Black Howl (21 page)

“No,” Gabriel said.

“Look,” I pleaded. “Just trust me. I need the rest of you to be safely out of the castle. I’ll come back another time for the spiders.”

“No,” he repeated.

“We don’t have time to argue about it,” I said. “All of you, go.”

Wade, Samiel and J.B. carefully made their way through the hall. I turned to face the stairs and readied my magic. Gabriel stepped up beside me.

“I will not leave you,” he said. “And you cannot make me go.”

“I’ve never been able to make you do anything,” I said.

“Nor I you,” he replied. “So we are even.”

“Oh, my gosh, the two of you are just the cutest,” Beezle said. “Is there some reason why I couldn’t go with Samiel and get away from the lovefest?”

I shoved Beezle back inside my jacket. “Why can we not do anything without a running commentary?”

Beezle popped his head out again, looking disgruntled, but he didn’t say anything for a change.

The demons were getting closer. I could hear them thundering in the hall above us. My heart beat faster.

“You know, all this noise is bound to attract the spiders anyway,” Beezle said.

“I
know
,” I replied. “I want the others to get out of the castle.”

Beezle snorted. “And you think they’re going to leave without you?”

“Well, I told them to…” I said, turning to check, my voice fading.

J.B. and Samiel and Wade had gotten through the hallway without the spiders noticing them, but they all stood expectantly at the other end, beckoning to us.

“What is the point of being the leader if no one will listen to you?” I asked.

I didn’t know if Gabriel or Beezle answered, because that was when the demons poured down the steps.

There were a hell of a lot more than fifty, and I was sure that Samiel and J.B. had taken plenty out already while freeing Wade. Gabriel and I fired at them with everything we had. Demons fell screaming, acidic blood splattering on the steps and on us, burning our faces and hands. I was already covered in spider goop so I was sure I looked just delightful.

J.B. cried out behind us, and when I glanced back I saw that several of the smaller spiders were crawling through the arches behind us. J.B. and Samiel shot spells at the spiders while Wade tore several of them apart with his teeth and claws. I did not want to think about how completely gross it was to have a spider in your mouth.

“Of course,” I muttered, throwing magic at the demons. I could feel my temper rising, and the hall was lighting up. Several of the demons stopped where they stood and covered their eyes, which made it a lot easier to kill them. “Of course. Nothing can ever be easy. I can’t just rescue Wade and get out of here, no. There have to be giant…freaking…spiders…again!”

There was a sudden buildup of magical pressure, something I hadn’t felt for a long time—not since I’d fought Ramuell in the cave in the Forbidden Lands.

“Get clear,” I said, gasping for air.

“I will not…” Gabriel began.

“GET CLEAR!” I shouted, thrusting Beezle at him.

Something in my face or my voice convinced him, because he took Beezle and ran down the hallway. I didn’t stop to check if he gathered everyone else—I knew that he would.

The demons stood frozen on the stairs as light and magic burst from me like a star exploding. I let the power flow through me without fighting it, but it still hurt. It hurt to breathe; it hurt to be a conduit for something not meant to be contained inside a mortal body.

All of the demons disappeared as the light touched them, just fell to ash like a nuclear blast had hit them. Any spiders that were within the reach of the light were destroyed, too. The power inside me cut off abruptly, and I felt drained. I knew I would not be able to use my magic for a while, but
hopefully I wouldn’t need to. Maybe Amarantha’s castle was out of tricks.

There was a sudden rumbling, and chunks of stone fell out of the ceiling.

“Oh, damn,” I said, turning to run to the others, but it was already too late.

The passageway collapsed in front of me, rock raining down. I backed up, coughing, covering my mouth with my sleeve.

Now everyone was on the other side, and I had no idea how to get out. And there was far too much stone between us to communicate.

All I could hope for was that they would try to exit the castle and meet me by the portal.

“Which is what I wanted in the first place,” I muttered.

The only passage left to me was going up, so I climbed the steps, kicking piles of demon ash aside as I went. The building rumbled ominously and the stairs shifted beneath my feet. I scrabbled at the wall so that I wouldn’t fall down the stairs and get a concussion on top of everything else.

