Gently laying her back down, I ignored the futile war cries of the remaining Veritas agents. I briefly wondered if my parents were among them. I got to my feet. Time seemed to slow around me, as if I were moving through water.
I turned around to face the demon lord advancing on the remaining fighters. Two of the Luxis members still lived and had joined the agents of Veritas to fight the common enemy. Though it did not speak, I understood the creature. It was about to swat the remaining insects who dared think they could defy it. When it was done, it would walk forth and destroy everything in its path, ripping the whole world asunder.
There was nothing to stop it.
Nothing, except me.
“Hey,” I yelled at the demon lord.
It swiveled around, recognizing it was being called.
“You want a tortured soul.” I raised my arms out in offering. “I’ve got one right here for you. It’s full of power no one else here possesses. You like power? Come get it.”
The beast took several steps toward me. Unlike the corporeal soul eater, this one didn’t make a noise as it moved, which was more disconcerting. Two of the agents of Veritas charged it from its left side. Without even looking it smacked them away. Their bodies flew away into the forest.
The tears on my face had gone cold, but I reached into myself and touched the thing that warmed me beyond my comprehension. Emma. My love for Emma and hers for me. She was gone but I could still believe in our love. It was the truest thing I’d known.
The skin along my palms shuddered as light infused them. I closed my eyes. I remembered Emma slipping her hand along my bicep and leaning into my ear outside of the motel massacre as she said softly, “Try again.” I had blasted the soul eater away, but this demon was so much more powerful. If it took my soul and my powers there would certainly be no stopping it, but I had to save this world. For her.
As it approached, the souls in its torso began to squawk and writhe again. Emma was in there. Stopping myself from thinking about that, I focused on my belief in her. My body hummed, then buzzed. Light engulfed my entire being as I fed my powers with my love for Emma. I waited for my powers to stop fueling when they’d reached capacity, but it didn’t happen. My hands burned brighter, my energy peaked past anything I’d known.
The demon lord stepped in front of me and poised its hands, ready to rip my soul from my body. The soul Emma had seen all along, even when I couldn’t.
I closed my eyes. It wasn’t his. My soul was hers and nothing would ever change that.
“Run,” Phillip yelled out.
When I opened my eyes, I realized he wasn’t talking to me, he was talking to those who remained. I looked down and my whole body burned with incredible white light, and I couldn’t help but squeeze out a few more tears with a small smile. Emma would have loved to see this. I’d be with her soon.
A blistering, icy heat fell on my skin then sank deeper inside. The demon. It was like a feverish sickness sank into me, sure to kill me any moment. Yet, I was still encased in the bright tingling of my own powers. The demon’s long spindly finger poised in the air before me, touching my soul. Its finger flicked upward. I felt something at the root of my being yanked at, except nothing pulled free. My soul hadn’t budged from my body. I was unmoved as it tried a second time.
“Calan, do it.” I heard Emma’s soft but reassuring words. I imagined her right behind me.
I squeezed my fists tight letting the unprecedented ocean of power crest. My heart beat wildly in my throat as I took my last breath. Opening my hands, I let it all go. It felt as though I was dropping from the sky, plummeting toward the ground. Wind rushing my back, I was certain if I opened my eyes I would find myself flying, but I didn’t. I kept them closed, holding the image of Emma in my mind. The day she accidently met my eyes over the colorful book she’d kept her nose in, her glasses slightly askew on her face.
I’m coming, my love.
With my powers, went all my energy. Then, like someone blowing out the candle of my consciousness, everything went dark.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Emma’s face hovered over mine when I opened my eyes. It took a lot of blinking to beat back the blurriness of my vision. Though I hadn’t moved, my body was wracked with aches and pains which were set aflame with each breath I took. The world shook around my body as if I was in a continuous earthquake. Each bump and shake made it harder to think.
“Are we in heaven?” My voice was low and hoarse. “Is there pizza?” Despite the flare of pain, I reached out to grab the angel’s wrist.
Emma took my hand and held it between both of hers, dropping kisses on my knuckles. Tears swam in her smiling eyes. “No doofus, this isn’t heaven, but you were superman so I’ll see about getting you a pizza.”
It was then I noticed the tape holding the corners of her glasses together and the warmth of her hands on mine. I moved to sit up but was hit by a wave of dizziness. Greasy nausea welled up my throat, so I stayed lying down.
“Where are we?” I asked. With that, another bump caused my body to jerk hard. I heard rushing wind over my head and Emma’s hair was tied back but the little flyaways were flapping wildly in the wind.
“It’s not Emma’s jeep, but it’s got wheels.” Travis’s faint, disembodied voice came from over my head.
Looking around, I realized I was lying down in a truck bed and Emma sat next to me, hovering like a mother hen. Travis was driving and he had yelled over his shoulder out the small open window that led to the truck bed.
“Travis,” I growled and tried again to get onto my elbows, determined to tear him into pieces.
“Whoa there, Terminator.” Emma stopped me with a hand on my chest, firmly pushing me back down. Weakened as I was, it didn’t take much force on her part to push me down. “Travis also helped save the day.”
