I lean forward until my forehead thunks against the bars of my cage. Aldred is such a dumbass. This makes twice that he’s gotten the crap-end on a deal with Armageddon.
Aldred steps forward and pokes Armageddon in the center of his bony chest. “How can you?”
“Quiet!” Armageddon snaps his fingers once more. A wave of power slams into Aldred, forcing him to slide away from Armageddon. To fight the pull, Aldred grabs onto Lady Daria. The pair tumbles to the floor. A moment later, a steel box appears around them both. Now Aldred and Lady Daria are caged, the same as Lincoln and me.
Lady Daria rattles her bars. “This is an outrage. Release me!”
“In a moment.” Armageddon gestures to the growing ranks of demons behind him. “I have more than enough assistance for the work at hand. You stay put.” The King of Hell slowly turns to Lincoln and me. “Now, it’s time to kill you two. At last.”
With these words, my mind finally snaps out of its funk. All of a sudden, it’s pretty obvious what I need to do.
I simply need a ton of igni to do it.
Raising my arms, I call out in a loud voice: “Come to me, my little ones. I need you all!”
Instantly, the room fills with millions of tiny igni. They sparkle in the air, creating a thick cloud of shifting light. There’s more that I need them to do, however.
“Create more tethers. Encase, link, and release all our allies.” The music of the light and dark igni echo though my mind as they whip about to fulfill my orders. Small bodies of brightness encircle almost everyone. The igni can see into someone’s soul. They know who is trustworthy. After they fulfill my orders, only a handful of demonic delegates remain in a frozen state.
Armageddon lets out a roar of rage. “You little angelic bitch!”
“Really? I thought I was a demonic whore. You and Aldred need to get on the same page.”
Lincoln shoots me a thumbs-up. “Well said.” My guy always has my back.
Armageddon’s voice blasts through the Chapel. “Kill her!” He starts to limp off the stage, his demonic army following behind him. Whoa. Looks Dad really did a number on Armageddon when they were fighting last time. It’s taking the King of Hell forever to limp over and kill me. The sight is hypnotic, and not in a good way.
This is where I die.
Lincoln’s voice breaks into my thoughts. “Myla, get back.”
“What?” I shake my head, trying to focus again.
“There’s no room to fight. You must go defensive. Make yourself a smaller target.” Lincoln motions for me to slide to the far side of my cage.
“Got it.” Much as I hate to cower, I also have all of Hell’s worst coming for me and no way to protect myself. I scooch my body until I’m as far away as possible, curl into a ball, and wrap my arms around my head. My tail makes a protective loop around my neck.
There, that’s about as protected as I’ll get.
The thud of footsteps sounds as Armageddon limps closer. War cries echo in from the demonic horde, but no one screams louder than the King of Hell. Fear prickles across my skin. Everything around me seems more extreme, from the yelling warriors to the chilly metal beneath my body. My mind races as I think through options in what’s quite possibly my very last moments alive.
No matter how I look at this situation, there’s only one way I make it out of here, and that’s if my igni free everyone before Armageddon kills me. Trouble is, last time it took them a while to free Lincoln and me. Is it too much to hope they’ve gotten better at it by now and can release everyone more quickly? Knowing my luck, it probably is.
Tapping sounds on my cage. I peep through my fingers to see Armageddon’s face peering at me through the metal bars. He’s only a few feet away. “Nice to see you again.” He holds up his arm; a long spear of red fire appears in his hand. “Looks like you want to play hide and seek. Let’s see if my weapon can find you.”
Everything in me wants to go into a battle stance, but I can’t even get myself up to a full sitting position. Instead, I curl into a smaller ball; it’s really the best I can do at this point. Armageddon arches his arm back and the thought occurs to me that I’m about to be skewered by Kill of Hell on my wedding day. In my wedding gown. Not the way I wanted to die.
All of a sudden, a blur in golden armor slams into the King of Hell. Huzzah! Armageddon is thrown back, along with his demon horde. My body lightens with a jolt of happy.
Dad’s awake. Nice.
After that, everyone starts moving and fighting. A flurry of angels dive in from the sky to attack the demons. Thrax race across the floor, their swords and baculum ready for battle. Quasis get into the fight, too. Some of them wield folding chairs from the Chapel floor. Others grab the standing candelabras and pennant poles. My people look like a frightened mob of villagers about to take down Frankenstein’s castle. They’re pretty awesome, actually.