Seconds later, Crux was thrown aside as if he weighed no more than I did. Energy rose from the dirt, into my feet, and pooled forth to join with the immense force that Raphael released. Some of the craetons were still stupid enough to batter themselves against the wall of energy, only to be thrown back with nothing but smoke curling from their remains. Most of them were going around it now, but our forces waited for them there. Some were struck down, while others broke through to attack.
When Kobal rose to his feet, my fingers curled with the need to murder as I took in his battered face and bloody body. His hand went to his ribs before falling away. A snarl curved his mouth as an angel dropped toward Lucifer. The angels would fly Lucifer out of here if they got to him.
No! This will end now!The white-hot rage filling me increased the sparks on my hands as fire rose to encircle my other hand. I’d never experienced wrath with this intensity before, but I welcomed it.
Lucifer had tormented my brothers, and he hadkilledpeople I cared about in brutal ways. I refused to live with the fear of him coming for me again, or plotting something more. I refused to allow him toexistanymore. That bastard would pay for everything he’d done, and I would make sure he didn’t escape here alive.
“Raphael,” I hissed.
He glanced over his shoulder at Lucifer as he stumbled toward the angels trying to slip in between the hounds and palitons waiting for them. Kobal released a blast of fire that torched across the ground toward Lucifer. Battering the air, Lucifer managed to get his good wing to work well enough to propel him away from the trail of fire.
“Go,” Raphael said.
I released his arm and raced through the battle still waging around me. Leaping back, I dodged the pointed tip of a horn aimed at my stomach. I drove my elbow into the back of the demon’s head, knocking him to the ground. I didn’t have time to kill him as I leapt onto his back and ran over the top of him.
When another demon tried to tackle me, I shot a ball of fire into his face. He howled as he beat at the flames. The angels were almost to Lucifer when Caim dove out of the air and slammed into the side of one. They tumbled through the air before hitting the ground in a tumult of black wings. I spotted Bailey on the ground by Bale before Caim sliced his wing across the other angel’s throat and took to the air again. He swooped down and reclaimed Bailey. The barta demon still had hold of Gage, but Onoskelis was now engaged in a fight with a few palitons.
One of the other angels grabbed Lucifer’s shoulder as Kobal released another wave of fire. This one smashed into the other angel’s face and spiraled him backward. Lucifer roared and released a telekinetic blast of energy so strong that it rippled over my skin as I closed in on his side. The blast knocked Kobal over and threw back the hounds that had been closing in on Lucifer. One of the hounds released a high-pitched yelp and the others all howled. I realized another hound had been lost as the howl became a mournful keening.
Despite their loss, the massive creatures were regaining their feet. Lucifer flapped at the air with his one good wing until he rose slowly into the air. My blood pounded through my veins, and power surged through me as I drew on the energy of the life teeming in the ground beneath my feet while I ran.
“No!” I screamed when Lucifer was seven feet off the ground. The hounds leapt at him, trying to catch him and draw him down again, but he curled his legs up to stay out of their reach.
Planting my feet, I threw my arms up as power and fury coalesced together. From my right hand a stream of golden-white light erupted, while from my left a wave of fire burst free. I buried my shock over being able to use both abilities at the same time again as I drew my hands closer together until they pressed against each other.
Fire and light came together in a powerful surge that snapped and crackled though the air before it slammed into Lucifer. It hit him in the chest, but instead of tearing through him, it enveloped him in the golden-white light at the same time the fire burst over his body. For a few heartbeats, he was trapped in the air, his back bowed and his head thrown back.
As the light cascaded around him, I got a brief glimpse of the golden angel he’d once been with his black hair, violet eyes, and feathered, white wings. I saw a smile that lit a room and felt the warmth he’d once radiated. I understood why he’d been favored, why he’d beentheMorning Star.
There had never been an angel so bright and beautiful before, there never would be again, and I wanted him dead.
The fire and light burst off him, radiating outward like a bomb blast that threw those closest to him back. The force of it flung back the angel Kobal had burnt and knocked the hounds to the ground again. Like a burnt-out star, Lucifer crumpled to the ground. Smoke curled off his burnt flesh and wings as he lay unmoving with his broken wing poking into the air. Nothing remained of his clothes.
All around me silence descended. I could feel the gazes boring into my back and saw some of the craetons scrambling to flee, but most remained unmoving as they gazed between me and Lucifer.
And then, just when I was certain he was dead, Lucifer lifted his head to reveal the smoke curling out of the sockets where his eyes had been. My stomach lurched as those empty sockets gazed ahead. Clumps of grass and dirt broke away as his burnt fingers dug into the earth and he started clawing his way forward.
The clashing of swords and the retort of guns pierced the air again. The hounds all yowled, and screams of the injured and dying resonated across the field as Lucifer continued forward. Walking toward him, I watched his charred skin begin to pinken. The whites of his eyeballs slid into place and the black irises took form. His head tipped back, and hatred burned from his eyes when I planted myself in front of him.
“Hi, Dad,” I greeted, and Kobal pounced.
CHAPTER 57
Kobal
I fell on Lucifer’s battered body just as he flipped over and plunged the top spike of his intact wing into my shoulder. It pierced through muscle and bone before jutting out the other side. Gritting my teeth, I wrapped my hands around the end of the spike and tore it out of me. Lucifer shrieked when I twisted his wing to drive the spike into his thigh. His blistered body bowed off the ground as he tore the spike from his leg.
Before he could launch a new telekinetic attack, I seized his throat and drove my claws into his neck. He screamed, his fingers tore into my face, peeling away skin as more fists of air battered my body. I twisted his neck to the right until it cracked. Beneath my hands, flesh and bone gave way until his head remained attached by only his spine.
With a violent yank, I ripped his head the rest of the way from his body. Grim satisfaction filled me as his wings flapped once more before his body went completely still beneath me. My shoulders heaved, the blood falling from my hair and face dripped onto his flesh.
I had expected to feel nothing but triumph when this moment came. Instead, there was only a hollow sense of relief, of a door closing and a new one opening. Lifting my head, I looked at River. Her violet eyes seemed like shards of steel as she stared at Lucifer before her eyes met mine.
The anger in her gaze melted away as love filled them. I’d only known death before her, but now I would only know what it meant to live.
I became aware of the hush enshrouding the field that had been a battleground only seconds before. My fingers clenched in Lucifer’s hair, and my lips skimmed back as I bared my fangs at our enemies. Many of them gawked at me and then at River with fear-filled eyes.
I set Lucifer’s head down, grabbed his still intact wing and tore it from his body. Rising, I drove the silver point at the bottom of his wing into the ground before retrieving his head and spearing it onto the top.
