Seals

by Kim Richardson

  “Fine,” she said finally, trying to hide the gratitude she felt. “But stay behind me at all times, and don’t do anything foolish.”

  “Nonsense, when have I ever done anything foolish,” he said with a gleam in his eyes.

  But then he became serious again.

  “While I was waiting for you in my cupboard, I used my talents, and I was able to pin point the knight’s location.”

  “Where?”

  “Well, if I’m right, he’s in Mexico right now. But I don’t know how long he’s going to stay there.”

  Mexico. Kara didn’t know how long it would take her to fly there. She couldn’t return to Horizon and use the Vega tanks. It would take at least five hours, if not more, and that’s if all went well. She wasn’t even sure that she could make the trip without succumbing to the evil that threatened her at every second.

  Mr. Patterson shook his head, and Kara could see that he was almost overcome with pain and sorrow.

  “He started in Russia and then spread his evil to the lower parts of Europe and Africa. The wars he’s created will kill millions of poor souls. Their minds have been corrupted by an evil they can’t control. They don’t know what they are doing. They’re like puppets doing the devil’s work. In a day or two, there may be nothing left. No souls to save and no world.”

  He fell silent for a moment.

  “Right now, we have more important matters. The legion will go to war in a few hours.”

  He lifted a hand as Kara started to protest.

  “And if we want to save them, we go now.”

  The oracle nodded and then said, “We must take hold of the future, before the future takes hold of us.”

  Kara made her way toward the front door and then whirled around. “Wait. I can fly there, but how are you going to get to Mexico?”

  The oracle grinned. “I thought you could carry me?”

  Kara’s mouth fell open. “What?”

  “Well, I’m in a pickle, aren’t I?” said the little man. “I cannot go back to Horizon, and all air transportation has been grounded. So the only way I can get there is if you take me with you. I’ve not very big, so I don’t’ think I’ll be a burden to you at all.”

  At first Kara thought the old man had gone mad. But as she stood staring at his determined old face, she realized that it wasn’t such a foolish request. He probably didn’t weigh more than ninety pounds. He wouldn’t slow her down.

  Mr. Patterson saw that she was considering it.

  “I could climb on your back. That way I wouldn’t obstruct your flying in any way. I’m not very heavy, I promise.”

  Kara decided that she would do whatever it took.

  “Fine.” Kara smiled. “Just pray to the souls no one we know sees us.”

  Kara pulled open the front door.

  Salthazar and a mob of higher demons stood in the middle of the street.

  Chapter 14

  The Demise

  “I thought I’d find you here,” said the demon lord.

  His too-white teeth sparkled in the dim light as he stared at her with a mixture of awe and disbelief. “You look fantastic!”

  Kara stiffened. “Are you coming on to me?”

  She spat. “Sorry, but you’re not my type.”

  Salthazar laughed softly, his handsome face too perfect to be human. “But I will be your type sooner than you think, and then you’ll change your mind.”

  “You’re delusional.” Kara didn’t know whether to laugh or punch him in the face. Who did this guy think he was, anyway? Even if he was disturbingly handsome, in a demon lord kind of way, she belonged with David until the end.

  There must have been about a hundred demons standing behind him, and she could sense their pent up ire and aggression. Strangely enough, she felt rather proud that Salthazar felt they needed so many reinforcements. It meant they were afraid of her. She smiled wickedly.

  “What do you want?” Kara saw Mr. Patterson reach for his dagger.

  Salthazar smiled. “Isn’t it obvious?”

  He laughed softly again. “It’s you I’ve come for.”

  “If this is a marriage proposal, it really sucks.”

  The demon lord didn’t lose his smile.

  “You see, Kara, as much as I like you and admire what you’ve become, I have to follow orders, just like you. And I just cannot have you flying all over this mortal world and ruining our plans.”

  At last Kara was going to find out what game the demons were playing. “Which is what, exactly?”

  “You’re in the way. I can’t let you get close to any of the knights, not again. You got too close the last time, and I can’t allow you to hurt them, let alone destroy them.”

  Kara growled. “So I was right. You want to stop us from killing those monstrosities. You know that if we kill one of them, your masters’ plan will fail, and they will go back to their prison.”

  Salthazar’s face slacked, but he didn’t answer.

  Kara glanced over to the oracle. He had been right all along. The white oracle had seen it.

  “Don’t answer,” said Kara as she turned her attention back to the demon lord.

  “But I know I’m right. Just the fact that you showed up here with your army of grunts to stop me, like you said, is all the proof I need.”

  She smiled wickedly. “You know I could destroy the knights, and that’s why you’re here. You’re afraid I might win.”

  “Never start a war that you cannot win,” said the demon lord with a savagery that twisted his handsome face.

  Kara’s cold rage started to rise again, and she pressed it down. “You lied to the legion. There never was a treaty, was there? You played us.”

  Salthazar’s black eyes gleamed. “I did. And it was the easiest game of chess I’ve ever played. How could I say no? I couldn’t. I’ll rule the Netherworld with an unlimited supply of human souls? It was too good a deal to pass.”

  “You’re scum.”

