Chapter 22
22
I drew in a deep breath, and while I immediately regretted it, the stench was overshadowed by the horror of what we were staring upon.
Dozens and dozens of bodies were scattered throughout the pews, some slumped over while others were still sitting up, their heads fallen back, jaws slacked open. They were in various states of decomposition. For as much as I’d experienced in recent months, never in my life had I seen anything like this.
“Good God,” I said, horrified.
Roth stiffened as movement near the chancel drew our attention. It had been vacant moments before, but now a figure stood in front of the altar. I winced. It was the Lilin—and he’d taken the form of Sam once more.
“I think this is appropriate,” the Lilin said, spreading its arms up at his sides. “I have a congregation of the dead.”
“Most people would aim higher,” Roth said, eyeing the carnage with distaste.
“I am not most beings, now, am I?” It grinned slightly from its elevated perch. “I’ve been waiting for you to come, sister.”
“I am not your sister,” I gritted out.
“Acceptance is the first step of recovery, or so they say.” The Lilin walked to the edge of the chancel and crouched. “You’re here to help me.”
That wasn’t so much a question, but I answered anyway. “No. I’m here to stop you.”
The thing chuckled smoothly. “You cannot stop me. Neither can the Prince.”
“I wouldn’t put money on that,” Roth retorted.
Milky white eyes drifted to Roth as the Lilin smiled mysteriously. “I guess we will see about that, won’t we?” The Lilin’s gaze found mine. “We need to free our mother. It is a travesty that a force such as she should remain chained. We are in this together and—”
“You can stop the sales pitch right there,” I interrupted. “There is nothing that you can say that will sway me. You won’t be able to free Lilith. Don’t you understand that? Nothing will free her. After Paimon attempted to do so, extraordinary measures were put in place to prevent her from getting out.”
“True,” remarked Roth, rather smugly. “The Boss has her on lockdown. It’s not going to happen.”
“That is where you are wrong,” the Lilin responded from its perch. “If I succeed in raising Hell to Earth, no one down there will be paying attention to Lilith. She will be the least of their worries.”
Muscles locked up all along my back. “If you bring Hell to Earth, the Alphas will step in. They will wipe us all out, including you.”
“It’s not like they can throw a magic switch and then we’re gone.”
Roth sighed. “It has a point there.”
“That’s not helping,” I said under my breath.
“The Alphas will fight us and we will fight back, even those who do not want to see Lilith free or for Hell to open its gates. They will fight,” the Lilin continued. “As I will, and while we all are fighting to survive, the world will fall apart. If I cannot free our mother, then I truly have nothing to lose.”
What Grim had warned me about was coming true, but it really wasn’t a surprise. The Lilin really had no thoughts of its own. All it was concerned with was freeing Lilith, and if it couldn’t have that, then it would settle for chaos and absolute destruction.
The Lilin rose fluidly. “You will see. In the end, you will have no choice but to help me.”
The darkness along the wall, which had been still and unnoticeable at this point, suddenly moved. Thick shadows shifted and grew, slipping up and over the ceiling like a muddy oil slick. The stench of the room rose, but the evil in it became suffocating. There was the source of the darkness and we’d been standing in the middle of it the entire time.
“Wraiths,” I gasped, stepping back.
They swarmed across the ceiling, like something straight out of a horror movie, and then dropped to the floor, among the benches.
But that wasn’t all.
We could see the wall now, could see that there were several statues lined up. They looked like the stone gargoyles perched atop so many of the city’s buildings, but cruder, more grotesque than the real thing. Some looked like goblins. Others were part lion and a few looked like birds. Not the happy, dove kind. More like pterodactyls. There were about twenty of the statues.
“They created them out of stone.” The Lilin gestured at the bodies in the pews. “So bizarre. They used them as a reminder of the evil they so badly wanted to fight. Ironic.”
A heartbeat passed.
The first row of pews shot up straight in the air, shattering apart and sending bodies in every direction. The second row followed and then the third, the fourth…
Boards were flying, along with pieces of those left behind. Each burst of pews was a crack of thunder.
