“Anytime you use magic, there’s a price.” His voice was calm. Terrifyingly calm. “Your price is this — you are now all committed to me. When I call, you answer. Without question. Without hesitation.”
He let that settle. Let it sink into every one of us.
“Defy me, and you’ll feel the wrath of Excalibur.” His eyes moved slowly across the circle, landing on each face. “The blade won’t kill your body. It will burn through your soul. Slowly. And you will wish I had simply ended you.”
I wanted to ask what he meant by answering him, but this wasn’t the time to question an archangel. We were sworn to him now. All of us. Just like that.
“Vex and other demons will return.” He said it the way someone might mention rain in the forecast. “Your job will be to cast them back to hell. You have the power of Excalibur inside you. They will not be able to possess you.” He shrugged — actually shrugged, like he was discussing something mildly inconvenient. “Kill you, possibly.”
He snapped his fingers and daggers appeared at our feet. Gleaming, ancient-looking blades that hummed with the same faint light as the tattoos on our chests.
“These daggers will help you defeat them. Of course, you’ll have to get close and personal.”
None of us spoke. None of us breathed.
He broke the shard in half and handed the pieces to Rose. “Tell those two idiots not to use this without my permission.”
Idiots. Meaning Costin and Angelo. I had to fight to hide a smile.
He strode to the middle of the room. “They need to keep it hidden. I will be very put out if a demon retrieves it and destroys it.”
Very put out. The Archangel Michael, commander of heaven’s army, would be very put out. Something told me his version of “put out” involved fire, divine wrath, and a level of pain none of us could comprehend.
With that, he raised Excalibur. Lightning split the air where he stood — blinding, deafening, smelling of ozone and something older than the earth — and he was gone.
The room was empty. The daggers remained at our feet.
No one moved for a very long time.
I was the first to move. I knelt down and picked up the dagger. The moment my fingers closed around the hilt, I felt it — power thrumming through the blade, vibrating up my arm, and the tattoo on my chest flared warm in response. Definitely connected.
I looked at Rose. Then Alice. Both of them were doing a terrible job of looking innocent.
I cocked an eyebrow. “You knew this was going to happen, didn’t you?”
Rose shrugged. “I didn’t. But Tinker Bell did. She thought using the power of the shard would bring the Archangel Michael to us. He would have felt it being used.”
“She thought?” Rocco’s eyes narrowed. “He could have killed us.”
Alice shook her head. “Tinker Bell didn’t think so. She believed that once we had the power of Excalibur protecting us, he wouldn’t harm us.” She paused. “But it was a calculated guess.”
“A guess,” Rocco repeated flatly.
I stepped in front of him and stared up into his frowning face. “That’s why you had to have faith. Not just in Rose. Not just in me.” I put my hand over the tattoo on his chest. “In yourself. You’re an agent of heaven now, Rocco. A warrior against demons. And they have no power over you. Not anymore.”
He sighed. “But now we’re under Michael’s thumb.”
I shrugged. “It’s better than Angelo Santi’s.”
“That’s for sure,” he grumbled.
Raven smiled. “I don’t know. I think hunting demons and sending them back to hell isn’t a bad gig.” She glanced toward the window. “Michael said we had to get the shard back to the two idiots.”
The corner of Rocco’s mouth twitched. Then turned up. An actual smile. “I wonder what Angelo would think if he knew Michael thought he was an idiot.”
I slid my body against his and felt him lean into me without thinking. Without pulling away.
“I don’t know. But I agree with Raven.” I looked up at him. “Let’s go home. I’ve had enough of Transylvania.”
