Arianna Rose: The Gates of Hell (Part 5) (26 page)

Hate snapped around him like sparks from a lit fuse.  He was dynamite, and with every second that ticked
by, every word that fell from her lips, he grew dangerously close to igniting.  Her next words were sure to make him explode.

“You see, Darius,
when you die by the hand of the Sola, me, your rotten soul will be destroyed forever.”  She let the words hang in the air for several seconds before continuing.  “Your body, your energy, all of it will die.  It’ll be like you never existed.”

Darius’ skin, usually the warm shade of brown sugar, flushed a scarlet hue.  His pupils dilated for a split-second, the realization that she spoke the truth settling over him. 
His upper lip snarled and he licked his bared teeth.  “Well it’s a good thing you can’t win,” he sneered with slightly less confidence than he’d exuded.

The
n, without warning, his features gathered to a point, his arms rising and his fingers aimed at her.  A deluge of garnet fire discharged.  She dodged it with no time to spare, the heat of his attack singeing a piece of her shirt and leaving a charred circle where fabric once was.  The wall absorbed the impact of his raid, a blaze gutting a hole in it.  Flames capered up the wall. 

“Little bitch!” Darius snarled and sent another round of acrid energy her way. 

Diving to the floor and rolling, she narrowly escaped incineration again.  And a second time, the wall behind her bore the brunt of the impact, exploding in a fiery flash.  The fire flared as if it were a living entity, swelling with a roar then lapping the wall and ceiling, consuming peeling plaster and tattered upholstery, decimating everything in its wake with ferocity. 

No longer interested in maneuvering defensively, Arianna
retaliated, answering Darius’ energy with her own.  Summoning the full intensity of her power, she propelled a torrent of silvery blue that streaked across the room and clashed with his. 

Powers warred, sliding against one another with frictionless force, pushing and pulling. 
The contact sent bits of fire cascading to the floor below, the collision echoing like an explosion.   Arianna’s arms trembled, the effect of maintaining her current as it battled his overloading her muscles.  A loud buzz layered atop an unending shriek burrowed from her ears to her brain as their powers screeched in protest, repelling each other. 

Embers sprayed from the sparring energies
, setting dried and exposed floorboards afire.  Darius was in a rage unlike any she’d ever witnessed.  He lurched forward; pure fury driving a thrust of force concentrated enough to knock her hands back against her chest and take the breath from her lungs.  Grimacing maniacally, he snickered maliciously.

“I’ve got you now!” he yelled, spittle spraying from his mouth.  “You can’t beat me!  You’re going to die!”

Mustering every ounce of strength she possessed, Arianna tapped into a reserve rooted deep in her core, in her soul, and shoved her arms away from her body, heaving a deluge of energy.  With tsunami-like strength, the barrage jolted him, and made him lose his footing. 

Catching himself just before he fell, Darius managed to right himself, and then retaliated with a fusillade of power that peppered her body like machine
gun fire. 

Flames licked at her feet, surrounding her slowly as the room transformed to a towering inferno in seconds as if it had been doused in accelerant.  Sweat poured from her brow and gathered between her shoulder blades.  She didn’t know how much longer she could hold him. 

Acknowledging that she was tiring caused her essence to waver fleetingly.  Darius, sensing it, capitalized on her moment of weakness.  His power flared and surged, pushing back hers with a whoosh of scorching air. 

Arianna’s body trembled violently.  She dropped to one knee, Darius’ dark energy too much for her to hold at bay.  Darkness teased the edges of her vision.  Her mother’s face appeared with Lily and Luke’s.  They waved to her from a field of
heather.  Lavender fronds brushed their legs and sunlight kissed their faces as it shone from the richest, bluest sky she’d ever seen.  The sound of a burbling brook and of children laughing flowed like silk, and wrapped her heart in feelings of warmth and safety.  She wanted to be there.  She wanted to go to the field of heather and see her friends, her mother.  A yawning ache of yearning filled her chest.  Her arms began to lower.  The hiss and sputter of fire began to fade.  The world beyond Darius called to her. 

