CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE #2
Iris raised her arms to do a spell when a familiar trilling sound pierced the air.
The witch paused, frowning. I kept my eyes on her in case it was a trick.
But a second later, several dark shapes slammed into her.
Iris began screaming, and I heard the undeniable sound of tearing flesh.
My eyes widened when I recognized Givi, who threw his head back to swallow the chunk of skin and muscle he’d just ripped off Iris’s flailing arm.
Then I spotted Salbrox, Tarek, and Ircuk, all of them feasting on the witch who had served their master for so long.
The gargoyles had turned on their own kind. For me. For my world.
I’d have to thank them later. Remembering my mission, I spun toward the Gate again. Two new figures reached the ground. I recognized them instantly, and my stomach sank yet again. Oh, shit, I thought.
The female was Lucifer’s sister, Mammon. The male was his younger brother Asmodeus. I had spent time with Asmodeus. I’d liked him, even—in some ways, he seemed different from his siblings. But he was still a demon and a ruler in Hell, and he certainly hadn’t come here to make nice.
We needed to close that Gate.
I looked around with sharp urgency, taking stock of who was nearby—someone from my Court or one of my allies always seemed to be within arm’s reach.
I blinked in surprise when I saw Gwyn and Lyari step over the demons they’d just killed.
Viessa, too, finished cutting one down and turned my way.
She swung her sword in a circle. It sang as it caught the light, ready for more.
“Shall the women get this done, then?” she called.
Gwyn smirked and flipped her own sword, bringing it upright with an effortless movement. Blood flicked off the sticky-looking blade. “As we have since the beginning of time.”
In unison, the four of us turned and started making our way toward Mammon and Asmodeus, and consequently, the Gate.
It had gotten bigger since the last time I’d looked at it.
The rip in the sky looked more like a diamond now, as though someone had peeled it open with both hands.
I gazed up at the swarm of demons still pouring out like angry hornets bursting from a broken nest.
Then something else appeared in the darkness.
Terror exploded through the air like fireworks.
“What is that?” Lyari said. I heard the puzzled frown in her voice.
It came through slowly, its movements almost drowsy, as if this thing had just woken from a long, long slumber.
The creature was so huge that its sides widened the Gate, and I questioned whether it even was a creature.
At first glance, it bore no head or face, and it looked like it was made of rock and dirt.
But then two great long shapes unfurled and cast shadows over the entire battlefield. Wings. Could it breathe fire?
I would call it a dragon, but other than its ability to fly, this thing bore no other similarities to my friends.
As if the thought had summoned him, Cyrus’s roar echoed across the sky.
With helpless horror, I watched as he flew toward the monster Hell had just spewed out.
Cyrus was so small in comparison, but my friend was unafraid.
Acting like a beast ten times his size, the red dragon drew his head back and let out a wall of flame.
I held my breath, praying that it worked.
Hoping this thing would cook alive before it could hurt any of us.
The dragonfire bounced off the monster and disintegrated into nothing. I cursed, but in the next moment, I was forced to turn my focus away from the battle starting overhead when a snake the size of a horse came at me. I kept glancing up as I fought, trying to keep track of Cyrus.
Realizing he wouldn’t be able to fight this thing the usual way, Cyrus immediately switched to Plan B.
His scales glinted as he changed his trajectory, flying over the monster’s head to land on its back.
The massive demon bellowed, and it tilted.
For an instant, the shapes on its spine drew my gaze.
I almost missed my opening to behead the damn snake, but I recovered just in time, and the edge of my blade found its mark just as the demon tried to recoil.
Ichor sprayed my chest and neck as I glanced up at the strange shapes on the monster again. They looked like … volcanoes.
I had seen them before, I realized with slow dread.
My mind flashed back to the last time I’d laid eyes on those things. I had asked Lucifer about them. He’d acted all cagey and said, That is where Abaddon resides. He has been asleep for several centuries. It wouldn’t be good for my world if he ever awoke, not as he is now.
Why? I’d asked.
