Revelations: The Last War

by Lauretta Hignett

  Her eyes hardened. “I know we can’t take the chance. You can’t have that baby. Or all hope will be lost.”

  “So you’re willing to murder me, as well as kill an innocent child?” My voice rose to a scream, and I scrambled around. She had me pinned in a corner. There was nowhere to go.

  “I must,” she said, her voice a soft whisper. “It is a mercy, really. I’m doing it to save the ones I love. The men who pledged to keep you alive and fight Vane and his army are the very ones that will die when you give birth to that baby. I knew I needed to leave Vane and kill you before they fought. Otherwise, they will either die in the battle or die when you give birth.” She shook her head very slightly. “This way is best. This way, only you die.”

  “And my baby,” I stammered.

  “It’s not a baby,” she snarled, her voice icy. “It’s the Antichrist.”

  “He’s a little baby, Mags,” I pleaded. “An innocent, beautiful child.”

  She held up her hands. “He will end the world. And I am the only one that can stop it.”

  Like a cobra, she struck out. Wrapping her cold, thin fingers around my throat, she squeezed.

  My vision dimmed immediately.

  She was choking me to death. I grappled my hands on her body, trying to push her away, but she was as unmoving as stone. She squeezed tighter.

  “Go with God, Eve,” she said, almost tenderly.

  The blackness rushed in from the edges, and I couldn't see anymore. Couldn't see, couldn't breathe...

  The bathroom door exploded with a bang.

  One minute I was choking, and the next, I was slumped on the cold bathroom floor, panting, filling my lungs through my burning, aching throat. I coughed and spluttered, vaguely noticing how odd it was that the locked bathroom door was now scattered into tiny fragments all around the floor.

  I glanced up. Malach filled almost the entire space of the bathroom, roaring in outraged fury, his hands on his daughter’s throat. He had her pinned against the cold tiled wall.

  “Father,” she screamed, her eyes wide. “Father, no!”

  “Magdalena! How could you do this? Have you reached the lowest depths of insanity?”

  “I- I must…” her voice choked out, and she strained against his unmoving hand, thumping her fists ineffectually against Malach’s massive, muscled arms. He didn’t budge. “I have to…”

  “You do not!” His fury was something to behold. “You do not touch her. You will not touch her again!”

  “But…”

  Malach pushed his snarling face closer to his daughter’s, and fixed her with a terrifying glare. “You will not touch this woman again,” he spat out.

  Suddenly, he paused, just inches away from her face. Eyes narrowing, he sniffed. “Is this... Is this blood?”

  Magdalena's face whitened. Eyes wide, she froze, and she stopped trying to wrench his arms away from her throat. “Father…”

  He slowly leaned closer and sniffed again. “Blood of an innocent. You have used blood magic to disguise your essence. Is that how you evaded me?” His face was incredulous, and overwhelmingly heartbroken.

  “She was not…” Mags swallowed heavily. “She was no innocent.”

  Malach’s voice was dangerously quiet. “You do not get to judge, daughter. You do not judge.” He let out a heavy breath, and his brow fell. “You murdered a human, just so you could sneak past me?” His voice broke. “Magdalena…”

  “Father, I had to…” her voice was a tiny whisper.

  “You did not!” Malach roared. “You did not have to kill. You chose to. You did not have to judge, you chose to! And in doing so, you committed the most unholy sins. All of them, Magdalena! All of the worst sins, how do you not see that? You murder, you lie, you deceive, you judge. You disobey your father, you pursue your vengeance. These are all sins!”

  Mags whimpered. “I am the only one who is willing to make the sacrifice…”

  “Hubris! Vanity!” Malach bellowed, squeezing her tighter. “You are more evil than the most rogue demon. You are worse, because you still believe you are doing God’s work! When you are doing the opposite!” His fists, wrapped around her throat, loosened. “And now, I must set things to right.”

  I could see the fear bloom in her eyes. Her jaw went slack. “Father… father, please...”

