Raven's Rise (World on Fire Book 3)

by Lincoln Cole

  That, in Frieda’s mind, Abigail knew, would be a last resort. Abigail hadn’t told her about her plan to bring back Arthur, or the inevitability that she would end up forced to inject the poison, and she didn’t intend to.

  Dominick returned a moment later, a concerned expression on his face.

  “What is it?” Abigail asked. “Did you find something?”

  “No,” he said. “Nothing at all. The town seems completely and eerily silent.”

  “Do you think we came to the wrong place?”

  He shook his head. “I can feel it here. The wrongness of it. Something horrible is happening, and definitely, we reached the right place.”

  Abigail sighed. “All right, then. Let’s go.”

  Chapter 30

  Dominick slipped through the town, slow and quiet, and listened for any sound of movement around the area. They didn’t know where, or if, Nida might have posted guards but wanted to stay ready for anything. They planned to start the fight on their terms, and every second that Nida didn’t know they’d come here increased their advantage.

  Raven’s Peak felt like a dead place, lacking even the sounds of nature they might have expected. No birds chirping, crickets, or the rustling of nature. Even the wind fell silent. It had an unnatural feel to it that made the hair on Dominick’s neck stand up. This place had something wrong about it like it had become unreal, and the closer they came to the church, the worse the feeling became.

  He had been in a lot of deadly situations and faced powerful foes in his life, but this brought a whole new level from anything he had seen before. Nida represented an evil a lot older and more dangerous than the normal creatures he dealt with on a regular basis and sent back to hell.

  To make matters worse, he remained distracted by the flurry of information that had bombarded him over the last few days. It proved hard to focus his mind when he kept thinking through the ramifications of what Frieda had admitted to him. Nothing was as it seemed, and it felt like his world had flipped on end.

  To find out that the Council had formed out of The Ninth Circle after they’d betrayed one of their own just seemed unthinkable. No wonder the Church had always looked unfavorably upon them for all these years.

  After so much time spent working to repent from the horrible things they had done and the evil creature they’d released into the world, it would all end this way. He had no doubt that the Council had gone forever, crushed by the betrayal of Aram Arison and their hubris. There would be no rebuilding from this.

  Nida prepared to unleash a terrible creature back into the world, the Church had disavowed them, and basically everyone who used to consider them allies now considered them enemies.

  All in all, it had become a fairly upending week in Dominick’s life.

  Yet, in addition to feeling terrified that they might walk to their deaths at any moment, he also felt proud that they planned to try to stop them. It didn’t matter what the Council used to do, or from where they came. What mattered came down to what they did now and the choices they made.

  They might fail or fall short of stopping Nida and this threat, but at least they had the willingness to risk it all and see this through to the end.

  They made it to the old church, and Abigail waved for him to stop moving and stay silent. At first, he couldn’t hear anything, but after a second, he made out some noise. From inside, came sounds of faint chanting, which spilled out.

  As Abigail had mentioned, the roof had collapsed partly and now rotted away on this side of the church. It wouldn’t give them a problem to get in, he realized, but getting in without tearing off a chunk of the wall accidentally? It looked flimsy and old, and if he put pressure on the wrong section, it just might collapse.

  Abigail glanced at him, and then climbed the back wall. Haatim should have made his way to the front door right about now, and they needed to get in position to attack or help should things not go according to plan.

  Dominick watched Abigail climb to the roof and then lean over the edge to look into the room. She glanced back at him, and using her hands, signaled that ten people occupied the room.

  The look on her face, though, made it clear that they weren’t all human. She held up two fingers, and he scrunched up his nose. Two of what?

  To climb up there with her would make a bad idea. Abigail weighed a lot less than he did, and he didn’t think the building would support his weight as easily. Instead, he moved around the side of the church, staying close to the wall and scanning the area. He found a window he could use as a point of ingress and glanced inside.

  Seven robed figures stood in a circle in the center of the room, all focused on a central point, but they didn’t stand alone. Nida stood there as well, walking around the robed cultists with her hands folded behind her back. The robed figures chanted at a low level, and their words filled the air with a quiet and barely audible hum.

  Then, he saw the other two that Abigail had indicated and felt a moment of panic. In opposite corners of the room, perfectly still, stood demons like the one he’d faced in Pennsylvania.

  Not one. Two of them.

  Both of them stood frozen in place, staring straight ahead like statues. Dominick ducked out of sight, fighting the urge to turn around and head away from here. Within seconds, he’d grown sweaty and bit down his panic.

  Never in his life had he faced something so horrible or deadly, nor something that had so quickly bested him in a fight. He’d barely survived his last encounter and only by sheer luck, and he hadn’t come close to even hurting the thing, let alone killing it.

  And now he faced two.

  He fought back his fear, reminding himself that he had to do this and that no other way had presented itself. They had to destroy the blood, interrupt the ritual, and then get the hell out of here.

  Sure. It sounded so easy when he put it that way.

  He waited, out of sight next to the window, for something to happen.

  He didn’t have to wait long.

  ***

  “Nida,” Haatim called out while he walked up to the front entrance of the church. However, in his terror, the word came out weak and pathetic, barely a whisper. He cleared his throat, took a steadying breath, and called louder, “Nida! I know you’re in there. Come out and face me.”

