I realized he and Erin had edged closer to us. A pretty blonde woman I didn’t recognize stood beside them with her rifle aimed at Angela. I didn’t tell her to put it down; bullets wouldn’t do anything to the child. If the woman fired her weapon, she would learn that soon enough.
“No,” Caim answered. “It’s a guide, and it’s trying to direct River.”
“To do what?” Corson demanded.
“Do you want to know a secret, daughter?”
Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath as my thoughts turned to my brothers. Everything I’d done since childhood was for them. I’d fought to keep them safe and give them a better life than the one I’d had with our mother. Their lives could never go back to what they’d been before Hell opened, no one’s could, but Gage and Bailey could still be safer and have better lives,ifI succeeded in closing the gateway.
Everyone on Earth would be safer and happier if I succeeded in that.
Sorrow tore at my heart as I recalled the last time I’d seen my brothers. It had been right before I left the wall behind to come here. Gage had grown to become a stoic young man. Bailey cried when I embraced them both.
“They told me I have to let you go, but I don’t wanna!”Bailey had sobbed, his tiny face flushed with his distress.
“I know, B, but I have to go. I promise to do everything I can to see you again as soon as possible. I love you,”I’d whispered to him.
I loved them so much that there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for them. And then there was Kobal. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for him either. He may never rule Hell now that it was collapsing, but he would rule Earth. He would gather the demons and he would work to establish control over the annihilation being leveled against this plane. He would succeed in killing Lucifer.
However, if all the creatures of Hell and from the seals continued to pour onto Earth, not even Kobal, the most powerful being I’d ever encountered, would be able to destroy or control them all.
I opened my eyes to gaze into Hell once more. My breath sucked in when I spotted the monstrosity soaring toward us.What…?
“Is that… a fucking… dragon?” Hawk asked.
Yes, yes it was, if dragons were skeletal creatures with a fiery blue glow crackling over all the bones making up their easily hundred-foot-long frame. Holes were interwoven throughout the black, leathery flesh connecting the bones of its wings.
A bright blue flame formed a ball at the end of its tail as it released a bellow. Everyone near the edge of the gateway scrambled away from the creature rising toward them. Its eyes were also made up of blue fire, but I felt it when the creature’s gaze settled on me. My heart leapt into my throat as the dragon burst free and soared high into the sky, leaving a trail of blue fire in its wake.
As it rose to be silhouetted against the sun, I couldn’t help but think how beautiful it would be if it wasn’t so freaking terrifying.
“It’s the one-hundred-first seal,” Corson murmured.
If the gateway wasn’t closed, and if the creatures caged within the seals could survive fire, there were still over a hundred more seals that could crumple and release their prisoners onto Earth. The fires of Hell were receding too. Soon enough it might not matter if the creatures could survive the flames or not when they were set free.
“Fall back!” Corson shouted as the dragon craned its head to look down at all of us and blue fire spiraled out of its nostrils.
“No,” I breathed as another loud roar reverberated from Hell.
This couldnotbe allowed to continue, not when I might be able to stop it. My gaze fell to Angela as her aura swelled.
“Do you want to know a secret, daughter? Would you like to know why I never attempted to stop you from trying to close the gateway? I’ll tell you and only you the secret.”
The joy Lucifer took in spinning me within his web of evil brushed over my skin once more.
“I never tried to stop you, because even if you did figure out how to close the gateway, Kobal never would have allowed you to do it,”he had murmured with glee.“Because to close the gateway—”He’d taken a deep breath, his smile growing as he spoke.“—you have to die.”
When he uttered those words, I’d been unable to stop myself from looking at him. His onyx eyes burned into the fiber of my being while he continued speaking.“Life’s blood, that is what the gateway requires, the sacrifice it needs. Along with a little extra… life,”he purred the wordlifelike he was a cat getting scratched behind the ears.“I was mortal when I sacrificed myself to open the gateway. I used the last of my connection to the Earth and my angel blood to open it. I became immortal again upon entering Hell, but you will stay the mortal you are now and simply die.”
He’d giggled when he revealed this and steepled his fingers before his nose to study me over the top of them.“I never stopped you, because Kobal would have.”
And I knew he was right. No matter how many more seals fell, Kobal would never allow me to die to close the gateway, even if it was the best for everyone.
But Kobal wasn’t here now, which was the reason I’d agreed to leave him behind. If I succeeded in closing this gateway, Kobal would be able to form his own gateway to exit Hell. The remaining seals would still fall, but they wouldn’t be able to leave Hell and roam Earth. All those I loved would be safer.
Corson shoved me further back when Angela rested her hand over her heart in a gesture I knew meant to show me love and support.
“Tell Kobal I love him and that I’m so sorry for this. Please take care of my brothers. Make sure they’re safe,” I said to Corson as I felt the swell of life flowing into my feet and surging up my body toward my hands. Sparks danced across my fingertips as renewed vitality flooded me.
