Mortal Sin (63 page)

Serena was lying on the opposite side of the gym, trying to get up. She’d been injured. Moira started towards her half-sister, but didn’t see the
Conoscenza
anywhere. She closed her eyes briefly and felt the energy in the room, trying to find the damn book. That demonic book was the root of all this death and destruction.

Someone touched her shoulder and she pivoted away, ready to stab whoever it was.

“Skye, thank God. Where’s the book?”

“Under the cloth.” She jerked her head toward a make-shift altar covered by a black cloth inside a cast circle in the middle of the gym.

“Anthony and Phineas are dying in that thing,” Skye said. “Serena called it Greed.”

“Give me a minute.”

“They don’t have a minute!”

Moira pulled away from Skye. She could go in and battle Greed, but if Anthony was right, once she destroyed the book, Greed would be sucked back to Hell. If she battled Greed, it would give Serena time to retrieve the book and disappear.

And then there was the matter of Lily holding onto the other sins. Moira had no idea where Wrath was, but hoped it was still in Jezebel’s Blade.

Moira ran to the altar as she cut into her arm. She didn’t have time to question her decision or consider her options. It was now or never.

She pulled back the black cloth, opened the book, and smeared her blood on a page. She had no idea if it was enough.

Nothing happened.

“No!” Serena screamed. She got up and staggered toward Moira.

Fiona and Matthew stopped fighting and stared wide-eyed at Moira.

Moira remembered the prayer Rafe had told her at the mission.

She said, “
Ex ordine caeli, et eiecti sunt vincti! Ex ordine caeli, et eiecti sunt vincti!”

As she spoke, the words in the book disappeared. She flipped to another page, and those words were fading as well.

It was working. She almost didn’t believe it, but the demonic ink was disappearing before her eyes.

The gray centaur-like fog spread throughout the gym, swirling like a tornado, an almost human-like scream bellowing from deep in its form. It went faster and faster then suddenly burst into flames. A rain of sulfuric ash fell over the entire gym.

But the demon was gone.

“Lily,” Moira said and turned to the young girl.

Lily was having a seizure and Gideon was holding her, preventing her from hurting herself.

Guilt poured through Moira. If Lily died, she would fail Father Philip. She was supposed to protect her.

She rushed to the girl’s side and took her hand. “Lily! Fight. Father Philip wants you to fight.
I
want you to fight! You’re strong.”

“That’s my life’s work!” Serena sobbed. “You ruined me!”

“Moira!” Rico shouted from across the gym.

Serena pointed to a dagger on the floor and pulled it to her using the power of her mind. Moira, too late, recognized it as Jezebel’s Blade. Serena had it in her hand and ran toward Moira. She jumped away from Lily to draw Serena’s wrath toward her.

Her sister was wild, unfocused, and full of rage. The knife shimmered. Moira used Serena’s momentum against her, letting her run toward her. Serena attempted to plunge the knife into her chest, but Moira sidestepped and tripped her. The tip of the blade cut into Moira’s shoulder as Serena fell. Searing pain brought her to her knees.

Matthew pulled the knife from Serena’s grasp before either Moira or Serena could stop him. The others in his coven moved to the corners, away from where he circled Fiona.

Moira had never seen her mother so weak. She looked older than a great-grandmother, and the long, flowing dress she wore hung loosely on her stooped frame. Pity and regret filled her. Was this who her mother was in her soul? A twisted, broken, old woman with nothing left?

Moira had feared Fiona more than anything in Hell because Fiona was her mother. Physical pain could be forgotten and healed, but the emotional damage of years of magic, sacrifices, knowing that what Fiona did had been because of Moira. She’d conceived Moira so Fiona could attain some gift from the Underworld, and every step of the way, every promise to demons, every murder, every spell, was all to force Moira to fulfill what Fiona saw as her destiny.

And when Moira turned away, Fiona had snapped.

“Mother,” Moira said quietly, “you’ve lost. Leave before you die.”

