Reign of Chaos (Sunny With A Chance of Demons Book 4)

by Jenny McKane

  So be it.

  Being a leader, she was learning, was requiring difficult choices that nobody else wanted to make—so she would make them.

  And if she felt like saving someone, she would. And she wouldn’t ask for permission or beg for forgiveness for it.

  Sunny felt the well of personal power building within her and she felt like she was becoming a new person with each passing day. It was a good feeling, but it was also disconcerting, unbalancing.

  There were sacrifices she was going to have to make and pleasing everybody at the same time was no longer an option. She was going to have to live with what she decided, she knew it.

  With a long sigh, she turned away from where the archangels and Eli were sitting around a small campfire drinking cups of coffee. She wanted to join them. She wanted their easy companionship to be back, strong as it had been in the past—but that wasn’t possible. Not right now, and possibly, if she kept making decisions they didn’t agree with, not ever.

  Instead, Sunny sought out Asmodeus, who’d been more and more quiet with each passing day. The rift between him and the others was growing, too, though she couldn’t quite name why and he wasn’t offering clues.

  She had told him about the night before in her dreams and they were talking about a dream demon’s abilities when Asmodeus’ face went blank and leached of color. He froze, opening his mouth and closing it like a fish gasping out of water.

  “What is it?” She stood, panic flooding her.

  Whatever this was, her gut told her it was bad. She turned and looked out the window to call to the archangels, but found that Gabriel was on his knees, fighting to remain conscious and Metatron was gripping the sides of his head in agony.

  “Shit!” she swore, spinning back to Asmodeus. “What is it?”

  “Camael,” he gritted between his teeth as pain wracked his body. “Pestilence has risen. The Apocalypse as begun.”

  *****

  That afternoon, Asmodeus came to find Sunny as she pored over the grimoire, now in even more of a rush to understand the 72 demons of Solomon than ever.

  “Come with me,” he said and she frowned, annoyed that he wouldn’t just tell her what the hell he was doing each time he did this.

  They wandered out past the encampment and into the long stretch of high desert behind it. They crested a small hill and as they began their descent, she saw what Asmodeus was showing her.

  An army had gathered there. Nearly 100 demons, many of whom she recognized as Guardians from her grimoire, filed in behind four armored generals. Her four generals, she realized, decked out in showy battle gear. Beside them, nearly 20 tengu had assembled and stood, eyes on her, with Yama at the front. On the other side of the Guardians, a group of 15 Skinwalkers stood wearing pelts and war paint, eyes also on Sunny. Talos and Coyote stood shoulder to shoulder with the generals.

  Every single set of eyes were on her at that moment and beside her, Asmodeus spoke.

  “The rise of the first Horseman has woken them and called them here,” he said. “They wanted to see their leader for themselves.”

  She saw that Baal, the hot head general from the east held a battle standard in his hand on a long, silver spear. The flag flapped in the breeze, black and silver, with the same five-pointed Solomon insignia imprinted on it that was on her ring.

  “This is your army, Solomon,” Asmodeus said and Sunny knew this moment was big—one of those “before” and “after” moments she always thought about. “They’re waiting to teach you how to use their weapons to their best advantage and to learn from you as well.”

  She wasn’t exactly sure what they were waiting for in that moment, but Sunny knew she needed to do something.

  Pulling the runed blade from its sheath at her back, she never went anywhere without it now, she raised it above her head in triumph.

  “To victory,” she shouted, feeling a bit self-conscious in the moment, but leading with her heart and letting it choose the words for her. It worked and the assembled creatures, demons, and spirits rallied with a war cry that shook the ground around them all.

  “To victory,” they boomed in unison and Sunny hoped that somewhere, wherever he was, Samyaza heard the Army of Solomon rise up. She hoped he heard all the fury and fire they had and she hoped that he was scared.

  Because he should be.