“Don’t move,” the statue hissed.
Orion reached into his pocket and pulled out the contract. He read it, memorizing the four names on the bottom before he placed it on the Other’s chest and drove his sword through the Other’s chest. “CONTRACT CANCELED!”
The fog lifted. The night was quiet with the exception of the click of armor as Victor appeared, leading a chained gargoyle. “Why you want to keep him alive is beyond me, Little Bird.”
“I have an appointment with the Council of Women. He’s going to be my star witness.”
Nicholai dropped down. “Let’s get him out of here. The sun will be up soon.”
Mia nodded. “Take him to the farm. Ted will have figured out a way to hold him by now.”
Victor’s adopted nephews, Seth and Enos, walked up and took control of Quazar. They flew off with him in the direction of the hollow.
Mia had a feeling Victor didn’t want her to leave just yet.
“How many lost?” she asked.
“No birdman fell tonight.”
“Good,” she said.
“I want you to explain those horrid things on your back,” Victor demanded.
“I didn’t have much say in the matter,” Mia snapped.
Victor pulled her towards him and pressed their foreheads together. Mia could not keep Victor out of her mind. While Roumain was a caress, Victor felt like an explosion moving from cell to cell. He finished and pushed her away.
“What the hell,” Mia said and drew her sword.
He looked at her and laughed.
“Mia, stand down,” Nicholai ordered. “Your sword…”
Mia dropped the angel steel sword that could kill a birdman instantly. She reached over, and Nicholai put his sword in her hand.
“What’s happening?” Orion asked.
“No one invades my mind anymore!” Mia shouted and took a battle stance.
“Come on, Little Bird, if you think you can touch me, come at me. Remember, I know all of Nicholai’s moves.”
Altair arrived with Sariel in tow. They perched on the top of a large mausoleum. Sariel noticed Mia’s sword on the ground. Murphy drifted up there and caught them up on perhaps why Mia lost her nut and challenged the most dangerous birdman in existence.
“And yet, she’s not looking to kill him,” Altair said, interested.
“She’s sick of you entities using her. She’s loyal to a fault, and how do you reward her? Michael rips her wings off. Victor pushes her to take on his brother’s role because she carries the guilt of Varden’s death on her shoulders. When she devolved in 1998, I was this close,” Murphy said, holding his fingers apart, “to just letting her become the demon she was engineered to be. Let her walk into Hell and not look back. Lucifer treats her better. Abigor loves her. You guys aren’t scoring any points with her lately. But I stopped her because I can’t help but see the little girl who just wanted a friend. She wanted to be loved. Look at her. Look at the girl who screamed in the graveyard and tell me, did we do right by her?”
Mia didn’t hear nor care what Murphy was saying; she was working Victor against himself. She advanced and fell back when he countered his attack. She opened the vault deep inside and let the teachings of He-who-walks-through-time fill her. He knew how to battle these birdmen. She didn’t have his strength, but she was smaller and quicker.
Victor pressed Mia backward with a nonstop assault of sword blows that she had to block. He pinned her against a stone and took his sword and cut a C into her cheek and spat, “Now you can wear Michael’s mark of failure too.”
If he hoped this was going to anger her, he was mistaken. Mia had disconnected herself from her body, this way she no longer felt any pain. Mia used this new state of consciousness to search for a weakness as she slid out from under his grasp through his legs. She could have taken his balls along the way but reminded herself she wasn’t trying to kill the birdman. She tapped him on the back.
Victor turned around and swung his sword.
Mia blocked it.
They traded blows that were meant to wear the other down. Victor started to enjoy himself. He had forgotten why he was so mad. Mia laughed and used her wings to power her upwards to meet his blows.
The dead had come out from their graves to watch the Titans fight. Dis Pater moved upwards through the ground and walked over, ready to stop this distraction. But he too became absorbed in the fight. He felt he was witnessing a conversation between the blonde girl who had saved him from crucifying the lawman, and the fabled birdman whom his own kind were afraid of. They had powered through their hatred, and now they were teaching the other lessons on who was stronger, who was the better warrior. Dis Pater waited until their swords clashed again. He then fused them together.
The di inferi swarmed the area to clear the way for their king.
Mia and Victor stood conjoined by their swords. Dis Pater released them, and Mia knelt and put her head down in respect. Victor stood with his head bowed.
“I don’t think we need to call a champion, for you both have lost and you both have won. Now leave my graveyard before I decide to punish you for trespass.”
Mia rose, handed Nicholai’s sword back, and called, “Come on, Handsome, time to go home.” Mia’s sword disappeared off the ground. She shot upwards and headed back to the hollow.
Altair picked up Murphy and followed her. Sariel watched their backs until they landed and then left to report to Michael.
Victor stared at Dis Pater a moment and raised his sword and tapped his own forehead in salute before he too flew away, followed by Nicholai.
Orion stood there a
