Katia reached out and grasped Keir’s hand. As their palms connected a flash of light filled the room and the air around them electrified. Katia sucked in a sharp breath as she felt a strange power tingle up her arm and move through her body. Katia and Keir's eyes locked.
“What was that?” They said in unison, their voices in perfect harmony.
The siblings turned toward their father, their movements a mirror image of each other.
“Amazing,” Uriel breathed. “Keir and Elaina, two halves of the same soul, the dark and the light."
“We share a soul?” Keir breathed.
“The missing piece you have each felt is found in the other.”
“We’re part of each other.” The twins said, turning to face each other as they spoke.
“Yes,” Uriel replied. “Keir, I’m so sorry I was unable to come for you before now, and your sister has only just learned of your existence. I wish we had time to have a proper reunion so I could answer all of your questions, but we need to leave before we’re discovered.”
“Discovered?” Keir asked.
Katia squeezed her brother’s hand as she replied. “You were kidnapped as a baby and held here by Satan, essentially the root of all evil. Our father couldn’t come for you until today because he's an angel...it's a long story... "
“The Master is this Satan?” Keir asked incredulously.
“Yes,” Katia replied. “And he's stuck here too...in this castle...but he wants to bind our soul to him so he can leave...which would be really, really bad.”
Keir nodded to his sister as Uriel spoke again. “There is much more to tell you, but for now we need to leave. It is likely that he aware of an angelic presence in his realm and will be preparing for battle.”
Nodding in synch, Katia and Keir followed Uriel out of the cell, their hands still joined. Now that they had found each other they were never going to let go.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Luc cried out in pain as a fist connected with his jaw, snapping his head sharply to the side. He tasted copper as his mouth filled with blood. Tipping his head to the right, Luc spat the blood out onto the stone flags. Every nerve ending in his body was on fire; stars winked on the inside of his eyelids. His human body wasn’t meant to take this kind of abuse. For the first time, Luc understood the plight of the souls he brought to Halja. The only thing keeping him going was the image of Katia he held in his mind. Without it, he would have begged for death long ago. Luc cracked open his eyes to peer at his tormentor.
Satan stood before him with a self-satisfied smile playing over his youthful face, decorated in splatters of Luc’s blood. He had no idea how long he’d been tied to this chair, razor wire tearing his skin to ribbons as he was tortured. He had overestimated the capabilities of his human body. After successfully dispatching a couple of minions, he had ultimately been cornered in a narrow hallway. The minions that found him had easily penetrated his mind, rendering him unable to move, locked in a psychically-delivered nightmare. They had fed him image after image of every human and angel he had hurt or killed. The crushing guilt and self-hatred had left him paralyzed, making him easy prey. They had bound him and delivered him to their Master in short order. Now he sat here, unable to defend himself, and unable to help the woman he loved. Luc was humiliated and impotent. He only knew one thing to be true — he would be dead soon.
Luc dragged in a rattling breath. He was fairly certain most of his ribs were broken and one of his lungs was definitely punctured and filling with blood; he was starting to feel as though he were drowning on dry land.
He was in a modernized section of Halja with glass windows and a sliding glass door that were totally at odds with the gothic building, Luc craned his neck and peered out into the courtyard. What he saw made his heart stutter. It was happening again. Whipping his head back around, he searched the room furtively with his eyes, trying to find the minions that were feeding him these images of his own personal hell. Luc squeezed his eyes shut and willed his breathing to slow down. It was a hallucination. No way were there angels battling demons in the central courtyard of Halja, it was impossible. Swords clashed. Shouts and screams of pain split the air. It all seemed so real. He narrowed his eyes, trying to see through the blood that dripped down from a gash in his forehead. Bright flashes of light popped in and out as the angels moved around the courtyard at dizzying speeds with grayish-black puffs of smoke following closely behind, demons moving in their wake. It was lethal dance he remembered from his past. Luc saw two of his fallen brothers, Baal and Gadreel, facing off with a pair of demonic attackers. They fought back-to-back as they had always done in the past, moving in complete synchronicity. With swords flying they cut a swath through the demon horde that flowed through the gates of the courtyard.
“They’ll all be dead soon,” Satan’s voice cut through the confused haze in Luc’s brain as he continued trying to make sense of what he was seeing in the courtyard. Luc turned his head back around to look Satan in the eye.
“It’s real? How?” Luc asked.
Satan laughed and shook his head. “A loophole I hadn’t accounted for. The balance shifted, but it’s no matter. I have the Chimera and she’ll complete the binding to save your sorry ass. She’s here with that waste-of-feathers father of hers. Uriel was always a disappointment. Going from being a warrior to a desk-jockey scholar. Pathetic.”
Luc’s chest seized up in panic. Katia had been the bait for him and he was the bait
