Oscar chuckled. 'Careful, Uriel,' he said. 'Endorian magic has a habit of burning a bit. Hate for you to hurt those pretty hands of yours.'
Uriel, who was clutching his hand to his chest, sneered at Oscar, his angered gaze sweeping over him with repulsion. He inhaled deeply and grimaced.'Berith, it appears no amount of time can lessen the stench of your betrayal. So many years in exile and your mutinous intent remains sadly as strong as ever. We believed you had left Lucifer's failed teachings behind you and learned your place. It seems we were mistaken.'Oscar sniffed dismissively. 'The Council have been mistaken about many things, Uriel. Time could never diminish the power of Lucifer's teachings, and time was all I ever needed to make you believe the lie. I've got to say, you boys have disappointed me, you really have. You're such experts at smothering the truth, I thought you'd have realised centuries ago that I hadn't abandoned your brother.'Uriel hissed ag'Ethan,' I whispered urgently. 'I can't do what you asked. I don't know how.'He pulled me close again, smiling as he trailed the backs of his fingers of his now-blackened hand down my cheek. 'Just let go, Casey. Trust your instincts. Trust yourself. You can do this.'I swallowed my fear and nodded, still unsure that I could do what he wanted, still sure that his faith in me was misguided.'Oscar, look after Addi.' Ethan gestured to Addi, who was standing behind us all, still staring wide-eyed up at the Archangels as if hypnotised. I couldn't blame him. Even with their terrifying wings of fire, they were still dazzling to the eye. They were rising up into the air now, retreating towards their forces, the screech of the Cherubim heralding their return.Oscar's nose wrinkled as if he didn't much like his appointed role as Addi's guardian. 'And what exactly are you going to do?' he said to Ethan.'I'm going to do just what I promised.' Ethan turned back, direct
The ground exploded near my feet, sending plumes of white dust billowing up into my face and I stumbled, alarmed as a fissure appeared in the dry, white earth, wide enough to swallow my feet.'Casey, watch out,' Ethan shouted, grabbing me around the waist and pulling me away, just in time.A tall, lithe Dominion, no doubt the one to fire the explosive shot that had made the ground open up, came hurtling through the melee, its moves surprisingly graceful, its hair flying around its shoulders like a cascade of silver silk. With a cry that contorted its beautiful face into something quite repulsive, it released a hail of hard, focused bolts of energy that came at us with such speed that I felt the first ones rip through the air by my face as I pulled out of their way, the fierce velocity burning at my skin. I heard Ethan cry out and judder against me, and I knew he'd not been so lucky. He'd been hit, not badly, but a small trickle of blood was snaking from his temple where th
'Are you fucking insane? ' Ethan shot back, his voice echoing out. 'Think about what you're saying, Azazel! Think about the pain they inflicted on us all over the centuries!''They inflicted it on us, Helel, while you sat quaking in whatever dimension you created for yourself. Don't talk to me of the pain of the Shedim when you turned your back on your kind a long time ago. Lucifer poisoned you, Helel. He poisoned your mind to the truth and infected you with his lies.'Turning his face up to the skies, where the Seraphim and Council waited, Blake called up to them.'Blessed Seraphim!' Blake pleaded with them, gesturing to me. 'Rightful descendants of the Throne, this is proof of my devotion, proof of my commitment to you! I will give you the witch. Do with her what you will, but I beg you to grant the Shedim a pardon. We denounce Lucifer. We denounce the ways of the First to Fall. We will no longer defy your rule. Please, I beg of you, redeem us our powers and let us
'No,' I gasped. 'No.'Ethan glanced towards Blake, lowering his voice. 'Please, Casey, please listen to me. I have to finish this now. Angels? Demons? It makes no difference. They are one and the same. Look at them. Both want to control this world, but it doesn't belong to them. The First might have been the first Angel, but the First was not the first being to walk this earth. Humans were here long before we arrived. The First Angel knew this and knew we didn't deserve to claim it. That's why the Seraphim killed her.'My mouth fell open. ' Her? ''The First was female, Casey, or at least as close to it as it was possible to get.'I rocked back on my heels, feeling overwhelmed by his words, overwhelmed by the pain in my broken arm, but mostly overwhelmed by what I knew he intended to do.'There must be another way,' I said. 'There has to be. You can persuade them, Ethan, if anyone can change things, you can.''This is the only way things can change. Usu
'You sure you want to do this, Case?'Addi's brow was a mess of worry lines as he looked at me, his gaze flitting down to where my hand rested on my distended stomach. I'd been rubbing it without even realising it. Rubbing it because I could feel Lily moving around inside. Rubbing it because it calmed me. Addi knew that and I knew what he was thinking now. He thought I didn't want to do this. He thought I'd changed my mind.I looked into his eyes and smiled.'Yes, Addison. Perfectly bloody sure, thank you.'I chewed on my lower lip as I studied his face, suddenly uncertain whether he was trying to dissuade me because he didn't want to be a part of this. I couldn't blame him. He might have enjoyed being a gangster once, but things had stepped up a level since his days of dealing drugs on Davey's patch.'You know, if you don't want to be here, Ads, no one's going to stop you from leaving, or think any less of you for not sticking around.''Speak for yours
Breathe. Breathe.No. Don't breathe. Don't breathe because they'll hear you. Not a sound now.Let your muscles curl, tense, wind around bone, pull you in to the tightest of balls. Be like marble. Like stone. An impenetrable castle. A fortress.Don't breathe. Don't make a sound. Be still as the dead.They're coming.Oh God! they're coming.There was a momentary break in the maddening beat.A brief, but beautiful few seconds of silence filled me with a buzzing elation, as the warmth crept into my stomach, almost like butterflies, their wings tickling as they fluttered, spinning and eddying. I relished the sensation as it spread outwards, igniting my body and quickly filling every part of me, each vein, each muscle, from my toes right to the very tips of my fingers. As I held my arms aloft, I was sure I could see it, this energy, this blissful heat, crackling like lightning under my skin.Wait for it, wait for it...And the
'For fucks sake, Casey, I told you to go easy. Didn't I tell you to go easy?'Davey had been pacing the floor for twenty minutes already, punctuating his rant by throwing things, kicking stuff and generally shouting so loud that my already-pounding head felt like it might split into two.Not that I could blame him. He had warned me before we'd left the house, albeit in that very casual, nonchalant way of his.Go easy, leave some for the rest of us, yeah babe?In other words, go easy because he was worried there'd be none left for him, not necessarily because he was worried something might happen to me. But that was Davey's attitude towards everything. He worecasual like a coat. Practically had awards in it and everything.Not that he was acting casually now. I'd ruined his night. His big night. That one night he could never get back because his stupid junkie of a girlfriend had taken too much, flipped out like a complete nutter on the dance floor
'Please don't worry,' I said, shooting him my most reassuring smile and doing my best to look completely genuine. 'I know I went too far the other night. I did too much. I knew it before I even went out I think. But you know what it was like. We were all so hyped up, all ready for a top night and when the gear's there on tap, sometimes you just lose your head and go a bit crazy with it. I shouldn't even have gone, but I didn't want to let Davey down. Turns out I did that anyway, like the fucking idiot I am, but honestly, I'm fine now. I'm alright, Ads.'God, if I ever needed a hit of something, I needed it then. I felt naked under his scrutiny, not literally, but the kind I hated. The kind that made feel like it had all been stripped away, all the bravado, all the fuck-everyone-and-everything show that kept it all at bay. A little something now would help. Just one line or one pill that I could wear like a fucking Wonder Woman cape, and then I'd do the twirl and look him in th