Letting his gaze pass over the silent army, Cassiel tapped against his thigh pensively. Before his untimely death, Lord Hallel had provided a few more names that had not been on the original list.
The only punishment they would meet would be his.
“Azael Sa’ar,” Cassiel called out.
An older soldier from the crowd jerked back.
“Ah, there you are.”
Azael tried to flee but Cassiel snapped his fingers, and the Celestial’s wings snapped. He crashed on the courtyard hard, scrambling to hisknees. Azael barely looked up when the fire swarmed into his helmet and set him ablaze from the inside. Screams echoed through the courtyard.
“Samiel and Serrachiel Goral,” he announced next.
Two male brothers stepped forward. One with waves of blond hair and the other with braids. Sneering at him, they readied their spears, and they flew at him. Their weapons froze inches from Cassiel’s face.
He tucked his hands in his pockets as they trembled against the force of his compulsion. “Who gave you permission to move?”
Fire unfurled at their feet and consumed them. Their screams cut off as they burst into ash. Embers scattered in the wind. Whatever divinity had made him dimmed like a dying candle. Cassiel was sullying himself with each death, but he did so with purpose. Because he could live with being a murderer. The only thing he couldn’t live with was repeating his past.
Sighing, Cassiel said the next name. “Thaniel—” He whipped his head aside, narrowly dodging the arrow slicing past his cheek. Warm blood seeped from the cut and dripped down his chin.
Thaniel, the little sneak, had climbed up onto a low tower of the citadel. He aimed and shot more arrows. With a flick of Cassiel’s hand, a wave of his fire shot forth. But the arrow cut right through it and grazed his arm.
Hmm. They had weapons forged with Skath metal.
Yelrakel threw a flaming spear, and it went straight through Thaniel’s heart. He dropped dead from the tower.
Lord Gadriel’s chest heaved with ragged breaths as they waited for the next name. “Are you finished slaughtering my people without trial?”
“No. I saved the best for last.” He turned to him, and Gadriel stiffened. Then Cassiel shifted his gaze on the lean Celestial standing beside him. “Akiel Nephele.”
His brother and father jerked, their mouths gaping wide with disbelief.
Akiel, however, wasn’t surprised. His blue eyes sharpened, cold and calculative. A little smile on the edge of his lips.
“No,” Gadriel growled. “My son is no traitor.”
“He is.”
Gadriel drew his sword, as did all of Nazar. “You didn’t come for justice. You came for revenge.” To his son he shouted, “Go!”
Akiel shot into the sky.
The Valkyrie attempted to make chase, but a unit of Nazarian soldiers flew up to defend him. The sky filled with the sound of clashing swords and cries, scorched feathers raining down.
Lights flashed as the fallen vanished.
“You have brought Death’s shadow to my Realm,” Lord Gadriel said.
So he had.
Death had clung to Cassiel with invisible claws since winter, following him around, sweeping away lives by the hundreds. No matter if he wanted to keep the losses minimal to only his targets, events continued to spiral him down a path he had walked before. The further he went, the less he’d be able to turn back.
In his first life, he killed to avenge his love.
In this one, he would kill to protect it.
Yet Cassiel still gave Gadriel one last chance. “If you choose to fight, you choose to die. End this, or I will. Who does Nazar stand with?”
