by Lan Chan
When the demon died, the flames extinguished.
A sigh of relief washed through the room. I was not proud to say that I’d been a hostage during too many demon attacks to believe it was over. Sometimes I really despised being right. Laughter sounded in my head as Agatha lowered herself to meet Max’s eye.
“Well done, boy king,” she or it said. “But there are demons, and then there are my children.”
Laughter sounded in my head. That ancient voice that wanted my soul. It echoed in my mind at the same time the room erupted in screams and chaos. All around the perimeter of the Reserve, dark shadows began to condense. The malachim had arrived.
I drew the circle without thinking. It sealed the room shut and snapped the door closed just as the cubs went crazy and tried to rush it. Claws and teeth sliced out around me, the persuasive magic of the malachim making the shifters crazy. Laila drew up close to me. Her eyes were big, white orbs.
Below us, the guards let out a groan. Some of them broke ranks and tried to go for the throats of their packmates. The guards around them that could still maintain enough of their composure knocked them out so that they couldn’t be pushed to act through the malachim’s compulsion.
Inside the conference room, the same thing was happening. Parents yelped as one partner had to subdue their own child so they wouldn’t hurt themselves. Kate backed up against the wall, her fingers massaging her temples. Her lips moved silently in what I recognised were words of light.
Sluggishness infiltrated my head. It brought with it a rasped-out command for me to pick up the knife on the floor by my knees and jam it into Laila’s neck. Andrei’s compulsion snapped into place before I moved an inch. Thwarted, the voiced reshaped itself into a thorn and tried to burrow into my mind to render me unconscious. Instead, the blood alchemy grabbed hold of it. I became locked in a tug of war. Pink magic laced with blood-red warred with that iridescent white light again.
Biting back a scream, I gritted my teeth and tugged with all my might. The alchemy exploded, severing the white thread from its origin. Something dripped down my nose, but it was the transformation happening inside me that held all of my attention. As I watched, the alchemy ingested the white light and expanded. It grew and grew and grew until all I could see as I slipped into the Ley dimension was the glow of my pink aura. Unsure what was happening, I reached out and brushed my hand against it.
My vision spiralled. It stretched out and expanded until what I saw in front of me was a web of white light against pink. The world around me fractured like the shattered glass of a mirror. When I blinked, the pink receded and was replaced by darkness inside the freezing void. The figure standing alone inside a purple summoning circle made my aura curl up in a ball. Kai lifted his head, the black in his eyes unchanging, even as he smiled.
Sophie, the voice of the Abyss rasped, even though Kai’s lips didn’t move. No more chances.
Kai raised his arm. I braced with all the strength of my alchemy as black vines whipped out and latched onto me.
I groaned as something caught hold of my insides. No, I glanced inwards. It wasn’t my guts it was trying to snatch. It was my soul. Held on by the thinnest thread, my head exploded with such pain that I knew I was doubled over and screaming. An excruciating fire drilled into my chest, even as the alchemy hit out. It tunnelled into Kai and burst in a haze like ice hitting an inferno. A plume of white smoke wafted in the air and obscured the figure in front of me. And as it did so, it revealed a tapestry in which a million white threads tethered to all the malachim that were in the Reserve.
I heard a moan that should have been too far away to register. But in that moment, my thoughts were drawn to the cage below the Cabin where Durin was trapped. Correction, where the malachim was trapped inside him.
The shock kick-started Andrei’s compulsion, throwing me out of the Ley sight and back into the real world where I was on my side curled up in the foetal position. Around me, the other submissive shifters and young were in a similar state of distress.
Blood dripped from my nose. Something cold settled in my chest as the knowledge cemented in my mind. Kai was possessed by Apollyon.
Your fault, I heard in my head.
Yes. It was my fault. And it was about time I did something about it.
