“It didn’t matter, you jackass.She was human.Angels areforbidden from sleeping with humans.”
“Wrong.She was part angel.”If the heat in his gaze was anyindication, Cipher probably hadthat Unfallenacrossthe way half undressed in his head by now.
“Yeah, like from ten generations ago.”
“See?Part angel.”
“And did that argument work during your sentencing?”
“No,” he conceded, finally turning back to Hawk.“ButArchangels are assholes.”
Hawkyn wasn’t going to argue with that assessment.“Look, Ineed help.I’m open to suggestions.”
“Bring her here for now.She’ll be safe.Then we can look atways to get you out of this mess.”Cipher could be an immature whack job attimes, but when shit hit the fan, he could always be counted on to help cleanit up.
“Okay—” He broke off as the ground beneath them rumbled, anda charge in the air made Hawkyn’s hair stand up.“Uh-oh.”
“What is it?”Cipher asked.
“Azagoth.”Everyone had stopped what they were doing as ablast of fury blew like a shockwave across the land.Glass shattered andpillars tipped over, and oh, shit, this could be bad.
As a group, Hawkyn, Cipher, Journey, and Maddox ran towardthe epicenter of the rumbling—the portal to and from Sheoul-gra.
Hawkyn looked back over his shoulder at Rico, who wasstaring down at theheraldisonhis arm.Heflashed out, most likely to defend a Primori.Hawkyn sped up, beating the groupbefore skidding to a halt at the sight of Azagoth, his eyes glowing like hotlava and his skin threaded with black, pulsing veins.In his clawed hand, heheld a ruby-winged angelbyher throat.
“Don’t fuck with me, Ulnara,” he snarled.“I.Want.My.Children!”
Ulnara?Hawkyn sucked in a harsh breath.Ulnara was hismother’s name.The female struggling to escape Azagoth’s grip, the female withSuzanne’s brown hair and eyes and Hawkyn’s nosewas his mother.
She laughed, a raspy, choking sound that was no surprisegiven that Azagoth had a death grip on her neck.
“As if you care about your children.This?”She waved herarm in an encompassing gesture.“All of this is either a show or a means to anend that will benefit only you.Do any of themactuallybelieveyou love them?Are you even capable of love, you evil maggot?”
“I’m far more capable of it than you are,” he yelled,slamming her against a nearby pillar.Feathers floated in the air around themas her wings, pinned between the stone column and her body, flapped uselessly.“You will convince the Council to give me what I want, and you’ll do it now.”
“Or what?”
Azagoth let out a roar of fury.Wet, ripping noises rent theair as his body morphed into something bigger, with horns and scales and black,leathery wings tipped with serrated bone hooks.He flung the angel away fromthe pillar and snapped his massive jaws mere millimeters from her face.
“Father, no!”Hawkyn had never met his mother, hadn’tthought he ever would.But that was her.He was sure of it.And he had to stopAzagoth from killing her.
He charged, slamming full force into the Azagoth-demon andknocking him sideways.Azagoth released Ulnara, and in a motion so seamless andinstantaneous that Hawkyn didn’t have a chance to avoid it, Azagoth popped Hawkin the throat and power-slammed him into the ground.
The air whooshed from his lungs from both the impact and thegiant, clawed foot on his chest.Snarling, Azagoth looked down at him, drooldripping from a mouthful of teeth a dragon would envy.
“Today is not the day to piss me off.”He spun around andjabbed one long finger at Ulnara.“You can thank our son for saving you fromall the screaming you were about to do.”He flapped his wings and launched intothe air, where he hovered about thirty feet up.“Ulnara, you have one week.”
She scrambled onto the portalpad,her hand poised over the hilt of the sword at her hip.An instinct and nothingmore, because she had to realize that no blade could so much as scratchAzagoth.Not in his own realm, and certainly not while he was wearing his demonsuit.
“Not this time, Azagoth,” she said, her voice powerful andconfident, but she never took her nervous gaze off the demon in the air.“We’redone appeasing you.”
“Don’t test my will, angel,” he warned, his voice dredgingthe very pits of hell.“On this matter I will go to war.”
War?What the hell was going on?
Azagoth flicked his wrist, done with her.Literally.Shedisappeared without ever activating the portal, returned either to Heaven, ordumped somewhere that amused Azagoth.Like inside a sewer treatment holdingtank.Or a hot dog factory.
Without bothering to even glance at Hawkyn, Azagoth flappedhis great wings and shot skyward, vanishing into roiling clouds that hadn’tbeen there a moment ago.
