Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
The cabin’s front doors opened and Dùbhghlas stepped out, a chain hanging from his fist. He gave it a rough yank and Nox clamped down on the wild fury that leapt within him when he saw Nelson.
His head was covered by a thick hood that appeared to be heavy, from the way Nelson’s head and shoulders sagged as he stumbled forward.
The hood’s outer layer looked like it was chainmail, the rising sun glinting off the links as it swayed with each straining step.
“On your knees!” Dùbhghlas barked at Nelson, dropping the leash and brandishing a pistol with his remaining hand.
Nox used the moment to assess Nelson from head to toe.
His trousers were tattered and filthy and his white shirt sleeves were streaked with blood, ash, and grime.
The front had been ripped and hung open, revealing a badly bruised and burned torso.
But despite Dùbhghlas’s efforts to subdue and torment him, he was still Nox’s Nelson—brave, selfless, and faithful.
He had withstood Dùbhghlas’s cruelty and depravity and now, it was finally time to bring him home and end this nightmare.
“It’s over, Hugh,” Nox announced, scanning the front of the cabin and the woods behind it.
His skin prickled and the hairs on the back of his neck stood.
There were still things he couldn’t see, moving and whispering in the shadows as the fight continued behind him.
“Release Nelson and surrender and you can survive this,” he offered but there was a rasping cackle from the porch.
“Surrender? I don’t think so. Not when I have a few more lessons to teach you.”
The pistol was raised and aimed at Nelson’s head, igniting Nox’s fury like a struck match. “That would be a huge mistake.” Nox allowed the godly rage to swell within him.
“No!” Clancy’s horrified cry and Merlin’s roared “Dùbhghlas!” split the air as the twins howled and Ingrid let out a thunderous scream.
“Possibly,” Dùbhghlas agreed. “I’m dying to find out.”
“Stad!1” Nox yelled just as Dùbhghlas pulled the trigger, halting the explosion as the bullet left the chamber.
The bullet hung in the air and the world was frozen around them.
Dùbhghlas spit out a disgusted swear when he tried to fire again and found the hammer and trigger locked.
He hurled the pistol at Nox before dashing for the door.
“Oh no, you don’t!” Nox went after him, streaking up the steps and kicking Nelson out of the bullet’s path.
He grabbed the back of Dùbhghlas’s shirt and heaved him off the porch, right at Clancy and Merlin. “You sniveling pest!” Dùbhghlas seethed as he scrambled to his feet and raised his hands. “I’ll teach you to—”
“We’ll see,” Nox said calmly and everything around them resumed with a quick flick of his hand.
Clancy must have been aware and prepared because he immediately lunged at Dùbhghlas.
He grabbed him by the middle and slammed him to the ground while Merlin wielded his staff like an axe, landing several hard blows to Dùbhghlas’s head.
Nox wasted no time, ripping off the hood and quickly melted the links binding Nelson’s hands and helped him to his feet.
“Please, say something! Tell me you’re alright!” Nox begged as he swept the sweat and hair away from Nelson’s eyes. They were bloodshot but puddled as Nelson nodded, laughing and crying as he grabbed Nox’s face with shaking hands.
“I’m alright! I’m alright!” he promised in a hoarse rush, kissing Nox like he was made of oxygen and it was Nelson’s first full breath in days.
It was for Nox as well, in a way. He finally felt complete and like he had regained all of his senses. If Nox lived for a thousand years, he’d never be able to describe the psychic relief he felt as he kissed Nelson but it was short lived.
“You’re hurt,” Nox complained. He could feel that something within Nelson burned with every breath he took and that various bones screamed from numerous fractures.
“I’ll be fine. I’m already healing, I can feel it,” Nelson said with a slight, reassuring grin that would have turned Nox’s legs to jelly if they weren’t in the middle of a chaotic, violent fight.
“He’s still going to pay. Get somewhere safe,” he told Nelson, then turned his attention back to the warlock getting his undead face bashed in with a massive chunk of black kyanite. Everly had joined them and was keeping Dùbhghlas pinned to the ground with the force of his aura.
But Arawn and Smoak were looking fatigued as they sparked back and forth, between the living side of the veil, and the frigid darkness of the waste beyond.
Arawn would appear for a brief moment, frazzled and battered, before leaping at another black shadow and disappearing in a pop of blue light again.
The terrified shrieks of demons burst around them as Smoak swirled through the air, snatching demons and flinging them through the veil at his minions.
It was an effective strategy but Nox could see that Smoak was being trailed by several large, angry demons.
