Several demons and Fallen flew upward into the air, alarm on their faces.
How I hated being cut off from the ether.I feel so weak.In the beginning, I'd fallen from grace because of love.
And now, here at the end, I fell once more for the same reason.
But not for the frigid love and rejection of a God, but for the acceptance of a warm, soft human who'd brought me back to life, who made me remember what it felt like to care about more than power or control.
Hoooom. Hooooooom. Hoooo-oooooooom.
The cacophony sounded like an ancient horn blast, the echo so deep it vibrated the skin of my cheeks. The wave of sound had been designed to bring living beings to their knees.
Everyone slammed their hands to shield exposed ears.
On the heels of the terrible noise, a blanket of energy and light rushed through the room, knocking bodies to the floor, and sending those in the air to violently smash against the walls.
Marzan, being small and weak—compared to the Chosen—rolled into an open pool of lava and sunk, his screams of anguish cut short as the fire consumed his flesh as he sank below the surface.
Oh, how I love karma.
But I didn't care about the blast, the light, the upheaval. The only person that mattered was Anna, who'd been thrown to her stomach. Her clothes lay in tatters, and she'd been knocked unconscious by the mysterious burst of power.
I reached for her; I was no longer frozen in place. I crawled on the floor, my focus on the beautiful girl who'd become the only source of light in my shadowy world.
"Anna," I said, shaking her shoulder.
She groaned.
She's alive. That's what matters.
My power, no longer blocked, surged through my body. Immediately, I channeled healing into Anna, repairing her horribly displaced broken finger, the cuts and bruises on her body, and anything else not completely healthy.
"Heard you needed help," said a deep, masculine voice.
I glanced upward, ready to lash out, and paused. "Cain?"
My son's silver wings flared outward. He carried a burning sword in his hands.
"How did you know?" My mind reeled.Of all the angels, I would've never expected my own son to lend a hand.Although, Ididbring him back to life with his girlfriend's help.
Phoebe, his purplish-pink-haired Nephilim girlfriend, stepped to Cain's side. "Ha. Now this is funny.Ussaving the devil from his own people."
Their arrival broke the dazed confusion in the throne room.
Malachi roared and pointed at Cain. "You have no right to be here, you scum."
"He'll never change, will he?" Cain looked at me, rolled his eyes, then tipped his sword at Malachi. "Trust me, I didn't want to come here, either, but my boss is persuasive."
He worked for Michael, one of God's favorite archangels.
Unadulterated fury twisted Malachi's face into that of a wild animal. "I will kill you as I always should have."
"No." I breathed that word as a whisper. "You willnot." With the ether returning my power, I threw out strands of darkness and bound Malachi in place.
The flash of a leather-clad leg behind Malachi told me Lilith turned to flee, probably thinking she'd escape my notice.
She thought wrong.
I pressed her to the floor with a blanket of dark energy, but she wasn't my main concern. Not yet.
