Rory. He screamed and screamed, fire pouring from his hands, his eyes melting in their sockets.
That should be me, I’d thought, watching him in stunned disbelief.
I’d stood helplessly as he died, thinking I was to blame. Thinking a demon had answered my call, and I’d pay the price for bargaining with hell. And somehow… I’d ended up marked. Because in one thing, I’d been right.
Whoever had answered my call wasn’t a Divinity at all.
In the present, the fire died, and I landed in front of the same pillar I’d used to transport myself out of this realm. I expected to see the arch-demon in his antechamber, tormenting Fiona, Nikolas, or Rachel. But nobody appeared to be around. Blood pooled on the floor, the signs of a struggle. But my celestial power hadn’t killed me. I was immune to vampire venom, and apparently that meant I wouldn’t burst into flames either. Unless I ran into a certain fire demon, of course.
Someone groaned at my feet. Apparently the vampire had followed me. Big mistake.
“It’s your lucky day.” I pulled him to his feet by the scruff of his neck. “Tell me where your master is.”
“Right here, celestial,” said a voice, speaking in Higher Chthonic.
I whirled around. The demigod Azurial appeared in front of the demonglass, a man shaped in flames, larger than the last time I’d seen him. How much of the arch-demon’s power had he stolen? I had the suspicion he could melt my blades with no effort. Demon fire couldn’t be extinguished by water. Only magic, if anything at all. Arch-demons could ignite whole cities in a single breath.
“So it was you,” I said. “I’m disappointed. You didn’t put up much of a fight last time.”
“Last time was different.”
“Sure it was.” I rolled my eyes at him. “What exactly do you want from this? I mean, if it’s world domination you’re after, you might have tried a little harder. Or were you too scared to target anyone other than novices and a retired celestial? Pathetic.”
“Scared?” he said, his form flickering with orange flames. “I told my vampires to target anyone they could. The aim was to sow chaos amongst your ranks, and it looks as though I succeeded.”
“I caused more chaos than you did by climbing on the roof,” I said. “Nice try, but the reason everyone panicked was because they thought they were up against an enemy who was actually threatening. You, on the other hand, have the personality of a wet shoe.”
Flames surged, reaching for me. I dodged behind his pet vampire, who crawled away with a hoarse scream.
“Where’d you get him, anyway?” I asked. “Doesn’t seem like a fair trade-off getting a bunch of vampires to help you when they burst into flames so easily.”
“I needed them to subdue my father, celestial. If it hadn’t taken me so long to work out his weakness, I could have deposed the weakened old fool and taken this city for my own.” Flames surged high to the ceiling. Still didn’t come close to the arch-demon’s power, but if he’d stolen his magic…
“I don’t give a fuck,” I shouted over the crackle of flames. “I don’t even care what happens to this shithole dimension, to be honest. But you’d better tell me what you did with Fiona.”
My blade appeared in my hands. Celestial fire tingled up my left arm, and demon power burned at my right.
“Your friend is irrelevant,” he said. “I didn’t need her, but the celestials sent to arrest her got a nasty surprise. More of them will burn before this is over. As will you, Devina.”
The flames moved forwards, and the vampire screamed as they burned him to ashes.
Chapter 23
Flames smacked into me, sending me flying back into the pillar. In the split second before I hit it, I willed my body to pass through the demonglass.
I fell from the ceiling, directly on top of the fire demon. He moved at the last second, hissing in fury as the celestial blade caught him across the back. There was no demon the blade couldn’t kill, but I’d never run up against its limits before, and if he really did have the power of an arch-demon… nobody but a true Divinity could kill one. And I’d bet there wasn’t one coming to save us. We were on our own. I needed to find Themedes and set him free, before Azurial absorbed all his power.
My blade sung, smacking off a shimmering edge. Azurial conjured a sword of his own, made of rippling flames.
“How did you do that, celestial?” he bellowed.
He doesn’t know. Obviously. Even I hadn’t known about my ability to travel through demonglass. But this whole palace was made of it.
You’re in trouble now.
