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There’s only one way to be sure.
“Antarvas!” I shout.
Meshach pauses. Not for long, but long enough. Nobody speaks Sanskrit here. Uriel and I learned it long ago, when the language was still stitching itself together on Earth. It was our secret code, our way of speaking to one another when the walls grew ears. He’s caught and he knows it. A crowd has gathered around us, taking bets and making guesses; none of them know. He doesn’t want any of them to know.
To Hell with what he wants.
“Uriel!” I bellow his name and watch the pain flicker in his eyes.
He smiles. “Took you long enough.”
“But you aren’t dead. How?” I question, although I’m in such shock that I feel detached from my own voice. How could it be? The brother I have mourned…
Gasps and murmurs ripple through the crowd. Behind Uriel, I see Diana and Abaddon clutch each other’s hands, shocked and pale.
“I’m just that good,” Uriel says. He comes at me again, faster, harder. Stunned, I don’t react as well as I could. He takes me to the floor, smashing my head into the tile. Sophia gasps from the edge of the crowd.Damn it!
“Sophia needs to die, Lucifer.” My brother drops me, turning toward Sophia. The crowd breaks, scattering away from her. Uriel charges and Sophia runs backwards; she doesn’t stand a chance. I race after him, determined to get between him and Sophia, and run into Abaddon, who stops me short.
“Don’t do this, man,” Abaddon says. “He’s our brother.”
Uriel has overtaken Sophia.
Chapter25
Sophia
He’s everywhere,and everyone else is nowhere. I duck a blow, only to nearly run into his other fist. He’s a blur, there’s nothing to hit. He only seems to slow when he’s inches from impact. Stumbling away from him I fall, and just keep rolling. The pillars—if I can just keep something solid between me and Uriel, I might have a chance. I whip around one and put my back against it.
“Sophia!” Lucifer’s voice sounds in the distance. He’s fighting tooth and nail to get free of Abaddon, who’s taking full advantage of Lucifer’s distraction. I whip my head around just in time to see Uriel’s form loop around the ceiling and aim. He’s going to dive—he’ll crush me. I duck, sliding across the slick floor just as Uriel makes contact with the pillar. It cracks, spilling stone and glass across the floor.
I’m running, weaving through the pillars. I catch Diana’s eye and she looks away from me, glancing disinterestedly at Lucifer and Abaddon. She won’t help; she might not be on Uriel’s side, but she certainly isn’t on mine. Nobody in this palace is. No one but Lucifer. That comes increasingly clear when I dodge, sliding across the floor, and wind up slipping between Aurora and Cephalus who step out of the way, watching as Uriel dives after me.
I’m all out of pillars. Uriel has chased and herded me out into the open. There’s one left: the gaudy standalone with the armor display. I race for it, thinking maybe if I can get around it I can head for the spaces under the stairs, the hidden servant passages built for beings much smaller than Uriel.I’m almost there. If I reached out, I could touch it.
Pain explodes in my back before I get there, blasting me off my feet, hurtling me directly at the glass. I barely have time to tuck my head and cover my face before I smash into it, through it, out the other side. The armor falls with me and I land heavily on top of it. Gold armor doesn’t make a very pleasant cushion, but it slides nicely and I skid a bit farther away than I could have otherwise.
Not that it’ll do me much good, Uriel is still advancing on me. Lucifer is fighting Abaddon in earnest, but there seems to be interference from some of the others. Diana is standing with her parents now, the three of them watching me with expressionless faces. Cephalus, at the very least, should be interfering, shouldn’t he? If Uriel kills me, he loses the only thing keeping Lucifer here.
But wait.
If Uriel is back—somehow, and if Uriel is as strong as Lucifer—maybe Cephalus doesn’t even need Lucifer anymore. There’s no time to think about the implications, no time to figure out why and how Uriel even came back to begin with. I have seconds left, and I’m out of options.
I look over at Lucifer. He smashes his fist into Abaddon’s face. It almost looks like he’s going to get away, but not in time. A strange sense of peace begins to flow over me, wrapping around me. I never thought I’d be resigned to death in my final moments. I turn my eyes back to face my demise, only to see Uriel falter. He’s staring.
That’s not peace flowing over me.It’s armor.
The gold angelic armor is sweeping over my body, closing around me, adjusting itself to the position of my body as it latches itself together. Faster than a demon transformation, shimmering gold leaps to action, protecting me from Uriel. It’s strong, I can feel it, but it’s not heavy. I could move in this. I could run in this.
A sword finds its way into my hands. I grip it tight, looking into the face of my attacker, and rise to my feet. Uriel is frozen in shock. The crowd is staring, silent and motionless. Even Lucifer has stopped fighting.
“An angel,” someone says, sounding half-hysterical. “An angel in the palace!”
Wait. What?
Chapter26
Sophia
