by Misty Dietz
A hand on her arm. She looked up through a blurry lens.
“I couldn’t get here fast enough. I’m sorry, North. A group of Rephaim jumped me as soon as you left. We’ll take the time to feel all of this later, but we don’t have that luxury right now.”
She brushed at her eyes and refocused on him, turning him around like he’d done to her. The back of his shirt was torn and bloody. “You’re hurt.”
He shrugged. “Already healing. Leviathan’s outside. We have to do this now before she destroys the entire island. Are you ready?”
“Michael was here.”
Ari’s eyes sharpened. “I know. I felt him.”
She wasn’t surprised. “He doesn’t do reassurance well.”
Ari smiled grimly. “Sounds like him. What was his counsel?”
“To ‘unleash the power of love and hope.’ I have no idea what that means.”
“You will when the time is right. Trust your gut and the angel. Let’s roll. You, too, Dorian.” He grabbed Katherine’s hand, and together the three of them ran upstairs to the upper terrace where Stark, Jade, Konani, Kai, Maddox and Raj were keeping the clubbers corralled. Up here the roar of the winds and crash of the waves against the building were much louder. Stronger. Shaking the foundation of the building so hard people reached out to grasp onto railings, countertops, and anything else that was cemented or bolted down. Father Angus mingled in the middle of everyone, his energetic singing voice endeavoring to weave calm among the group.
From her position on top of the bar, Konani saw them first. She waved, jumped down, and ran toward them, talking a mile a minute. Katherine wanted to hug each member of the team, but was afraid to let them touch the Chains.
“Is that what I think it is?” Jade reached out to touch the relic, but Katherine put her hands up and moved back.
“Yes. But I can’t let anyone touch them. It’s fused to my body with a ward, and I don’t know how it’ll react…Sorry.” The last word felt awkward on her tongue. She turned back to where Ari spoke in rapid undertones to the other two Guardians. Raj’s eyes widened as he considered the relic around Katherine’s neck, but made no move to touch or comment on it.
“Any possessions or demons in the near vicinity?” she asked. If so, they’d need to be exorcised ASAP, otherwise Leviathan would be able to exert some measure of control on them. What the hell was the archdemon up to, and where had she gone? Katherine felt like she’d lived a hundred lifetimes in the twenty minutes since Leviathan’s colloidal form had exited Dorian’s body and Siolazar had cornered her in the sanctorum.
“No demons up here. Father Angus finished the exorcisms with Stark’s assistance, and we’ve safeguarded the area the best we can,” Raj replied.
Katherine turned a startled look at Stark. He returned her gaze with a half-smile. Since he didn’t look too worse for wear, she said nothing. “Nice work.” She inhaled hard and walked away from everyone toward the door that led to her private quarters. She felt Ari at her back. She left her door open behind her when she walked into the library, going straight for the windows to look outside at the dark, wreckage-strewn water streaming over the grounds.
She removed her shoes and paused, raising her gaze to her Viking. Her heart was pounding. Never had she ever felt so responsible for the wellbeing of others.
Not even when she’d let her sister drown.
When this was over, if she was still sentient, she would have to process whether that was a good thing…or entirely bad.
Ari walked to her and tried to take her hands.
She folded and then unfolded her arms, fighting not to put up a wall like she always did. She finally placed her hands on his chest. His heartbeat was steady. “Is there anything that rattles you?”
His didn’t say anything for a moment. “The thought of losing you. I love you, North.”
“Even after everything I’ve done?”
“Your eyes are telling me everything I need to know right now.”
She blinked fast, the urgency of the moment—what was inside her soul and what was outside these walls—making everything so raw and honest. Like she was finally waking up from a long dream. “You’re too good for me. You always were. I’m sorry for the way we bonded earlier.”
He shook his head. “I understood. We can talk about all this afterwards, okay?”
Her pulse pounded furiously in her neck under the heavy Chains. She looked into his beautiful eyes, touched his face. “I need you to know something in case this goes bad.”
