Chapter Seventeen
RATHIEL
I knew Miriel’s work the moment I saw it.
I was more than familiar with the glistening, greasy sphere pulsing in the middle of the room.
It was the size of Lily’s torso and veined with hairline fissures that crawled like a living entity.
Pestilence hummed beneath the surface, and it stank of a cloying sweetness.
It reminded me of the weird banana thing that had sat on Lily’s counter back on Earth when it’d started to turn brown.
The room itself was small, barely enough space for the two of us.
The narrow walls and low ceiling kept anyone else from stepping inside.
Small mercies. The door, however, hung open behind us.
Varz and Calder stood just beyond the boundary, hovering like shadows.
And behind them, a larger group gathered, including Korrak and Rathgor.
The bomb itself pulsed red, and knowing Miriel’s magic, it would explode any moment now.
Just like how I knew the pestilence would attack and rot everything it touched.
Miriel’s abilities didn’t discriminate. It liked all flesh.
Even celestial, if she’d designed this one that way.
It seemed safe—if not wise—to assume she had. This was war.
“Clear out!” I barked. “Evacuate the outpost!”
My order quickly spread through the ranks, and the outpost emptied. Varz and Calder paused for a moment, their eyes on Lily. I gave them both a hard look, and they dipped their heads, then evacuated with the others.
Lily, of course, didn’t leave.
In fact, she’d stepped closer to the infernal thing.
A low growl ripped free of my throat, and I almost palmed my face. Why? Why did she never listen? Why did she insist on always putting herself in danger?
“Lily,” I snarled. “Let’s go. Miriel built this damn thing. Do you understand? She put this here to kill you. Me. Anyone with flesh. It’ll rot through the skin first, then start with the muscle. Blood will thicken to sludge. You will suffocate from the inside. I’ve seen it happen.”
She glanced at me, her eyes nothing more than a quick flash of blue. “Then we contain it.”
“Or,” I said, dragging out the word, “we leave, close this handy door to keep it contained, then collapse the room.” I’d already mapped out the support points. A controlled cave-in was the simplest, easiest option.
“What if it creeps out? It only takes finding one hellspawn for it to spread.”
“Then we’ll light the place on fire after we collapse it.”
“Miriel would have planned for that,” she said quietly, her focus locked on the pestilence bomb. “She knew about my hellfire. She knew that was my go-to when it came to fighting.” She grimaced. “Wanna bet she designed this to react to fire?”
“You don’t know that.”
She planted her hands on her hips and studied the weapon.
“Come on, just back away—”
But the bomb finished this argument for us when it suddenly—and silently—erupted. The hairline fractures imploded, and a black cloud burst outward.
“Lily!”
I reached for her, determined to drag her out of this room if I had to—but she moved faster. And stepped straight into the cloud.
The pestilence surged forward, but before it could touch her, a second dark cloud exploded within the room.
Except, this one didn’t come from the bomb—it came from her.
The black entity ripped out of Lily. It wasn’t smooth or graceful.
It tore from her in a violent blast, writhing around her like a living thing with its own will.
The tendrils lashed outward, slamming into the pestilence and halting its spread, shielding not only Lily, but me as well.
I froze. I’d seen Lily do many amazing things.
I’d seen her conjure hellfire and shadow from the palms of her hands, hide herself—and me—entirely from sight, create an army from nothing, break down a dragon into its purest elements and fashion weapons from it all, and fly with wings made from pure magic.
But this…this was unlike anything I’d ever seen her do.
The darkness thickened until it practically consumed her. The pestilence clawed at it, trying to break past the barrier, trying to spread—as pestilence always did. But whatever this blackness was, whatever new ability Lily was demonstrating, it wouldn’t let a single thread pass.
She clenched her jaw, and her hands trembled as she raised them.
The floor shuddered so hard I had to reach for the nearest wall to steady myself.
Cracks split through the stone beneath her feet, a chaotic web radiating outward.
Finally, the pressure won and the ground split wide open, forming a rift right beneath the bomb.
It spread wider, the stone groaning like it was in pain, until it was big enough to swallow the pulsing orb.
The bomb dropped into the magma below, and the resulting explosion sent a rush of heat through the room.