“No,” Fiona said. “I can not lose. I will not be defeated!”

Matthew glared at her. “You bitch. You ruined everything. We’ve worked for years to be granted access to the Tree of Life, and your insane paranoia and jealousy destroyed our carefully created ritual.”

“Paranoia! You and Serena plotted against me. You planned all of this without me.”

“Because you are sick. You wouldn’t have survived.”

“This was all supposed to be to save me!” Fiona cried.

“No. It was supposed to be for all of us. You’re selfish, Fiona.”

Fiona attempted to force Matthew to his knees. The magic visibly drained her, and chunks of hair began to fall to the floor. Matthew didn’t waver as he crossed over to Fiona. He grabbed her. “I could have loved you for eternity.”

Moira shouted, “No! Matthew, don’t!”

He ignored Moira and stabbed Fiona in the stomach, then pulled the knife out. She slid to the gym floor, her hands trying to stop the blood as it seeped out, turning pink in the water.

Serena screamed in anguish.

A dark wisp flew past Moira and wrapped itself around Fiona. Did anyone else see it? Moira glanced around as she pulled herself up. The wound from Jezebel’s blade still stung and bled, but she moved toward her mother. Or the shell that had once been the most powerful witch on Earth.

The dark wisp penetrated Fiona; her body shook in what Moira thought of as death throes, and then the wisp reappeared, bigger and deeper, then disappeared.

“Mother…” Serena pulled Fiona’s body to her and sobbed. “How could you, Dad? How could you?”

“I did it for you! For us!”

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

Gideon called out for Moira. She limped over to him. “Something’s happening to Lily.”

Lily had stood up, but her eyes were unfocused.

“The Sins are still here,” Moira said. “I only saw one destroyed.” She went to the book and saw only half the words were gone. She turned to the back of the book and rubbed as much of her blood into the pages as she could.

Rico appeared at her side. Where had he come from? “Moira, you’re severely cut. You have to stop this bleeding.”

“I have to destroy this book!”

Rico pulled her away. “Not if it kills you.”

Matthew pointed to her and Rico. “Serena, look at them! If there is anyone to blame, it’s your sister and the people she aligned herself with.”

Matthew rushed them with the blade high over his head. “Your deaths will be our salvation,” he said, followed by a spell that chilled Moira.

Rico jumped in front of Moira and pulled out his dagger, but Matthew was running full force.

Suddenly, a gunshot rang out and Matthew fell to the ground, only feet from them, a bullet hole in the side of his head.

Moira turned and saw Phineas on his stomach, a gun in his hand.

Silence fell over the gym.

“Lily! Fight back!” Gideon’s voice broke through the silence. “Fight, Lily!”

Moira turned. Lily collapsed into Gideon’s arms. Pouring from her prone body was a dark black mist, similar to how Greed had looked. The mist grew exponentially with every passing moment. Three distinct shapes took form, and Moira instantly recognized Envy and Lust. They howled in pain, growing until the filled the gym. Their foul stench was suffocating.

“We have to go,” Rico said. “Now.” He put his arm around Moira and started for the doors.

Then the gym began to shake like an earthquake and they fell to the ground.

But it didn’t stop.

#

Rafe tackled Kyle as he fled across the school. He immediately wrapped a devil’s cuff around Kyle’s hands and cinched it tight.

“Who are you?” Rafe demanded.

Kyle laughed. “I should have figured you’d ruin everything again.”

“Jeremiah.”

“How did you know?”

At first Rafe didn’t know what Jeremiah was talking about, then realized he was still angry about Rafe stopping the ritual at the mission.

“I didn’t,” Rafe said. “I suspected something was wrong, but I didn’t know you were involved.”

Jeremiah stared at him. “I sifted through the information in Kyle’s brain. You have my memories. All of them. They were supposed to be
mine.
Don’t you realize the treasure trove of information you have? Those priests were all insane, but they had witnessed some of the greatest acts of power in the world.”

