"Jaylen, Kato is dead. There is nothing you can do for her now."
"Like Hell there isn't." Jaylen sunk his teeth into his angel's arm and kicked him in the stomach, causing him to be released from his grasp.
Jaylen fell out of the sky and back into the water. Before Zeriel could reach him again, he swam up to the hull of the Reef Runner and dug his fingernails into the soft wood to begin the climb. If he had no way of saving his beloved wife, he would do everything in his power to kill the demon who took her from him.
Inch by difficult inch, Jaylen climbed up the side of the ship, sometimes clinging to dangling ropes or the slick barrels of cannons. Adrenaline took over his exhausted body and pure anger revitalized his mind. He heard the fighting on deck, the firing of angelic arrows, the rustling of feathers, and the surges of magic. As he climbed, he silently prayed to Sola or anything out there that could hear him to give him strength and deliver revenge to him. He had to end this and make things right. He had to avenge his wife.
At one point, he rested for a few seconds to gain his breath and wait for the cramping in his hand to go down. That is when he noticed something in the cargo hold through the opening around the cannon. Barrels of gunpowder. They looked wet, but he remembered the topaz amulet in his pocket. Pressing his chest against the side of the ship and balancing on the narrow ledge, Jaylen deftly found the necklace and slipped it over his head. Once his magical left hand had appeared, he held it out towards the barrels and focused on them. The magic channeled through his arm and shot out into the hull of the ship, igniting a small cluster of flames around the stacks of barrels. It would have to do. If all else failed, he would see Divinus die that night.
When Jaylen pulled himself up and over the railing, both sides of the fighting froze mid-swing and with arrows drawn to stare at him. The angels looked at him with a mix of surprise, hatred, and confusion. Jeremiah tried his best to suppress a relieved grin. Divinus's eyes narrowed.
Jaylen took a minute to catch his breath and size up the situation, keeping in mind the precious seconds that were ticking away until his magic would heat the barrels enough to set them on fire. It was a slow process, but he didn't want to take any chances. When the tension grew and the angels held up their silver bows and swords again, Jaylen stepped forward with his arms outstretched. "Stop."
Jeremiah pushed past his angels. "Jaylen, you shouldn't be here. Leave before-"
"Don't tell me that I shouldn't be here to avenge my wife. This is my fight, not yours. This is between me and Divinus. All of you need to leave. Now!"
One of the angels pointed a glowing arrow at Jaylen. "Finalis, you are under arrest for being an apostate and the Angel of Darkness. Surrender immediately."
Jaylen shook his head. "I said go! You can arrest me later." He moved closer to Jeremiah and whispered to him. "Listen to me. Even wet gunpowder can ignite with enough of my magic. I'm warning you. Do not let these innocent angels die because of your need to blindly follow scriptures."
Jeremiah gave Jaylen a look of questioning concern. He smoothed his long grey canvas jacket before motioning to his angels. "Move out. We will leave Finalis and Divinus to fight this out."
Jaylen watched Jeremiah lead his group of angels away into the stormy sky. Good. This is how he wanted it to be. No one to get hurt, no innocents to get caught in the crossfire. Out here on the ocean, away from the docks, Jaylen could focus solely on inflicting the most damage on his enemy.
Divinus's white wings sprung from his back as his red halo hovered above his black braids. "So, I see the rumors are true, Jaylen. Every little thing that goes wrong in your pathetic life makes you want to kill yourself. Well, if it is death you want so badly, then I will be honored to deliver it to you. Say hello to Tarael in Purgatory for me. He is looking forward to hearing your screams again. I'll send your soul to be with the whore you call your wife."
Jaylen drew his longsword from its wet sheath. "If I go down, you're going with me!"
Divinus snapped his fingers. A storm of red shadows swirled around him, filling the air with unstable winds from every direction, until a vortex formed in front of him. Lightning split the sky, punctuated by the dark seraph's maniacal laughter.
