the revenant, the air thick with magical resonance. Still burning with flickers of Rahim’s flaming manifestation of power, Daartan absorbed the blow with a howling groan, and lashed out in response.
His glowing fist crashed through Rahim’s shield, slamming into the wizard’s ear. His head snapped to the side and he went down hard, spinning to a crash. His eyes were open, but the lights were way out.
Furious at myself for being too slow to keep Rahim from getting hurt, I reached for Katon’s sword. Even if I couldn’t win, I was gonna make a fight of it.
A strong, bronze hand beat me to it, plucking it from the ground and drawing it out of sight behind me. I froze when I saw the silky purple of the connected sleeve. Slow and careful, I raised my hands and turned around as a wash of mystical energy I hadn’t noticed earlier, resonated clear against my senses.
The steely eyes of Longinus met my trembling gaze. The gray pall, which had colored his skin as he lay on the tarmac was gone, replaced with a deep tan. His face was as smooth as new leather. Though several inches shorter than me, he was built for power, his barrel chest twice that of mine. His arms were easily the size of my head.
He stared at me a moment, his expression neutral, before casting a glance beyond to where Daartan stood. Anger sparked off in his eyes and he reached up and laid a strong hand on my shoulder. I stiffened, expecting violence, but he only moved me to the side so he could step past.
“Knight!” His voice rang out like a hammer against an anvil, its force silencing all else on the inauspicious night.
Daartan looked up from Rahim and stared at Longinus, his eyes like miniature suns in the sky of his face. He glanced to where the Anti-Christ had laid until just moments before, then back to Longinus, then back and forth once more. The disbelief written across his face was almost comical.
“There is much we must discuss.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
The Anti-Christ strolled forward, Katon’s sword in his hand. Crafted from the spear Longinus had used to send Christ packing back to Heaven, it looked at home there, his grip confident upon its hilt.
Seeing him approach, Daartan stumbled back a step, falling to his knees, deep lines etched into the light of his face. He raised his shaking hands to ward Longinus off.
“I do but what God has decreed for me to do.” Gone was the swagger and bluster, the arrogance. In its place was sheer terror. It was easy to corral and lord power over an Anti-Christ when he was dead. It was another thing entirely to do so when he stood before you, the cold steel of his living gaze taking your measure.
Longinus looked to the sky, a subtle smile playing on his lips, before returning his focus to Daartan. “Though I cannot fathom how it is possible, there is no trace of God’s presence in the world. Nor for that matter, is there any of Lucifer. Much must have changed while I slumbered dreamless under your vigilant watch.” He leaned in close, baring his teeth in a fearsome grin. His eyes sparkled with malevolence. “However, there is much that has not changed god or no.”
Daartan shuddered as Longinus gestured to Karra. She walked over and stood beside me, a satisfied smile on her face. Though still shrouded in wet red, her wounds were healed. Her eyes were filled with excitement, but she remained quiet, her attention focused on her father.
“You dared lay your hands on my daughter. For that alone, I will have your soul. Were it not for her sacrifice, offering up her blood to speed my return, you would have taken her life.” He set the tip of his blade against Daartan’s trembling throat. “Your audacity has cost you your soul. However, your failure has earned you a swift death.”
As though resigned to his fate, Daartan said nothing, his eyes straight ahead. Not one for empty threats, Longinus set his hand upon the knight’s head, grabbing ahold of his ethereal form, and thrust the blade through his neck.
Daartan gurgled a scream, twitching in the Anti-Christ’s grip, before going silent as the blade was torn to the side, cutting through the left half of his neck in an explosion of brilliance. In a smooth, sweeping motion, Longinus brought the sword back around to finish the job, hacking through what was left of Daartan’s neck.
The knight’s head came free. Longinus raised it up, tendrils of dripping light streaming from its severed base. Like his followers, his glowing flesh dimmed and went dark, blackened decay spreading across its surface, a wildfire of rot. A moment later it felt apart, a hail of dust showering down over Longinus’s flushed face.
He stood still, not even bothering to lower his arm as Daartan’s spirit fled the ashes of its previous form. He closed his eyes tight as the soul transfer washed over him, little hint of it visible on his stoic face. A few moments later, his eyes sprung open. He looked about, taking in the ruin of the field. After a moment, his gaze alighted on the fallen body of Lilith.
With measured paces, he went to her. He dropped to a knee beside Lilith and scooped up her small, bloody hand and placed it inside his before pulling her head into his lap. He looked down at her, his face without expression. Though I couldn’t hear from where I stood, I saw him whispering to her as he gently stroked her hair, smoothing it away from her frozen face.
Dead, her spirit lost in the abyss, Lilith stared up at him in silence, unseeing. It had been her heart that killed him and in the end, it had been her heart that raised him up. Were this any other story, it would have been a happy ending.
Afraid to speak, for fear of incurring Longinus’s wrath, I glanced at Karra. Her eyes never once met mine, locked as they were upon her father. An exhilarated smile creased her face, so deep there were troughs in her cheeks. Against the odds and the will of God, she’d returned him to life. She left a wake of destruction behind her, but she had her father back.
I turned back to Longinus and jumped as I realized he was walking toward us. My heart sped up involuntarily as he came to stand before me, the cold chill of fear dancing along my spine. Karra, all smiles, wrapped herself around him in a tight embrace, burying her head in his chest. He pulled her in close with one of his massive arms while the other still gripped his sword, his dark eyes locked on mine.
“I remember you.” His voice was quiet, yet powerful.
I hesitated to confirm that, given what my uncle had done to him.
“Triggaltheron? Lucifer’s whelp.” He remembered, saying it without rancor, much to my surprise. With a flick of his wrist, he flung the blade point first into the ground and proffered his empty hand to me. “I am in your debt.”
Even more surprised by that, I shook his hand, doing my damndest to keep mine from trembling. “That’s not necessary,” I told him, manners kicking in instinctively before reason could talk them out of declining.
“Perhaps not, but you have earned my gratitude nonetheless.” He tightened his hold on Karra. She moaned happy, looking unwilling to let him go. He smiled at her response. “It seems I have returned to a world far different than the one I left. Indulge me a moment?”
I nodded, as if anyone in their right mind would say no.
“God and Lucifer: where have they gone?”
“I wish I knew,” I answered honest. “Tired of the war, they reconciled and left the world behind. No one knows where they are.”
One eyebrow raised, he looked at me unbelieving. “Reconciled?”
“It’s true,” Karra told him, pulling away from him just a little, though her hands still clutched to his frame.
His face a mask of uncertainty, he sighed, slow and thoughtful. “The order?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “There’s not much of that these days. The soldiers still fight, but there are no generals to direct them. It’s chaos. Angels battle angels, each believing they know God’s will best. Our brethren do as they’ve always done, but now there’s no one to rein them in. And through it all, the humans are largely oblivious, caught in the middle, same as always.”
Longinus took it all in, shaking his head. “You say there are no generals, but when I awoke, I sensed an old soul whose energy felt familiar, yet I couldn’t recognize.”
“That’d be Baalth.”
His eyes widened a moment, then narrowed. “He’s come into power?” Not waiting for an answer, he took his