“Are you kidding? I thought J.B. said that you were bound by magic and all that,” I said to the wall. Then I rolled my eyes. “I am losing my mind. It’s all those spiders. That would put anybody over the edge. Nobody should ever have to see one giant spider, much less dozens of them over and over.”

It didn’t seem smart to continue going up when the castle might fall down at any moment, but I needed to find a window to the outside. I could fly out and get around to the front of the castle and find the others.

I sped up the steps and entered yet another hallway filled with the bodies of demons. The passage was lined with more multicolored windows.

I covered my hand as best I could with the sleeve of my coat and used the pommel of the sword to break the glass. Despite my precautions I ended up getting little cuts all over my face and hands from glass shards. I squeezed though the hole I’d broken—
must lose thirty pounds
—and emerged into the dark night.

The moon hung low over the trees. I had no idea how much time might have passed while we were inside the castle. I flew around the castle to the front door, where I hoped I’d see the others waiting for me. There was nothing except the abandoned cars and bodies that had been there when we arrived, which meant that I had to go back inside the castle to find them.

“We need some kind of magical IM-ing,” I said. I could probably text Gabriel, except that if he was fighting for his life, he doubtless would not be checking his cell phone.

The open door yawned before me, the empty foyer black and menacing. The last thing I wanted to do was go back inside, but I would never leave my husband and my friends behind. I pulled the sword from its sheath and held it before me like a talisman.

I crossed the threshold, my boots unnaturally loud in the silence. Far away inside the castle I heard the howl of a wolf.

I ran across the entryway, trying to figure out what direction the noise was coming from. And that was when I was hit from behind.

A heavy body crashed into me, sent me face-first to the ground. Fangs pierced the back of my neck and I screamed in pain. I elbowed Violet with all the strength I could muster—not much, considering how tired I was, but it was enough to make her weight shift.

I wriggled out from beneath her and rolled onto my back
as she dove at me again. I slashed out with the sword and felt the blade slice through bone. Violet screeched and fell away from me, clutching her left arm with a clawed hand. The arm hung by a few ragged strands of muscle. She glared at me in hatred.

I struggled to my feet, dizzy and bleary-eyed.

“Poison,” I gasped.

Someone trilled a laugh to my left, and I swung the sword awkwardly in the direction of this new threat.

“Yes, of course there’s poison in her fangs,” Amarantha purred. “And there is no thrall here to heal you.”

I wiped dripping sweat out of my eyes. Amarantha was just a blurry shadow in the hall. I could feel my heartstone throbbing in my chest as the poison careened through my bloodstream.

Violet lunged for me again and I swung the sword at her, both of my sweaty hands gripping the hilt so that I wouldn’t lose it. She danced backward away from the blade. I kept my eyes on her. Violet seemed more inclined to do me physical harm than Amarantha. The Queen liked to keep her hands clean.

“What will you do now, Lucifer’s child?” Amarantha taunted. “The poison will kill you long before your friends get here—if they get here. I’ve left a few obstacles in their way.”

“You really are a gigantic bitch, aren’t you?” I said. My tongue felt thick and heavy in my mouth. “That’s your son up there. Don’t you care if he lives or dies?”

Amarantha was silent for a moment. I didn’t want to steal a glance at her since all of my attention needed to be on Violet.

“Once, I would have cared,” Amarantha said finally. “But he chose his loyalty long ago.”

“Because he fulfilled his duty?” I asked. This was an argument I’d had with Azazel several times. “Because he chose not to abandon the dead to dance at your heel?”

“Yes,” she said. “He is no son of mine.”

“Well, if that’s the way you feel about it,” I said, and I turned and threw the sword at her.

She didn’t expect it, and neither did Violet. There was a moment when time seemed to slow down. The blade flew through the air and passed through her chest, throwing her backward to the floor. I saw blood pooling beneath her.

Violet howled and ran at me. I had no magic, no sword, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to stand. So I didn’t. I threw myself to one side and cleverly dodged her attack by falling to the ground. Then I kicked out with both legs as hard as I could, aiming for her knee. I’m not as strong as Samiel, but I am significantly stronger than the average person. There was a satisfying crack and she tumbled forward.

