She knew the moment she let go, the razor-like teeth inside the collar would gash holes in her neck, draining blood onto the ground.
Adrenaline soon took over, the strength in her arms returning just when she thought she might lose it.
No. I won’t give up. I refuse. Not yet.
SOREN
“It’s been long enough,” Soren said to Scarlet, standing from the ground just outside of his father’s temporary tomb. “I have to go find my mom. I have to save her.”
“But, don’t you think we should—”
“No,” Soren stated firmly. “We should go. Now.”
“What if Samuel and Caducus are with her?” Scarlet asked, sounding slightly afraid for the first time.
“Then we kill them too.”
“Soren. I told you. You’re just a—”
“No,” Soren said again. “I’m not just a boy. I’m not just an anything. I’m a Trinity. You said so yourself. We may be half human, but we are unique. More unique than Samuel and Caducus. They are just angels who've gone bad. We have three different kinds of blood. Did you know the number three is one of the most powerful numbers in the world?”
“Yes, I did actually. But—”
“Stop trying to talk me out of it. Let’s go.”
Scarlet sighed deeply. “Sorry. It’s just…I’ve never met someone else like me. I don’t want to have to lose you when I’ve only just found you.”
This made Soren pause on the stairs, turning back to look at her. Scarlet’s wide eyes were sincere, her thick eyebrows turning slightly up in the middle. Overcome with a sudden mad urge, Soren took a step up towards her, pressing his lips to hers.
A small gasp of surprise escaped her, and as he pulled away, he saw that her eyes were wider than ever. Scarlet pressed the tips of her fingers to her lips.
“Now let’s go.” Soren turned from the girl who would now forever hold his first kiss. Then he flew down the stairs with the ghost of a smile dancing on his lips.
AURORA
Etheria drew ever closer, the flying demon ships sending hordes of demons pelting at the Power Halos. Cannons set up around the perimeter of the angel vessel shot out what looked like green-tinted water.
The demons and ships it hit exploded into flames, and Aurora realized the water was likely filled with salt. Who knew their most deadly weapon would be something so mundane?
Caducus, Lilith, and Samuel sat upon their thrones, watching. Aurora couldn’t quite see their faces, but she assumed they were growing bored. The chain of the metal noose revolved again, moving from the battle scene over Edinburgh to Gray, standing just out of reach, folding his arms and waiting. Eyes averted.
A flare of frustration rose up in Aurora. “Why don’t you just come pry my fingers from this collar? Give your queen the show she wants to see. My blood all over this platform.”
Gray's head tilted in her direction, his gaze still on the ground. “I imagine she had me unbind your wrist ties for a reason.”
“You know it’s probably a test, right?” Aurora said through a strained breath. “Lilith probably wants to see if you’ll take the initiative and kill me. She doesn’t think you're truly in her control. She thinks your old soul is taking over the new one.”
“Of course it’s not,” he growled. But a hint of doubt surfaced on his features, a frown line developing between his eyebrows.
“Are you sure?”
“I am positive. I am loyal to Lilith. No part of my old self is able to act or control this body. Gray is locked in my heart and chained by a winding black rope.”
“Yeah?” Aurora said, her fingers slowly growing slick with sweat. “Prove it.”
Gray’s square jaw clenched at her words. Just a little more prodding.
“I have no need to prove anything to you.”
“Not to me. To Lilith.”
“She already knows.”
“Does she?”
Gray’s eyes flicked up to the glass-bottomed ship, narrowing in doubt. Aurora couldn’t see what he saw, but whatever it was helped widen the gaping hole of doubt Aurora had created in her possessed Stellar.
“That’s what I thought,” Aurora whispered in a gravelly voice. “Coward.”
It all happened in a matter of seconds. Gray’s face grew red with anger as he crossed the short distance separating them.
His hands reached for hers, but she had been ready. Aurora’s stronger left arm kept a hold of the jaw-like collar as her right hand flashed forward, seizing Gray’s shirt front, pulling him towards her.
“Look at me.”
And, finally, he did.
GRAY
The blackness surrounding Gray’s vision cleared like dissipating fog. As if from a great distance, he could see the light that was Aurora Coel shining at the end of a tunnel.
Look at me.
He could hear her. The tunnel shortened and then crumbled altogether. And suddenly his vision was completely clear.
LILITH
Sitting straighter, Lilith clutched at her chest, feeling the missing piece of her soul return to her.
“She broke him out of my possession,” she whispered. “How did she—”
Lilith’s voice was cut off by a soft laugh from her left side. She turned to see Adam shaking his head in amusement.
“I knew you wouldn’t be able to keep hold of him,” he said as if he’d just won a bet. “They’re Stellars, Dear Lilith. You should have known better.”
Her hands tightened on the armrests of her throne. “I can get it back.”
Waving a dismissive hand, Adam said, “Don’t bother. This is far more entertaining than watching my daughter dangle like a spider on a thread.”
Lilith made to speak again, but Adam held up a hand, silencing her.
Anger burned hotter than Hell’s fire.
The men by her side had always silenced her. But the fault was hers. Because she continued to allow it. Soon the fury building in her core would erupt and destroy everything in its path.
