Desolate (Desolation) (30 page)

“Your mother is with Odin now. She is in Asgard, a place of great beauty and peace.”

Miri’s tears renewed.

After a moment, I uttered the words I hoped with all my heart were true. “And Desi is not lost yet. She is, only if we let her go. Only if we give up on her.”

Oh, Odin. Let it be true.

Miri pulled out of my arms and swiped at her cheeks. At last she nodded. “I’m ready.”

And so I withdrew my Halo, but kept my sword.

The others came back into view, and I found all of them with the courageous look of determination on their faces and weapons—gifts from Fahria judging by their appearance—in their hands.

“Let’s kick some demon ass.” James broke into a run, straight across the parking lot, straight to the cemetery, with Miri, Cornelius and Longinus following. Fahria waited a beat, looking at me, before she disappeared in a flash of light.

Their courage, their fierce love for their friend, for my beloved, threatened to disarm me.
I will free you, my love.

I took to the sky, every thought only for her.

chapter forty-nine

Michael

I circled above the fray where Shadow fell upon Valkyrie, and humans fought, some with, some against the dark and vicious genii. The genii had the look of chiseled granite, and they moved like animated stone-creatures. Even Longinus struggled against them, their rock-like skin resistant to the weapons he used against them.

All around me, sparks, whisps of light and dark, filled the air like a tornado and far more deadly.

I spotted Desi standing on the crypt, overlooking the battle. Loki stood beside her. He looked up and smiled. He saw me. He knew my purpose.

He spread his arms in welcome.

I have never been one to delay the inevitable, so I steeled myself against what was to come and flew to meet him.

In the seconds it took me to descend, Desi had abandoned her human form and embraced the black and brutal guise of a demon. Her Shadow stretched up and away, her wings beat a maelstrom of wind. It broke my heart to see her thus, because I knew this darkness didn’t define her, even though she wished it did.

Loki wore the robes of a prince. I had a moment of memory, a glimpse of how it used to be when he and I were friends. A time before his pride and greed got the better of him.

But that Gardian was long gone. Perhaps he no longer existed at all. Though, if I had learned anything through this ordeal, it was that hope was the one commodity I could never afford to trade. Even when the situation seemed impossible, there was always hope that things could change. And things can change in a heartbeat.

I alighted beside my former prince and the love of my heart. My feet had barely touched the surface before she was on me, wielding the spear she had used to save me—the same weapon that had given Loki access to her heart. I ducked in time, her swing making a whooshing sound as it caught the air where my head had been a millisecond before.

I turned toward her, the beating of my heart and Loki’s laughter the only sounds I heard. Everything else fell away—the fighting on the ground, the sound of the Valkyrie’s battle cries, the sound of James’ shouts and Cornelius’ prayers.

I lunged upward with my sword, but she spun away from me, the razor-sharp edge of her wing catching me in the chin. I hissed as my skin sliced open, but I had no time to block every blow—I knew my love and her ability in a fight. I would have many more injuries before this thing was over.

As she finished her spin, drawing her spear back so could lunge at me; I sliced my blade through her right wing. She cried out in pain and anger, deciding at the last second to take her staff sideways—knocking me in my ear—rather than lunging forward like I expected.

I reached out and grabbed the front of her shirt and pulled her to me, trapping her staff between us, the tip of my blade poised beneath her chin. I searched her face, her eyes, for my love, but she was not there. Loki had buried her spirit so deeply beneath his chains that all that stared back at me was the dark and empty eyes of a demon.

She had her left hand clasped around the shaft of her spear, near her shoulder, inches from my face. I saw the ring there, a nothing-looking sort of thing. Big and ugly, it did not belong on the hand of my beloved.

“Oh, my love,” I whispered. In that moment of weakness she lifted her left elbow as if she’d strike me with it, but while I prepared to meet her blow she spun to her right, shoving her right elbow into my face instead. She kicked up and spun in the air, landing with the staff lying across her arm, ready to attack again. I stumbled back from the blow to my face, my ears ringing.

“I am not your love,” she said in the thick, sibilant voice of a demon.

“Oh, you once were,” Loki injected, laughter coating his voice. He’d conjured a throne on which to sit, ankle over knee, goblet in hand.

While Desi looked at him, I thrust all doubt from my mind and threw myself into the air.

I landed at her back, slashing at her wings. She screamed and crumpled beneath my blows, rolling away across the rooftop until she had enough room to jump to her feet. She drew in her Shadow and I did the same until we stood. Just her. Just me.

She whipped her spear in front of her, spinning it like a wheel. Turn after turn, the sound of the wood whipping the air whooshing all around us. I watched her eyes. She watched mine. She had always been a diligent fighter, always excelled at outwitting her opponent.

Without warning her spinning stopped and she thrust the spear at me, its deadly tip aimed directly for my heart. Absent of thought, I swung wide with my blade and cut off the tip of the spear—disconnecting the spearhead that Longinus had guarded for more than two centuries, and removing the deadliest part of the weapon.

I did not for once think this made my victory sure. Desi still had many skills at her disposal.

