It flailed trying to knit itself, trying to morph so it could heal, but Samael was relentless, spinning so his wings acted like the lethal propellors on a boat, churning and masticating.
Keon leaped onto the daemons head and buried his daggers in its black eyes, and then we were all on it, stabbing and slicing, avoiding the bite of Samael’s wings until the primordial daemon’s screams were silent and there was nothing left of it but a pulpy mess.
We stood over the remains of flesh and gore, chests heaving from exertion.
Samael shook the gore from his wings with a grimace. “Where is Lilith? Where’s my wife?”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Fee
Samael paused outside the red door with the silver writing and ran his fingers across the script.
Here lies the queen of the damned, forever gazing at salvation, but never to find freedom.
I swallowed the lump in my throat as he gently pushed open the door. Dazzling white light spilled into the stairwell, but this time my eyes were quick to adjust.
A blazing white portal, the source of the light, cut a rectangle in the wall to the left of the stone chamber, and on the opposite side, with a clear view of the gateway was a woman shackled to the wall. She was emaciated and limp, and her head lolled on her shoulder as if her neck was too weak to carry its weight. The figure was bedraggled and far from the regal queen I remembered, but there was no mistaking who she was.
Lilith raised her head slowly and blinked at us, gathered in the doorway.
Her mouth parted in shock and then worked to form a word that had no sound. She tried again. “Samael? Is that you?” Her voice was a reedy whisper. “Is that you or am I dreaming once more?”
Samael made a sound of distress and bridged the distance between them to gather her in his arms.
“My love. My one true love.” He cradled her to him gently, careful not to tug on her shackles. “Mammon will pay. He will pay with his life.”
“How is this possible?” She scanned his face as if searching for a crack or a fracture that would tell her this was an illusion. “You’re not well.”
“I will explain everything to you once we’re home,” Samael said. “The secrets that I have kept will be secrets no more.”
Samael drew his dagger and sliced at the runes on the cuffs that were keeping Lilith bound. They fell away with a chink and he swung her up into his arms.
Lilith’s gaze settled on me and her mouth hardened. “You… Why are you here?”
Samael frowned. “She came to help rescue you.”
“Rescue me?” Lilith snorted her gaze still fixed on me. “Don’t think that will stop me from following through on my promise to end your life as soon as I end Eve’s curse.”
“The curse is over,” Azazel said. “There was never any threat to you, Mother. That was a ploy.”
Lilith’s smile was cold, and even in her weakened state I sensed her power stirring against my skin. “In that case, the coast is clear. You will die.”
Samael crushed her to him, eyes blazing. “You will not harm her,” he snapped. “You will not harm my daughter.”
Lilith gazed up at him in shock. “What?”
Samael closed his eyes and exhaled through his nose. “I’ll explain it all later, but first, we must get back to Imperium.”
Shit. How much time did we have left on the tincture? What about Lilith? Wait. “How are you withstanding the toxins in the air?”
“Mammon was careful to dose me with tincture regularly. He gave me a final small dose before he left so I could say goodbye…” Her head snapped up. “Oh god. How could I forget?” She looked disgusted with herself. “The tincture is wearing off and the air is messing with my memory, but I remember now.”
“What is it, love?” Samael asked.
“Mammon left a couple of hours ago, I think. Time is fuzzy, but he said….” She pursed her lips as if struggling to recall and then she grabbed hold of Samael’s shirt. “Tell me you haven’t consolidated our forces around the Keep.”
“Our barracks were attacked.” Azazel replied for Samael. “We had no choice but to reinforce the capitol”
Lilith let out a moan. “No, no, no. This was his plan. He took me to distract you so he could attack and force you to reinforce. He wants all our men in one place, so he can attack the Keep and destroy our forces in one fell swoop.” Her eyes were dark with dread. “Mammon is headed to the Keep.”
Oh fuck. “Keon, the rest of the tincture. She needs it.”
Keon pulled the vial from his pocket as Samael moved toward the exit.
“No, my love,” Lilith said. “Not that way.” She pointed to the portal. “This way. Straight to Imperium.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Cora
Booms like thunder shake the foundations of the Keep as we sprint through the corridors toward the nearest exit with Conah leading the way. Grayson, Hunter, and Uri are right on my heels as we enter the foyer that we originally materialized in. Guards spill out, weapons at the ready, and Asmodeus barks orders.
“How many troops?” Conah asks him.
“Ariel surveillance spotted four large troops descending on us. There’s another already outside the walls, slinging obsidian boulders into the Keep, but they’re the least of our problems, if the Dragomite isn’t stopped there’ll be no one for Mammon’s troops to fight by the time they reach us. It just burned a path through the eastern defence.”
Conah pales. “All two hundred demons?”
Asmodeus expression is grim. “Yes. It’s circling back. We need to hit it before it rains more everfire on our defences.”
“I’m going up,” Conah says. “I’ll take a troop. Dragomites are said to have a blind spot at their flank and a vulnerable spot between their eyes where the scales are absent. I’ll use the blind spot to get close and stab it between the eyes to take it down.”
Asmodeus looks dubious. “You can’t rely on what you’ve read in an old text.”
Conah’s jaw flexes. “Right now, that’s all we have to rely on.”
But what if Asmodeus is right? What if this Dragomite has no blind spot? In that case they’d need someone who could sneak up on it, just jump onto it. My ability is glitchy here but if I can see my target…
“I’m coming with you.”
Grayson makes a sound of protest, but I ignore him and focus on Conah.
“I can help. Get me close enough and I can jump onto it. I can stab the fucker.”
Conah’s eyes narrow as he considers this before he nods. “Let’s do this.”
Another boom shakes the foundations as I follow Conah out of the Keep and into carnage. Demons in livery run to and fro, taking to the skies in twos, holding silver nets. Something huge and dark hurtles toward us, and the demons swerve and catch it neatly.
A boulder made of smooth black rock.
There’s a whoosh, and Conah yells and yanks me toward him just as something crashes to the ground in the spot I’d been standing on a moment before.