“Somebody better call the Ghostbusters,” Roth muttered. “Because we don’t have time for this.”
I would’ve laughed, wanted to, but a piece of wood winged its way in my direction. I dipped down, narrowly avoiding getting plowed over. The board smashed into the wall behind us.
I shifted immediately, welcoming the change. Roth did the same as he jumped, snatching a rather large piece of board out of the air. Snapping it in half, he tossed it down.
Sparks flew and flames rose from the farthest corner as the knocked-over candles started a fire among the debris.
Reaching down, I withdrew the dagger from my boot, and then started down the center aisle, toward the chancel. The wraiths didn’t like that. They came at me. Shaped like humans, but no more substantial than smoke, they were tricky beasts to fight. One managed to get a hold of my hair, yanking my head back. I hissed as I twisted out of the wraith’s grip.
The Lilin shouted something in an ancient, guttural--sounding language that meant nothing to me, but the wraiths responded. They pulled back, and then darted to the walls.
“Oh crap,” Roth said. “It’s about to get ugly.”
I didn’t have to wait long to see what he meant. The wraiths hit the statues, draping themselves over them like a blanket. I didn’t know what they were doing, but every instinct told me I wasn’t going to like it.
The shadows pulsed, and then they disappeared, seeping into the statues, wiggling their way through the cracks and openings. Some wraiths remained near the ceilings, their forms twisting and trembling.
A great and terrible shudder worked its way through the building, scattering the broken boards and bodies, and the shudder turned into a groan cut off by the sound of stone grinding against stone.
Then the statues moved.
“What in the…?” I said.
Roth growled low in his throat as the things straightened and stretched, as if waking up from a slumber. The lion-shaped gargoyle threw its head back, letting out a deafening roar that was so realistic.
A goblin-like gargoyle pushed away from the wall. Only about five feet tall, its footsteps thundered as it raced toward Roth, cackling in a low-pitched voice.
Roth stepped to the side, spinning around. He grabbed the goblin’s arm, and then shot to the ceiling. Arcing swiftly, Roth flew back down at a harrowing rate, slamming the goblin into the floor.
The floor dented as the stone creature shattered into large chunks, releasing the wraith. The black shadow poured out of the remains, knocking Roth back several feet.
My familiar shifted on my stomach, peeling itself off before I could stop it. Robin appeared, at first the size of a fox and then he grew, taking on the size of a Doberman, and boy, that was freaky.
Robin darted up the aisle, his overly large but sleek body moving incredibly fast. He jumped, snatching the tail end of the wraith, dragging it back down. My mouth dropped open. I had no idea that familiars could touch wraiths, but Robin wasn’t just touching. He was shaking his head like a pit bull with an evening snack, whirling the wraith from side to side.
The other statues converged on us, and in a minute, I lost sight of Roth. Knowing that the blade would do nothing against these things, I sheathed it back in my boot.
Shrieking from the ceiling, the pterodactyl-type gargoyle dive-bombed me, its beak opening as if it planned on swallowing me whole. I jumped to the side, but the bird twisted, and that’s when I saw its tail. It caught me in the hip, knocking me over.
I hit the ground, my hands landing in something wet and sticky. I so didn’t want to think about that as I pushed myself off the floor and stared through the curtain of my hair. The creature dived at me again, and I rolled onto my back. Using my legs, I pulled them up, and then swung them back down, popping up in a crouch.
The bird came at me again, but this time I was better prepared—I launched up and caught one of its wings. Tapping into the strength I’d always had in me, but never really used, never truly understood, I broke the wing near the small horn.
Screeching, the bird spiraled down to the floor, crashing into the destroyed pews. Picking up a board, I followed it to where it rolled to a stop, at the foot of the chancel. I raised the board and as the stone creature rose to its hind legs, I smacked the board into its head. Wood broke and stone shattered from the neck up. The rest of the statue toppled over as black smoke poured toward the ceiling, reminding me of that TV show Sam had gotten me addicted to.
Spinning around, I caught sight of Roth kicking one of the statues into the wall, and then twisting to catch the one behind him. He moved with brutal grace, destroying everything that came within touching distance of him.
