Shadows in the Silence (34 page)

He set the pommel of his scythe on the ground and lifted his hand. His power snaked off his form and slithered toward his palm, inky tendrils coiling around his armored limbs. Then his power rushed at me full-force, a black tsunami of electricity and Hellfire. I took it straight on, but it was so strong that I felt my boots slipping in the dirt and I was forced to fold my wings to protect them. Wind threw pebbles in my face, whipped my hair around like flames. I gripped the staff of the hallowed glaive tighter and I took a step, but I couldn’t move anymore. Summoning the power just to keep myself standing was draining me.

I glimpsed a shadow passing behind Sammael’s form and an enormous blade punched through his body, right through his armor. The sword slipped free and Sammael doubled over, and I could see Will at last. My Guardian raised his sword to strike again, but Sammael’s power hurled into his chest, knocking him back, which lifted the force rocketing against me barely enough to free me. Will hit the ground and when his green eyes met mine, I knew. I wouldn’t let the distraction go to waste.

Wings spread, I launched, my energy erupting like a bomb, and I raced full speed toward Sammael. I thrust the glaive, he knocked it aside with his hand, and I smacked the pommel into his ribs. As I slashed the blade, I studied his armor, searching for weaknesses that would allow me a killing blow. My best chance to kill him would be through his
unprotected neck. The metal collars of his chest plate were high, but they didn’t cover every inch of his vulnerable skin. When the scythe hooked in the outer partisan blades this time, I was prepared. I wrenched it from his grip and flung it across the ground. I spun the staff around my body and before he could retrieve his blade, I pressed the tip of the glaive directly into the hollow of his throat, freeing a trickle of blood from his soft skin. His golden eyes stared up into mine, his life firmly in my grip.

“It’s over,” I snarled.

The hardness in his expression did not falter, even though he knew he was about to die. “I am not the only lord in Hell. others will rise to take my place. The Morningstar will crave revenge.”

“Let them come.”

I slashed one last time and opened his throat. He coughed and gagged, drowning in his own blood. I watched him suffer, feeling the wall my archangel discipline had built around my emotions crash down completely. I let my tears run as I stared into his face. He seemed beyond the pain now, and perplexed by my emotions. His mouth moved as if he would speak but was unable. Lightning flashed beneath his skin, once, twice, three times. And then his eyes rolled into the back of his head as his life’s blood was spent, pooling in the dirt beneath us.

I turned away, gasping for breath, and gazed upon the battlefield, knowing I had friends among the dead. Still, our
forces had devastated the armies of Hell. The bodies of the dead had turned to stone, and the valley looked more like a boulder field than farmland. There were human corpses lying bloodied and broken among the reaper remains. My heart felt sick and I was tired, so very tired. But I wasn’t done yet.

“Ellie.” Will’s voice was quiet behind me. I closed my eyes as he stepped near and I sensed his heavy, gentle presence. He laid his hands on my arms, his touch soft and warm.

“Where are my friends?” I asked. “I want to see them.”

He drew away, his fingertips lingering on my skin, and then he started down the hill. My grip on the hallowed glaive grew weak and I almost dropped it. Will called to Marcus, and they met among the ruins. Will dipped his head close to Marcus and said something I couldn’t hear from this distance. Marcus put a hand on Will’s shoulder, and I had to look away.

I glimpsed Cadan walking among the bodies. He moved toward a reaper lying in the rubble. I saw that the fallen vir was Ronan, still lingering. Cadan knelt beside him and took his hand. They exchanged words, and moments later, Ronan was gone. I wanted to call to Cadan, to comfort him as he grieved for his friend, but then I remembered that I did not want him to repeat so soon what he had just endured. I didn’t want to make him watch me die. our last words had been enough.

Will and Marcus made their way back to me through the
debris. Marcus offered me an encouraging and triumphant smile that still couldn’t hide his sadness. His clothes were torn, filthy, and bloodied, and his skin was marred by still-healing wounds.

“We’ve won,” Marcus said. “Ellie, you did it.”

“No,” I replied. “We all did it.”

His gaze seemed to search for the injuries bringing me down, but he would find none. “The angels are helping our forces kill the last of the enemy. The demonic reapers who fought with Cadan are spared but the ones loyal to Hell are destroyed. There may be pockets of them somewhere in the world, but there’s no way they can replenish their ranks before we find the last of them and wipe them out. The war is finished.”

I felt a rush of relief and joy, and I smiled. “I never thought this day would come.”

“Did our friends make it?” Will asked.

“Ava is dead,” Marcus said, his voice grave. “She was taken down by a demonic vir. Cadan is helping the others look for survivors.”

