Seals

by Kim Richardson

  The fiend came at her again, fangs exposed.

  Kara head butted her with all her strength, and the fiend staggered and fell backward. Without a second to lose, Kara grabbed the chain as best she could with her bound hands and wrapped it around the creature’s neck. She pulled and pulled until she felt her arms burning. The fiend finally stopped struggling and was still.

  Something hit Kara in her wings and lower back. She fell to her knees. Betaazu stepped over the unconscious female fiend and made his way closer to her. She turned and saw that the other male fiend had crept up behind her as well.

  He kicked her in the face, and Kara went sprawling on the ground. As she rolled to a stop, she felt her darkness fed on her anger. She was going to kill them.

  The new, cold energy throbbed through her body, and she jumped up and faced the moron that had kicked her in the face. A long, sharp whip dangled from his right hand.

  She glanced over to the archfiend and was surprised to see a mix of excitement and anticipation in his face. It was like she had been performing for him, and he was enjoying it immensely. He looked like he was expecting something to happen. She was sure of it.

  But what?

  The fiend with the whip gave her a cold and calculated smile. In the gloom, his blond hair looked sickly and green. If he wanted a fight, he would get one.

  With a crack, the whip sailed toward Kara, and she jumped to the side. But as she regained her balance, the whip flew at her and wrapped around her knees. She screamed as the whip burned through her pants and her skin, as though it had been coated with acid. The fiend yanked his whip, and Kara slammed back onto the ground.

  She blinked the spots from her eyes. Her legs were on fire.

  “Kneel before your gods!” said the blond fiend. “Swear your loyalty to your new masters, filthy creature.”

  Kara rolled onto her stomach and spit the hair from her mouth. “Never. You’re going to have to kill me, demon.”

  The fiend snarled and pulled on his whip with tremendous strength. Kara soared into the air and came crashing down next to Salthazar. She could see that Salthazar didn’t care if they were hurting her. He merely looked annoyed that she might be ruining his chances of making a favorable impression with the archfiends.

  She kicked out at Salthazar’s legs, and as he fell she snatched his death blade.

  She didn’t have time to wonder why the blade didn’t scorch her fingers as it should have, and she began frantically to saw at her bonds. But before she could make much progress, she was booted in the back and lost her grip of the death blade.

  Had her cut had been deep enough?

  Kara rolled on the ground and flipped onto her knees. The blond fiend loomed over her. His fangs gleamed in the soft light, and his black cloak billowed around him.

  “Kneel, girl, or I’ll rip your wings from your body.”

  “I’d like to see you try,” snarled Kara.

  As the darkness bubbled inside her body, her senses sharpened, and she felt the presence of the thousands who were dead and dying close by. Although she hated the smell of death, she also thrived on its cold, empty feeling. It gave her the strength she needed, and she ripped her bonds apart and tossed them at the fiend.

  He shot at her so fast Kara could have sworn he was flying. But her hands were free now, and she was waiting for him. She grabbed his burning whip with both hands and yanked the fiend toward her. As he stumbled forward, she kicked him in the face with all she had. She let go of the whip as he crashed to the ground. Her black veined hands were covered in blisters.

  The fiend spit black blood from his mouth as he stood up.

  “You’re going to pay for this.”

  “Thought you’d say that.” Kara threw her hands behind her and tried to free her wings.

  If she could fly, she could get the heck out of there and look for the fourth knight. It was their only chance.

  Desperately, she tugged and yanked, but the bonds on her wings were too strong for her raw hands. Even with her super-darkness strength, the bonds wouldn’t come off. She was going to have to use something other than her strength. She would have to outsmart it.

  The fiend sent his whip sailing toward her neck again, but she spun around and dodged the scorching weapon. Without skipping a beat, she grabbed the whip again, and using his own momentum, she wrapped it around his neck and strangled him with his own weapon. There was a sickening crack, and he crumpled to the floor. Black blood sprayed onto her face as his decapitated head thudded onto the ground beside his body.

  “Now you’ve done it.” Betaazu came striding across the floor, his face livid. “You stupid, foolish girl.”

  Kara stepped away from the body, hiding her surprise at what she had done.

  “I was wondering when you’d show up.”

  His savage rage was frightening. He tossed his whip aside and came at her. His black teeth were bared, and his face was contorted in an anger that destroyed any handsome features that he might once have possessed.

  Kara raised her brows. “So it’s going to be a fair fight, then? Super.”

  But it wasn’t. Not really.

  Betaazu shot at her faster than a blink of an eye. He smashed her face with his fist, and she saw stars.

  She didn’t know what he was doing until the searing pain found her. She screamed like she’d never screamed before. The fiend tugged and tore at her back until he ripped off one of her wings with his bare hands, and she collapsed to the floor.

  She lay in a puddle of her own black blood. The world around her spun, and the excruciating pain immobilized her. Scorching, white-hot pain gushed down her back like hot wax. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t move. She only knew pain.

  She heard Betaazu’s voice.

  “You shouldn’t have killed my brother! What were you thinking? You stupid, stupid, girl. Do you even know what you’ve done? And now look at you. Pathetic. You should have kneeled when we told you to.”