  “I cannot kill you; my blood gives you immortality,” he whispered. “Neither will I disown you. Some of my own mistakes have begotten your deeds, and I take responsibility for what is mine. Your mother’s suffering has driven you mad,” he said. He lifted his chin, the sadness creeping back into his amber eyes. “If I had prepared your mother for death properly, she might not have suffered in Hell for as long as she did.” His face crumpled. “Nimue was right all along.”

  Magdalena clawed at her neck once more, struggling. “They are sinners, Father. The demons… they are the worst-”

  “You do not get to tell me who is a sinner!” Malach roared at her. “When you are the worst sinner among us. A human’s deeds are not black or white. We were wrong - we’ve always been wrong.”

  His voice quietened, and he took a big breath in, steadying himself. “I should have been with her in Hell, helping the souls, right from the very start.”

  “They are sinners too,” Mags spat out. “They burn in Hell for a reason. Their sins-”

  “It’s pointless,” I said quietly to Malach, as Magdalena continued to spit and hiss in rage. I struggled to my feet, knowing he could still hear me over her raving. My choked throat was killing me. I coughed a couple of times, and went on the best I could. “I’d save my breath if I were you,” I said, in little more than a whisper. “She’s convinced, despite all the evidence that she’s right.” I moved forward, and stood just behind Malach, with his massive, bare muscled body in between me and Mags. “I really don’t think anything is going to change her mind.”

  When Malach replied, his voice was so full of heartbreak that my chest ached just to listen to him. “Of course she will not change her mind,” he agreed sadly. “Not even if God Himself started speaking to us again.”

  “She’d just say it was Metatron speaking for himself, and he was lying,” I nodded.

  Mags had stopped ranting, knowing that we were no longer listening. She started frantically twisting and writhing in Malach’s grasp.

  Malach never took his eyes off her. His sorrow filled the room, and I rubbed my chest to try and ease the hurt inside me. “What will you do?” I asked quietly.

  “I cannot destroy her.”

  “I don’t think you should,” I said lightly. “That would make us just as bad as her.”

  “But she will continue to try and kill you.”

  “You’re right.”

  “So destroying her is our only option.”

  “Not necessarily,” I said to him. He jolted, and finally tore his eyes off his daughter to glance back at me, puzzled. “We only have to buy a little time,” I went on, pointing at my huge belly. “I’ve only got another month to go. When I give birth, and if, hopefully, the world doesn’t end… well, then, maybe she’ll have to change her mind about all this.”

  “The world will fall!” Magdalena screeched again. “The Earth will burn, as God will reign furious vengeance on us for not adhering to His path!”

  “Wow,” I whistled. “It’s astonishing how we could have two very different viewpoints of the same divine source. That’s not the God I know,” I shook my head. “And if it is, maybe the world should burn, because I don’t wanna be part of it. Anyway,” I turned back to Malach. “If we manage somehow to keep all the souls in Hell, maybe process as many as we can if they get out… maybe she’ll have to take a raincheck on all her great vengeance and fuuuurious anger.” I rolled the phrase, just out of habit. It made my choked throat hurt, but I did it anyway.

  Malach stirred. “Your optimism is misplaced, but welcome, Chalice. So,” he frowned deeply. “What will we do with her?”

  “Perhaps I can help,”
a cool voice said from the doorway.

  It was Nimue, looking astonishingly beautiful in her tight, shining, bright-white suit, plunging at the neck. Malach’s mouth dropped open as she strolled into the bathroom, ignoring the shattered remains of the door all around her. “I was wondering where you’d got to, Eve,” she said idly, brushing my neck as she passed me. Immediately, the crushing pain on my throat eased, as a little bit of her healing energy coursed through me. She moved passed me, hips swinging languidly, and she stood, shoulder to shoulder with Malach, facing Mags.

  “I can banish her to Hell, and hold her there for a period of time, if you like,” Nimue said, calmly inspected Mags’s furious, white face. “It’s a fitting punishment. If she were human and you killed her right now, she would go straight to Hell and probably stay there for all of eternity.”

  Mags shrieked; a long, inhuman sound. “Stay back, Demon! Evil creature of sin!”

