by Ciara Graves
“Get that gun ready,” she hissed.
“They close?”
“Something is. If this gets dicey, we’re getting out of here, understand? I might’ve brought you here, but if you get killed on my watch, Mech will have my head.”
“Scared of him? He’s younger than you.”
“And your point? You’re his mate, Lela. Age won’t mean a damn in the face of his rage.”
I brought the shotgun around and loaded five shells into it. I racked the first one and nodded to Ilran. She led the way, moving forward. The sensation of darkness pressing in around me made it hard to keep going. If I closed my eyes too long, it was like I was with Hadariel when he was trying to get inside my head and twist my memories around. Invisible hands stretched toward me and gaping mouths threatened to consume me. Ilran grabbed hold of my arm, dragging me back to reality.
“We shouldn’t be here,” she whispered. “I’m taking you back.”
“No. We’re here,” I insisted. “I can handle it.” I rolled my shoulders and gripped the shotgun tighter. “I want him dead, Ilran. I want them both dead.”
“I agreed to come with you to spy on them, Lela. We are not engaging the enemy.”
My lip twitched in disgust. “If I have a shot, I’m taking it,” I blurted.
“You might’ve been able to beat two angels to death with that thing, but you’re not going to get close enough to bash in his skull.” She blocked my path, moving with me each time I tried to take a step around her. “We’ll see what they’re up to, then we’re out of here. End of story.”
I said nothing, and she aimed her sword at my neck.
“Say you agree, Lela, or I’m taking you back right now.”
“Fine,” I snapped. “I won’t attack Hadariel or Zeraxin. Can we go now? Before they leave?”
The scowl on her face said she didn’t trust a word I said, yet we returned to the trees and our zig-zagging path to reach those bright lights we’d seen on the map. Each shift of the dried-out tree limbs overhead had my finger inching toward the trigger. Ilran threw her hand up suddenly and then we darted to the left.
“Zombies nearby,” she whispered when I drew even with her.
“How close?”
“Close,” was all she said, and we slowed our pace. “You feel that?”
Being human meant I wasn’t as acutely aware of the presence of evil or holy light. Not as I had been when I was an angel. But whatever was here was potent enough to leave me lightheaded and gagging. I put a hand to my mouth to smother the choking sounds as I worked on not vomiting.
“Going to take that as a yes.”
I glowered at Ilran, but then I was throwing my head to the side and losing what meager food I’d been forced to eat under the watchful eyes of Bailey or Bobby. Since we’d found Mech half alive, I spent my time split between visiting Hell for as long as my mortal body could stand and ensuring Dakota was being fortified as well as supplied, sending out Bryan and other groups of humans to recruit more to our side, and of course, working with Muz and other demon lords to figure out a way to make hellfire more readily available. Eating wasn’t exactly a priority. Nor was sleeping, not anymore. Ensuring the world didn’t come to a screeching halt because of Hadariel and the evil he unwittingly unleashed was a bit more important.
I wiped my mouth on my arm and nodded to Ilran that I was good to keep going. For a second, she looked ready to create a portal and take me straight back to Dakota. Something in my expression must’ve convinced her it wasn’t worth the fight and we pressed on.
The ground sloped upward beneath our feet, and then we were climbing toward a rocky ridge. The cover grew less as we reached the edge. Soon, we were crawling on our stomachs through sour-smelling mud that reeked of death. Several scraggly bushes were all that remained to keep us mostly hidden from those below. And there were a lot of bad guys a hundred feet down from where we stopped.
The black mass we’d seen inching closer to Dakota every damned day was right beneath us. Swarms of zombies, abominations, creatures I’d never seen during my time as a commander moved around each other. Their forms were twisted and gnarled. Some of them didn’t even have faces. Others had white eyes that reflected the lightning each time it shot across the sky. Wraiths lined the front ranks, and as I followed the line all the way to the front, I moved the shotgun around to aim at one figure. Hadariel. He was here, after all. Ilran rolled her eyes at me.
“You won’t hit him from this far away, not with that.”
