Show me how to move through this wall.
It vibrated under her touch, as though uncertain. She prodded it again.
The Light will suffer a crushing blow if I do not get through this wall. Show me how.
As though uncertain, the Light moved slowly. In her mind’s eye, it stretched into a thin layer that wrapped around her hand, gleaming like a second skin. Fascinated, Zara let Light energy flow into the structure and her hand became less solid.
Yes!
She pressed it to the wall, but it didn’t go through. She was missing something.
Angels can walk through walls, so why can’t I use the Light to do the same?
Maybe Beacons had too much mortal blood and the Light could only turn the angelic part incorporeal.
She was only half Beacon, though. The rest of her was Angel Killer.
With a burst of insight, she pulled at the Darkness within her and formed it into a sheath to match the Light. The two swirled together, creating a shimmering work of art over her hand within her mind. When she looked at her hand with her eyes, it looked no different.
Hesitantly, she pressed her hand against the wall. It faced only a bit of resistance, accompanied by a dull pain, but it faded through. The mortal part of her couldn’t move through walls easily, but thanks to her mostly demon mother and unknown Beacon father, she had less mortal blood than any human alive.
Hope rekindled in her chest. She was no longer helpless. The deck was still stacked against her, but she had one chance to reshuffle it in her favor.
Alex’s body was taut, involuntarily pulling against his restraints in an attempt to escape the pain. Her heart broke, but her determination hardened.
“I’m sorry, my love,” she whispered.
Alex had never felt such pain. The demons were extracting excruciating torment without causing irreparable damage.
He had a sinking feeling that they wanted to stretch this punishment out for as long as possible.
The pain caused puffs of Light to rise from within his body, captured in a slow vortex to the spherical crystal above him. It glowed brightly from the Light liberated from within him, Light that he couldn’t touch thanks to the High Court’s judgment, but it was still part of him.
A dozen black gemstones surrounded the crystal, suspended from the ceiling by thin spires of rock held in a precise pattern. The Darkness drew thin spindles of Light from the main crystal, swallowing them. It looked as though the Darkness fed off the Light, and the pulsing of the gemstones grew and throbbed.
Alex was already wracked in pain, but base emotions grew alongside his fear and pain. Greed, lust, and envy all threatened to take control of his mind.
Those emotions would spread outward, creeping through New York and poisoning the city from within. It would become a toxic place, and the influence would infect the rest of the world and taint the balance, shifting it toward the Darkness.
He’d never felt so helpless. Even in the second ambush and the assault on Lighthaven, Alex had done little more than get beat up and watch Zara kick ass, but he could at least move and resist.
How could they break free from a trap set by an archangel who’d been plotting for hundreds of years? He had every advantage. They were already done for.
Lost in the pain, his vision had hazed over to where the crystal above him seemed to move from side to side, disrupting the patterns of Light and Dark, but it quickly resettled.
I’m going crazy.
Maybe that was a good thing. If he were crazy, he might not mind the pain so much.
A second later, a tremendous crack shook the stone room.
The demons administering his torture froze and looked up. The hoods fell back on a few of the figures, revealing misshapen and terrifying heads.
The crystal shuddered and then fell.
Demons scrambled to get back, but Alex couldn’t move. It didn’t matter—he didn’t want to.
The Light rushed toward him, gleaming as the crystal fell. He smiled as the massive ball crushed his body.
Thinking fast, Zara pushed her hands and face outside the mirrored room. It wasn’t enough to poke into the stone room and potentially draw attention to herself, but it allowed her to sneak her magic past the mirrors.
Draconel’s back was still toward her, watching Alex and the demonic ritual taking place, and Zara hoped he would stay like that.
Dropping into Farsight, she looked for Grace.
The Scottish girl was with the others in a small room, sitting on the floor, hands handcuffed behind their backs and blindfolded. Without the ability to see what they were doing, Light mages couldn’t visualize their magic properly. They were helpless.
Four guards sat in chairs near the door, playing a game of cards.
With a deft touch, Zara animated the twisted knots of the blindfolds and the internal mechanisms of the handcuffs. In seconds, the blindfolds fell away and the handcuffs popped open for each of the Light mages.
After looking at each other in shock, it didn’t take long for the mages to spring into action. Ethan incapacitated a guard with a blast of Light, and Joseph took down another with a few deft kicks, slamming the man’s head into the wall.
That was all the time Zara could afford to spend. She sent a silent prayer to the Light that they could fight their way free and escape the building.
Dropping out of Farsight, Zara took stock of her surroundings. Nothing had changed in the thirty seconds she’d diverted her attention.
She needed some way to even the odds. There were five demons plus Draconel. Too many foes to take. She wasn’t even sure she’d be able to equal Draconel on his own, let alone the demons.
There was one person she could count on to fight with her, but he was tied down and stuck in a powerless body.
Luckily, Draconel had told her that Alex would regain his angelic form and powers the instant he died, so long as the Darkness didn’t strike the final blow.
She had to find a way to kill Alex.
A laser made of Darkness was easiest—it would end his mortal existence, but he wouldn’t come back.