  “Wow, you have well and truly lost your marbles, haven't you, dear?” Nimue drawled. “Don’t worry. A month or two down in Hell will cool your jets.”

  “She won’t be harmed?” Malach asked, his voice a soft rumble.

  “Not by anyone but herself,” Nimue answered. “I better send her now. If both our sons get wind that she’s here and that she tried to strangle Eve, then they’ll be here in a heartbeat to tear her limb from limb.”

  Malach gave a short, curt nod. “Do it quick.”

  Nimue stepped back. There was a surge of potent energy in the little bathroom, as she whirled her arms in the air three times. A black fissure opened up in midair, ringed with fire, and in a smooth, quick movement, Malach threw his daughter directly into the portal.

  The last thing I heard from Magdalena was her angry scream, which soon blended in with the cries of the dead.

  It was all over in less than a second. Nimue sealed the portal immediately, and with a deep breath, turned to face Malach.

  He was gazing at her with wondering eyes. “You didn’t even cast a salt circle.”

  “You wanted it quick,” she raised an arched brow.

  “Your skill is remarkable,” he murmured, his voice low. “The way you open and shut a portal…” his tone deepened. “It’s… sublime.”

  “I can be so fast that no soul would even register the portal opening before it shut, so there is no danger,” Nimue said, a smile curving her lips up lazily. “But I can make it slow, too. Fast,” she drew out all her vowels in a seductive tone. “Or slow.”

  “I like it slow.”

  “I remember just how slow you like it,” she replied huskily.

  “Er, guys?” I put my hand up. “Is she going to be alright in there?”

  Nimue glanced at me. “Oh, she’ll be fine. She can block out the sounds of the screams, just like any of us can. She’ll have to witness their torment, though. Maybe that will knock a little empathy into her.” She cocked her head. “Why do you care? She just tried to kill you.”

  “I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I almost feel sorry for her. She’s a bit mad. She needs… I don’t know. Therapy. Or something. Anyway, Nimue,” I shook my head, and started again. “How did you know I was in here?”

  “I didn't.” Nimue turned again to face Malach, and her face softened. I watched as her pupils dilated, her eyes almost turning black with desire. “I sensed the presence of my other half,” she murmured. “My eternal love. I knew Malach was near, and I was compelled to come, to close the distance between us.”

  “My love,” Malach rumbled. He reached out a hand and, wrapping it around her waist, drew her close. “The distance will never come between us again. We are light and dark; the sun and the moon, but we belong together.”

  “Forever,” Nimue breathed.

  They kissed, melting into each other passionately, hands clutching, pulling closer.

  I backed away, but bumped into a very hard body. A very nice, very familiar shape. I grinned up at Alex. “What took you so long?”

  He was staring at Malach and Nimue, kissing passionately, with a puzzled look on his face. “You’ve been gone for so long, I thought I better check on you,” he said. His eyes fell to the bathroom floor, covered in tiny wooden fragments. “I’m confused. What’s going on here?”

  I took his hand, smiling, and drew him out of the bathroom. Nimue’s shirt was already on the floor, and Malach was already mostly naked. “We should probably give them some privacy,” I said, smirking. “I’ll explain on the way back to the reception.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  I danced with Alex all night, pressed up against his hard body, cocooned in his arms. The band played slow, wistful songs, and we swayed gently underneath the stars.

  It was a glorious night. Clear and perfect, not a cloud in the midnight-black sky to block out the stunning cascade of the glittering Milky Way above us. I pressed my face against Alex’s chest and took long, slow breaths, savoring the peace, relishing the feel of his body close to mine. Soaking in the tender vibrations, the soulful feeling of everything around me. I felt connected - to Alex, to everyone. We were all friends, family and lovers, some of us enemies, but in the end, we were all the same. It was a beautiful moment in time.

  All around us, our friends and family were doing the same thing as me -intensely appreciating the glorious moment. Dale and Zel were closest. Deeply content, they turned in slow circles on the dance floor. I caught a glimpse of Zel brushing a tender kiss on Dale’s lips, and I smiled in contentment.

