Heir of Night by Emily Goodwin

Chapter 33

“Ignis,” I shout, thrusting my hands out, throwing a ball of red-hot fire at War. The red roan horse slides to a stop and rears, but the Horseman remains seated in his saddle. He’s only paces behind the first warding line. The horse stomps his hoof, and War holds up his sword again, bringing it down against the warding with a harrowing clank that reverberates through my entire body, high-pitched ringing so loud it sends a searing pain through my head. The ringing gets louder, and the sound of a hundred voices screaming, crying, and begging for mercy surrounds me.

He hits the warding again, and I cover my ears as I fall to the ground, crying out in pain. It’s like a stake is being driven between my eyes. Images of refugees running through a barren landscape flash before me, and I feel a mother’s fear and desperation. She’s clinging onto a toddler, coughing from the dust kicked up by others’ feet.

“Lucas,” I pant, pushed down by the weight of the screams. It’s suffocating, and another jolt of pain webs through me, hurting so much I think I might throw up. I drop to my knees, and I’m there, in the desert, watching everything unfold.

The mother is stopped at a tall fence, with a crowd of others just as desperate for an escape as she is. There’s a truck on the other side of the fence, loaded up with people trying to escape.

“One more!” a man shouts. “I have room for one more!”

“My daughter!” the mother cries. “Take my daughter.”

“Callie!” Lucas grabs me around the chest, picking me up. The door slams shut behind us, and some of the screams start to fade. “Callie, look at me.”

I force my eyes open. I’m home, in my living room, not in the desert. “War. He’s outside.”

“I know.” Lucas cradles me to him. “I saw.”

That means he really is here on the physical plane. Julian was right: they were planning something big. Heart pounding, I snake a shaking arm around Lucas’s broad shoulder. “I don’t know what to do.”

“It’s gonna be okay,” he tries to assure me.

“Don’t lie,” I quaver. “He’s outside, Lucas. And I don’t think the wardings are going to hold.” War hits his sword against the warding again, and the high-pitched ringing rattles my head. Scarlet is at the front door, barking and growling like mad.

“You don’t hear that?” I say through gritted teeth. “It’s like a million bells screaming at me that the end is coming, and it is, it is coming, Lucas.” My familiars shadow around me, and I grab Lucas’s arms. “It’s right outside our door.”

Lucas holds my gaze, deep blue eyes saying what he doesn’t want to. We have to strike now. If we don’t, War will. We knew this was coming, and we were kidding ourselves thinking we could get out unscathed.

“I’ll distract him,” Lucas says. “Get to the Covenstead.”

“Lucas, no!” I hold onto him tighter, not wanting him to go after War alone.

“We don’t have a choice. Go, now.” He gets up, pulling his hands from my grip. I take a telekinetic hold of his feet, making it so he can’t move.

“The sun hasn’t even set yet.”

“It’s close enough.” His fangs come down. “Go, Callie. Get to the Covenstead and warn the others.”

“Not without you.” I quickly shake my head back and forth. “I’m not leaving you.”

“Go!” he bellows and yanks one of his feet up, fighting against my magic. Pandora nudges me forward, and it’s enough to break my hold on Lucas. In the blink of an eye, he speeds to the front door, throwing it open.

“No!” I scream and race after him. Scarlet runs out of the house with him, barking and growling. Purple twilight stretches across the sky above us, and Lucas moves so fast he’s just a blur in the fading light.

War is still sitting upon his horse, sword held out at his side. But this time, he’s not alone. A dozen demons are marching through the front yard, chanting in an ancient language. Lucas goes right for War, slamming his body into the horse’s side.

Nostrils flaring, the horse sidesteps. Lucas runs around it again, and War raises his arm up. Lucas suddenly stiffens, and tendrils of black smoke rise from the ground, twisting around his legs, keeping him from being able to move.

War looks right at me, red eyes glowing beneath his tarnished helmet. He twists his arm, aiming the pointy end of his sword at Lucas. He’s moving slow on purpose, making sure I know exactly what he’s about to do.

I throw out my hand, hitting him with a ball of pure white energy. It fizzles against the breastplate of his suit of armor, only slightly pushing him back. The horse nudges his nose against the invisible wall of my warding, and the same horrible, high-pitched noise rings out.

It stops me in my tracks, pain making stars dot my vision. I fight against it, trying to conjure another energy ball. But War is too strong. He swings his sword down, and I scream.

“Lucas!” I reach deep inside and draw on my angel powers, shutting out the noise just in time to see Scarlet jump in front of Lucas. War’s sword plunges into her chest. She lets out a yelp and falls to the ground, knocking Lucas over with her.

She doesn’t get up.

“No,” I breathe and grab the porch railing, using it to yank myself forward. Hellfire springs from the ground before me, and I thrust my free hand out, sending it right at War. Pain immediately seizes my stomach, and I fight through it, fumbling my way down the steps. The demonic chanting grows louder, and I fuel the hellfire with raw energy. Blue sparks crackle and pop from the fire. One lands on War’s horse, and the horse takes a quick pace back.