  “The legion chose to ignore their basic principles and sided with us. They fear the archfiends, and they succumbed to that fear. It’s their loss now. And when they realize their folly, when they realize that I deceived them—it’ll be too late.”

  “Not if I can help it.” Kara wanted to claw his pretty face. Not now. Not yet.

  “Well, it won’t matter in the end,” continued Salthazar calmly. “Either way it won’t change the fact that I just can’t let you out of my sight. You will never get near the knights again.”

  “Try and stop me.”

  The demon lord sneered. “I will.”

  Salthazar snapped his fingers.

  The demons charged.

  “Get behind me,” she growled at Mr. Patterson as she shielded his body with hers.

  She was ready for more bloodshed. She was looking forward to it. Let them come. She didn’t have to tap into her cool, dark power. It was already coursing through her body.

  They came at her, blades swinging. She met their weapons with her own blade, ducking and blocking faster and with more skill than she ever thought possible, another gift from the darkness, no doubt. But she didn’t have time to admire her abilities. She needed to get herself and Mr. Patterson out before things got more ugly and dangerous for the both of them.

  She met their daggers and swords with strength and agility, spinning and moving through the mass of demons like a skilled dancer. She used her wings, now that she knew she could, and sliced though their limbs and watched them fall like broken branches. Steel flashed. Demons hissed and screamed. The air was filled with the sounds of ringing metal and the shouts of dying demons. She soared through them easily, relishing the savagery of her darkness.

  With one rapid movement, she hurled her sword at a demon who had thrown his blade at her and missed. Black blood seeped from his mouth and from the deep gouge in his neck before he fell over like a dead tree. She pulled out her blade and kicked away the body.

  Another one came at her and knocked her aside with a powerfu
l blow to the head. Kara stumbled backward, but she was up again in an instant. She flipped her dagger in her hand, caught it by the tip of the blade, and flung it straight into the creature’s eye. Before the demon even had time to crumple to the ground, she pulled out her blade and jumped over its disintegrating body.

  She wondered if Salthazar was still smiling.

  Ten more demons came at her at once. Too fast. Before she could react, she was slammed into a wall and pain burst from her shoulder as her wings were crushed with a sickening crack.

  “Don’t kill her!”

  She heard Salthazar’s voice over the rumble of the battle.

  “I need her alive and unscathed.”

  Kara couldn’t fathom why the demon lord didn’t just kill her. The thought that he was infatuated with her was repulsive. Whatever his reason, it gave her an advantage. If they didn’t want her destroyed, then this would be easier than she thought.

  Groaning, she glimpsed down. Three death blades punctured her abdomen with wounds that would have committed any normal angel to a miserable and agonizing true death. She was surprised that she felt the pain, but not the burning poison she had felt so many times before. She should be dying right about now. So why was it not happening? Were their blades defective? Even the pain wasn’t what it should be. It should have hurt a heck of a lot more. It was almost like the death blades’ poison didn’t affect her. Not anymore.

  Whatever the darkness had done to protect her, she would thank it later.

  She kicked out hard, and two higher demons went sprawling. She saw an opening and thrust the tip of her left wing into another demon’s head, perforating it like a pumpkin. Another one came, and she spun and side kicked it in the chest. Two death blades came flying at her, swinging like karate nunchucks. She ducked, but the blades chopped off a piece of her wing.

  Kara rolled on the ground, howling in pain. The drips of black blood on the ground were her blood this time.

  She cried a scream that came from deep within her soul. She cursed the black blood, and the monster she was becoming. With black blood dripping from her wounds, she snarled and attacked anything that came near her. Slicing. Thrashing. Biting. She was snarling like a wild animal. In her rage, she saw nothing but darkness and blood. She wanted only to kill.

  She had become a killing machine.

  She caught a glimpse at Salthazar.

  He was smiling. It was like he enjoyed watching her kill his own demons.

  In her rage she had forgotten the oracle.

  Her insides froze. She saw that Mr. Patterson was pushed up against the front door of his bookstore. He was trapped by seven demons. The fear in his eyes sent a chill down her back. She had to get to him. She had to get him out.

  With her face and hands caked with the blood of her enemies, she thrashed like a wild creature cutting a path through the horde of demons. Their faces blurred as she ploughed her way toward Mr. Patterson.

  Blinding pain erupted from the side of her head, and wetness fell into her eyes, but she didn’t stop. She couldn’t stop. She had to reach him—

  She heard the oracle scream.

  Frantic, she screamed louder and drove her dagger into the eye of the last higher demon in her way. She was almost there.

  And then what she saw was like in slow motion. She saw four of the demons pull their death blades out of the oracle’s chest. His blue eyes met hers in a silent plea, almost as though he was sorry. And then he staggered. His knees buckled beneath him, and he fell over.

  “NO!”

  Kara bounded to him and spun like a wild tornado. The severed bodies of the demons fell around her as she fell to her knees sobbing.

  “No, no, no,” she cried.

  She pressed her hands over his wounds, and golden liquid seeped through her fingers. There was so much of it. She knelt in the pool of his essence.

  He opened his mouth and golden essence poured from the corners. “I’m—sorry.”

  His eyes glazed over and became lifeless.

