“Worthless,” he said from his gurgling mouth. “Twin gods, an angel, a Grigori, and a nephilim, and yet your combined power means nothing to the Prince of Gluttony. I can birth millions within seconds. How do you intend to stop me?”
I spread my arms, the space between my arms shimmering with the curve of a longbow very much like the one Artemis favored.
“No spoilers, asshole. If we told you, you’d just cheat.”
I pulled the bowstring tight, then loosed the first arrow, aiming for his heart. He swiped with the back of his hand, deflecting it flawlessly as I grunted in frustration. I scanned the checklist in my mind, desperately groping for something better to use against Beelzebub. Careening through the air while firing arrows with any kind of accuracy wasn’t going to be my thing.
From somewhere to my right, Raziel launched his own attack, hurling a spear with a monstrous strength that belied his frame. I could hear it whistle as it flew, but Beelzebub saw it coming. He flitted several feet to his side, dancing out of the spear’s trajectory with infuriating ease.
Beelzebub spun in a circle again as he laughed, showing us his back as he went, like he was trying to tell us that we couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. And you know what? The fucker was right. The winds at this altitude, the frenetic way he zipped back and forth in flight? You try taking down a fly with a BB gun, see how you like it.
“Fat little babies with wings can fire more accurately than any of you fools,” Beelzebub chortled. “Send a flock of cherubim to do your dirty work, you incompetents. Beelzebub has fed. He has grown more powerful than you can possibly imagine.”
Oh, great. He was starting with the villainous grandstanding, speaking in third person, too. Belphegor did this, back when he got a little too cocky about wanting to put the world to sleep and rise above the other princes. Secretly, in the back of my mind, I wondered if Lucifer would show up to save the day again. I weighed it carefully against the potential negatives. The most significant was the fact that he was the most powerful of the Seven. Lucifer could probably end me and all of my friends as easily as a child would swat an insect.
I glanced down, far below, searching for my mother, then back up at Beelzebub. Yeah. We needed to swat this particular insect. Swat him dead.
“We will win this,” Samyaza said, voicing the quiet hopes that I was too scared to speak myself. “We will destroy you, Beelzebub.”
“How? The only things you’ve managed to destroy tonight were your own offspring, your nieces and nephews, the larvae of your fool brothers.”
That one hurt. Samyaza flinched, too. I dismissed my bow and quiver, strongly considering a sword instead. If only I could get close enough. We’d have a chance then.
“They were sent to noble rest, hellbeast,” Raziel said, grunting as he threw another spear. “No longer to be tormented by you and your repulsive children.”
Beelzebub twisted in midair, the spear just narrowly missing his leg. “I ate my fill, angel. I drained your little nephilim of their essence. It was all you could do. It was mercy.”
A beam of azure light lanced from Samyaza’s palm, almost clipping one of Beelzebub’s wings. “We will show you no such mercy, you monster.”
“Then defeat me if you can.” He turned his head towards me, grinning with teeth that dripped with horrible black fluid. “Before I suck this one’s mother dry, too.”
I roared and launched myself at him, unarmed, stirring the stores of energy in my body and channeling them into my hands. A clear shot, and I could smite him, the way I smote Leviathan and punched a hole through her torso. Beelzebub laughed, parting his arms, like he was welcoming me with an embrace.
Raziel shouted. “Mason. Don’t!”
I lifted my hands, prepared to blast divine light through Beelzebub’s face. The prince smiled, then opened his mouth. A bolt of black lightning shot from deep inside his maw, slamming into my chest. I screamed, every hair on my skin as sharp as a needle, currents of dark electricity and infernal magic sizzling in my blood, lancing through my flesh. My head spun. The sky around me was a blur of shapes and color. Stunned, I forgot the use of my wings just long enough to start falling.
More voices called out my name as I plummeted to the ground. The air rushed in my ears, ripping through my feathers, but not for long. Strong hands caught me, and my heart thumped as I recalled the last time this happened.
My lashes fluttered as I gazed up into a starry sky, searching through my confusion for the face of my savior. “Lucifer? Are you back?”
“Fuck no, you stupid idiot,” Artemis said. “And he’s not going to make some grand entrance to save the day this time, so you need to buck the hell up. Stop letting your emotions get the best of you. You might not survive the next blast.”
“Is he okay?” Apollo yelled over his shoulder.
“He’s fine. Just stupid. So no change from before, really. I’m serious, Mason. Your halo makes you a clear target. Be careful.”
Her nails dug into my back as she helped me get upright, but I could hardly stand still. Part of it was being on a vehicle that was attempting tight, turning maneuvers that could be pulled off by a bumblebee, but not by a horse-drawn chariot, airborne or otherwise.
I gripped the sides of the chariot, tensing my muscles and clenching my teeth to help clear my mind and my sight. Artemis was right. It was dumb of me to barrel right into Beelzebub. I should have expected the dark lightning, more bolts of which he