“I’m full of surprises.” I dropped through the floor, dodging his flaming sword, and cut him again. My blade didn’t break his fiery skin. Okay. Time to set the arch-demon free, then. If I freed his demon boss before he died, then maybe I’d stand a chance in hell of stopping the apocalypse after all. Like Nikolas, Azurial could regenerate after death, so killing him wouldn’t stop him—not unless I took down his power source first.
I leaped through the demonglass and landed in a wide hallway. The unbearable stench of brimstone filled the place, and two vampires spun around, fangs gleaming.
With dizzying speed, one of them grabbed me by the throat and hurled me into the wall. I passed through it, falling through the ceiling and crashing into him from above. He fell with a choked yell as I sank my blade underneath his ribs.
His neighbour lunged at me, but I raised my sword, cutting his throat. The sound of thundering footsteps came from ahead. I readied my sword as another vampire sprinted into the hall, but before I could strike, Rachel leaped over my head, sinking a stake into the vampire’s chest.
“Nice of you to drop in,” she said.
“Nice of you to tell me where you were going.” I was almost certain Nikolas wouldn’t have wanted his little sister coming into the fiery hell dimension, but she’d probably followed him. “Where’s the arch-demon? He has my human friend captive here somewhere.”
“I dunno where she is, but Themedes is through there.” She pointed ahead. “With a bunch of demons guarding him.”
“Well, I need to kill that arch-demon before Azurial absorbs all his power, or let them duke it out and preferably destroy this place in the process.”
She winced. “This city… there are innocent people down there.” She took in a breath. “This is my dimension, Devina. It’s my home.”
A thunderous wave of footsteps rolled through the hall, followed by a horde of venos demons. Rachel snarled at them.
“I’m not gonna get hit again.” Her jaw unhinged, hands elongating into claws, and fur sprouted all over her body. She ran forwards and three sets of teeth snapped down, severing scorpion stingers and tails. Okay. Now I get why she can’t use her real form back on Earth.
I cut down another scorpion with my sword, urgency driving me forward. Fiona—she had to be somewhere in the palace, but so was the arch-demon. Not to mention Azurial, who’d find me eventually. It wasn’t like I had a map of the place.
Lightning speared the demonglass floor, announcing Nikolas’s presence. He grabbed two scorpions and snapped their necks, clearing the way forward. His dark aura roiled around him, appearing like a pair of shadowy wings. Whoa. I’d thought Rachel’s form was scary, but Nikolas was closer to going full-on demigod than I’d ever seen him. Lightning sizzled from his hands and struck down three scorpion demons at once.
With the path clear, I sprinted through a pair of open doors into a hall. Heat brushed against me, the familiar echo of the arch-demon’s aura—but muted compared to the fire demon who was surely tearing the place apart to find me.
Then I spotted him. Themedes lay on the floor, not moving. Is he dead? I ran to his side, crouching down. Carefully, I lifted his arm, which flopped limply. So did his wings, which appeared much smaller. His form was more human-sized than the demonic being he’d confronted me as before.
“He’s trapped in that form,” said Rachel from behind me. “He can’t wake up as long as his son ke
eps leaching off his power. I can’t set him free.” Her normal-sounding voice came through the demon’s ferocious-looking mouth, setting off an unsettling wave of chills down my spine. But perhaps killing the arch-demon wasn’t Azurial’s plan. As long as the arch-demon lived, so would his magic. Perhaps he wanted to keep him imprisoned forever, feeding on his flames as he ruled in his place.
“He’s bleeding you dry, idiot!” I slapped the arch-demon’s face. “Wake up.”
No response came, not so much as a flicker of his eyelids. I punched him again, shaking him violently, but I might as well have shaken a doll. Drawing back, I punched him in the nose with all my might. Blood spurted, but not a sound escaped him. A second later, the wound began to heal before my eyes. He still had enough of his power left to regenerate, but not enough to wake up.
A crackling noise sounded. I dropped the arch-demon and sprang to my feet, faced with a wall of fire. Flames had sprung up in a box, caging me and the arch-demon inside it.