The Light wouldn’t cause the same problems, but it also couldn’t be used to directly harm someone of the Light.
Desperate for a solution, Zara took stock of the room and the options available to her. If she sprinted across the room and took up one of the torture implements, she could use it to stab and kill Alex.
Picturing what it would be like to strike at Alex with a metal instrument and kill him directly made her gag from revulsion. The blood, and having to look at him as she struck…
She couldn’t do it, and she’d be caught before she could get that far anyway.
Her eyes were drawn to the massive crystal hovering above Alex. It hung from a column of rock that connected it to the ceiling.
She almost sent a curse at the column, willing it to splinter, but she stopped herself before sending the Darkness to do her bidding. If the curse loosened the crystal and it killed Alex, did that count as the Darkness killing him?
Zara couldn’t take that chance. Luckily, she had more options at her disposal than any mage to come before her.
Still unable to believe Draconel had spent so long ignoring her, she blessed her luck and reached a hand through the wall once more. Sending a tendril of Light to the rock column, she animated it, commanding it to bend from side to side. Once the magic left, the column would crack where it bent, severing the connection to the ceiling.
She frowned when the crystal didn’t move. She increased the energy flowing from her, and it swayed a nearly imperceptible amount.
The rock and crystal were so heavy that the amount of energy required to move them was tremendous. Zara gritted her teeth and emptied half of her reserves of Light into the spell, enough to make the crystal rock back and forth a few feet.
As soon as she stopped feeding it power, the crystal returned to its original position. She held her breath.
Was it enough?
Sha
rds of rock went flying as the column cracked. It held for another moment that stretched to eternity.
Then it fell.
Zara didn’t wait to see if her gambit had worked. She didn’t want to watch as the tons of rock and crystal fell on her lover, and she had to take advantage of the element of surprise.
Pulling a shroud of Light and Darkness over her body, she charged through the wall and into the ritual chamber. Passing through gave her a general ache through her body, but she clenched her teeth and ignored it.
Only five steps were needed to get to Draconel, and she jumped for his back.
Suddenly, he wasn’t there.
Zara skidded to a halt, barely keeping to her feet. She’d completely committed to the attack and nearly fell as she struggled to recover her balance.
Draconel reappeared several feet to the side, his hands clasped behind his back. He disappeared again, and a heavy blow to her side knocked her to the floor.
She drew a heaving breath, fighting the pain that blossomed in her side. The extra power she’d taken from the brothel’s bouncer was gone by now. It seemed like forever ago that she’d felt a giddy rush as she ran through the club, moving at will through what she’d thought were serious defenses.
Alex still hadn’t stormed in to help in his angelic form, and Zara risked a glance in his direction.
The crystal and stone column had shattered, the pieces strewn across the floor of the chamber. Some were bloodied, and a huge chunk lay in the pentagram, crushing Alex’s lower body. His face was white and stricken, but his lips still moved as he gasped in what appeared to be excruciating breaths.
No!
She hadn’t killed him. At least, not instantly. She’d just damaged him beyond repair.
Her thoughts were interrupted as she got to her feet. The demons had recovered from the crashed crystal and stood in a line behind Draconel, staring at her with cold, dead eyes set into monstrous faces. Darkness of a deepness and potency that took her breath away rolled off them in waves.
They felt like Dark angels.
She was screwed.
Five minutes ago, Alex hadn’t thought a pain greater than the torture was imaginable, let alone possible.
He’d been very, very wrong.
A small corner of his mind counted his injuries as the rest of him struggled to hold back the lightning that raced through his nerves.
Collapsed lung. Broken arm. Shattered ribs. Oh, and he may as well not exist from the waist down. The rock pinning his crushed body to the floor was the only reason he was still alive—it prevented him from losing too much blood or his body from realizing how much damage had been done.
Death was coming. Alex was shocked he was still conscious, although barely. Fevered hallucinations nipped at the corner of his vision, delirium threatening to take over his mind.
Come on, he begged. Let me die. Rid me of this body.
A dark form in a black robe approached from the side. As it lumbered toward him with a strange, rocking gait, it pulled its hood back.
Oh, Light.
The fallen angels were a terrible sight. The Darkness had taken hold of their previously pure selves and twisted them to suit its needs. It was a perversion of Creation, an abomination that should have never been.
And it held its hand up, a ball of Darkness gathering in its palm.
So this is how I die.
No angel ever seriously considered true death. It could happen in a particularly fierce skirmish between the forces of Heaven and Hell, but it was rare. For beings that would live infinitely otherwise, any time an angel’s existence was cut short was a tragedy.
Alex had only moments to come to peace with his destiny.
The Disgraced grinned, the expression horrific on its twisted lips. None of its previously angelic nature remained, the Darkness plundering what had been beautiful and righteous.
Alex closed his eyes, sending a wordless prayer to the Light.
A snarl surprised him, and he looked up to see the demon tumbling away under a blast of powerful Light.
Ethan advanced on Alex’s position, hands raised as he poured forth the Light. Sophie ran up beside him and knelt next to Alex.
