Celestial Shadows, page 15
part #4 of Celestial Marked Series
“I choose to hunt your rogues.” He turned heel, and stomped off.
Rachel didn’t follow him. “Seven hells.”
“Tell me about it.” My neck smarted with pain. I still had regenerative magic, so I directed some of it at the wounds to heal the damage, while Rachel watched.
“Is Nikolas still on Babylon?” she asked. “He’s going to kill Javos.”
I groaned. “Yes. I know. I guess I’m officially unemployed.”
“So am I,” she said. “That was out of line.”
“Damn right he was, but he’s the least of it all. I’m not… not powerful enough to beat her. The killer.” It stung to admit it, but it was true.
Her mouth turned down at the corners. “Are you sure? It can’t be an angel.”
I blew out a breath. “She called herself a new creation of heaven. I have enough demon in me for her magic to be fatal. I have no idea whether she’s killing the warlocks or not, but she might well be linked to the rogues, considering they got themselves upgraded right there in Purgatory.”
“Enough demon in you,” she repeated. “The other celestials’ power didn’t do that. I’ve never seen magic like that before. When you came back… it was like your body was breaking apart. If Niko hadn’t given you most of his regenerative magic, you would have.”
I winced. “Breaking…” Like glass. “Demonglass,” I said. “She… whatever she was, she didn’t actually use my demonic power. She’s probably a shapeshifter creature, like a demon. Demons come in all forms, and for all I know, angels do, too.”
A new creation of heaven. Like the fallen? The children of the Divinities? I’d been so sure they must know something, but now doubts crept in. Heaven had changed the playing field.
I ran a hand through my hair. “The arch-demon isn’t on Babylon. I don’t know what Nikolas is doing that’s taking so long, but if he sees this mark, he’ll go to war with Javos, and we don’t have time. I’m heading over there.”
“You sure?”
Doubts or not, I needed to speak to the fallen. “I’m bloody sick of always being the person who has no clue what’s going on.”
Not that anyone else knew, either. Aside from the denizens of heaven and hell. Since heaven was off the table: hell it was.
“I’ll be your backup,” Rachel said. “But only if Casthus isn’t there. If so, we get out. Deal?”
“Sure. I have the demonglass right here. I’ll just throw together another blister trap or two.”
Good job, because it didn’t look like I’d be returning to the warlocks’ place any time soon.
I re-entered the house with Rachel and made my way to the lab in the living room.
“Fiona was behind me,” she said. “I hope she didn’t run into Javos on the way back.”
“I hope she’s far enough along in her training that she can control the fire without any more lessons from him.”
“Me too,” Rachel said.
Fiona knocked on the door as I put the final touches on the anti-warlock trap.
“What’re you brewing this time?” she asked.
“Blister trap.” I slipped the spell around my neck. “Maybe I’ll use this one on Javos.”
“Javos was in a real temper,” she said.
“Yeah, he was.” I checked my weapons were in place. “I know Nikolas isn’t back yet, but we’re running on a time limit here. Rachel and I are going ahead to Babylon. We’ll meet him there. Maybe he’s dealing with the other warlocks.”
Fiona nodded in understanding. “Sure. I’ll keep watch in case any more of those scorpion things come back.”
“Thanks,” I said. “By the way… I kind of quit working for Javos. So did Rachel. I’ll tell you the rest when we’re back.”
Her eyes widened. “Seriously?”
“Yep. Be careful, and if Javos comes here, don’t let him in. That okay?”
“I’m ready.” Her face was set, her demon mark uncovered. A new mark. I needed to look into the matter when I had a spare moment, to make sure the mark wasn’t harmful. I sincerely hoped it wouldn’t cause her as much grief as mine had caused me.
And if the fallen didn’t have the answers? I had to go back to the demon who’d marked me in the first place. For all I knew, he was behind this. Lythocrax. As the arch-demon who’d most recently been in heaven, he must know if there was a new conspiracy to bring down the celestials or start a war. Maybe both. Heaven’s warriors were mere pawns. So were hell’s.
