But never did Khan think he would have to fight the angels. In fact, via Custo he thought he’d found a reluctant peace with them. But if they sought to harm Layla, they sought war. Khan himself would strike the first blow.
“Think a moment,” Ballard continued. “Consider the alternative, the worst possible. She is bound to the gate, that much we know. To destroy the gate, she also must be destroyed. What if the only way to destroy the gate is to take the life that is bound to it? And what if she should die a random death, her fate bearing down on her, and our opportunity is lost? Should she die and the gate remain, it may never be able to be destroyed. We cannot risk that eventuality. We cannot suffer such a thing to exist on Earth. And let us not forget, she should be dead already. So we return to our first course of action: destroy the gate, regrettably killing Layla in the process. It is the only solution, and after great deliberation, Custo Santovari has agreed to take on this burden, as he was the one to give you the hammer in the first place.”
“You speak of murder.” Khan looked at Custo, who looked back, steady and sure.
“The devil that escaped Hell has already murdered nine people,” Ballard returned. “You should have told us you opened the gate.”
Khan hadn’t opened it, but he wouldn’t inform the angels and give them another reason to harm Layla.
War, then.
He reached long for Shadow and found it plentiful in the break-of-dawn filter of trees. Always at the brink of change was Shadow, ready and available. He’d need it all to fight the angels. And if they died and lost their souls, he would not care. He could teach them evil and darkness the likes of which no devil could contemplate. If the angels harmed Layla, he would do just that.
Ballard lifted a hand. “Hold a moment, before you strike us down.”
A black mist rolled across the grass, hissing as it met the shins of the angels. Khan would drown them in it while Shadow strengthened him. No angel was as old and canny as Death. No angel, even of Valhalla, could defeat the Grim Reaper in battle. Without Layla, he would become all his names, marshal the fae and knock down all the walls, all gates.
The angels stood fast, as was their nature.
In the midst of the gathering darkness, Ballard cocked his head thoughtfully. “Do you know how rare it is that the same soul is permitted two lives in mortality?”
Khan gave a fierce grin. His Kathleen, his Layla, could do anything she put her will to. That’s how magnificent she was. And these emissaries of Heaven wanted to kill her?
“And to be reborn in a space of time so near to the last is . . . well, it’s nothing short of miraculous. As far as The Order knows, it’s never been done, and we maintain excellent records.”
Shadow darkened Khan’s vision. He was filled with it, gorging in preparation.
“We believe she had to have a divine purpose in order to come back to Earth. She had to have some great work that only she could do to be permitted this second chance.”
“Layla came back for her child. Our child.”
Ballard frowned. “Over the millennia there have been countless mothers who have longed for their children with equal desperation. All of them had to wait. Kathleen, we believe, was no different in that regard.”
Kathleen was different in every regard, but Khan’s attention was caught. “Then what?”
“We have no idea.” Ballard shrugged and smiled in spite of the darkness grasping up his legs, his imminent demise. “These are momentous times, and she was there, with you, when all things changed. So, while it would be prudent to take immediate action with the gate, we will wait and watch with great interest.”
Khan stilled, the Shadow rippling with his surprise. “You will not harm her?”
Ballard nodded. “Layla is on borrowed time already. I wish her Godspeed with whatever it is she’s supposed to do.”
Never had Khan known an angel to lie, yet he was loath to believe this turnabout. But if Ballard spoke true, then for now, Layla was spared.
She was spared.
The Shadow on the earth thinned.
“There remains, however, the problem of the gate and the escaped devil. The Order has some small hope that you, as the creator, can dismantle it without harming Layla. At the very least, we’d like you to try in the event she should suddenly pass and the world be left with a gate to Hell and a devil run amuck.”
Khan could not leave her, not with such precious little time they had left together, not with a devil headed to Segue, and Layla’s life in the balance. Not with the wraiths and wights bearing down. Not now that he’d known the lost, abandoned child she’d been. “No.”
Ballard’s jaw flexed at the refusal. “You misunderstand me,” he said. “We are running out of options. We want to give Layla the time she needs, but we will act on our own if we must. In either case, the gate to Hell cannot remain on Earth.”
Again that conviction pouring out of them. Shadow still seethed across the winter frigid Earth, but they paid it no mind. They were all ready to die.
“Please try,” Custo said. “I do not like the alternative.”