I smiled sweetly, ignoring the chills the words I was about to say gave me. “Uncle Ari, are you having trouble?”
He glowered.
“Am I in your way?” I expanded my Light and let the heat eat up the air around me. “Did you need me to move?”
He took a step forward and realized where he was. He settled his feet and gripped his swords tightly in his oversized hands.
“You’ve done so much for me,” I cajoled him. “Moving would be the least I could do for you. Right? I mean, that would help you just like you helped me, right?”
“Move, Starling, or I’ll change my opinion on how helpful you are to me.”
I thought about that for a second. “Haven’t you been trying to kill me for months?”
Frustration flickered in his now dark eyes. “I’m an opportunist. You can’t blame me for taking advantage when I saw an opening.”
Something about his answer didn’t quite resonate truth with me. Yes, Ari was bad. Yes, I needed to kill him. But I wasn’t entirely sure he was behind the attacks on my life. Although, it was kind of hard to hold that argument together when I stared down at the same kind of portal I’d just narrowly avoided last night in my Malibu.
Side note, now my dad had to find me another car, because there sure as hell was no way I would ever climb back in that death trap again.
Plus, my parents had ripped the doors off it. So there was that…
My Light burned with more luminous energy and the walls around us bent to my heat. The sounds of full-on battle could be heard outside the door. Swords slashing flesh and chopping off heads. Men and women crying out in anger and fear. The kinds of sounds that were accompanied by massive carnage and gore.
I worried for my parents, Serena and Nate and forced myself to believe they were alright. These were Warriors of the universe. No matter what Ari said, they were chosen for a reason. They had unchallenged skill and ability and I had either inherited that from them or been under their direct tutelage.
I wasn’t worthless and unqualified like Ari suggested. I had also been chosen for a reason.
And one of those reasons was to stop douche bags like him from killing children and continuing to betray the Lower Realm.
“Come out to play, Ari. Sword-fighting is so dull when you’re by yourself.”
He laughed. “When I take your head, little girl, you might not be so cavalier.”
“Obviously, without a head it would be really hard to keep my sense of humor.”
His feet took a step into one of the points of the star. I wasn’t sure he even noticed his aggression had gotten the better of him. I kept my eyes firmly on his. I didn’t want to tip him off if he didn’t know how close to the edge he’d moved.
“Are you sure you’re ready to play with the big boys? I’ve been keeping an eye on your training. I’m not sure the old man has moved beyond the basics just yet.”
I worked to swallow against fury and nerves. “That’s probably because you don’t know anything beyond the basics. There can’t be much conflict that’s solved with swords on the Council. I thought the rule of thumb was to sit on your ass and see who could argue the loudest.”
A black cloud passed over his face and a low growl vibrated in his throat. “I led a legion of Warriors before I took my place on the Council. I ruled the entire Far Galaxy.”
A smirk turned my lips and I marveled at my gall. Who knew I had this much spunk? Well, me obviously. But it was one thing to give Jude a hard time.
Ari was a completely different level of asshole.
“Was that before or after you betrayed everything you were supposed to stand for?”
He took another angry step forward. His toes and heels marked opposite sides of the black chalk that had drawn the protective star. “I never betrayed what I stood for. I’m simply trying to get it back.”
“Another Rebellion,” I said the word that had haunted me ever since Jude whispered it.
A new something twinkled in his dark eyes, it was not Light but it glowed as if it wanted to be.
It scared me more than anything else about tonight.
“Not just a Rebellion,” he smiled. “A complete and utter takeover.”
Without thinking, I let intuition guide me. I lifted my sword and leapt back across the portal. I brought my sword down with as much cunning and strength as I could manage but Ari was there to meet me. His blade challenged mine in the air and the sound of clanging metal warred with the chaos echoing through the portal.
I hadn’t managed to cut off his head, but I did get him outside of his safe boundaries.
He didn’t seem to notice. His eyes were bloodthirsty now, his expression completely determined. There was not an ounce of Light radiating off his body anywhere. I realized he’d let the Darkness swallow him completely.
I didn’t know if this was his choice or a result of not fulfilling his ritual sacrifices. Maybe he could switch it on and off at will.
Or maybe I’d pushed him over the edge and there was only one way out now.
Death.
And I would gladly give it to him.
Our arms slid around in a wide arc and I was forced to pull back in order to strike again. He was just as quick though and my hit ended up being more of a defensive block than an aggressive attack.
The great thing about fighting with two blades was that I had two blades. I could swing double time and be twice the threat.
The bad thing was that I didn’t have quite the strength as someone with one blade because both of my hands were busy and I couldn’t use one to reinforce the other.
Two swords were awesome when I had to fight Shadows. I didn’t necessarily need brute strength, just sharp, blessed objects that could cut through their barely corporeal bodies and cut out their hearts.
Ari was a different beast.
I needed all the strength I could muster.
His body loomed over me, his strength and skill unprecedented. His swift hits were fast and accurate. I had to dive out of the way and barely managed to squeeze between the portal to hell and the five-pointed star I would just bounce off.
