Black Lament

by Christina Henry

  “You leave them out of this,” I said fiercely. “If the Agency has a gripe with me, that’s one thing. But you leave them out of this.”

  “That is not for me to decide,” Bryson said. “The angel and the gargoyle come, too.”

  “Little Agent,” Nathaniel said, and there was malice in his tone. “What makes you think I have to do anything you say?”

  Bryson slid his eyes away from me toward Nathaniel, but he was too late.

  Nathaniel moved faster than any human could. All I saw was a blur out of the corner of my eye, and then Bryson was on the ground and Nathaniel stood above him, holding the gun.

  I dropped my hands. Beezle glared down at Bryson from my shoulder like an angry parrot.

  “Where’s J.B. and Jude and Samiel?” I asked.

  “I will tell you nothing,” Bryson said, his eyes snapping with anger.

  I looked at Nathaniel. Nathaniel kicked Bryson so hard that I heard one of his ribs break.

  Bryson coughed, but did not cry out. “I will tell you nothing,” he repeated.

  “I didn’t want you for an enemy,” I said. “You could have helped us. We saved fourteen missing Agents.”

  “And killed two,” Bryson said. “You are an Agent of death, not a bringer of it.”

  “How do you know about that?” I asked. If Bryson knew, then the deaths of those Agents had to have been written somewhere, and that meant that the Agency had known before they’d sent Sokolov to threaten me that I would go to Azazel’s mansion. And that also meant that they knew I would find the Agents, and they did nothing to help me.

  “I know more than you think. I’m not just a tool for Sokolov, as you seem to believe.”

  “Then stop acting like one,” I said. “Did it really sit well with you that the Agency was willing to let their own people die just because they have some grudge against me?”

  “The Agency has their reasons,” Bryson said.

  “And I have mine,” I said. “Tell me where the others are. Don’t make me hurt you.”

  “Are you a monster, then, like the things you claim to despise? Will you torture me for your own ends?”

  “I am not a monster,” I said, and I don’t know who I was trying to convince—him or me. “But I won’t let you or the Agency or anyone else run over me anymore. I want to know where Jude and J.B. and Samiel are, and believe me, I will break you to get to them.”

  “That line just keeps getting grayer and grayer, doesn’t it?” Beezle murmured, for my ears only.

  “You will not break me,” Bryson said.

  “She may not be able to, but I can,” Nathaniel said, and then he gave me a very serious glance. “Look away.”

  I did. I was sure I wouldn’t want to see.

  Bryson didn’t scream, but he made the most piteous noise I’d ever heard.

  I was grateful for the rising darkness, grateful that it was unlikely that anyone could see what we were doing in my backyard. Of course, maybe the neighbors didn’t even bother to call the police anymore. They’d seen me carrying bodies into the basement and I hadn’t been arrested, so it was possible they’d given up and learned to keep their curtains shut.

  “Where have you taken Madeline’s companions?” Nathaniel asked.

  He sounded cruel. He sounded like a man without mercy or conscience. I’d never heard him like that before, not even when he was trying to kill me. This was the right-hand man of Azazel, the hammer that Azazel had used on his enemies.

  I tried hard to remember that I had saved his life for a reason, and that he was doing what he was doing for me.

  Bryson whimpered, but he didn’t answer Nathaniel.

  “This is really okay with you?” Beezle asked quietly.

  “I can’t leave J.B. and Samiel and Jude to the Agency,” I said. “I can’t.”

  “You’re losing yourself,” Beezle said.

  “No,” I replied. “I’m finding myself.”

  “I hope you like the person you find,” Beezle said.

  Nathaniel did something else, and this time Bryson did scream.

  “Where are Madeline’s companions?” Nathaniel asked again.

  “The Agency, the Agency!” Bryson yelled.

  “Where in the Agency?” I asked, turning around.

  Bryson’s eyes were bleeding. I did not want to know how Nathaniel had done that. The super-soldier looked pale and broken, all his defiance gone. I was sorry for that. I was so sorry that it had come to this.

