“I will never help you, nor will my brothers or sisters.”
This was the second time someone had shot down my plea for help. Maybe I needed to work on my delivery.
His arm reared back, and I saw the glint of his sword. I could see in his eyes he’d like nothing better than to end me. What would happen if I died here? Would I cease to exist? A rulebook on what it meant to be queen of the Underworld would be nice.
Intrigued though I was, I wasn’t going to wait for this guy to skewer me to find out. I closed my eyes and, steadying my breath, drew on my energy. I felt it rise, and with one great push, I slammed it into my assailant.
The man went flying back, his sword clattering against the cement as he hit the ground.
I rose to my feet and approached him before he recovered. Flakes of snow clung to my hair and eyelashes.
“I don’t want to be your enemy,” I said, even as my hands fisted and the need to destroy him surged through me.
“We will hunt you until you’re wiped off the earth once and for all,” he vowed, pushing to his feet and retrieving his sword. “Count your days, revenant.”
His eyes flicked to the partially formed demons at my back.
His wings unfurled, nearly as bright as the sun. I shielded my eyes against his glory. He rose into the sky and hung up there for several seconds, sword held loosely in his hand, watching me and the beings behind me.
The demons made gurgling sounds that turned into growls as their windpipes formed. Once they finished filling out, they came to flank me. These ones stood seven, eight feet tall.
“You will lose,” he said. “It is inevitable. Enjoy the reprieve from hell. Soon enough we will cast you back to the fires like all those other traitors, and there you will stay.”
Chapter 7
Gabrielle
Right after my attacker’s little speech, he shot up into the dense cloud cover. He even managed to make it look like he wasn’t fleeing from the six fully formed demons that now surrounded me.
Probably heading straight to the big man upstairs to tattle on me.
The demons didn’t wait for my orders. They leapt off the ground, their leathery wings stretching out incredible distances to carry their weight. Without a backwards glance, they flew into the night, trailing the celestial that had taken off before them.
I just fought an angel.
I prodded the back of my head, still dazed from the injury. It hurt the way poking a bruise hurt, but despite the lingering blood, the skin had sealed up.
Silver lining: I could heal fast again.
What a mess. I’d managed to make enemies of both earth and heaven all within a couple hours of arriving here. That had to be some sort of record.
“Hot damn, Sabertooth,” Oliver said from behind me, “just when I think things can’t get any freakier around you, you one up yourself.”
I turned to see him and Leanne heading towards me. I glanced around my surroundings, noticing the onlookers for the first time. Most had their phones out, angled towards me.
“Go home,” I told them, the siren riding my voice, “and forget what you’ve seen here and remove all record of it from your devices and your mind.”
The crowd dispersed, and I used that time to catch my breath and allow my skin to dim.
“That meeting you foresaw wasn’t with Andre, was it?” I said to Leanne once the siren was safely locked away.
She rubbed her face. “Apparently angels don’t have clear futures.” Her hands muffled her voice.
The fairy clucked his tongue. “That would have been helpful to know beforehand. Not that I minded the show. Fuck me, angels are hot. I wonder what his feathers would feel like …”
“They’d burn you faster than they would Gabrielle,” Leanne said.
“Hmph.”
“I didn’t realize angels could visit earth,” I said, staring up at the sky. I mean, it made sense. Nephilim, after all, had to come from somewhere.
“They can, but they don’t. At least, not often,” Leanne said.
“What brought him here?” I asked.
“You.”
I swiveled to face her. “So they know about me?”
“Oh, I’m sure they’ve known for a while.” She didn’t sound happy about it. “They’ve just decided to act on it now, I suppose.”
I frowned. What kind of divine beings sought to murder a teenage girl?
I stared into the sky. I could no longer see the angel or my demons. My skin prickled. I’d set loose nearly twenty creatures since I’d arrived on earth, and they’d all made themselves scarce. That … probably wasn’t good.
“Can we go? It’s colder than a witch’s tit out here,” Oliver complained.
“We’re still waiting for Andre.”
My heart sped up at the mention of him. I dreaded seeing him, dreaded revealing what I was—a being whose evil was second only to the devil’s—dreaded exposing him to my situation. I could only give him more heartache.
But I was weak enough to want him anyway.
“Do we have to do this outside?” Oliver asked.
“For the future I’ve seen, yes, we do.”