I was an optimist in most aspects of life, and at my worst, a realist.
This was bad.
He was way freaking better than me.
And he knew it.
I rolled over just in time to meet his latest swing. I tossed one of my katanas so I could hold on better against the sheer power his blow would deliver.
I stopped his longsword from making it all the way to my neck, but not quite from drawing blood. I felt the searing slice across my cheek and watched the sick delight dance in his completely black eyes. He licked his lips slowly as if the mere sight of my blood spurred some kind of deranged hunger.
I gulped.
And I kicked out and connected with his shin. He hopped back, not really derailed but surprised enough to let go of his super hold on me. I moved my sword out of the way and rolled to the side. I kept rolling even though he was right over me.
I pulsed with Light, even though it seemed to have little effect on him. The children screamed in the background and the portal to hell seemed to screech with its own painfully agonized sounds.
Just when I was out of reach, I rolled back and let my sword cut his thigh. He had expected me to stand up and take a swing that way. When I didn’t, his legs were left wide open for me.
It would take a lot of those hits to even pretend to chink his armor, but this was a start. Surprising him was always a good thing.
I just had to keep doing the unexpected.
I swung out again while he looked down incredulously at the long gash. I managed to tear through his forearm while he gawked distractedly.
When his gaze lifted to mine again, it promised such hateful things that I actually shrunk back another step.
“Shit.”
“No kidding,” he growled. “And here I was playing nice.”
I swallowed. That was nice?
Shit again.
>
He came at me with a series of swings that had me grappling ahold of my own blade and scurrying backwards until my spine bumped against cold wall. I tried to keep a strong stance and firm hold but he wore me down with his expertise. The sheer size of him was enough to have me questioning my idiot move to come in here alone.
I lit up until I felt the floor melt underneath my feet and heard the ceiling crack and groan. I could barely make out the defined lines of my own body. They were blurred with the Light, obscure appendages attached to an even hazier figure. My eyes were solid Light at this point and I could only see in that special way Stars had- something like night vision, only the opposite… Light vision.
Still, my blessed blade held firm against Ari’s. No doubt his was made in the Lower Realm and from steel only forged beyond this planet. He had the stronger sword, and the wealth of experience I had only begun to tap into.
His Light wasn’t Light anymore, but a dark expanse that seemed to suck all the Light it touched into it. He was a black hole, erasing any trace of Light that had ever been. Whatever goodness had been forged in his body, or remnant of his old self that he still wore as a mask, had been completely eradicated.
He was no longer a traitor, but completely Fallen.
And I knew that was never his plan.
“Your star is on fire,” I told him blandly. Because it was. A dark flame had begun on one of the corners of the five-pointed star. It seared the ground quickly, consuming up the chalk-drawn lines with an immediate voracity.
Ari looked over his shoulder and back at the children strapped to their three stones. “You did that!”
I shook my head. “When? You’ve been keeping a pretty good eye on me since I got here.”
He growled and took a step into me. My arms shook with the pressure he laid on. I couldn’t hold out for much longer.
“Then how did that happen?”
I thought about it, seriously considering answering him. The thing about my job was that most urban legends were actually pretty accurate. Could you sell your soul to the devil? Hell, yes. Seth was a walking, talking aberration of that crazy idea. Could you become possessed by a demon and need a Catholic priest to exorcise your body? Um, yes. Unfortunately that was a real thing. However, the real evil powers of this world were the Fallen Angels that had crashed down from the Highest Realm eons ago. Shadows that possessed people were the kinder of the two evils. How messed up was that? Anyway, usually an exorcism could be performed and there wouldn’t be too much long-term damage. Could you have a séance in which you raised people from the dead, talked to spirits and garnered evil powers? Okay, maybe not all of that stuff. But you could obviously get down and dirty with powers of the netherworld. Ari had shown us how that special chalk star worked out for him.
And so here we were. A portal to hell on one side of the room. A satanic star that wielded powers of an unknown strength on the other. Oh, and don’t forget the children strapped to boulders so that their very life-essence could be sucked from their bodies and absorbed into another.
No, that was probably what we should remember most of all.
So, while my parents battled traitors and Fallen and an entire legion of evil, it was up to me to close the portal to hell, chop off this bastard’s head and save the children.
Easy.
I pushed back on Ari’s crushing force and he stumbled a little bit off balance. With a fast glance at the portal over his shoulder he righted himself and renewed his effort. He swung out at me and I lunged to the right just in time for his blade to connect with the wall- right where my head would have been if he’d been five seconds earlier.
His sword cut through the drywall that divided this room form the rest of the warehouse. Paint and plaster blasted everywhere and powdered the floor around Ari’s feet and his dark Light that didn’t let off any heat. Anything that came within glowing distance of me burned into nothing.
That seemed to enrage Ari even more.
“You stupid bitch!” he snarled at me. “I’ve lost it.”
“I can see that.” I backtracked across the wall and managed to stick myself in a corner. “You’re all dark and obvious now.” I glanced at the children who watched us with morbid fascination, probably wondering why the person that had come to save them was such a moron.