Then a terrible scream came from above. Human. I looked up to see a cage hovering overhead, containing…
“Fiona!” I yelled. “Put her down, you scumbag.”
The fire demon appeared as an outline in the flames, an ugly leer on his face. “It’s getting hot in here,” he remarked. “I wonder if that power of yours will let you save her from the flames, or will you let her burn, like you did your partner?”
“You fucking dare—”
“Help!” Fiona clung to the cage bars, eyes bulging with fear. “You’re no Divinity, you lying bastard!”
Oh, boy.
The cage bars opened, releasing her above the flames. Fiona shrieked, legs tumbling, and began to fall.
I jumped through the demonglass floor. The cage wasn’t made of glass but the ceiling was, and I plummeted down directly above. My legs slammed into the metal and I half fell, mentally thanking Rachel again for the shoes’ grip. I caught Fiona’s arm and held onto her, pulling her back into the cage. Below, all I could see were roaring flames.
“Hang on to me!” I told her as she gripped my arm for balance.
“What the hell is this?” Fiona screamed in my ear. “What’re you mixed up in, Devi?”
“I’ll explain later. Hold onto my back.” I hauled her onto my shoulders, already tallying up how many nights of shitty movies I owed her for putting up with this crap. Quickly, I jumped onto the cage’s top, careful not to drop her, and touched the demonglass ceiling. Please let me take both of us through.
Fiona screamed in my ear, gripping my upper arms, and we fell into nothingness. The crackle of flames vanished, to be replaced by the room of the warlocks’ house.
“Sorry,” I said, scrambling to my feet. “I’d have taken you to the celestial guild, but there’s a demon wanting to attack them right now. Open all the windows in case any vampires come back.”
“Have you lost your mind?” She sat on the floor, staring at the glass. “You can walk through walls now. Are you a Divinity?”
“Definitely not. I’m really sorry about this, but I have to go kill a mad fire demon.”
I jumped through the glass again, aiming for the entrance to the hall containing the arch-demon. Flames leaped in front of me, but the arch-demon lay where he had before. Even the crackling flames hadn’t woken him up. Was he sedated? Wait a second. Azurial had told me how he’d subdued his father. Vampire venom. There was no cure… not for humans. But my demon mark had reacted against the vampires’ venom before.
Quickly, I ran my celestial blade over the mark on my right wrist, and pressed it to his mouth. His teeth clamped down and I yelped, not expecting such a violent response. Demons didn’t normally drink human blood, but it was an energy source, though not a potent one. He gripped me hard, teeth piercing through the skin of my palm.
“What are you doing?” screamed Azurial’s voice. He appeared in the flames again, surveying me as I struggled against his father’s grip.
“Trying not to die.” I managed to wrench my hand free, blood dripping from my wrist. But the arch-demon slumped back onto his knees, his gaze sliding out of focus. Pain pulsed from my demon mark. Unlike a vampire’s bite, the wound wouldn’t seal, and from the dizziness encroaching on my vision, he’d drained me of too much blood. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nikolas and Rachel surrounded by a wall of flame, keeping them from getting to me.
Azurial faced me, lined in fire. The smokeless flames stung my eyes, filling my mouth with the taste of brimstone.
“You’re terrified of the flames,” he whispered. “Aren’t you? I know who you are. I looked into your history, celestial.”
“Who hasn’t by this point?” I didn’t have the energy left to be afraid. With blood streaming from my right hand, I raised my left one and called my own celestial fire, blasting it at him. Before he could retaliate, I leaped through the demonglass floor.
I landed beside the two demons as Azurial’s flames enclosed Themedes. The arch-demon screamed, arms flailing, trying to put out the fire. He’s trying to kill him after all? But even in that state, he’d heal no matter what suffering Azurial inflicted on him—no matter how much of his magic he drained.
Which left me with a single choice.
I reached for the arch-demon, biting back a cry of pain as the flames surged over my hands. Grabbing his wrists, I pulled him with me through the floor. To the only place I could think of.