Her eyelids fluttered, weighted and heavy, and her head lolled.  She was on the verge of surrendering, of heading into the light whe
re love and peace waited, when a burst of light so blinding it was painful flashed, a thunderous roar as if the heavens shook following.  Arianna’s eyes snapped open.  And from the light, a figure emerged and gripped Darius from behind, forcing his arms to his sides and interrupting his flow of energy. 

Darius’ thick, dark brows shot upward, his surprise evide
nt.

“Do it now, Arianna!” a familiar voice called.

“Dane!” she shrieked when she realized that, upon touching Darius, Dane’s body had become engulfed in fire. 

Amethyst-tipped wildflowers faded from her vision, her mother’s face, along with Luke and Lily, evaporated.  Her life, her destiny on this earthly plane
, summoned.

“I’m sorry!”
Dane shouted as he wrestled Darius.  “Please, forgive me one day.”

He cried out
in pain, the flames burning his flesh, as he struggled to hold Darius.  “Do it!  Do what you were chosen to do!”

With only seconds to react, the situation came into sharp focus.  She knew what she had to do.  Reluctantly, she sent a blast of energy aimed at the center of Darius’ chest.  

The instant before her torrent of fire struck him, a fleeting look of shock and terror washed over his features, and silence befell the burning room.  Peaceful, blessed silence so thick she could have heard a pin drop blanketed the space between them like a layer of freshly fallen snow. 

But all too quickly, the world erupted deafeningly. 
Darius released a sound, a bloodcurdling, unearthly din that clawed at her ears. 

Massive shockwaves snaked in every direction. 
Walls began to topple, flames licking up them as they fell.  Arianna lurched backward while Darius and Dane writhed and burned.  Melded into one fiery form, they plunged to the ground and landed hard.  The floorboards gave way beneath them and they plummeted to the level below, a blackened crater forming beneath their burning bodies and flames trailing in their wake.

A gust of fire surged, flames flaring in every direction, winding and slithering up walls as it swallowed the structure.  Eyes cast into the furious pit, Arianna swore she was given a glimpse of Gehenna.  But she pushed it to the back of her mind and fo
rced her gaze to focus on Dane and Darius’ fused forms.

Once she saw that the merged form did not
move or stand, she leaped, feeling sooty, hot air whooshing in her face in a rush before she landed on her feet beside them.  Unrestrained power spiraled through her veins, cooling and refreshing against the soaring blaze that threatened to envelop her. 

As soon as her feet touched the floor, she realized t
he time had come to finish Darius, and say good-bye to Dane.

Swirls of liquid silver and glacial blue rushed from her fingertips as soon as she aimed them at the heaped form.
White-hot heat consumed flesh and bone, devouring Darius’ fetid soul and freeing Dane’s.  When both were reduced to ash, she quickly moved toward the mound.  The air just above it quickened then exploded with pearlescent light, its edges glittering as the scent of spring and sweet grass, of hope and renewal, poured from it.  Ribbons of aquamarine curled from one of the piles, timid at first, they poked upward and flickered before merging and twirling in her direction. 

“I forgive you, Dane,” she said and addressed the essence of who he was.  “Go
,” she urged him.  “The slate has been cleaned.  Go to the light.  Go home.” 

The ribbon of light pulsed
, brilliant against the thick black smoke filling the space where fire did not burn, remaining for several seconds before it darted into the open portal between this earthly plane and paradise. 

Smoldering architecture, centuries old and crafted by expert hands, surrendered.  Walls disintegrated.  Floors collapsed.  Murky smoke gathered and would have seared the nose and throat of any human being.  Arianna’s eyes and throat did burn, but not from smoke inhalation.  The
y burned from loss.  Dane had bowed to his fate.  He’d surrendered his life for the Sola, for her.  His transgressions against her were forgiven, his wrongs pardoned.  She knew he’d moved on to a better place.  He’d gone home. 

