Celestial Shadows, page 22
part #4 of Celestial Marked Series
“Not this realm!” I yelled at the demonglass.
“That’s not very nice,” said Zadok.
He stood edged in darkness on the floor of a room that was an exact replica of his main tower room on Babylon, demonglass wall included. Dark wings extended from his shoulders, and he was clad in dark battle gear not unlike his brother’s. Very much unlike Nikolas, however, his eyes were cold and remorseless.
“Neither are you,” I said. “Why did my demon magic bring me here?”
“Why indeed. You’ll have to ask someone else that question.”
Okay... I’d never felt nervous being in the same room as him—no more than any other warlock, anyway. But there was something… off, about his magic. Something darker than before. And on a shadow demon, that was saying something.
“You’re acting weirdly,” I commented. “Aren’t you bothered Abyss is dead?”
“Dead?” he intoned. “Who killed her? You?”
“Lythocrax.” Anger sparked to life at the mention of the name… and a memory stirred. Zadok knew about the saphor demon eggs. He’d told me about them. “You have something to answer for as well.”
He arched a brow. “Oh?”
“Saphor demon eggs,” I said. “You knew what they were before I did. How?”
“I imagine there are a great number of things about the demon realms I knew before you did, Devi.”
“You know what I’m talking about. When my demon mark manifested—when Rory died—it was because he touched those demon eggs. Someone planted them at the scene so the two of us would run into them. It was set up so only one of us would survive and walk away with the mark.”
“Ah,” he said. “I did wonder if you’d ever make the connection.”
“You have some nerve offering me information only when it’s convenient to you,” I said quietly. “You knew Rory died because of whoever planted those demon eggs.”
“No, I certainly didn’t,” he said.
“What’s your source? Who told you they even existed?”
“If you must know, it was Themedes. We talked a great deal when he was a prisoner. I thought nothing of it.”
He wouldn’t. But the eggs themselves came from Pandemonium. The demons had handed the eggs over… because the guild traded with them.
The agents of the guild had murdered Rory. The celestials—for all intents and purposes—were my enemies now.
But the guild’s celestials weren’t pulling the strings. Even Lythocrax was merely a stand-in. Someone had sent him down from heaven for the purposes of amassing an army against their own fellow Divinities.
Zadok tilted his head. “Did you need him? The human? Wouldn’t you rather join with me instead?”
“You’re creeping me out,” I said. “What in the world happened to you?”
“What happened?” He smiled, a grim smile. “Have you got all day? I think not. Most recently, I acquired a set of enemies to vanquish. I also seem to have gained a city.”
“And lost your mind.”
His smile was razor sharp. “When did I ever claim to be sane?”
Wait. Now I knew what was off about him. His aura. It’d disappeared. It was dark enough in the room and my arrival had been unexpected enough that I honestly hadn’t noticed before. But no demon was without an aura. Right?
I waved a hand. “Is that a new party trick? The aura thing?”
“Aura thing?”
He stepped forwards, revealing his shadowy aura was right there. Like I’d imagined it disappearing. Or my own aura vision was faulty.
“If you’re innocent of dealing the demon eggs, you’re not on my hit list, so I’m going after Lythocrax. If you’d like to join me, be my guest, but don’t think this means we have any kind of arrangement.”
He watched me with a golden tinted gaze. “Revenge seems to be your primary drive, or it will be, once you truly embrace what you are. As for me, the amount I could gain might well be infinite. But I have a crusade to fight of my own, so now is the time for me to leave you.”
“Wait.” I held up a hand. “Are you at all aware of what Lythocrax is doing? He stole the fallen and turned them into his own. He’s waging war on earth as we speak. I’m going after him. You have allies, I assume, if you have all this.”
He flashed me a last smile. “I wouldn’t do to forget our past arrangements. I consider you an ally, Devi Lawson. But this is not my battle to fight.”
No. It’s mine. I gripped the demonglass in one hand. “Your choice.”