A bone-chilling wail seeped through the walls. Out on the upper terrace, the humans began to scream. Ari’s rough hands palmed her cheeks, bringing her gaze back to his. “We will make it. We will.”
Her lips trembled, her soul wanting to hide. “But if we don’t, you need to know you’ve always been my true North, too.”
Chapter 25
The wind, the storm, the world with all its pressures, obligations, and ugliness faded away as Ari looked into Kat’s teary eyes. “I don’t need the words, North, but I love you for them anyway.” Complex emotions pulsed inside her, ricocheting through their connection into his own system. It was more than he ever imagined he’d be able to share with her.
Her gaze skipped to the windows that groaned from the battering elements, then quickly back at him. “You are the best thing that ever happened to me. I don’t know why you love me. I’ve tried to push you away not because I don’t love you back, but because I was always afraid I’d fall apart every time you need to leave to be whole.”
“Oh, no, elskan, I—”
She pressed her fingers to his lips. “Let me finish. I want to face whatever comes next with a clear conscience and an unburdened heart.” She clutched his hands to her chest, her face so uncharacteristically earnest his chest squeezed. “I love your restless soul. Your sense of adventure, your need to explore distant shores. It’s so opposite of me, but I long to have your sense of freedom. I’m no gypsy, but I’d never, ever want to change that about you. These last few days, I’ve come to realize that I’ll take you whenever you’re here.” She smiled slightly, though her eyes remained somber. “I think you would be too much to have underfoot all the time anyway.”
He couldn’t believe it. This was everything he’d ever wanted to hear from her. She was definitely overstating his wanderlust. His extensive travels had been a means to fulfill his misunderstood promise to his father. And, after their breakup, a way to occupy his mind so he didn’t go crazy thinking about her rejection.
She’d learn about all of that soon enough.
“Release the Chains into our joint care. Let me share your burden.”
Kat paused. “It would put your life in jeopardy.”
“If something happened to you, I wouldn’t want to live anyway. Think of this as extra insurance for the Chains.”
She nodded, then chanted a new canticle ward, including him in the Chain’s protection. Now, even if they were separated from the relic, Leviathan would have to kill both of them in order to take it.
He reached for the relic when suddenly the air pressure deadened. A split second later, a gargantuan-sized cannon of water barreled into the window. He took Kat down to the floor as the balcony door shattered inward. The influx of water and glass ripped Kat from his grasp and stole his breath, somersaulting him until he slammed into the far wall. He reached outside himself to establish an air bubble and spun in a circle underwater, looking for the bright light of the Chains to find Kat.
Water continued to pour in, but Kat had managed to hold the water back so she was dry. She didn’t need his air bubble this time. And she still had the Chains around her shoulders. That’s my shield maiden!
She didn’t smile. Let’s take this outside. I’m tired of this bitch.
He followed her out the window to stream to AQUA’s rooftop. Up here the devastation Leviathan had unleashed on the city was even more apparent. Water had surged into the harbors, the debris of broken docks piled in drifts with ru
ined boats, uprooted trees, and the twisted metal of cars. All around, buildings were swollen with water, the ground floor damages especially extensive. Glass doors and windows were blown out, patio furniture wedged into their empty frames. The skies were dark and wet, but no lightning threaded through the moody clouds overhead.
“It doesn’t seem like Leviathan can control the atmosphere. Just the water,” he said.
Kat nodded. “Hopefully, she’s not saving it as a secret ace in the hole. Do you see anyone who needs help?”
Ari looked around, then closed his eyes, going inward to try to sift through the noise to detect cries for help in a three block area. He shook his head. “I can’t pick anything up. Only a wandering Nephilim and a few demons. Raj and I sent out pulses of mind control to direct people to emergency tsunami shelters. Hopefully there’s enough room for everyone, and they’ll stay put.”
“Do you suppose Siolazar is with Leviathan? And what about other Rephaim? I’m sure she can control as many as she wants with the Rod of Moses.”