Jaylen immediately took action against the impending magic. He held his left hand in the air and called up his light barrier, granting him a few seconds of protection from the violently whipping winds and lightning strikes that lashed against the wooden deck. The locations of the strikes were seared with black char, growing closer and closer to Jaylen's wall. The barrier flickered as he grabbed his left arm with his other hand to brace himself. Focus on the magic. He had to . . . focus!
A crack of thunder broke Jaylen's channeling right as the vortex ripped apart the railing on the port side of the ship, sending splintered wood streaking past his body. He cried out when a few slivers sliced through his leather pants and made contact with skin. The warmth of his blood only distracted him for a split second before Divinus flew up in the sky and drew a black-bladed claymore out of the air. He dove to the deck and defended his head from the circling debris as the winds sucked his amulet from around his neck and all his magic died. "No!"
The main mast splintered then fell, careening down onto the deck, forcing Jaylen up from the deck just as Divinus's sword sped past his right side. In a flash of reflexes, Jaylen held out his arms. The bright ethereal wings sprung from his back and carried him into the air. He felt unbalanced, but within a few flaps of his wings, Jaylen steadied himself in the wind.
"There you are, Finalis! Finally showing your true self." Divinus flew into the air, sending a wall of shadows at Jaylen.
He dodged then had to hover there for a moment to come to terms with what was happening. Wings. Jaylen gaped for a brief moment in complete shock at the white wings made from light magic that kept him in the sky. His amulet was gone, but a new source of magic swelled up in his chest, one that he couldn't fully understand. Holding up his left arm, he saw the unimaginable. In the absence of his amulet, his magical left hand was there and fully functioning.
Divinus joined him in the sky, his vortex spinning rapidly below them. Jaylen made a mental note of around how much time had passed since he set those barrels of gunpowder on fire. He was running out of time. Sure, he could fly away and hope that Divinus wasn't aware of the trap he planted for him. But that wasn't good enough. That wasn't the justice Jaylen needed to serve. He would see Divinus die, even if that meant being killed in the explosion himself.
There was a blinding white explosion of a nearby lightning strike that startled him and knocked him off balance. Jaylen flew backwards with such a force that his wings vanished and he hit the deck flat on his back. Gasping for air, he slid painfully to slam against the side railing. As he pulled himself to his feet, he grunted from the pain that radiated up his skinned legs where the rough wood planks had cut through his pants. Bright red blood seeped from the raw skin on his shins and knees.
"You're weak, Finalis. You're nothing compared to me."
Tears stung in Jaylen's eyes as he held up his sword in front of his chest, but he quickly choked them back. He was past crying. He was past being weak. "No, Divinus. I am not weak. I am not weak!"
Divinus swooped low to attack, only to be caught by Jaylen's longsword. The seraph came crashing down into the rubble and rolled to a stop against the door to the cabin. The vortex and the winds came down with him, dissipating back to nothing. He stayed there for a minute, groaning as he breathed slowly.
With his sword at the ready, Jaylen inched closer to the injured seraph. Was he dying? He was so still that he questioned if he had already died. The beating of his heart pounded anxiously in his chest and ears as he stepped closer to Divinus. He had to finish him while he had the chance. Once he was suitably close enough and his boots squished in the pool of slippery blood, Jaylen raised his sword to deliver the final blow.
Divinus started laughing.
Jaylen's resolve faltered. Why was he laughi
ng? Did he know something Jaylen didn't? "What are you laughing about? What could possibly be funny?"
"Oh, little Jaylen Corrifus . . . you've changed so much since I was possessing you." Divinus stood to his feet and wiped the blood from his arm. "Was breaking that final vow of yours truly what did it? Or are you simply overcompensating for something else?"
"You don't know what you're talking about."
"You're not truly fighting me, are you? No. I see the conviction and hatred boiling up in those eyes of yours. You're imagining your father in my place. I'm honored, Finalis. I figured you hated me, but I had no idea it was enough to equate me to your abusive daddy issues from your butchered childhood. Oh, you were just so easy to manipulate." Divinus chuckled darkly. "You should have seen the look on your face when you watched your mother dying in your arms. She truly was the best soul I had ever possessed."
No. Jaylen's sword fell from his grasp where it clanged on the deck.
