“The longer we spend with the Balban, the more time it will have to learn how to manipulate us.” Chandra approached the tree line.
“Let’s go.” Nash waved us on.
Twigs snapped under our feet as we moved through the forest. Adrianna walked alongside me. We were a few feet behind Nash, Chandra, and Kiran.
“What do you think Nash plans to do about Michael?” I asked.
“I’m not sure.” Adrianna watched the trees. She stayed vigilant as she spoke. “But I don’t think he’s going to let him near you.”
“What if that’s the only way to stop him?”
“Nash will find another way.”
“He hasn’t talked to me about it.”
“Nash doesn’t like to talk about his plans until he’s worked them out completely. He doesn’t like to be wrong. If he’s going to solve something, he’ll do it in private. He’ll only talk about it once he’s found the solution.”
“I need to make Michael fall. That’s the only—”
Adrianna grabbed my arm, and I stopped.
Nash, Chandra, and Kiran had their weapons drawn. Ahead of them stood hooded figures among the trees.
The cloaks the figures wore were dark and tattered at the hips. Their faces were shadowed. The legs looked strange like they were bent backward at the knees.
Ten figures stood at varying distances. The mist made the figures who stood further out look small and gray. They waited for something.
It wasn’t one demon, but many. Tom was wrong again.
I drew my sword, and Adrianna drew her daggers.
Nash leaned in and spoke to Chandra and Kiran, but I couldn’t hear what he said. Chandra and Kiran darted in opposite directions away from Nash.
Nash raced to me and Adrianna. “We have to go.”
“What about Chandra and Kiran?” I asked.
“It can only follow one group at a time. It will choose the larger,” Nash said.
“But,” I said, “there’s more than one of them.”
“I don’t have time to explain.” Nash grabbed my arm and ran.
What was Nash up to? Did he want me to figure it out for myself? I ran with him and Adrianna. I couldn’t hear footsteps behind me.
What if Nash was wrong and the demons chose to follow Chandra and Kiran instead? They were separated and would have to fight alone. If they were overwhelmed, they would die and go to the Pit like Chandra’s brother, Alex.
But Nash knew what he was doing. He had sent thousands of demons back to Hell.
So, why did Adrianna set her teeth and tense her forehead? Was it possible that she was worried Nash’s plan, whatever it was, wouldn’t work?
“Put your weapons away,” Nash said. “If it shows itself, we need to be ready to run as fast as we can. Having our weapons drawn will slow us down.”
As I ran, I turned to look. I shouldn’t have. The ground shuttered. A demon ran behind us. It stood twenty feet tall with muscled arms and legs. Four backward curved horns grew above its far-spread eyes. Its skin was gray and splotchy.
“What in the world is that?” I asked as I ran.
The thing made the ground quake as it knocked down trees in its wake.
“The hooded figures we saw in the forest,” Adrianna said.
“But they were many,” I said.
“No,” Nash said, “they were one.”
“It’s gaining on us,” Adrianna said. “Nash, what do we do?”
The ground rippled. Trees crashed in the forest. The crows were silent.
“Nash, say something,” I said. “It’s going to catch us.”
“Keep running,” Nash said. “Our ultimate duty is to keep you safe. We have to keep going.”
But where? What would happen when that thing catches us?
“Lia, keep your eyes forward,” Adrianna said. “You’ll trip.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “We came to fight. Why are we avoiding it now? Is this not the demon we were looking for?”
“Just follow orders,” Nash ground out.
No. I had a sword of the strongest metal that ever existed. I had the power to make angels fall. Why did I still depend on other people?
I drew my sword.
“What are you doing?” Adrianna asked. “Lia, you can’t fight it.”
I clenched my teeth. How was I supposed to avenge my parents if I wasn’t brave enough to do what needed to be done? No running, no hiding. I’d faced my demons. I’ll face this one, and when Raphael comes, I’ll be ready for him too.
“Think about what you’re about to do,” Nash said. “You should listen to someone with more experience.”
“I can’t run anymore,” I shouted and turned with my sword drawn.
The Balban raised a massive fist, ready to bring it down on me, but it didn’t get the chance. Kiran and Chandra jumped from the trees onto the creature’s shoulders. It screamed as they stabbed it. Black blood oozed down its chest.
I stared wide-eyed as Kiran and Chandra cut the flesh between the demon’s neck and shoulders.
Nash had a plan all along, and I almost ruined it. Why couldn’t he have just said something to me? Why doesn’t he trust me?