Lucifer’s tone had ended our conversation. As Fallen have evolved in your world, so they have evolved in mine.
I hadn’t been the only one keeping a card up my sleeve, I thought grimly. Whatever Abaddon had “evolved” into opened its jaws—which apparently it did have—and flew at the small dragon again.
“Cyrus,” I whispered, my heart bursting with terror. I searched the air wildly for Tabitha and found her locked in battle with a cluster of demons that looked like fucking pterodactyls. She couldn’t help, and now I was afraid for her, too.
Just as I lowered my head to look for any ally with wings that could fly me to Cyrus’s aid, I spotted a lion in the battle.
It was the biggest one I’d ever seen, and as I watched, it took out a demon with a single blow from its deadly paw.
The great cat could’ve been anyone, but I had a feeling in my gut, and I didn’t question it.
“Nan,” I shouted. The lion’s head whipped round. Its bright, golden eyes found me instantly. I pointed at Cyrus and screamed, “Help him!”
The lion followed the direction of my hand and went still, as if it was concentrating.
A moment later, its shape began to shift and bubble.
Much like the transformation of a werewolf, torn flesh fell to the ground.
Nan’s body grew, and grew, and grew. She swelled and cracked until she was bigger than a house.
Bigger than Cyrus and Tabitha. As massive, webbed wings stretched out on either side of her, tilting in a gust of wind, I realized what the shapeshifter was becoming.
A dragon.
Once the transformation was complete, Nan flapped those vast wings, dislodging some of the flesh and gore off her scales, and launched her body into the air.
She went directly toward the battle between Cyrus and Abaddon, letting out a roar that shook the world.
I watched her go, praying I hadn’t just sent the queen to her death.
“Fortuna, look out!” a male voice barked. My head jerked toward Gil, and he lifted a crossbow. Reacting without thought, I dove away from the direction the arrow was pointing. Gil’s aim was flawless, and the glass tip found its target, a humanoid thing that shrieked as it died.
Another demon out of commission. But there were still more, and one of them was reaching for me with huge, clawed hands.
I had to trust that Cyrus could handle himself and that Nan had his back.
I lifted my leg and gave the demon a hard kick at the same moment I lowered my sword and stabbed something coming up from behind, a creature with a foul smell and no hint of fear or reason within its mind.
I heard the satisfying sound of a pained screech at the same moment the demon in front of me recovered.
I dodged it again while I yanked my sword free, but I was a split second too slow in my reaction, and I hissed as a fresh cut opened on the side of my leg—it had gotten me right where my armor was weakest.
Luckily, despite the blow it had managed to land, the demon was big and graceless.
I beheaded it and looked for my next opponent before the creature had even hit the ground.
We were getting closer to Lucifer and the Gate.
From the corner of my eye, I could see that splash of white.
A bright glint of golden hair. My friends and I kept going, kept fighting, managing to stay close and form a line, of sorts, as we cut out way through.
At last, knowing we must’ve been nearly upon him now, I whipped round …
… and stopped.
My chest heaved. Pieces of myself drifted back.
We’d reached the devil, just as we had intended.
But Viessa was fighting Lucifer, and that wasn’t part of the plan.
A rush of terror filled my throat, and I lunged to cut down another demon in my way, trying to make a path to my friend.
But Lucifer had surrounded himself with a species that, if they’d been from this world, I would’ve called giants.
Even with all the adrenaline pumping through me, pain ricocheted through my arms with every blow.
I wrenched my head toward Viessa every chance I got, making sure she was still alive.
Thankfully, the Unseelie Queen seemed to be holding her own.
I’d just wounded the last demon that stood between us when Lucifer dropped to the ground, throwing his wings over his head as a stream of ice charged over his back.
Roaring in pain, he lashed out blindly with his sword and managed to strike Viessa across her thigh.
She snarled, springing back. Blue blood streamed from the gash.
Just as Viessa started to raise her weapon, her leg gave way, and her knees hit the ground.
Lucifer must’ve struck an artery, or maybe there had been poison on the blade.