“Checkmate,” smiled Annabelle.
42. THE BEGINNING OF THE END
The sisters had been playing me right from the start, working me like clay and twisting the truth to bring us exactly to this moment in time, to this page from a book that was my Destiny. They had forced my hand to do the unthinkable; to open the Gates of Hell and release Lucifer from his cage. Everything I’d worked for—everything I’d been running from and running too—had gone up in flames and the embers of it were now raining back down on me like rain.
I had to do something to stop this, but what? No one had ever bothered to mention how to thwart the prophecy once it started. No one ever told me it was going to rain fire balls!
Panicked, I tried to plot my next move, but everything in my head was spinning; jumbling itself into a maze that had no exit. Was I supposed to run? Was I supposed to stay and fight him? Fight him how? Run where?
I didn’t even know who or what I was up against.
Glancing back at the horizon, I could see something dark brewing over the lake. The black water was twisting and swirling as though the earth were splitting apart under the waves, readying itself to unleash something that was never supposed to see the light of day again.
My body kept screaming at me to run while my eyes remained transfixed as thick black smoke twisted up through the water and billowed in the air like a cloud of Death. And I knew it was Him—the bringer of the end of days.
“He’s coming,” bellowed Arianna, her voice vibrating through the burning rain that continued to pour down on us. “I can feel him in my bones!”
Their maniacal laughter snapped me out of my trance. There was no more time to think, to wonder, to second-guess myself. I needed to get my friends out of here before it was too late. I may have accidently set off the apocalypse but I wasn’t about to sit around with the Hellraiser sisters and welcome Lucifer back to earth.
If I had any chance of righting this wrong, of putting Lucifer back in his tomb where he belonged, I was going to need time to do it. Time. Reinforcements. Trace. All I had to do was get him to a safe place, some place far away from here, and then I’d bring him back and we could figure this out together. Just like we always did. Just like we were always meant to do. With him by my side, there was always hope. Come rain or high water, or Hell on earth.
I threw myself down on the ground before him. “Trace! Come on, wake up! Please,” I cried, shaking his body in desperation. “I need you to hear me right now. We have to get out of here.”
I looked back at the water as bolts of lightning flashed through the black smoke. I could feel the darkness swelling, growing, taunting us as it sucked in our energy like a vortex.
“Trace!” His eyes were open but there was no response. Throwing my arms around his waist, I tried to lift him from the ground. If I could just get him on his feet, I could pull him away from here. “Please, baby, I need you to stand up!”
“Give it up already,” said Annabelle. “He’s not going anywhere.”
“He doesn’t have anything to do with this!” I snapped at her, but I knew stomping my feet at them wasn’t going to change a damn thing. “Please,” I begged, my voice so small and shattered that it no longer sounded like my own. “Please let him go. He isn’t a part of this.”
“Of course, he is.” Annabelle’s face twisted with joy. “He’s the best part.”
Dread punched through my gut like a bomb exploding. The wind howled unnaturally, vociferously, as it kicked up sand and pebbles from the beach and whipped them against my skin. I wanted to cover up, to protect myself from the pain of it all, but I refused to let go of Trace.
“What are you talking about? What does that mean!” My nails were pushing down into Trace’s skin.
“Isn’t it obvious?” answered Annabelle and then turned to her sisters with a disappointed look on her face. “Are we going to have to spell the whole damn thing out for her?”
“Yes!” I shouted back. “Spell it out for me! SPELL. IT. OUT!”
Her menacing hazel eyes narrowed as she took a healthy step towards me, bravely breaking formation from her sisters. “Well, we needed a body, see—one that was strong enough to contain His energy. So, we put our pretty little heads together and it sort of just came to us,” she said with an innocent shrug as the cloud of darkness thundered over the lake. “Who better than the Slayer’s very own boyfriend?”
Everything inside of me stopped. Froze. Died. “You’d wouldn’t…”
“You obviously don’t know us very well.”
