Another thread, dark and hard to see. I didn’t need to see it to know Ulnyx. I reached out again, splitting my attention, careful not to lose my grip on Josette. Before I could take hold of it, it latched onto me. Not an attack, but an effort to stay connected.
“She might,” I admitted. I could feel Josette’s sorrow wash through me.
“You are not wrong, demon,” Josette said. “But not without trying to save her. You have seen her goodness and charity. Such things cannot be lost so easily. Just ask Izak.”
“Izak is unique,” Ulnyx said. “He was never meant to be one of us. Don’t expect such softness from any other demons. You’ve seen it yourself with your vampire honey.”
I wanted to be angry at the comment, but there was nothing. No emotion could travel through this connection. Only whispers. “Who is he?” I asked. “I saw him visit you in your cell. I saw how you cared for him.”
The threads didn’t move.
“Josette? Ulnyx?”
There was no reply. I felt a lightness reaching across my flesh, and I opened my eyes. Zeek was standing in the rear of the van, the back doors thrown open. A light breeze was filtering in, and I could see the small aircraft waiting behind him, propellers already spinning. He had a pastry in his mouth, crumbs in his beard, and donuts in each of his hands.
“Time to fly,” he mumbled through bits of danish.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
I spent the first ninety minutes of the two hour flight trying to recapture my calm and get back the threads of Josette and Ulnyx’s souls. Between the shaking of the twin-prop while it winged its way past the Alps, and the crunching of candy bars and crackling of cellophane bags, it was an impossible task. I opened my eyes and cast a murderous glance over at the giant Templar, who I could swear was forcing the plane to fly slightly banked to the left. He was too busy consuming sugar to notice, so I looked forward to our pilot, a Spanish mortal named Javier. According to Zeek, the flight had been contracted by m’lady, and so the man had no idea what it was he was carrying.
“Have you been flying long?” I asked him. He had given each of us headphones so we could speak over the din of the engines, but Zeek had been cut out because the cans didn’t fit over his skull.
“Affirmative,” he replied, holding out a bony arm and flashing me the ‘okay’. He was an almost comical inverse of the Templar, short enough to need a booster on his seat and thin enough to see the skeleton beneath his skin. “Thirty five years. I got my start in the Spanish Air Force, it was the easiest way to pay for flight training.” He laughed hoarsely. “After that, I spent a few years doing cargo hauls, and then a few more as an instructor. The last five have been as an indie. I bought Bella here twenty years ago at an auction. Now I’m living my dream.”
I couldn’t see his smile, but I could feel it. It dug into me more deeply than I had expected. A man living his dream. This is what I was fighting for. I’d been avoiding the finite life for so long, I’d forgotten what it was.
“You resurrected her yourself?” I asked.
“Sure thing,” he replied. “Took me almost twenty years of parts auctions, graveyards, and some of the oddest jobs you can think of, but I put her together piece by piece with these hands.” He lifted them from the yoke to show them off. The calluses and wear on his fingernails made it clear how much time he had given to the task.
“She’s a marvel,” I said.
I leaned back in my seat and looked out the window to the right. There was some scattered cloud cover we were skirting on top of, and beyond that some of the taller peaks poked through like icebergs on a white sea. The moon was resting high in the sky, a thin sliver that didn’t provide much light, not that I needed it. I was about to lean forward again to ask Javier about the mountains when my stomach lurched forward and I got super dizzy. The balance. Something had just happened to give it a bad push to the dark side. Remembering what Gervais had said he thought Rebecca and Sarah planned to do, it was an effort to keep breathing. Was she really going through with it? It seemed impossible.
A sudden explosion of heat in my Sight brought me out of my stupor. I lunged forward and grabbed the yoke from Javier, pulling it back and twisting it, praying that the pilot’s loving workmanship would be enough to spare the craft. A gout of flame sped past the window, close enough for the heat to leech through.
“What the hell was that?” Javier cried, pushing my hands away from the steering. His expression was tight, and I could smell his fear.
