Faith (Soul Savers Book 7)

by Kristie Cook

  The colors of the beings’ mottled skin seemed to change as they moved, like a separate creature rippling over their somewhat human-like bodies. They had one head, though horns sprouted from it, some with two and some with many. Their thickly muscled torsos and powerful limbs—two arms and two legs—would make a body-builder weep. They had claws for hands and hooves for feet, a long tail with a barbed tip, and leathery, bat-like wings that spread out from their shoulder blades. They were the things of nightmares, but were part of reality on Earth now.

  Demons.

  Tristan had been fighting them when the memorial fell to pieces, crushing me. Now, all of the Demons flew toward the Mall, where undead Norman corpses had been limping and shuffling around like zombies, which they’d essentially become. The Demons’ shapes disintegrated into a black fog that enveloped the human bodies and then disappeared inside them, possessing them.

  Lucas had brought Hell to Earth.

  His words slithered through my mind: “The apocalypse is here, and you, darling Alexis, weren’t able to stop it. And now you’re out of time.”

  He hadn’t acted alone, though. With a little encouragement from him and the Daemoni, the Normans had done their share. They’d gone to war against each other. Bombed each other’s lands. Even allowed genocide. Some had committed these acts in the name of protecting their own, but others had been controlled by Lucas’s hand of pure evil. And now the Normans had done the ultimate act, resorting to nuclear bombs that had created a forest of mushroom clouds earlier in the night.

  “There goes Richmond.” Lucas’s tone had been sharp, filled with a demented thrill. “And Baltimore. See what I mean about the Normans? So eager to destroy. Like I said, you can’t stop this. … It’s just a matter of me opening the veil and letting Satan and his Demons in. I’m ready for him! And then … the spirits of my lord can come and save this world from itself. Humans are so eager to destroy their home and themselves. He will be a good king over them. The true god who will empower them and give them everything their hearts desire. So I will drop the veil for him, and he will come and take me. … You can’t stop this. … You can’t stop this.”

  That one phrase echoed, louder than anything else. Because he’d been right.

  We hadn’t been able to stop him. We’d been too slow, always five steps behind him. We’d been too naïve. Not even Tristan had anticipated Lucas would go this far, this fast. Because we’d been too good to fathom the depth of evil Lucas possessed. Too honorable to conceive such an outlandish idea as calling Satan to Earth so he could have the ultimate power over humanity. Who does that? My sperm donor. That’s who. And I was supposed to lead the crusade to stop him.

  And I’d failed.

  As morning came, the sun rose on an unrecognizable world.

  My vision through the veil panned out, and for as far as I could see, the land burned or was already blanketed in ash. The mushroom clouds had lost their shapes long ago, but their fallout drifted and settled. Homes and buildings were destroyed. And worst of all—thousands of blackened corpses lay in yards and on the sides of roads and highways. Tens of thousands sat in the shells of burned-out cars. They’d probably been trying to escape, but there’d been no place to go. How many more lay in their beds or in shelters not made for nuclear disaster? I didn’t want to know.

  But I already did.

  All of them.

  Nobody but Lucas and the Daemoni had been prepared for this final act. And now the only sign of life came from the Demons.

  And my grieving husband.

  I fell to my knees, clawing at my throat and chest as tears streaked down my cheeks. I’d failed everyone so miserably—the world and humanity, my people, my friends, my family, my son. I’d failed the man sitting before me who’d fought so hard against the evil that had created him, who’d fought so hard to learn goodness and love. Who’d loved me like no other being ever could. And I’d left him. Alone. Heartbroken. Weeping for me.

  “How do I help him?” I asked, sensing the others behind me, although they’d never answered my first question and apparently weren’t going to answer this one. “What will happen to him? What about Dorian?”

  My poor son. What had I done? My eyes zoomed in on the broken wall behind Tristan, where written in dried, dark blood were Dorian’s words, “We don’t belong with you. I have to do this. Don’t try to follow.”

