I hadn’t even wondered whether I could do it again—phase more than just my own body. This close to the source of Trinity’s song, to where it has been pulling me all my life, it had been pure power and instinct.
Dani scoots free, clutching at her chest like she might be having a heart attack. “I think I like phasing better when I’m half drowned and unconscious.”
I try to right myself, watching the Archangel spin, readjust. I got us far enough away to put a few more half-ruined walls between it and us, but that’s not going to buy us much time. “You’re gonna have to suck it up, Morales, because I’m gonna have to do that several more times to get us away from this thing.”
“Or, hear me out…” Dani hooks a hand into the rucksack on her back and pulls out a small jar of dark, oily liquid, unstoppering the top to pull out a short trail of cloth. “We use the party favor I brought.”
Orion shakes his head. “Val’s right. We should move.”
“It worked perfect with the one back in Concord.” With a flintlock lighter, she sets the end of the cloth on fire and watches it start to burn down. She grins with the same dark satisfaction and slow-boiling rage I saw on her face back at the Old Clock Tower. “Hang on to your asses.”
In one smooth movement, Dani rolls to her feet, cold, vicious delight in every line of her body as she takes a few steps out into the Archangel’s direct line of sight. It shifts toward her with a clank, and she grins at it.
With a whip-fast arc of her arm, she launches the jar at the Archangel, timing it so the fire hits the liquid inside half a second before the jar smashes into the automaton’s arm cannon. Dani bolts back to us, laughing, as a burst of fire and metal shards erupts in front of the Archangel’s body.
A moment later, though, the debris clears. And the Archangel is still standing.
It’s lost its cannon arm and is bleeding drips of naphtha and showers of yellow sparks, but it’s still on its feet. And heading for us. My heart drops into my stomach.
Dani’s eyes are wide and shining with shock. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
I reach for both of them, not taking my eyes off the angel for a single second.
“Now we run,” I say firmly. I’m not risking losing either of them like I lost Halle. I can get us far enough away. I know I can. There’s just this one angel, and it can’t be everywhere at once. I’ll phase us fast enough to knock it off our trail, and then, if I have any energy or oxygen left, I’ll double back and find a way up to the Gate. “Grab on to me.”
“We’re already in it now,” Orion grumbles. He drops his pack on the ground, gripping that vial—the spirit of niter—tightly in his fist. “Dani, you wanted this fight, so you’d better get that crack shot pistol of yours ready. And don’t miss.”
“Orion—” I try to grab him, to hold him back, but he’s gone already, sprinting across the ground closer and closer to the Archangel. I pull out Wrath and Mercy, ready to follow him, but Dani puts an arm out in front of me.
“Stay clear on this, ghoulie.” She adjusts the rear and front sights on her pulse pistol, squinting down the barrel as she raises it to eye level. “I know exactly what he’s up to.”
Orion is nearly right on top of the Archangel now, and as it reaches down to grab him with its remaining hand, he launches the spirit of niter at its body. There’s a shatter of glass and a distant splash, followed by hissing as the acid starts trying to eat through the metal of the automaton’s chest cavity like it had with the wall plaque. The Archangel swipes at Orion, catching him across the back as he throws himself forward, rolling beneath its legs. Dani flinches, almost like she’s gonna bring her pistol down, but Orion keeps moving, crawling away, and the Archangel straightens, preparing to turn around.
Dani steadies her hand, exhales, and fires.
The liquid niter explodes, a destructive wave tearing through the angel’s body, blowing its helmeted head almost all the way off and ripping through joints and naphtha veins. On impulse, I phase through the destruction, feeling the heat of it even as I move through like a vapor and coalesce on the other side, throwing myself on top of Orion, who’s curled into a protective ball on the ground. The blast wave is small but powerful, rattling me to the bones, and pain shivers through my body as tiny bits of hot metal slice through the thinner parts of my Butcher kit.
As soon as it passes, I look up, blinking my bleary vision clear.
The Archangel lies in a heap of twisted metal and ruin, its chest cavity so destroyed that I can’t even make out the remains of the saint inside. Only the bottoms of its legs and feet and its dimly glowing naphtha heart remain relatively intact. On the far side ofthe wreckage, I can just make out Dani through the smoke, blood streaking her face from a laceration across her forehead. But she’s alive and already moving toward us.
Get up, Val.
I push myself to my feet. That much noise and chaos is definitely bound to draw even more attention, and if we don’t move now—
A waver in Trinity’s song. Just like before.
I look at the sky, stomach sinking, knowing what I’m going to see: winged shapes—lots of them this time—emerging from the glowing, stained glass Gate above.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
“WE HAVE SEEN THE POWER OF THE HERALDS MANIFEST DIFFERENTLY IN EVERY SAINT, AND IN THESE DIVINE GIFTS, WE WITNESS A HINT OF THE GREATNESS THAT AWAITS US AT THE GATE OF HEAVEN. YET IN THE REFUSAL OF THE EARLIEST SAINTS TO ANSWER THE HERALDS’ CALL, WE HAVE ALSO WITNESSED THE DEVASTATION OF THEIR CORRUPTION AND HOW, IN THE END, THERE WAS NO OTHER CHOICE BUT FOR THE HERALDS’ ARCHANGELS TO DESTROY THEM.”
—TREATISE NO. 13BY MOST HOLY PREACHER HAL LOURDE, ORIGINAL CHAPEL FOUNDER
I count six, seven, eight Archangels before I drop my gaze back to the ground, my brain spinning, trying to calculate how much time we have, how many of them will actually come down here. We can’t fight this time. There’s too many of them, even if Orion and Dani had more tricks up their sleeves. Which they don’t.
Orion groans as he pushes himself up to sitting, one hand pressed awkwardly to the gash on his mid-back. I drop downbeside him, trying to support him, although my eyes keep straying upward, watching the metal angels circling high above.
