Wings of the Wicked

  At that moment, I felt a quick flash of smoky black power from Merodach, strong enough that I lost my balance as it rushed past my body. The warning was clear and imminent: He was powerful and more than willing to kill.

  “What do you want?” Will asked, not flinching from the demonic vir’s display of power.

  “We have a warning for the Preliator,” Merodach boomed.

  Kelaeno stepped forward, pointing a taloned hand at me, her eyes still on mine. Her face continued to change, like its form was unstable, and dusty gray-brown wings appeared out of her back and spread high and wide. Shadows like daggers cast over her face from around the splayed feathers, making me blink hard as I wondered if I was seeing what was truly in front of me. The skin on her face sank and grew taut over the bones as they stretched, elongating until her appearance was utterly inhuman, and then her face returned to normal. She began to speak, her lips having difficulty forming the words as her face transformed back and forth.

  “You, the mortal Gabriel, the gift for the demon queen,” Kelaeno rasped, her talons curling and unfurling as she stepped toward me, so close I could almost taste her rancid breath. “Your strength in heart and hand will fall to a reaper’s bane before your eyes.”

  Nausea wormed its way up my throat as my body froze. Her golden eyes flashed and her lips curled into a sinister sneer as she gauged my reaction. She tilted her head and licked her lips before she continued.

  “Mark me well, for you will lose everything you love most dear before you finally lose your soul.”

  As her words began to eat their way through my stomach, Will’s sword swept between Kelaeno and me. She reeled back with a screech. His foot rammed into her chest, and his ribs cracked sickeningly as she lashed her talons out at his skin. Her power exploded, the spiraling orb of blackness swallowing all the light around us. The blast knocked Will into me, and I darted to the side as he crashed to the ground. I dropped to my knees beside him.

  “Kelaeno!” A familiar, terrible voice shattered my senses as it rang out above the chaos.

  I froze, ice tearing through my veins, and I looked back up. Will dragged himself to his feet, and I followed him.

  Kelaeno’s wrist was trapped by another hand—Bastian’s. His black hair gleamed like obsidian, and his cerulean eyes blazed neon as he and Kelaeno bared their teeth at each other. Kelaeno snapped her jaws in his face and laughed.

  “You will not harm the Guardian,” Bastian growled, low and guttural.

  Kelaeno sneered mockingly at him and yanked herself free. Bastian blinked and straightened in surprise, as if he hadn’t expected her strength—as if she’d been hiding it from him.

  “You only want the girl,” she snarled back. “I want the Guardian’s guts between my teeth.”

  I shivered and held on to Will’s arm as he stepped in front of me, shielding me. The weight of the immense energy belonging to three reapers thousands of years old pressed on every inch of my skin, sinking through to my brain, making me dizzy as if the altitude had changed suddenly. We couldn’t defeat all three of them—especially now, after the fierce battle against Orek.

  Bastian took a step closer to Kelaeno, his height overwhelming her slight, bony stature. “I will deal with him myself. This is about the Preliator. He is not your concern.”

  She opened her mouth and raised her talons, but Merodach’s voice cut through the air like a blade. “Enough. We must go.”

  Kelaeno craned her neck upward toward the reddening horizon. “The sun,” she crooned. Her wings beat once, and she jumped into the air and disappeared into the Grim.

  Bastian turned to Merodach, raising a hand to him. “Do not disrupt me again. I haven’t time to make sure you are doing your task to my satisfaction.”

  Merodach didn’t appear frightened by Bastian’s threat, only annoyed by it.

  With a slow smile, Bastian looked at me, his eyes brightening with what looked like admiration. “We meet again, Gabriel.”

  Will’s form flashed between us, his sword gleaming as he roared with fury and swung the blade over his head toward Bastian. The demonic reaper waved a hand, and his power slammed into Will, blowing him back with an immense gust of energy that kicked up a raging blizzard of snow off the ground. Will flipped himself midair and landed crouched. He shot forward again, but Bastian caught his wrist as he swung his sword, and Bastian’s other hand tightened around his throat. Will growled and wrenched his body, but he couldn’t break free. Bastian squeezed harder, choking Will and forcing him to his knees in the snow. Will’s sword toppled out of his slackening grip.