He had no answers for her. He’d taken down three Rephaim earlier, but there were probably many more in the area. He looked around at the crowded structures along the narrow strip of Waikiki Beach, then turned his gaze out to the massive waves still rolling miles out in the ocean. “All I know is, we have to stop this soon or the whole island will be underwater. Do you remember how we tried to fuse our elements together that time we faced a succubus at Spencer’s club?”
“I don’t want to remember. We tried and failed.” Kat pointed to the left toward Diamond Head, the iconic natural monument rising seven hundred sixty-two feet above the ocean. Water was crawling up the extinct volcanic crater in a freakish manner as though pulled upward by some unseen force. The hairs on the back of Ari’s neck tingled. “She’s got to be over there somewhere.”
Kat rolled her shoulders, her knuckles whitening as she gripped the Chairs. “Why is she hanging back? She could have attacked when Siolazar had me cornered in the sanctorum.”
“I wish I knew, but we’re both stronger than we were at IGNIS. Joining our elements will work this time.”
She swung to look at him, her face tight. “I have the Chains. We can come at her from different angles. I don’t want to try knitting our forces again.”
He opened his mouth to argue. Then shut it. Her turf, her choice. Unless she was about to die. In that case, all bets were off. “Okay. But let me know if you change your mind. I hope you do.”
“Fine.” Kat turned back to Diamond Head. “Oh, shit.”
Ari glanced over, and his gut dropped. The water wasn’t scaling Diamond Head any more. “Get ready!”
The growing wave was the largest wall of water he’d ever seen. When it broke on shore, it rolled over buildings and streets, sweeping along everything but cement structures in its forceful wake. Katherine thrust her hands toward the water, pushing back the deep gray lip of the advancing edge, curling, churning and spraying the water in all directions as it found itself sandwiched between Kat and Leviathan’s opposing forces.
Ari moved beside her and began to build and rotate low pressure in the atmosphere to try to get the water to evaporate, fueling energy for a cyclonic storm. Once he had the winds swirling, he recondensed the water into clouds and guided the mass in tune with the Earth’s rotation, flowing the heavy, wet air inward toward the axis of rotation. The Chains made it easier than it had ever been.
“Yes, that’s brilliant,” Kat yelled over the crush of the humid wind. “Do you want me to add to it?”
“No, it’s a careful balance. Keep pushing the ocean back as hard as you can. Try to stop any more from coming inland. I’ll gather the remaining inland water into the cyclone and send it out to sea.”
She nodded.
If this works it will only address the elemental portion of the problem. It won’t take care of Leviathan, he said.
Yes, but think of all the people we’ll be protecting. We have to start somewhere.
She was right. And sometimes beginning was the hardest part of all.
The water shivered and frothed, violently churning against the competing directives. Palm trees bent and waved their fronds like a woman’s hair streaming in the wind. The air vibrated seconds ahead of Leviathan’s bellow of rage. The sound ran up Ari’s spinal cord, chilling him from the inside out. He gritted his teeth and dug deep into the power of the Chains, his element, and his bond with Kat, rotating the low pressure counterclockwise even faster, building a second spiral.
He glanced over at his compar, his skin growing clammy at the strain on her face. How long could she hold Leviathan back?
S-stop your damn worrying, Grimm. Viking up.
Ari smiled grimly as he shook the water out of his eyes. He reached for the warm ambient air temperature in the center of the dual swirling masses, feeding its power and his own need to rage and fight. Screams of the Valkyries sounded in his mind as his blood circulated furiously through his body.
Skål, motherfuckers.
Chapter 26
Katherine’s entire body was afire—her bones the kindling, her skin the accelerant. The Chains were melting her skin. Burning down past the multiple layers of dermis in excruciating waves of pain. Never had she deployed her strength so potently, jacked up like she was with both the Chains and Ari’s bonding energy circulating in her system.
