Chapter 16
The sky burned.
The ground trembled.
I opened my eyes and scrambled to my feet, finding Kaito awake and doing the same.
His gaze narrowed on me and he nodded.
We’d survived whatever that was, but I had a feeling I wouldn’t get to see the fruit of my efforts quite yet. Purgatory worked on a different timescale and it would take some patience for the soul artifact I’d left behind to make its return to me.
My wings felt a little bit lighter after the experience, my mind a little less cluttered.
The rage, though, burned like molten embers that could easily be flared back to life by just a soft breath.
Kaito yanked me to my feet. “Time to go,” he said.
Overhead, the pearlescent barrier protecting the school flickered red and as I watched a storm of fire rippled over it.
“Hellfire,” I whispered.
A familiar, mocking laugh filled the air, making me spin as I tried to pinpoint the source.
The building swayed again beneath me and Kaito grabbed onto me, keeping me from the edge.
It was too late. The stone crumbled under our feet and we went airborne.
Shit.
Trying not to panic, I grabbed onto Kaito and spread my wings as wide as they would go. While my trip to Purgatory seemed to have helped their immense weight, I was still nowhere near flight-ready.
Gliding, though, I could do.
The ground rushed up to greet us, its molten streaks harsh and unforgiving.
We hit hard. My knees slammed into the sharp, jagged stones while Kaito rolled away from me, his body hitting a building hard with a sickening crack.
“Kaito!” I screamed.
He didn’t move.
A slow clap sounded as Cole stepped out from the swirling fog. “Bravo. I was wondering how you’d get down from there in one piece.” He grinned. “I would have enjoyed another trip to Purgatory.”
I stiffened, wondering if he was referring to my little field trip.
But, no, he meant that he believed I would return to Purgatory if I died. Perhaps that was his goal all along, but why?
“What’s your deal, Cole?” I snarled. “I thought you said I had a week.”
He chuckled. “Well, I’m not known for my patience.”
I scoffed. “A bastard and a liar, noted.”
His lips lifted into a cruel grin. “You still don’t see it, do you?
You’re a weapon, Lilith. That’s all you are to my brother and he would know.
He has a little weapon of his own.” He stepped closer to me, making me stiffen.
“There’s a reason that weapons are forged in a fire, little angel.
It takes heat to become stronger—it takes sacrifice. ”
I rolled my eyes. “Dying once was enough for me, thanks.”
He nearly purred. “And look at you now,” he said, spreading his arms as if he himself had unlocked my angelic powers. “You’re a beautiful sight. Imagine what more you could become at my side.”
Glancing at Kaito, I decided I didn’t give two shits what Cole planned on doing. I shoved my way past him, pushing aside his lethal wing to get to my mentor.
“Kaito?” I whispered as I knelt at his side. I pressed two fingers to his throat, relieved when I felt a pulse. “Good, you’re just knocked out.”
“You still think you need them, don’t you?” he asked.
“He’s one of my Virtues,” I pointed out, glaring back at him.
“I’m also one of your Virtues,” he countered.
“There’s nothing virtuous about you, Cole. Perhaps it was a mistake.” I knew I could reject a Virtue, but he had to want to reject the bond, too. Had I not been so stubborn, I probably could have broken the bond before my death.
Now, though, Cole seemed interested in the idea that had once enraged him.
He grinned. “I feel your rage building, little angel.” He licked his lips in a slow, lewd motion. “It’s delicious.”
Cole wanted my rage.
He needed it.
Screams echoed in the distance as Demonspawn filtered through the fog, their talons scraping against the Academy’s streets.
Cole grinned.
“Call them off,” I growled. I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt because of me. Cole already had me where he thought he wanted me. What difference would it make?
He uncurled his fingers. “Only if you come with me.”
Cole manipulated the rage inside of me that his goading enticed. Flames wafted to life inside my soul, easily working from the embers of anger he’d already planted.
Fucking bastard knew how to work me like a fiddle.
I roared and the oily barrier turned a violent dark red under a storm of Hellfire.
Had I done that?
The Virtue bond snapped against my heart as Cole grinned. He thought he could rip me away from them, tear the Virtue bonds to shreds.
My eyes went wide when I realized that was what he’d been doing all along. He’d been beating my Virtues down, tearing at the Virtues’ bonds while they’d been weakened. It was a miracle that they were still intact.
I grinned, enjoying the flare of confusion in Cole’s ruby eyes.
He was right. Weapons were best honed in fire, and he had just made my Virtues indestructible.
Kaito’s eyes flew open before he scrambled to his feet. He rubbed the back of his head and winced, but he would survive.
When he spotted Cole, he bared his teeth.
The rage demon flared his wings, unimpressed by the Kami still trapped in a mortal form. “There’s still one Virtue who’ll bend to me,” he boomed, turning in a whirl of heat toward the edge of the campus. “You’ve earned what comes next, Lilith.”
Another volley of Hellfire slammed into the barrier, although Cole didn’t seem phased by it. Some erupted from the ground behind us, tearing chunks of rock out of the Academy.
He called out to his minions, the words in a language that felt familiar, but I couldn’t understand a word.
Instinctively, I knew where he was going.
“Dante,” I whispered.
Kaito rose and blocked me when I moved to follow Cole away from the Academy. “You can’t.”
“I’m getting Dante out, Kaito. Now.”
“Not alone,” he said, shaking his head. Blood seeped from a gash in his head, painting a garish streak of red down his cheek. “Let’s at least get Hendrik.”
The urgency in his voice pierced the veil of rage and I nodded.
“Fine, but let’s be quick about it.”