Herself included.
GRAY
Aurora was there before him, hanging from a metal contraption with one arm bearing her weight; the other had a hold of his shirt. Her sapphire eyes were wide and shimmering with tears.
Nothing made sense.
The last he remembered, he was lying next to her in a bed in Hell. Though he had a strange feeling, like deja vu. Something had happened to him to make him forget. But none of that mattered now.
“Aurora," he breathed.
She let out a relieved laugh mingled with a sob as her left hand slipped. Gray’s arms were already around her lower back, lifting her up just enough to keep the metal collar from choking her.
He’d expected her to cry or ask him to get her down. He didn’t expect her hands to move to his face and for her lips to press to his. He kissed her back, with all the fervent passion he'd had when they’d made love. His heart slamming against his chest, trying to reach hers.
A thundering sound met his ears then, the sound Gray associated with Stellars’ souls crashing together when they’d been apart for too long.
Forty-Five
SOREN
Soren ran full out to the gallows with Scarlet on his heels.
He held Lionheart tightly in his left hand as he reached the stairs leading to the platform. He took them two at a time. As he reached the top, the scene before him nearly knocked him over—which would have been really bad because the platform was right next to a cliff.
Pearlescent angel ships soared high in the sky, and one massive one—Etheria—flew much lower, cutting through a sea of demon ships, pumping salt water onto them. Flying demons buzzed through the air like insects, trying to get to the Halo vessel. A demon ship with a glass base floated nearby, through which Soren could see Caducus, Lilith, and Samuel, sitting upon thrones of purple, looking towards the gallows as if it was a mildly entertaining play.
Then he saw what they were watching.
Aurora and Gray.
<
br /> His mom’s neck was encased in metal, and Gray stood before her, holding her up. Soren wasn’t sure how, but whatever spell Gray had been under, had definitely broken. And now he was trying to save Aurora.
But then…why were they kissing?
Suddenly a shuddering earthquake thundered from where Aurora and Gray stood, pummeling into all the dark creatures around them. Demon ships fell from the sky, crashing into the park and city below them. Even the ship filled with the three corrupt rulers fell.
Soren charged, Lionheart in hand, in the direction of Aurora and Gray, his eyes set on the chain above his mom’s head.
He had to cut her down.
One minute he was running and the next he was on the ground, being pushed sideways by a burning demon that had fallen from the sky. Lionheart spun out of his grip as the solid metal ground disappeared from beneath him. The flaming demon fell off the platform, crashing against the rocks and tumbling down. Soren threw out a hand and clasped onto the edge of the platform, hanging high above the ground.
Then his fingers slowly began to slip.
AURORA
Everything happened so quickly.
Aurora had kissed Gray with every intention of doing as much damage to the surrounding demons as was possible. And also because she couldn’t not kiss him when he said her name. But she hadn’t thought of the damage it could have done to the angels. To the Halos.
To her son.
“Soren!” she cried out.
His little hand could be seen with a vice-like grip on the edge of the platform. But this wouldn’t last long. He was already slipping. And, as much as she wished he were, Aurora knew he wasn’t invincible.
If he fell, he would die.
“Gray—”
But he was already moving, shooting Aurora a fierce look as he let her go, her hands flying back up to the metal collar, slick with sweat, attempting to hold on for both of their lives. She watched as Gray left her side to save her son, reaching the edge of the platform and hunching over to pull him up.
Aurora was so caught up in Soren and Gray that she almost didn’t register the dark figure appearing before her in the form of her father.
Her blue eyes met his.
In his hand, he held a small dagger. A trail of golden blood streamed from a cut on his forehead.
“You’re a fighter, daughter,” he murmured, almost regretfully. “It’s just too bad you chose to fight for the wrong side.”
And with these final words, he drove the dagger into her chest, right into her heart.
Forty-Six
SOREN
His fingers lost contact with the edge of the metal platform just as Gray’s hands grasped ahold of his arm, tugging him up. As he pulled Soren onto solid ground, Gray’s eyes rolled backward suddenly, showing only white.
Then he collapsed.
“Gray?” Soren said. “Gray?”
Looking to his mom, Soren felt what was left of his heart shatter.
Caducus—his Fallen grandfather—stood before Aurora with a bloodied dagger in his hands. Soren’s gaze flicked up just in time to see her hands slip. The metal noose pierced her neck, pouring blood onto the platform.
And then she just hung there.
MICHAEL
Etheria was now the only ship left sailing, save for the non-battle Halo ships soaring high above them, using their own powers to give the angels the edge.
Michael had known before he reached the edge of the ship that the sudden massive loss of demon life had been due to Aurora and Gray. What he hadn’t expected was to see the Stellar Halo’s lifeless bodies on the same platform as Caducus, who now took a step away from Aurora.
Laying eyes on him, Michael realized she knew now who her angel father was…and had paid the price.
Surveying the damage done to his non-existent army, Caducus let out a bellow before turning to face the castle, spreading his arms wide and throwing his head back, spitting out his demon language.
All along the castle, black stones inlaid into the walls glowed red. He was calling for more demons. Caducus was not finished.
