Spirit Fighter (Son of Angels, Jonah Stone) (19 page)

“Run!” Jonah said. He turned, pulling Eliza with him, and sprinted toward one of the large concrete columns in the middle of the station. Something whizzed by his head and thudded above them, and the ceiling burst into flames. He dove to the ground and rolled behind the column, dragging Eliza with him. Looking up, they saw the black arrow that had knifed halfway into the rock disintegrate into dust.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Three more arrows hit the column.

“She’s back!” Eliza whispered desperately. “It’s the same lady from the train!”

“And it looks like she brought some friends.”

Jonah peeked around the corner in time to see her stand up straight, brandishing her cane, which was now a sword, in the air. He watched as she morphed into a tall, black-winged fallen angel. A half-dozen others were right behind her, all of them holding bows with flaming red arrows. Two fired, and Jonah whipped his head back as they narrowly missed the center of his forehead.

He remembered Henry’s words.
“If you get hit, it doesn’t just hurt a little bit. You die.”

Jonah breathed in heavily. Even though the Fallen were approaching, he couldn’t shake the image of his mother, tied down to that hospital bed, no one there to help her. He gritted his teeth.

“Come on, Eliza,” he said, crouching low and drawing a white-tipped arrow. “We can’t let them do this. Not when we’re this close to finding Mom!”

Wild-eyed, he turned and fired. As soon as he released the arrow, he reached back and pulled another, and then another. His arrows met two targets, piercing one of the Fallen through the neck, another in the chest. Gurgling screams filled the station as they fell.

The fallen ones were being directed by their leader, the subway lady, and they stood with black snarls on their faces as they fired their flaming arrows. One of them threw a spear that slammed into the wall beside Jonah, hitting it with such force that he was blasted back onto the ground.

Suddenly Eliza stepped around the corner and threw her hands into the air. A shield formed in front of them just as two arrows aimed right at their chests arrived. They dropped harmlessly onto the ground.

“Good one, Eliza!” Jonah said, and continued firing his arrows as fast as he could. His aim was rapidly improving. He keyed in on one particularly large and ugly fallen one, but his first arrow sailed over his head. He saw his target grimace and fire his black arrow toward Jonah. He ducked out of instinct as the arrow screamed in his direction, but then saw it bounce off Eliza’s shield. Taking aim again, he took a deep breath and let go. His white flaming arrow buried itself in the fallen one’s forehead, and he collapsed backward on top of another one that had been successfully pierced already.

Two of the fallen ones held large spears, taking aim together at Eliza’s shield. They released them at the same time, and they hit the shield with enough force that it pushed Eliza back and onto the ground. Her glasses flew off, bouncing along the concrete, and the shield disappeared.

Three of the Fallen remained, including the subway lady. They raised their black, crumpled wings and flapped twice, sailing quickly toward them. Subway Lady’s yellow eyes bulged out of her scaly black face as she grinned fiercely, landing on the path right in front of them. Her sword gleamed as she waved it in their faces, the tip of it bloodred.

“Very impressive, my dears,” she snarled. “You’ve come such a long way. Your mother would be so proud. Too bad you’re not going to ever see her again.”

Jonah and Eliza stepped back as the three Fallen walked toward them. Jonah backed into a trash can, and he picked it up and threw it at them as hard as he could. The old lady batted it away as if she were swatting a gnat.

She raised her sword at Eliza, who hadn’t been able to find her glasses. Jonah was sure all Eliza could see was a big, dark shadow, and all she could feel was fear and defeat, not faith. Crouching down, Eliza shielded her face. Subway Lady was posing to strike, and Jonah pictured his sister taking her last breath right in front of him.

The fallen angel brought her blade crashing down.

“Eliza!” Jonah rushed forward to try to put himself between the blade and his sister. But just before he could cover her, Eliza threw up her hands one more time. Just in time for the flickering shield of faith to block the blow.

Jonah seized the only chance he knew he was going to get. He pulled two arrows at once off of his back and didn’t even bother stringing them.

He threw them as hard as he could.

Each arrow found its target, piercing the chests of the two fallen ones on either side of Subway Lady.

“Your turn!” he said as he leveled one last arrow, strung it, and let it fly.

It met her chest, and she screeched in pain and fell to the ground.

All of them now lay sprawled across the subway station, motionless. Jonah and Eliza caught their breath and watched as the Fallen began to disintegrate into black dust.

Finally Jonah whispered, “You think they’re . . . dead?”

“I don’t think so,” Eliza said, sitting up. “They are eternal beings, just like the angels. They can’t die. They must just . . . relocate.” Eliza’s brow wrinkled. “Like when Jesus sent the demons out of the boy and into the herd of pigs.”

Jonah remembered. “They had to do exactly what Jesus told them to do. They became bound under Elohim’s command.”

Jonah found Eliza’s glasses and handed them to her. She rubbed them on her shirt, and they watched as the black dust blew down around the subway tracks.

“Nice shooting, Jonah,” Eliza said. “You’re getting good. Wish I had a bow and arrow myself.”

“Thanks, E, but be careful what you wish for. How many times have you saved our lives today with that shield of yours? Look at the Miami Heat. They would be nowhere without a killer defense, right?”

She stared at him blankly.

“Well, that’s what you are, sis,” he said. “Our killer defense.”

Eliza smiled faintly as the subway train swept into the station.

“Let’s get out of here,” Jonah said, still looking warily around. “I personally don’t ever want to experience that again.”

SEVENTEEN
T
HE
C
ASTLE

T
hey tried to calm down as they rode the subway north toward Central Park, but it was difficult.

“You don’t think anything bad happened to Henry, do you?” Eliza said darkly. “I’m worried, Jonah. We need help. We have no clue what we’re doing.”