Lily swayed against the shockwave but didn’t waver.
Obeying some secret command, her tendrils snaked through the room, wrapping around any lingering pestilence.
Then it thrust the sickness down into the rift, burning it away just like the bomb.
When the final thread of sickness vanished, Lily clenched her fist. The rift obeyed, and the two sides slammed together with the force of a thunderclap, sealing the wound shut.
Lily dropped her hands, and the darkness receded, sliding back under her skin, leaving behind a black scar burned into the broken stone floor.
She staggered.
I hurried forward and caught her before she fell—because there was no realm or universe in which I didn’t go to her—and braced her weight.
She laughed weakly, the sound hollow and shaky.
Sweat slicked her temples, and her breath came in shallow pants.
Her eyes—too dark, too sharp—met mine, and for a heartbeat I wasn’t sure I was looking at her anymore.
Speechless, I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight.
Holy shit. What had I just witnessed? I’d never seen her do anything like that before. And I’d known Lily her entire life.
It took me a few moments to catch my breath—and unscramble my thoughts—but then I demanded, “What was that? And what the hell were you thinking?”
She gave another weak laugh. “You mad?”
“Oh, beyond,” I growled. “Miriel designed that thing to kill everything—celestials included. And you walked into it without a second thought.”
“In all fairness, I actually gave it a third and fourth thought,” she retorted.
“Being cute won’t help you,” I scolded.
“Being cute is my whole schtick,” she teased, though without her usual fire.
We stood in silence, and I stared at the black scar etched into the ground, unease crawling over my skin.
Lily’s powers had grown beyond measure in such a short time, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
On the one hand, she could protect herself better than any other soldier in her army.
On the other, I wanted to put my fist through a wall.
Stronger was good. Stronger increased her chances of survival.
But I didn’t like that I had no idea what was happening to her. Or why.
“I’m tired, Rath,” she whispered.
I glanced down and noted the fresh bruises darkening the underside of her eyes, along with her heavy eyelids.
Even standing, she was half-asleep. I loved her more than anything.
I wanted nothing more than to scoop her up into my arms and carry her somewhere safe, somewhere she could rest. But Lily would never allow that.
Not unless it was the direst of situations.
She’d drag herself across stone before she’d let someone carry her in full view of her soldiers.
Show no weakness. It was a mantra I lived by, so I understood. I just didn’t like it.
“Okay, ass-kicker,” I murmured. “Let’s find you somewhere to sit before you drop.”
As though on cue, the door behind us scraped open, and Varz poked his head in. “Is it safe?”
So much for them evacuating. But I should have known better. Lily fostered loyalty, and her people exemplified that trait. Of course they hadn’t abandoned her.
Rather than scold them for disobeying, I simply sighed and said, “As safe as it’s going to get. Did Korrak and Rathgor set aside a room for her?”
“Of course.”
Lily pulled herself upright. “Post a guard. If anything crawls out of that scar, I want to be the first to know.”
“Out of what?” Varz asked.
I pointed to the dark wound in the stone. “That.”
The netheron’s eyes widened, then cut to Lily. He caught himself before speaking, then gave a curt nod. Good to know he could follow someone’s orders, if not mine. After another brief glance in the scar’s direction, he stepped aside and allowed us the space to exit the room.
We moved slowly but eventually made it to the barracks. It wasn’t much to look at—half the roof had caved in, a few of the walls had cracked clean through, and the air stunk of fire and brimstone. But it was our home new, so we didn’t complain.
Varz opened the door and waited for Lily and me to step inside before he closed it behind us.
She immediately set to work unbuckling her blades.
Then she rested them against the wall and sat on a bed made entirely of stone.
After a few weeks of sleeping on the hard ground, this looked…
well, no better. But at least we were used to it.
That Lily sat down without so much as a quip told me a great deal about her current state.
Eliza’s warning about PTSD came back to me.
Exhaustion was an indicator, she’d said, and Lily looked downright wrecked.
Eliza had also told me not to push, to let Lily come to us at her own pace.
So instead of firing off the dozens of questions circling my mind, I instead leaned against the nearest wall and waited until she was ready.
After a few moments of awkward silence, Lily lifted her head, her lips twitching as though she found my reticence hilarious.