  “I am not here to kill you, William,” Bastian said, the blue of his eyes almost blinding as his power grew. “But I will if you get in my way.”

  I ran forward to help Will, summoning what was left of my strength and calling the white hot light into my palms. I grabbed Bastian’s arm with both hands and felt the sizzle of his skin beneath his sleeve as the fabric was eaten by flames. He roared and released Will, reeling away from me and clutching his burned arm close to his chest. Will staggered to his feet, gasping for breath, and I pulled him into my arms, smoothing my warm hands over his reddened throat.

  “Are you okay?” I asked him. He nodded and glared sidelong at Bastian, who had retreated to where Merodach stood silently.

  “That’s an interesting trick, Gabriel,” Bastian snarled. “Giving me a taste of your glory?”

  I stared at him, puzzled. “Glory?”

  “That little fireworks show you just did on my arm?” he rasped, baring his teeth. “I know archangel glory when it burns me to the bone. It seems you’re waking up, Gabriel. Perhaps that long sleep of yours was exactly what you needed.”

  “How did you know who I was?” I demanded. “When we met, you said you already knew.”

  “Because I’ve spoken to old friends of yours,” he replied. The breaking dawn was bearing down on him, and his skin began to smoke. He arched his neck uncomfortably in the growing sunlight. “Those who are ancient enough to know the truth. Voices seep through the bars of Hell, my dear. But never fear. When I take your life again, I’ll take your soul, too. When it’s time, my hounds will come for you, Gabriel.”

  With a flash of smoky black power and a growl of painful fury, Bastian vanished into the Grim. Merodach wasn’t in the same hurry. The hot orange glow of sunrise spread across his body until he was smoldering like cinders from the tips of the horns on his head to the toes of his heavy boots. He looked every part a demon straight out of Hell.

  “I’ll be seeing you soon, Preliator,” he said before he spread his wings and followed Kelaeno and Bastian into the Grim, slipping away, leaving nothing but smoke and the repulsive odor of sulfur behind him.

  I breathed a sigh of relief when the heavy demonic energy disappeared. Will’s warm hands fell on my arms, and he pulled me close, his body a wall of warmth against my shivering form.

  “Let’s get out of here,” he said, his voice feather soft. “I doubled back without Ava when I sensed the vir.”

  “Thank you,” I said. “We need to get to Nathaniel’s and figure out what the hell just happened, everything we can about Kelaeno and Merodach, and why Bastian wants them to leave you alone.”

  He pushed my hair behind my ears. “Are you sure you aren’t too tired? You need to sleep.”

  “I’m exhausted, but this is important.” Too much had happened tonight for me to sleep.

  Footsteps in the snow behind me made me jump. Ava had landed at last, bloodied but healed. She appeared tired and unnerved, and I assumed she sensed our run-in with the demonic vir.

  “What happened?” she asked hurriedly. “Is everything okay?”

  Will and I looked at each other. I let out a long breath. “We’re about to head to Nathaniel’s,” I said. “We’ll explain on the way.”

  14

  AN HOUR LATER, I WAS FALLING ASLEEP ON WILL’S shoulder as he thumbed through one of Nathaniel’s old books that smelled like my nana’s basement. Ava and Natha
niel were huddled together over another book on the other side of the room, discussing the traits of the demonic vir. Nathaniel thought their names sounded familiar, but he didn’t know who they were. I had one eye open to peer over at the book in Will’s hands, but I was barely hanging on to consciousness. A seriously rough fight with a reaper the size of a Mack truck takes a lot out of a girl.

  “I found Merodach,” Ava said, her finger pointing at a page, the paper browned with age. “And we have a bit of bad news.”

  “Bad news?” Will repeated.

  “All kinds of it,” she said glumly. “He’s older than our earliest records of the Preliator. This book holds the translation of a tablet older than the sarcophagus containing the Enshi. Merodach may have served this Enshi before it was imprisoned. He’s one of the first-generation original demonic reapers, a direct offspring of Lilith and Sammael.”

  That woke me up a bit. “Doesn’t that mean he has to be thousands of years old? Are you sure?”

