Demons and Fallen marched from the trees in countless numbers. Every time I thought the end to the masses had arrived, more were vomited out of the woods. They kept coming and coming.
“How are there so many?” I asked, but no one answered me.
“It’s confirmed,” Uriel said loud enough for the squad to hear. “Lucifer, Berith, and Asmodeus are leading the army. Beelzebub leads the smaller group near the west gate.”
“Where’s Mammon?” I demanded, and Uriel shook his head.
“Don’t know. Maybe he’s in the back somewhere?”
That didn’t sit right. My stomach cramped. “No, he wouldn’t wait in the background. He likes the spotlight, likes attention. There’s no way he’d hang back and let the others have the glory. He’s too greedy.”
“Maybe he’s dead,” Jai said.
My scars prickled. “He’s not dead.”
“There’s no visual on Mammon, Riley. He must be with Beelzebub. Things are more chaotic over there right now. They’re already engaging the enemy,” Uriel said.
We all glanced toward the other side of Utopia, where smoke was starting to curl into the air. Terror threatened to strangle me as I imagined Gideon in the center of the fight. I cut off the fear. Gideon was strong and skilled. He’d be fine. I had to focus on the here and now.
“If he’s not front and center, then he has a job that makes him feel important.” I turned away from the field where the armies faced off. The trees behind us were quiet. “Or a task that gives him something he wants.”
“Riley?” Noel tugged on my hand, but I pulled away.
“Something’s not right.”
“We have Fallen and demons flooding Utopia,” Uriel scoffed. “Nothing is right.”
I gazed into the trees, and I swore they stared back. “He’s here.”
“What?”
Uriel stepped toward me as something fell from the sky, bouncing along the ground until it rolled to a stop three feet from me. We all gawked at the tiny, innocent-looking ball of metal for a split second before Deborah screamed, “Grenade!”
Everything happened at once in quick succession, but it was as if time slowed so I could absorb every microsecond. Someone tackled me—Noel—driving me back and away from the grenade. Angels scattered as more grenades rained down upon us. Deborah shoved Isaac and Jael back. Uriel tumbled to the ground as Obie pushed him away, his dark eyes wide.
Then Obediah threw himself on top of the grenade, covering it with his body. Uriel shrieked, a sound I never thought he was capable of as he scrambled to his feet and lunged toward his Committed. He wasn’t fast enough. The grenade detonated.
I landed on the ground as the world exploded. Fire and metal flew through the air. Noel smothered me as Jai’s torso covered both of our heads, cutting off my view of blood and flame. My ears rang, and the ground trembled. A mighty roar shook Heaven to its core.
The battle had begun.
Jai fell away with a groan, and I inhaled dust and smoke. Noel shouted something I couldn’t hear, my ears clogged. I sat up, and the world spun.
Chaos reigned as Fallen and demons fought Angel with gleaming metal and sharp claw. They’d circled around behind us, taking us by surprise.
Deborah, Isaac, and Jael fought, swords swinging. Noel tore a piece of shrapnel from Jai’s side, his ribbons surrounding his Other, pulsing rapidly as he healed him. I blinked, telling myself to get up. Get up, get up, get up.
As the smoke cleared, I found Uriel. He knelt next to Obie—at least, what was left. Obediah’s torso had been ravaged, blown open by the force of the grenade. His legs ended mid-thigh in shredded, bloody stumps, and he was missing an arm. His face… he was unrecognizable.
There was no question that he was dead. But Uriel still tried to heal him, pouring his energy into the eviscerated body of his Committed. He was begging him to hold on. To just hold on!
A Fallen rose behind him. Dark, almond-shaped eyes flooded red. Short black hair. A demented smile on his face.
Mammon raised his sword, and I said, “No.”
Faster than I’d ever moved before, I ran and leapt over Obie and Uriel, drawing one of my swords. Mammon’s eyes widened, and he leaned back, dodging the swing of my blade by centimeters. But he wasn’t fast enough to evade me completely.
I smashed into him, feet crushing his ribs as I roared my fury. Snarling, we landed with a crash, my vision bathed in red. As I crouched on my hands and knees, Mammon rose to his feet, breathing choppily. I’d broken a rib or two. I grinned at him.
“I’m going to split you down the middle and feast on your liver.” He spat the words as his fangs lengthened, black claws jutting from his fingers.
I laughed. “You can try.”
Before he could lunge, Uriel was behind him, sinking a dagger into the nape of his neck. Mammon howled and jabbed his elbow into Uriel’s face. My mentor staggered back, and utilizing Mammon’s distraction, I swiped my sword upward, the blade slicing through Mammon’s armored vest. The protection saved him from being gutted, the wound too shallow to do much damage, but it threw him off balance.
Facing down two of us while he was injured was apparently not part of Mammon’s plan, and with a parting hiss, the Fallen fled into the smoke. I would have given chase, but I was more concerned with my mentor. Uriel struggled to his feet, listing dangerously to the side, half of his body charred from the grenade explosion. The left side of his neck and face were burned so badly the flesh was black. His left eye was swollen shut, the skin bubbling with third degree burns.
He had to be in agonizing pain. I was shocked he was conscious at all, let alone standing in front of me.
“He’s gone, Riley. I can’t feel him anymore,” he said as a tear fell from his one good eye. “It hurts.”
“Uriel—”
A demon emerged through the smoke, knocking Uriel down. I jumped to his aid, blade gleaming in the sepia light. I beheaded the demon before it could sink its fangs into Uriel’s seared throat. But where one demon died, three more took its place. I stood over my mentor, Ohr and Araphel vibrating in my grasp as I cut through muscle and sinew, flesh and bone.
Time meant nothing. There was only anger and violence, blood and death. The drive for survival. The thirst for the kill. I’d come to terms with my destructive power, and I utilized it now, blasting demons left and right as my weapons sang through the air.
When the last enemy fell, bursting to dust at my feet, I stood tall and gasped for air. Others fought around me, bodies strewn on the ground. The earth had turned to mud beneath my boots from the blood—Angel, Fallen, and demon alike.
Jai and Noel battled back to back, movements sure and practiced. I couldn’t see the rest of my squad. Either they were still fighting, or they were among the bodies sinking into the mud. Uriel lay behind me, breathing labored. He didn’t wake, but he was alive. It was something.
“I gotta go,” I croaked. “I’m sorry.”
Hauling the dead body of a Fallen over Uriel, I positioned them to hide the shallow rise and fall of the Archangel’s chest. With his burned face showing, his broken body covered, he looked dead. Hopefully, no one looked too closely.
“I’m sorry,” I said again as I staggered to my feet, exhausted. “I can’t stay. I’m sorry.”