I scrambled backward just enough so that she couldn’t grab at me, but Violet was no longer interested in fighting. She was dragging herself on her one good arm and leg to her Queen’s side.

The snake on my palm wriggled in warning. The sword was still embedded in Amarantha’s body. Violet wasn’t trying to hear the Queen’s last words—she was trying to get the sword so she could chop my head off with it.

“Damn it all,” I said, trying to stand and falling again as my head swam.

I army-crawled toward Amarantha’s body as fast as I could, but I wasn’t going to make it.

Violet used one of the columns to pull up to her feet and yanked the sword from Amarantha’s body. She stood unsteadily on the dislocated knee, but her expression was
full of triumph and malice. I heard the last rattle of breath from the Queen, and the misty ectoplasmic form of her soul emerged. The soul looked as Amarantha used to, a vision of otherworldly beauty, not like the twisted demonic body Lucifer had given her.

“Kill her,” Amarantha said.

I pushed to my knees as Violet ran toward me with the sword raised. As she did, the castle began to tremble alarmingly, as if an earthquake had struck. Pieces of the ceiling rained to the ground. The magical spell that bound the castle together must have broken completely with Amarantha’s death.

I heard voices coming closer, J.B. and Gabriel, and Wade’s barking. Violet tumbled to the ground as the castle shook, the sword flying free of her hand. I crawled toward it, sickness rising in my throat, my body on fire. The poison was going to kill me before Violet had a chance.

My fingers closed around the sword. Stars filled my eyes and I rolled onto my back, coughing blood. The poison was in my lungs. It was burning me alive.

Violet closed her good hand around my wrist, tried to wrench the sword from me. We must have looked pathetic, two mauled and half-dead creatures wrestling over a sword as the building came down around our ears.

“Kill her!” Amarantha’s soul screamed.

“Shut…up,” I slurred. “I killed you so I wouldn’t have to listen to you anymore.”

Violet slashed at my face with her claws and my cheek split open. I punched her where Samiel had broken her jaw and she rolled away from me, thrashing in pain. A chunk of the ceiling landed on my stomach and all the breath whooshed out of my body.

I rolled over, knocking the rock to the floor, and tried to
fly since I couldn’t walk. But I was too tired to hold myself up and I managed to flutter only a few feet before collapsing again. I didn’t know where Violet was.

The floor cracked underneath me. I could barely see now, between the salt burning my eyes and the pain that turned them black. Even the rumbling of the castle seemed a distant thing.

“There, there, you idiot!”

Beezle. That was Beezle.

Hands underneath me, a cold wet nose pressed against my face, my body lifted and slung over a broad shoulder. I smelled apple pie baking, and heard Gabriel murmuring.

Then I felt cold air on my face, and went out.

I WOKE IN THE COURTYARD, SORE ALL OVER, GABRIEL’S lips on mine. I opened my eyes and felt everything whole again, although angelic healing doesn’t do anything for dirt and encrusted blood and spider goop all over you.

“I can’t believe you’re kissing me in this state,” I said.

“You have looked worse,” Gabriel said, smiling.

“I find that difficult to believe,” I said.

There was a crack of thunder behind me and I twisted to look at the castle. Or rather, what remained of the castle. It was nothing more than a jumble of stone and mortar now, the broken spell spewing arcs of light into the night sky.

Beezle landed on my chest and examined my face. “How did you manage to make the whole castle fall down, huh, Maddy?”

“She killed my mother,” J.B. said from behind Gabriel.

I sat up more fully, nudged Gabriel aside so I could look at J.B. He had his hands in his pockets and was staring broodily at the remains of his family court.

“I did,” I said steadily. I wouldn’t offer any excuses.

“I knew that you would,” he said. “She wouldn’t stop trying to kill you.”

“I’m sorry that I’m unreasonable about that,” I said, a tad defensive. “But people keep trying to make it a question of them or me.”

“I’m not blaming you,” he said. There was no sorrow in his voice, and his eyes were dry. “I just knew that it would happen, sooner or later.”

“Well, the upside of Destructo-Girl’s actions is that the room full of spiders is destroyed, so we can cross that off our to-do list,” Beezle said.