Chapter 51 Resist #2
“Don’t listen to him, Gall,” I said loud enough to be heard by the entire hall.
“His power isn’t to kill her, it’s to make you fear.
Don’t do it. Don’t let him corner you—any of you—into fear of him.
That’s how he controls you. That’s how he keeps you in pain.
If we trust each other, love each other, and listen to the truth, he can’t touch us. ”
There was a moment of near-silence after that. Lucifer tipped his head and looked around, then offered a sarcastic chuckle. “Very rousing, Melek. As you can see… your words have had immense impact,” he sneered.
“My words weren’t for you, asshole. You’ll never change. You’ve been a blackhearted king for nothing but evil since the dawn of time. We all know that.”
Lucifer bowed. “You’re welcome.”
I shook my head and turned away, looking at every part of the crowd, heads all craned up to watch Istral flail and whimper.
Poor Gall was falling apart. The tension in the room rose, good hearts fearing innocent death—and the consequences if Lucifer proved unable to be moved. After all, the Fallen was immortal.
How would we get rid of him, if he refused to leave?
Resist. Love.
I hurried to Gall’s side and whispered into his ear, doing my best not to draw everyone’s attention to him, and what he’d already given over to this enemy.
“Gall, I know it’s frightening. But we have a lot of strong men here. If she falls, we’ll catch her.”
“He’s going to hurt her. He won’t let her fall safe.”
“We can’t let him control us with threats. We can’t listen to him—when we do, things only get worse.”
Gall turned to look at me then, and his eyes… dear Lord, his eyes were green.
I blinked. “Gall,” I breathed.
Those beautiful, emerald green eyes welled with tears. “I don’t want to lose her, but I can’t go back.”
“Don’t. Don’t go back, Gall,” I whispered. “Stay strong!”
“But, if he kills her—”
“He can’t.”
Gall looked up at his precious mate, his face turned down in a frown. “I saw something when they were all leaving me.”
I blinked. “Leaving you? Who left you?”
“The… the others. The ones he connected me to. When I told him to leave me alone—and I meant it—it… broke the ties he used to bind them to me. They all died, and I can’t feel them anymore.”
“Feel them? You mean—”
“The power he gave me, it came from all of them. I could use their strength, and they would hear me if I called them. They’d help me.”
Oh, dear God. I put a hand on his shoulder. I had no idea. “Gall, that—”
“When it broke, Lucifer screamed, and he said… he said, he’ll never give up the girl.” Then my simple, sweet, loving son turned and looked me straight in the eye. “I think… I think that’s the only way. But I don’t want to do it.”
“What? What’s the only way, Gall?”
His chin trembled. “I think the only way to win is to… to love her, more than I’m afraid of him.”
“What?!”
But, without further explanation, Gall turned away from me, and took a few steps forward, yelling as he went. “Izzy! Izzy! I love you!”
“I know!” she called back to him. “I love you, too!”
“I’d climb trees for you, Izzy!”
“I know!”
“I’d give you my food, even when I’m hungry—you know that, right?!”
“I know!” she gasped.
Back and forth they called. I was confused. But just as I would have broken in, Yilan screamed in my head.
‘We need to remove the light! Get rid of the light! She can shadow walk—and he can’t see us when we do!”
I jolted, but Yilan had already turned and yanked Diadre and Jhonas to face her. None of them spoke—except in their minds. Then the picture bloomed in my head…
The room going dark. Yilan would prepare Istral. When things went black, she could shadow walk out of his arms, and to us.
I turned to face my mate, to find Jhonas and Diadre crowding to her, all three of them looking at me expectantly.
“It doesn’t stop him from simply picking her up again—”
“Safe in the shadow!” Yilan hissed.
“What?”
“It’s the philosophy of shadow walking,” Diadre told me hurriedly. “You’re safe in the shadows. No one else can see, but divine power lights your way through!”
“If she can get down, then maybe she’ll be brave enough to resist him—we have to try, Melek!”
“Do it,” I said, “but tell as many of the others as you can on the way. We don’t want anyone panicking, thinking we’re under attack and start hurting our allies!”
Yilan nodded, then turned to Diadre and Jhonas. The nearby Shadekin, clearly drawn by Yilan’s silent call, were filtering through the crowd to congregate behind them. Within moments, they were nodding and slipping out among the crowd, one by one.
I turned back to Gall, who continued to bellow up to Istral on my right.
“…do you remember what Papa said, Izzy? Do you remember what I told you when I was good?”
Istral nodded, but then gave a little shriek, because Lucifer hissed and let her slip through his arm an inch. Her long gown was pulled up high around her ribs, baring her legs to the watchers below. I growled, furious at Lucifer for embarrassing her in this way.
“Enough!” he snarled, and the entire hall went silent, his word echoing in the dark clouds around the rafters.
“This is not a child’s game. You have abandoned your family, Gall.
So, I will make a new one. I have already begun.
She carries my offspring. This is your final chance to rejoin me.
If you do, I’ll keep both of you safe and with me.
If you don’t, she will live long enough to bear my babe, then she’ll die—following you to the grave. ”
Gall gave a stifled sob, but he raised his hands like a child asking to be lifted. I realized he wanted to catch her.
“Izzy. Izzy, don’t be afraid—remember? Resist. You told me, and you were right! I didn’t listen, and I should have. But you were right! I did it, Izzy. I did it! That’s why so many people died. I’m sorry about that, but it’s true. You can tell him to leave you alone, and he has to.”