  “In the rooms where they kept the crazy people,” Bryson said, and he started to cry.

  “In the basement, near the Hall of Records,” I said to Nathaniel. “Let’s go.”

  I pushed out my wings, took off toward downtown. Beezle climbed back inside my coat for warmth. Nathaniel flew at my side, blessedly silent. I didn’t know what I might say to him right now. How do you thank someone for torturing a strong man until he’s broken?

  “Better cloak yourself,” I said to Nathaniel. “I want to go in the front door, and you’ll scare the locals if you land on the sidewalk with those wings out.”

  He nodded, and a short time later we stood on the sidewalk in front of the Agency doors. Even though I was under the veil, other Agents could see me, and they gave me a wide berth as they exited the building.

  Beezle poked his head out of my coat. “How are you going to play this?”

  “I’m just going to go in there like I belong. Which I do,” I said, and then to Nathaniel, “Try to stun anyone who gets in our way. I’ve had enough of bodies today.”

  We pushed open the doors of the Agency and walked inside.

  19

  AS SOON AS WE ENTERED, NATHANIEL DROPPED HIS veil and I pushed my wings back in. The security guards, who looked like they were half-asleep as Agents went through the checkpoints on their way out of the building, stood up abruptly.

  I strolled up to the checkpoint and smiled at the guard there.

  “Agent Black,” he said carefully. He had one hand in the air, and the other hand was creeping toward the gun at his hip. Where did all the guns come from? Why had I never really noticed them before?

  “You don’t want to do that, Agent Hill,” I said. “Because I am in a really bad mood, and I don’t want anyone else to get hurt today.”

  “Our orders are to take you into custody,” he said, his fingers brushing the holster.

  “Do you have kids, Agent Hill?” I asked conversationally.

  He looked confused. “Yeah.”

  I leaned close to him, and my smile became a baring of teeth. “Do you want to see them again?”

  His hand dropped to his side and he took a step back. “Let her through.”

  “Smart man,” I said, and walked through the metal detector. The alarm was set off by the sword on my back.

  “What are you doing?” one of the other guards shouted, running toward us.

  Nathaniel, who was following closely behind me, turned around and stunned the guard who had shouted. The man fell to the ground, the gun in his hand spinning away on the shiny marble floor.

  “Any other takers?” I asked to the room at large.

  The secretary, the other two guards and the few Agents who were in the lobby all stood very still.

  “That’s what I thought,” I said, and went to the elevators.

  “They’re going to have every Agent in the building come down on your head in a minute,” Beezle said.

  “I don’t care,” I said. “In a minute I’m going to have J.B. and Samiel and Jude with me.”

  “And then what?” Beezle said. “Fight your way out of another impossible situation?”

  “No,” I said. “They’re going to give me the other three, and then we’re going to walk out of here.”

  “What insanity do you have planned this time?” Beezle asked as we stepped into the empty elevator.

  I pressed the button for the basement level one. “Don’t worry. It doesn’t involve anyone bleeding. Probably.”

  The do
ors opened. The hallway seemed suspiciously quiet.

  “The rooms where the lost souls were kept are this way,” I said, going left.

  We walked past the Hall of Records. The door was closed. No one moved up and down the corridor.

  At the end of the hallway was a set of double doors. Behind the doors was a conference room that had been modified into a padded cell for the people I’d found in the warehouse with their memories stolen.

  No one stood outside the doors. I kicked them open.

  Sokolov sat at the head of a table like a preening little king. On one side of the table, lying on the floor, were Jude and Samiel, bound and gagged.

  J.B. was on top of the table, shirtless, and two Agents held him down while a third sliced a knife across his chest.

  Everything stopped when we entered the room.

  “Maddy,” J.B. said, and his voice was full of despair.

  “Let them go,” I said to Sokolov.

  “Agent Black,” he said, coming to his feet. “I am surprised you would dare show your face here after what you have done today.”

  “Let them go,” I repeated.

  “I don’t think so,” Sokolov said, indicating to the Agents that they should come after me. “I think you’ll be joining your friends.”

