She nodded.
“Show them no mercy.”
She nodded again.
I stepped away. “I mean that, soldier. No mercy.”
“Got it, Commander.”
The chamber windows slid open. All the furniture in the room lifted, and I hopped on the window edge, walking the length of it so I could survey the city. It crawled with the Marked. Civilians screamed, running toward the House. Uriel approached, his wings ruffling in the wind.
I pointed at the gates. “What is that mortal doing?” I asked.
Uriel turned and cursed. He moved, but I stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. At the bottom of the House grounds, the man who delivered daily bread and broth was pushing the gates closed. I stopped the gates, swung them open, and splattered him against the rock wall. “My orders to receive the civilians were clear.”
Uriel fluffed up his wings. “The Marked will enter among the civilians.”
“Better to have them all confined here where we can kill them than out there where we have to pick them off. Keep the gates open. Close them only when the civilians have arrived. Send a small team on a rescue mission. Those who refuse to leave their homes are welcome to die.”
“Should we ring the Court’s bells?”
“Oh yes, it’s a pleasant sound when mixed with the enemies’ cries.”
“Ring the Court’s bells!” he shouted.
In the Court of Command, when the bells rang and the angels sang, evil readied to die. I spread my arms. Far out at sea, at my command, the waters leapt into the sky. I gathered the waves, built a wall, noted my hands shook. Having channeled power through Julia in order to detach Lucifer from her mind, I weakened myself. As was right. I should not think myself as all-powerful, only powerful enough. I flicked my left wrist, guiding the water wall to surround my Court until it made a circle. The first wave of Ras hit the wall.
The predators I kept in the seas attacked, chowing down on the Ras’ heads. Screeching joined the sound of bells. I waited. The wall wouldn’t hold them for long, but it eliminated the front line. With the wall blocking the view, I tracked them by the sound of their leather wings. They rose higher, an avalanche of teeth and claws pouring over the water wall.
The mortals on the streets screamed, running toward the House. This was good. They’d find shelter and leave the grounds open for the soldiers and the Marked. Trouble was, many civilians were still running, pouring through the gates. Mortals ripe for the picking. But the Ras didn’t set after them, which told me Lucifer had mobilized the Marked on the ground.
The Ras drew closer.
The fleet levitating before the House spread out, feathers ruffled, weapons readied.
“Hold position,” I said. Since the Ras outnumbered us, we would draw them in, then surround them. “Did my brothers really believe we sent all our Fleet to fight in their Courts and protect the Veil without leaving the finest here at home?”
“Yes, Commander, they did,” the fleet answered.
I shook my head. “Why, I agree. I think they thought they could take our Court. Can they?”
“No, Commander.”
“Are you sure? Because there’re many of them and only a few of us. Twenty to one, I’d say. Sordid odds.” The longer I kept the fleet still, the angrier they got. Feathers stood on end. Some couldn’t even hold position anymore, breaking ranks and spreading their wings. I laughed. My beautiful, vicious creatures. They started singing, itching to meet the creatures that neared the House. But I had to know the exact numbers and then account for the surprises. “Soon,” I comforted my fleet. “Hold still.”
Directly above my head, the clouds parted, and Raphael dropped. Behind him, the Court of Sunder’s fleet blanketed the sky over my entire House. My brother stood before me, dressed in the gleaming golden armor I’d gifted him many years ago, his shiny feathers perfectly groomed.
“You’re looking prettier than Lucifer,” I said. “He’ll be jealous.”
“You’re surrounded.”
“I fear that. Really.” Okay, maybe I had acquired new skills from the mortals. Sarcasm was a skill. I think I should practice it more often. “Fifty to one,” I announced to my fleet. “Some of you will die today.”
“Hurrah!”
Raphael’s gaze slid from me to my fleet, briefly, but I caught it before he said, “Kill the Marked girl, and I will turn my fleet away.”
“The girl is not Marked, and her name is Julia.”
“This war will wage for millennia. We will destroy everything.”
Let’s do it. “Charge!” I flew at him.
Raphael skipped and rose, wings tightly pressed around his body. His power pulsed. Some of my fleet screamed, dropping onto the ground.
“Splattering eggs,” he said and smirked.
My favorite chair flew at his head.
Raphael ducked, too late. It hit his shoulder, sending him sprawling back. He brightened and healed instantly.
Inside my chambers, my armory doors slid opened. Weapons flew to me, some hovering around me like twinkling stars around the moon. I grabbed my sword. “To the millennia of bloodshed, brother.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Angels clashed in the sky. Wings of blue and black and white and gray batted and bled as their weapons collided, metal flashing in the light. I searched for one with golden wings but couldn’t spot him in the fury of wings. Out on the horizon, massive waves accumulated. A tsunami? Here? Holy shit apocalypse again. I double-checked my weapons. Two knives in the sheath. One in my back pocket. I rushed out the door, down the steps, across the massive foyer, and outside, where I found an empty space. Not a soul on the lawn here or on the second level of the Court, but people were filling the third level, escaping the town.
A soldier running toward the gates stopped and turned to glare at me. “There are no cowards in the Court of Command. Get out there, soldier.”
“Out where?” Michael said to stay inside the gates.
“Down there.” He pointed at the third level. Sure enough, soldiers in white