  “Is Dorian at least alive?” I demanded when no answers came. I could at least hope for that. Maybe Noah warned him. Maybe they found shelter somewhere. Maybe there was still hope for him. Or, with the state of the world as it was, perhaps even better would be that he was in Heaven. “Is his soul safe?”

  Still no answers, and my stomach dropped. I didn’t know what silence meant!

  “Answer me!”

  More dead air greeted me. Not even the whisper of movement. On this side of the veil, anyway. On the other side, Tristan’s cries had deteriorated to moans as he scooted back to lean against a piece of marble with me still in his arms. I watched as his head dropped back, propped by the marble, and his eyes fell closed. The scene before me disappeared, as if it no longer mattered. As if Tristan and I and the rest of the world no longer existed.

  “Tristan,” I whispered.

  “Alexis.” My mom’s voice finally came quietly behind me, dismissing my string of questions.

  “What’s happening? Where are Tristan and Dorian?”

  “Alexis.” Rina’s voice this time, and I didn’t have to read minds to know from the tone of that single word that she wouldn’t answer me.

  Ignoring her just as they ignored me, I stared at the place where my husband sat on the other side of the veil, now obliterated by a thick mist. When he didn’t return, I finally glanced around and found myself in a white, foggy space of nothingness seeming to stretch into infinity. Where I’d seen Stefan, Solomon, and Winston before, along with others, nobody remained anymore, as though the fog had swallowed them up.

  “Where am I?” I asked, because this vast emptiness couldn’t possibly be Heaven. Where were the golden roads and the walls made of jewels? Where were the souls singing with joy? Where were my husband and son? My team? My people?

  “We’re in the Otherworld.” Mom finally gave me a straight answer. Sort of. The Otherworld consisted of an entire dimension, vaster than Earth, perhaps larger than the universe. Full of many realms.

  “But not in Heaven.” I didn’t state it as a question. I felt too much pain for this to be Heaven. Besides, I didn’t belong there. “How do I physically feel when Tristan holds my body in the Earthly realm? How am I even here? Why?”

  “No, not Heaven, but very near it,” Rina said, evading my other questions.

  The fog shifted in the distance, revealing a crowd of people. Stefan, Solomon, and Winston had returned, along with other Amadis whose funerals I’d attended. For as far as I could see behind them stood a sea of people.

  “Everybody’s dead,” I whispered. Having seen the mushroom clouds on Earth and the lifeless world before it had disappeared, this truth couldn’t have been more obvious. Confirmed by prolonged silence.

  Tears slid down my cheeks as I stared at the endless crowd. A large group of women with very similar looks—coppery hair, large, dark eyes, olive skin—stood up front by the Amadis, glaring at me in return. At once, they began to turn their backs on me as a thin cloud floated in, erasing everyone from sight once again. The previous Amadis matriarchs had made no effort to hide their disappointment in me.

  They’d trusted me to defeat our enemy and win this war. I’d failed them, like I’d failed everyone else.

  I swallowed hard. “So if not Heaven, where are we?”

  “We are close,” Rina assured. “At the Gates.”

  I glanced around but saw nothing but whiteness. We couldn’t be that close.

  “We’re as close as a twitch of the hand,” Mom said. “As close as a final decision.”

  I understood her implication—I only needed to make the choice
for my soul. “Are Tristan and Dorian already there?”

  Mom’s lips curved downward. “They do not belong there.”

  My stomach plummeted, and tears filled my eyes. I shook my head in denial. “No. This isn’t right. If they don’t, then neither do I.”

  “Darling …”

  “No.” No part of me could accept this. Not this fate. Not this place. Not after what I’d done.

  I rocked back onto my butt, crossed my ankles, and pulled my knees to my chest. The big, feathery wings that had burst out of my back in an explosion of pain only moments ago wrapped around me, closing me in, as though comforting and protecting me. I pressed my forehead to my knees and squeezed my eyes shut. I didn’t deserve to be here. I didn’t deserve comfort and protection.

  I most certainly didn’t deserve fucking wings.

  Not these kind anyway. Not the huge, white, feathery kind that belonged to Angels. If I’d earned any wings at all, they should have been thin and leathery and accompanied by horns, a tail, and cloven hooves.