“You did it?” Her voice was high and thin, like a scared child.
Gall nodded. “I did. And it hurt. A lot. But then I was okay, and I’m here.”
“His eyes are green, Izzy!” I called to her.
Gall’s voice was choked. “You have to do it too. He can’t keep you if you say no, Izzy.”
“But I’ll fall!”
“I’ll catch you.”
“We’ll all catch you, Lady Istral!” Jhonas called, and a dozen other soldiers moved towards the center of the room—cleverly drawing attention away from a rush of Shadekin moving towards sconces and torches and any other source of light in the room.
My chest thrummed as the other men rushed to the center of the room—Gall and I with them—all waiting below, arms outstretched.
“God, you’re pathetic,” Lucifer said, shaking his head and sneering in contempt. “Do you really believe—”
“Do it, Izzy!” Gall cried.
“I’m scared!”
“We’re all scared. You can fall, and be scared down here with me. He can’t take you if you say no. Tell him to leave you alone.”
“Listen you little fucker—” Lucifer hissed.
Gall didn’t stop. I watched on, awed, as my son—my simple, brilliant son—coached his mate to understand the transformation of his heart when he had finally taken a stand and resisted that Fallen fuck.
I listened, with tears in my eyes as he admitted the pain, and the shame, and all the ways his huge heart had been hurt, all the promises Lucifer had offered him, and all the ways he’d hoped the future would change.
“…but it just got harder. Remember? Remember you said it hurt more?” Gall said desperately, his voice hoarse with tears. “You were right, Izzy. I’m sorry I brought you here. I was wrong. Please… please come be with me.”
Lucifer hissed a curse. Istral gasped and twitched, and then with a malicious grin, Lucifer let her go.
She slipped through his arm, skirt billowing, feet kicking, scream piercing the air—only to be caught hard, by one wrist.
Lucifer snarled, gripping her wrist and barking curses down at Gall while Istral screamed and cried and flailed, hanging by one limb, high in the air above our heads.
My nerves jolted. She was overwhelmed. Overstimulated. Afraid. Just like Gall, she was prone to stop thinking and just act when her body felt too much.
Help her see it, I prayed. Let her hear her sister. Let her see it and be brave enough to say no more. Free her. Free all of us.
We can’t live this way anymore.
“Are you ready, Izzy?!” Gall bellowed.
Before she answered, every sconce, candle, and lantern in the room went dark.
There was a blood-curdling scream, and the crowd shifted—had she fallen? If she’d fallen, we wouldn’t see to catch her and—
“Did you really believe that was all it would take?” Lucifer drawled. In a blink, a new light, a strange, frightening shine in the blackness began behind him, lighting the entire hall with a soft, sickly light.
It made Istral’s white dress glow.
Istral, who still dangled from Lucifer’s fist, and who was now weeping.
Dear God, help her.
I could feel my mate, beside herself with fear and grief.
I realized I gripped Gall’s arm. He kept jerking forward, as if he could leap up to save her—but he couldn’t.
None of us could.
If she wouldn’t—or couldn’t—shadow walk…
“Please, Izzy,” Gall rasped. “Please. I’ll catch you. I’ll always catch you.”
Sobbing, she looked down at him, her pale face red and blotchy, her cheeks shining in that strange light with tears.
“I tire of this,” Lucifer snapped. “The time has come. Istral—say goodbye. I gave your mate his chance to join us, but he’s refused. So, give him your farewell. You won’t see him again.”
He paused, staring at her with lascivious delight as she sobbed and coughed, her head turned down to look at Gall.
Everyone held their breaths.
Then she whispered, “No.”
Lucifer’s eyes went wide, then narrowed as he twitched. “You little bitch, do as you’re—”
“No.”
“I will cut that babe from your body and—”
“Let me go,” Istral whispered, still crying, but now staring up at Lucifer. “Leave me alone. I never want to be near you again.”
Lucifer’s hand sprang open as if he’d been shocked, and Istral dropped like a stone.
Lucifer roared an abyss of rage. The air above his head clapped, like lightning struck the palace. The floor rippled under our feet, and the watching crowd cried out—but all of us rushed to catch her—and did, in a tumble of limbs and shouts as we fell together, cushioning her landing.
Gall scrambled for her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her to him, sobbing her name.
But the rest of us froze, as above us the air of the hall turned black.
Lucifer threw back his head, his mouth wide open, teeth bared, arms and legs thrown wide like he’d been jolted—fists clenched, the tendons on his neck standing proud…
every line of his body screamed pain and rage, in a measure never before seen.
The clouds above him began to churn, then twist, then whipped together in a black whirlpool sucking at Lucifer’s hair, and whipping wind through ours, making our clothing flap and hair lash at our faces.
The sound, like bestial roars, turned my heart cold.
Lucifer’s scream did not stop. He turned his head, as if struggling against an adversary of his own, his limbs contorting—until the twisting clouds finally reached for him, sucked him up, and… vanished, to the sound of thunder rolling slowly away.
That eerie light he’d created was gone. The hall blanketed in night—and screams.
‘Yilan!’
‘I’m here! I’m safe!’
It took only a breath for the first of the sconces to be lit. Within moments, the room was bathed in the warm, natural light of the flames.
I finally stood on solid ground, the stone no longer trembling, as the men around me slowly clambered to their feet, everyone surrounding Gall and Istral, who clung together at the center of the floor.
Alive.