“Until we meet again,” he said, and disappeared as the glass swallowed me up, taking me into Lythocrax’s realm.
My body crashed into the Devi clone, and I rolled on the ground, narrowly avoiding her blade.
Black lightning sizzled from my fingertips, unrestrained. The shadow demon’s power. She dodged two attacks but not the third. The sound of shattering glass came from where my attack struck. I stared at her. I’d blasted a hole into her chest, but while golden blood dripped from the wound, her body was… solid. No internal organs. A living, breathing person, created entirely of glass. No—demonglass.
“He’s certainly creative,” I gasped out. “Get him here. I want to kill him.”
The Devi clone reformed her celestial blade, not speaking. The shattered hole in her chest continued to drip golden blood. She could be destroyed, after all. By the shadow demon’s power, anyway. But I hadn’t taken that much. I’d need to ration it if I wanted to make the most of its power
I reached for the new, unfamiliar demon magic. Then I focused all my will on her glass-like form.
I didn’t really think it would work—but when I looked down at my hand, it’d turned glassy, see-through. I’d become her.
I raised my hand in time to block her punch. I caught her fist in mine and shoved back, celestial fire fuelling my attack. I couldn’t imitate magic, but our magic was one and the same anyway.
Except unlike me, she didn’t have demonic power.
Her thoughts seeped into mine. I am a weapon. I am the gods’.
I live for them. I kill only for them. I am nothing. I will be nothing. I fear nothing…
I shook off her thoughts, alarmed at how quickly they’d replaced mine. No wonder Abyss walked around in her human-like disguise rather than pretending to be other people all the time. In the end, the clones of Damian Greenwood and the inspector had seemed so much like their real-life counterparts that nobody had been able to tell the difference.
In her mind, there are answers about how to kill her. And him.
I deflected her attack, digging deep within my mind for her weaknesses. She’d been forged as a weapon… turned from nothing, from dust, into something to be feared… I did my best to ignore her other thoughts and dived deeper in search of what I needed.
Then I stopped. I was her weakness. She had no defence against her own reflection.
I drove my newly glass-formed fists into her shattered chest, and she screamed in rage. I’d already overpowered her. Golden blood dripped from the gaping hole. The wound wasn’t healing. Unlike me, she couldn’t use regenerative magic.
Black lightning sprang to my fingertips for the last time. My hand over her heart, I drew out the last of the shadow demon’s power—and let go.
She shattered beneath me, pieces of demonglass crumbling to the ground. I stepped back, her thoughts whirling around my head.
Only when the armies of heaven and hell are brought to their breaking point—then, the bridge will come.
The bridge.
The thought shocked me back into my real mind. I’d been a damned fool. Lythocrax was already on his way to earth. Never mind the bridge—an arch-demon could level the city.
Shattered pieces of demonglass lay all around me on the barren wasteland, the broken remains of the Devi clone reduced to rubble thanks to the demonic magic I’d unleashed. I’d taken all that remained of Abyss’s power, and I could even become an arch-demon if wanted to.
I just hope his hate doesn’t bury me alive.
My own rage burned like a furnace. It would have to be enough.
Lythocrax’s demonic form wrapped around me. Power rang through my bones and shook the earth beneath my feet. I towered, the whole world seeming to shrink before my first step. Strength hummed within me. I’d created this world. It was mine…
No. the real arch-demon is on his way to earth, and I’m going to kill him before he gets there.
Wings unfurled behind my shoulders, and I took to the skies.
23
I flew, honing in on the demon whose form I’d taken. He’d had his Devi clone send the fallen through to earth using her own magic, but he hadn’t followed them. Abyss, in her desperation, had forged a link between the two realms. It required a huge surge of energy for an arch-demon to cross between realms, but he could create anything. That was his power.
Being him—flying as him—made part of me want to vomit at the thought of spending another second in his head, but I crushed my human emotions beneath the demon raging inside me. Rage alone kept me flying on. Strength and power, magic and explosive force—he had it all. Where are you?