  I hadn’t even told them about Mags’s little murder attempt. I wouldn’t dream of ruining their wedding. If I did, and we lived through the coming war, Zel would never let me forget it.

  It didn’t matter, anyway. Mags was gone. And she wouldn’t be coming back anytime soon.

  Alex was horrified when I told him what had happened. It was several long minutes before I could convince him that I was okay, then another half an hour before he stopped beating himself up about leaving me alone. Mags had been tricky, as usual. She’d timed everything perfectly, and she’d snuck around like a ghost. And to be fair, nobody in their wildest dreams would have thought that she would use blood magic to disguise herself in order to get close to me. Alex had healed my throat thoroughly and had checked to make sure my baby’s heartbeat was strong and steady.

  I was fine. Mag’s exile had actually lifted a weight from my shoulders - she was an enemy that I didn’t want to have around in the final battle. So while the crushing weight of the world still rested on my shoulders, for a few moments, wrapped in my lover’s arms, I appreciated every precious feeling. I cherished every warm caress on my skin, and the twinkling stars above me. I gazed in wonderment at the chaotic beauty of nature that surrounded me; the tangled jungle vines and fat, shiny leaves, the delicate white lips of the roses wrapped around every surface, the emerald-green grass beneath my feet.

  This world was glorious. In this moment, I wasn’t taking anything for granted.

  Malach and Nimue were also on the dancefloor. We’d left them in the bathroom to get reacquainted, but they had showed up back at the marquee for the last moments of the wedding reception when the thudding bass and vigorous dancing had given way to more gentle, romantic love songs. Malach materialized the most beautiful black tuxedo jacket and crisp shirt, and now, he and Nimue drifted amongst the dancers, moving together as gracefully as two stars dancing through the night sky. They were truly made for each other, I could see, Yin and Yang melded together.

  Just to the left of us, Nate and Clover were slow dancing together, their hands lazily and lightly brushing each other's skin in a way that I’d never noticed before; intimate and sensual. Nate was still a little tense. I’d told him about Mags attacking me in the bathroom, and he was guilt-ridden and horrified all over again. Although looking at him now, I could see that his anxiety was starting to ebb away, as he and Clover relished the soft contact between them.

  Alex noticed me watching them. “I wish that they would get together properly,” I said, gesturing to th
em with a nod of my head.

  He smiled down at me softly. “That’s not what either of them would want.”

  “I know. I guess I just want everyone paired up and happy if these are our final days.”

  “Everyone is paired up and happy,” he replied, smoothing his big, warm hands over my back. “Even if we die in the war, we’re all happy right now. Or, if Hell explodes, I’m still chalking this up as a happy ending.”

  “The destruction of all life on Earth is not really a happy ending,” I said dryly. “But I know what you mean. That’s the thing about stories, isn’t it? They always have an ending, and we don’t ever get to see what’s beyond that. We can only guess.”

  “So if this were our story, you’d end it here?”

  I shook my head. “No. We have to go through this last part. We have to keep trying to save the world.”

  He pulled me back to his body tightly, and we danced in silence for a few long minutes. “I’ll always keep fighting for you,” he said softly. “And for our baby. I feel it in my heart. This is not our end.”

  I nestled into him, breathing his essence in deep. This is not the end. Our end will be bloody and painful and heartbreaking. But for now, I was going to rest in the arms of my lover, surrounded by my family and friends. And I would relish the beautiful world we lived in.

  Chapter Fifteen

  We heard the news two days later. The Percuitait army was coming.

  They would be here by the following afternoon.

  I was in the medical center with Margot when the news reached us. She’d insisted on doing another examination to make sure the stress of the coming war wasn’t upsetting my baby.

  “Well, the heartbeat is fine,” she said, taking the stethoscope out of her ears and wrapping it back around her neck. “Strong and steady. He - or she - seems to be sleeping very soundly.” She blew on her hands quickly to warm them up, and put them on my belly, kneading gently. “Position is correct. Head down, and dropped. Your measurements are on-point. You’ve got exactly two weeks to go.” She glanced up at me and smiled. “If he’s worried about the end of the world, he’s certainly not showing it.”