Almost everything inside of him agreed with her. They had no idea where they were going, really, or what they were going to do when they got there. It was blind faith that moved them forward, following what Jonah had seen in his vision. Henry was gone, and they were alone.

And yet . . .

This was their mission, not anyone else’s. Whether or not it seemed impossible, this was the path Elohim had put them on. That was going to have to be enough for now.

The electronic voice announced, “Next stop, Fifty-Seventh Street,” and they exited the subway, just south of Central Park.

They walked across the bustling street when the light changed, unseen by the dozens of people who crossed with them. Most of the people glowed dimly, just visible in the morning light; every once in a while, though, they saw someone shining brightly as they walked, lighting up the pavement.

A large, stone wall surrounded the park, and they walked along it until they found the entrance—a paved pathway winding into the woods. It felt strange to Jonah to one minute be on a busy downtown street, and the next to find himself in what seemed like an old forest. But when they took a few steps in, the sights and sounds of the city were only a memory.

Jonah stopped in the middle of the pathway and sighed.

“Where to now?” Eliza asked. He glanced back at her but didn’t respond.

He looked at the outline of dark trees and bushes, and a couple of pathways splitting off in front of them. He tried to remember the vision, but how was he supposed to know if this was the right place? Doubt began to creep into his mind. Even if this was the right place, the park was enormous, bigger then the entire downtown of Peacefield. How could he possibly know where their mother was being held?

Breathe, Jonah. Breathe
.

He closed his eyes, slowing his mind down and trying to picture the vision again. The trees, ponds, and lawn all came into view, as well as the castle.

The castle
.

His eyes popped open and he looked down the path, both ways.

“What is it?” Eliza said. “You remember something?”

He didn’t answer, his mind racing. He continued searching the path until he spotted it. A sign, near the entrance. He sprinted back and stood in front of the sign. It showed a detailed map of the park. He ran his finger over the map, studying it intently.

“Belvedere Castle!” He stuck his finger on a point near the center of the map. That had to be it.

“The image from your vision?” Eliza panted, having chased him back down the path.

Jonah nodded. He felt a new energy course through him. “This is it. It’s the only castle on here. And I just have this feeling . . .”

It was hard to explain, but somehow he knew this was where they needed to go. One more look at the map and he was beckoning her after him down the path.

“Let’s be careful,” Eliza said as they walked along, looking up at the trees. “It feels kind of dark in here.”

They walked in silence for the next ten minutes, carefully watching the woods, more than once jumping at the movement of squirrels in the leaves. Crossing a bridge over a pond, they heard only their own footsteps across the wood. No one was there. Jonah figured even New Yorkers were scared of some parts of Central Park. Probably afraid of getting mugged.
They have no idea that the real threat might be fallen angels
.
Talk about scary
.

They came to a small wooden sign that said The R amble. Behind it was a narrow dirt path that wound downward, deeper into the forest. The growth looked much thicker here.

“I hate to say it, but I think we have to go this way to the castle,” said Jonah.

Eliza peered down the path. “Looks creepy.”

He stepped onto the path, followed reluctantly by Eliza.

Briars pressed in on both sides, so that they could only walk in single file. It grew dark, the dense trees blocking out the sun as they worked their way down into the wild, overgrown area. The air grew cooler by the second. Twice Jonah thought he saw a pair of yellow eyes watching them from behind a tree. He was tense, his hands ready to pull an arrow at a moment’s notice. He had the distinct feeling that they were being watched. But so far, no one was attacking.

“Something’s in here with us,” Eliza whispered from behind. Jonah silently agreed but said nothing and tried to move as fast as he could. He was sure that the map showed that this was the fastest way to the castle.

He shivered in the darkness. The cold seemed to seep into his skin and down into his bones. It felt like icy fingers had suddenly reached inside his body and were searching, probing. Looking for a place inside him to grab and hold on to. Glancing back, he saw Eliza’s strained expression and knew she was feeling the same thing.

It felt like fear, but wrapped in a deep, blanketing sadness.

Jonah’s heart grew heavy, as if any minute it might fall out of his chest and crack into a million frozen pieces. The fingers continued reaching inside him as he willed his legs to move, and the sadness turned into despair.

Despair quickly spiraled into hopelessness.

He felt himself slowing down, his limbs growing stiff and numb.
What’s the point?
They were never going to find his mother. They couldn’t possibly defeat the hordes of Abaddon. They were just a couple of kids. Their guardian angel was gone—forever, for all he knew.

What were we thinking?

Grief began icing over him. Misery moved in like an impenetrable fog, and he stopped moving. He sat down in the dirt and began to weep. Eliza dropped beside him and began sobbing too.

“There’s so much . . . darkness,” Jonah gasped.

Tears covered Eliza’s face as she looked up. “I just . . . don’t think I can . . . keep going, Jonah. I feel so . . . so . . .”

“Sad,” whispered Jonah, head hanging between his knees.

“What is this place? Where are we?”

He didn’t answer. He didn’t know.

All Jonah could think, all he knew, was that they were totally and completely lost.

But then something stirred inside him. Somewhere deep inside, beneath the pain, below the sadness, in the small, tucked-away place the icy fingers had been grappling for but could not reach, his soul had whispered one solitary word. One desperate word, the last word of hope he knew.

Elohim
.

The word fluttered gently at first, but grew stronger, working its way through the blanket of sadness covering his heart. It went up into his thoughts, and finally into his mouth.

“Elohim,” he whispered, his voice barely audible.

Eliza stirred beside him, and Jonah heard her breath catch, followed by the rustle of leaves as she leaned into the dense undergrowth to peer at something farther down the path, on the other side of Jonah.