I stumbled back, horror shaking through my gut. My father was just as bad as the Archangels who had killed Az’s family. He was just as bad as the demons who were tearing apart theworld.
“So, as you can see, you need to step aside, so that I can claim my prize,” he said with a smile that was as brutal as his wordswere.
I curled my hands into fists. “Yeah, that’s not going tohappen.”
He raised an eyebrow. “And you think you and your little ceremonial golden boots are going to stop me? Don’t forget that I can send you right back to the Halfway Zone anytime I want. If you get in my way, I’ll do justthat.”
“I don’t think so, “I said. “You’ll have to get close enough to me to be able to do that, and that’s not going tohappen.”
He shook his head and laughed. “Have you looked around this room? There’s nowhere for you to go. There’s nowhere for you to hide. If I take five steps closer to you, you’retoast.”
“You don’t get it, do you?” I said, taking one step back toward the edge of the floor’s cliff. “You seem like a smart demon. I thought you would have been able to put two and two together, but clearly not. You know what I am. That’s why my father is even doing this. You can smell the difference between who I once was and who I am now. And yet you cannot understand the full truth of it.” I took another step back, and my feet brushed against the rocky edge. Lizzie let out a strangled cry of alarm, clearly terrified that I was going to plunge into thedarkness.
She had a right to be scared, because that was exactly what I was going todo.
But Asmodeus merely rolled his eyes at my speech. He underestimated me. He always had. The grudge he held against me clouded his judgment. It made him single-minded in a way that blinded him to everything else. He’d wanted to get back at me from the moment I’d taken his rat, and this was the perfect way for him to do that. But, in the end, his deal with my father would be hisundoing.
I took another step back. My right foot found nothing but air. His eyes flicked down to where my feet were halfway off the ledge, and a strange curiosity flickered across his face. The others started shouting at me now, but I had to block them out. I had to focus on who I was inside, on the fire, on the demon, on the darkness that called out to me from deep inside. For the first time, I was truly going to embrace it and let myself be who I had always meant tobe.
I took another step back and plunged into thedark.
* * *
That was when my wings—mybeautiful, perfect wings—exploded from my back to slow my fall. I loosed a breath of relief. I hadn’t really known if they would come to my rescue, but I’d hoped it. It was something I’d begun to puzzle out. Part if it had been what my father had said about Celestia muting my powers. And part of it had been what the water demon had said that day at the boat. But the biggest part of it all had been that crazy head-eating horseman dude. He had clearly embraced the demonic side of himself, and he had his wings. I figured if I did the same, then I could find my wings,too.
Of course, I hadn’t used my wings in months, and my back felt raw from where the skin ripped open to release them from my body. I bit back a scream as wave upon wave of pain lanced through me, but I forced myself to flap my wings against the air anyway. Slowly, I lifted my body through the wide gap between one side of the room and the other, my eyes landing on the shocked—and terrified—face of Asmodeus. I had to admit that his expression was hella satisfying. After everything he’d done to me, I was now giving him the shock of hislife.
“Holy shit, I’ve never seen anything more beautiful in my life,” Az said in a low growl from the depths of thecage.
“You’re damn straight,” Lilith said, and then she raised her voice to a shout. “Go on, Erela! You show that asshole who’sboss.”
I turned around and gave them all a thumbs-up before shifting my attention back to the demon. Of course, I hadn’t really planned anything out beyond this. I figured I’d get my wings into action, and then take it from there. Now, I had to somehow prevent him from getting to myfriends.
Asmodeus let out a weary smile, and then held his fingers to his lips before emitting a high-pitched whistle that echoed against the stone walls. A moment later, a winged creature soared into the room. It was one of the creatures from hell, a dragon-like animal with green scaly skin and nostrils that were ringed in blood. Dread crept up my spine as Asmodeus climbed onto the back of the creature and then pulled a short sword out of the sheath slung around hisback.
Well, this wasn’t going to be quite as easy as I’d hoped. Asmodeus could reach me all right, and he could reach my friends. He also had a weapon when I had none. Laura had taken my twin blades from me while I’d been conked out, even though I’d been two seconds away from being inducted into the Order of the Seraphim. All I had to show for it was my ceremonial boots and jacket, neither of which would be useful when fighting against an actual demon. All I had left were the powers inside me, powers I’d never truly been able tocontrol.
If there ever was a time when I needed them to submit to me, this was it. It was now or never.Literally.
I flapped my wings behind me to hold my body in place, refusing to shift backward and show Asmodeus exactly how nervous I felt about what would happen next. My friends had fallen silent behind me, their breaths collectively held in their throats. I could smell their fear punctuating the air, but I could still smell something else beneath it. Asmodeus might look confident, chilled, and in control, but he was nervous. He was scared. He was unsure if he should attack. My whole wing demonstration had caught him off guard. He hadn’t expected that from me. And while he might have a flying creature underneath his command, there was little he could do if I had a host of weapons hidden somewhere beneath my ceremonialattire.
He was probably thinking daggers or some other kind of blade. Little did he know my powers were much more damaging thanthat.
Asmodeus inched a little closer, and I sensed his wariness and hesitation. He wanted to fly just close enough to send me to the Halfway Zone before I could do any damage to him or his creature. I wasn’t entirely sure how close he had to be, so I darted to the side, narrowing my eyes as I began to call upon the fire inside ofme.
My power was hotter now, and the heat blazed around my very soul. In the distance, Sam responded to it, his own soul whispering against mine, encouraging me to take the flames as far as I could. The fire built inside me like an inferno, blazing through every cell of my body like something that could never be doused. It was so all-encompassing, so overwhelming, that I could barely breathe around the force of it. It needed to get out of me. Now. Or else I mightexplode.
Asmodeus’s eyes went wide, and he pulled his creature to a sudden stop. My entire body was consumed in flames from head to toe. Every single part of me was on fire. I welcomed it. I revelled in it. I encouraged it to grow, grow,grow.
And then I lifted my hands before me. The flames erupted around my fists like twin bonfires, building and building until the entire room was lit up by a vicious shade of red. With a deep breath, I threw the flames at Asmodeus. They soared through the air, the flickering fireballs half as large as him. I held my breath, waiting, hoping my magic would hit themark.
All the strength suddenly went out of my body, and darkness consumed my vision. My wings gave out; the earth opened up beneathme.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Erela
This time,when I opened my eyes, I knew I was home. Myrealhome. I glanced around at the quaint little English room and out the window at the clouds that had turned the entire world into soft shades of gray, smiling when the little bundle that was Mr. Whiskerson cuddled up against my cheek. Somehow, I was back in Lilith’s house. The last thing I remembered was throwing the biggest fireballs I’d ever seen in my life, and then passing out like an idiot. I had no idea if my fireballs even hit their mark, though I was guessing they must have, if I were here. Thatsaid…
