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“What do you think…” Life started.
“… he wants, dead girl?” Death finished.
“To end your reign.” They had two necks, and one necklace that hung around both. At the end of it, a vial the size of my fist with a creature inside it. Its body was made of smoke that shimmered in all the colors of the rainbow. A hundred arms, and a hundred legs. It kicked and screamed, yet the sound of its struggles didn’t reach my ears. “And release Time from your clutches.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
They were fighting with all they had, but they were losing. Before my eyes, things I never thought possible were unfolding. My GC threw his scythe to the side and shifted into a golden bull. His counterpart did the same, and now two humongous bulls were circling each other, forcing everyone to give them space. Paz stopped fighting the demon that looked just like him, and I thought he needed to take a breath. He spread his arms, looked up at the tall ceiling, and let out a loud growl from the bottom of his chest. The hair
s on my nape stood on end. I had no idea he could do that. The ceiling collapsed to the ground, and it was fortunate that Klaus was paying attention. He pointed his hands at the splintered stone and wood, and with a grunt, made the deadly ruble hit the back wall. Through the open ceiling, a buzz of a thousand wings invaded the throne room. Instinctively, I grabbed the black and white shroud, and threw it over Life and Death to protect them. A swarm of locusts swiped over our heads and attacked Valentine and his Reapers. After them, a hot wind that brought sand as sharp as glass blinded them and forced them to take a few steps back.
Holy shit! It was the first time I saw Pazuzu use his true demon powers. Now, the only problem was that the other Pazuzu had the exact same powers, so he pulled the same trick. Angels fought angels, demons fought demons, mages fought mages, and locusts fought and ate other locusts in a cloud of dust and sand. It was insanity!
Was it me, or was GC growing in size? My false god was full of surprises, too. The golden bulls backed away slowly, grew twice as big, and lunged at each other, head down, horns at the ready. When they collided, the whole building trembled.
I was holding on to my scythe, looking around me, trying to understand what was happening and what I could do to help.
I saw Sariel facing the other Sariel. There was a difference in their case, though. His doppelganger was an archangel that had never fallen. His beautiful wings spread wide, he flew up to the sky, and through the round crack in the ceiling, he rained arrows of solidified light onto those below.
“Oh my God!” I screamed and threw my own body over the conjoined twins I now knew was my sacred duty to protect. Arrows stuck in my back. With a pained whimper, I reached around and pulled them out one by one. They came out with strings of skin and flesh wrapped around the arrow heads. “Not to worry,” I whispered to myself. “It’ll heal.” Wishful thinking… My body was more like decomposing than healing.
It was the Fallen One’s turn. What he did next… I realized not even he was aware that he could do. Rage took over Sariel. His blue eyes turned black, and the stumps coming out of his shoulder blades grew into twisted leathery wings. His feet turned into hooves, the new shape tearing his pants from the knee down, as well as his shoes. When he opened his mouth, flames poured out of his throat. Hellfire enveloped Sariel the Archangel. As his wings burned, he screamed in pain and made his escape through the ceiling, only to return later.
“Holy mother of…” I couldn’t believe my eyes. So that was the true face of a Fallen One. After all, Sariel Gracewing wasn’t a creature of Heaven anymore. Hell had claimed him. I was almost afraid of him.
“You have to get out of here.”
I jumped when Francis grabbed my arm, and almost punched him in the face. It took me a minute to realize he was my Francis, not his evil doppelganger.
“You’re bleeding,” he yelled at me. “And you’re not healing!”
“I can’t leave them.”
He looked at the shrouded figures that hadn’t moved a muscle. It was as if they didn’t care about what was happening around them, didn’t care whether Morningstar got to them or not. We were busting out asses to protect them, risking our own lives, and they simply sat there like statues.
“I’ll make sure they’re safe,” he said.
“Why aren’t they doing something? They are literally Life and Death!”
“They keep the world in balance. Their very existence makes our existence possible. I will protect them with my life. Go!”
“Francis…” He was just a revenant. He was strong and agile, but he couldn’t summon locusts, shift into a beast, or breathe fire.
“I’ve got this.”
He gave me a reassuring smile. In the next few seconds, before my eyes, his smile turned into a sneer. His mossy green eyes turned yellow, his pupils became long and thin, his nose flattened, and his chin elongated. Green and yellow scales appeared on his cheeks and forehead. As he held his legs and arms close to his body, he started turning into a snake from the neck down. A huge, fat snake with spikes along its back. A forked tongue emerged from between the thin lips, along with a hiss.
I yelped and jumped a few feet back. The snake didn’t attack me, though. It coiled itself around Life and Death, and anyone who wanted to get to them, would first have to defeat it. Him. Not an ‘it’, Mila. This is Francis. Your Francis. And now I knew. That was why, in my dreams, his eyes were often yellow.
What this meant was that I could do it, too. I could shift into a snake, since I was a revenant and a… it hurt to say it… a daughter of Yig. The Father of Serpents, Professor Lovecraft had called him. I understood so much now.
I focused on my own body and willed it to do something – turn, convulse, shift. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried harder.
“You can’t,” Francis hissed. Actually hissed. Not an exaggeration. “You’re too weak and young.”
“Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck!” I couldn’t help him. I couldn’t help any of them. I was useless.
There was one thing I could do, and that was to run. Teleport. But where?