  A few seconds passed, and then movement came from inside the church. The door opened, and his sister walked out onto the front steps.

  Or, at least, a creature loosely resembling Nida. It no longer looked anything like his sister. The broken body looked like it had begun to fall apart, and the skin sagged and had turned pale and sickly. It appeared considerably worse than when he’d faced her only a few days ago in Cambodia.

  The skin around one of her eyes had rotted and fallen off, leaving only part of the flesh behind to hold the eye in the socket. Whether they eye even worked anymore or not, he couldn’t begin to guess.

  Nor did he want to. To see her like that gave enough to cause his hand to shake and him to second guess everything he did here. The realization hit him like a bolt of lightning—no way could he save his sister, not anymore.

  The demon had broken down her body, and the effect only intensified over time. It wouldn’t take long before nothing remained. Nida’s face had torn and rotted as the demon pushed her body to the limits and beyond.

  After everything he had gone through, it all came to nothing.

  He had nothing left to save.

  Abigail and Frieda had gotten it right, though he felt certain they also had it wrong. Nida—the real Nida—did remain trapped in there somewhere, and in pain. He might not save her, but destroying this demon would, at least, give her the rest she deserved.

  The demon stood at the top of the short staircase, sizing up Haatim, her expression unreadable.

  “I wasn’t sure if you would come,” the demon said, standing atop the porch and looking down at Haatim as he approached. “Dear brother, I felt afraid you might have lost your will to fight when last we
met.”

  Haatim stopped at the bottom of the stairs, about six meters from the demon. “I’m sorry, Nida. I can’t help you,” he whispered, speaking to himself rather than her. “But I can still stop you.”

  “What? I couldn’t hear you through your pathetic simpering.”

  “I will end you before you can complete the ritual.”

  “Dear brother, if I thought you could stop me, I never would have invited you here. You remember this place, don’t you? Back where it all began. I watched you even then, you know. I’m the one who sent the cultists after you in Arizona to turn you to my cause. I’d hoped you would join me, become my ally in this endeavor. After all, once you found out what our father had done, how could you possibly support him?”

  “I would never join you.”

  “You will in time. That’s the beauty of it, Haatim. We have all the time in the world. You won’t join your sister, though. Instead, you will replace her as my vessel. And, now that I know what I can get out of you, you will bring me to ever new heights in the Master’s regime. But that’s neither here nor there. We have other matters to attend to. Where is she? The woman who took you from me. Where is Abigail?”

  “Not here. I came alone.”

  “You don’t expect me to believe that, do you?”

  “Why would I bring her here? I came here for Nida, and because we have unfinished business.”

  “Why? Because Nida reached out to you?” The demon laughed. “You’re even dumber than I thought. I reached out to you, using her memories. If your pest of a sister came back with me from hell, I would have crushed her long ago.”

  “You lie.”

  “I do? What would be the point? Don’t you see? I’ve won already.”

  “No, you haven’t. I will destroy you, and then I will stop your ritual from happening.”

  “Go ahead and try.” The demon took a step toward him, calling his bluff. “Attack me again like you did in Cambodia. Open yourself up and let me inside. I won’t prove as gentle this time.”

  Haatim took a self-conscious step back and winced.

  The demon smiled at him. “What? Not quite as brave as you thought? Don’t worry; no shame in it. I have always known you as a sniveling coward, just like I know you lied about Abigail not coming with you. She wouldn’t stay away, not when I dangled such a tempting carrot in front of her.”

  Haatim took another hesitant step back. “What?”

  “Oh, she didn’t tell you? She came here because she thinks she can rescue Arthur. She actually thinks she can bring him back. So predictable.”

  Haatim shook his head. “You’re lying.”

  “Dear Haatim, I told you. I have no reason to lie. I’ve won this fight already. It’s over simply because you came. Now, I have everything I need, and it will take only moments until the Master arrives. I know that Abigail came here because I gave her that idea.”

  “What?”

  “Well, not me, precisely; though, Mitchell has proven quite useful these last few weeks.”

  Shock ran through Haatim’s system. If Mitchell worked for Nida, then she knew everything that would happen.

  All their plans.

  A cold chill ran down his spine. That meant that Nida knew everything.

  “You still have time.” Nida took a step toward him. “Time for you to join the correct side. Bend your knee and swear fealty to me, and I will spare you for now. Join me and help us bring this world to heel.”

  Haatim ignored the demon, pushing the words out of his head and refusing to focus on them. Instead, he thought of his sister, trying to remember the beautiful young woman she had been before all of this had happened. Before the demon, before her sickness. She had seemed so vibrant, so full of life. He tried to picture that version of his sister, the glowing woman so full of life.

  He couldn’t do it, though. He couldn’t remember. All he saw now was a husk. A puppet under the control of this evil entity.

  “I’m sorry, Nida,” he whispered, swinging his arm from behind his back. He had a pistol ready. “I love you.”

  He pulled the trigger, but Nida had moved already. Had danced away from him and back into the church. She disappeared around the door and out of sight.

