Shattering Halos (32 page)

The goddess walked off once she’d had enough, not sparing him a second glance. With a slight smirk, Cassiel’s eyes narrowed and drank her in as she left.

“Wow, what was
that
about?”

Gabriel laughed, shaking his head.

“Unfortunately, they’ve got some sort of chemistry.”

“She’s gorgeous!”

“Lilith is absolutely insane.”

An inquisitive glance at Gabriel didn’t earn me further explanations. His brief amusement had vanished, and with face set and eyebrows furrowed, he was lost in thought.

The moon shone plump and scarlet. Gorged with volcanic dust, it waited as the Earth crept closer and closer.

Suddenly, the hall lit up in a blaze of amber light. I jumped from the seat and made my way over to Gabriel.

“What’s going on?”

A slight headshake was his only response. Gabriel was taking in every detail unfolding in the cavern and didn’t stir when I embraced him from behind. It caused adrenaline to breed in my veins.

Again, I craved his warmth, the sensation of safety he instilled in me. Breathing in his scent, I formed to his back and looked over his shoulder.

Ramiel extended a regal hand. Lilith rose from the half-hearted crouch she’d been in at his feet and kissed his knuckles. Then, they strode toward the Purest Ones in the center of the room.

With his claws hovering above one human after the other, Ramiel’s figure imposed itself like a nightmare. His shadow licked over them as he muttered incoherent words that could be mistaken for prayers.

Each child, man, and woman fell to the ground. Ramiel circled the stone, touching one after the other. By the time he approached the last of the seven, the first rose—with an altogether different demeanor.

Hunched forward like a gorilla, the coffee worker from Jamaica craned his neck. Dispassionate pupils dilated as he fixated on the lowering cherub cage.

Good Lord, is he creating zombies out of them?

Gabriel let out a surprised puff at my mental outburst.

“Ah, so for some reason
that’s
not possible? How am I supposed to know what works and what doesn’t?” I grumbled. He turned to brush a kiss against my forehead, placating me.

“Can you see them?” he murmured.

Particle by particle, the Celestial angels emerged through the granite. They stood against the walls, away from the equally beautiful Fallen Ones. Despite their physical likeness, their loving, peaceful bearing set them apart from the Grigori.

These siblings, the white sheep and the black, gathered after two thousand years. They were not there to be reunited. Before the night was over, they would be killing each other.

A subtle glint of recognition sparked in Cassiel’s eyes before they glazed into indifference. It comforted me that he’d noticed.

The cherubs bawled as the cage kept sinking, narrowing the gap to the Purest Ones. I glanced up at the moon above us. Just a sliver of red left behind.

Is this when all hell breaks loose?

The blood throbbed in my ears. I reached out, fingers splayed wide at the spectacle before us.

“Will Cassiel be safe from the Celestials, at least?”

“Michael would have to spot him, let the others know.”

Seconds after Cassiel discovered the Celestials, Ramiel’s eyes flashed over every white angel like burning bits of coal. He seemed to inflate in front of us, his face contorting around a roar.

“No! They’re here? Pass out the daggers!”

Five demons limped off with disturbing agility. They shoved shiny objects into the hands of the Purest Ones. Lilith slithered over to whisper into the ears of the children. When she raised their fists, they already held daggers. She wiggled them tentatively in the direction of the cherubs. Her maternal smile raised the hairs at the back of my neck.

In unspoken agreement, all seven lifted their weapons and glared into the cherub faces. Two smaller demons sprang on top of the cage and began to bounce. Their weight and resolve caused the contraption to drop a dizzying foot.

The cherubs flapped their tiny wings and darted back and forth with such speed they were a blur of feathers. Snapping daggers hacked at them from below. In a matter of inches, those daggers would draw blood.

Oh God, do angels bleed?

Gabriel tensed in front of me but didn’t speak.

Along the walls, white angels fought Fallen Ones and demons, pressing their way toward the center of the round room. Diabolic growls shattered their stillness—and the clanking of swords!

“Swords? Old-fashioned swords, Gabriel?”

“Would you have preferred phased plasma rifles? Double-bladed laser sabers?” He sounded amused.

“Umm, I don’t know, maybe?”

