Lucifer didn’t bother hauling me onto the table again. “I’ll rip your power from you and use it to kill everyone you love,” he vowed. His hand raised, and I threw up a ward. My power was still sluggish, but I would slow him down any way I could.
Hegrinnedat me. “You have more fight than your father.”
I ignored him, stumbled to my feet, and sprinted toward the door.
It was a fight-or-flight reaction that would do me no good, and my ward dropped for a split second as my head spun dizzily. Lucifer’s power crept out, holding me in place. He strolled toward me, and I shuddered, nothing but prey as he grabbed my hair, spinning me toward him. I used the momentum, raised my arm.
And backhanded him.
My bone bracelet smashed into Lucifer’s eye, and he howled as if he’d been gutted. The bracelet burned, and I had a single moment to mentally thank Hannah before Lucifer held out a hand and my entire body was engulfed in agony.
I dropped to the floor and shrieked. Distantly, I could hear Samael roaring through the bond as Lucifer used his power to do something that made it feel as if acid was eating through my skin and muscle and bone.
I went away, leaving my body behind.
“Thank you,”I sobbed to the underworld as the pain dimmed.“Thank you.”
Was that…surpriseit was sending back? For my gratitude?
Once again, I was overlooking the battle. Overlooking my people as they bled, killed, died.
Gnomes were positioned in Bael’s army. Where had they come from? Short and viciously fast, they slid into Lucifer’s ranks, cutting tendons and distracting his soldiers long enough for Bael’s soldiers to take their heads. Above them, demons clashed in the air, blood and feathers splattering those fighting below.
The underworld focused its attention on one gnome. Gary.
No. No no no no no.
There had to be a hundred gnomes on the battlefield, and while most of them were distracting the soldiers, the other half were slowly integrating themselves into their ranks, sliding beneath swinging swords and sprinting, all of them, toward the palace.
What the hell were they doing?
Gary was holding something, and he ducked a swinging sword, throwing the object at a gnome next to him, who rolled beneath a lunging demon. The gnome threw the object back to Gary, who caught it just as his friend was engulfed by demon fire.
Gary’s expression turned terrible, but he kept running.
One after the other, the gnomes were killed, until I could barely force myself to keep watching. They were so much smaller than the demons, and most of them weren’t focused on fighting, but instead on getting beyond the front lines, close to the palace.
The pain was eating my muscles like acid, but I held on to what the underworld was showing me. I would give anything to be able to throw a ward around Gary, to protect the gnomes from Lucifer’s demons.
Ten gnomes surrounded Gary now. All of them keeping him safe. Now they were deep in Lucifer’s ranks, close to the palace, and Gary’s friends fought savagely against demons who were unprepared for them.
Then Gary stopped. Scanned. A demon shot into the air in front of him as demon fire lit up his hand.
Oh God.
But Pischiel was suddenly there, and he slammed the demon to the ground. Gary’s gray face was pale, his jaw set, and he barreled down the battlefield and straight into Lucifer’s front lines.
What the hell was he doing? Did he have a death wish? I wanted to scream at him, wanted to warn him, and my breath caught in my throat as one of Garadiel’s men grabbed Gary by his arm.
“No, please!”
But he wasn’t killing him. The demon shot into the air, spread his wings wide, andthrewGary toward Garadiel.
Garadiel caught the gnome, his teeth bared. Gary handed him the object, and a sob ripped from my throat as Garadiel took the blue candlestick from him, throwing his head back.
I couldn’t hear him over the sounds of the soldiers, but I read his lips.
“Mors vincit omnia!”
