She spun her blade agilely in her hand. “You don’t have a clue what Caine wants us to do, but I will tell you this. Today just became the day these two will die.”
As if to prove it, she rushed toward him. He smacked her with his stone wing and sent her flying back onto the ground. Flapping his wings, he shot into the air, carrying his precious burden. He needed to get them back to Surcy. They needed to see if she had the strength to teleport them home.
When he reached the top of the roof, he saw the shock in Surcy’s beautiful face and the fear in the faces of his brothers. He picked a spot to land, but before he could, Mark shouted.
An angel grabbed his wing. The two humans in his arms screamed as they spun one way. Kicking out, he knocked the massive angel off his wing, but another angel barreled into his back, sending him hurtling toward the ground.
Spinning free of the angel, he stopped their descent just feet from the ground. His senses stretched out as he flew as hard and fast as he could back to the roof. His brothers battled two angels on the rooftop. Surcy stood, frozen.
He landed beside her, his feet crushing the roof beneath his feet. “We need to get them home. To safety. Take them.”
She turned wide eyes onto him. “But all of you—“
“We’ll be fine! Just go!” He didn’t give her another chance to think, he pushed the woman and her child into her arms. “Save them! At all costs!”
And then, he saw the reality hit her. One second she and the two crying humans were there, and the next moment they were gone.
Be safe.
A shadow came above him and remained. He looked up. A dozen angels crowded the sky. Moving backwards, he and his brothers came back-to-back. Their opponents lay dead upon the ground for only a moment before disappearing. But there were more.
Too many more.
“Mark, you need to go.” Tristan commanded him.
“Not a chance!” Mark sent him an angry glare.
“If they get the God Finder, all will be lost. You need to go.”
Mark dropped one hand from his regular steel blade and touched the chain at his neck. ”One of you take it.”
“Don’t argue.” Tristan’s gaze moved to the sky. “There isn’t time.”
“Without me you’ll die.”
Tristan couldn’t help the smirk that twisted in his lips. “We’ll die anyway.”
A cold rush moved over them. He turned. In the center of them, Surcy stood. Her eyes looked glazed. Her face pale.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
Fire leapt into her eyes, and she straightened her shoulders. “Saving your asses!”
Reaching out, she placed a hand on his and Mark’s shoulders.
Daniel grabbed her shoulder. “You don’t have enough strength to—“
A wind wrapped around them. From a moment to the next, they were back in their apartment. Surcy sagged in the middle of them, but he caught her before she hit the floor. Her eyes were closed and a streak of red blood trickled from her nose.
Damn it!
“Is she okay?” the little girl asked, her voice shaking.
“She will be,” Mark answered.
Tristan carried her across the apartment to her room and laid her on the bed. This wasn’t the first time Surcy had pushed herself too hard, but she’d been stronger then.
The woman he’d found in the field had been thinner. There was a general air of weakness about her that made him wonder even more where she had been kept the last year and what had happened to her. The familiar muscles in her arms and legs were no longer as pronounced, and her face had a sunken quality.
One day Caine and his followers will pay for what they did to her.
“What now?” Daniel asked
Mark answered without thinking. “We get the goddess to the only place she’ll be safe.”
19
Caine stared at the angel kneeling before him who had failed him so badly. His fingers itched to destroy his soul, but with the coming war, he needed every warrior possible on his side.
“Bring me the Fate.”
The angel lifted his dark head, surprise widening his eyes. “Which one?”
Caine cocked his head and raised a hand. The angel went crashing back against the stone wall. He smashed the useless creature against the wall over and over again, relishing the sounds of his bones breaking. He drank in the cries of pain until his eventual silence. Then, he tossed the angel against the floor and stared at him for a long moment. The angel looked like a badly damaged bird. His white feathers littered the floor like snow, and his wings were bent in odd angles.
But what could he expect for asking such a foolish question? For wasting my precious time. There is only one Fate that matters. The one who knows the future. The past and present mean nothing to me.
Unclenching his fingers one at a time, Caine looked to the angel standing guard at his door. The smart fellow had remained standing perfectly still, his gaze locked ahead of him.
“Bring me the Fate.”
“Yes, Judge.” The angel exited through the solid stone doors of the throne room. The doors closed behind him with a satisfying boom that shook the entire room.
Caine remained sitting. The dark powers that floated around him concealed him from the sight of all, but also, just as importantly, hid the nine empty thrones that sat beside him.
Let no man, angel, or demon see their immortal lord. And let none have memories stirred within their minds, of a time when more than just Caine ruled.
A soul appeared in the center of the room for judgment, nothing more than a shaking wisp of light. In an instant, he determined that the human would add nothing to his army and with a flick of his wrist, he sent the man screaming into the demon-realm.
More wispy souls flooded the room. Their