I probed his memory and recoiled. It was like sticking my finger into oily demon blood. If I dived too deep, I’d drown. I’d need time to tease out his secrets. Time I didn’t have, especially a mile up in the air.
Then I saw him, a winged shape—above a glowing pentagram of fire.
No.
I flew at him, collided with his huge demonic body, and we crashed through the portal.
Earth’s cloudy skies surrounded us. From the ground, aerial battles looked fast and brutal. Up close, I barely had time to recover from one blow before the next landed, our bodies colliding in a clash of steel. If I wore my human form, I’d have broken within the first few seconds. I pummelled him with my steel-like fists, taking pleasure in every wound I tore into him. I couldn’t use his magic, only my own, but it didn’t matter. Blood dripped from my own wounds. He hit hard, more vicious than I’d have expected from an arch-demon I’d assumed until today was all talk. I hadn’t used his name, but his caution and hesitation to strike me directly was entirely gone.
Wait a moment. He hadn’t actually seen Abyss die… so he must think I was her.
Lythocrax pummelled me with his steel fists, knocking the breath from my lungs and tearing into my skin. There’d be a limit to how much abuse this body could take—especially as I had less regenerative power than he did. Abyss had been on her last legs, after all.
His fist slammed into my skull, momentarily blanking out my vision.
Memories exploded behind my eyes, too fast to make much sense of. I was falling, and darkness rushed in.
The girl… she will be the one…
Memories of a cave viewed through fog… of shapes too dazzling to look upon directly. Winged shapes. Angels. His memories.
Lythocrax’s emotions tore through me like a tidal wave. Anger at being manipulated, at being shoved into helping this ungrateful human girl.
Pleasure when I realised I could finally be rid of her, and use my other pawn to take away her power.
Rage when she slithered out of his grip, and found her way to my realm anyway.
Fury when she used my name against me.
So much fury. I was drowning in it.
Then I saw a face I knew. Rory.
My own anger pushed back against Lythocrax’s, and I came back to awareness—to Devi—as the two of us crashed into the ground of Lythocrax’s own realm. We must have passed through the still-open portal. Blood dripped into my eyes from a cut on my forehead, and more cuts laced my body. He fought mean and dirty, but he bore as many wounds as I did. I might not have his magic, but I had borrowed his freakish strength.
“I’m surprised,” I coughed. “I thought you were all talk, Altheare.”
The echo of his anger momentarily overwhelmed my own emotions. Had I accidentally made our connection deeper by becoming him? I’d never have guessed that if I took on someone’s form, I’d experience their emotions in real-time.
“Don’t say the name, tainted one.” He spat blood onto the ground.
“You’re one to talk.” I coughed again. My voice had turned back to my own, and I felt his form slipping away as exhaustion threatened to claim me.
“Devina,” he growled. “She gave you her magic?”
“Yep. Now I know all your dirty little secrets.”
“Lies. The truth would break you.”
I spat out a mouthful of blood. “Wow. You have issues. And for the record, you picked me, so it’s not my problem if it went badly for you, Altheare.”
“I can break you in this form.”
“You can try, Altheare. Alternatively, you can fuck off and die.” As I spoke, I drew his form around me again and probed into his mind, but it seemed as depthless as ever.
“You’re built to fall, Devi. Like all of us. Accept it. Embrace it. Or give in and face your true end at my hands. I’ll even make it quick.”
“Why?” I asked. “Why did Rory have to do so I could live? Says who?”
Nobody questions the divine agents.
The term was unfamiliar, but came directly from his thoughts as I became him once again. His emotions rippled under the surface, but my own curiosity pervaded.
“Who are the Divine Agents?” I asked, aloud.
The ground shook as he rose to his full height, blood seeping from his wounds. “How dare you steal my thoughts, mortal scum.”
“I can do worse, Altheare.” While part of me remained nauseated at the idea of being connected with him, I couldn’t deny a sense of satisfaction at his fury. He’d be trying to guard his innermost thoughts—and if you tried hard not to think about something, it’d likely be the first thing to come to mind.
