My hands were suddenly gloved with green light. The angelfire ran up my shoulders until my whole body glowed. I was enveloped in a familiar, comforting sensation. Bloody hell. I suddenly knew the exact moment Kai had set the bond in motion. The night of our moonlit picnic. That jackass had been playing me this whole time!
Jacob inched forward, but Lucifer waved him back. “We can’t hold her,” he said. “The boy is determined. Pretty impressive for one of Raphael’s bleeding hearts. His bond will take her.”
He turned to me. “You will live, Alessia. I need you still.” His gaze flicked to Kai’s image. “But I can’t have any more Pendragons. They’re a pain in the backside.”
Jacob stepped forward until he was a foot in front of me. A wicked curved blade appeared in his hand. I tried to draw a circle to protect myself, but it wouldn’t manifest in this place. The magic was there, I just couldn’t get to it.
The mage stabbed me in the gut. No, not the gut. Lower than that. In my womb. Pain exploded in my side, in my chest, in my head. I screamed and tried to lash out at him. But my body had become incorporeal. Kai’s angelfire rushed to the spot of my new injury, but when it was five inches away, Jacob’s magic counteracted. I whined as my soul burned. It felt like a million tiny fires ablaze in my cells.
My knees buckled. This place of limbo began to recede. Lucifer slid over and crouched down. I tried to punch him, but my hand just slid through. He was more solid than I was at this point. My eyes rolled back in my head. Lucifer leaned in and placed his lips against my ear.
“Let me tell you a secret,” he said. “One nobody else in the world knows. When Malachi dies, so does Raphael. There will be no destruction of the dimension. That’s what my brothers gave up when they blooded their Nephilim.”
I snarled at him. He grinned at the shot of pure hatred that radiated off me. My anguish was a game to him.
The pain in my side became too much. It was like there was lava flowing through my body. I scented charred flesh. The world turned upside down.
It spun in such turbulent rage that all I could do was shut my eyes and groan.
Starlight burst all around me. The Ley dimension ripped me back from the brink of death. There I was once more. A bright spot of blue laced with black, silver, and now green. Kai’s light was no more than a soft blur beside me. And converging around us were hundreds, if not thousands of brown dots interspersed with black.
My eyes fluttered open. The pain in my side expanded. It grew like a virus and infected the rest of my body. I couldn’t touch the origin of the pain because Kai held me hard against his chest.
A scream echoed in the darkness. It was followed by keening from inhuman throats. Kai set me down in a stupor. I felt his weary determination. He wouldn’t let the demons get my body. I had never seen him so completely lifeless. A single demon skidded into view. It had four arms and two razor-lined tails. Before it had a chance to shoot those razors at him, Kai stepped forward and latched his hands around its throat. The thing thrashed and threw razors at Kai. One of them embedded in his thigh. The other in his side.
I felt the pain as sharply as though I’d been hit. It was minuscule compared to the evisceration of my womb. To a mortal, it would have been debilitating. Kai ignored it. He was too intent on curling his hands together. It constricted the demons throat. Closer and closer until I heard a pop. The thing’s eyes had burst. Thick green jelly leaked from the sockets. I would have dry-retched if I could. Kai twisted and the demon’s head hung limp He tossed it aside as more demons streamed into the room.
Kai held out his hand for his angel blade. It clattered against the stone floor for a second before it spun through the air and into his palm. The spark of his light grew dim. If we didn’t get out of here soon, he would die at the hands of the demons.
I tried to get up, but my strength was non-existent. Almost dying kind of did that to a person. I cast around for something to use to help me. My palm touched on velvet. I latched on to the ring box. It was disposable to them. Those pricks were so intent on killing me, they didn’t even care about Gabriel’s Key.
This time when I touched it, no automatic teleport happened. I flipped the box open and slotted the ring on my right index finger. It reshaped to fit.
“Basil,” I said.
Kai’s back grew rigid. He held a demon by the throat and was about to slice into its stomach. Instead he pushed it across the room and turned back towards me.
“Blue!”
My eyes bulged. “Pay attention!” I snapped. A demon clamped its vicious jaw on his forearm. Kai roared and punched it in the head. Meanwhile, smoke sizzled all around the ring. Of course. The prison was warded. Even with the ring I couldn’t just call anyone in here. There were no mirrors down here.
A steely new conviction travelled along the bond. Kai snapped the demon’s jaw back until it dislocated. He latched on to both jaws not caring that it lacerated his palms. He jerked and the thing groaned. A second later, it stopped thrashing. He cast it aside. More and more demons poured into the room. I tried unsuccessfully once more to push myself up. My palms slid against metallic liquid. It felt both slimy and coagulated. I lay in a pool of my own blood. Nice.
Dozens of demons barrelled into the room. Kai cut down most