39
Shoving a burst of that white light I had stolen from the malachim into the circle, I set it to explode in a shower of pink bursts that I transmuted into stabbing in the shifters’ heads. The pain ripped them from their nightmares. Gasping, they scrambled around them, unsure how or why they were hurting each other or scratching at the doors and walls to be let out.
“Quiet!” I snapped, my voice filled with cold fury.
Every shifter in the room stood to attention. “Give me a moment to think!”
They moved aside as I stepped up to the window. Down below, the tide of sentiment in the guards was changing. One by one, they were being taken over by the urging of the malachim. With a stone in my throat, I spotted the base of the stairs where Anastasia was fighting with two other guards to stop them from tearing up here and attacking us.
Just when I thought they would roll over her, another roar whipped through the Reserve. This time, the dominance in it was unbearable. Every shifter in the room and outside flattened themselves onto the ground. The dominance cleared their minds and made them remember who it was they had sworn their bodies, their hearts, and their minds to. Low demons ground their teeth at the sound.
Seeing that the Reserve was no longer under their thrall, Agatha raised a hand and made an advancing motion.
“They’re coming,” one of the pups wailed. Sure enough, the malachim moved forward. The crowd inside the conference room huddled together. The malachim’s essences flickered into the mist that they were made from. Their bodies became transparent. It was only then I saw what was behind and it made me want to cry.
The elite guards. They stood in a wide arc around the Reserve where the barriers had been placed as it intersected the other supernatural communities. At intervals, they were attempting to break through the barriers, but it would take too much time. In the back of my mind an errant thought suggested that Max might be able to do it. But that would mean he would have to leave the pack at the mercy of the malachim. There was no way that was happening.
In the end, the elite guard would be here to witness the fall of one of their factions. What cut me all the way to the bone was the desperate howl of the Sentinels who were also trapped outside the barrier while their kin were being attacked. I saw Dorian’s wolf racing around the base of the barrier as he attempted to find a weak spot. The whole thing was futile. Without Raphael, the Hell dimension was too strong.
I was so tired of just being a weak human.
Somebody sobbed. “How will we fight them?”
How indeed? I sank down to my knees and drew a blood circle. In my mind, I mimicked the positioning of all the circles I had placed in the Reserve and held my breath. The first of the malachim touched the edge of the barrier. A growl went up as the malachim snagged against my blood. It felt as though something was passing through my body. A moment of absolute cold before my heart decided to beat again. But when the malachim came through on the other side, it was corporeal.
The hunting cry of a wolf rose up in the air. Noah launched himself at the malachim at the same time that Jeremiah did. They sank their claws and teeth into it and brought it to the ground where Harris bludgeoned it to death with his huge fists.
Noah’s wolf turned in the direction of the conference room for a moment in silent thanks. And then the malachim converged on us in earnest. I clutched at my chest, my heart coated in frost as they passed through the blood barrier that was intrinsically linked to me.
Seeing that they could miraculously fight the malachim coming at them, the shifters reared up with renewed aggression. They clashed with the monstrous demons in groups, taking them down as quickly as they could before they were set upon again.
Somebody wrapped their arms around my back as I slumped. Cheyenne’s soothing voice spoke in my ear. “Hold on,” she whispered. “We’ve got you.”
For how long remained to be seen. Less than a quarter of the malachim had broached the barrier and already the blood circles were running out of steam.
“I’m not strong enough,” I lamented. “Never strong enough.”
My chin dipped. Cheyenne’s hand clasped mine. On my other side, Edward’s head appeared. He burrowed under my elbow and set up shop with his head resting against my chest.
“Don’t worry, Sophie,” he said. “We’ll save you.”
Laila crouched down in front of me. She picked up the knife and cut a line into her hand. “Take it,” she said, dripping blood onto the circle. “Stop them.”
“No,” I breathed.