Let’s see what he’s hiding.
More images flashed. I coughed blood again. I needed to regenerate, but—
The Divine Agents were angels. They gave him the orders.
Lythocrax’s huge fist hit out. I took the blow, clinging onto his form, his thoughts slipping through my fingers—
“The Divine Agents… told you to mark me,” I ground out. “What did they give you in return?”
“Power,” he said, landing beside me. “I would be the first demon to retain my divine magic. I would bless you with my mark. And you were ungrateful enough to turn against me.”
“Because you tried to destroy everything I cared about. If you’d wanted someone who didn’t give a damn, you should have marked another demon.”
“You know why you had to be human.” His fist clenched. “And I will beat you into that form again.”
I barely had chance to take to the air before he slammed into me, bearing us both through the portal again. Below the churning clouds, Haven City sprawled. My home. I flipped him over and managed to deflect his attack before he knocked me out of the air.
“You won’t destroy them,” I screamed. My body—his body—was broken and bleeding. Blood rained onto the city below. The poor people below were going to have a barrel of fun cleaning up the aftermath.
Regenerate…
Lythocrax’s heavy body tackled me again, and this time, we missed the portal and continued to fall.
Shit. This is gonna hurt.
We crashed into an unfamiliar street, narrowly missing the nearby houses. Screams surrounded us, along with the noise of the warlocks fighting against the still-spawning demon army. I spotted Nikolas’s winged form in the air, too, but had no time to take any of it in. Lythocrax gripped my head and slammed it into the pavement, triggering a small earthquake. I rolled out of the way, my head ringing, my body crying out a warning that I was about to run out of regenerative power. The houses continued to tremble as the earth shook, and I grabbed a nearby lamp post with bleeding hands—
Human hands. Shit.
He drew back for the killing blow, and a mass of bodies swarmed him, clawing, screaming.
The fallen were defending me. They hadn’t forgotten I’d claimed them.
Lythocrax roared and flailed his massive arms. In a single blow, he threw several fallen aside, but he’d given me a moment’s reprieve. Nikolas’s regenerative magic flooded my demon mark and I sensed him behind me, but he didn’t intervene. He knew I wanted to finish this myself.
“You didn’t claim them, I growled, summoning my celestial blade. Demon power rippled along to the hilt, the remnants of Abyss’s magic coupled with Nikolas’s lightning. I felt him feeding the power into me from a distance—enough to end this.
I grabbed a handful of demonglass. Shattered glass burned my hand, in my blood. The source of my power, binding me to this realm. Earth.
Every hit I’d taken, I’d held the demonglass as a shield. Magic poured into my demon mark once more, and I lunged forwards with celestial speed—
And slammed the shards into Lythocrax’s throat.
Blood poured out. He writhed, but the fallen held him down. Their claws tore into him, ripping his tough demon skin. Not enough. I needed to become him again.
I drew on Abyss’s power, transformed into him, and pushed deep down into his mind. Like glass shattering, memories burst before my eyes.
Arch-demons’ weaknesses came about when they fell…
When they spurned the gods. But he’d fallen on purpose. And he’d chosen his weakness.
His weakness was his own power.
A wave of rippling light passed through his eyes. Demonglass. His power source… blindingly bright, but not unbreakable.
The arch-demon screamed.
“Altheare,” I told him. “Die.”
The demonglass glowed in my hand, fusing into a single weapon, and I drew it across his throat. His head hit the ground, and his body stopped struggling. The fallen continued to hold him down, even as his blood soaked into the road, and the roars of the battle raged around us.
I looked into his empty eyes, felt his emotions inside me flicker and die. The noise in my head ceased as I let the magic go, felt the demon’s form slip away, and became human again.
24
The fallen crawled off his broken body, leaving his huge form in the road. The demonglass weapon in my hands trembled as I lowered it. Whose power did that? Mine, or his?
