End of Days (Penryn and the End of Day #3) (21 page)

‘The Fallen and the hellions?’ He snorts. ‘Don’t let anyone hear you even suggest that. Both sides would tear you to pieces and feed your bits to the Consumed.’

‘This was the hellions’ world before the Fallen angels came? The hellions are the natives of the Pit?’

‘I doubt they were much of anything before the Fallen came. All they’re good for is causing torture and pain. Disgusting little rats. They’re even beneath the Consumed, who won’t eat them because even without a body, a Fallen refuses to drop that low.’

I remember how the hellions tortured both Beliel and his wife, and I can see why he hates them. But there might be two sides to this story.

I look around again at the dim basement.

There are remnants of shattered pottery, bits of faded cloth, broken metal and wood. Someone used to live here. A family of someones, maybe. A very long time ago.

37

Beliel tilts his head, listening. ‘Open the hatch. The other Watchers are coming.’

I’m not keen on letting the others know where we are. I don’t want them to kill me before Raffe can recruit them.

Raffe. He should have landed near Beliel, just like me. What does it mean that he’s not around?

‘Do it, girl. They’re our best hope for survival.’

I hesitate a moment longer. He might be right. Or he might be setting me up for a trap.

Beliel takes the choice out of my hands. ‘We’re in here!’

I quietly slide my blade back into her sheath and put the teddy bear on top. I can’t fight my way through that many Watchers anyway, so I might as well try to keep Pooky hidden for now.

Someone bangs on the hatch. ‘We knew you’d be alive, Big B. Open up. Don’t be shy.’

The wood rattles.

‘You want to live, little angel slayer?’ Beliel nods toward the hatchway. ‘They’re your best chance.’

I could be stubborn and wait until they force it open. But what’s the point? I reluctantly walk up the stone steps and open the hatch.

The Watchers pour in, filling the small hovel.

‘Nice find,’ says Thermo, looking around.

‘Maybe we can relax here for a few seconds,’ says Little B.

‘Oops, time’s up,’ says Howler, slapping his hand on Little B’s shoulder. ‘Back to being tense and hunted.’

The rest just scan the room, silently taking everything in as they walk into the hovel.

More than a dozen Watchers crowd into the space. Some of them sit down on the dirt while others lean against the wall, closing their eyes like they haven’t rested in years. No one talks. No one fidgets. They just rest as if they’re sure they won’t get another chance for several more years.

A loud
thunk
on the hatch interrupts the quiet.

Everyone tenses, turning toward the opening.

A flapping hellion crashes and tumbles just outside the open hatch. An angel skids after it in a jumble of white feathers and curses.

‘Raffe!’ I rush up the stairs to him. ‘Where have you been?’

He looks up at me from the ground with disorientation in his eyes. The spotted hellion flies out of his grasp. It flitters in a panic into the hovel, and the Watchers swat and kick at it until it frantically flies back out of the hatch.

Raffe blinks at me a couple of times as he slowly gets up.

‘Are you okay?’ I’ve never seen him so disoriented. He looks like I must have when I first arrived here.

And then it hits me that maybe he did just arrive. At first, I think what a great coincidence that he landed near me, but of course, I’m not the connection – it’s Beliel. We went through him, so we arrive near him on the other side.

‘Did you just get here?’ I ask.

But he’s not looking at me. He and the Watchers are staring at each other as each Watcher comes out of the hovel. They position themselves in a circle around him, as though in a dream.

‘Yeah,’ I say. ‘I guess you guys know each other.’ I awkwardly step back.

‘It can’t be,’ says Flyer.

‘Commander?’ asks Hawk with doubt in his voice. ‘Is that you?’

‘What do you mean
Commander
?’ asks Beliel as he turns his empty eye sockets to Raffe.

‘It’s Archangel Raphael,’ says Thermo.

‘What the hell did you do to get yourself down here?’ asks Cyclone.

‘Your wings . . .’ says Howler. ‘How are they pristine?’

It’s ironic now that Raffe finally has his angel wings back that he’s in the land of demons.

‘Are you on a mission with Uriel?’ asks Thermo, sounding skeptical. ‘I thought he was the only archangel who could come down here. You haven’t turned into a diplomat, have you?’

‘Maybe it’s a trick,’ says Hawk. ‘Maybe it’s not really him.’

‘What was the biggest kill you ever made?’ asks Cyclone.

‘A foot taller and wider than the biggest kill you ever made, Cyclone.’ Raffe brushes dust off himself.

‘It really is you,’ says Cyclone.

‘What happened?’ asks Flyer. ‘How are you here?’

‘Long story,’ says Raffe. ‘We have much to catch up on.’

‘Betrayer!’ Beliel looks furious. He slams his body against Raffe. They hit the ground and grapple as Beliel tries to pummel Raffe.

The others grab him and pull him off.

‘You swore!’ yells Beliel as he struggles against his buddies. ‘I left her in your care! Do you know what they did to her? Do you?’

The Watchers subdue Beliel, putting a hand over his mouth and whispering in his ear to calm down.

‘We should talk,’ says Raffe, getting up. ‘Is this a good place?’

‘There are no good places in the Pit,’ says Hawk.

‘We should go someplace where we have easy escape routes,’ says Thermo. ‘Anything that might be looking for a meal just heard its dinner bell.’

In the distance, something screams. It’s hard to tell how close it is.

Beliel stops struggling, but he’s breathing hard and fast. He may be blind, but there’s nothing wrong with his ears.

‘Let’s get out of here,’ says Cyclone. He takes the lead. The rest of us follow.

Even though Beliel is obviously furious with Raffe, he still walks with his back to him like they weren’t archenemies. He also follows the group as if it never occurred to him to not cooperate. His bulging muscles start to unclench, and the tension in his shoulders softens as he walks.