Will looked toward the now-quiet battlefield. “My mother?”

“Madeleine was injured badly, but she’ll live. Evolet is with her now, making sure she heals.”

“You’ve done so well, Marcus,” I told him. “If you find Azrael, please thank him for me. And give Kate my love.”

He hesitated before leaving, but then he yanked me into
him and gave me a strong hug, burying his face in my hair. The hallowed glaive slipped from my fingers and clattered to the ground as I wrapped my arms around him with the last of my strength. “You’re the one who has done well,” he whispered. “I’ll be seeing you soon.”

He pulled away, and I was sad to watch him leave. I wanted to follow him, to help Cadan find the survivors, to keep on going, but I was so tired. My breathing became even more ragged and I closed my eyes, feeling the wind on my skin, savoring it. My wings vanished back into my shoulders, unable to hold their form any longer. I was falling before I realized it, but strong arms looped around me, and I sensed him all over, took in his scent, felt his rough cheek against mine.

“I’ve got you,” Will whispered, his voice so weak I wanted to cling to him and comfort him. He knew as well as I that I was finished. The endless power of the hallowed glaive would take one more life tonight.

He picked me up and carried me to a soft patch of grass at the top of Armageddon, and this was the place where I would die. The clouds had gone and the night sky had opened up with a cascade of bright stars. The air was cool on my skin and where Will touched me, I was warm. It wasn’t so hard to breathe now that I was lying down, but breaths came slower and shorter. My heartbeat wasn’t so fierce now, but it was pumping a sense of serenity through me that I didn’t fear. For the first time in many, many lifetimes, I wasn’t afraid to die.

But when I looked up into Will’s face, everything changed. The sorrow in his green eyes was so terrible and so beautiful that I was overcome by it. I’d only seen his tears a handful of times in five hundred years, but still they shattered me every time.

“I can’t do this,” he said, trembling. “I can’t say good-bye to you forever.”

I offered him a smile as sweet and as big as I could summon, but I was so fragile. “It’s all right. This was meant to be.”

He bit his lip and said, “So were we.”

Tears rolled over my cheeks and slipped into my hair as I gazed up at him. “I am so sorry. I love you. Please know that. It’s the only thing that matters now.”

He shook his head. “You can’t leave me alone.”

“But you’re not alone,” I told him. “You have your mother and your brother and your friends.”

He touched my cheek and traced my lips. “I’m nothing without you.”

“Do you remember the night you kissed me for the first time, when I told you that I wanted to live?”

He exhaled, the breath stolen from him, and he nodded. “Yes. oh, God, Ell…”

I smiled at him. “I have. I have lived. Thank you.”

He said nothing, but a tear fell from his eye and hit my cheek.

Time had passed, but I couldn’t tell how much. Will held me in his arms and I curled my body into him, feeling the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed, listening to his heartbeat. My own heart slowed and I grew weaker as my body broke down, but I wouldn’t untangle my fingers from around his shirt. I memorized him, his scent, the feel of him holding me, every contour of muscle beneath his skin, every rip and tear in his clothes from battle…. I wanted this moment to burn itself into my mind, into my soul, so that wherever I went once I closed my eyes this last time, I wouldn’t forget him.

“Ellie,” he whispered, breaking the silence between us.

I tightened my fingers around the cloth of his shirt. “Yes?” My voice was tiny, soft, barely anything more than beating butterfly wings.

His chest shuddered and I felt a warm drop of tear fall onto my hand. “You were quiet. I thought you’d gone.”

“No,” I told him. “But I’m so tired.”

“Stay here, please,” he whispered. “I’m begging you.”

“I’ll try to come back,” I promised. “I’ll find a way. Will you wait for me?”

“I’ll wait forever.” His lips pressed against my hair and he tilted my face up. “I swear to you that I will still be here. Even if you never come back, I’ll keep waiting for you.”

“I will fight all the way here if I have to,” I said, clutching him tighter.

“I know you would. You’re the fiercest girl I’ve ever met.”

I moved my hand up his chest to cradle his face and
I pulled him down to me. I took a breath just as I kissed him. He kissed me back gently as his lips moved with mine. Then he broke away with a wretched, sorrowful sound and he kissed my cheek, my temple, my forehead, and my lips one last time.

“I’ll be here,” he said. “For however long it takes. A year, ten thousand. I will not leave this world until you return to me.”

I brushed my hand over his cheek until I couldn’t hold it up anymore. “I promise I’ll come back to you. I won’t forget your face. I’ll come back.”

And then Will’s face faded away.