With a fierce cry, she thrust the staff into my sternum, knocking the wind out of me. I stumbled back, hand clasped to my chest while I gasped for breath. She came at me with relentless determination, forcing me to back up, to come closer and closer to the edge of the roof.

I knew it, and yet I continued to shuffle backward while I fought for air.

Desi tapped me again with the butt of her staff. Continued to walk me to the edge of the roof. And when I finally stumbled over, I heard Loki clap his hands.

I landed hard on my back, staring up at the evening sky, lights dancing before my eyes. Desi jumped from the roof and stood looking down on me. Her staff rested quietly on her arm. I didn’t kid myself that she recognized me now—I saw nothing of the girl I loved in her expression. I grasped the hilt of my sword, grateful it had not been knocked out of my hand during my fall, and considered what my next move should be.

Miri stumbled into my line of sight. I stiffened, afraid she would come into Desi’s purview—but it was my own reaction that gave her away. Desi smiled and toed me with her boot, making certain I looked at her. Made eye contact with her. Knew her intentions.

“Miri!” Desi called. She stepped between Miri and a pale-skinned girl with sharpened teeth and black lips, a knife held low in her hand. 

“Back off, Vamp-Girl,” Desi said, spinning her staff in front of her in warning.

Vamp-Girl blinked in confusion. “But—”

Desi smacked her on the side of her head with the staff and the girl collapsed to the ground. And then she laughed.

“Desi,” Miri said as Desi turned toward her. Miri fell into her arms. “I’m sorry,” she cried. “I’m so sorry. It’s just—it’s just . . .”

Desi looked at me over Miri’s shoulder. “Shh. It’s okay,” she soothed in her normal voice.

I climbed slowly to my feet, wary, ready to leap into action.

“None of that matters anymore,” Desi said.

I knew the moment before she acted what Desi planned to do. I sprang into motion, fear for Miri’s life spurring me to act faster than I thought I could.

Desi stepped back, her hands rising to the side of Miri’s head. She grinned at me. I lunged forward as Desi began to put pressure on Miri’s skull.

I was out of time.

I dove between them, shoved Miri to the ground and Desi against the crypt. The stone trembled behind her, some of it crumbled to dust. My beloved laughed, the dark, three-toned sound of a demon, a Shadow.

“What’s going on?” Miri screamed from behind me.

“She is not herself,” I said so quietly I doubted Miri heard. I did not let my gaze leave Desi’s face. I paced between her and Miri, trying to catch my breath. But it was not to be.

Desi embraced her Shadow and back-fisted me, sending me flying fifteen feet to her right. Ignoring the pain, I was on my feet seconds after hitting the ground, but I was too far away, I’d taken too long—Desi had the hand of her Shadow wrapped around Miri’s throat. Miri’s feet scrabbled in the dirt, her hands clasped at her neck.

“Desi!” But I felt so far away. As I ran, I looked for the others, for Fahria or one of her sisters, but there was no one—they were all engaged elsewhere.

And then Desi stumbled back, her Shadow gone, her eyes wide with fright.

I skidded to a stop. Saw what Desi saw.

There in the dirt, her hands at her throat and gasping for breath, sat Lucy.

“You can’t be here,” Desi whispered. “It can’t be you.” She took another step backward. “I killed you.”

Miri-who-was-now-Lucy climbed to her feet and moved toward Desi. “Oh, baby. How many times do I gotta tell you? You didn’t kill me. Evil killed me. And you are not evil.”

Desi had backed all the way to the wall. I inched my way closer.

“I am evil,” she said.

She clenched her hands into fists at her side. Open. Close. I drew nearer, my focus on her left hand. I only needed to slip the ring from her finger.

“No, baby. You’re not evil. You never have been—no matter what your daddy said.” Lucy now stood a few feet away from Desi. I could feel the war in Desi’s heart, feel the way she longed to believe in Lucy’s words.

She turned her face in my direction and there,
there
, I saw her presence in her eyes.

“Michael?”

“Yes, my love.” I stepped closer. One more step and her wrist would be within my grasp. “I am here.”

Tears welled up in her eyes. “I’m so cold,” she said. “What’s happening to me?”

“It is the ring, my love. Take it off.”

“Take it off, baby. That’s all you need to do.”

Desi’s eyes, wild and wide, flew from me to Lucy and back again. She held her hand out in front of her, splayed her fingers wide. With trembling fingers she reached to remove the ring.

“Remove it, and you will die,” Loki said from behind Lucy. He drew his robe wide behind him and it sliced through Lucy’s spirit, separating her from Miri. In a flash of light Lucy was gone and Miri had fallen to the ground, still, and unmoving.

chapter fifty

Desi

I have no time nor care for thought.

There is only action. Only Father’s command.

Only power.

Destruction.

Desolation.

I see the girl, Miri, as she kneels before me, her frail human hands trying, uselessly, to lessen my grip.

I only squeeze tighter.

And then something changes.

A flash of light.

A burst of knowledge, of something warm and foreign, something totally unwelcomed.

And now the girl who kneels before me isn’t Miri at all.