Finale hh-4

by Becca Fitzpatrick

  I drew my knees up and bowed my head against them. “I killed Hank Millar, Vee. Patch and I did it together. Dante knows, and he’s going to arrest me at the duel. He’s going to execute me for treason.” My mind conjured up a very real portrait. Dante would make my humiliation as public as possible. As his guards dragged me from the duel, I’d be spit on and called a myriad of vile names. As for the execution, how he would go about ending my life—

  He would use his sword. The one Blakely had enhanced with devilcraft to kill me.

  “That’s why I can’t go to the duel,” I finished.

  Vee’s silence stretched out. “It’s Dante’s word against yours,” she said at last.

  “That’s what I’m worried about.”

  “You’re still leader of the Nephilim. You’ve got some street cred. If he tries to arrest you, challenge him.” Conviction flashed in her eyes. “Fight him to the end. You can make it easy for him, or you can dig in your heels and make him work for it.”

  I sniffled, wiping my nose on the back of my hand. “I’m scared, Vee. So very scared.”

  “I know, babe. But I also know that if anyone can do this, it’s you. I don’t tell you this often, and maybe I’ve never told you, but when I grow up, I want to be just like you. Now for the last time, get out of bed before I drench you again. You’re going to the cemetery. And you’re going to give Dante the fight of his life.”

  The worst of my burns had healed, but I felt drained and weakened nonetheless. I hadn’t been a Nephil long enough to know the mechanics behind my rapid healing, but I imagined I’d unwittingly expended a lot of energy in the process. I hadn’t checked the mirror before leaving Patch’s place, but I had a pretty good idea of how miserable and downtrodden I looked. One glance at me, and Dante would call his own victory.

  As Vee and I pulled into the gravel parking lot overlooking the cemetery, I reviewed my plan. After Dante announced he’d banished fallen angels to hell and won the war, he would most likely accuse me of murdering Hank and proclaim himself as my replacement. At that point, I would not step aside and relinquish my title. Vee was right; I wou right; ld fight. Against all odds, I would fight. Dante would lead the Nephilim over my dead body—literally.

  Vee’s hand closed over mine. “Go secure your title. We’ll figure out the rest later.”

  I swallowed back a disbelieving laugh. Later? I didn’t care what happened after this. I felt a cold detachment toward my future. I didn’t want to think about an hour from now. I didn’t want to think about tomorrow. With each passing moment, my life veered further away from the path Patch and I had walked together. I didn’t want to press forward. I wanted to go back. Where I could be with Patch again.

  “Scott and I will be down there, in the crowd,” Vee stated firmly. “Just . . . be careful, Nora.”

  Tears welled in my eyes. Those were Patch’s words. I needed him here now, assuring me I could do this.

  The sky was still dark, the moon washing white light over the ghostly landscape. A heavy frost made the grass crunch beneath my feet as I walked slowly downhill to the cemetery, giving Vee a head start. The grave markers seemed to float on the mist, white stone crosses and slender obelisks. An angel with chipped wings stretched two broken arms toward me. A ragged sob clamped in my throat. I shut my eyes, conjuring up Patch’s strong, handsome features. It hurt to picture him, knowing I’d never see him again. Don’t you dare cry now, I berated myself. I looked away, afraid I wouldn’t get through this if I allowed any emotion other than icy determination into my heart.

  Hundreds of Nephilim gathered in the cemetery below. The sheer size of their numbers caused my stride to catch. Since Nephilim stopped aging the day they swore fealty, most were young, within ten years of me, but I saw a handful of elderly men and women grouped among them. Their faces were bright with expectation. Children dodged in circles around their parents’ legs, playing tag, before they were wrestled by the shoulders and pinned still. Children. As if this morning’s event were family entertainment: a circus or a ball game.

  As I drew closer, I noticed that twelve Nephilim wore ankle-length black robes, hoods drawn up. They had to be the same powerful Nephilim I’d met the morning following Hank’s death. As leader of the Nephilim, I should have known what the robes signified. Lisa Martin and her cohorts should have told me. But they had never welcomed me into their circle. They’d never wanted me in the first place. I was sure the robes signified position and power, but I’d had to figure it out on my own.