The flames died the instant we landed on the walkway outside Zadok’s tower. The arch-demon fell sprawling onto his face, nearly tipping over the edge. I grabbed his arm and gasped in pain. I’d immersed my hands in the fire, and the skin of both hands and arms was blistered. Eyes stinging, I staggered to my feet.
“Don’t move,” I told the arch-demon. “There’s a long way down from here. I had to cut off his power source.”
The arch-demon looked blearily up at me. He looked startlingly human—except for the wings, which splayed behind him, majestic even in his weakened state. “Where am I?”
“I wouldn’t go into that tower,” I said. “I’ll send Nikolas after you.”
I ran—okay, more hobbled—towards the tower’s demonglass wall again, drawing my sword as I did so.
And I willed myself to land directly beneath Azurial, blade held out to pierce him through the heart.
The wall turned transparent, and I leaped upwards. The blade sank through flesh, through fire. Azurial struggled, falling onto his back, wings splayed out. The flames didn’t die, but it’d use a significant amount of power to regenerate. More than he could afford to spare, with his power source now temporarily in another dimension.
I smelled burning flesh, my whole body screaming with pain, but the celestial blade engulfed us both. I gritted my teeth, holding him down. Sapped of his strength, he shrank, the flames receding until nothing remained but a human-shaped, hairless man with shrivelled leathery wings.
I let go of the sword, falling onto my back. My skin felt like it was on fire, and my head swam, but I clung to consciousness by sheer willpower. Azurial collapsed, seemingly dead, and Nikolas descended on him—my vision was blurry, but he looked like he had wings of his own, shadowy ones. Azurial raised his head with a final cry, and his body dissolved like a vampire caught in sunlight, turning to ashes.
Someone grabbed my arm, prompting a yell of pain.
“Sorry, Devi,” said Rachel, leaning over me. Her face turned human again, flickering before my eyes. “Ow. I can get you some healing salve, but this is gonna be rough.”
“Not as bad as the trouble the arch-demon’s in.” I lifted my head, willing my body to stand. “He’s—at Zadok’s tower. Get Niko—”
“I’m on it,” said Nikolas’s voice, but I was slipping away.
“Good,” I mumbled. “Crisis averted.”
Then I passed out.
Chapter 24
There were a few people I wouldn’t mind having at my side while I was on bed rest in the hospital. Bad Haircut Sammy wasn’t one of them.
“I didn’t set a demon loose in the guild,” I told him wearily for the tenth time. “I sent you that message so you’d get the hell out before a fire demon could materialise on top of you. There were witnesses.”
Since the only non-warlock witness was Fiona, the poor girl had been bombarded with questions by both the warlocks and the celestials, and the occasional member of the human law enforcement as well. I felt bad for her, but my severe burns made it a little difficult to hold conversation for the first couple of days of my recovery. At least Nikolas had taken me to a human hospital rather than the celestial guild’s infirmary.
“Your messages make no sense,” he said. “Neither do any of the crackpot theories you’ve been throwing around since you butted into our investigation.”
“I was invited,” I said. “Not my problem if your inspector dude didn’t like it. Where is he, anyway? I assume it must be important if he sent you in his place.”
“He’s busy, of course,” he said. “Running the guild is hard work.”
“Considering he’s not meant to be in charge in the first place, and illegally locked up a group of innocent warlocks, I imagine he’s neck-deep in paperwork.”
His silence told me I was right on the mark. I couldn’t suppress a grin. I wished Gav was around to see this. At least Clover had been discharged with no side effects. And Fiona, too. Rachel came to visit me disguised as several different people a day, which I appreciated. But I hadn’t seen Nikolas yet. I assumed he was dealing with the arch-demon I’d dropped outside his brother’s tower. I hadn’t wanted to leave such a dire situation unsupervised, but the hospital flat-out refused to let me leave until my arms healed up.
“How’d you get burnt anyway?” Sammy asked.
“I killed a fire demon. Demigod.” I tried to shrug. “You know the story. It doesn’t matter to me either way.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “You always thought you were better than the rest of us. You and that partner of yours. Was it the same demon who killed him?”
Celestial Magic (Celestial Marked Book 1) Page 21
