“No, Gall, it’s not going to happen. You’ll never be safe with him. You don’t understand—”
“Don’t tell me I don’tunderstand!”
“Resist the devil and he will flee, Gall,” I quoted through gritted teeth. “Hemust. He can’t make you do a damn thing. That’s why he’s not the one here holding the blade. If you believe the truth, he can’ttouchyou.”
“Of course he can touch me,” Gall muttered. “He touches me. He finds me. He has Istral. He keeps us both… He shows me the way—shows me how it will be if I don’t follow.”
I was sure he did—full of fear, shame, and manipulation. I wanted to roar myself. But I needed Gall to listen.
“It’s lies, Gall. Manipulation. He can’t force you to do anything—he makes you fear and convinces you—”
“I’m not afraid!”
“—that you have no other choice. It’swrong.It’suntrue.And he loses his power when we stop believing him. If he was so strong against me, he’d be here. He’d have killed me himself. Hedoesn’t. Hecan’t.He is a created being, and he was never given that right. Stop listening and living in fear. Trust me!”
Gall went very still, glowering at me, his knuckles white on the handle of the halberd, then his upper lip pulled back.
“I willnevertrust you,” he hissed, then swung that wicked blade towards me with more speed and skill than I’d ever seen him demonstrate in his short life.
It was only a desperate leap over one of the tables that saved me. Gall hadn’t accounted for the blade lodging in the wood, and it took him three yanks to pull it loose—which gave me precious seconds to leap for one of the wide braced shields, and a small metal buckler on the wall.
“I’m not going to fight y—”
A whirring noise was the only warning I had that he’d swung again. I darted aside, keeping one of the tables between us.
“You don’t have to do this, Gall—”
“Stoptalking!”
“I won’t. I know—”
He swung that long handle again, this time remembering to keep the head flat so it would sweep over the table, rather than into it when I successfully evading the swing.
He needed to get closer than the table would allow, and he knew it. I saw him eye me, then the bench and table, readying to leap over it and I backed away another step—but now I had the wall at my back.
“I know my sweet, loving son is in there somewhere,” I said calmly, but urgently. “Fight, Gall.Resist.Stop believing his lies. Come with me, and let me show you how powerless he is if you stop believing his lies.”
To my dismay, Gall sprang from the floor, one boot landing squarely on the table, swinging that gleaming axe again as he rushed me.
A part of my heart quavered. Not because he was armed. But because my son wanted me dead. In that moment, his eyes told the tale—his fear and sense of power had overridden his heart. He wanted to give Lucifer what that Fallen fuck wanted.
Plus, that Fallen fuck had somehow strengthened my son.
As I brought the shield up just in time—grateful that Gall lacked Jann’s precision—to deflect the handle and send the weapon up and away, my body groaned with weariness. But it was my heart that ached. Not because already I’d taken a spear to it once this night. But because I knew that my son had been so hurt and traumatized and shamed, that he couldn’t see any other way out anymore. I ached for him.
“I won’t hurt you, Gall,” I said, as quietly as I could while fleeing and defending. “We’re going to keep doing this until you’re willing to trust me again.”
“Shut. The fuck.Up!”
46. Powerless
~ MELEK ~
Around and around and around. Gall chased me over benches and behind pillars. Two of the tabletops were now splintered by that axe already, and another would be in a moment if he continued this way.
We were both exhausted, and his eyes pinched with fury. But he’d stopped screaming at me to stop talking. Which I was still doing between panting breaths.
I had to pray he hadn’t stoppedlistening.
