Dire Destiny of Ours (50 page)

Elyssa slumped forward, white-faced. She gripped the broom with both hands and managed a weak smile. "Kick her ass, baby."

Strength surged in me. I grinned. "As you wish." We were within fifty yards of the fleeing cloudlet. A torn flap of my Nightingale armor flapped in my face. I retracted the torso so I could see. Daelissa wasn't alone. From here, I made out Serena, Arturo, and two other archangels.

A shimmering gateway opened in the air and I realized with horror that they were about to escape. Daelissa might go into hiding for another two thousand years until she figured out how to raise another army.

I leaned forward and put up a thin shield of Murk in front of the boomstick for better aerodynamics. My velocity increased ever so slightly. Just as the cloudlet reached the gateway, I leapt off the broom and flew through the air. A startled archangel shouted as I slammed into him. His body bounced off Daelissa and sent her careening to the left and toward the edge. I saw a seraph standing in a cave on the other side of the gateway, presumably in Thunder Rock. I blasted him in the chest with Brilliance, focused on the gateway, and willed it to close. It vanished.

Serena gave me a curious look from the other side of the large platform. "You are very persistent." She jotted something on a notepad, looked over the side of the cloudlet, and promptly jumped off. A second later, she flitted away on my broom with the malaether crucible still inside the saddlebag. My boomstick must have drifted there after I jumped off.

Arturo and his remaining companion drew swords and advanced on me. Their wings briefly flared behind them but soon sputtered out.

"Looks like you're too tired to fly."

Arturo spat. "You are still no match—"

I didn't give him time to finish that sentence. Using all my demonic speed, I blurred between him and the other seraph. I knocked his buddy off the edge with a roundhouse, ducked, and slammed Arturo in the chest. He staggered backward. A quick blast of Murk gave him enough momentum to fall screaming off the other side to the ground far, far below. Without wings, he was in for a hard landing.

I spun to see the biggest threat to my existence pulling herself up over the edge of the cloudlet after the seraph's body had nearly knocked her off. Daelissa's eyes blazed with Brilliance. She scratched furiously at her right hand. "You have doomed yourself, boy. Have you forgotten how powerful I am?"

I pinched my forehead. "I don't remember. On a scale from kiss my ass to arrogant bitch, how powerful are you?" As I spoke, I drew in aether. Experience had taught me well what to expect from Daelissa.

She didn't disappoint.

With a scream of rage, she unleashed a massive torrent of destruction so bright, it nearly blinded me. I dodged left and wove a beam of gray Stasis, meeting her attack in the middle. Her energy shattered like ice. Unfortunately, Daelissa was rested and full of piss and vinegar. I couldn't maintain the same level of energy. She scowled and redoubled her efforts. Even as her sizzling death beam broke into shards against Stasis, it slowly gained ground.

Mom, Ivy, someone, I need help!
I hoped Elyssa had contacted someone who could come to my aid.

"You are weak, boy." Daelissa's scowl turned to a smile. "You cannot hope to destroy a goddess. Nothing can defeat the light." She pushed back the Stasis until only a few feet remained between me and incineration.

I decided it was time to rely on something besides magic. I released the channeled energy and dove right. My hyper instincts engaged and time seemed to slow. Sprinting at top speed, I blurred to her side. Most humans would have appeared in slow motion to me, but Daelissa hardly seemed affected and raked the death beam toward me. I reached her just as the heat from it began to singe my arm hair.

My fist connected with her jaw.

Blood sprayed. The channeled Brilliance vanished. I didn't let up. Putting everything I had into the next blow, I socked her in the temple. Daelissa spun like a top and went down in a boneless heap.

I hated hitting women, but Daelissa was one of those people who made it easy to break that rule. I despised her so much I didn't even pause when I raised my hands over my head for the killing blow. She lay supine, eyes rolled into the back of her head, hands splayed to the side. She looked so much like Nightliss, that it caused me to pause half a heartbeat. Her right hand twitched, and I noticed a strange bulge in the palm where the flesh looked as if she'd scratched it raw.

I grabbed her hand and looked closer. Something was lodged in the flesh. Manifesting into part demon form, I extended a sharp black claw and sliced open the skin. A bloody crystalline object sparkled as if lit with an inner light. Using my claws, I tried to pry it loose, but it wouldn't come out. It looked familiar, but with so much blood seeping into the wound, I couldn't make it out.

Daelissa screeched and punched me hard in the stomach. Before I could react, she threw me several feet away and climbed to her feet.

"You have violated me!" She raised her bleeding hand in the air. "You profane, despicable speck! I am divine! I am a goddess! You cannot win!"

Bracing for her next attack, I bared my demonic teeth. "Goddess?" I spat. "You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means. A goddess doesn't bleed, you warthog-faced buffoon."

She screamed and blasted a wave of death toward me. I leapt high, channeled my angel wings, and levitated. The barrage narrowly missed my lower extremities. The remnants of my Nightingale armor couldn't keep out the heat. The soles of my feet felt flash-fried. Almost without thinking, I retaliated with a blast of Brilliance. My inner demon roared with ecstasy and lunged for sole possession of my consciousness.

Insatiable hunger filled me, buttressed by deep red rage. The demon drew on Brilliance like an infant sucking on a bottle of milk and channeled everything at Daelissa. The attack threw her backward. I roared with pleasure.

Get out of my head, you idiot!

I'd had an internal dialogue with my demon side a while back and figured we'd settled things once and for all. Apparently, it had no intention of ever passing up a chance to be the boss of me. My inner demon tried to draw on more Brilliance, and suddenly realized that it had screwed up big time. As a Seraphim, I could directly channel aether without storing it, but burning through the rarified soul essence gained from feeding on humans diminished my power. My demon side had burned through nearly everything in one go.

