One of the hounds released a screech of pain. Within me, I felt the severing of my bond to a mated male. Its female’s sorrowful howl echoed through the trees. When she howled again, all the hounds took up her cry, but her heartbroken tone remained distinct from the others.
Then, all at once, the fallen took to the sky. Their sudden absence caused a strange hush to fall over the woods as the humans pointed their guns into the trees. The craetons continued to surround us, but many of them fell back to blend into the shadows. My teeth clenched and my lips skimmed back when I saw what the craetons had herded us toward.
I turned toward River to stop her from seeing what lay beyond, but it was too late. Tears flooded her eyes as she gazed at the wide-open, blood-drenched field before us. Her hand flew to her mouth, and her skin paled visibly before her knees buckled. Grabbing her arm, I kept her on her feet.
Caim landed beside her and folded his wings behind his back. His dismay-filled eyes briefly met mine before they returned to the carnage. Amid the copious amounts of blood were so many human bodies and parts that it was difficult to differentiate one from the other. I’d seen many atrocities in Hell, had rained down my fair share of torture and death, but I had never seen anything like what lay before us.
We’d found the missing people of River’s town.
I held her closer as tremors shook her slender frame. Ducking her head, River wiped away her tears as the first one hit the ground. A soft sob escaped her, but I knew I was the only one who heard it as she clamped her lips together and inhaled a shuddery breath.
When Caim looked back to me, he shook his head. One of the fallen or not, Caim’s humanity was evident in the slump of his shoulders and the way he drew his wings forward as if to hug himself. Not even he had expected something such as this from Lucifer. Truth be told, as much as I hated the bastard, I hadn’t expected it either. I never would have said Lucifer was sane, but he’d always kept a leash on his insanity. That leash had snapped.
“I have lost my brothers and sisters forever,” Caim murmured.
“Did you think there was a chance you hadn’t?” I asked.
The rainbow colors of his eyes were more vivid due to the sheen of water in them. “I had hoped that, if I could retain some semblance of sanity and humanity, that maybe they could too. They were…” He shook his head and gazed out at the field again. “I am a fool.”
Raphael strode forward to stand beside him. A muscle in his clenched jaw ticked as his purple gaze searched the field.
“It’s the whole town,” River muttered. “These were my loved ones, my friends. I knew them all. We survived together. We survivedbecauseof each other.Whywould he do this?”
“Because he knows who the other angel of your line is,” Caim answered and glowered at Raphael. “I told you, you would have heard his fit all the way through Hell if he’d known Michael fathered a child. Now it’s been heard throughout this town, and possibly the surrounding areas.”
The sight of the massacre had already leached color from Hawk’s face, but he paled further at Caim’s words. “My family is in the next town over,” he said.
“Probably not anymore,” Caim replied.
River lifted her head to look at Hawk. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“Not your fault,” Hawk said gruffly and blinked away the tears in his eyes.
My gaze went to the sky as an angel soared low over the treetops to land amid the scattered body parts. In the middle of all that blood, the angel looked like a crow reveling in the glory of all its carrion. Behind me, the lower and upper-level craetons started pushing against us again as they herded us out of the woods and into the slaughter.
CHAPTER 53
Kobal
“This is where we came for Volunteer Day,” River said. “It was a day of celebration. There were games and food, music, dancing, and laughter. It was the one day a year when we could forget all our troubles and simply enjoy life.” She pointed to the brick building on the right of me, and her voice hitched. “I went to school there, for a time.”
“He will never do this again, Mah Kush-la,” I promised. I couldn’t take her anguish from her, or fix this, but I could offer her that bit of solace.
Another angel landed on the field to her left. Fury twisted her features. The ball of energy she threw at it had the angel rising again, but more angels swooped down to stand amid the bodies. The angels spread out through the carnage until they became black sentinels watching and waiting for us to be maneuvered where they wanted us.
The stench of blood filled my nose; the faint odor of decay lay beneath it, but these humans had not died that long ago. Some of the bodies looked as if they had been torn limb from limb, while others appeared to have been dropped from great heights as bones protruded from rumpled flesh and dents pockmarked the ground.
Glancing behind me, I gritted my teeth when I saw more shadows emerging from the trees, but the attack did not resume. There was no reason for it to as hundreds of the craetons slid from the woods. Their numbers alone were enough to push us forward.
“Any shot some of your brothers and sisters will come help us?” Hawk inquired of Raphael.
“Not likely,” Raphael replied without a second’s hesitation. “It will take a cataclysmic event for them to intervene.”
“Fantastic,” Erin murmured.
“When we reach wherever they’re pushing us, and the battle resumes, I want you to work on keeping the demons behind us held back,” I said to Raphael. “River, funnel your ability into him. The two of you should be able to create a wall that will keep our backs at least partially protected.”
“I will,” she said as she carefully picked her way through the remains. She held her eyes in such a way that I knew she could see where she put her feet to avoid stepping on anyone, but she didn’t see the faces of those who had died here.
