Incubus (48 page)

“There is no need.” He glanced down, as though mildly irritated by the blade protruding from his

chest. “The wound is fatal.”

“Don’t say that,” I breathed. I let my fingers slide forward, catching his hand. His skin was cool

and smooth. It felt almost like marble. “You can’t die.”

He looked down at our hands, then back at me, bemused. “You are mistaken.”

“I’m so—I’m so sorry,” I whispered. I felt his hand squeeze my fingers lightly. It was a

comforting gesture. I stared. He was dying, yet Senoy was comforting
me.

“It is the sacrifice required of me.” His gaze bore through me. “You are, I think, a friend to the

Sons of Adam?”

I nodded.

“Then you must be strong, Daughter of Lilith.” His gaze softened. I detected a deep sadness in the

look he gave me. “In this fight, many more sacrifices will be required.” His eyes seemed to cloud. His

strength faded. I caught his shoulder before he hit the floor. As gently as I could, I lowered him to the

ground, cradling his head in my lap.

Senoy closed his eyes as another spasm of pain wracked his body. I laid my hand against his

cheek, brushing the hair back from his face. He let out a long breath, his features easing. And then the

hand cradling his wound fell away, and he grew still.

“Senoy?” I whispered. There was no flicker behind his eyes. I bit my lip and looked up. Karayan

was nowhere to be seen. Lucas was crouched over Cassie, trying to comfort her. Dad hadn’t returned.

I was the only one who’d noticed the angel die.

The floor of the sanctuary bucked beneath us. I lurched as the stone floor heaved. It split into a

web of fractures, radiating out from Senoy’s body across the sanctuary, bypassing only the seal. The

force of the fractures kicked up chunks of stone and dust. I couldn’t summon the energy to lift my

hands and shield my face.

The mission’s front doors slammed open behind us. I heard Cassie scream outside. I couldn’t look

up from Senoy’s face.

“What’s happening?” Cassie was wailing. “What was that?!” I heard Lucas’s steady voice as he

tried to calm her, but I couldn’t make out the words. “No!” Cassie’s voice was shrill, unappeased.

“Tell me what’s going on!” I don’t know what Lucas told her. I couldn’t focus on his voice.

Senoy’s features were smooth now. Death had chased the pain from them, but it felt wrong.

“We need you,” I whispered.

“Lilitu,” Gretchen shrieked behind me.

I tore my eyes away from Senoy’s still face. Karayan, cloaked, must have been trying to slip past

the Guard out the mission’s front doors. She spun at Gretchen’s scream, her cloak vanishing. Dad and

Hale had their daggers out in half a second.

“No!” Lucas launched himself between Karayan and the Guard, hands held high. “She’s on our

side,” he shouted. I watched this all as if trapped in some kind of trance.

Karayan retreated back into the sanctuary, re-cloaked, darting for the secret door and her escape.

“She’s getting away,” Gretchen hissed.

“She saved our lives,” Lucas insisted. “It was Seth. Seth was the incubus.” That got their attention.

As Lucas recounted the whole story, I noticed Karayan stumbling away from the secret door. Someone

had just stepped through it.

Thane. He did not see Karayan through her cloak. But he saw me. His eyes shifted to the dead

angel, still cradled in my lap, then to the vessel planted squarely in the center of the seal.

“You stole the vessel,” he said quietly. He stepped into the sanctuary and I noticed something

hanging from his hands. Another sword. Semangelof’s sword. I stared at it, sickly mesmerized. “You

opened the seal.”

My eyes flicked from the sword to Thane’s face. His features could have been carved from granite.

A cold fire burned in his eyes—righteous indignation. Thane walked toward me, adjusting his grip on

the sword.

“Thane!” Dad’s desperate cry stabbed through the haze of my thoughts. When I saw his face, a

wrenching regret twisted my insides. He’d had such faith in me, and I’d failed the Guard. Dad shoved

through the others and pounded forward, but he was too far away. He wouldn’t make it in time.