  The higher demons circled her, but she just knelt there. Her hands trembled, and she sobbed uncontrollably

  “Mr. Patterson? Mr. Patterson?”

  His body moved, a bit of hope, but then she realized it was her shaking that had caused the movement. The vibrant, fierce, loving soul, the one person who had looked after her like a real father, who had taken care of her, whose shop had been like a beacon of hope, was gone.

  The oracle was dead.

  Kara stared at his body. She was numb. She was lost.

  Why hadn’t his soul appeared?

  And then something hard hit the back of her head and everything went dark.

  Chapter 15

  Caged

  When Kara came to, she was blindfolded. Her head still throbbed from the blow she had received, and she didn’t know how long she had been unconscious or where she was. But she didn’t care. There was only darkness. Darkness inside her. Darkness around her. And she welcomed it. She deserved it.

  She had gotten Mr. Patterson killed. If she had surrendered herself to Metatron, the oracle would still be alive. If only she had followed the rules for once. But now he was dead, and it was her fault. She always thought that she knew better than anyone else. How could she, when in Horizon years she was practically a newborn.

  She should have taken the punishment and gone to Tartarus, but she’d fled like a coward. She was a coward. People died in her wake. She was a coward and a monster.

  Didn’t Mr. Patterson see this coming in his crystal balls? Why hadn’t he told her? She wished he’d stayed hidden in his cupboard.

  Kara stifled a cry. It wasn’t his fault. It was hers. It was not his familiar smiling face she saw beneath her blindfold but the pained and frightened face of a friend as his life slipped away.

  What happened to oracles when they suffered their true death? Was it like the angels? Did their souls reincarnate into another oracle?

  The more she thought about it, the more she realized she didn’t know much at all about the other beings in Horizon. She had never really cared. She was selfish. He had died in vain, and it was all her fault. Let her own true death come, she wanted it.

  She lay on a hard stone floor. Water trickled in the distance. The air was damp, and it smelled of sulfur, rot and toxic gas. At first, it reminded her of Tartarus, but it felt different. It was hot, too hot to be Tartarus. And what limited air there was, was choking hot, suffocating. Wherever she was, a mortal couldn’t survive here.

  And it wasn’t the Netherworld either. She still felt the pulls of the mortal world. She was still on Earth, but she just didn’t know where.

  The ground pulsed against her cheek like it had a beating heart, like it was alive. Even lying down, she felt a hot wind blow in and out with a tempo like it was breathing. It was creepy but it faded away like remnants of a dream as she fell in and out of consciousness.

  After lying down for what felt like hours, she tried to move her arms. They were bound and so were her feet. Rope. If she wanted to, she could find a way to rip her bonds apart. But she didn’t want to. She deserved this. All of it.

  She crawled on her hands and knees until her head hit something solid. A wall. She managed to turn herself around and sat with her back to the wall. Her head still throbbed, and she could feel the nasty bump where she had been hit.

  She had nothing left to give. With the death of the oracle, she had inadvertently become the monster she feared. It had been inevitable, just as Salthazar had said. She was meant to become this monster.

  She would die in the bleakness of this place, in her own hell, alone and forgotten.

  “I killed Mr. Patterson,” she whispered in the dark, needing someone or something to hear her confession. “I killed him.”

  Had the white oracle seen this part of the future?

  She didn’t understand why Salthazar hadn’t ended her right then and there back at the bookstore. It would have been really easy for him. But he didn’t. And now she was here
, somewhere, as their captive. But why?

  The two remaining seals were probably broken by now. And what was the point in even thinking about it? It was all over. The angels would be annihilated and billions of mortals would be dead. Horizon would be destroyed, and there would be nothing left. She tried hard not to think about it.

  A door scraped open somewhere nearby. She heard hushed voices, and then heavy tread of feet approached her. She kept her head down.

  “Finally. You’re conscious.” It was Salthazar’s voice. He sounded as though he’d been waiting a very long time for her to wake up.

  “You’ve been out for nearly an entire day.”

  Kara frowned. Why was that important to her? She felt that it should be, but she couldn’t remember why. She let the question dissolve.

  “They shouldn’t have hit you so hard.” The demon lord sounded irritated this time. Was that a hint of concern she detected?

  “I was getting a little worried. But what’s done is done, and now you’re up. I’m very happy to see you well again, Kara.”

  Kara snarled at the way he said her name, like he longed for her. It disgusted her. Did he think they were somehow going to be an item? If he did, then he was delusional. She didn’t want anything except for an end to her miserable life.

  “Why don’t you just kill me and get on with it,” she growled.

  Her voice was raw, like she’d swallowed a glass full of razor blades. “I’m no use to you…or to anyone.”

  Kara could hear boots on the stone floor nearby.

  “Kill you?” Salthazar was right next to her. “Whatever gave you that idea? We don’t want to kill you…I don’t want to kill you.”

  He paused, and Kara thought she heard him lick his lips.

  “I can see now that all the rumors about you are true. You may just be glorious now…but you will be magnificent. You were always destined to be great. Your father knew it, and I know it. Even the dark gods know it. And you were always destined to be on our side—not the angels. You know that I speak the truth.”