Then I’ll bring them both down.
15
Rachel and I crossed over to Babylon, landing in an unfamiliar corridor surprisingly free of debris. The demonglass pillars had been in shattered ruins the last time I’d been here, but apparently, the arch-demon had redecorated. The tall, wide windows had gone, masking everything in gloom. My extra-sensitive Grade Four magic would pick up on any demons or warlocks present, so the darkness didn’t bother me that much. Maybe it was because I’d already fulfilled today’s danger quota, maybe it was that I’d damn near died yesterday, but I kind of wanted to laugh at Casthus’s blatant attempt to play up to the image of himself as a terrifying shadow demon. Okay, he was terrifying, but so were ninety-nine percent of the people—or not-people—I ran into these days. And hey, the apocalypse was coming. I needed all the entertainment I could get. The poor warlocks in this castle probably did, too.
“Whoa,” said Rachel, from beside the arrow-slit window, which had replaced the wider windows overlooking the area below the castle. “That’s new.”
I moved to her side, squinting through at the castle grounds. Whoa indeed. The tower—Zadok’s tower—had gone.
“Talk about burning bridges,” I said. “Or knocking them down.”
He’d even destroyed Zadok’s home? Harsh. It seemed a tad excessive, not to mention… where had the demonglass disappeared to? Aside from the pillars, the whole tower had been made out of the stuff.
Weird. Really weird. Casthus might have broken the damn thing into pieces, but those pieces must be somewhere. I doubted he’d destroy a valuable magical source.
Rachel and I kept walking. The castle smelled stale, with the occasional whiff of something rotting and foul. Not unusual for an arch-demon’s abode, but dread stalked my steps, like he lurked in the shadows waiting to pounce.
“This place is too quiet,” Rachael whispered.
I nodded in agreement. “He went into Pandemonium, and we’d know if he came back. Let’s get to the fallen.”
Not that I’d yet figured out how to get them out of here—or where to hide them when I did.
I tiptoed down the corridor, cloaking myself and Rachel in shadows. If Zadok was here, he’d doubtless be able to find me, but the extra security calmed my nerves.
The dungeon had been opened after I’d freed the fallen, but of course Casthus had rebuilt the castle. I stopped at dead ends more than once where he’d moved things around. Rachel looked equally lost, and she generally had a better sense of direction than I did—as I inferred, due to her growing up in an underground lair beneath a palace. Finally, we reached the spot where I thought the dungeon should be, only to find the doors sealed.
“Crap. Please tell me he didn’t kill them.”
“They can’t die,” said Rachel. “From what Niko said, it sounds like he already tried. Unless he took them with him.”
My heart lurched. “Damn. Okay… let’s speak to the other warlocks. We’ve left enough traces for a certain shadow demigod to guess we were here, assuming he came back.”
Rachel gave a doubtful head-shake, but followed me towards the entrance hall.
Unlike the rest of the castle, the entrance hall lay where it’d always been, and looked much the same—large, wide and gloomy. And not empty, though the warlocks didn’t mingle as usual. They were gathered around the edges of the room in regimented lines… and in the centre, two people grappled with one another. Both were hairless, their hands clawed.
Fallen.
“Hey!” I shouted. “Stop that. Now.”
The warlocks turned on me. Formerly indifferent faces showed outward hostility. One warlock pointed a hand at the fallen. “Kill the traitors.”
The two fallen stopped grappling and turned to face us. Their features showed no signs of recognition as they moved forwards—faster than I’d ever seen them move before. Their bodies were streaked with blood—and symbols. Marks.
The fallen lunged at Rachel and me, claws swiping.
I leaped forwards in front of Rachel, activating my celestial hand and summoning my blade. Blood spurted from their chests and I jerked backwards in surprise, letting go of the blade. It shouldn’t have damaged them. The blade hovered in the air, both fallen impaled… and black blood dripped to the stone floor.
Like demon blood.