“And your point is what?”
“Don’t do anything stupid to give us away.”
“Not like we can hear from this distance anyway,” I muttered, lining up the shot I knew I wouldn’t be able to make. Should’ve grabbed one of the rifles instead, but they just weren’t as satisfying. Some part of me understood how morbid that thought was to have, but after the slaughter at Blood Falls, I wanted to see Hadariel hurt. More than hurt. I wanted him to suffer. Him and his evil spawn, Zeraxin. “Can you do anything about that or not?”
“If I use hellfire, they’ll sense it.”
“How quickly?”
“Five minutes, give or take.”
I shrugged. “How fast can you make a portal to get us out of here?”
“A few seconds.”
I arched my brow and waited. She sighed then, muttering about how she was going to regret this, she shimmied her body closer to the edge. Dark, violet flames sprouted along her arms then swirled into a glyph the size of her face. It drifted off the ridge and down toward where Zeraxin and Hadariel stood.
I thought the hellfire would only let us hear what they were saying. Instead, it created a dual sort of window view, one staying by us and the other hovering in the hazy air far above their heads. It was transparent once it reached its stopping point. We looked down on not just the two leaders of the evil army and the angels, but Lavina and Amriel as well. The high general’s entire guard was present. From the way they gripped their holy light weapons and glared at the ever-moving ranks of wraiths and zombies behind Zeraxin, they were not too happy to be there.
“How much longer?” Zeraxin asked, his voice more of a monstrous growl. “I grow impatient.”
“I told you it would take time to establish the artifact and get it up and running. The amount of blessed blood required is massive. Already many grow suspicious of the missing number of angels. If I take any more right now, they’ll be in full revolt.”
“And? Are you not still the high general?”
Hadariel’s eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. “I am. What of it?”
Zeraxin moved as if to brush a bit of lint from Hadariel’s shoulder. The high general flinched, and the monster smirked. “Simply command the number of angels you need to go there. My soldiers can take care of the rest.”
“You will not step foot on that sacred ground. It will taint what holy light is left to us.”
“Haven’t you realized it yet? You don’t need holy light. You have me.”
Hadariel snatched Zeraxin’s hand and twisted, forcing the monster to his knees. “You forget your place. Don’t think I don’t know what you did at the falls, or what you’ve been stealing from me, you and your abominations. It stops, now, you understand? Or I will end you.”
Zeraxin smiled as if he wasn’t in any pain at all. “You need me, remember?”
“Not you. I can find another to take your place. Your army is full of ambitious evil wanting to take control.”
The monster created from Hadariel’s own malice scoffed. “You could, but they wouldn’t be as strong. I came from you, remember? Deep down, you know I’m the only guarantee you have at this plan succeeding. Of you ruling over both the Heavens and the realms of Hell.”
Hadariel shoved him away, his eye twitching. “Stick to the plan. Your army is to wipe out all remaining compounds and outposts. Kill any demons remaining on the surface. I want the humans left defenseless. I want them begging for mercy on their knees. That is your purpos
e right now. If you veer from it again, I’ll be removing body parts.”
Zeraxin’s dark smirk remained on his face, but he bowed. “As you wish, High General.”
“I will come to you again soon, when the device has a firm hold between worlds. Only then can we raise it and finish the ritual. Once it’s fully fueled, the darkest pits of Hell will become permanently open, and you will gain control of the surface.” He turned to go, but Zeraxin called his name. “What?”
The hair on the back of my neck prickled as Zeraxin pointed his finger straight up.
“Can they see us?” I whispered to Ilran.
She shook her head, but then Zeraxin and Hadariel looked up and at us. We stilled, holding our breaths.
Hadariel’s eyes found mine.
A malicious smile spread across his face as he said one word. “Lela.”
Ilran started to swipe her hand as if to destroy the glyph when Hadariel’s arm shot through it. His hand closed around my throat. I scrambled to get away, but he held on too tight.
“So good of you to drop in,” he seethed.
Behind me, a rush of heat told me Ilran had opened a portal or was trying to. She cursed.