“Landon?” Zeek was shoved back in his seat, a soda spilled on his lap.
I could See the fire demon out beyond, circling around for another pass. It was worse than that - three angels were angling on a direct path for the plane. Not fallen angels, but straight from Heaven angels, working in concert with the demon. It was Rebecca’s promise, already being fulfilled.
“Sword?” I asked the Templar. He pointed at the back of the plane, where a small lockbox was resting.
I focused, pulling it to me and snapping the locks. “Javier, dive now,” I said, flipping open the lid and pulling out the blessed axe. The same one that had killed Rolix. I could feel Unlyx’s desire to plant it in the Templar’s chest. It was a good thing he wasn’t in control.
“I can’t go too far my friend, or we’ll crash into the mountains,” he said, calm and cool in the face of something he couldn’t possibly understand. He was a former military man, his training had taken over.
The plane dipped forward, forcing Zeek to put his feet up to keep him from slamming into the the pilot’s seat. The maneuver threw the angels off, and they hung stationary for a few seconds before they followed the fire demon downward behind us.
“How did they find us?” Zeek asked.
I started to shake my head, then felt my stomach drop. “Sarah,” I said softly. She knew where I was. She always knew where I was. If there was any remaining doubt she was helping Rebecca, it fled in that instant. There was no time to lament though. I had to act.
“What now?” Javier asked, pulling back and leveling the plane.
“Just don’t fly straight,” I said to him. “Try to be unpredictable.”
I focused on the hatch and pushed it open, holding the freezing air to prevent it from rushing in. I walked over to the edge and looked out, seeing the fire demon behind us, its mighty wings pumping hard to keep pace with the craft. It didn’t seem possible that something so large could move at such speed, but the laws of the mortal world had no bearing on the Divine, no matter how big and ugly they were. I took a deep breath and hopped out onto the wing, planting myself to the metal and pushing the door back closed. Even though the angels had started behind the fire demon, they were more like fighters, so much faster and more nimble. They reached me first.
I had to focus to hold myself on the plane against the buffeting wind. The angels shot into view, wings swept back like falcons, swords held forward at their chests like spears. I gauged the distance to the lead seraph and loosed the axe, feeling a bit like Thor when it shredded through a wing and I pulled it back to me. The afflicted angel turned over and tumbled from the sky. He would live and the wing would regenerate, but it would keep him out of this fight; not to mention hurt like hell. The other two slowed their pace, planning their approach more carefully.
Javier was an expert, and the plane jerked and skittered along the thermals, leaving the angels to make constant adjustments, their wings flaring in and out as they attempted to close the gap. I left my perch on the wing and started walking towards the tail, holding the axe ready to throw. The pilot was almost too skilled, making it difficult to line up a shot.
Just when I thought I had an opening, the targeted angel dipped from my sight, falling away. The remaining seraph deftly slipped her sword over her back and replaced it with a dagger. She pulled up, twisting and turning upright, leaving me a huge target, but getting in the perfect position for an attack of her own. The dagger sped through the air with an impossible velocity, leaving me just enough
time to get the axe up to block it.
At the same time I did, the second seraph reappeared right behind me, pounding into me with the full weight of his body. I fell forwards, watching the fuselage of the plane speeding away. I jammed the axe into the tin, tightening my grip on the handle and preventing myself from being thrown out into the open air.
The second angel landed on the wing and drew his sword, a blank expression on his face. He started towards me, and I was considering how to handle him when I saw the cockpit door swing open and the end of a shotgun stick through it. Whatever Zeek was using for buckshot, it wasn’t holy water. The angel screamed and tumbled from the plane.
I pulled myself back to my feet and focused on my Sight, searching for the fire demon somewhere behind us. The plane was diving again, drifting downward into the clouds. I could only imagine that Javier was doing his best to keep us out of view. If only that would be enough to stop the oncoming demon. I found him well back of the plane, a hundred yards at least and staying away. The action alone told me something wasn’t right, and if recent history meant anything it was that my Sight wasn’t completely trustworthy. I turned my head, looking around for enemies in the whiteout of the clouds.
