The cry that escaped me was desperate and primal as the angels spun on him. I struggled to my feet, running to the glass in time to see that he was not alone. Caliban had reinforcements. Everyone was outside except for me, trapped behind glass with my captor like a caged animal.
My heart surged at the sight of the terrifying, metal sphere covered in spikes.
They were going to fight.
“I can’t kill them,” I heard Azrames shout through gritted teeth. He danced on the balls of his feet as he began to swing his meteor hammer, the spiked silver catching in the early light. His words were muffled through the glass, but this was no quiet exchange.
“But I can,” Caliban growled in return, brandishing a long, thin blade. “Buy me time.”
I wanted to pound on the glass, to cheer for them, but I knew better than to distract them from battle, and I had my own war to win.
I wouldn’t have had the time to react if I hadn’t caught the white-blond reflection over my shoulder in the glass. I dropped in the nick of time as my mother charged me. She careened into the window with a howl as I rolled onto my side, scrambling across the slick wood in time to grab a chair and throw it between us. I didn’t look over my shoulder, but I heard the catch of her foot and the pained cry as she stumbled on the obstacle. I took off at top speed to the steps and hesitated.
Stupid people in movies always ran up the stairs.
I slipped into the basement instead, closing the door behind me as quietly as possible as I prayed that she’d take off toward the master bedroom at the top of the steps. I stumbled down the carpeted steps in heels, barely catching myself on the banister as I ran to the back of the den. I’d distinctlyremembered the two fire-safe egress windows.
Trauma flipped a switch within me as raised hands, dim lights, and worship music strummed their major chords through my memory.
O Lord, set my soul on fire. I wanna burn for you.
This house was as good as on fire, and I needed out.
I stumbled past the game table, tripping on the carpet as I plunged toward the windowsill. I grabbed the vertical latches and yanked them down, unlocking the window as I began to crank at a frantic speed. I did my best not to make any noise as I heard a frustrated cry from somewhere in the house. The window was open enough, but the screen was in the way. I looked over my shoulder for a tenth of a second before slipping the shoe off my foot, plunging the heel into the mesh, and tearing a top-down gash into the barrier.
The basement door flung open, slamming into the stairwell as my mother pounded down the steps. I leaped into the window well and hopped upward, pulling myself up with every ounce of strength my arms possessed. I screamed as a hand reached through the mesh and grabbed my ankle. The clangs of metal and cries of battle rang through the yard as my top caught and snagged against the corrugated metal. I was pulled back into the window, but I was no longer afraid. I kicked her as hard as I could, anywhere I could.
“Father God,” she groaned, “please save my daughter from herself. Please send—”
She maintained her hold as I landed a kick on her chest, then her shoulder, but screamed as my bare foot connected with her nose. She stumbled backward instantly, clutching at her face as blood flowed freely.
“Call reinforcements on me now, you bitch.”
She stumbled deeper into the den, and I seized my opportunity. I groaned as I pulled myself onto the chilly, morning grass, stumbling away from the house and toward the yard.
Out of the frying pan and into the fire.
The angel shimmering in blue turned to me with a snarl.I barely had time to catch Azrames’s eyes widen with panic as the angel abandoned the battle to advance on me.
“Take over!” I heard Caliban’s yell. A flash of white darted away from the angel on the far side of the yard. Az dropped to the ground, sliding toward the rose-gold angel as he whipped his meteor hammer in a smooth motion toward the enemy.
The angel stalked toward me with Hulk-like aggression and focus. I stumbled in my one-shoe attempt to run, skidding backward as I scrambled away. His golden eyes burned into mine as he advanced. He lifted his sword, piercing the violet sky of first light as he readied himself for the blow.
A lightning bolt at his back stopped him in his tracks.
A glint of silver burned through the dawn as a high, bell-like sound reverberated through the air. My very cells tingled at the eerie noise as I stared in anticipation of the giant, but he didn’t move. Then, his knees buckled. A strange trickle of light cut across his throat. Then, his eyes, his ears, his mouth began to slip to the side, though his shoulders stayed in place. His head hit the ground first, preceding his thunderous fall as it thumped against the grass and tumbled toward me. His eyes rolled into the back of his head as his lids remained open and unseeing. Gilded goop oozed from what remained of his neck, puddling on the grass.
I scrambled from it as if it were a venomous snake.
I looked up at Caliban’s outstretched palm.
There he was. Beautiful. Perfect. Whole. He’d heard me. He’d come to rescue me. Caliban held one hand toward me, a gold-soaked sword in the other. “Love, come on—”
Azrames and I cried out at the same time, our shock converging as the threat took over.
Caliban barely had time to turn toward the advancing angel as the two locked swords. Azrames embedded his meteor hammer in the man, but though I heard the audible crunch of bone, the angel did little more than snarl.
“Mar, go!” Az growled at me as they sandwiched theangel.