  He kicked her severed wing, and it slid across the ground, dead.

  “Now you’re broken.”

  Her mouth was dry, and her throat was raw from screaming. The blood was still running down her back. She wanted to curse him, but she couldn’t find the strength to utter a single word. He kicked her hard in the stomach, and she rolled over to the edge of the stone platform.

  “You’re lucky we need you,” hissed Betaazu. “Otherwise I’d kick you off this ledge right now and watch you die a slow and painful death. But not before I tear off your other wing.”

  With her body trembling in anguish, she had only the strength left to lift up her head. She was close enough to the edge of the stone platform to see the commotion below.

  She blinked, and as the scene below her came into focus, Kara felt no more pain and forgot about her severed wing and the dark gods.

  There was only the terrifying scene below her.

  A colossal battle was being fought in the vast desert below the great volcanic mountain on which she lay. It was monstrous battle between the fiends, demons, and terrors of the Netherworld and the angels.

  And the angels were losing.

  Chapter 18

  The Final Stages

  Kara had never seen so many angels together at the same time. There must have been hundreds of thousands of them fighting and losing on the plain below.

  As small as mice, they peppered the land like a rippling sea of moving figures. Hundreds of different legions fought the demon platoons. Even from a distance, she could clearly see the large and towering archangels as they fought alongside the smaller angels. They were strong and impressive, but they weren’t enough.

  The clash of metal and the shrieks of dying angels rose above the plain of battle. The reek of demon and angel blood was a sour, disturbing odor. Hordes of giant monsters and worms and insect-like beasts tore at the bodies of wounded angels like they were paper.

  She could see that the legions of angels fought with agility and deathly expertise as they delivered
their fatal blows. But when the demons should have stayed down, when the angels should have been tearing the demons’ legions apart—the demons kept fighting.

  Demons with fatal wounds fought on as if they didn’t notice their missing limbs or loss of blood. The demons and other Netherworld creatures fought as though they had some supernatural power.

  And then she saw it.

  Six archfiends stood in a circle on the outskirts of the battlefield. Thousands of thin, rippling black tendrils of shadow poured out of their arms and wings and shot out over the battle and into the demons and the fiends. The dark power of the archfiends was supplementing the demons with the unnatural strength of the gods.

  The angels were outmatched. They could never defeat creatures with an endless supply of impossible power.

  Kara’s chest stiffened, if only she could have stopped the last knight…

  “Enjoying the view?” laughed Betaazu. “Enjoying watching your people die?”

  “Shut up.”

  Kara scouted the vast area for faces she could recognize, but they were too far away and were no larger than ink dots.

  Were her friends down there somewhere? Where was David?

  The thought of David getting hurt sent a dark ripple coursing through her body. She shook, not from the pain Betaazu had inflicted on her by tearing off her wing, but in anticipation of the pain she would inflict on him later. He was going to pay.

  Kara felt more cold and empty inside than she’d ever felt before. Metatron had assigned her friends back onto the field. She knew that they would be down there fighting if they were still alive.

  She had to do something. The angels would only last another few hours at the rate they were losing. She couldn’t stay up here, safe, while her friends and the rest of the legion were fighting.

  Why was she up here anyway? Why hadn’t they killed her already? Were they going to toy with her, torment her, make her watch the battle until the archfiends won?

  Betaazu kicked a pebble down the steep ravine. “Well, they’re not your people anymore, and soon it won’t matter anyway.”

  Kara gritted her teeth. “They’ll always be my people.”

  Could she fly with only one wing?

  She was so close.

  If she let herself slip off the ledge, would her lonely wing be enough to glide her down to the battle? Would it even open?

  Discreetly, she tested her right wing and moved it. It worked.

  She slid an inch forward—

  “Get her up. It’s time,” boomed the archfiend’s voice behind her.

  If she was going to do something, she had to do it now.

  It was now or never.

  Kara reached down deep into her soul, and with a last strain of strength she gripped the rock and hauled herself toward the ledge—

  But something grabbed her neck and pulled her back up.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” laughed Betaazu.

  He heaved her back onto the rocky surface. His face was all smiles, but she could see his surprise in his cat-like eyes. He hadn’t thought that she’d risk throwing herself over the edge.

  “Thought I’d join the party down there.” Kara glared at him. “I’m no use to you. Let me die along my own people. You can do that for me, can’t you? Just—just let me go. Please.”

  The fiend squeezed her neck. “Try that again, and I’ll rip off your other wing. Don’t think I won’t.”

  Kara could see her black blood trailing behind her as Betaazu hauled her back across the opening. He steadied her in front of the archfiend.

  He leaned back in his throne with a bored look in his yellow eyes.

  “It puzzles me why you haven’t changed yet.”

  The archfiend looked at her lazily, like he was making a comment about the weather.

  “Stranger still that your new body is letting you bleed out. I would have expected it to stop the bleeding.”

  Kara could feel her essence fade away with every drop that escaped her body. She was frail and broken. Cold sweat trickled down her forehead. If Betaazu hadn’t been holding her up by the neck, she’d have dropped like a stone.