I used the moment of confusion to take back control and slammed it back into its cage. My body morphed back to human form. Daelissa climbed to her feet, a maniacal gleam in her eye. She had the power to finish me off right here and now and there wasn't much I could do to stop her unless I leapt off the cloudbank.

Daelissa laughed. "Pitiful. You attacked me with everything and failed. You cannot kill an immortal, boy. My light outshines yours." A misty wall of Brilliance formed in front of her. "You have nothing left to fight me with. I will make your final seconds long and painful."

There was nothing I could channel to counter her next blow. I couldn't manage enough Stasis to ward it off, or enough Murk to shield myself. A stiff wind rose and the steel gray sky rolled overhead like a fountain of Stasis. To either side of cloudbank, black and white smoke from the raging battle flowed past like rivers. Daelissa and I stood at the center, her facing me with victory shining in her eyes.

"Finally my time has come." She burst into insane laughter. "I will end you and come back stronger than before. In a few years, I will have another Seraphim army at my back and proceed unhindered to conquer Eden. The mortals will bow before me and I will claim all that is mine."

I heard everything she said, but found myself captivated by the surreal scenery. It reminded me so much of the vision I'd had with rivers of Murk and Brilliance to either side of a tiny island while overhead, a fountain of Stasis roared past. I'd made a choice during that vision. Instead of the light, dark or the gray, I'd chosen all of them.

The choice is clear.

I thought back to my earlier attempts at channeling Clarity. At what it had done to Elyssa.

Run or fight.

If I leapt, I'd fall hundreds of feet and possibly die. Daelissa would get away and eventually form another army. If I fought, death was almost guaranteed, and the results would be much the same. Something told me neither of those was the right choice. Fear grew palpable in me. I didn't want to die. I wanted to live a long happy life with Elyssa and my family. But if I ran, if Daelissa survived this and escaped, my cowardice would pave the path for another war. The next time, it might be even worse. She might subvert more nom governments and use them in her conquest, causing a nuclear holocaust in the process.

But I was drained physically and magically. In short, I was out of options.

Daelissa released the translucent wall of energy. "Enjoy the sight of me for your last few moments on this earth." She blew the pulsating energy as if blowing me a kiss. Moving at the pace of a walk, it was too wide to dodge or leap over, and I hadn't the energy to levitate. The malicious smirk spreading on her cruel face told me that she knew how weak I was. Prolonging my death by fueling my fear and despair as I looked on powerless seemed to fill her with joy.

Everything grew quiet, as if the world were holding its breath while the fate of Eden hung in the balance. Then again, I might have just been scared senseless.

"Justin, I love you!" Elyssa shouted from somewhere behind me. "Don't die!"

I looked back and saw her, pale-faced and tired, still in pursuit. Her broom smoked and flew erratically. She wouldn't catch up in time. In that instant, I knew I wouldn't run. I'd do as I'd always done—cling to the last shred of hope and fight. Daelissa was powerful, but she was missing the most powerful element that not even death could stop.

Love.

Elyssa put her hands to her mouth. "Justin, Clarity is truth!"

In that instant, everything became clear. Destruction, creation, and Stasis were all different forms of change. Clarity didn't change anything. It simply laid bare something's true nature. That was why it didn't do anything to inanimate objects. That was why Elyssa had seen herself floating naked in a lake of clear water.

I knew what I had to do. Unfortunately, doing it meant I had no chance of escape.

I will always love you, Elyssa.

I channeled Murk from every finger of my left hand, and Brilliance likewise from my right, weaving the threads into gray. I channeled beams of creation and destruction from my eyes and into the gray. Clear energy rippled the air around me like a stone in a lake.

"Daelissa, I think the universe wants you to have a good hard look at yourself." I grinned. "I don't think you're going to like what you see."

A crystalline beam speared from the gray sphere and toward Daelissa. It did nothing to stop the deadly energy inexorably burning toward me and went through it. But that didn't matter.

Clarity found its target.

Daelissa stiffened, arcing as if someone had stabbed her in the back. She screamed. "No, that isn't me! That isn't me!" Tears poured down her face. She dropped to her knees. "I hate you! Hate you!" Her voice was raw with agony. "You're worthless!" Oily dark light and brilliant white poured from her in all directions. A horrific shriek tore from her mouth. "You are nothing!"

Exhaustion claimed me. I took one faltering step back and felt open air beneath me. Daelissa's magic wouldn't kill me, but gravity would.

The rush of wind filled my ears. It was almost a pleasant last sound to hear. I wondered how long it would take before I hit the ground.

My arm jerked painfully in its socket as someone grabbed it. I heard Elyssa cry out in a long, agonizing scream. I opened my eyes and saw her tear-filled eyes looking at me. Saw her slumped over the broomstick, arm hanging unnaturally from the shoulder. Her fingers somehow clung to me in a white-knuckled grip.

"Grab the broom!" Elyssa sobbed. "Help me save you!"

Moving my other arm was like moving dead weight. The broomstick seemed too far away to reach.

"Damn it, Justin, do you love me or not?" she screamed. "Grab the broomstick!"

Out of nowhere, I felt a tiny jolt of extra energy inside me. Putting everything I had toward moving my arm, I flung it upward. My fingers scraped the bottom of the stick and missed. Elyssa cried out as my momentum jerked on her arm. I dully realized I should have gone for the stirrup instead of the handle since it was much closer, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't summon the energy to move my arm again.