“Just stop it, wearegoing to get through this.”
But as she says it, the earth rumbles and the cheers reach a fever pitch.We glance at each other and reverse direction, running back down the tower stairs and outside, back across the circular courtyard and into the main campus area.
“They’re already here,” I say.The thrum of their wings beating over us is loud enough that I can hear it above the hysterical screaming of the crowd.
Lucy grips my chin and pulls me to her.“It changes nothing.The plan still stands.”
She plunges her lips over mine, and I pray to all the devils that will listen that it’s not the last kiss she gives me.
“Now go, they’re dropping fast, you need to pull the mesh out.”
“But—” I start.
“GO, MIDNIGHT.”
My fists ball, I don’t want to leave.Leaving her with two homicidal angels on campus makes my stomach clench and bile lick the back of my throat.But if we don’t trap them, they’ll fly away and all of this will have been for nothing.
It takes every ounce of strength I have to tear myself away from her.My eyes sting but I push all the thoughts of how this could go wrong away, and I run to Obidiah, who agreed to anchor the mesh roof.
The campus writhes with people.I have to shove and push my way through the crowds to reach the goyle.
“Shut the gates,” I bellow when I’m in hearing distance.
They creak and groan, straining against the press of people.But the soldiers bare their fangs and hiss, and the crowds move rather more quickly out of their way.
The gates slam shut as the angels land in the cloisters behind me.
“Ready?”I ask.
Obidiah nods, a devious glint in his eye.“You always were rather tasty.”
I choose to ignore that comment, though the memory of the gates biting me more than a year ago flickers to life.
“Let’s just get this over with.”I hold my hand up to his mouth and fling my other in the direction of the cloisters.Two dozen ribbons of magic burst from the walls and hurtle through the air towards the gate.
Obidiah licks his lips and then sinks his stony teeth into my palm.I bite down a scream as my vision whites out.
The gate rumbles behind me, and then a veil of dark mesh erupts from the gate and walls.It flies through the air, soaring to the wall on the other side of campus.
I’m at the mercy of Obidiah, unable to see the other side of campus, but I swear he bites down harder and draws more blood than necessary.
“I’m warning you,” I hiss.
He relinquishes me, a blood-tainted smirk nestled in the corner of his mouth.I glare at him and rub my rapidly bruising hand.I’ll ask Red to handle it when this is over with.
“Is it done?”
He wriggles his head in a nod-like fashion.As much as his stoney fixture will allow anyway.“They’re not getting out.”
A thunderous boom rips through campus.The earth trembles a violent quake.
And then the screaming starts.
The swell of Societas members surging into the cloisters rapidly overwhelms the angels, who soar up into the air, only to smash against the mesh.
The roar of fury that erupts from both of them is so shrill I have to throw my hands over my ears.They tumble down, clattering onto the roof of the cloisters.
Atop Finis Tower, Lucy ignites herself.