It wasn’t my Sight that saved my head; it was Ulnyx’s sense of smell. I knew the scent of sulfur and dust that passed instantly in the stiff wind, and I jumped backwards towards the end of the wing just in time to avoid the heavy blade that slashed where my neck had been. At the same time I heard the crackle of breaking glass, and looked forward to the cockpit. A second fallen was smashing her way through the windshield, trying to get at Javier and bring the plane down.
I reached for Unlyx’s power, feeling my body changing as I shifted, becoming the Great Were. The fallen angel on the wing came at me, his sword a toothpick to the thick hide of the Great Were. I slapped it away from him, and dug my claws deep into his stomach, lifting him up and throwing him backwards off the plane. With a snarl, I coiled and sprung, landing just behind the surprised fallen angel and using my momentum to throw her from the aircraft. I heard a snap when her body collided with the right hand propeller, and the plane began to list.
Javier’s face was tight with concentration while he worked to keep the ship level and airborne. A thick plume of black smoke trailed from the afflicted engine, and in my Sight I knew the damage was enough to give the fire demon the extra boost it needed to overtake us. I turned and looked back down the length of the fuselage, to where the blessed axe still clung to the aluminum like Excalibur.
“This is crazy,” I said out loud, reverting my form and dashing back along the length of the plane. When I reached the axe I focused, pulling it to my hand as I pushed off, launching out into the empty space beyond with the clouds a dreamlike mist surrounding and aiding to disguise my kamikaze launch.
The demon’s massive body came into view out of nowhere, a mirage solidifying before me. I brought the axe up over my head and chopped it down on the creature’s chest, slamming into its body with my own and planting the weapon deep into it. The demon cried out in pain and tried to smack me off with a huge claw, but I hopped onto the extruding handle of the axe and used it to launch myself upward over the attack. Once I had reached my zenith, I twisted and reached out, grabbing the demon’s neck and swinging around to land on its back. Its wings were beginning to beat more slowly now, and I could smell the frankincense heavy on the air. The fire demon was dying, and I was stuck on its back at least a thousand feet in back of the plane.
I looked down, but all I saw were clouds. I could guess what was underneath me - jagged mountain peaks and a more than slightly painful landing. I wasn’t so much afraid of the pain as I was of the possibility that I could find myself decapitated by a jagged edge, or crushed beyond my ability to regenerate. It wasn’t the time for indecision.
I pulled at the flow of power running through me and focused, reaching out to Purgatory to make the changes there that would alter reality here; the changes that would either spare me, or destroy me. The fire demon was dying beneath me, and it groaned and gurgled while the last vestiges of existence slipped away. I unwrapped my arms from the demon’s neck and pushed back, getting away from the carcass and beginning my free fall. My heart raced to my throat as I pushed harder, demanding the world to change in a way that went above all logic, and threw the laws of physics and gravity to the cold wind.
I flew forward like a rocket, my skin pushing back against my skull, my clothes rippling around me. Within seconds I had reached the plane, and I altered my direction and forced my velocity to shift and reduce. Too fast. I was going too fast. I could see the fuselage approaching in a hurry. I could feel Purgatory’s energy slipping away. My head exploded as it rammed into the side of the aircraft and I dropped flat onto the wing, taking a desperate hold on Ulnyx’s power and using it to shift a hand to a claw and dig it into the tin to secure me. What I had done had been a gamble, and I knew it was going to have consequences. Not only could I feel the small wobble I had just created in the fabric of reality, but I could also feel my consciousness slipping away. The last thing I saw was the door swinging open and Zeek reaching out for me. I could only hope he wasn’t too attached to that axe.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
I knew where I was the moment I woke up. The Statue of Liberty, laying on Rebecca’s bed. I could smell her perfume hanging in the air around me, and feel the softness of the sheets I had never lain on before, despite the days and weeks I had spent there.