On the ground, Bryn and Tighe were holding their own against the last two Fomorians as Ingrid and the girls mangled what was left of Dùbhghlas’s army with their teeth and their claws, separating damned souls from cursed bodies and leaving the field strewn with carcasses.
They were all exhausted too and Nox was anxious to settle matters with Dùbhghlas.
“I’ve put this off long enough.” He bit into his palm and burned the blood with blue fire.
Nox raised his hands, seeking and summoning the Badb’s wrath once more.
Cries filled the air and the sky above them darkened as another wave of giant, flame-eyed crows descended upon them.
Nox headed for Dùbhghlas but ducked and shielded his eyes when a blinding, blue flash filled the glade and Merlin and Clancy were sent flying.
Another blue flash hit Nox in the chest, throwing him back onto the porch.
Nox hit one of the posts, snapping it, and he was reeling when he got to his feet.
He had only a moment to be impressed at Dùbhghlas for throwing out one last, big shot before another blast was aimed in his direction.
Nox got his hands up, prepared to catch it when Smoak slammed into his side, sending them tumbling onto the grass.
“Fucking Dùbhghlas!” Smoak gasped out, twisting on the ground next to Nox. Half of Smoak’s body was made of billowing blue plumes but the other half was human and badly scorched. The exposed flesh was dark and tinted a deep blue as thick, ink-like blood spurted onto the grass.
Nox swore as he gathered Smoak in his arms and looked around for Merlin. “What have you done?” he whispered to Smoak, heartbroken as the mischievous glow faded from the demon’s eyes. “Why? I could have taken it.”
“Maybe,” Smoak coughed and grunted in agony. “Didn’t do it for you. Did it for Niall.” he said weakly, closing his eyes as the last of Smoak’s sentience left him with his final exhale.
“That was the right reason,” Nox said with a soft smile, lowering and pressing a reverent kiss to Smoak’s lips.
“A world with only light is blinding and there is no balance without darkness.” He gave Smoak’s chest a reassuring pat, then rose and went to face Dùbhghlas.
“Not so fast!” he said when the warlock took advantage of the distraction and tried to run.
Nox gathered all the air around Dùbhghlas into a tight vortex, locking his arms at his sides and binding his legs.
Dùbhghlas let out an anguished yell as he struggled to break free. “Devillis fyre and daemon’s sp—!”
“Thost!2” Nox ordered, sealing Dùbhghlas lips together.
“You will never utter another vicious word again,” Nox said with great relief, delighting in the blind terror in Dùbhghlas’s eyes.
He leaned in, angling his head for a closer look and listening to the panicked screaming of Dùbhghlas’s last thoughts.
“It’s over for you,” Nox informed him calmly.
“You’ve written a very large, very nasty check and now, your ass has to cash it. Goodbye and fuck off, Hugh.”
Nox grabbed the sides of Dùbhghlas’s face and pressed his thumbs into the demonic warlock’s eyes until they burst. Like Smoak’s, Dùbhghlas’s blood was thick and dark blue as it gushed from the sockets.
Dùbhghlas’s throaty sobs grew higher and more frantic and he thrashed against the swirling current holding him immobile.
“See my light!”
Nox let the incandescence within him burn until it overtook him and poured it into Dùbhghlas, scorching and searing everything it touched.
The warlock’s skin bubbled and blistered as smoke seeped from Dùbhghlas’s ears and from around Nox’s thumbs.
Nox held on while Dùbhghlas’s body curled in on itself, splintering and glowing red from within like an ember as it shrunk.
He watched as Dùbhghlas’s skull and limbs shriveled into cinder before turning into ash and spilling between his fingers.
“Now, you are what you were meant to be: nothing.” Nox raised his palm and blew, scattering the last of Dùbhghlas’s ashes on the wind. He let his hatred and heartbreak be carried away with the breeze and was smiling as he took stock around him.
The last of the crows could be seen disappearing over the horizon and the various corpses had been picked completely clean, leaving behind random bits of burned bones and gooey, greasy puddles where Dùbhghlas’s minions once stood.
The twins were with Everly, laughing as they hugged and Clancy was holding Ingrid and their girls.
They looked victorious and Tighe was smiling as he inspected a Fomorian axe.
Everyone had survived the fight and was celebrating until Everly pointed and let out a cry. “What about Smoak! Is he…?”
“Fuck! I forgot about him,” Bryn said as he and Arawn raced over to Smoak’s half human body.
Arawn checked Smoak’s wrist for a pulse, then shook his head as the others gathered around. “He’s…gone.”