"That's right, boy. You weren't the first one I possessed. You have been in my sights since you were conceived. I knew your mother was the only person who cared about you, so I had the easiest time pressuring you to destroy her. Don't you remember those nights we would cuddle together while I read stories to you and sang the paladin dirge for you, Jaybird?"
Jaylen grabbed his hair and held back his instinctual need to vomit. It all made sense now, terrible, life-altering, devastating sense. "You . . . you made my mother say those things! You made her beg for death. You knew I would want to help her, so you manipulated both of us."
Divinus's sharp teeth glinted in the few lingering balls of mage-glow high up in the atmosphere. "It was so fulfilling to cast your mother's soul down to be devoured in Hell by the demons. I can still remember her screams as they tortured her first. Months, Jaylen. They took months to rip her apart. Piece by piece."
"Why my mother? Corina never harmed anyone."
"Are you truly this dense that you didn't notice how everyone seems to hate you? Did you think that Carvael's rise to power and your birth weren't connected somehow? Or how you were the only paladin allowed to join the Holy Order years before anyone else? Or how about the way you constantly get dragged into conflicts with that Ka'taylin man in your employ? And don't get me started on your incubus friend. Gavin is a part of this as well. There's a web of lies, plotting, and secrets that has been woven for centuries. This is only the beginning of it, Jaylen. And guess who is at the very center of it all? You. After I kill you here, you should see if Tarael will fill you in on the delicious details about your lineage on your mother's side. Oh, it is some juicy stuff . . . just like your mother was when I claimed her."
Jaylen screamed as he jumped at the cackling seraph. "Die, you sick bastard!"
Fist to fist, kick to kick, the two of them lashed out at each other. Divinus stood a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier than Jaylen, but that didn't stop Jaylen from fighting with everything he had. Divinus landed a punch to Jaylen's stomach, sending him stumbling backwards and gasping from the force of the direct impact, but he wiped the blood from his mouth and continued to fight. Jaylen tucked his leg behind Divinus's knees and forced his weight at him, causing the seraph to trip and stumble backwards. There was a shattering scream followed by a deep gurgling and coughing.
Jaylen stepped back to see Divinus's body go limp as a river of blood flowed from his mouth. The large sharp splinters of wood from the broken mast had impaled the seraph through his back and jutted out of the front of his chest. At first, he was astonished, but then a wave of pure vindication swept over him. He grinned as he watched the seraph struggling to twist his body in various ways to slide off of the wood, to no avail.
Divinus's hand trembled as he reached out to Jaylen. His voice grew faint, raspy, and airy. "Finalis . . . ugh! Help me. Please, please!"
Jaylen ignored his dying pleas. He slid his blood-soaked sword back into his belt as he absorbed the sight in front of him with primal satisfaction. "You didn't show Kato any mercy, so I will not show you any."
"Kill me! Hell's flames, just kill me!"
"No. You get to bleed. You get to stay there and feel your life draining from you. But there's something else. This ship is going to explode. So you'll get Hell's flames like you want."
Smoke began to rise up from between the wooden planks of the deck from down in the cargo hold, signaling that it was time for him to make his retreat. Battered, bloody, and emotionally shredded, Jaylen collected his ragged thoughts before turning his back to the suffering seraph. His magic and his left hand faded into nothing as the adrenaline left him in one large exodus. Jaylen limped to the side of the Reef Runner, took a deep breath, then leapt from the crumbling railing just as the flames reached the wet gunpowder.
Chapter 15
"So there you have it."
"What about Jaylen?" Kato asked. "What happened next?"
"Kato, we aren't very long after that here. I don't know anything else. After I led my angels away, I returned here and kicked Tarael out so I could intercept your soul. Time passes differently here in Purgatory. All I can tell you is that Jaylen defeated Divinus, blew up your ship, and escaped. Other than that? Nothing."
"Are you actually going to arrest Jaylen and take him back to face the Angelic Court?"
"That is classified information. I'm sorry, Kato. Now is the time for you to leave all this behind and release your soul."
"Have you decided where my soul will go?" Kato asked.