Bile crept up my throat as fear permeated my bloodstream like a poison. I covered my mouth with my hand to keep from vomiting. It was too much to take, too much to process. The light inside me, the thing that kept my heart from falling to pieces, clicked off. I let go off Trace and pounced on her with everything I had.
I wasn’t sure how much time had gone by or how many punches I’d managed to get in before my body was ripped off of her by a force that could only be described as magic.
“You stupid bitch!” shouted Annabelle, still laying on the ground where I’d left her, her sisters flanking each side like bodyguards. “You broke my nose!”
I could see blood oozing through her fingers as she covered her face with her hands, and while it gave me satisfaction to know I’d inflicted some kind of pain on her, it paled in comparison to the payback I was going to wreak on them.
Not today though.
Today, we were getting the hell out of here. All of us, including Trace. If they wanted him, they were going to have to pry him out of my cold, dead arms.
I looked back at the sooty cloud just as it started to push its way towards the shore and I kicked off the ground. Sprinting towards Trace, I barreled through broiling fire and rain and hopelessness as I tried to make it back to him before the smoke did. I wasn’t sure what I intended to do short of throwing him over my shoulder and carrying him out of here on my back, but I had to try something. I’d be damned if I was leaving him out here.
I slid across the mud and threw myself down at his feet, slamming my knees against the rock as a putrid smell of death and Sulphur immediately filled my nose. The smoke billowed in the air above us, charging itself like an electrical storm.
“Trace!” I screamed his name as his eyes rolled into the back of his head. “Don’t you dare leave me! You have to get up,” I yelled as I tried pulling him off the ground and into my arms. His body was immovable, frozen in place as though rooted in the earth. “Please, get up! I need you.”
Strands of my hair slashed through the air as the darkness continued to blacken, swelling as it pulled up sand and rocks from the ground around us. It was feeding on the earth, on us, drawing in our energy. A defeating clap of thunder exploded inside the smoke, ringing through my ears as it hissed back its necrotic intentions.
“You can’t have him!” I screamed back through choking sobs. “I won’t let you have him. Take me instead. Please! I beg of you!” I tried to cover Trace’s body with mine, to force the darkness away from him and onto me, but something seared my skin and then bounced me off of him like an opposing magnet.
The smell of my burning flesh infiltrated my nose, but I didn’t bother stopping to appraise the damage. I would burn myself alive if it meant I could have him back.
I scrambled back to my feet just as the smoke shot down from the air in a torrent, the force of it violently tossing me right back on my ass again. From the ground, I watched in horror as the darkness descended over Trace, smothering itself over his body as he bucked and shook uncontrollably.
“NOOOO!” I jumped back on my feet and rushed him, though my efforts were thwarted by a pair of marble arms that grabbed me by my waist and yanked me off the ground.
“This way,” shouted Gabriel as Dominic clutched me in his arms and started running.
“Stop! You’re going the wrong way!” I yelled as they headed down the beach and towards the forest, taking me further and further away from Trace. I could stil
l see the smoke seeping in through his ears, his mouth, every part of his heavenly body was being overtaken by it; consumed by it. Fissures of lighting crackled against his skin, jolting his body, burning him. “We have to help him! It’s killing him!”
“You can’t help him anymore, angel. He’s already gone. It’s over.”
“It’s not over! It’s not over!” The words tore out of me in shrieking sobs. “Let me go, Dominic! I have to go back. I can’t leave him here,” I screamed, smacking him in the face. My palms burned as I wailed on his head and arms, on every inch of his body my fists could reach.
But he didn’t falter.
He didn’t let me go.
He threw me over his shoulder and continued running, taking hit after hit as he drew us closer and closer to the forest. I wanted to scream at him that I hated him; that I would never forgive him for this, but I couldn’t speak through the agony. I couldn’t pull in enough air between the desperate sobs thwacking my body to utter a single word. All I could do was lift my head and watch in gut-wrenching agony as the last of the smoke entered Trace’s body.
Beautiful, resplendent Trace.
“My Trace…” His name came out of me so painful and soundless that only God above me could hear it.
