Senoy’s features were smooth now. Death had chased the pain from them, but it felt wrong.
“We need you,” I whispered.
“Lilitu,” Gretchen shrieked behind me.
I tore my eyes away from Senoy’s still face. Karayan, cloaked, must have been trying to slip past the Guard out the mission’s front doors. She spun at Gretchen’s scream, her cloak vanishing. Dad and Hale had their daggers out in half a second.
“No!” Lucas launched himself between Karayan and the Guard, hands held high. “She’s on our side,” he shouted. I watched this all as if trapped in some kind of trance.
Karayan retreated back into the sanctuary, re-cloaked, darting for the secret door and her escape.
“She’s getting away,” Gretchen hissed.
“She saved our lives,” Lucas insisted. “It was Seth. Seth was the incubus.” That got their attention. As Lucas recounted the whole story, I noticed Karayan stumbling away from the secret door. Someone had just stepped through it.
Thane. He did not see Karayan through her cloak. But he saw me. His eyes shifted to the dead angel, still cradled in my lap, then to the vessel planted squarely in the center of the seal.
“You stole the vessel,” he said quietly. He stepped into the sanctuary and I noticed something hanging from his hands. Another sword. Semangelof’s sword. I stared at it, sickly mesmerized. “You opened the seal.”
My eyes flicked from the sword to Thane’s face. His features could have been carved from granite. A cold fire burned in his eyes—righteous indignation. Thane walked toward me, adjusting his grip on the sword.
“Thane!” Dad’s desperate cry stabbed through the haze of my thoughts. When I saw his face, a wrenching regret twisted my insides. He’d had such faith in me, and I’d failed the Guard. Dad shoved through the others and pounded forward, but he was too far away. He wouldn’t make it in time.
Thane hefted the sword above me. His muscles tensed as he started the downward swing. Dad threw a hand out toward me, but he was at least 10 yards away.
“Stop!” Karayan caught Thane’s arm, uncloaking herself as she did so. Thane recoiled, but Karayan didn’t release him. “She’s not your enemy. And neither am I.”
Dad hauled me off the ground, spinning me away from Thane. He enfolded me in his arms, choking back a painful sob of relief. I could see Thane and Karayan over his shoulder.
“You plague me,” Thane whispered to Karayan. “Each time I think I’ve dug you out of my heart, I find your claws buried still deeper.” His voice grew tighter. “You are the single greatest failing of my life.”
Karayan winced, but she didn’t let him go. She reached up and eased the sword out of Thane’s grip.
With a growl of rage, Dad moved. He pushed me behind him and drew his daggers. “Thane.” The murder in his voice made the hair on my scalp prickle.
Karayan spun to face my dad, shielding Thane from his wrath. She held the sword point down, offering it up to him. I felt Dad tense, preparing to strike whether or not Karayan was standing in his way.
“Don’t,” I said, grabbing his arm. “Dad, please.” After a tense moment, Dad relaxed.
Thane glared at Karayan. “You think this makes you an ally?” he sneered.
“I think you need all the help you can get,” she snapped back. Then she looked at me, as though uncertain she was making the right decision. “Assuming you still want my help.”
I smiled, a tiny hope rekindling in my heart. “I do.”
Gretchen and Hale moved forward to join us. Lucas followed them a few moments later. Only Cassie held back. She watched us all with a numb expression on her face, still huddled by the mission’s front doors.
Dad eyed Karayan. “You’re thinking about coming back to the Guard?”
“Not my idea,” Karayan said. She jerked her chin at me. “Blame her.”
The Guardsmen turned to me. I glanced at Hale. “We need her,” I said.
Hale gave me a searching look, then turned and offered his hand to Karayan. “Here’s hoping I don’t live to regret this.”
“Yeah. You and me both.” She took his offered hand and they shook. Everyone else stared in silence. “Well, don’t everybody cheer all at once,” Karayan said.
A tiny smile tugged at the corners of Dad’s mouth. He held out a hand. Unsure, Karayan took it. “Welcome back,” he said, giving her hand a firm shake.
Lucas clapped a hand on Karayan’s shoulder. “I owe you one,” he said.