  Haatim watched her disappear and cursed. Hopefully, he’d bought Abigail and Dominick enough time to climb in through the back of the roof, but he couldn’t know for certain. He wouldn’t wait around, though. Instead, he rushed up the stairs and burst into the building behind Nida.

  A group of robed cultists stood gathered in a circle, chanting, with a pool of blood lying at their feet in a basin. Nida stood in the center, looking back at him with a grin on her face.

  Two horrible-looking creatures flanked the room in opposite corners. They appeared humanoid demonic creatures but looked like aliens with sharp talons on their fingers and sunken faces. Their eye sockets stared, empty except for a small smoldering light.

  Those must be the creatures Dominick had spoken of, but Dominick’s descriptions didn’t do them justice. They looked considerably more horrible than he could have imagined. Dominick had described them as un-killable war machines, but Haatim realized them as something even worse.

  One turned to face Haatim, eyes boring into him. It twisted its arms, slicing its talons through the air, and then walked toward him.

  “Uh-oh.” Haatim stumbled back toward the door behind him.

  The creature let out a horrid piercing screech and took a sudden bounding leap toward him, landing only a few meters away.

  Haatim turned and ran.

  Chapter 31

  Haatim ran as fast as he could away from the church and the gray demon chasing him, dodging overgrown sections and struggling to breathe.

  Unsure what the hell had just gone on or what those creatures might be, he did know they would prove too much for him to handle alone. More importantly, he had no idea how they would stop them, if even possible.

  Though he still held onto his gun, it felt woefully inadequate for such a situation. He sucked in breaths of air, trying to get his body under control, and kept running. Dominick had taught him how to control his fear; though nothing he had taught him seemed to apply to a situation like this.

  Actually coming here, facing creatures he couldn’t understand and that shouldn’t exist, didn’t seem like something a breathing exercise would fix.

  Haatim could feel it pursuing him while he weaved through the old and decrepit buildings. He ducked around tight corners and small passageways, hoping to create some distance from the demon, but it ran quickly. It didn’t seem too adept at handling sharp corners, but on a straightaway, it moved much faster than he could and made up the ground.

  He tried to control himself and remember the other situation in his life where he’d faced something terrible and remained unafraid. In Raven’s Peak, when he faced down the demon that tried to kill Abigail, he hadn’t experienced much fear at all. Belphegor had possessed a small child and wreaked unimaginable havoc on the nearby factory, but even then, Haatim hadn’t experienced trepidation like this.

  Of course, he’d also had divine help and confidence. Now, however, every fiber in his being threatened to lock up in terror, and he saw through tunnel vision from lack of oxygen to his brain.

  He’d fought down his fear back then because he’d known he would overcome that threat and win the day. However, Nida had shown him his weakness and mortality back in Cambodia. He didn’t have any of that same confidence in himself anymore.

  Simply fighting back his fear wouldn’t work, and he couldn’t keep running away. Eventually, the monster would catch him. Haatim needed another strategy. He ducked around a building and put his back to the wall, out of the creature’s sight.

  There, he closed his eyes and focused purely on his terror, pushing all other thoughts out of his mind. Though the creature continued to come after him, he couldn’t stand up against it if he couldn’t get his mind under control.

  To that end, he forced the image o
f the creature out of his thoughts as well, but with less success. He couldn’t get its spindly body, talons, jagged teeth, and hollow eyes out of his mind. Determined, he focused on relaxing and regaining control of his raging emotions, and eventually, reclaimed his thoughts. Instead of a giant gray monster, he pictured it as a human, just a big ugly human with claws.

  A terrible shriek ripped through the air, maybe ten meters behind him. It sounded raw, visceral, and wholly inhuman. So much for imagining it as just a man. Haatim’s eyes popped open, and it felt like the scream had cut through his skin and gone directly for his heart. All of his fear came back in a wild rush, and he stood breathless once more.

  Haatim let out a sobbing sound, gritted his teeth, and then took off running again. He didn’t go far, though, before he decided he needed to try something else. With steeled resolve, he waited until the creature stepped into sight behind him, between two buildings.

  It noticed him standing there and froze in place. The way it simply stopped moving looked unnatural and wrong, and unlike anything he’d ever seen before. The creature stood perfectly still, just watching him. He fired off three rounds from his pistol. The first one went wide, over the monster’s shoulder, but the next two thudded cleanly into the torso. They blasted it, staggering the creature, and Haatim let out an exclamation of joy. It stumbled back a step, and for a second, he thought he had hurt it.

  Then, it shrieked again. This time, the sound came louder and angrier, and he had to cover his ears with his hands. The creature stood up straight, eyes boring into Haatim, and then charged forward once more.

  “Uh-oh,” Haatim yelped.

  He tried to duck back, but the creature came too fast. It lunged forward, only a meter away, and Haatim couldn’t avoid its talons as they came swinging down at him.

  Suddenly, an enormous explosive crack sounded next to his ear. He jerked away from it, falling to the ground and crying out in pain.

  Then he rolled, pushing himself up. Frieda stood where he just had. She held a ten-gauge shotgun, which she’d just fired at the creature, barrel still smoking.