized it couldn’t be just any demon. It had to be Orion, or this wasn’t going to work. That was what Deanna hadn’t understood either. As much as she’d tried to help me, she’d only ended up killing herself by letting the demon in.
“If you don’t want me to win, then you’d better take a swing at me, you fucking idiot,” I snapped, bringing his attention back to me. His red eyes were clouded with a gray fog as death crawled up and over him. Fuck. I was running out of time. The night was beginning to fade, the distant light of the dawn coming faster than I could believe.
Orion reached around and pulled the arrowhead from his neck, and his eyes cleared. “You didn’t think a single arrow could actually down me, did you? Who is the idiot now?”
Oh, fuck.
Here it was, the moment I’d been trying to make happen all along.
I had a moment of fear that Doran hadn’t listened to Charlie when I’d sent the brownie with instructions for how to set up things. Because it wasn’t just my blood needed to send the demons back and close the Veil.
It was Orion’s, too.
Spinning, I leapt over a burnt-out timber into the well of the house. The ceremonial slab had been cleaned off, and its placement was under what would’ve been my bedroom.
I stood in the middle, and breathed out a sigh of relief. The ropes were in place as I’d asked Doran to do. Orion came at me.
We circled the thick slab, the details of it searing my brain. The depressions under the seven points where blood would be drawn from me, the channels that would take that blood into the earth and seal the Veil. The section pushed out to the left would be for Orion’s body.
“This game has gone on long enough.” Orion lunged at me, his sword tip missing me under the chin as I backpedaled, forgetting I needed him to cut into me. But it had to be the right place. Seven points: both arms, both legs, my heart, neck and belly. Belly was for the demons.
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