I took a deep breath, and felt a tingle run along my spine and through my limbs. I knew where I was, but something was off. No, everything was off, just a little bit, just enough to tell me that I wasn’t really where I seemed to be.
“Landon.”
I sat up with a start. “Sarah?” Her voice was unmistakable. I looked around, but I didn’t see her.
“I’m here.”
Suddenly, she was right there in front of me near the foot of the bed. Like everything else, she was a little off too. It wasn’t just that her eyes were whole, they always were in these places between. It was something else; nothing that I could see, or smell, or touch. It just was. She was wearing a simple lace dress that fell to her knees, simple black ballerina slippers and a red flower in her hair. She was smiling at me, her white teeth sparkling behind red lipsticked lips.
“Where are we?” I asked. I reached backwards, trying to remember how I had gotten here, but the answers were evasive. The last thing I could recall was having dinner at the Eiffel Tower with Rebecca. It had been a wonderful meal, and afterwards we had danced like the night of her birthday party. After that… after that I must have gone to sleep, because now I was here.
“We’re inside your soul,” she said.
She waved her arm languidly across her body, and one of the walls faded from view. I was bathed in a blinding luminescence, so bright it was impossible to look beyond. I knew it for what it was.
“The link to my Source,” I said, rolling off the bed and stepping towards it.
She angled around to step in front of me. “It’s beautiful,” she said. She took my hand. “You’re beautiful.”
The way she said it was disconcerting. I tried to move away, but I was frozen in place.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Relax,” she said. “I’m here to keep you safe. You’ve done your best to protect me, and now I want to protect you.”
“Protect me from what?”
She brushed her hand across my cheek. It was soft, warm, and tender. “The world is going to change, brother. The world has to change. I know you’ve tried your best, but this is a war without end; a war that cannot be won. As long as Heaven and Hell remain you must be the gatekeeper, you must be the warrior, and the Awake will always be the casualties. Why should they suffer so that others can prosper? Why should you suffer for the sins of a vain god?”
“Sarah, I don’t understand. You’ve always wanted to do good for others. To help them.”
�
�I am helping them,” she replied.
“How? Instead of outcasts they’ll be slaves.”
She shrugged. “Slaves or kings, it makes no difference. What they will be is equals. Accepted.”
“In return for all of humanity?”
“No, brother. In return for so much more.”
I looked right into her red-gold eyes. “So is that it? You want power? You want to be no better than your father?”
Her eyes swirled, the colors dancing and flaming into an angry orange. “You know what he took from me, brother,” she said. “You know what he did. To my eyes, to my mind, to my soul. For what? To make me his pawn in this stupid game? To claim the power he doesn’t deserve? You remember what I said to you, don’t you, brother? They can’t win if you don’t play. Don’t play their game, and we can win. We can decide the fate of this world. We can make everything whole.”
My heart dropped, and I looked away. She was wrong, but I understood in that moment why she couldn’t see it. “We can’t make everything whole,” I said in a whisper. When I looked back a moment later, she was crying.
“Sarah, you don’t have to do this,” I said.
She reached up and rubbed her eyes. “Yes, I do. I’m sorry, brother. I want power. I need power. Once the new lord has risen it will be up to me to impose order. I’m the only one who can. That’s why he’s waited so long to begin his ascension. I’ve seen this future, and I know it to be true. Things will be difficult for a time, but they will get better.”
“Better for who?” I asked. “You’re part human. You know what that life is like - filled with opportunity, filled with hope, and laughter, and love. Is it fair to take that away from billions to feed a world where the only hope of avoiding chaos rests on your master’s ability to Command them?”
That’s what it was. Not a panacea of demons and seraphs frolicking carefree in the tulips together, but a single overload using an inordinate amount of power to keep the Divine in line. I was wrong about one thing though. It wasn’t the master who would be Commanding.
Betrayal (The Divine, Book Two) Page 16