Thane hefted the sword above me. His muscles tensed as he started the downward swing. Dad

threw a hand out toward me, but he was at least 10 yards away.

“Stop!” Karayan caught Thane’s arm, uncloaking herself as she did so. Thane recoiled, but

Karayan didn’t release him. “She’s not your enemy. And neither am I.”

Dad hauled me off the ground, spinning me away from Thane. He enfolded me in his arms,

choking back a painful sob of relief. I could see Thane and Karayan over his shoulder.

“You plague me,” Thane whispered to Karayan. “Each time I think I’ve dug you out of my heart, I

find your claws buried still deeper.” His voice grew tighter. “You are the single greatest failing of my

life.”

Karayan winced, but she didn’t let him go. She reached up and eased the sword out of Thane’s

grip.

With a growl of rage, Dad moved. He pushed me behind him and drew his daggers. “Thane.” The

murder in his voice made the hair on my scalp prickle.

Karayan spun to face my dad, shielding Thane from his wrath. She held the sword point down,

offering it up to him. I felt Dad tense, preparing to strike whether or not Karayan was standing in his

way.

“Don’t,” I said, grabbing his arm. “Dad, please.” After a tense moment, Dad relaxed.

Thane glared at Karayan. “You think this makes you an ally?” he sneered.

“I think you need all the help you can get,” she snapped back. Then she looked at me, as though

uncertain she was making the right decision. “Assuming you still want my help.”

I smiled, a tiny hope rekindling in my heart. “I do.”

Gretchen and Hale moved forward to join us. Lucas followed them a few moments later. Only

Cassie held back. She watched us all with a numb expression on her face, still huddled by the

mission’s front doors.

Dad eyed Karayan. “You’re thinking about coming back to the Guard?”

“Not my idea,” Karayan said. She jerked her chin at me. “Blame her.”

The Guardsmen turned to me. I glanced at Hale. “We need her,” I said.

Hale gave me a searching look, then turned and offered his hand to Karayan. “Here’s hoping I

don’t live to regret this.”

“Yeah. You and me both.” She took his offered hand and they shook. Everyone else stared in

silence. “Well, don’t everybody cheer all at once,” Karayan said.

A tiny smile tugged at the corners of Dad’s mouth. He held out a hand. Unsure, Karayan took it.

“Welcome back,” he said, giving her hand a firm shake.

Lucas clapped a hand on Karayan’s shoulder. “I owe you one,” he said.

“Two, actually, but I’ve never known Guardsmen to be terribly good at math.” Karayan’s smile

was tentative. For the first time I’d ever seen, Karayan looked a little uncomfortable in her own skin.

She didn’t seem to know what to do with her hands. Finally, she shoved them in the back pockets of

her jeans. She glanced at Thane, and everyone seemed to hold their breath.

Before Thane could speak, the air cracked with a sound like thunder.

Sansenoy appeared before us—not the scruffy old man I’d first met, but revealed in his true form.

He towered over us, a gleaming pillar of light.

The others—who’d never seen an angel in his own aspect—scattered back, falling to the floor in

the face of his radiance. As my eyes adjusted, I could make out his figure, the chiseled cut of his jaw,

the perfect symmetry of his form. I’d seen him revealed like this once before. It still took my breath

away.

He turned away from us, kneeling by the side of his fallen comrade.

“Senoy.” His voice reverberated with sorrow. It broke something within me, and in moments I

could feel hot tears slipping down the sides of my face. “Rest, my friend.”

Sansenoy laid a hand to the other angel’s forehead. Suddenly Senoy’s form began to transform into

tiny pinpoints of golden light. The motes swirled up and away from us, dissipating high above our

heads. The air filled with a
presence.
I recognized it as Senoy’s, even though I’d only spoken those

few words to him. It moved through me, filling me with hope. Faith. Courage. And then it moved on,

and I felt... bereft. I let out a long sigh. Mine was not the only one.

As the last of the lights faded, the strange Lilitu weapon fell to the ground with a dull clang.

Sansenoy stood. The light of his angel aspect faded. Moments later, when he again turned to face

us, I recognized the scruffy old man I’d first met on the street last year. His expression was solemn.