“Oh, no!” Everly covered his mouth as tears spilled down his cheeks. “Isn’t there something we can do?” he asked Merlin and Nox.
“I’m afraid not, lad,” Merlin said sadly, hunkering down next to Smoak.
He laid a hand over Smoak’s brow to murmur an incantation but yanked it back.
“Hold on!” he whispered excitedly and looked at Nox, stunned.
“He’s still in there! Something’s still in there.
” Merlin bent so he could press his ear to Smoak’s chest and closed his eyes. “Speak up! We can’t hear you.”
Nox lowered to a knee and set his hand on Smoak. “You can wake up now, Cenn Cruach. Wake up, friend.”
“How? He doesn’t have a pulse!” Arawn argued. “Or a soul.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Nox replied and there were several gasps and swears as Smoak’s wounds began to heal.
Smoke was replaced by flesh and bone until he was just a man, unconscious and naked on the grass.
His cheeks received a soft pat from Merlin and the gasps turned into shocked shouts when Smoak opened his eyes and blinked up at Nox.
He looked confused as Everly passed him a blanket from Merlin’s bag.
“What happened? That should have done it,” he said, sounding a bit disappointed.
“Sorry,” Nox said but he wasn’t and laughed as he helped Smoak sit up. “Looks like there’s more than one way to undo a demon.”
“What do you mean? That was a threefold death. I don’t have a soul so that should have been it,” he repeated and Nox winced apologetically.
“Au contraire. I feel something glowing inside of you and it was just enough to counteract the threefold death.”
Merlin made a curious sound as he leaned in and gave Smoak several curious pokes. “If I had to guess…I’d say he’s nephilim but how can that be?”
Nox’s lips twisted as he considered. “If I had to guess, I’d say it’s Niall’s soul at work here,” he said, causing Smoak to clutch his chest.
“Niall’s soul?” he parroted and Nox nodded, his smile growing bigger as he worked it out. Love really was the purest and strongest magick.
“You have a piece of his soul within you, Smoak. Although, you might consider changing your name, now that you’re no longer a demon.”
“What? Never.” Smoak laughed incredulously. “What else would I be?”
“Well…” Nox held up his hands. “In order to become a demon you must forfeit your soul, make an enormous spiritual sacrifice—like killing the part of yourself you love the most, and you must physically die. But you have a piece of a perfect soul and you sacrificed yourself for the thing you love most when you died,” he explained with a proud smile at Smoak.
“You broke your own curse when you took that blue fire bullet for me.”
“So…I’m not a demon anymore?” Smoak verified and Nox shook his head.
“No, but you’re not a human either. I can feel that there is still a great deal of power here and it is dark and ancient.
You are no longer a demon but they are still your children and you will always serve the darkness.
When you aren’t serving Niall,” Nox added with a cheeky wink, making Smoak laugh in relief.
“I’m still me?”
“Yes,” Nox confirmed. “Just a non-demonic version of the old you, unfortunately.” He was joking and Smoak knew it too.
“The world is safer if I don’t have a demonic nemesis—but there is no me, no sun god—without you.
There’s no reason we can’t be more like brothers, because that is what we truly are!
” Nox clasped Smoak’s hand tight. “We are both children of the Badb and are one with the earth and the elements.”
Smoak nodded. “Opposite sides of the same coin.”
“You’re the Yin to my Yang!”
“I get it,” Smoak said with a bored glare. “You need a dark counterbalance, so you don’t turn into an all-powerful asshole.”
“Exactly.”
Nox shooed Merlin away and Smoak was given clothes and privacy so he could dress while calls were made to those waiting back in Georgetown. With Smoak back on his feet and the others celebrating, Nox was able to turn his attention back to Nelson.
“I’m never letting you out of my sight again,” Nox vowed as he covered Nelson’s face in kisses.
“I want to go home and stay in bed with you for a month.” His voice was weak, his face was haggard, and he could barely stay on his feet, but Nelson was a terrible patient and hated being confined to a bed.
“Four days,” Nox predicted.
“At least two weeks,” Nelson countered, winding an arm around Nox’s waist and leaning into him for support.
Nox kissed his temple and nodded when the twins signaled that they were taking off to get the vehicles. They could run like demon hounds so it wouldn’t be long before they were back with Fletcher’s van and Clancy’s Range Rover.
“I can’t…travel like I used to,” Smoak grumbled when he joined Nox and Nelson.
“You might learn again,” Nox said. “I think I’ve just about got the hang of it. Maybe we can practice together,” he suggested but Smoak didn’t look thrilled at the idea.