Nash and Adrianna rushed forward and cut at the beast as it swung its massive arms. The demon looked down at Nash, like it recognized him.
“Nash, look out,” I screamed.
The massive hand gripped Nash around the chest and waist and brought him up into the air. It squeezed. It would kill him. It wanted to kill him.
I ran around to its back. Its legs were exposed. With my blade, I sliced the tendons behind one of its knees.
The creature howled and knelt on that knee.
I repeated the same to the back of the other knee and got the same result.
Adrianna jumped off the beast’s chest and leapt onto its forearm. She hacked at the demon’s fingers until it dropped Nash.
Nash scrambled on the ground, gasping for air, but it wasn’t long before he was back on his feet. He leapt and plunged his sword into the Balban’s chest. He dragged the blade down, using his weight as leverage.
He pulled his sword from the body and backed away as the demon fell face-first to the ground. The forest shook. The body of the Balban faded like a hologram, leaving only an impression of what had been.
I sighed and put a hand to my chest as it pounded.
Nash shook some of the inky blood from his sword. The ground absorbed the blood like water. He glared at me before he raised his hand and opened the portal.
The others put away their weapons and climbed through. I sheathed my own blade and approached the portal, but before I could enter, the portal closed.
Nash lowered his hand. “I told you to run.”
“My legs were growing heavy,” I said. A lie.
“If you can’t follow my orders, you won’t survive Michael.”
How quickly the focus shifted from Raphael to Michael. I didn’t care about Michael. He wasn’t the one who killed my parents.
“If you’re so concerned about Michael, you’d make sure Adriel gets out of that terrible place. He’s my guardian angel. He’ll do anything to protect me.”
Nash laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“He wasn’t tasked to be your guardian. He named himself that.”
“How do you know anything about it?”
Nash’s lips formed a hard line. “You need to start following orders.”
“What if I don’t?”
“You’re stubborn.”
“You’re controlling.”
“I’m the leader of this team.”
“You’re not a very good leader if you don’t see things.”
Nash narrowed his eyes. “What are you talking about?”
“Someone’s trying to kill you, Nash. In Venice, those demons attacked you and now this. That monster looked at you. It wanted to kill you. It didn’t go after the rest of us.”
“That’s because it spotted m
e first and hadn’t finished killing me yet.”
I pressed my lips together and folded my arms.
“I see what you’re saying,” Nash said. “But it could be a coincidence. Then again, a lot of demons want me dead. I’ve sent plenty of them back to Hell.”
“You say that like you didn’t want to.”
“Why would I? Do you think I’m that cruel? I do it because if I don’t, Lucifer would send me to the Pit.”
“But demons are evil.”
“Are Tom and Adrianna evil? Are Chandra and Kiran?”
I’d never thought of that before. All the demons I had encountered before I met Nash whispered horrible things they wanted to do to people. They crouched on people’s backs and murmured to them. Sometimes the people they spoke to did bad things.
“Things aren’t that black and white,” Nash said.
How could someone with so much ink spilled into his soul see things clearer than I could?
“So why is there a Hell?” I asked.
“Because a mistake was made.”
“What mistake?”
Nash looked away.
I grabbed his elbow. “What was it?”
“A mistake I made. That’s all you need to know.” His eyes locked on mine.
I squinted at him. “That’s why you’re in Sheol. That’s why you sawed off your wings.”
“I sawed them off before all the feathers burned away.” His face was tense, pained.
I wanted to erase that pain, to burn it away. Something inside me vibrated like the string on a guitar. It was silent, yet I could feel the music. I touched the side of his face and brought my lips up to his.
As our lips touched, he backed away from me. His breath wavered, and his eyes trembled.
Had I made a mistake? I struggled to find words to fill the gulf between us. But I didn’t need to.
Nash rushed towards me. His hands cradled the sides of my face, and his lips pressed urgently against mine as if he had been fighting himself the whole time, fighting not to kiss me. And now, he was.
My hands ran through his hair. His fingertips grazed my neck, and goose bumps erupted across my skin. I didn’t want him to stop, but he did.
I pressed my lips together. They were still warm from his touch.
Nash backed away from me as if I was a rattlesnake.
“We should go.” He opened the portal.
“Yeah, I guess so.” I tried to meet his eyes before I stepped through, but Nash’s eyes were to the ground. His hands were clenched. He acted like he graffitied a building rather than kissed a girl.
The Wings of Heaven and Hell (The Arcadian Steel Sequence Book 1) Page 30