“Two, actually, but I’ve never known Guardsmen to be terribly good at math.” Karayan’s smile was tentative. For the first time I’d ever seen, Karayan looked a little uncomfortable in her own skin. She didn’t seem to know what to do with her hands. Finally, she shoved them in the back pockets of her jeans. She glanced at Thane, and everyone seemed to hold their breath.
Before Thane could speak, the air cracked with a sound like thunder.
Sansenoy appeared before us—not the scruffy old man I’d first met, but revealed in his true form. He towered over us, a gleaming pillar of light.
The others—who’d never seen an angel in his own aspect—scattered back, falling to the floor in the face of his radiance. As my eyes adjusted, I could make out his figure, the chiseled cut of his jaw, the perfect symmetry of his form. I’d seen him revealed like this once before. It still took my breath away.
He turned away from us, kneeling by the side of his fallen comrade.
“Senoy.” His voice reverberated with sorrow. It broke something within me, and in moments I could feel hot tears slipping down the sides of my face. “Rest, my friend.”
Sansenoy laid a hand to the other angel’s forehead. Suddenly Senoy’s form began to transform into tiny pinpoints of golden light. The motes swirled up and away from us, dissipating high above our heads. The air filled with a presence. I recognized it as Senoy’s, even though I’d only spoken those few words to him. It moved through me, filling me with hope. Faith. Courage. And then it moved on, and I felt... bereft. I let out a long sigh. Mine was not the only one.
As the last of the lights faded, the strange Lilitu weapon fell to the ground with a dull clang.
Sansenoy stood. The light of his angel aspect faded. Moments later, when he again turned to face us, I recognized the scruffy old man I’d first met on the street last year. His expression was solemn.
“The seal is open,” he said simply. “The ground for the final battle has been chosen.”
“Are you planning on joining us for this fight?” Thane said, stepping forward. “Or are you going to leave us to our own defenses yet again?”
“You do not face this fight alone.” Sansenoy glanced at me.
“Her?” Thane’s voice jumped an octave higher. “She is the reason your friend was killed. She is the reason the seal is open!”
“That’s insane,” Dad said, anger flushing into his cheeks.
“Is it?” Thane asked. “Do you really think we would be standing here if she had heeded even one of our warnings?”
“We’re here because you insisted we keep her in the dark until you’d confirmed your suspicions,” Dad growled.
Sansenoy ignored the men. He looked at me, waiting. Waiting for my explanation.
“I trusted Seth,” I said, my words coming haltingly. Everyone else fell silent. “Even when it meant hurting my friends. I gave him my blood for the ritual. And I fought Senoy because I thought—” but here my words cut off. “Thane isn’t wrong,” I finished in a whisper. Dad’s forehead furrowed with tension. Thane relaxed, a smug smile of vindication settling on his face.
Sansenoy looked at me for a long moment, then nodded, as though answering a question for himself. He turned to the others. “Gird yourselves, Sons of Adam,” he said finally. “You will need all your strength for the coming fight.”
“You—you’re going to let her live?” Thane’s voice sputtered. “After what she’s done?” Sansenoy gave Thane a level look meant to end the conversation. Thane shrank back
. But when Sansenoy turned to leave, he couldn’t help himself. “Why?” he asked.
Sansenoy paused, then turned back. He gave me a smile that flooded me with peace. “Because I have faith in what she may yet do,” he said.
Epilogue
Christmas Eve brought with it a piercing cold that seemed to hover over Puerto Escondido like a shroud. No wind stirred the leafless branches of the oak trees lining our street. The sky was black and cloudless, and I could see the stars glitter from one horizon to the next. I stepped onto the front porch of the Guard’s house, needing a respite from the commotion inside. I closed the door, muting the sounds of conversation within. The silence was a balm to my nerves.
Marx’s team had returned to Puerto Escondido earlier in the day. There had been many warm reunions as Matthew reconnected with the members of his old unit. They’d spent the day catching each other up to speed. Marx told us they’d managed to locate just 93 Guardsmen on the continent. The last of the units they’d made contact with were on their way.
Hale had told Marx and his team about the seal. Since the night of the solstice, 50 Guardsmen had taken up residence in the mission. They watched the seal 24-seven, heavily armed and ready to turn back anything that made the attempt to cross into our world. But, since Seth’s retreat, not one single Lilitu had entered from their plane.
