Wrath of the Fallen by Eve Archer

Chapter Thirty-Six

Ella

Sara swung her head to me, her face only partly illuminated in the dank tunnel. “Did he just tell us to run?”

I hadn’t taken my eyes off the dark demon who claimed he was a demon of the dead. I wasn’t sure what that was, or how it was different from a regular demon, or even a regular ghost, but one look at his decaying face, the eyeballs almost popping out as they rolled to me, made me realize I didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was getting away from him and the fetid catacombs.

“Why are you still here?” Caspiel hissed. “You need to go!”

The demon of the dead lurched toward us, one arm swinging limply by his side. Caspiel shifted in front of us so that the demon had to move closer to the opposite wall and the path past him opened.

Caspiel fumbled in his pocket with the hand not holding his phone and the only light keeping us from plunging into darkness. He retrieved something and pressed it into Sara’s palm. “Take this, but don’t turn on the light until you’re far enough away that he can’t follow it.”

Sara glanced down at the phone he’d placed in her hand then back at him. “What about you?”

“I’ll fight him off and join you.”

I cut my eyes to the corridor leading away from us that was lined with bones and skulls. “You want us to run through the catacombs without knowing where we’re going? What if we get lost? Haven’t people died wandering under here?”

“I’ll be right behind you,” he said, then raised one eyebrow at me. “Besides, aren’t you a demi-angel? You will not die in the catacombs.”

Somehow, his confidence didn’t convince me. Then I almost smacked myself on the head. Of course! I was a demi-angel, which meant I had powers, although I couldn’t admit to understanding fully how to harness them. “I can use my energy.”

Caspiel glanced away from the demon of death for a beat. “Angelic energy won’t work on a creature who isn’t living.”

A shiver went thought me, and then a gurgling laugh from the demon convinced me to listen to Caspiel. I grabbed Sara’s hand and jerked her forward, dashing past the demon of the dead and running as fast as I could.

The demon of the dead emitted a scream of rage as we dodged his outstretched arms, and Caspiel roared with fury as he threw himself at the demon, but I tried not to focus on the sounds of their struggle or the shrieks the demon of the dead made.

Even though it made me cringe, I kept one hand on the damp bones that made up the walls to keep from running into them. The noises of the demon of the dead faded—hopefully because he’d been defeated, and after a while, there was nothing but blackness, our heavy breaths, and the cloying scent of soil and death as we hurried forward. The darkness pressed in on me and my throat tightened as I attempted to steady my breath and keep from screaming.

This had all been a terrible, horrible mistake. Chasing after Sara alone, coming into the catacombs, running off and leaving Caspiel. The only thought that kept me going was that I was running toward Dominick. If I could reach him in time, I could tell him what I knew and stop the holy war that was raging overhead.

Soon our feet were splashing in puddles of water. I slowed as Sara activated her phone’s flashlight and gasped when I saw that we were standing in ankle-deep, muddy water.

“This isn’t great,” she said, swinging the light over the wet ground and then the walls, which were no longer made of bones but instead were slick stone.

“Do you think we made a wrong turn?”

“How do I fucking know?” Her voice went up a few octaves. “Did we make any turns? It felt to me like we were running straight.”

I glanced back but there was nothing behind us but a dark corridor. There weren’t even any sounds of footsteps or heavy breathing, which made my stomach tighten. Had Caspiel defeated the demon of the dead, or was the creature lurching toward us in the dark? I shook my head, forcing that thought from my mind. It was bad enough that we were underground with no idea how to get out. If I thought about the possibility of being attacked by a demon, I might lose my cool. What little there was left of it.

“We should keep going,” I said. “We might not know what’s ahead of us, but we know what’s behind.”

Sara shivered, casting a glance over her shoulder. “Agreed.”

I looped my arm through my best friend’s as she held the light for us to walk forward, wading through the water. “I did not wear the right shoes for this.”

“That makes two of us, although neither of us knew we’d be exploring the catacombs.” Sara cut her eyes to me. “To be clear, this is not what I meant when I said I wanted to see Paris. This does not count as sightseeing.”

“If we ever get out, I don’t ever want to go underground again,” I said. “I don’t even want a house with a basement.”

Sara laughed and the noise bounced back to us. “Even my tiny apartment is looking pretty good about now.”

After trudging forward for a few more minutes, our feet were on dry ground again, although my toes squelched in my sandals with every step.

“What’s that?” Sara swung the beam of light from her phone to some metal rungs bolted into the wall.

I peered up as she pointed the light on the ceiling. “It’s a manhole cover! We can get out.”

“It’s about fucking time,” Sara muttered, pushing me toward it. “You go up first, and I’ll hold the light.”

I stole a final look back toward the tunnel. “What do you think happened to Caspiel?” He wasn’t exactly my favorite person, but he had saved our asses and stayed behind to fight off a demon of death.

Sara pressed her lips together until they were white. “He’s a demon who’s lived a long time. I’m sure he’s fine. Don’t think about it.”

Typical Sara advice. Suck it up and move on. In this case, I guess she was right. There wasn’t much we could do to help him even if we did know where he was.

I curled my hands around one of the rusty, metal rungs, tugging gently on it to make sure it would hold me. “Here goes nothing.”

Pulling myself up the ladder bolted into the stone wall, I didn’t peer down at Sara until I’d reached the top.

She gave me a thumbs up, the light from her phone wobbling. “You got this.”

With one hand clinging to the top rung, I used the other one to press on the iron manhole cover. It didn’t budge. I took a deep breath and pushed again, this time harder. I released the breath in a loud whoosh. “It won’t budge.”

Sara let out a string of curses from below. Before she could climb up after me and make her own attempt, loud noises made us both stare at the dark tunnel we’d just walked down. Even though the sounds were muffled, there were footsteps approaching fast. More than one set.

“What the hell?” Sara jumped onto the ladder and started climbing up to me, holding the phone in her mouth so she could use both hands. The light was still on, blaring in her eyes but bouncing off the rock ceiling and illuminating most of the area.

When she was directly below me, Caspiel burst from the darkness. His clothes were torn, and blood trickled down his face, but it was his eyes that made my blood run cold. They were filled with terror.

He spotted us and leaped for the ladder. “Go!”

Before I could ask him anything, the swarm of demons lurched into view. Sara climbed higher, grasping the rungs on either side of me until she was almost completely on top of me. She leaned over and pressed a palm to the manhole cover. We both pushed, but the cover only lifted a fraction, before clanging back into place.

“We can’t get it off,” I yelled to Caspiel.

He didn’t respond or pay much attention to the fact the Sara and I were clinging to the top rungs. He climbed on top of us, his body flush against Sara’s, and punched the iron cover up and off. The demons had reached the base of the ladder and were swarming over each other in attempt to get to us.

Caspiel let go of one side of the ladder and swung out so we could climb up. Sara clamored over me first, then reached her hand down and pulled me up as I climbed. I rolled onto the pavement as Caspiel emerged from below, kicking at the demons who were attempting to follow us. Sara and I pushed the nearby manhole cover across the concrete until it reached Caspiel, and he slammed it down over the hole, crunching demon fingers in the process. Blood oozed up from the sides of the iron cover as he crouched on top of it to keep it from moving.

“Thanks for the assist,” Sara said when he looked up, his chest heaving.

I braced my hands on my knees and sucked in breath, my legs trembling. Rain drops splattered the pavement around us, and when I tipped my head back the towers of Notre Dame loomed over us. Cruel, gray clouds circled the cathedral like bats around a belfry, the sky crackling as lightning erupted from within.

“We made it,” I said, standing and swiping a sweaty strand of hair off my forehead. But were we in time?