Ari looked down at his body with an equally horrified rapture. “I can fix this,” he murmured to himself.
I made a disbelieving face. “I’m not sure that you can. It looks pretty bad.”
“Shut up, Starling.”
“The good news is, you probably don’t need the kiddos anymore. I’ll just take them off your hands for you. You don’t want to get stuck babysitting for longer than you have to and-”
An ugly smile turned his lips up. His shockingly red hair seemed to dull in front of my eyes and his skin turned a pallid color of white instead of the luminescent golden tone it used to be. “They’ll be enough Light.”
“Uh, I really don’t think there’s any coming back from this. You’re Fallen. Accept it.”
I didn’t know why I felt the need to goad him but I didn’t think I could stop. He’d been working on this for way too long. It was time the Council saw how far they’d fallen and that there was no one they could trust until the deepest roots of their betrayal were ferreted out. They couldn’t keep turning blind eyes to vetted Council members when this was the outcome.
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
He turned up the quickness and disarmed me in the next three moves. “I might be.” He held the point of his sword to my throat and let me feel the cold metal sink into my skin slowly. I felt it cut through my skin and my super-heated blood trickled down my chest. “I might be,” he repeated, “But it’s nothing a little extra Light can’t solve. Especially the Light from the future Protector of Earth.”
Oops.
Probably I shouldn’t have been provoking him.
“Fine,” I relented. “Take my Light, but let the kids go.”
His grin kicked up and his dark eyes brightened. “So valiant. So qualified for your future position. It’s a shame you’ll have to die so that I can live. But what a noble sacrifice.”
His compliments sounded like insults and I hated the way he relished my easy sacrifice. Of course, I would give myself up for those kids. Of course, I would. It wasn’t even a question. I could talk all day long about my obligation to the planet and how I had a duty to fulfill… I could honestly go on and on and on about it until my ears bled and my voice went hoarse. But when it came down to it, I couldn’t watch innocent children suffer instead of me. And I really couldn’t let greedy, power-tripping psychos torture them.
“All so you can return to the Lower Realm and continue to corrupt? It doesn’t seem fair. I should be getting something more out of this deal.”
He laughed and pressed his blade deeper against the hollow of my throat. “Like what?”
“Like you promising not to go back to the Council. You could live out your extended life on any abandoned planet or even on Earth. Just leave the Council alone. They have enough problems.”
“Isn’t that the truth,” he continued to sound amused. “But wouldn’t you be interested to know I’m the least of their worries. There are far greater dangers than little old me. I’m a front, the face of the company. I’m merely a mouthpiece.”
“Who is it?” I whispered because of the pressure on my vocal cards. I had to know. Even if this was my last moment alive, I needed some peace of mind.
Of course there was Aliah, but he was the biggest bad. He had too many others working for him that corrupted and poisoned the Lower Realm and others. He was the inevitable evil we would have to fight while all these smaller battles waged in between now and then. It was driving me crazy to figure out which Council member was to blame.
And if I could really be discredited as some cruel joke of the Fallen, or if I belonged here, fighting, protecting… one day running this planet.
&n
bsp; “I would tell you if I planned to take your advice. Unfortunately, I can’t. Even while it might be the wisest decision to stay away from the Council. They’re about three bad decisions from imploding and I just can’t help myself, I have to be there to watch.”
“That’s it? You just want to watch it?”
His dark eyes turned to hard onyx and his entire body vibrated with some emotion I didn’t understand. “I wouldn’t be able to run, Starling. Don’t you understand? Aliah runs the planet down here and the Lower Realm is controlled-”
Something crashed through the door with explosive force. The door flew off its hinges and drywall blew apart to cover the burning chalk star and slip into the depthless bottom of the portal to hell.
A roar accompanied the violence, so deep and so shattering I felt it rumble in the marrow of my bones. Ari tried to sink the sword through my throat just at that moment. I couldn’t see beyond him to what kind of force had ripped through the door like that, but I knew it didn’t matter. This was the moment Ari would end it all for me. My curiosity just seconds from being satisfied.
I took a deep breath and demanded that I be at peace with this ending. I had done everything I could. I had been as much of what was expected of me as possible.
Sometimes things just ended before you were ready for them to.
Ari tried to push me toward the chalk star, but I wasn’t going to make it easy for him. There was apparently a little more ritual that came with absorbing someone’s Light than simply strapping them to boulders and taking it from them.
For the first time in my life, I was grateful that evil was a little bit complicated.
This all took place within mere seconds and so by the time Ari realized he needed to turn around and fight whatever intruder had barged its way in here, it was too late for him.
I heard the cut of a blade just before blood splattered all over my face. Ari’s headless body crumpled against me and his untethered head tumbled into my arms awkwardly.
I immediately flung my arms away from the horrific thing and tried to jump back, only to be reminded of the sturdy walls still caging me in. I dimmed my Light enough to make out what exactly had happened. Light vision was awesome when I needed it, but it became a little over-stimulating when I didn’t need to see every single exact detail around me.