  One of the Nephilim pushed her hood back. Lisa Martin herself. Her expression was solemn, her eyes tense with anticipation. She handed me a black robe, as though it were more a matter of obligation than a sign of acceptance. The robe was heavier than I expected, made of thick velvet that felt slippery in my hands. “Have you seen Dante?” she asked me in an undertone.

  I slipped the robe over my shoulders but didn’t answer.

  My eyes fell on Scott and Vee, and my chest loosened. I drew my first deep breath since leaving Patch’s townhouse. Then I saw that they were holding hands, and a strange loneliness washed over me. My own empty hand tingled in the breeze. I worked my fist to keep it from shaking. Patch wasn’t coming. Never again would he thread his fingers through mine, and a soft moan escaped my throat at the realization.

  Sunrise.

  A band of gold illuminated the gray horizon. Within minutes, rays of light would filter through the trees and burn off the fog. Dante would come, and the Nephilim would learn of their victory. The fear of swearing fealty and the dread of Cheshvan would become stories written in history. They would rejoice, cheering wildly and hailing Dante as their savior. They would carry him on their shoulders and chant his name. And then, when he had their unanimous approval, he would call me up out of the crowd. . . .

  Lisa walked to the center of the gathering. She amplified her voice to say, “I’m sure Dante will arrive shortly. He knows the duel is strictly set for sunrise. It isn’t like him to be late, but in any case, we may have to delay a few—”

  Her remark was cut short by a rumbling that seemed to ripple across the ground. It vibrated through the soles of my feet, growing stronger. An instant uneasiness clamped like a fist in my stomach. Someone was coming. And not just someone, but several someones.

  “Fallen angels,” a Nephil whispered, fear threading her voice.

  She was right. Their perceptible power, even from a distance, made every nerve ending in my body tingle. My hairs stood on end, stiff with aversion. I guessed their numbers to be hundreds. But how? Marcie had burned their feathers—I’d watched her.

  “How did they find us?” another Nephil asked, dread rattling her familiar voice. I glanced sideways sharply, seeing Susanna Millar’s mouth pucker with bewilderment beneath the folds of her hood.

  “So they’ve come at last,” Lisa hissed, a bright thirst for blood gleaming in her eyes. “Quick! Hide your children and gather your weapons. We will go against them, with or without Dante. The final battle ends here.”

  Her command spread through the crowd, followed by calls for order. Nephilim staggered and jostled into hurried, disorganized ranks. Some had knives, but those who didn’t picked up rocks, broken bottles, and any other debris they could find to arm themselves. I ran to Vee and Scott. Without wasting breath, I directed my first words at Scott.

  “Get Vee out of here. Go somewhere safe. I’ll find you both when this is over.”

  “You’re insane if you think we’re leaving without you,” Vee stated firmly. “Tell her, Scott. Pick her up and carry her out of here if you have to.”

  “How are fallen angels here?” Scott asked me, searching my face for an explanation. We’d watched the feathers burn together.

  “I don’t know. But I plan on finding out.”

  “You think Patch is out there. That’s what this is about, isn’t it?” Vee said, looking in the direction of the distant rumble that made the ground beneath us quake.

  I met her eyes. “Scott and I
watched the feathers burn. Either we were tricked, or someone has opened the gates of hell. Instinct tells me the latter is a better bet. If fallen angels are escaping hell, I have to make sure Patch gets out. And then I have to shut the gates before it’s too late. If I don’t end this now, there isn’t going to be another chance. It’s the last day fallen angay falleels can possess Nephilim bodies, but I no longer think that means anything to fallen angels.” I thought of devilcraft. Of its power. “I believe they have the means to enslave us indefinitely—that is, if they don’t kill us first.”

  Vee nodded slowly, digesting the full weight of my words. “Then we’ll help you. We’re in this together. This is as much Scott’s and my fight as it is yours.”

  “Vee —” I began warningly.

  “If this really is the fight of my life, you know I’m gonna be there. Whether you say so or not. I didn’t pass up those last few doughnuts to get here on time, just to turn around and leave,” Vee told me, but there was something almost tender in the way she said it. She meant every word. We were in this together.