The hate-filled edge I’m used to seeing in Beliel is not there, even in this horrid place. Whatever happened to him to make him that way hasn’t happened yet.

We follow the Watchers away from the hovel just as the screaming of those Consumed whip heads fills the air again.

Raffe pulls me into his arms and takes flight.

38

‘Stay low,’ says one of the Watchers, ‘where they can’t see you.’

Raffe swoops down and flies at almost ground level along with the Watchers. We swing side to side, barely avoiding broken wheels, piles of rubble, and burned-out husks of something unrecognizable.

Behind us, the Pit lord with the flaming wings comes roaring after us. He whips his screaming heads at his set of newly Fallen who strain to fly as fast as they can. The spotted hellion that came with Raffe flies beside the Pit lord like a giant winged rat, pointing at us.

We glide along the broken street until we turn a corner and come face-to-face with a set of screaming heads.

Raffe shifts me so that he’s holding me from behind. Without speaking, I know what he wants me to do. He can’t carry me and fight at the same time. I pull out my sword.

Raffe swoops left, and I cut a swath through the Consumed. Their teeth and hair fall to the ground as the blade slices through them.

Behind us, the Watchers fan out in a wedge formation with us in the lead. I’m the only one with a weapon, so it becomes my job to cut through whatever gets in our way. The Watchers punch and kick their way behind us.

I’ve never fought on a real team before other than with Raffe, but we all fall into a rhythm that doesn’t require words for us to coordinate.

Someone yells behind us.

We all turn to look. The Pit lord has caught Flyer, who was at the end of our formation. Flyer is bent over on his back over the edge of the chariot with the Pit lord pressing on either side of him so that his back is about to snap in half.

Everyone exchanges a quick look, then the entire formation veers, returning to rescue Flyer.

The air is filled with the screaming Consumed looking for bodies.

Hawk and Cyclone lead the charge back to Flyer with a fierce war cry. They are the first hit with the screaming heads. Instead of trying to avoid them, they charge right into them, getting hit with half a dozen each.

As soon as they land on Hawk and Cyclone, they begin chewing and burrowing into their flesh.

Hawk and Cyclone grab the hair of a couple of heads per hand and yank them off their skin. They swing the heads by the hair and use them to bat away the others. Their hands drip with blood as the Consumed hair cuts into them, but they don’t seem to care.

The other Consumed converge on Hawk and Cyclone.

Four other Watchers zip in and pluck and smash the chewing heads off the two kamikaze Watchers, acting as their support to keep them alive. Meanwhile, the rest of us fly in toward the Pit lord while Hawk and Cyclone distract the Consumed.

Instead of waiting, the Pit lord lets go of Flyer and leaps at us.

His blazing wings sweep the air with flames, looking like he’s shooting toward us in a ball of fire.

His fiery wings make it impossible to come at him from any direction other than head-on. And Raffe and I are directly in front of him.

As the Pit lord swipes his blazing wing at us, a Watcher charges between us, protecting us with his body as he punches the Pit lord. Instead of punching back, the Pit lord grabs him by the throat and closes his wings. For a moment, we can’t see anything but a giant ball of fire as his wings encase the Pit lord and the Watcher.

When he opens his wings again, the Watcher is in flames. His remaining feathers along with every scrap of hair on his body are on fire.

The Pit lord drops him, and the Watcher roars as he falls, landing hard and rolling on the ground, trying to smash the flames out.

The Pit lord comes back for us. Raffe holds his air space while the other Watchers rescue Flyer.

Raffe nods to one of the Watchers who then takes position below us. I’m guessing he’s there to catch me if I fall.

‘Don’t you dare let me go,’ I say.

‘I’m not letting you get burned,’ he says.

The Pit lord charges us in a halo of flames.

Raffe veers down, avoiding the burn.

The Pit lord turns and chases us. I realize that Raffe is reluctant to turn and face him, because that puts me in the flame’s line of fire.

‘Take the sword,’ I say. We haven’t tested out whether Pooky would take him back. But as he zigzags, avoiding the Pit lord’s charge, I decide this isn’t the best time to test it.

Raffe spins in midair. A wall of fire comes at us as the Pit lord sweeps his enormous wings toward us.

I swing my blade as hard as I can. I can feel the surge of excitement coming through the blade as Pooky gets a chance to cut into a Pit lord.

The blade slices through the fire. A piece of the flames cleaves off and tumbles down.

The Pit lord bellows as he watches a part of his wing crash onto the ground, spraying embers everywhere.

He whips his wings frantically, trying to stay up, but his wings are now uneven, and he begins spiraling. Raffe presses our advantage and flies up to him.

I slice at the first thing I can reach. Another piece of the Pit lord’s wing blazes down.

And he tumbles from the sky.

39

As soon as we land, I start sweating from the heat. I can’t help but cover my nose even though it does nothing against the rotten-egg stench.

The Pit lord has landed and rolled. The fire in his wings has sputtered out, leaving dead-looking wings that are burned to leathery husks. He’s bleeding from both wings.

He yells a command, and the hellions and Consumed gather near him. The hellions watch their master fearfully, looking ready to bolt any minute, while the Consumed seem insanely excited at the prospect of bodies.

Watchers land all around us, forming a protective circle.

They have no weapons, and most of them have ugly wounds, some of them severe, but that doesn’t stop them from looking fierce. To my surprise, Beliel is one of them. He stares blindly ahead, ready to battle for Raffe.

I look at our crew and compare them to the Pit lord’s gang. I give us a good chance of beating the Pit lord, assuming none of his friends are heading our way to join the fight.

‘Oh, I miss my blade,’ says Cyclone, looking at mine with longing. ‘The damage we could do here if we’d only been able to keep our swords.’