They were waiting for something. We just didn’t know what.
Feeling another surge of anxiety, I turned my eyes to the neighborhood. Luminarias lined the front walks of most of the houses on our street, simple paper lanterns made from candles and paper lunch sacks. They glowed merrily despite the cold, scenting the air with the comforting smell of melting wax. I took a deep breath, the freezing air stinging my nose and the back of my throat.
My mind turned back to Royal. He’d been a constant fixture in my thoughts these last few days. One night down. The words haunted me. And Seth was still out there. He knew what Royal’s friendship meant to me. Which made Royal a target, an easy way for Seth to take his revenge. Once again, I put my friends at risk, simply by caring about them. Cassie—she’d fled from us that night, unable or unwilling to accept what she’d seen. Maybe that was for the best. Maybe if she stayed away from me for good, she’d be safe. The thought stabbed through my heart, leaving an aching emptiness in its wake.
The door opened behind me. It was Lucas.
“Hey,” I said. Lucas had been distant since the mission. At first, I’d held out hope that everything we’d experienced together that night would—I don’t know. Earn Lucas’s forgiveness for what I’d done to him. But once we’d retreated to the relative safety of our homes, Lucas had shut me out again.
He stepped onto the porch and closed the door behind him. He stood there in silence, staring out at the dark night.
“I’m angry,” Lucas said finally.
I nodded, dropping my eyes to the porch’s rough wooden planks. What could I say?
“What you did to me...” He stopped.
“It was unforgivable,” I said, tired. I felt another sting behind my eyes, but this time it wasn’t from the cold. “I get it. I’d hate me, too.”
“I’m really angry,” Lucas said again. “But the fact that I can be this mad at you,” he glanced at me, “it tells me you left my free will alone.”
I met his eyes, and we just looked at one another for a long moment. Then Lucas sighed.
“The truth is, I’ve been running through everything in my head, and if it had been me in your place, I’m not sure I would have done anything differently,” he said. “You fought to do what you thought was right. I mean, you should have listened to your dad and Hale. But Seth screwed with your head.” Lucas shrugged. “I guess what I’m trying to say is—I can’t say I don’t understand why you did it.” Lucas let his eyes drop to look at his hands. “Plus—I miss you.”
My breath caught in my throat, but Lucas stopped there. “What does that mean?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Does that mean you might be able to forgive me someday?” I asked. My voice cracked, raw with emotion.
Lucas looked up into my eyes. In answer, he held his arms open. I reached for him, and his arms circled around me, pulling me close. I lay my head on his shoulder.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I just wanted—I wanted to become human.” Tears traced a warm path down my cheek. “And now I don’t know if it will ever happen.”
I felt Lucas’s arms tighten around me. “I’ve been thinking about something for a long time,” he murmured into my ear. “Even if you never become human, we can still have one night together.”
I jerked back, shocked.
Lucas met my eyes with a steady gaze. “Just once,” he repeated. “So we have to make it perfect.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.” I shook my head, overcome.
“Like I said,” he whispered. “I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. I can recover from one night.”
“Lucas.” I breathed. “Should we even be—? The final battle is coming.”
“I don’t want to die with this regret,” he breathed. “Can you honestly tell me you don’t want this, too?”
“I—” But I couldn’t deny it. I swallowed. “We have a duty to the Guard,” I said. “What we want is secondary.”
“Maybe. It doesn’t make me want it any less. You?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but I didn’t need to. Lucas could see the desire in my eyes.
“One night.” Lucas pulled me close again. “When we’re both ready.”
I clung to Lucas, conflicting desires roiling within me. All I knew for certain was I was the reason the final battle was beginning, and I would do whatever was required of me in the coming fight.
It was the only way I’d have any hope of making up for my mistakes.
About The Author
Jennifer Quintenz is a film and television writer, author, and graphic novelist. She has written for Twentieth Television, Intrepid Pictures, and Archaia Studios Press. She currently lives in California with her husband and son.
Books by Jennifer Quintenz:
Thrall (The Daughters Of Lilith: Book 1)
Incubus (The Daughters Of Lilith: Book 2)
Find out more about the author and upcoming books online at JenniferQuintenz.com.
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Incubus (The Daughters Of Lilith) Page 32
