She was a sacrifice.
CHAPTER 62
Mimi
Mimi stood stock-still in the middle of the aisle, while all around her was panic and chaos. She could hear someone screaming from somewhere far away. What happened? Where was Kingsley?
Then Jack was at her side, a hand on her elbow. “Croatan! Into the glom! Now! Follow me!”
Thank God she wasn’t wearing her stupid bonding dress in the glom. It made it so much easier to run. Her twin brother was streaking through the darkness like a missile, and Mimi ran to follow him. “Where are they?” she asked.
“They’ve taken Schuyler down to the borderlands, to the gate,” he said as they ran farther and faster down to the deep, down to the dark, down to the place where memory and time are no longer, and there is only the path of fire.
Schuyler had been at her bonding! What had she been doing there! This whole thing was probably her fault! Wait!
“You know about the gates?” she asked. “About the order?” “Yes,” Jack said. “Charles told me. He suspected that after Leviathan was freed, the Silver Bloods would go after the one in Lutetia.”
“And he led them to the intersection instead,” Mimi said, putting everything Kingsley had told her together with what Jack was telling her now.
“Right.”
“But that didn’t work too well, did it?” asked Mimi. No one had gotten what they wanted in Paris.
“Not for them and not for us,” replied Jack, looking grim. The Silver Bloods had been unable to open the gate, and Charles had been unable to trap the Silver Bloods, and now he was most likely trapped in the intersection himself.
They reached the gate. It was just as Kingsley described: six feet tall, welded deep into the crust of the earth. Mimi knew this was just its physical manifestation in the glom, something only they could see. The true barrier was Michael’s spirit and protection that kept the Silver Bloods from crossing. But where was Kingsley? Mimi couldn’t see him, there was only Lucifer standing behind the iron bars. That stupid Van Alen girl was chained next to him.
When he saw them arrive, their former commandant smiled. “Azrael, Abbadon. How good of you to join us.”
Mimi had to fight the urge to kneel.
This was the Morningstar before her. Their one true prince. How magnificent he looked, how lovely. Mimi remembered how she had followed his every command, how together the three of them had conquered Heaven and Earth for the Almighty.
How glorious their triumphs had been! How beautiful they all were, resplendent and soaring to the sun. How could anyone fault them for basking in their own beauty and glory? How could anyone fault them for thinking the glory was their own?
But no!, it was his fault they were stuck here; his fault they were cursed to live out their lives on Earth. Paradise was just a dim memory, almost a myth, even to them, shut out from warmth and love of the Almighty forever. If only . . .
They had tried. . . . They had switched sides at the last moment, choosing that clodhorse Michael over their general. But it had been too late. . . . It had been too late, even then, back in the early dawn of the world, when she was still young. . . .
“Release her!” Jack cried. “Now, serpent.”
Mimi looked at her brother, at her twin. She had never seen him so angry, so hell-bent on destruction. They had fought side by side in Lucifer’s army once, and had fought against him ever since. Jack leaped over the gate, his sword aflame. To vanquish his foe and rescue his love.
Without hesitation, Mimi followed him into battle.
CHAPTER 63
Mimi
In the darkness of the glom, Mimi unleashed the full powers of her transformation. She could feel her wings sprout, could feel her horns grow, curling above her forehead. This was her true form as the dark and terrible Azrael, the Angel of Death. These were the wings of the Apocalypse, the harbinger of Hades, of sorrow and ruin. All this she encompassed in her soul and her being.
With all of her strength, she threw herself against the Morningstar, pinning him against the black rock, but her claws found no leverage, and soon she was simply holding a pile of dust. Lucifer would not be taken so easily. But Schuyler was free. I owed you one, Schuyler Van Alen. Now we are even, Mimi thought.
“Not bad, Force.”
She turned.
Behind the gate, Kingsley and Leviathan were caught in a stalemate. The demon had his spear at Kingsley’s neck, and Kingsley had his sword poised at the demon’s heart. Neither would give an inch, Mimi saw. But maybe if . . .
“Stay right where you are, Force,” Kingsley said slowly. His handsome face turned to her behind the iron bars. “Don’t come any closer.”
“Why? What are you going to do?” Mimi cried, although she already knew. She could see the white aura that began to surround him. He was calling up a subvertio, fashioning a white hole of death.
“I am going to destroy the path,” Kingsley said. “It’s the only way.”
“Don’t.” Mimi shook her head, her eyes glistening.
Kingsley looked at her with the utmost gentleness. “Do not cry for me, Azrael. Do not waste your tears. You made your decision. And this is mine. Sacrifice seems to be my destiny. A funny thing for a selfish man, isn’t it? They always called me weak back then . . . but maybe weakness is a strength of a kind.”
Mimi pressed her face against the bars, as close as she could get to him. She couldn’t bear for him to go without knowing what she had been about to do, she had been planning to leave Jack to be with him. She had meant to forsake her bond and throw her destiny to the wind. I can’t, she was going to say. I can’t do this. I’m coming with you.
“Kingsley, I . . .”
Kingsley smiled his Cheshire smile. And without another word, he called up the white darkness, thesubvertio, a spell that unlocked what could not be unlocked, that destroyed what could not be destroyed.
There was a deep rumbling, a shaking, like the strongest earthquake, and the iron gate crumbled, and the path began to melt. The demon shrieked, but Kingsley just looked at Mimi the entire time.
Azrael . . .
In a flash, they disappeared. The path, the gate, the demon, and the Silver Blood.
Kingsley was gone. Trapped in Hell for eternity.
Mimi collapsed to the ground, as if her heart had imploded in her chest.
CHAPTER 64
Schuyler
She had done it. She had brought herself and Jack back from the glom. They were back in the church, lying a few feet away from each other. She coughed, spitting out toxic black dust. She was covered in soot, like a chimney sweep. She wondered if this was a consequence of what had happened in the glom or if it was part of the Silver Blood mist that had blanketed the church during the attack.
“Jack . . . Jack . . .” she whispered, crawling to his side. He was bleeding from the hole in his back. . . . The demon’s spear was corrupted. It carried the black fire within it. Jack was dying. This was the nightmare that had plagued her for months . . . the same despair that washed over her now. She was losing him.
She turned him over so she could cradle him in her arms. Her tears fell on his cheeks. He could not hear her.
“He needs the Caeremonia. Red Blood,” said a voice from the other side of the church. “It is poison to the Croatan and will deflect the fire. We need to find a human.”