“This isn’t about your pact with Lucifer,” I said impatiently. “Oberon wants me to prove something to him, and I’m going to prove it.”
Nathaniel’s mouth tightened. “Very well. But do not expect me to do nothing if your plight becomes dire.”
The shadows before us seemed to be congealing. I heard a wet sucking sound as the darkness formed into something huge and red-eyed. Silver teeth caught the light from the torches and gleamed.
“Whatever,” I said, and ran toward it, sword raised. I pushed my power through the blade and aimed the pointy end toward one of its glowing eyes.
The sword struck true, my power flowing through it and into the monster. The thing of shadows burst, splattering me with muscle and blood.
“Come on, I just got clean from killing the last monster,” I said.
“You have gristle in your hair,” Beezle said.
“Is that all you’ve got?” I shouted at Oberon, opening my arms wide.
There was a rustle, a chitter, then the sound of many legs moving. I could see a crowd of eyes moving toward us, close to the ground.
“Rats?” I said. “Rats? Really?”
I blasted them with fire. They squealed, tried to turn, and I blasted them again. A few minutes later there was nothing but rat ash.
“You will not beat me,” I said. “I have faced the nephilim in the Valley of Sorrows. I have overcome the Maze. I’ve fought countless monsters that are worse than anything you’ve got. I killed the Grigori’s Hound of the Hunt, and I defeated your own Hob.”
“You might not want to remind him of that since that’s the reason they’re trying to kill you,” Beezle said.
“If you persist in sending these small things instead of facing me yourself, I’m going to get angrier than I already am. And you don’t know what can happen when I’m angry. I might just decide to destroy your whole kingdom.”
“Getting a little dark, are we?” Beezle asked.
I knew that I was on a slippery slope. I’d done things before that I was not proud of, like condoning Violet’s torture in order to get information out of Amarantha. But I’d always justified it by saying there was a greater good at hand.
This time, I was just angry. There was no greater good to fall back on. I was sick of being hunted, of being chased, of being toyed with by immortals. I was sick of dancing to someone else’s tune. And I was not going to permit the king and queen of Faerie to plague me and my child for the rest of our lives.
It had to end today, or it would never end at all.
Oberon did not reply.
“Fine,” I said. “You asked for it.”
I plunged the sword into the ground and called the power of the Morningstar. It flowed easily through me as it had never done before, and I felt the answering beat of my child’s wings inside me. I was not just myself anymore. I was a conduit for Gabriel’s power, too, in the form of our baby.
All of that magic rushed through me and through the sword and into the earth that surrounded us.
“Grab on to me!” I shouted to Nathaniel and Beezle.
Beezle crawled down the back of my shirt, hiding his face. Nathaniel put his hand around my arm. His eyes widened when his skin touched mine. I was burning hotter and brighter than a star, and I was about to supernova.
Then the walls collapsed, the floor fell away, the ceiling disappeared and we were shooting up, up, up. No, we weren’t shooting—we were growing. I smashed a mountain out of my way, and knocked over the troll-guarded forest. I ground the gretewitch’s cabin beneath my boot.
Then we were standing in the middle of a throne room made of stone, a thousand shocked faces staring at us. I was covered in blood and dirt and brandished Lucifer’s sword in one hand. The remains of Oberon’s toy lay in shards underneath my feet. Beezle clambered up my back and flew out so that he could glare around.
Two faeries, a male and a female, each more beautiful than any human I’d ever seen, sat upon thrones at one end of the court. Both of them were clothed in velvet and furs and wore jeweled crowns. And they looked just as shocked as everyone else. I shook Nathaniel’s hand off my arm and strode toward the thrones.
My movement recalled the king’s soldiers to their duty. A platoon of faeries, dressed in armor and carrying swords, assembled in front of me.
I didn’t stop to think, or even to really look at them. I just hacked them out of the way.
When I reached the thrones I had more blood on me, and I was barely out of breath.
“Who else will you sacrifice because you’re too scared to face me?” I asked.
“How dare you…” Titania began.
“For the love of the Morningstar, enough,” I said, cutting her off. “You’ve tried and failed to kill me several times over. Give it up, or get off your ass and fight me yourself.”
“You have done us great insult by entering the kingdom of Faerie without invitation,” Oberon said through gritted teeth.
“Do you think it’s not an insult to send an assassin after me?”
“You murdered Queen Amarantha in cold blood,” Titania said.
“I hear myself saying this over and over, but she was trying to kill me at the time. I defended myself.”
“So you say,” Titania said.
“Amarantha wasn’t up to anything good,” I said. “She was stealing people’s memories and working in concert with Azazel. She also participated in an uprising against Lucifer, twice.”