A commotion erupted behind me. A zombie's head flew by me a second later. Something dug nails into my calf, but I couldn’t scream. Hadariel’s grip on my throat refused to loosen, and then he was dragging me forward as if he was going to yank me through the glyph.
“Perhaps I’ll simply keep you alive as my pet for a bit, hmm?” he mused. “I do so want you to see the end of your world.”
My fingers fumbled with the shotgun as he dragged me forward. I found the trigger and smirked. “Screw you.” I squeezed, and the hellfire shell exploded in the high general’s face.
His furious bellow rebounded off the cliff face as the glyph shattered, cutting off his connection to me. I hacked harshly, grabbing for my throat, but another sharp pain at my calf had me whirling around. A zombie had dug its bony fingers through my boot and pants. Shouting a curse, I whipped the shotgun around and blasted the zombie to pieces.
Ilran shoved a hand in my face. I grabbed it. She yanked me upright, and then we were sprinting. Hadariel continued to shout and rage, but he wasn’t going to get to us in time.
“Get your ass through that portal,” Ilran shouted and gave me a helpful shove forward.
Two more zombies charged at me from the right, bursting through the trees with swords in hand. I swung the shotgun around and fired. The first round struck one in the head, and it exploded in bits of skull and clinging flesh. The second shot took off the other zombie’s leg. He rolled and kept on coming, dragging his body through dead leaves and mud. I was more than ready to keep firing until he stopped moving, but Ilran was right behind me. She shoved me again, and we tumbled through the portal, landing in Dakota.
The portal sealed behind us. Ilran and I stared at each other as we panted. She fell back to the asphalt, shaking her head. “Mech is not going to be happy.”
“Mech doesn’t have to know. At least, not all of it.” I coughed again, wincing at the pain from Hadariel choking me. My voice wasn’t too rough, thankfully. Just sound like I had a bad cold.
She lifted her head enough to give me an arched brow look. “He’s not an idiot.”
“Never said he was. We’ll tell him we got the intel some other way. You are not going to tell him anything about what just happened.”
“And what did just happen?” a deep, furious voice asked. Luckily, it wasn’t Mech.
Bryan marched to us, rifle slung over his back, and his arms crossed as he glanced from Ilran to me.
“Nothing at all, just you know, doing some recon of my own.”
“Where?”
I climbed to my feet, unloaded the shotgun of the remaining shells, then slid it into the holster on my back. “Few miles away.”
“Lela.”
“What? I’m allowed to leave Dakota. I don’t care what anyone says. The demon lords,” I said, pointedly looking at Ilran, “are not in control of humans. You and I give the orders here,” I assured Bryan.
Bryan looked like he was trying hard not to grin. “Whatever you say, Commander Lela.”
“I hear you brought back some more humans?” I asked, hoping he’d drop it.
He nodded. “I did, though half of them are currently in the holding cell. They’re not exactly believing the demons are here to help us.”
“I’ll talk to them.”
His gaze flicked to my neck. “You sure you don’t want to get checked out first?”
I rubbed the bruises I was sure were there. “I’m fine.” As I set off for Town Hall, Bryan and Ilran fell into step behind me. My neck throbbed with each step I took, but there’d be time to deal with the pain later, when I was alone. If I was going to be Commander Lela again, there was no room for weakness. No room to let anyone see I was hurt. I had to keep being strong for everyone else. Once we were inside the main room with the doors closed, Ilran brought up the map again. She zeroed in on where we had gone.
Bryan’s eyes widened as he rested his hands on the table. “Please tell me that’s not just where you came from?”
“It’s not where we came from,” I said with a straight face.
Bryan blinked then glanced to Ilran.
She shrugged. “What the commander said.” His pursed lips said he really didn’t like that answer, but then she was zooming in even more. “Damn. He’s gone, they all are.”
“Who’s gone?”
I ignored Bryan and hung my head. The blue dots signifying the presence of an angel were not there anymore. Hadariel had fled. “You expected him to hang around?” I asked Ilran.