“Well, anything can conduct the momentum. You’ve seen some of what we do, the lightning bolts and the quakes. Swords are simply a more concentrated method for the delivery of energy…when the goal is to be fatal.” The last words sieved out low, hesitant.

“The ceiling, Gaia,” Gabriel added evenly.

I gulped.

Reminiscent of shining stars, seventy angels twinkled their way in, gradually easing into full view. They hovered above, watching the chaos enfold in silence. The Fallen Ones and the demons were so many, the Celestials fighting so few.

What the hell are they waiting for?

From thin air, seven of Michael’s angels materialized around the cherubs in the middle of the room. Calmly, they took hold of a dimpled hand each through the bars and remained still.

“Shouldn’t they be flying off with those angel babies?”

“I don’t think they can, Gaia. A superior’s will is the only thing that can open locked doors in our realms. The cherubs would have been too panicked to safeguard if they freed them now anyway. They need some love and comfort first.”

Ramiel landed at the center of the star, right under the wailing babies. An enormous sword was extended in battle above his head. With a luminous glare narrowed on the seven white angels surrounding the cage, he grazed the chest of one, then the thigh of another. Ruthless, he got in a stab on the third.

A radiant wing sailed to the ground. Feathers and down burst off it and scattered in a desperate quest for an escape of their own.

No, no. This can’t possibly be happening.

Next to him, demons bellowed with laughter. I hated that angels bled a glistening scarlet.

Gabriel’s eyes closed in pain when his brother fell and they stomped him into the dirt.

An angel of God perishing?

Gabriel couldn’t meet my gaze. Quietly, another of the seven took the dying angel’s place. Dropping his sword, he held the hands of two cherubs instead of one.

As if on cue, the seventy hovering above plummeted in streaks of white feathers. The Grigori angels shot up to meet them in a ferocious collision of energy, of power.

A small group of Celestials mounted the cage and fought the two demons already there. They dropped off it in a burst of black liquid as Angelical swords slashed them open.

The Celestials yanked at the chain and pulled the cherubs higher, out of reach from the deadly daggers. A fresh load of demons immediately outnumbered them from below. Glued to the bottom of the cage like spiders, they jerked it back down.

The Purest Ones stood eerily tall. With weapons lifted, they awaited their moment to kill.

Tremors began to stir within my muscles. It took a while before they reached the surface. My hands began to tremble first. Then tiny hairs stood on end across my body.

Before I shook in earnest, Gabriel turned and seized me. He enveloped me in front of him, securing me against the banister. I shut my eyes, blocking out the cruelty of the sight, and my baby’s breath caressed my hair.

“Sunshine, have faith. Look—Hadraniel, Zadkiel. Gazardiel. They’re all there now.”

The grim podium suddenly held the golden shine of the angels, one landing at the tip of each point.

“Yes! The ones Michael appointed to the humans!”

Zadkiel, the Angel of Freedom, faced the old king. He enveloped the gnarled hand clenching the dagger with his own.

The angel met mortal eyes with a love so unfathomable that my chest tightened. His other palm rested over the monarch’s heart. Just a man after all, he halted, unsure of the angel’s strength, of the insistence backing it.

Each point of the star stilled in the same silent encounter of Zadkiel and the king. All around the stone, the unreserved violence turned chaotic.

Behind me, Gabriel pressed us against the railing, a fist grasping tightly on each side of my hips.

Ramiel was pure rage. Black belches of smoke blustered from him while he thundered out orders. “Lilith: Bring Kakabel. Grigori: Destroy Zadkiel’s unit. They
cannot
turn the Purest Ones!”

The angle changed. All of a sudden, the grand hall spread before us from above.

“What just happened?”

“My brothers who melted through the ceiling are showing us this view,” Gabriel explained.

It was gory, hideous, and glorious all at once. Flickering wall sconces provided the outer ring. A circle of shimmering black wings stormed toward the center of the room, where each point of the star was a peony made of pearlescent feathers mingled with bright yellow silk. In the midst of the pandemonium, they remained trance-like, quiet.

Hadraniel held the two-year-old who blinked into his eyes. Rapt in wonder, she let him soak her in concentrated love. The dark ring tightened, swords glinting in the shine from the lava sconces.