“Oh, Alex. This is… it will be okay. We’ll get Zara to heal you up, and… Light, this is bad.”
He coughed, the coppery taste of blood filling his mouth. He shook his head. “No. I need to die. It’s the only chance we have.”
The other Light mages ran up around him. Another demon had turned to face them, and Henry and Joseph warily stepped forward to shield the others. That left Zara still facing three plus Draconel.
Sophie bit her lip and nodded. She couldn’t look away from his wounds, her face paling and her knees stained with blood.
“You need to finish me,” he grunted. “I need to regain my true form.”
She looked shocked. “Me? I can’t, Alex. I… it’s not something I’m capable of.”
He grimaced, pain flooding his body, weakening his arms. He could barely move, but maybe he could move enough for this.
“Look away, Sophie,” he told her.
Her eyes widened as he reached for a sharp hunk of crystal beside his hand and hefted it. She nodded and turned away.
Killing himself contravened the High Court’s judgment, but it would bring him back to himself. He’d deal with the Court later—if he made it out of this. There were many things he wanted to say to them.
Gritting his teeth, he raised the crystal shard in the air.
When her friends ran into the chamber, Zara felt a surge of elation. She wasn’t fighting alone.
It took only a second for that thought to sour. The fools should have gotten out while they could. This fight was beyond them, and she would have to split her focus to protect them. Her plan to restore Alex to his full powers hadn’t come to fruition, and the situation was dire.
Two of the demons assaulted the group of mages. Grace stumbled while running to the center of the room where Alex lay, and the subsequent charm-assisted roll she executed helped her to avoid several spears of high-potency Darkness.
Zara couldn’t afford to spare any more attention their way. Draconel slipped in and out of view, veiling himself to throw off her attacks. The demons had edged to the sides. They had figured out that their beams of Darkness couldn’t hurt her, but she had to be wary of them rushing in to grab hold of her. If they drained her, she was done for.
Every time they tried, she fended them off with lasers of Light, but after the animancy she’d used to drop the crystal, her reserves dwindled rapidly.
A shining beacon of Light stopped the demons in their tracks and they quailed under its intensity, shrieking inhuman cries of pain. The Light filled the chamber, coming from a central point that rose above the floor.
It faded away, and Alex appeared in its place. He looked magnificent, his wings stretching full behind him and filling almost the entire chamber.
No, not Alex. He’s Alexandriel again.
With a hand lifted skyward, he yelled a wordless challenge and a gigantic sword of Light materialized. He twirled and swung it through the demon that had approached closest to the group of mages, and the being caught fire and fell to the ground.
The three demons facing Zara turned away, distracted by the new threat. That left her and Draconel to face off.
Her odds had just improved dramatically, and her heart swelled at her lover’s recovery, but Zara grew more and more frustrated. How could she win against the archangel who had taught her everything she knew about magic? He’d been wielding it for millennia, and she’d barely commanded hers for a month.
The way he swatted aside her attacks with nonchalance seemed familiar to her.
He’s using prophecy.
Of course he was. The archangel was ancient and crafty. And she should have been using it as well. The way it forecasted the future was worth the drain of energy. She let the Light overlay a vision from two seconds into the future, and the difference was striki
ng.
She still struggled to handle when he veiled himself from view. Something he’d said the night before returned to her. He’d complained of demons being able to see him even when he was being stealthy.
Zara tapped into her store of Darkness. It was still robust—she hadn’t used it as much, and the balance was heavily shifted here.
Show me how to see him through his veils!
In her mental representation of her body, the Darkness flowed over her eyes. She fed the visualization power, and the next time Draconel disappeared from view, a shadowy version of him remained. She watched the future version of that shadow, and when it ducked to the side, she caught him with a bolt of Darkness he wasn’t quick enough to dodge.
He grunted as he popped back into full visibility. “Well done.”
She frowned. Was he still playing the role of the teacher?
The fight had dragged on too long. Zara couldn’t gain an advantage, and it still felt like Draconel was playing with her, not truly trying to hurt her. She had to try something desperate.
She favored one side, pushing him back toward the fallen body of a demon. Alexandriel was occupied in his fight with the creatures, but with the Light mages’ help he had slain another two.
When Draconel was only a foot in front of the body, she feinted forward with a strong move and put as strong of a curse as she dared into his feet, willing him to trip over the prone form.
Zara didn’t wait to see if she was successful. That would just give him time to recover, and she would only have one shot. She didn’t want to blind herself or her friends, so she sent a weak beam of Darkness concentrated on Draconel’s face, blinding him.
She sprinted forward at the same time. He cursed and blasted the Darkness away with a flood of Light, but it had served its purpose. He’d turned to the side and gone down to one knee after slipping on the robe shrouding the demonic corpse, and before he could recover, she had closed the distance between them.
Avoiding his panicked swing of an arm, she leapt into the air and landed on his back, legs wrapping around his torso and her arms around his neck. She had the Darkness ready and sent it to drain him as soon as she’d established contact.
Fallen: An Angel Romance Page 21