“I hoped long enough for me to maybe send in some assassins.”
“What, they get a shot at him, but I don’t?”
“You’re smart enough for me not to have to dignify that with an argument,” she snapped. “Not that it matters since they’re gone.”
Bryan held up a hand. “Can one of you please tell me what you’re talking about?”
“Hadariel,” Ilran said even as I waved her off. She shot me a glare and kept talking. “We went to see if he was with the army coming our way.”
“And?”
“And he was there, along with Lavina and Amriel,” she muttered. “Zeraxin was there too. We might’ve overheard a few tidbits before they saw us.”
“And those bruises on your neck?” Bryan asked, scowling at me.
My hand was halfway to my neck when I stopped myself and forced it back to the table. “We got away, alright? No need for anyone to get bent out of shape over Hadariel attacking me.”
“He did that to you? Mech’s going to pissed.”
“Mech isn’t going to know,” I said louder. “You’re not to tell him anything, either of you.”
Bryan and Ilran just stared at me. I considered telling them both off when a sharp pain shot up my leg from my right calf. I glanced down and yelped to see a zombified hand still attached. Its fingers tried to dig in deeper as I watched it twitch and squirm.
Bryan rushed over. “What the hell is that?”
“What does it look like?” I shouted in a panic. “Get it out!”
Ilran grabbed hold of my shoulders as Bryan crouched and tugged on the fingers. I bit my lip when the fingers curled and dug in deeper. Several very loud expletives drew the demon guards from outside the door. They grimaced at the sight, but came over to help keep me from thrashing. Bryan twisted, and the hand finally came free with a sickening, wet squishy sound I never wanted to hear again. Ever. He tossed the hand, which immediately was scrambling to get back at me, as soon as it hit the floor. Ilran blasted it with a burst of hellfire.
The stench of burnt flesh filled the room as the hand twitched and flopped around like a fish. The fire consumed it, and all that remained was a small pile of ash.
“Now can I take you to the infirmary?” Bryan asked.
Blood gushed from my calf. I sighed. This was why I�
�d been wearing so much black lately. It was hard to see the bloodstains on my clothes. “Yeah, we can go now.”
I put weight on my right leg and immediately gasped, holding my foot off the floor. Bryan shook his head in disapproval, but didn’t give me any more grief over not taking care of myself. He helped me hobble out of Town Hall and to the infirmary.
“Was it worth it?” he asked as we shambled along.
“You could say that. I know how Hadariel’s powering this device of his.”
“From that icy look in your eyes, I’d say I don’t want to know.”
I wish I didn’t know, but too late now. “Angels.”
“How do you mean?”
I kept my gaze forward and said nothing. He’d figure it out eventually. The second he did, he cursed.
I nodded. “Yep, pretty much what I said, too.”
“That’s sick.”
“He’s sick. He’s corrupt, and he needs to die.”
“And he will, but you can’t go running off on your own with one demon lord and expect to destroy him, Lela. And before you yell at me some more, if any of us ran off like that, you’d be screaming until you were hoarse, and you know it.”
He had a point. When I said nothing, he grunted as if that meant I was in full agreement with what he said. Part of me was, but Zeraxin had nearly killed Mech. Hadariel almost killed me. Out of anyone else in Dakota, I had the most cause to go after them. Granted, attacking with only one demon lord for backup was stupid, but he really couldn’t blame me. No one could.
“Find out anything else to darken my day?” he asked as the infirmary came into view.
“Possibly, but I’ll have to talk to Muz and Remiel about it, see if they can tell me anything.”
“That good, huh?”
I tilted my head back and forth. “Hadariel said something about this device being on sacred ground. He didn’t want Zeraxin or anything else born of evil stepping foot there.”
“And where might this sacred ground be?”
I blew out a harsh breath. “That is the question, isn’t it? If he’s planting a device powered by the blood of angels and strong enough to rip open Hell, it has to be somewhere old. Somewhere significant to both races. That’s what I’d assume, but I could be wrong.”