Robin had cornered another wraith, so I turned to the raised platform, where the Lilin stood surveying the carnage. He smiled down at me, so much like Sam that I wanted to get up there and beat the ever-loving—
A statue slammed into me, throwing me several feet into the air. My wings expanded, stopping me from being thrown against the wall like one of Roth’s statues. I hovered for a moment, spying the lion creature.
It was massive, its powerful muscles coiling and tensing as it stalked toward me, mouth open to reveal stone fangs.
That was one creature I did not want to get a hold of me.
Turning toward the Lilin, I landed on the chancel, and as I expected, the lion didn’t come toward me. It backed away just as the double doors exploded open.
Wardens were here.
“Perfect,” the Lilin said, its smile spreading.
I shot toward it, but the Lilin dodged me, jumping off the platform. Cursing under my breath, I followed. I made it two steps before Roth appeared beside me, grabbing my arm and spinning me to the left, out of the way of another goblin--looking creature.
“Thanks,” I muttered.
“My pleasure.” Roth shot up, and then drew back from the thickening cloud of smoke from the fire. “We need to get out of here before this whole place goes up.”
Fire was licking its way up the walls, hungry as it consumed everything it touched. A section of the ceiling had already come down.
Stalking toward the Lilin, I stopped and dipped as another one of the possessed stone creatures made a run at me. Its meaty hands snagged my shirt, but I jerked back, breaking its hold. Spinning around, I kicked out, planting my foot into its chest and knocking it back.
Arms flailing, it fell back into the flames, but immediately came back out, this time on fire.
“Good God,” I groaned, crouching down, and then jumping out of its grasp. Landing several feet away from it, I caught sight of Robin darting between the broken pews, chasing after a wraith.
The fiery creature veered off, distracted by Nicolai. The Warden easily avoided it, listening when Roth shouted instructions on how to break them apart. I turned back to the Lilin, seeing that it had reached one of the Wardens, intent on feeding. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Abbot had one of the creatures by the neck.
Picking up speed, I raced up the aisle, aiming to power bomb the jerk, but it whipped around at the last moment, saw me and launched itself at me. There was no stopping the collision.
We smacked into others and hit the floor, rolling several times, coming to a stop a few feet from the fire, with the Lilin on top. It smiled down at me. “Give up.”
“Not going to happen.” Lifting my legs, I circled its waist and threw my weight behind the turn, flipping it off me. I moved, raising the dagger, seconds from plunging it deep into its smirking face.
Something crashed into me, knocking me to the side and chasing the air out of my lungs. Rising up, I came face-to-face with the damn lion. Beyond it and the Lilin, I saw Zayne creeping up the center aisle, a dagger in his hand. Slowly I backed up, eyes on the disturbingly sharp claws.
The Lilin laughed. “Do you like my pet?”
“Do you like this?” Zayne growled, bringing down the dagger in a wide swoop.
The Lilin whirled and twisted at the waist, but wasn’t fast enough. The dagger hit a few scant inches above the heart.
My body spasmed and the dagger fell from my fingers as an intense, breath-stealing fire exploded inside me. Screaming at the burst of sudden unexpected pain, I stumbled back and tripped over a leg—human or stone, I couldn’t be sure—and I hit the floor. I tried to drag in air, but my lungs seized. I glanced down, saw that a line of red was bleeding through my sweater, just above my heart and closer to my shoulder.
What the…?
Roth spun in midair. His wide eyes moved from me to the Lilin, then to Zayne, who raised the dagger again. I pressed my hand just below my shoulder, stanching the flow of blood as I struggled to my feet.
“No!” Roth shouted, changing direction. “Zayne! No!” He hit the ground beside Zayne, slamming him in the shoulder and forcing him back several steps. He reached up, grasping the wrist that held the dagger as he stared into the bewildered face of Zayne. “Stop.”
The Lilin choked out a laugh as it staggered to the side, coming close to the flames. Blood poured down its chest as it heaved for breath. “You kill me,” it grunted out, “you kill her .”