  I was too choked up to speak. “All right,” I said at last. “Let’s go slam shut the gates of hell once and for all.”

  CHAPTER 40

  THE SUN CRESTED ABOVE THE HORIZON, BACKLIGHTING the seemingly endless silhouette of fallen angels charging across the cemetery grounds. In the early, slanted light, their shadows emitted an incandescent blue, like a great ocean wave roaring toward shore. One man—a Nephil—ran at the front of the army, wielding a blue-gleaming sword. A sword created to kill me. Even from this distance, Dante’s eyes seemed to cut through all distraction, hunting for me.

  I’d wondered how the gates of hell had been opened, and now I had my answer. The dark-blue halo hovering above the fallen angels told me Dante had employed devilcraft.

  But why he’d allowed Marcie to burn the feathers, only to free fallen angels—that I didn’t know.

  “I need to get Dante alone,” I told Scott and Vee. “He’s looking for me, too. If you can, lead him to the parking lot above the cemetery.”

  “You don’t have a weapon,” Scott said.

  I pointed ahead, at the surging army. Every fallen angel carried a sword that seemed to shoot from their hand like a shining blue flame. “No, but they do. I just have to convince one of them to make a donation.”

  “They’re spreading out,” Scott said. “They’re going to kill every Nephil in this cemetery, and then invade Coldwater.”

  I grasped his hands, then Vee’s. For one moment, we formed an unbreakable circle, and it gave me strength. I’d be alone when I faced Dante, but Vee and Scott would not be far away—I would remember that. “Whatever happens, I’ll never forget our friendship.”

  Scott dragged my head against his chest, holding me fervently, then kissed my forehead tenderly. Vee flung her arms around me, embracing me long enough that I feared I might shed more tears than I already had.

  Pulling away, I ran.

  The terrain of the cemetery offered multiple hiding places, and I climbed swiftly into the branches of an evergreen tree growing out of the hill leading up to the parking lot. From here, I had an unobstructed view, watching as unarmed Nephilim men and women, outnumbered twenty to one, charged at the wall of fallen angels. In a matter of seconds, fallen angels descended over them like a cloud, chopping them down as if they were nothing more than weeds.

  At the bottom of the hill, Susanna Millar was locked in a wrestling match with a fallen angel whose pale blond hair whipped about her shoulders as the two women thrashed for control. Susanna flung a knife from the hidden folds of her cloak and launched it into Dabria’s breastbone. With a high growl of rage, Dabria two-handed her sword, skidding over the wet grass as she swung it in retaliation. Their fight carried them behind the maze of tombstones and out of sight.

  Farther away, Scott and Vee fought back to back, using tree branches to fend off four fallen angels who had them surrounded. Despite their numerical advantage, the fallen angels receded from Scott, whose sheer strength and size gave him the upper hand. He knocked them over with the tree branch, then used it as a sledgehammer to pummel them senseless.

  I scanned the cemetery for Marcie. If she was out there, I couldn’t see her. It wasn’t a wild guess to believe she’d deliberately avoided the battle and chosen safety over honor. Blood painted the cemetery grass. Nephilim and fallen angels alike skidded on it—some of the blood was pure red, much of it tainted blue with devilcraft.

  Lisa Martin and her robed friends ran along the perimeter of the cemetery, black smoke billowing from the torches they carried. At a hurried pace, they moved from one tree and shrub to the next, lighting them on fire. Flames erupted, consuming the foliage and narrowing the battlefield, forming a barrier around the fallen angels. The smoke, hazy and thick, stretched across the cemetery like the shadow of nightfall. Lisa couldn’t burn fallen angels to death, but she had bought the Nephilim extra coverage.

  One fallen angel emerged from the smoke, trudging up the hillside, eyes alert. I had to believe he sensed me. His sword radiated blue fire, but the way he held it concealed his face. Still, I could plainly see he was gangly, an easier match for me.

  He crept toward the tree, eyeing the dark spaces nestled between branches cautiously. In five seconds, he’d be directly below me.