  “Where do you get your dialogue?” I said. “Cheesy Villains R Us?”

  The three Agents approached Nathaniel and me.

  “I don’t have time for this,” I said, and I blasted all three of them in the face with nightfire.

  They fell to the ground, clawing at their faces and screaming. I would have felt bad about the fact that I’d set their eyeballs on fire, but I’d seen them cutting up J.B.

  “Cut the other two loose,” I said to Nathaniel. I went to J.B., who was trying to sit up, and put my arm around him.

  Sokolov narrowed his eyes at me. “What is it you think you will accomplish by this act, Agent Black? You have repeatedly defied the express wishes of the Agency. You have harmed other Agents. You have demonstrated that you have no respect or care for your office or your sacred duty. You have become a rogue, Agent Black, and as such you will be given into the custody of the Retrievers.”

  Nathaniel finished loosing Samiel and Jude, and the three of them came around to help J.B. to his feet. I walked toward Sokolov, who stood impassively as I approached him, secure in his belief that he would defeat me.

  “You know what?” I said. “I’ve had a long day, and I’m really sick and tired of listening to threats from little creatures who think they’re more powerful than me. I killed Antares today. I wiped out Azazel’s army, the army he’d intended to use to gain dominion over the world. And I killed Azazel.”

  Sokolov’s eyes widened slightly. So he hadn’t known about that yet. Good.

  “I killed one of the oldest Grigori, the angel that had sat at the right hand of Lucifer since time unknown. And right now, what I really want is to go home with my friends, take a nap, and eat Chinese food until I feel sick.”

  “Pork dumplings!” Beezle said from the inside of my coat.

  “So here’s what I am telling you, and believe me, this is no empty threat. If you don’t let us walk out of here unharmed, I will burn this building and everyone in it to the ground. And I will start with you.”

  “She has this thing about burning buildings,” Beezle said. “She seemed normal as a kid, so I don’t know where this obsession comes from.”

  “You are an Agent of death, Madeline Black,” Sokolov shouted, and for the first time he looked a little afraid. “You must submit to our authority.”

  “No,” I said, and I knew what I had to do. “I don’t. Because I am no longer an Agent.”

  Sokolov’s eyes bulged in his piggy face. “You cannot do that. No one leaves the Agency.”

  “I break all ties with the Agency. I renounce the mantle of Death,” I said, and my back tingled as I spoke. “As of today, you can command me no more.”

  My words echoed in the room. Sokolov looked stunned. Suddenly, I doubled over in pain. The building trembled in its foundation, like an earthquake had rolled beneath it.

  “What’s happening?” J.B. said. “What’s the matter?”

  I couldn’t speak. It felt like a thousand swords were plunging into my body. My throat was filled with magic, choking me.

  I opened my mouth, and all the magic that I had possessed as an Agent poured from me in a stream. At the same time, there was a rending sound as the back of my coat and shirt tore open. I screamed as pain ripped down both sides of my spine, falling to my hands and knees. Beezle flew out of my coat.

  And then it was over.

  “Gods above and below,” Nathaniel said.

  I stood up, feeling sick, and turned around. Jude, Samiel, J.B. and Nathaniel all stared at the ground.

  My wings lay on the floor, the roots that had dug into my back torn free. I could feel the blood running down my back, pooling at the base of my spine.

  I’d lost my wings, and for a moment I felt despair.

  Sokolov chuckled behind me. “What will you do now, Madeline Black, without your magic?”

  I turned slowly back to face him. “I may not have my Agent’s magic any longer, but I am still the goddamned granddaughter of Lucifer.”

  I blasted him with nightfire, and he flew across the room, smashing into the wall.

  “Well, that was unexpected,” Beezle said, fluttering beside my shoulder. “What now?”

  “They’re going to let us walk out of the building,” I said. “Everyone here felt that tremor, and they’re going to know who caused it.”

  Nathaniel took off his overcoat and wrapped it around me. I looked like a child, the hem dragging on the ground. Jude and Samiel helped J.B. back into his shirt and jacket.