  Nathaniel nodded. “That’s what it says.”

  Sometimes I forgot that reapers could keep on living if nothing happened to kill them. Cadan had said he was over eight hundred years old and his father was over a thousand. Will was six hundred. Nathaniel was about a century older. It made me wonder about Bastian. How old was he? The way Merodach and Kelaeno seemed completely unaffected by Bastian’s commands made me question if they were even stronger than he was. It seemed like every day the odds against me were more and more staggering.

  “I hate this job,” I said exasperatedly. “I’m quitting and going to work at McDonald’s.”

  All three angelic reapers stared at me in confusion and surprise. Will even had a little horror in his expression.

  I rolled my eyes. “Or maybe I should work somewhere that can sell each of you a sense of humor. I’ll even give you my employee discount. Especially you.” I looked pointedly at Nathaniel.

  He blinked back. “I have a great sense of humor!”

  “No, you don’t,” I mumbled. “So, Merodach. He’s solitary, despite being somehow connected with the Enshi. I’m confused that he’s allied with Kelaeno and Bastian. But I’m not surprised that Bastian is gathering the strongest he can in order to free the Enshi. He needs a powerful, impenetrable front to his army. If Merodach has joined him, then he must believe Bastian can pull it off. He wouldn’t waste his time or take anyone’s orders otherwise.”

  Will furrowed his brow. “I just don’t see a reaper that ancient and powerful taking orders from Bastian.”

  “Unless Bastian has grown in strength,” Ava said. “You know what Bastian can do, Will.”

  He didn’t look at her, but his body visibly tensed. “Either way, Merodach and this Kelaeno are acting under Bastian’s orders. They aren’t doing it because they enjoy it. You saw the look Merodach gave Bastian.”

  I could tell the subject of Bastian’s capabilities was hard for him. “Kelaeno said something very cryptic and strange to me,” I added. “Something about my heart and hand, I don’t know.”

  Nathaniel’s gaze turned serious. “What exactly did she say?”

  “‘Your strength in heart and hand will fall to a reaper’s bane.’ And then, ‘You will lose everything you love before finally you lose your soul.’ It was awful.”

  He paused to think. “She meant Will. Your strength in heart and hand. It’s your Guardian, your right hand.”

  I looked at Will, who stared at the ground. Ava wasn’t taking her eyes off him either. “What did she mean when she said he will fall?” I asked. “What is the reaper’s bane?”

  “It could mean a lot of things,” Nathaniel said. “Anything that can harm a reaper, I suppose. It’s a pretty serious threat.”

  I stared at him firmly. “She means he’s going to die.”

  “Nathaniel,” Ava said. “The female vir’s name was Kelaeno. Doesn’t that sound familiar?”

  “Yes,” he confirmed. “Aeneas and the Harpies. That’s just Greek myth, though.”

  Both Ava’s gaze and her voice became dark. “What if she is real?”

  Will remained silent, and his expression hardened.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked. “What about Greek myth?”

  Nathaniel cleared his throat. “Kelaeno was a Harpy who cursed Aeneas, the leader of the Dardanian Trojans who fought in the battle of Troy. She told him that he would go so hungry that he’d eat his tables by the end of his journey, which came true, according to the story.”

  “So this threat was more like a prophecy,” I said. The words weighed on my heart. The thought of losing Will and my friends and family was too much. I couldn’t let anyone get hurt. No one should have to die for me.

  “This could very well be the same Kelaeno of Greek mythology,” Nathaniel said, rubbing the bridge of his nose tiredly. “People have misidentified reapers since the beginning of time and come up with their own explanations for what they’ve experienced. Lupines were mistaken for were-wolves all the time. People saw vir reapers and believed they were demons and witches, sometimes so fervently that they’d turn on their neighbors in hysteria, burn their friends and families at the stake. It’s very likely that the Greeks invented the Harpy myth to explain some of the more avian vir reapers they may have encountered.”