“What the hell did you do to them?” I demanded of the nearest warlock—Vulric, the former supervisor of this place in Nikolas’s absence.
“Not us,” he said. “Him.”
Casthus. “You’re watching them fight one another for sport.”
“Those who resisted are mounted on pikes outside,” he snarled. “You left us to him, and you will pay.”
“Er, no.” My celestial blade glowed as though to underline my point. “Firstly, I’m not your boss. That would be Nikolas, and he wouldn’t want you killing the fallen, either.”
He wasn’t here. So where in the seven hells was he?
“Secondly,” I added, “your own superstition tells you that killing the fallen is a bad idea, so you’re damning yourselves by your own logic.”
The warlock’s forked tail lashed. “They are no longer of heaven. But they can be changed.”
“What, tortured for your own entertainment?” I said. “Tell me why I shouldn’t blast the lot of you to pieces. You know I can. I led you to war. I protected your world. And you do this.”
The warlock turned his back on me and walked to the door, kicking it open. “Look upon his handiwork, human.”
The area in front of the castle had transformed. Outside, a collection of bloody heads had been mounted on a row of pikes. So those were the dissidents, then. And that made the people inside the castle complicit in the murder of innocents. Crap on a stick. Nikolas probably wouldn’t want me to blast them all with celestial power, but damn, was it tempting.
“What the hell is that in aid of?” I asked, jerking my head at the fallen’s limp bodies. “Punishment just for their existence?”
“No,” said the demon. “Preparation.”
“For you?”
“For them.”
At his word, several fallen shuffled into view outside the castle. They stood tall, moved faster than before, and their arms were marked with arcane symbols. Hell’s symbols. Their auras were shadowy-black on top of their usual rotting yellow colour.
I nearly vomited at the warlock’s feet.
Casthus… he’d decided to make them into an army. They were immortal, so they made easy cannon fodder. I could think of no other explanation. I swallowed hard, and dragged my gaze away.
Rachel yelled aloud. I whirled around, re-summoning my blade. With a hissing noise, Rachel sprang away from the dead fallen—who suddenly weren’t so dead at all. The two fallen who’d been impaled on my sword rose to their feet, no longer bleeding, no marks remaining from the celestial power I’d hit them with.
“There,” said the warlock. “They suffered no damage.”
“Pity I can’t say the same for you.”
I slammed my fist into his cheek. Through sheer luck, I managed to hold back on my celestial power, though my sword blazed in my other hand. The other warlocks crowded me, but none seemed keen to get near the blade.
“Are you really so easily swayed?” I asked. “I’m here to rescue the fallen. Not kill them. I wasn’t even going to kill you, actually, but you’re making it pretty tempting.”
“You can’t take them,” he said. “Their souls belong to Casthus now. He marked them.”
Oh no. Might it be true? They were the children of the Divinities, but considering they’d been abandoned, our delightful overlords plainly didn’t care for them at all. Was it even possible to undo the mark of an arch-demon? I’d never considered trying to remove my own, but mine was tied to my celestial mark because Lythocrax had turned dark. The fallen… they weren’t, had never been, human…
“They’re not his,” I said. “He has no right to claim them.”
“Feel free to tell him that yourself.”
“Devi,” said Rachel urgently from my side. “He—”
Shadows fell. The warlocks cringed back as the monstrous shape of the arch-demon appeared overhead, wings blotting out the huge luminous moon.
Dammit.
I grabbed Rachel’s hand, deactivated my blade, and plunged my hand into my pocket to grasp the demonglass. Ignoring the warlocks’ shouts, I pulled us back to Nikolas’s house.
“That was too close,” Rachel gasped. “That was him?”
I took a step backwards, breathing heavily. “Yeah, it was. But where’s Nikolas? I thought he was there. On Babylon.”
Had the arch-demons taken him again? I hadn’t wanted to run like a coward, but I knew a losing battle when I saw one, and risking Rachel’s life hadn’t been on my plan. The other warlocks sure as hell wouldn’t help either of us.