“They witnessed evil.”

Jeremiah laughed. “It depends what you do with it. Because of you, I died and was left to watch and wait for those idiots in there to find a way to release me. Instead, they tried to get my memories out of you. Fools, I thought. But they were right. You have them. And they will be mine.”

“No.”

“Oh, yes.” Jeremiah began chanting a spell and Rafe’s head pounded with pain.

“Kyle!” Rafe cried. “Fight him!”

Through the pain, Rafe spoke an exorcism that came to his mind almost immediately. He didn’t know it, had never learned it, but it was there, on his tongue. He’d come to trust these memories, those of the priests who suffered and died. And now that he understood how he obtained them, he didn’t fear his sanity or his soul. Dark magic would have given them to Jeremiah, but an act of God gave them to Rafe.

He hadn’t been able to stop the slaughter because he’d been trapped in his room. Locked in. But the lock sprung, and he’d rushed into the chapel in time to stop Jeremiah from completing the ritual and being possessed by Ianax, a demon, who would have enabled Jeremiah to control the Seven Deadly Sins. Who’d sprung that lock? There was only one answer, and that was heavenly. Rafe hadn’t asked for the memories, but they were there, and he would use them as they came. Not to seek them out, but use them as needed.

The answer he had been seeking, the one fact that he’d known but couldn’t remember. Now that he knew, a peace descended. The clarity of mind purged the pain in his head, and he spoke clearer, stronger.

Jeremiah screamed. His spell died on his tongue.

Then Kyle was back. His voice wasn’t as cruel as Jeremiah. He began to pray in earnest. The wind whipped around them, faster and faster, and then the Earth shook. An inhuman scream echoed in Rafe’s ears, and he didn’t know if it was real.

Then it stopped.

Kyle was on the ground, trying to catch his breath. Rafe splashed holy water over him, just to be sure.

“It’s me,” Kyle said.

Rafe took off the devil’s cuff and helped Kyle up. “Are you okay?”

“I saw the gates of Hell.” He shivered.

Rafe clamped a hand over his shoulder.

Then an earthquake hit and didn’t stop.

Moira.

Rafe ran full speed toward the gym.

#

The water on the gym floor turned instantly hot, steam rising. The floor began to glow and Moira knew the gates of Hell were opening right here, to suck back the Seven Deadly Sins and everyone within the vicinity.

“Run!” she shouted.

Gideon carried Lily. He stumbled but did not falter. Skye, Phineas and Anthony couldn’t cross the gym to the main doors, so they ran toward the stage. “Rico!” Moira called.

When they’d fallen, he’d started slipping toward the middle of the gym. The floor had dipped all around them, lower in the center. He continued to slide down. If he slid into the cast circle, he’d be sucked into the pit. He held the
Conoscenza
.

“Go!” he ordered. “This book must die.”

“But not you. Throw the book into the pit. Do it, Rico!”

“It might come back.”

“No, it won’t. But if there’s a chance, it’s not worth you losing your life.” She repeated the same words he’d said to her. “Throw it behind you, now!”

Rico did. As soon as the book hit the circle, the floor rippled and he couldn’t get up to run. He couldn’t get any traction and began sliding toward the center again.

“Go, Moira, get out of here!”

“Not without you.”

Moira ran toward him. The floor dipped, making her slide too fast toward the center.

The gym floor jumped and threw her off balance. She crawled. The pungent, foul scent of sulfur and rot hit her nose and coated her lungs, but she moved toward Rico as he crawled toward her.

Beneath her hands she saw the fires of Hell, heard the screams of the damned, the maniacal laughs of demons.

She looked up. The ceiling was black as tar, the Seven Deadly Sins swirling and screaming, fighting the pit. They didn’t want to return to their origins any more than Moira wanted to be sucked into Hell.

She grabbed Rico’s wrist. He was caught on the edge of the circle and she could not budge him.