“Lucas,” I pant, seeing him get to his feet. He picks up Scarlet’s limp body, throwing her over his shoulder.

“Get inside!” He rushes to me, hooking his other arm around my shoulders and dragging me in. He slams the door behind us and lays Scarlet on the foyer rug.

“No.” I suck in a ragged breath and drop to my knees. Blood stains her gray fur, and tears spring to my eyes.

“She’s a hellhound. She should heal.” Lucas wipes his bloody hands on the front of his shirt. I run my fingers over her head, waiting for the life to come back to her eyes.

But it doesn’t.

“Come on, baby,” I say with trembling breath. She is a hellhound, but she’s not in her true form. I slip my fingers under her collar and undo the buckle. It falls to the ground, and nothing happens. My heart plummets to my stomach, and Lucas kneels down next to me, putting a hand on my shoulder. “No,” I cry and lean forward, falling onto Scarlet.

The air shifts, and I jerk up. Scarlet transforms from wolfhound to hellhound. The stab wound on her chest is gone, and she opens her eyes. “Scarlet!” Slowly, she gets to her feet and shakes her head. I throw my arms around her neck, so fucking relieved.

Calllliiieee.

Gasping, I let go of Scarlet and scramble up. “Paimon,” I whisper, eyes full of fear. “He’s here.”

“Where?” Lucas growls, flashing his fangs.

“I don’t know. I heard him.”

You had your chance, Callie. Now it’s my turn.

I squeeze my eyes closed and shake my head. “I think he’s in my mind again.”

“Fuck.” Lucas pulls me away from the front door. War hits the warding again, and I can feel my protective spells start to crack. “Get him out.”

“I have to use my angel powers.”

“Do it, Callie.”

Holding out my hands, I pull power from my very core, and a blast of energy erupts from me, knocking a framed wedding photo to fall off the wall. War bangs against the warding a final time and it cracks, sounding like the glass shattering when the photo fell.

“They’re closing in on the house.” Lucas steps in front of me, ready to take on every single demon outside to try and keep me safe.

“Clever girl,” someone says, and Lucas and I both whirl around.

“You heard that, right?” I ask him. “It’s Paimon…I…think. Where is he?”

“I am neither here nor there,” he sneers. His voice is clearer spoken out loud than the whisper I hear in my head.

“Ugh,” I huff. “You’re even lamer in person than I imagined.” I inch forward, putting one hand on Scarlet’s shoulder and reaching for Lucas with the other. Do you sense anything? I mentally ask my familiars. Binx is in the foyer and lets me know dark, depressive energy is coming from the yard. War and the demons have crossed the first warding.

“What do you want?” Lucas glowers.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Paimon replies. “The same thing others have sought but never found.”

“If you say you want Callie, I will rip your fucking throat out before you get a chance to lay even a finger on her.” Lucas pushes me back again, keeping me between the wall and his body.

Paimon laughs, and the negative energy Binx warned us about starts to creep in, able to be felt through the walls of my house. War and the demons are stopped behind the line of my second warding, and they’ve all grown silent.

“Of course I want her, the impossible child. The one born of light and dark, the one weak enough to be controlled yet able to sit on the throne and command Hell.”

“Listen, asshole,” I start. “Things didn’t work out so well for the last demon who tried it.”

“I am aware,” Paimon goes on, voice getting a little louder as he draws closer. He’s astral projecting, and I have no idea if he can project into the house. When I saw him in the woods earlier today, he was right outside the warding. Now that line is gone, and he can get closer. I’ve spelled my wardings to keep anyone or anything out if they wish to do me harm. It took years to figure out how to tweak the spell to include non-corporeal entities in its protection.

But astral projections? Technically, it’s not a spirit. Bael wasn’t able to cross the line, yet his powers worked, and he was able to summon and send monsters after us.

“I’ve watched others try and fail,” Paimon continues. “I’ve learned from their mistakes, and if you haven’t noticed, I’ve brought insurance.” His voice is louder again, and both Lucas and I turn. “Demons made just for me and the promise of Hell on earth once I rule. And why stop there?”

My blood runs cold. One of the reasons the other archangels don’t want to allow Nephilim to live is because they can enter both Heaven and Hell. If Paimon can use me to take over Hell, he can use to me to take over Heaven as well.

“How does astral projection work?” Lucas whispers.

“It, um…it’s complicated.” I blink and think back to my senior year at the Academy when I came up with my own astral projection spell. I scored incredibly well, and Ruby was sour about it for weeks. Before I could come up with the spell, I had to know exactly how astral projection worked so I wouldn’t project myself somewhere I couldn’t escape from.

“You need to have a connection to wherever you’re going. It came be something as simple as a memory or even a well-studied photo of a location you’ve never been to.”

“What’s Paimon’s connection?”

My lips part, and I look at Lucas in horror for a half second. “It’s me.”