Chapter 44
Forty-Four
KELLAN
A s he ran through the hoard of creatures, Kellan couldn’t believe the cowardice of Lucifer as he retreated into his army. The sharp metal of his blade pierced through beast after beast, the sound creating a rhythm as he moved fluidly through them, following Lucifer to the back of the mountain. This was the one being Kellan cared about most. The only one he cared to truly drive his sword through. That familiar urge beckoned him to let it free. To completely take over his body and just give in to the blood lust that called to him. With a shake of his head, he ran. Ran faster and harder through the demons that came at him. He was gaining ground, catching up to the fallen angel of death and destruction as he chased him through a narrow path between the emerging peaks. Kellan didn’t know where it led, but he followed anyway.
Lucifer banked left down another small passageway, tossing out a wave of his dark power before disappearing from his sight. Kellan sensed it moments before it was upon him, no more than a heartbeat between the time it took to throw his large frame to the ground as those piercing shadows slashed out overhead. He felt it graze across his forearm, tearing the fabric and breaking skin, but he didn’t stop. The moment they receded, he was on his feet and running.
Kellan was angry. At himself for giving whatever he and Demitria were away before they’d even fought, but mostly at Lucifer. For using any weakness against them that he possibly could in order to get whatever he wanted, even if that thing was him. But he had killed far too many souls for Lucifer. Kellan had done so many things he wasn’t proud of during that time with the dark angel, and it had taken him hundreds of years to forgive himself. It had taken a human girl to truly set him free.
So he’d fight, he’d decided. For a brief moment, before he’d sprung free, he’d entertained Lucifer’s demand for himself. He would fight until he no longer could. Until his legs had been rendered useless, and his arms had been torn to ribbons. Kellan would fight until his sword lay bloodied on the ground, his enemies strewn around him as his battered body stilled on the cool stone if it meant he had a chance. A chance to walk away. To be happy.
With her .
The closer he got to the fallen angel, the more his brain screamed at him. To go back. To wait for help. Kellan knew it was a trap, yet he didn’t care.
“My offer still stands.” With just enough time to dodge the attack, Kellan stumbled into the rocky mountain side as a golden-silver blade missed his throat by only a few inches. In all his time with the Dark King, the male had never shown an angel blade, and he couldn’t let the thought sink its ugly, taloned claws into his mind, despite the fact that there was a very real chance he wouldn’t make it off the mountain.
They’d just emerged into another smaller, flat outcropping that overlooked the war raging on below when Lucifer jumped him. Kellan didn’t even have the chance to check on the others down below before the male was upon him.
“I want nothing to do with your cause.” He swung, and the angel easily evaded his efforts.
“Don’t you miss it?” Lucifer grinned, swatting away Kellan’s maneuvers as if he’d been wielding nothing more than a stick. “The killing? The bloodshed? I can see it in your eyes, Horseman.” Kellan could feel it too. “We conquered so much together, you and I. Waged wars on so many cultures.” Like flames, those shadows danced down his arms, twining with the golden-silver blade in his hands. He’d be so, so fucked if Lucifer got ahold of him. The edge of his blade grazed across Kellan’s forearm and he flinched, feeling the burn as it sunk into his skin, as the shadows tried to fillet the flesh from his bones, but held his ground.
“That was a long time ago. I’m not the same as I once was.” He hadn’t even had control over his own body during most of those years with the Dark King, but he’d changed, regardless.
“No, you’ve grown soft.” Lucifers eyes trailed toward the emerging humans, grinning as a pair of green-gold eyes caught his own. “She’ll be your downfall, you know. Your complete undoing.” Another swing, and Kellan managed a strike. The thin line of blood trickled down the fallen angel's dark armor where the Horseman had pierced through. “Join me, Kellan. Horseman of War. Join me again.” His power surged again, and for a moment, Kellan was in total darkness. Like he was freefalling between worlds, and his surroundings came back to him in a flash. Every inch of his body burned from the darkness and the shadows Lucifer possessed. As they found their way into him through even the smallest wound, scorching him from the inside out, and he felt it throughout his entire body as it fought to incapacitate him.
“I refuse to join you again. Refuse to allow myself to fall into that once more. To kill innocents. The bloodshed ends here!” Kellan moved to strike, but he was a fraction of a second too slow, his blade tied up with his enemies as that familiar silver-gold of an angel blade nearly struck him stupid. More of those shadows surrounded him. Prodding, slashing him as it tore into him again and again. Kellan could feel the warmth of his blood as it welled within his clothing. Soaking the fabric above the wounds. The Dark King had always been a force to be reckoned with, even against himself, and he struggled to gain the upper hand.
The blow to his knee had been unexpected, and his body tumbled to the ground, rolling out of the way a heartbeat before the blade had come near inches from his face. Lucifer was stronger than he remembered, and Kellan was struggling. He hadn’t been prepared for this power. It was nothing compared to what it had been like so many years ago. Back then, his siblings had barely managed to claw him away from Lucifer's grasp. Now? Kellan felt like he’d be lucky to survive another five minutes.
At the echoing footsteps around the bend, he glanced behind him, watching as Demitria rushed toward him, her own sword poised in attack as she lunged toward the fallen angel.
He was on his feet, slashing at those shadowed tendrils that shot their way toward the second human in his entire existence he’d ever found himself caring for in a millennium. “This is not your fight.” Kellan growled, his arm pinning her against the mountain's rocky surface while the other held firm on his sword. “Get back.” He tossed her aside with such carelessness that she was nearly tumbling to the ground. “Stay out of my way.” He snapped, his attention wholly focused on the dark angel before him, not even sparing a glance in her direction to insure she’d been okay.
She screamed something at him, but he couldn’t hear it through the ringing in his ears. As his blood boiled, and he fought to control the rage threatening to take hold of him.
“Get her out of here.” He muttered through clenched teeth. Jace’s grip was firm around her, but she fought him with everything she had. Struggled against his arms that held firm around her. Clawing at him to let her go. Yet the human held strong, and something akin to pride washed over him.
“Let me help you! You’re hurt!” Demitria cried out. Kellan knew he was. Could feel the fatigue that was threatening to overwhelm his body with each new wound the fallen angel opened up across him, but he wouldn’t let it stop him. He’d fight until he was dead. Protecting her until he couldn’t anymore.
“I don’t want your help.” Lucifer stumbled as Kellan feigned left and swung, the tip of his blade connecting as it submerged into the Dark Kings left thigh. He growled, a deep guttural and animalistic sound as he recoiled from the blow. Kellan couldn’t help but grin as his opponent's face was laced with pain.
“I’m getting tired of these games, Horseman.” Lucifer thrust himself forward, throwing his weight into his next swing and Kellan barely managed to evade the sword as more of those shadows fought against him, winding around his wrists. Kellan clawed at them, ripping them free as they seared into his skin, marring the exposed flesh where the fabric of his shirt had all but shredded. He hadn’t accounted for the dagger that embedded itself into his side, piercing through his armissuento the tissue below his ribs. He hadn’t meant to let the sound free, but a slight yelp escaped his lips as he stumbled to his knee. Panting, as that agonizing pain took over him. Lucifer had been too fast. Spinning on his foot, his sword barreled toward his exposed chest, and Kellan knew this was where he’d die.
Then everything was in slow motion. The screams that ripped through the air. The heavy footfalls across the stone beneath them.
The sickening sound of piercing flesh echoed through Kellan’s ears as a roar erupted through the battlefield.