"I'm not at liberty to discuss that with you, but because of what you have done to help all of us, I will let you know. Your soul will be given to the angels. This is an honor, Kato."
"And Trevor and Brinx? Where are they? They took some of Jaylen's blood when he was still a virgin and left to go hunt you down to get Cael back."
"They did? I had no idea. I haven't heard from them since I left your ship after the Oviel incident. I will have some of my angels stationed around Aldexa to search for any clues pertaining to their whereabouts. Now, Kato, enough stalling. Now is your time to relax and release your soul to the angels."
"All right. I'm ready to-"
"No! Don't! It's a trap!" A young boy's voice yelled at her. "Jeremiah let me die then Tarael abused my soul. Don't go to the angels!"
Jeremiah sounded shocked. "Tristan? What are you still doing here? I thought Tarael sent you to the angels."
"He did, but something went wrong. I could hear Tarael's voice and . . . feel him. He was tearing my soul apart and hiding pieces in Heaven and Hell. I'm only sixty of my one hundred soul segments. The angels rejected me."
"I have never seen this happen. I will discuss this with Tarael immediately."
"No, you can't!" Tristan frantically started screaming. "Jeremiah, he's evil! He's helping a group called Eternal Eclipse!"
"I see. Tristan, if there is a place you can go that is safe, go there now. I am temporarily stopping all entry of new souls into Purgatory."
"But where will they go?" Kato asked.
"This is an emergency situation, so dire actions must be taken. The souls will stay in Aldexa until they are summoned here when I have fixed whatever problems exist with the process. As for the complete souls currently in Purgatory, they will be bound to a gemstone like the one I wear and then they will be delivered to trusted relatives or friends. Kato, where would you like to go? Where do you feel safest to wait?"
"By my husband's side."
"Is there anyone else?" Jeremiah asked. "I'm not sure that Jaylen is the most reliable guardian for you. He is constantly in dangerous situations. Besides, he is Finalis. He is evil."
"Please, Jeremiah. You know that Jaylen is a good man. If he was evil as you claim, would he have killed Divinus or saved all of those children on the island? You know the scriptures have been tampered with. You know that no one remembers the truth and what was originally written there. Don't arrest Jaylen. He is our best chance of figuring everything out. He can defeat Carvael. I know he can. Doesn't he hold Divinus's s
eraph key that is needed to unlock Sola's cage?"
"No. That is automatically given to the new seraph who will replace Divinus."
"And that is?"
"We will have to hunt him down. He may not even be born yet."
Kato groaned. "You're joking."
"I would never joke about this."
"Speaking of being born, where is Cael?"
"Safe. The ishim does not matter right now. What matters is finding how we are going to contend with the possibility that Tarael and other angels could be trading soul segments without Sola's consent."
"Jaylen can help us. You know how close he and Zeriel are. Zeriel won't do anything without Jaylen at his side. Zeriel is Carvael's son, the Prince of Heaven. Even though Zeriel is Fallen, you know he can still command attention and get things done. we need a leader who can stand up against Eternal Eclipse. Jaylen is that leader."
Jeremiah was silent for a few minutes before he sighed. "You're going to have me labeled as a heretic. The angels will find out that I'm siding with Finalis and they will banish me from Heaven. But you may be right. For the future of Heaven and the protection of innocent souls, I will resign from my duties here in Purgatory and defect to Jaylen's service after I have bound these souls to gemstones. And you will be given to Jaylen."
"Oh, thank you, Jeremiah. I knew there was goodness inside of you."
"Yes, well, allow me to get to work so we can go back into the human world and deliver you to your guardian. Then . . . then we will get this revolution underway."
"Revolution?" Kato asked. "You're using dangerously strong terms."
"If we are going to do this, we might as well not hold anything back. I cannot believe I am actually doing this, but it feels right. Let us hope that Jaylen doesn't take your death too hard and do anything destructive."
"Is it a bad time to tell you he used to be suicidal?"
"I am aware. We must hurry."
Determined
Angel of Darkness Book Eight
Angel of Darkness Books 6-10 Page 25