“Shall I call for backup?” a smooth voice said from beside Michael.
Lucifer.
Even now, after all this time, Michael’s earthly body reacted to him. Their eyes met. Michael needn’t say any words. He merely nodded…and Lucifer’s eyes turned a burning black.
CHORD
A string of curse words made its way through the Halos who’d been knocked to the deck.
“What on earth was—” Danni Jo began.
Chord, Sev, and Brielle answered all at once. “Aurora and Gray.”
It hadn’t been their first rodeo in a demon battle with the two Stellars. Chord climbed up the railing facing the castle now taken over by Caducus.
A sickening shock twisted in his gut as his gaze landed on the metal platform. Images he couldn’t yet comprehend hit him like a second wave—Gray crumpled lifeless next to Aurora’s son. Caducus with his hands spread wide and head thrown back as hundreds of thousands of stones in the castle walls glowed red.
And Aurora. Hanging.
Brielle screamed from a few feet behind him, and Sev came to stand by his side.
“No,” Logan breathed, her arms wrapped around a now sobbing Brielle.
“But…” Chord began, unsure of what to say. “They can’t be gone. The battle isn’t over yet. We haven’t won yet. We—”
The mulciber stones spit black fog from them, followed by demons of all shapes and sizes and colors. Chord recognized many of them from his and Sevastion’s demon compendium. Some were brand new. All were absolutely revolting and terrible. Part of him was glad most of them were wingless. But then Etheria began to sink.
“We’re going to have to fight these demons…” Danni Jo said in a hollow voice. “Aren’t we?”
“Yes, honey,” Chord muttered, patting her numbly on the shoulder. “It would appear that we are.”
SOREN
“Soren!”
For a moment, he thought it was his mom calling his name. But the hope blooming in his chest was doused and twisted into something else as his eyes landed on Scarlet rushing to his side, Lionheart in her hand.
“Soren,” she repeated more urgently as she reached his side. “We have to fight!”
He half-expected to see Caducus towering ominously over them, striking them down as easily as he had Gray and Aurora. But when Soren looked back to Aurora’s hanging body, Caducus was gone.
Of course. Why bother with little kids you thought would die at the hands of a demon anyway?
Despite wanting to lie there and break down, Soren received a jolt of anger and hatred to the heart.
No.
He wouldn’t give up so easily. He would do the job his mom wasn’t able to finish.
So he stood, taking Lionheart from Scarlet’s hand. The mulciber stones in the castle were now pumping out fresh hordes of demons, looking like the vilest of creatures on earth. Like insects and horned beasts of all colors.
Then the ground shook again.
If Gray’s still body hadn’t been within Soren’s line of vision, he’d have thought some sort of miracle happened to bring the Stellars back together to save everyone. But this earthquake felt different. And it was coming from beyond the castle.
“Soren, look,” Scarlet breathed.
Following the direction in which she was pointing, he saw Etheria had lowered to the ground. Only, the ground around it was no longer solid. It had split open like cracks in a cake. And out of the cracks came more demons. Except these demons were solid black with white, glowing eyes. Not colorful like the mulciber demons, but equally as terrifying.
“Hell’s demons,” Scarlet whispered in awe.
“Are those different?” he asked in a hollow voice, watching as a black demon pounced on a yellow one, violently ripping off its head.
“They follow Lucifer…and I think they’re fighting on the side of the Light.”
“Well."
Soren stepped forward, his grip tightening on Lionheart. “Let’s join them.”
Forty-Seven
AURORA
Pillows and blankets surrounded Aurora, encasing her in a soft cocoon.
Her eyes fluttered open, scanning the familiar setting. She was in her bedroom...in Seattle.
Sounds of battle and the smell of blood had disappeared. The metal noose around her neck was gone.
Sitting slowly up, Aurora looked around at her monochromatic room. Black and white and gray.
Gray.
Climbing out of her bed, she looked to down see a solid-white nightgown she knew she didn’t own. Aurora padded barefoot to her the door, unsure of what she’d find on the other side. Then she heard laughter, familiar and warm.
In the living room, she found the source of the noise. Her mother and Danny. Only there was something different about her brother. His eyes were no longer clouded over, and he didn’t have a vacant expression on his face anymore. There was awareness in his gaze. Awareness and peace.
As Aurora stepped tentatively into the room, her mom turned to her, a wide smile spreading across her youthful face. “Hi, baby.”
“How…? Are you…? Are you both dead? Am I dead?” she asked finally, speaking the smallest words scrolling across her mental lexicon.
Anne’s smile lessened as she held out a hand for her daughter. “Come, sit.”
“Am I dead?” Aurora repeated.
“You’ve left your earthly body,” Anne said. "Danny and I have too."
“So...we're dead then?”
Daniel spoke for the first time, his voice deep and gravelly. “Souls don’t die. They just move.”
Aurora felt her mouth fall open. Could you feel things when you were dead? Her eyes scanned the familiar scene of her apartment, trying to wrap her mind—if she even still had a mind—around what was happening.
Stellar (The Halo Series Book 3) Page 25