  Four, three, two—

  I dropped from the tree. I slammed into him from behind, the weight of my impact shoving him forward. His sword flew from his hand before I could steal it. We rolled several feet, but I had the advantage of surprise. Scrabbling upright quickly, I stood over his back, landing several crushing blows to his wing scars before he shoved his foot back, sweeping my legs out from under me. I rolled away, missing the downward drill of a knife he’d extracted from his boot.

  “Rixon?” I said, shocked to recognize the pale face and hawkish features of Patch’s former best friend glaring at me. Patch had personally chained Rixon in hell after he’d attempted to sacrifice me to get a human body.

  “You,” he said.

  We faced each other, knees bent, ready to spring. “Where’s Patch?” I dared ask.

  His beady eyes clung to mine, narrowed and cold. “That name means nothing to me. Thing to he man is dead to me.”

  Since he didn’t surge at me with the knife, I risked asking another question. “Why are fallen angels letting Dante lead you?”

  “He forced us to swear an oath of loyalty to him,” he said, his eyes narrowing into twin slits. “It was that, or stay in hell. Not many stayed.”

  Patch wouldn’t stay behind. Not if there was a way back to me. He’d swear the oath to Dante, as much as he’d rather rip out the Nephil’s neck, and then repeat the procedure with every other square inch of his body.

  “I’m going after Dante,” I told Rixon.

  He laughed, a hiss between his teeth. “I claim a prize for every Nephil body I drag back to Dante. I failed to kill ye before, and now I’ll do it properly.”

  At the same time, we dived for his sword, several feet away. Rixon reached it first, rolling agilely onto his knees and slicing the sword crosswise at me. I ducked, hurtling myself at his midsection before he could swing again. I slammed him back against the ground on his wing scars. Taking advantage of his brief immobility, I disarmed him; I plucked the sword from his left hand, and the knife from his right.

  Then I kicked his body over and plunged the knife deep into his wing scars. “You killed my dad,” I told him. “I haven’t forgotten.”

  I hustled uphill toward the parking lot, glancing back to see that I wasn’t being followed. I had a sword, but I needed a better one. Recalling my training with Patch, I replayed every sword-stripping maneuver we had practiced together. When Dante met me in the parking lot, I would steal his sword. And I would kill him with it.

  When I rounded the hill, Dante was waiting. He watched me, sliding his finger indolently back and forth over the tip of his sword.

  “Nice sword,” I said. “I hea
rd you had it made especially for me.”

  His bottom lip curled marginally. “Only the best for you.”

  “You murdered Blakely. A pretty cold way of saying thank you for all the prototypes he developed for you.”

  “And you murdered Hank. Your own flesh and blood. A bit like calling the kettle black, isn’t it?” he quipped. “I spent months infiltrating Hank’s secret blood society and gaining his trust. I have to tell you, I raised a toast to my good fortune the day he died. It would have been far harder to dethrone him than you.”

  I shrugged. “I’m used to being underestimated.”

  “I trained you. I know exactly what you’re capable of.”

  “Why’d you free fallen angels?” I asked bluntly, since he seemed amenable to sharing secrets. “You had them in hell. You could have defected and ruled the Nephilim. They never would have known the truth about your shifting loyalties.”

  Dante smiled, his teeth sharp and white. He looked more animal than man, a swarthy, savage beast. “I’ve risen above both races,” he said in a voice so practical it was hard to think he didn’t truly believe it. “I will give Nephilim whe Nephilo survive my army’s attack this morning a similar choice to the one I gave fallen angels: swear loyalty to me or die. One ruler. Indivisible. With power and judgment over all. Wish you’d thought of it first?”

  I held Rixon’s sword close to my body, shifting on the balls of my feet. “Oh, there are several things I’m wishing right now, but that’s not one of them. Why haven’t fallen angels possessed Nephilim this Cheshvan? I’m guessing you know, and don’t take that as a compliment.”

  “I ordered them not to. Until I killed Blakely, I didn’t want him superseding my orders and distributing the devilcraft super-drink to Nephilim. He would have, if fallen angels had come against Nephilim.” Again, spoken so practically. So superior. He feared nothing.

  “Where’s Patch?”

  “In hell. I made certain his face never passed through the gates. He’ll stay in hell. And only when I feel like brutally abusing and tormenting something will he get a visitor.”