  “It’s a mystery, but now irrelevant. It’s time for you to join us and take back what is ours.”

  The archfiend turned his massive head and bellowed.

  “Knights. Come. Your creator commands you.”

  Three great war horses stepped out from the shadows, and the ground trembled beneath Kara’s feet. The knights of the apocalypse waited for their master’s instructions. She had totally forgotten about them.

  “Go! Destroy them all!”

  The ancient mountain shook as the great beasts galloped toward the ledge. Famine, Pestilence and War charged too fast for mortal eyes. They jumped off the ledge and disappeared down into the battle, leaving only a trail of black mist.

  Within seconds she heard the screams and desperate shouts of dying angels as the knights unleashed their carnage with guttural, bone-grinding growls.

  Kara struggled against Betaazu.

  “Let go of me!”

  She kicked him in the knee as hard as she could, and he let go for an instant before he charged at her furiously again—

  “Enough!”

  Betaazu backed away, cursing her with his fist raised.

  But Kara didn’t care. She turned toward the battlefield. There was a massacre going on down there, and she was missing it. She had to get away from here.

  “Yes, my knights are the most powerful warriors in all the worlds,” said the archfiend.

  Kara turned to look at him, and he mistook her worried frown for interest for his creatures.

  He smiled at her, and his eyes gleamed.

  “As mighty as they might be, still they are nothing compared to my most precious and most feared possession.”

  “When Death arrives,” his grin widened, “nothing in all the worlds will be able stop him. Nothing. Death is the most powerful and sublime of my dark forces. He is indestructible. The dark gods will reign. The angels will be massacred!”

  A faint laugh caught Kara’s attention. The redheaded female fiend, her neck swollen and bruised, looked daggers at Kara. All the other fiends were watching her, too, their cat-like eyes gleaming with cold pride.

  Kara took a small step back, not from fear of the female fiend, but because she had to get out. And the only way out was down over the ledge.

  “It is time, Kara.”

  Kara turned her attention to the archfiend.

  “It’s time for what?” she spat.

  “It’s time to put you to work,” said Beelzebub. “It’s time for you to embrace what you are and to reveal your true identity. It’s time for you to fulfill your destiny.”

  Kara leaned heavily to her right side because the weight of her right wing pulled her down. Her black blood was smeared all over her clothes and her boots. Her head throbbed again, more intensely. She knew she wouldn’t last for very long.

  If this was to be her true death, she wanted it to have meaning. She wanted to go out with a bang. But first she needed to find the knight. Nothing else mattered.

  Using her injuries as a disguise, she staggered and then took another shuffle backward toward the edge.

  “I was always destined to be a guardian angel,” Kara winced at the pain in her head. “Of that I am sure. No, I know it.”

  Beelzebub admired her calmly. It infuriated her.

  “You were destined to become something far greater than merely an angel or a demon. Your father knew it too.”

  Kara rubbed her throbbing head.

  What was he talking about? He clearly enjoyed hearing himself speak. Good. Let him talk.

  She took another step back and shifted her weight so that she could make a run, or rather a shuffle, for the edge.

  “But your father was a fool, a selfish demon fool. In his own quest to acquire greatness and power for himself, he failed to see your real potential, your real destiny. He was blinded by his selfishn
ess and failed to learn the real truth, the real secret about where you came from. About your bloodline.”

  Bloodline?

  Kara felt a cold surge of darkness rise inside her soul. The darkness was trying to snuff out the tiny light that was the only part of her that was still her. She was able to push the darkness down for now, but she knew she wasn’t strong enough anymore. Soon it would take over, and she would lose control.

  Her head pounded, wetness dripped from her nose, and when she wiped it, her hand was stained with black blood. She had to move.

  “Your headaches are just a sign that the transformation is nearly complete,” said the archfiend as if he read her mind.

  He paused for a moment, pleased that he had intrigued her.

  “It is an end…but also a new beginning.”

  Kara had no idea what he was mumbling about. She focused on her weakening knees and throbbing head. She didn’t have time to listen to these psychotic archfiends.

  She took another discreet step back.

  The archfiend smiled evilly. “You are ready now.”

  He stretched out a large hand in front of her.

  “Come, join me, and I promise your headaches will end.”

  There was no way in Horizon Kara was going to join him. She couldn’t take it anymore, couldn’t take the lies, the self-important monsters, her hammering headaches—so she spun around and shuffled away as fast as her weakened body would allow.

  She saw the lip of the ledge and heard the heavy pounding of boots behind her. He was too close. She halted and whirled around, the heels of her feet dangling over the ledge.

  “Stop or I jump!”

  Betaazu skidded to a stop, just a step away from her. She could see the fury blazing in his eyes. His teeth were bared like he wanted to rip out her neck.

  “Stand down, Betaazu,” said the archfiend, still in that insufferable, lazy tone.

  He looked at Kara for a moment. “Why do you even still care for them? There is no hope for them.”

  She stared at her ring.

  “There’s still hope,” she muttered more to herself than to them. She saw Betaazu stare at her ring, but his expression was blank.