  “Alexis, honey,” Mom tried again, and the warm tone and term of endearment enraged me.

  My wings flew back, and I jumped to my feet, spinning around to face Mom, Rina, and Cassandra, who’d suddenly appeared. They stood there with their white leathery dresses, swords strapped to their backs, and huge wings spread wide. Their wings weren’t white, as I’d thought before, but a pearlescent color that gave off a pale lavender hue. All three women were inhumanly beautiful, even with the grim expressions on their faces. Expressions of displeasure I knew I’d see.

  “How could you let this happen?” I demanded, waving my hand back toward where I’d seen Earth and Tristan holding my dead body. “How could you do this to me? To the Amadis, to humanity and the world?”

  “Alexis, darling,” Rina began once more.

  I thought my soul would explode into pieces as anger and hurt, and every emotion that had been swirling together, built to a point where they could no longer be contained.

  “YOU LEFT ME!” I bellowed at them, my hands balling into fists. “You said I was ready for this. You said I’d never be alone. No matter how many times I begged for help, no matter how many times I told you I couldn’t do this, no matter how many times I failed, you insisted. But you never helped! You never gave me messages in my book with direction. You left me to fight a war I could never win. You even took away my telepathy. My one advantage! You set me up for failure, and that’s exactly what I did. And now look at what’s left of the world. Look what I’ve done. You kept saying we’d win, that I could beat Lucas and lead the Amadis to victory. But you lied. I failed. And now the entire world has paid for it.”

  Like a thick, hot waterfall, grief crashed over me and drenched me in misery. I fell to my knees again.

  “Alexis, it is not over, though.” Cassandra’s voice remained calm in contrast to my rage. She’d moved to float right above me, and I lifted my head to glare at her.

  “It is,” I said through a tight jaw. “It’s all over. Lucas and the Daemoni have won. I just want to be with my son and my husband and be done with it. I know I don’t deserve any favors, but can you please bring them here? Or take me to them?”

  “They cannot be here,” Rina said. “They do not belong here.”

  My chest rumbled.

  “I’m here, aren’t I?” I snapped. “If that’s possible, surely they can be here, too. They certainly don’t deserve to be in that Hell down there.”

  “They still have a purpose to serve. As do you,” Cassandra said.

  I huffed out a breath. The phrase, the idea of it, the philosophy about serving one’s purpose that had been driving me for so long sounded so contrite anymore. No, more like a joke. The insane urge to laugh bubbled up in my chest, but died instantly.

  “I have no purpose now,” I said flatly.

  “You do. It has not changed.”

  My gaze snapped up to her. “How can you say that? There are no souls to save. No humans to protect. Lucas has grown to insane levels of power, consuming anything left as we speak.”

  “No, Alexis. The war wages on.” Cassandra swept her arm out, clearing away a thick fog behind them, and revealing a scene like none on Earth.

  A fierce battle encircled the entire world, seemingly in a layer hidden between the troposphere and the ozone—between where I was now and the Earthly realm—and every one of the warriors were winged. Some had magnificent white, feathery wings that glowed, although there was really no light in this space. These were creatures of majestic beauty with powerful bodies that fought with finesse and skill. The others were no different than the Demons that had invaded Earth—horned, bat-winged, and terrifyingly ugly. The beauties and the beasts fought each other with a ferocity that could only exist between Angels and Demons.

  Swords swished through the air, clanging against each other. Maces swung, and their spiked ends lodged into shields or flesh. Fangs were bared, and jaws snapped. Claws struck out. Silver and black blood splattered and mixed together. The hand-to-hand combat resembled bloody battles of the past, between Vikings or Romans and their enemies. I couldn’t help but duck when a long blade swung toward my head, not knowing whether it could reach me here or not.

  Cassandra’s hand descended, as though closing a window shade to hide the scene once again. Our surroundings returned to the soft glow of white nothingness that was near the entrance to Heaven, like its foyer or ground floor. Since I was here, probably more like its sub-basement.