But one by one, they stepped up to me and hurt themselves to furnish me with blood. “I can’t!” I cried, the tears streaming down my cheeks. There was no way to make them understand. They would kill themselves and bleed until they dried up inside to help each other. The pool of blood in front of me was enough to fill a crucible. If I were a high-magic sorceress, there would be no telling what I could do with that much blood. But I didn’t have high magic. All I had was this stupid alchemy that would destroy my soul as soon as I tried to transmute Lex’s blood into something that could be used as a weapon.
“Sophie.” Cheyenne turned my head to look at her. Through the blurry vision, I saw her smile. “It’s okay. We understand.”
I didn’t. Was my soul really worth this?
Turning my head, I looked to where Max was tearing his way through the oncoming malachim. He charged at it full pelt, took it down to the ground, and severed its neck with a single, ferocious bite. Black blood spurted into his mouth, but it was impossible to distinguish against his already-soaked mane.
Not stopping to survey the result of his kill, Max pivoted and grabbed another demon where it was choking the life out of Gwen. He snapped its spine in two before tossing it at a wave of other oncoming demons.
The basilisk changed tactics. Where it had once breathed water, it now puffed fire out of its lungs. It swarmed around the malachim coming through the barrier and shot fire at them so that they were already half dead before they hit the ground.
I felt it the moment my blood barriers ran out of juice. The magic cut out at the same time all of the strength in me collapsed.
It was only Cheyenne’s arms around me that held me upright. The first incorporeal malachim snatched one of the leopard soldiers by his neck. I stared, dumbstruck as the malachim shoved its hand right through the leopard’s chest. Once inside, the malachim’s arm became corporeal. The distressed cry the leopard gave before its heart was ripped out would forever haunt me.
The shifters around him cried out, their anguish a solid thing that was reflected in the sorrow in the conference room. I couldn’t breathe. The thought of sitting up here while they died was so abhorrent, I tried to get up.
Around me, the shifters did the same. We were looking at each other as though making a decision, when somebody hissed. I turned around in time to see a malachim snatch Ari by his flank. He howled. My head became filled with rushing wind as the malachim shoved its ethereal hand into Ari’s chest. He screamed with such agony I felt it curving over my spine.
I braced for the moment when the malachim would rip Ari’s heart from his chest, when a rainbow slash of metal sliced down on the malachim’s arm. Charles roared with both rage and pain as he kicked Ari out of the way and beheaded the malachim with a swipe of the demon blade. His eyes had turned a burnished gold that was ringed in red. The smoke that wafted from where his hands were touching the demon blade was beginning to become unbearable. He could hardly see in front of him.
Cutting his losses, Charles finally sheathed the sword. Another malachim came at him. Lowering his body into a predatory crouch, Charles launched himself at the malachim. His intention was to shift mid-air and meet the malachim side on in his lion form. Unfortunately, only half of his body would comply. Prolonged exposure to the demon blade had corrupted the cells in his arms. The thing that he shifted into was an awful creature with a lion’s head, legs, and torso but a human’s weedy little arms. He lost balance and went tumbling into the ground.
Shifting back quickly, he only just managed to evade the malachim before it tried to sink its mouth into his neck. His arm whipped out, thinking he would clock the malachim in the head. Where his fist had always hit solid flesh before, Charles’s hand went straight through the malachim.
Half the room screamed when two malachim surrounded him. Their claws lashed out. Charles roared, trying to leap away from their aim. An inch away from his face, the malachim was ripped backwards. Max caught hold of the first one by its leg. He grabbed the other as it flailed, and with a swift jerk of his muscled arms, he tore the malachim in two.
“What did I say about that stupid stick?” I heard him shout at his brother.
“Shut up!” Charles shouted back as he fly-kicked the oncoming malachim in the head.
Though his voice was laced with rage, it wasn’t directed at his brother. There were simply too many malachim. Too many other demons. Too much magic getting in their way.