Leviathan suddenly appeared on the roof of the building next to AQUA, her body now clothed in a flowing white shift, her face unnervingly calm. Was the archdemon that confident in her ability to defeat them, or was it another tactic to throw the Guardians off kilter? And where was she keeping the Rod of Moses? The archdemon couldn’t touch it, but it had to be nearby for her to harness its power.
Katherine closed her eyes and focused all her strength and the energy pulsing from the Chains to push the water back into the ocean. Ari had directed his twin cyclones off the surface of the water into the air, and was getting the swirling masses into position on either side of Leviathan. Still, Satan’s daughter seemed unconcerned. Katherine’s heart pounded so hard she felt almost light-headed.
Let’s drive her out to sea and finish this there, Ari said.
It was the best way to minimize casualties. But the thought of going into the water with Leviathan…
Katherine shivered. Don’t let me lose the Chains.
I’m right beside you, North.
A black-eyed demon in a black tuxedo was crawling up the side of AQUA. “I think now I’ve seen everything.” Katherine yelped as Ari unsheathed his sword and ran it through. More full-fledged demons began scaling the walls of the cement buildings around them. Ari commanded his cyclones to flank the structures, sucking the snarling demons into the swirling masses while Katherine unlatched the vial of holy water at her side. Adding holy water to the cyclones would further weaken the soulless bastards until a Guardian could properly kill them.
She fixated on the first spot she wanted to stream to in order to get the holy water into the cyclones, but couldn’t move.
I’m stuck!
Ari frowned again, barely glancing her way. What?
I can’t stream. Here! She lobed the holy water at him.
Leviathan materialized on the far side of AQUA’s roof, just in time to intercept the bottle and knock it over the edge of the building.
“No!” Katherine yelled. The Chains began to smoke around her neck, impeding her view of the archdemon. Katherine’s vision blurred, her legs wobbly from the unrelenting pain of the Chains.
And she’d lost sight of her enemy.
The archdemon’s voice rang from all sides. “Aren’t you tired of this yet? If you had only chosen me, you would have none of this pain.”
Katherine spun in a circle, enveloped completely now in thick, dark smoke, her superior senses unable to fixate on Leviathan’s position. “It’s hard to rise above wretched beginnings, unfortunate circumstances, but I’m trying to do that,” Katherine said. “I’d like to think you can do it, t
oo.”
“You’ll fail, Guardian. Like you always have.”
Katherine froze. The demon had said it like she knew something Katherine didn’t.
Don’t let her play or distract you. Keep your force woven to the Chains. Ari’s voice sounded more strained than she’d ever heard it.
Are you okay? What’s happening?
She couldn’t hear if he answered, but she could feel his force hooking into the smoke molecules, slowly pushing them apart.
“Give it time, and you fail at everything. This nightclub will fail, too. You know that even the sacrifice you made that transformed you into a Guardian turned out to be a failure, right?”
No. All sounds faded—the rush of the wind, the howls of the trapped demons in the cyclone, even Ari’s voice reaching for her in her mind. Katherine held her breath, all her senses tuned into Leviathan.
The archdemon smiled as she advanced through the dissipating smoke. “Your sacrifice didn’t actually save the woman you gave your life for, because she killed herself two days later.”
Katherine shivered as sadness and shame bled through her. Taking the knife stab meant for that deranged man’s wife had been the first truly decent thing she’d ever done. She couldn’t stand the idea that it hadn’t done any good, after all.
Ari landed beside Katherine, his eyes flashing blue fire. “That’s a goddamn lie. Don’t you dare listen to her, North. The woman you protected from her sadistic husband remained free and unharmed and went on to raise her children successfully. Was it easy for her? No, but she did it. And her children grew up and had babies of their own.”
“How do you know?” How would he?
“I tell you how he’d know, it’s called ‘controlling, misogynistic asshole,’ that’s what,” Leviathan spat.
I looked after her for years, Kat. I couldn’t let the woman you’d died for suffer or struggle too much, Ari pushed at her.
Katherine felt dizzy.
Maybe it was the Chains? Thank you for that, Grimm. Truly.