“The seal is open,” he said simply. “The ground for the final battle has been chosen.”

“Are you planning on joining us for this fight?” Thane said, stepping forward. “Or are you going to

leave us to our own defenses yet again?”

“You do not face this fight alone.” Sansenoy glanced at me.

“Her?” Thane’s voice jumped an octave higher. “She is the reason your friend was killed. She is

the reason the seal is open!”

“That’s insane,” Dad said, anger flushing into his cheeks.

“Is it?” Thane asked. “Do you really think we would be standing here if she had heeded even one

of our warnings?”

“We’re here because you insisted we keep her in the dark until you’d confirmed your suspicions,”

Dad growled.

Sansenoy ignored the men. He looked at me, waiting. Waiting for my explanation.

“I trusted Seth,” I said, my words coming haltingly. Everyone else fell silent. “Even when it meant

hurting my friends. I gave him my blood for the ritual. And I fought Senoy because I thought—” but

here my words cut off. “Thane isn’t wrong,” I finished in a whisper. Dad’s forehead furrowed with

tension. Thane relaxed, a smug smile of vindication settling on his face.

Sansenoy looked at me for a long moment, then nodded, as though answering a question for

himself. He turned to the others. “Gird yourselves, Sons of Adam,” he said finally. “You will need all

your strength for the coming fight.”

“You—you’re going to let her live?” Thane’s voice sputtered. “After what she’s done?” Sansenoy

gave Thane a level look meant to end the conversation. Thane shrank back. But when Sansenoy turned

to leave, he couldn’t help himself. “Why?” he asked.

Sansenoy paused, then turned back. He gave me a smile that flooded me with peace. “Because I

have faith in what she may yet do,” he said.

Epilogue

Christmas Eve brought with it a piercing cold that seemed to hover over Puerto Escondido like a

shroud. No wind stirred the leafless branches of the oak trees lining our street. The sky was black and

cloudless, and I could see the stars glitter from one horizon to the next. I stepped onto the front porch

of the Guard’s house, needing a respite from the commotion inside. I closed the door, muting the

sounds of conversation within. The silence was a balm to my nerves.

Marx’s team had returned to Puerto Escondido earlier in the day. There had been many warm

reunions as Matthew reconnected with the members of his old unit. They’d spent the day catching

each other up to speed. Marx told us they’d managed to locate just 93 Guardsmen on the continent.

The last of the units they’d made contact with were on their way.

Hale had told Marx and his team about the seal. Since the night of the solstice, 50 Guardsmen had

taken up residence in the mission. They watched the seal 24-seven, heavily armed and ready to turn

back anything that made the attempt to cross into our world. But, since Seth’s retreat, not one single

Lilitu had entered from their plane.

They were waiting for something. We just didn’t know what.

Feeling another surge of anxiety, I turned my eyes to the neighborhood.
Luminarias
lined the front

walks of most of the houses on our street, simple paper lanterns made from candles and paper lunch

sacks. They glowed merrily despite the cold, scenting the air with the comforting smell of melting

wax. I took a deep breath, the freezing air stinging my nose and the back of my throat.

My mind turned back to Royal. He’d been a constant fixture in my thoughts these last few days.

One night down.
The words haunted me. And Seth was still out there. He knew what Royal’s

friendship meant to me. Which made Royal a target, an easy way for Seth to take his revenge. Once

again, I put my friends at risk, simply by caring about them. Cassie—she’d fled from us that night,

unable or unwilling to accept what she’d seen. Maybe that was for the best. Maybe if she stayed away

from me for good, she’d be safe. The thought stabbed through my heart, leaving an aching emptiness

in its wake.

The door opened behind me. It was Lucas.

“Hey,” I said. Lucas had been distant since the mission. At first, I’d held out hope that everything

we’d experienced together that night would—I don’t know. Earn Lucas’s forgiveness for what I’d

done to him. But once we’d retreated to the relative safety of our homes, Lucas had shut me out again.