Chapter 22
Awful pain flooded my senses, a dark and foul magic wrapping me in its claws. Over the roaring of blood in my ears, I heard a woman’s husky laugh.
Rage burned in my soul when Freya approached. Lips in a pretty pout, she sighed. “You’re too gullible to be a Champion, Lilith. You should have made sure I was really down.”
“Next time, I’ll make sure you’re really dead.
” I had to force the words out. It was like choking on broken glass.
The familiar, metallic taste of blood filled my mouth and I wouldn’t have been surprised if I did start hurling up broken little shards of glass, or some other fun mess Freya had concocted.
The spell she’d cast gripped me tighter and pain exploded through me as ribs cracked, then splintered into my lungs. I felt like some unseen giant had me wrapped in his fist and he was slowly squeezing me, just to see how much I could take.
“Lilith…”
The sound of my mother’s voice made me want to scream.
When I actually heard screaming, I thought maybe I’d started to hallucinate from the pain. Then the magic that held me so tight was gone and I sagged, going to my knees on the earth, my hands slammed down on bloody dirt a second later, just in time to keep myself from falling.
A weird noise had me looking up.
Freya stood just a couple feet away, but instead of that smirk I wanted to beat off her face, she looked confused. Stunned, actually. I saw why a second later as a strange, shimmery glow began to emerge from her chest—no. Not her chest, from the blade piercing it.
Sam was behind her and as he stepped in closer, he flared his wings out, their beauty no less diminished by the blood flecking them.
“Die, you miserable hag,” he said, twisting his blade before wrenching it out and impaling her again.
She choked up blood but even as Sam went to twist the sword as he’d done the first time, Freya smeared her hand through the blood and started wiggling her fingers through the air, before she choked, unable to complete the spell.
Shadows fell across us and Sam pulled back, unceremoniously yanking his sword from Freya’s body. I did the same and she collapsed to the ground, her skin already going gray.
Sam launched himself into the air and hot, black blood splattered the ground, some of it hitting me only seconds later. A Demonspawn head hit the ground next to Freya and I looked up, watching Sam and Azra decapitate two more before they turned as one and came back to me.
“This isn’t going to end well,” Azra said. There was no humor in his voice. “Leave. We’ll hold them off as long as we can. You have to find another way.”
Another way? I might have laughed if I hadn’t been so scared, so frustrated. “No.”
I spun away from them and sought out Lucifer. My mother still fought him, but her movements had slowed. He would kill her if I left her alone here.
“No,” I said again and turned away, then started for my mother. I ran, still not strong enough for a vertical take-off, my wings still too heavy and my muscles unfamiliar with the strain and strength required.
“Lift your hand.”
I recognized Cole’s voice as he veered toward me and did as he ordered.
The pull of my own body weight as he lifted me made me grimace but he soon had me high enough that I felt comfortable snapping out my wings.
My muscles protested the movement, but I persisted and stayed aloft, arrowing in on Lucifer.
A demon cut between me and my target, his face a twisted mask of hate.
Cole sped forward, caught the demon’s head and simply tore it off.
He discarded the body but kept his clawed hand tangled in the head.
I decided I wanted to know why. A shadow came in over me but instinct told me it was one of the twins—Sam.
A moment later, Azra winged in to take position below me while Cole returned to his place at my left side. And yes, he still had the head.
“New fashion accessory, demon? I can’t say I care for it. You going to skin it and turn it into a handbag?” Azra asked.
Cole didn’t answer. Instead, he folded his wings around his body and plummeted, making a divebomb for his brother. Azra did a tuck and roll sort of move that let him take my now-exposed left side.
“We need to land,” I said, eyes on Cole. Holding out my hands, I didn’t give them a chance to argue. I just closed my wings.
They were ready, thankfully.
Cole had landed just a few feet behind his brother and we had barely hit the ground before he attacked, swinging in a full circle with the Demonspawn head in his hand, using one horn like a handle. The other made a sickening, wet sound as it caught Lucifer in the throat.
With a garbled scream, the former king of Hell spun around and back handed Cole. His brother flared out his wings before he went more than a few yards, using them to catch the air and slow his speed. He snarled at Lucifer, fangs bared in menace.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Lucifer bellowed. It was garbled and wet. Reaching up, he yanked the horn from his neck. After giving it a disgusted glare, he threw it to the ground and crushed it under his feet.
He took another step toward Cole and as he shifted, I saw movement behind him.
I bit my tongue to keep from crying out at the sight of Sonya. My mother was dragging one leg. Blood streaked her face. Her eyes were full of rage. And she held her sword in her hand.
Lucifer was only a few feet away.
She rushed forward—
And slammed right into Lucifer’s fist as he turned, evading her attack. Her head snapped to the right and she went down—and not just down to the ground. Horrified, I watched as Lucifer opened up a gate to Hell, the ground yawning open to swallow her up before it closed again.
Lucifer growled as deep bloody gouges ran over his skin. He panted, drained, the move one that had cost him. He could only open a portal to Hell when we were truly down.
Dazed, I looked at the place where I’d last seen Sonya. Her blood was still fresh and wet and her sword lay there, discarded.
“Don’t look so sad, Lilith,” Lucifer said in a teasing voice. “I can send you to join her. She’s not dead…” He laughed. “Not yet. You should get the chance to say good-bye, don’t you think?”
Rage exploded out of me and I lunged for him. Sam cried out and tried to stop me, but I was moving too fast. Slamming into Lucifer, I punched him in the jaw. Pain jolted up my arm and I welcomed it.
“Oh, that was nice.” Lucifer licked his lips and smiled at me. “Do it again.”
When I tried, he made a move to grab me. I barely pulled back in time, edging away from him. Sonya’s sword called to me and I circled toward it, hate pulsing inside me as I held Lucifer’s gaze.
“You should just give in, Lily.” He smiled, looking like the beautiful demon I’d first met in the lower levels of Hell. “You can’t defeat me. You can’t defeat Calamity. It’s inevitable.”
“You’re working damn hard for somebody who thinks his win is inevitable.” I curled my lip.
He went to grab me again and I jerked backward, slamming right into one of his Demonspawn. The male chuffed with laughter as he wrapped big, bulky arms around me.
Azra and Sam bellowed, their wings aglow in the night as they came for me.
The Demonspawn threw me to the ground. I hit hard.
But I landed next to the bloody dirt where my mother had been—and her sword awaited.
I grabbed it and rolled to my feet, swinging as I spun, sinking it into the Demonspawn’s neck.
The demon’s head flopped to the side, little more than meat holding it in place. With a snarl, I jerked the sword free and turned to face Lucifer once more.
At least I tried.
Lucifer had already come up behind me. I screamed as he grabbed one of my wings and wrenched, hard. Pain tore through me and I barely noticed as I fell this time, the agony so all-consuming, I couldn’t think beyond it. Black dots swirled in my vision, darkening at the edges.
No, I can’t pass out. I can’t…
“Lily!”
Somebody was screaming for me. No. There was more than one voice. I jerked as fury, heat, despair, denial flooded into me through the mating bond, then again as somebody pulled me up, cradled me against a powerful chest.
“Her wing, her wing…”
Something wet fell on my cheek and I looked up to see Sam staring at me, tears in his eyes.
I could barely keep him in focus. I was cold. “What…”
Shivering, I tried to press closer. Sam pulled me against him, then looked over at somebody. I saw his lips moving, but I couldn’t hear him. Over the roar of blood in my ears, I couldn’t hear anything.
Was I dying? Again?