Shadows exploded through the room. I jumped to my feet, light blazing from my hand—and immediately dropped my hand when Nikolas stepped from the shadows. “Where were you?”
“Don’t tell me you were on Babylon,” he said.
“All right, I won’t.”
“Devi.”
I folded my arms, my hands still shaking. “He’s turning the fallen into a dark army. Did you know?”
My insides went cold. He didn’t know—did he.
“No, of course I didn’t,” he said. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have supported your attempts to rescue them. It’s out of the question now.”
“So what were you doing?”
“Inspecting the damage,” he said. “And looking for allies. My own warlocks refuse to listen to reason. I’m sorry, Devi, but the fallen are lost.”
My heart plummeted. “No.”
But my celestial light couldn’t heal the damage. It only destroyed what it saw as evil… which now included the fallen.
“They can’t be saved,” he said. “And it would have been all but impossible to bring them here in any case. They might attack humans. Even without those marks.”
I dropped my arms to my sides. “I’m at my wits’ end. I didn’t even see Zadok there, so what he’s doing is anyone’s guess. But Rachel and I left before Casthus spotted us. And I have no bloody clue what he and Abyss were talking about, but if they want to punch anyone, they can do us all a favour and deal with that bloody evil clone of mine. If heaven wants a war, they should have sent her against them, not against a bunch of innocent warlocks on earth.”
Nikolas crossed the room to me. “I don’t know what their strategy is. They’re playing the long game. That’s what the demons do, anyway.”
“And you?” I asked. “Have you given up?”
“No.”
I tilted my head at him. “You just said the fallen can’t be saved.”
“I’m not the one who can save them,” he said. “But Devi—you might be able to.”
“Yeah right.” I laughed, without humour. “My soul is split. Apparently I’m bound for Purgatory when I die, but I’m still holding out hope that that’s a long way off. Anyway, the only other plan I had was to talk to Lythocrax. I mean, he knows demon marks. He might know what that clone is, too. But he kind of hates my guts. On the other hand, he was on Abyss’s side, so presumably not Casthus’s.”
“I never got the impression the feeling was mutual. She needed him: not the other way around.”
Damn. He was right. “Okay, but they worked together. If Purgatory isn’t an option, that place is. I know his name. Unlike the other arch-demons, I can get him to listen to me.” I hoped.
More than my own life was at stake. Saving the fallen was vital. I wouldn’t leave them to die.
“If you’re sure,” he said. “Abyss also has a long history of stealing Casthus’s servants for her own amusement. The fallen might be a target.”
“What, she might steal the fallen?”
“I may have planted some hints to that effect.”
“So you are playing the demons’ games.”
“I know how those two work,” he said. “I think he’s planning to trade them to her in exchange for territory on Pandemonium.”
“Demon territory squabbles, and betting lives on it. How very… netherworld.”
Rachel gave a short laugh. “She’s not wrong.”
From what I’d heard in my studies, arch-demons’ petty arguments and constant bickering were par for the course. Even the celestials’ doctrines said so, though they never went into specifics. And the guild had never mentioned the fallen existed. Probably didn’t know.
Oh, who am I kidding? Someone knew—someone who had no intention of telling the rest of the celestials what in hell was going on.
“The eventual goal, I believe, is Pandemonium,” Nikolas said. “But he won’t steal it outright. He’ll play the game first.”
I frowned. “How long do the fallen have?”
“Honestly? Not long enough.”
“Then I’ll speak to Lythocrax next,” I said. “He might hate me, but he can’t hurt me, and he also can’t disobey my orders if I call him by his true name. And he’s the most recent arch-demon to fall.”
If anyone might know what the gods wanted with me, it was him. Last time, the Divinities had wanted to see me open the bridge and invite Armageddon in myself. Who knew what they wanted with me this time, other than my death?
There were far too many people counting on me to defend them.
16
I felt no fear this time when I set up the pentagram to take me into the realm where I’d been reborn for the second time. The place that had taken so much from me, yet given me the powers I needed to save this realm from darkness.