Swiping the tears that slid down her cheek
s with the tips of her fingers, Arianna heard the hiss and crackle of flames devouring the entire top floor.  Creaks and groans bewailed weight that could no longer be supported by a seared girder just as it began to fall. A ghostly moan howled dolefully and the foundation buckled.  The chateau was immersed in flames.  The time had come for her to leave. 

Arianna squeezed her eyes shut.  The air quickened
, repelling the hot rush of fire, and the stench of brimstone, decay and blood that hung in the atmosphere vanished.  She sifted away from the chateau, away from the raging fire, the fallen demons, away from Darius’ charred remains.  The future beckoned; a future safe from a reign of terror. 

Chapter 19

Arianna took a deep breath as she walked on wobbly legs to the front room of her cabin. 
The room was a dizzying swirl of objects and light, a veritable merry-go-round of shapes and flashes.  Groaning, she reached a hand to her head and rubbed her temples.  Too little sleep, and the confrontation with Darius hours earlier that had taxed her powers more than ever before, left her with aches, dizziness and exhaustion similar to flu symptoms.  She would have welcomed the flu over what awaited her, however. 

On the heels of one of the most trying days of her life, another obstacle remained: she needed to tell the
Parkers about Dane’s death. MaryAnn, Adam, Avery and Jason had been through so much already.  They’d lost Beth.  And soon they’d learn exactly how Dane had perished. 

But before she saw the Parkers, she needed to face the rest of the inhabitants of the compound.  Since killing Darius, which triggered the simultaneous deaths of each demon he’d brought through the portals, she’d remained in
her cabin, resting.  But what little rest she’d gotten hadn’t been enough.  Fatigue still plagued her—both physically and emotionally. 

Inhaling, she filled her lungs
and tried desperately to steel herself for what lay ahead, and then opened the door. 

Glossy shafts of light spilled from a moon so round and fat it looked ready to burst and adorned everything they touched in a glistening sheen.
Few people lingered in the clearing.  Trainees mostly, they stood close together and chatted intensely.  That is, until they saw her.

As soon as gazes landed on her, discussions ended.  Several dropped to one knee, bowing their heads.  Her name was whispered in the wind and, little by little, more and more people trickled from their cabins.

Arianna felt nervous and uncomfortable, as she always did, seeing her peers genuflect and dip their heads reverently.  She was Arianna Rose, a girl who’d spent her years growing up in one trailer park or another.  She was no better than they were.  Regardless of what her title was, she was confident any of them would have fought Darius as she had.  There hadn’t been a choice in the matter.  The fate of humanity hadn’t exactly been something she could’ve ignored. 

“Please, don’t,” she found herself muttering.  “Get up.”  She
took her lower lip between her teeth.  “Come on, you don’t have to do that.”  She shifted her weight from one leg to the next then decided to approach the group nearest her and beg them to stand. 

But before she made it there, a warm gust redolent of spring and
rebirth brushed her face.  She looked toward it and caught sight of a familiar, comforting form. 

Bathed in moonbeams,
Briathos appeared.  He floated toward her as if adrift on a thin cloud.  His ivory hair fell around his shoulders, backlit and shimmering lustrously.  His entire body, from his pale skin and pastel-blue eyes to his billowing robes, looked as if they were coated in a pearlescent sheen. 

“Arianna,” he said, his voice drifting toward her ear
s with feather light strokes. The corners of his mouth lifted, temporarily filling the holes punched in her heart.  His smile was hope personified; his gaze the embodiment of kindness.  He opened his arms to her, inviting her into them, and Arianna had to fight the urge to run to him like a child. 

Slowing her eager legs to a pace just shy of a jog, she went to him. 

Falling into Briathos’ embrace felt like being enveloped in the wings of an angel.  Downy material, velvety soft and cozy, surrounded her.  “I am proud of you, my child,” his soothing voice caught as it rumbled through his chest. 

Ribbons of warmth enveloped her heart and tears welled, spilling from her eyes in stream
s.  “I feel so stupid,” she sniffled.  “Everyone is kneeling and ducking their heads and treating me like I’m something special.”