  “The Angels and Demons have been at war in the Otherworld since the beginning of mankind,” Cassandra said. “They fight for human souls. The Demons try to ensnare the souls before their time, and the Angels protect them until the humans decide their eternal fate. Never have they fought with such fierce passion and determination as now.”

  “Maybe someone should tell them it’s over,” I suggested.

  “But it’s not,” Mom said.

  My head flinched back. “But there are no humans left to fight for. There’s nothing left to fight for.”

  “There is everything left.” Cassandra’s mahogany eyes sparked with the same resolve that filled her voice. “But the outcome has never been more at risk than now. The consequences have never been so dire. The future of the world, of humanity, is at stake.”

  Her tone had turned into one of urgency, borderline desperation. Her eyes and expression pleaded with me, as though I could do anything to solve the problem. My heart squeezed for her pain, but I lifted my hands in the air.

  “I’m sorry that you put your bets on the wrong daughter. I really, truly am. But I warned you, and now I’ve destroyed whatever hopes you might have had, along with the entire world. What more can you possibly expect from me?”

  “We expect you to keep fighting,” Cassandra said simply, as though that were obvious.

  My fingers pressed at my forehead as an ache set in, and I squinted at her. “Fight who? The Demons?”

  Cassandra’s head nodded once. “Yes, the Demons. And Lucas and the Daemoni.”

  My hand dropped to my side and hit my thigh with a soft thud as I stared at her. “But why? Humanity is already lost. Wiped off the face of the Earth. Lucas and the Daemoni have already won.”

  “No, they have not. Not yet.”

  I stared at the very first matriarch, apparently sent to be the messenger on behalf of the Angels. Her words, their request didn’t compute. Were they unable to see through the veil for some reason? Were they blind to the complete destruction Lucas had caused?

  “You must not give up,” Mom said. She moved closer to me and took my hands into hers. “We still need you.”

  I closed my eyes and blew out a long breath as I slowly shook my head. “I’ve caused enough loss and devastation. I won’t cause any more.”

  “The Angels need you, darling,” Rina added.

  Cassandra moved closer to me, and her voice softened. “There is still hope, Alexis. There is still love, which you know is worth fighting for. You only
need to have faith, and we will be victorious.”

  The insane laughter that had threatened before bubbled up and out of my chest, tumbling across the warm, clean air of Heaven’s lobby. Laughter in Heaven should have sounded like ringing bells, but mine was more like a Chihuahua’s bark, sounding as ugly and foreign in this place as I was.

  The laughter died out. My body, with these ridiculous wings, sagged, feeling so heavy that I was surprised I didn’t fall through the floor. Faith? I had none left. Everything I’d believed in had died with my body … with the world.

  “I can’t fight for you,” I said.

  “You can,” Mom insisted. She grabbed my upper arm and gave me a shake, yanking me to attention as she leaned into my face. Her finger jabbed at my chest. “You are our hope, Alexis. The Angels depend on you to do your part. All of the souls of Heaven and Earth need you. You are the only one who can finish this war.”

  I shook my head and let out a humorless chuckle. “I’m the last one who can do it. Angels and Heaven? They mean nothing anymore. I can’t fight for those things.”

  With a blast of air that lifted my hair and wings, our surroundings returned to the Otherworldly battle, only now we were smack dab in the middle of it. When a mace swung at my shoulder, it actually hit me, and the force knocked me back a few steps. I ducked as it came at me again.

  “You must fight,” Cassandra ordered as she drew her sword, twisted around, and stabbed a Demon in its chest.

  Confused and bewildered, I gestured behind me, to the limitless, empty space that was supposedly at Heaven’s Gates where we’d just been.

  “But I don’t even belong here!” I shouted.

  An Angel several times my size with blond hair and the face of Adonis turned from the Demon he’d just decapitated and faced me. With a heated glare, he raised his powerful arms out to the side, a sword in each hand. I cowered backwards, stumbling over my feet as I stared up into his brutal but perfect face that looked familiar, like one of the angel statues that used to hang at the top of the meeting room in the Amadis Council Hall.