  “We’ll have to do first aid later,” I said apologetically.

  J.B. nodded. “It’s fine. I don’t want to spend any more time here than I have to.”

  “Going to renounce your wings, too?” I said. “Come on, be a rebel.”

  He gave me a half smile. “How about I just not show up for work tomorrow?”

  “It’s a step,” I said. “Pretty soon you’ll be a wild and crazy rule-breaker like me.”

  He shook his head. “There’s no one like you.”

  “Thank the Morningstar,” Beezle said. “Because I don’t think this city could handle two of her.”

  The six of us hobbled into the hallway in various states of disrepair. The passage was still empty. I was surprised there weren’t five dozen Agents waiting to take custody of us.

  “So what happened?” I asked Jude as we waited for the elevator.

  “They were waiting for us when we came through the portal,” Jude said. “Bryson and a bunch of his buddies. Sokolov’s cronies had come for Bryson and taken J.B. before we got there.”

  They took the Agents and then arrested us, Samiel signed as we piled into the elevator. We were just glad that you hadn’t come through the portal yet.

  “Did you really kill Azazel?” Jude asked.

  “Oh, yes, she did,” Beezle said.

  “And blasted his whole army into smithereens,” I said. “So that problem’s gone.”

  “I don’t know,” Nathaniel said. “Focalor is still out there. He was working closely with Azazel, remember?”

  “With any luck Focalor was in the mansion when it disintegrated,” I said.

  “I don’t think you’re that lucky,” Beezle said as the elevator doors opened.

  A bunch of special-ops Agents stood there with machine guns raised.

  I calmly stepped out of the elevator. All the Agents backed up.

  “Guys,” I said softly. “Since I’m here and Sokolov isn’t, what do you think will happen to you if you don’t let us by?”

  Nobody spoke. I walked toward the exit. Dozens of Agents blocked my way.

  They all moved aside as I passed them. The others followed me, the lobby tense and hushed.

  I pushed open the
doors of the Agency and went out into the cold night air. The lights of the city shone like stars.

  The others gathered around me on the sidewalk.

  “How will we get home?” J.B. asked. “You don’t have any wings to fly.”

  “I can carry you,” Nathaniel offered.

  “Jude can’t fly, either,” I pointed out. I took a deep breath. “Let’s walk home.”

  “Walk?” Beezle said. “It’s, like, six miles from here.”

  “What do you care? You’ll probably get carried most of the way. Anyway, this is my city,” I said. “And I want to see it from the ground.”

  “Oh, it’s your city, now, is it?” Beezle said, settling on my shoulder. “Now you’re getting delusions of grandeur.”

  “I’m the one who keeps it safe,” I said as we turned north. “So that makes it mine.”

  “If it’s your city, does that mean all the Dunkin’ Donuts belong to you, too?” Beezle said hopefully.

  My laughter rang out in the darkness, and for a moment everything seemed a little brighter.

  Hours later, when everyone had been fed and watered and had bandages applied, I sat on the front porch by myself, wrapped in a blanket, looking up at the sky. My coat had been destroyed again. I was going to have to ask Lucifer for a new one—if he ever answered my phone calls.

  I’d showered off the layers of blood and dirt and felt shiny pink and clean, like a newborn seeing the sun for the first time. My own child fluttered contentedly inside me.

  Everything I had done in the last few days I’d done for my baby, to keep this child safe. I knew that things were not over with the faerie court, and that Focalor was probably still lurking about somewhere, waiting to pounce.

  But I’d killed Azazel.

  I’d thought that when Azazel was dead, I would feel complete again, that the empty place inside me would be filled up by the satisfaction of vengeance.

  It wasn’t.

  Gabriel was gone, and killing Azazel hadn’t brought him back. The hatred that had driven me had faded with Azazel’s death, and now there was nothing in its place.

  Just the ache where Gabriel had once been, and would never be again.

  “Okay,” I said, my throat tight with unshed tears. “Okay. I love you. I will always love you, and I’m letting you go.”