A still circle of pearlescent wings coalesced inside the black one. With blades raised, Gabriel’s brothers awaited the attack serenely.

From above, the scene formed an enormous flower, with the cherubs, glowing with love and fear, at its center and a sputtering Ramiel underneath.

The Grigori only vacillated for a second. Then, the spell broke in an uproar of shadowy motion.

Gabriel stiffened behind me. I saw Cassiel as he leaped up the stairs to the balcony, away from a white angel chasing him.

No! He’s on our side!

Cassiel didn’t have a sword.

“Sweet sun of mine…”

Goddamn, don’t even
think
it, Gabriel!

I knew what he was about to say and whirled around. “Please don’t. It’s dangerous!”

Gabriel’s stare penetrated mine. His devotion, but also his determination moved through me in waves.

He gave me a single, soft kiss. “Gaia, I love you always. I’m getting him out.”

“Will you
ever
listen to me?”

Gabriel disintegrated around me before I had finished. Now, I was alone on top of a freezing world. My furious screams must have carried all the way to Spring Hills. So much for having a say in this relationship.

Once he had left, I couldn’t track everything that happened in Galdhopiggen. Too much happened simultaneously.

Lilith touched down on the balcony just as Cassiel arrived. Surprised, I watched her fling herself in front of him. Oozing a deep green fog, she caused Cassiel’s pursuer to slump to the ground.

The angel squirmed in pain. Reminding me of wilted lilies, his wings crumpled awkwardly against the steps when he hit the surface, and I wanted to roar out my impotence.

I hate—I
hate
that angels die!

Lilith had just saved Cassiel, but the two of them didn’t acknowledge each other. Instead, she ran to the railing and yelled down to Ramiel.

I searched and found him fighting Celestials from the midpoint of the sacrificial stone.

“The moon’s eclipsing, and Kakabel is ready! Prepare the sacrifice!” she screamed.

Out of nowhere, he appeared on the gallery next to Lilith. Slender and statuesque, his beauty made my eyes water even at a distance. Yes, there he was. Kakabel, Yofiel’s twin.

With hair reaching down his back in undulating alabaster, the rest of him glowed pale like the moon.

Charcoal streaks stood out against iridescent wings. His irises glimmered in the spring green of birch leaves. But when I squinted through the mist, the evil in his eyes knocked the air out of me.

The Grigori slew one after the other of the angels guarding the star. Every time the sword of a Fallen hit the entrails of a Celestial, a new white angel stood tall. Silently, he’d take his dying brother’s place and protect the humans and the angels working to turn them.

Zadkiel’s group remained absorbed in their all-encompassing task. Immobile, they willed purity back into the twisted hearts of the humans.

Love incarnate rubbed against absolute evil with the ring of demons and Grigori tightening around them. Their focus was bottomless, and their aim didn’t falter. A happy sob curled out of me as I detected a hint of color on the pallid cheek of the ancient monk.

Yes, absorb it, old man.

Ramiel’s regal demeanor was deteriorating. His eyes darted restlessly around the room, not taking the time to revel in his fallen enemies. With all his might, he personally gripped the bottom bars of the cage and yanked.

The cherubs hid in the upper left corner of their prison. It seemed to keep them safe for now…as long as nobody rocked the aim of Zadkiel and his unit.

Without warning, the throne hall blared with a light so bright that I strained to discern movement. The flapping of one set of immense wings overpowered every grunt, every roar, and growl in the mountain.

Gradually the light softened, but Grigori, demons, and Celestials remained frozen in place. In my mind, they conjured warriors I’d seen immortalized in a medieval tapestry.

Then, I saw him. Michael.

He descended slowly to the stone, and the force of the stare he bored into Ramiel knocked the wind out of me.

“Yofiel! Now!” The archangel bellowed.

I gasped and scanned the room. Glowing like a faery from my childhood dreams, she expanded from a lone grain of light at the gallery. Floating two feet above the floor, she locked Kakabel’s stare with hers.

Yofiel drifted up and rested her forehead against his. Her bearing did not reveal disgust or surprise over his contorted essence. Those pink irises flooded his green ones with not just celestial love, but the devotion of a sister. Cherry lips arched and shifted in gentle murmurs. Oh, how I wished I could hear what she said!