CHAPTER 41
Kobal
The angel swooped away from River withCorson in his grasp. Corson drove his talons straight upward,plunging them through the neck of the fallen angel. The angel’swings gave another flap before he released Corson from his arms.Corson curled his talons in, holding onto the angel as he soaredtoward the roof.
Three more angels flew into view. One ofthem swooped down, his arms out for River as she scrambled to herfeet. “River, down!” I bellowed.
She threw herself to the floor and rolled tododge the angel’s grasping clutch. “Take him!” I shouted at Magnusand thrust what little remained of River’s father at him beforerunning for her.
The angel drew himself up and flipped overin midair to dive back at her. River regained her feet when Ireleased a ball of fire that smashed into the angel’s back,knocking him off course and sending him careening into the wall.The hounds raced forward as one, their ferocious snarls filling theroom as bone crunched and a wail from the angel reverberated offthe walls.
One of the three remaining angels turnedback for River. I saw the exhaustion in her eyes, the shadowssurrounding them. She’d been drained working to keep the seal up,and her father’s presence here had affected her deeply, yet hereyes burned with determination.
Turning, she threw her hands up. Shereleased a blast of dark blue light that caught the female angel inthe chest and sent her careening toward where her brethren hadfallen. The hounds pounced at once.
Finally reaching her, I wrapped my armaround River’s waist and lifted her against me. Her hand fell tomine; her body pressed closer as she sought to recover some of herstrength. I cradled her to me, trying to give her as much strengthas I could.
“Kobal!” Bale shouted. “Look out!”
I threw myself backward, spinning to keepRiver out of the clutches of the angel diving straight toward us.Fiery flames burst over my back when I felt his hands grasping andtearing at me. He shrieked and fell away from us as the stench ofburnt flesh and hair filled my nostrils. I flattened River againstthe wall, pinning her there before spinning to face the remainingangels.
Overhead, Corson swung up, driving thetalons of his free hand into the belly of the angel who hadcaptured him. The angel screamed as blood spilled from his stomach,raining down across the hounds. Bale and Hawk circled the angel I’dburnt. Magnus released the wraith and bowed his head as he foldedhis hands before him.
River turned herself around against my backas the next angel came at us, its wings swinging back and forth toprotect it from any fire I might unleash on it. Around us, a dozenRiver-like images came to life, but the angel was not deterred byMagnus’s mirages. Against my back, I felt the spark of River’spower brimming up to dance across my flesh. Fire burned around mywrists as the angel stalked closer.
Everything in me protested against movingaside to let her unleash her power. It was my job to keep herprotected from these creatures. I couldn’t just step aside andexpose her to their attack, yet my fire would do little againstthis angel’s wings, and they would not be expecting me to move awayfrom her. They would not be expectingher.
They may have heard what she was capable of,but they would not know how powerful she’d become over the pastcouple of months. To them, her mortality and non-pure angelbloodline was a weakness. Their underestimation of her abilitiesbecause of her humanity would be their downfall.
“When I step to the side, you release that,”I said in a low voice only she could hear.
She nodded her agreement against my back. Iheard the staccato beat of her heart, but her power continued toswell against me. The breeze of the angel’s wings blew my hair backas it moved before us. It was only three feet away when I abruptlystepped to the side.
A burst of pure, deep blue light shot by me.The angel swooped its wing down to protect himself from my firewhen River’s blast hit him. Whereas my fire would have beendeflected by the deformed, black wing, the stream pouring fromRiver tore straight through it. Black blood spurted from the angelas it stumbled backward.
I didn’t give it a chance to recover as Ileapt forward to bring it down beneath me. Tearing its batteredwing aside, I revealed the gaping wound in the angel’s chest andthe blood covering his body. It was still alive, barely, but if hewasn’t dispatched now and he got away, he would eventuallyheal.
Fire burned from my fingers when I closedthem around the angel’s thick neck. The angel shrieked; his fingerstore at the flesh of my arms as fire scorched his throat and face.Beneath my fingers, his skin and muscle burned away until my handswere wrapped around his spine.
Pushing down harder, my fingers hit thefloor when his head popped off. It rolled across the floor in aflaming ball. I launched back to my feet and grabbed River. Pullingher against my chest, I threw my arm out to release the houndswithin me. With a roar that echoed off the walls of the sealsurrounding us, Crux and Phenex bounded into the fray.
Above us, Corson finished eviscerating theangel before he released his hold on him. He fell from the sky in awave of blood and guts to silently land on his feet thirty feetaway from us. The angel’s body thumped against the ground when itfell beside him. Corson didn’t look at the angel as he swung hisclaws down, slicing the head from the angel’s shoulders in onesmooth motion.
Overhead, another angel swooped into theroom and remained circling above. Bale, Hawk, and Magnus surroundedthe one whose face I’d burned earlier. The angel leapt forward toknock Bale back. Magnus ran in low, his shoulders down and hishands out as he charged our enemy. He caught the angel by the backof his knees, lifted him up, and slammed him into the ground withenough force to snap one of his wings back.
Bale lunged forward and sank her fangs intothe angel’s jugular while Magnus grabbed his broken wing and bentit all the way back before tearing it free. The angel wailed inmisery and clawed at the empty space where his wing had been, buthe would never have a chance to regrow it this time as Magnus andBale tore into him.
Hawk trained his gun on the angel stillcircling over us. “Why isn’t it attacking?” he inquired.
“His brethren aren’t doing so well rightnow,” Corson replied.
“He’s waiting for more to come,” Riverwhispered.
“Most likely,” I agreed.
I lifted my hand to the ceiling and releaseda wave of fire from my palm, catching the angel and driving himstraight into the ceiling. Taking hold of River’s hand, I met herwide eyes as I flattened it against my cheek. Her touch increasedthe flow of fire erupting from me.
Lifting her hand, River rested it over topof the one I’d trained on the angel above. The swirling pulse ofher ability to wield life rose to combine with my flames until itpounded against the angel with the same ferocity as my fire. Thecrackle of the flames rebounded off the walls surrounding us astheir intensity increased. The angel’s screams could barely beheard over the power battering his body.