  That made sense. Kelaeno had been so birdlike that it was disturbing. The way her face seemed to have difficulty retaining a form haunted me. “She said something else, too. She called me ‘the gift for the demon queen.’ That sounds familiar—”

  I shut up midsentence when I saw Nathaniel’s face. He stared at me in shock and fear, so startling that my pulse began to pound. “What is it?” I asked shakily.

  Nathaniel leaned forward and spoke slowly. “Are you positive that is exactly what Kelaeno said?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “What’s wrong? What was she talking about?”

  “Lilith,” Will said. “The Fallen Queen of Hell and mother of all demonic reapers.”

  The blood drained from my face. “Oh. Is that all?” I forced a tiny laugh.

  “So Bastian is after Lilith too,” Ava thought to herself out loud. “He is really serious about this second war.”

  “Could they really be trying to summon Lilith?” Will asked.

  Ava shook her head. “More than that. If Bastian wants the Preliator and Lilith, then the spell will be more powerful than a summoning ritual. The Preliator is an archangel bound in human form. Her blood would be … so immense in power. They must want to restore Lilith’s corporeal form. They want her in this world, and not just for a visit.”

  “The ritual would most certainly be contained within the grimoire,” Nathaniel suggested. “I believe I have a near-complete copy in my collection that I wrote myself before the original grimoire went missing centuries ago.”

  The word was familiar and stirred memories within me. “I remember what that is. A book written by a Grigori, right? The Fallen angels bound to Earth instead of Hell?”

  Nathaniel nodded. “The book is the most ancient and complete collection of angelic spells and rituals.”

  “Bastian would definitely need it in order to free Lilith,” Will said darkly. “Only Grigori magic would have the kind of power needed to give corporeal form to any angel or one of the Fallen. Otherwise, they can only roam as phantoms in the mortal world.”

  “What would happen then?” I asked, beginning to panic. “If Lilith is released, in her true form? How could I stop something like that?”

  Nathaniel let out a long whistling breath. “I don’t think you, or any of us, can. You as Gabriel, however, could. Lilith was never an archangel. Her power could never match the strength of your own true form.”

  The solution seemed simple. “Then how can I become Gabriel?”

  “If there’s a way, only an angel, like a Grigori or archangel, would know,” he said. “But you already have a form. I don’t know if it’s possible for you to become an archangel out of a human body. That kind of transformation would almost
certainly destroy you. Just looking upon an angel’s glory can burn a human’s eyes from their sockets. If your human body somehow transformed into an archangel, even by magic, I would imagine your own glory would incinerate you.”

  “But it doesn’t,” I said. When Nathaniel gave me a puzzled look, I continued. “The power I’ve used to burn—Bastian called it my glory. It didn’t hurt me at all, so if he’s right then perhaps my human body could survive my full-on archangel glory.”

  Will shook his head. “Perhaps isn’t good enough. Bastian could be wrong.”

  “Or he’s right.”

  Silence fell on the room. I knew the others, like me, had minds swimming with thoughts and possibilities. What if I were able to become who I really was? What would it be like? What would I be like? I wondered if I would be different, like the me of my memories, stonelike and resolute. Those visions of myself scared me, but I could only imagine the archangel side of me. When the archangel Michael came to me on that boat out in the middle of nowhere, he was eerily calm, beautifully serene, but danger leaked from him, thick and blinding like fog. The angels had no emotions, or at most very little. I wondered then: If I remembered my true self, if I became the archangel Gabriel, would I be a heartless creature who only cared about fulfilling a mission, no matter the loss? Would I no longer be in love with Will?

  Would I feel anything at all?

  Nathaniel stood, wrenching me from my thoughts. “I can check my copy of the original grimoire. Will, would you help me look for it?”

  “Of course.” He rose to follow Nathaniel but paused and looked down at me, his gaze gentle. “Don’t be afraid. We’ll fight through this.”

  I forced a smile and ached for him to offer a comforting touch. And then he touched my cheek, and warmth spread to my toes. He drew away and vanished out the door of Nathaniel’s office.

  I sat back heavily in my chair. The room was silent for a moment, and I realized that I was alone with Ava. Then I noticed she was staring at me. She studied my face as if I were an amoeba beneath a microscope. The awkward seconds passed, and finally I opened my mouth with words I hadn’t really thought about.