Above it all, Agatha’s head tipped down. Her eyes searched until her attention landed on the conference room. I knew without doubt that her smile was directed at me. Raising her arms in the air, she shot a purple beam of light that went straight for where Charles was standing. It turned the ground beneath his feet into sand. He lost balance. The malachim he fought grabbed him by the back of his shirt and lifted him up into the air. Max took a running leap, clawed at the malachim’s wings, and dragged it back down. Three more malachim snatched Charles away before Max had even snapped the neck of the first one. Agatha’s magic curled around Charles. He fought it with the rage of the lion, but the magic wasn’t meant to subdue him. It was only meant to distract him long enough for the malachim to invade his body.
Max snarled as the essences of the malachim disappeared inside his brother. Before my very eyes, the malachim subsumed Charles’s body. He transformed into a withered shell. His eyes became sunken. His skin shrank over muscles liquefying as though something was sucking out his strength from the inside.
Everything else died away as Charles let out a mournful cry. And then his head lolled to the side and his eyes lost their light.
40
It had never occurred to me that there would be something worse than a broken heart. But the dead thing inside of me that couldn’t feel anything anymore was far more unsettling. All around me, everything lapsed into silence. The elite guard ceased their assault on the barrier, the demons and guards stopped fighting below us, and inside the conference room, the civilians stopped crying.
And then somebody began to scream. It was such a thin wailing sound that at first I suspected it might have come from a broken corner of my mind. When I couldn’t find the origin of it, I searched the Reserve. Kate whimpered. Her body shuddered with grief as she curled in on herself and bawled. I looked to where her attention had been and my mind shattered.
Shayla and Alastair were stumbling through the trees that surrounded the conference rooms. She tripped even though the ground was even and smashed her head as she went down. In her broken state, she didn’t even have the insight to brace so that she wouldn’t hurt herself. Cheyenne sobbed when Shayla didn’t get up. Alastair fell to his knees beside his mate, his hands moving so slowly to try and pull her into his lap.
Laughter rose up in my ears again. The glee in it was so emotionless that it sounded fake. The thing that was in my head didn’t understand happiness. It only understood the absence of it.
The guards on the ground below us scattered through the barrier of trees to stand with their brethren. Yolanda and the other pack alphas stumbled into the clearing too. Four of them led Durin on his hands and knees, silver chains latched around his throat. Somebody opened a door behind us and
the shifters closest to it raced out.
“Come,” Cheyenne told me. “We’re going to meet our destiny.”
She tugged at my shoulder but all I could see in my head was red. Throwing her off, I crouched down and sliced both of my palms open. I slapped them onto the blood of the shifters and used my alchemy to suck the blood into my body, transmuting it into essence until my skin glowed a healthy pink against my brown skin.
Inside me, the soul tether began to tear. Latching onto it with blood, I frantically held on. Just for a bit longer. I only had to last for a bit longer. Following the crowd out the door, I walked with a detached sense of dread.
The shifters and their families were marching towards their last stand. On their faces, even the little ones, was a resolute acceptance that had been drilled into them through the makeup of their very beings.
The guards had tried to protect them till the very end. Until they were overwhelmed. If they were going to die, they would do so with their pack. Not cowering in a room. Now, they would all fight.
My legs didn’t stop when we hit the edge of the crowd. I shouldered my way to the front knowing exactly where I was headed. They parted for me as a shadow blocked out the red moon. Max loomed in front of me. If you accept the mating link, he will die.
I prayed to the old gods I didn’t really understand that he would be able to find somebody else he cared about one day. If I couldn’t be with him, I wanted him to be happy. The thing was, the look in his eyes was happy. Despite the fact that we were both likely to die in a few minutes, that didn’t diminish any of the pure joy I saw on his face because I was coming to him now.
Unable to lie at the eleventh hour, I leaned against him and allowed him to wrap his arms around me. The ice in my veins that was threatening to rip my heart out with fear melted just a fraction when he kissed me. It was hard, hot, and urgent with a need that shoved everything else into the background. When he pulled away, I was crying again.
