Antares jerked his head away, but I managed to slice through the cord that held the spells and pull it away with my sword.
“Now what, baby brother?” I said, smiling grimly.
Antares backed away as I stalked toward him. He shouted to the crowd, and one of the demons tossed him a sword. His blade clashed against mine as I swung forward for the kill.
I hacked and slashed and took chunks out of him, and he always managed to move at the last moment. His sword flashed, slicing my leg, my side, opening wounds that bled and weakened me, while the wound from the arrow festered. I was getting tired.
Even if I defeated Antares, I’d still have a room of charcarion demons to deal with, and I didn’t think they were going to just let me go.
“Jude,” I said, and hoped that he could hear me. “Jude.”
“Who are you calling for now, sister?” Antares taunted. “There is no one here to save you, and you are growing weak.”
He was so confident, so sure of his ability to defeat me. And why shouldn’t he be? He’d always managed to escape me before.
My vision blurred, and for a second it looked like there were two Antares standing there. He slashed with the sword, and I just barely managed to block him.
“You have always been weak,” he said. “Small, human, beneath me. My father knew this. That is why I have been chosen to rule.”
Small. Human. Weak. His words echoed in my ears as I desperately tried to fight him off. I wasn’t attacking anymore. I was fading fast. I just needed to keep him away from me. I needed to live.
The child inside me fluttered its wings frantically.
A wolf howled, and from inside the other cavern came the sound of charcarion demons screaming as they met their death.
Antares paused for a moment, turning toward the sound in surprise.
And I had him.
I stabbed upward, and the sword pierced his heart.
His eyes widened in shock, and when he opened his mouth to speak blood poured from his lips.
The sword pulled free as he fell to the ground.
“Impossible,” I heard him say.
He turned over, tried to crawl away from me, a pathetic and broken thing. Crimson liquid spread in a widening pool beneath his body. The charcarion demons that surrounded us had fallen silent in shock even as their brothers fought for their lives against Nathaniel, Samiel and Jude.
There was no mercy in my heart for Antares. He was my half brother, and he had tried to kill me countless times since I had first met him. I knew with a certainty that if I did not finish this now, he would rise up again like the cockroach that he was, always hunting me.
My blade flashed once more, and a moment later Antares’ head rolled away from his body.
“Who’s laughing now?” I said.
Then the charcarion demons descended upon me.
I didn’t have to worry about shields on demons, so I started blasting away with every spell that I had. If a demon came close enough, I hacked at it with the sword.
“Maddy!” Beezle cried, flying over the heads of the demons. “The others are coming!”
I nodded so that he would know that I heard and kept throwing every last bit of magic I had in me. But I was still bleeding, still weakened from my battle with Antares.
Lucifer’s tattoo still lay silent on my palm, and I knew that I would not be able to draw upon the power of the Morningstar to help me.
The cavern filled with the cry of a terrible voice, a voice filled with anguish. Everyone stopped, and the charcarion demons looked around, fear in their eyes, but I knew who it was.
“Missing something, Daddy?” I said.
I curse you, Madeline Black, least beloved of my line. You shall never know peace, for you have taken that which is most precious to me.
“Do you know how many times in the last couple of days someone has sworn that they will hound me until I’m dead? Get in line.”
You shall know pain like no other.
“How about you say that to my face?” I said. “Where are you hiding, coward?”
Silence. Wherever Azazel was, he wasn’t here. I suspected that he was watching from afar somewhere. Wherever he held the Agents, and his pet vampires.
There was the sound of rock shifting, and then a loud crack. Huge boulders tumbled down the sides of the cavern. The charcarion demons desperately tried to escape the crush of falling rock, knocking one another over and trampling other demons in their haste. I fought to stay on my feet, saw Nathaniel and Samiel flying toward me over the heads of the demons.
One demon, either smarter or more dedicated to the cause than the others, took advantage of my momentary distraction. It closed its claws around my neck, shutting off the passage of air.
I barely had any energy left to fight. I reached up with my hands, tried to pry the demon away, but it held on with fierce glee. Black spots danced in front of my eyes.
“Madeline!” Nathaniel cried, and for a moment he sounded like Gabriel. His voice was full of anguish.
Why so sad? I thought as my vision narrowed to just the demon’s vicious, triumphant smile. It’s not as if you really care…
I gasped as the demon’s grip was abruptly loosened. Nathaniel stood before me, panting, holding the demon’s head in his hands. He tossed the demon’s remains away like garbage and scooped me up, flying to the narrow exit that every demon was fleeing toward. The exit was barely as tall as a man and narrow enough that only one person could pass through it. Hundreds of demons were bottlenecked in the door. We wouldn’t be able to get out that way.