Tears blurred my vision as I watched him stand to his full height and then slowly roll his neck as though stretching the skin around the darkness it now housed. The sisters dropped down to their knees in worship, throwing themselves at him like three demons bound to the darkness, and my heart stood still in mourning.
I knew then that my Trace was gone. That he’d been taken away by the thing that now lived inside his body, and everything inside of me died.
Because I knew I was going to have to be the one to kill him.
BONUS MATERIAL
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GLOSSARY
ANAKIM
A race of people born with the spirit of man and the blood of angels; Descendants of Nephilim
CASTER
A Descendant of Magi Angels; ability to cast magic, control elements, and manipulate energy
CINDERDUST
Magical powder created by High Casters that sends a Revenant to Sanguinarium
DARK LEGION
Descendants that have turned against the Order; pledged to the dark side/ Lucifer
DAUGHTER OF HADES
Descendant of Lucifer, prophesied to raise Lucifer and bring on the end of days
INVOCATION
An ancient ritual used by the Order to invoke Anakim abilities
LUCIFER
The first angel to be created and the first to fall; imprisoned in a tomb in Hell
REAPER
A Descendant of Transport Angels; capable of teleporting, time travel, and mind reading
SANGUINARIUM
Realm of perdition for Revenants that have been vanquished
SEER
A Descendant of Messenger Angels; ability to communicate with the Spirit Realm and predict the future
SHIFTER
A Descendant of Guardian Angels; capable of shifting into animal form, and telepathy
SLAYER
A Descendant of Warrior Angels; possess super strength and ability to sense demons, siren-like blood
THE ORDER OF THE ROSE
A secret organization that oversees all Anakim affairs
ANAKIM INDEX
SLAYERS (Warrior Angel Descendants)
Jemma
Tessa
Gabriel+
Karl
Thomas*
Jaqueline+
REAPERS (Transport Angel Descendants)
Trace
Peter
Linley*
CASTERS (Magi Angel Descendants)
Nikki
Caleb
Carly
SHIFTERS (Guardian Angel Descendants)
Dominic+
Ben
Julian
SEERS (Messenger Angel Descendants)
Morgan
DARK CASTERS (Pledged to the Dark Legion)
Arianna
Annabelle
Anita
* Character is deceased
+Character is a Revenant
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to my amazingly talented cover designer, Andrei Bat, for yet another stunning cover. And Thank you to Eliza Enriquez for proofreading the book on such short notice.
Thank you to my dear friend, Tricia Simpson. Not only have you supported me since the very beginning, but you continue to be an amazing friend who hearts my characters as much as I do. Thank you for not only beta-reading and proofing, but for also talking me off the ledge a few times. Oh, and thank you to Jimmy for sharing your momma with me for a while.
Thank you to my parents, family and friends for continuing to cheer me on and keep me accountable because lord knows I can’t do it myself. The babysitting (and dog-sitting) was also very much appreciated.
Thank you to my (slightly) better half, Jeffrey, for holding down the fort and continuing to be the person I can always turn to when everything around me gets to be too much. Your support has gotten me through yet another journey through Hollow Hills and I am eternally grateful to you for always being my soft place to fall.
Thank you to my little angel, Jaxon, for giving up some of your “mommy time” so that I could finish writing this book. You continue to be my reason for everything and have given me more love, happiness, and inspiration than I know what to do with. You may be growing up, but you will always be my baby.
And finally, thank you to the readers for coming on this journey with me. Your continuous support and excitement over the series has meant more to me than I can ever put into words. It still amazes me every day that I get to put words on paper, and that people actually read them, and that this gets to be my life. I owe that entirely to you, and for that, I am eternally in your debt.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bianca Scardoni is a paranormal fiction writer who resides on the East Coast of Canada with her family. She graduated from college with a degree in web design and went on to build an online writing community in 2004. When she isn’t writing, she spends her time reading, watching vampire shows, eating junk food, and staying up too late.
For upcoming book releases, bonus material, and additional information on the author, please visit her website: www.biancascardoni.com
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