Seals (18 page)

Whatever the darkness had done to protect
her, she would thank it later.

She kicked out hard, and two higher demons
went sprawling. She saw an opening and thrust the tip of her left
wing into another demon’s head, perforating it like a pumpkin.
Another one came, and she spun and side kicked it in the chest. Two
death blades came flying at her, swinging like karate nunchucks.
She ducked, but the blades chopped off a piece of her wing.

Kara rolled on the ground, howling in pain.
The drips of black blood on the ground were her blood this
time.

She cried a scream that came from
deep within her soul. She cursed the black blood, and the monster
she was becoming. With black blood dripping from her wounds, she
snarled and attacked anything that came near her. Slicing.
Thrashing. Biting. She was snarling like a wild animal. In her
rage, she saw nothing but darkness and blood. She wanted only to
kill.

She had become a killing machine.

She caught a glimpse at Salthazar.

He was smiling. It was like he enjoyed
watching her kill his own demons.

In her rage she had forgotten the
oracle.

Her insides froze. She saw that Mr.
Patterson was pushed up against the front door of his bookstore. He
was trapped by seven demons. The fear in his eyes sent a chill down
her back. She had to get to him. She had to get him out.

With her face and hands caked with the blood
of her enemies, she thrashed like a wild creature cutting a path
through the horde of demons. Their faces blurred as she ploughed
her way toward Mr. Patterson.

Blinding pain erupted from the side of
her head, and wetness fell into her eyes, but she didn’t stop.
She couldn’t stop. She had to reach him—

She heard the oracle scream.

Frantic, she screamed louder and drove her
dagger into the eye of the last higher demon in her way. She was
almost there.

And then what she saw was like in slow
motion. She saw four of the demons pull their death blades out of
the oracle’s chest. His blue eyes met hers in a silent plea, almost
as though he was sorry. And then he staggered. His knees buckled
beneath him, and he fell over.

“NO!”

Kara bounded to him and spun like a wild
tornado. The severed bodies of the demons fell around her as she
fell to her knees sobbing.

“No, no, no,” she cried.

She pressed her hands over his wounds, and
golden liquid seeped through her fingers. There was so much of it.
She knelt in the pool of his essence.

He opened his mouth and golden essence
poured from the corners. “I’m—sorry.”

His eyes glazed over and became
lifeless.

The higher demons circled her, but she just
knelt there. Her hands trembled, and she sobbed uncontrollably

“Mr. Patterson? Mr. Patterson?”

His body moved, a bit of hope, but then she
realized it was her shaking that had caused the movement. The
vibrant, fierce, loving soul, the one person who had looked after
her like a real father, who had taken care of her, whose shop had
been like a beacon of hope, was gone.

The oracle was dead.

Kara stared at his body. She was numb. She
was lost.

Why hadn’t his soul appeared?

And then something hard hit the back of her
head and everything went dark.

Chapter 15

W
hen Kara came to,
she was blindfolded. Her head still throbbed from the blow she had
received, and she didn’t know how long she had been unconscious or
where she was. But she didn’t care. There was only darkness.
Darkness inside her. Darkness around her. And she welcomed it. She
deserved
it.

She had gotten Mr. Patterson killed. If she
had surrendered herself to Metatron, the oracle would still be
alive. If only she had followed the rules for once. But now he was
dead, and it was her fault. She always thought that she knew better
than anyone else. How could she, when in Horizon years she was
practically a newborn.

She should have taken the punishment and
gone to Tartarus, but she’d fled like a coward. She
was
a
coward. People died in her wake. She was a coward and a
monster.

Didn’t Mr. Patterson see this coming in
his crystal balls? Why hadn’t he told her?
She wished he’d
stayed hidden in his cupboard.

Kara stifled a cry. It wasn’t his fault. It
was hers. It was not his familiar smiling face she saw beneath her
blindfold but the pained and frightened face of a friend as his
life slipped away.

What happened to oracles when they suffered
their true death? Was it like the angels? Did their souls
reincarnate into another oracle?

The more she thought about it, the more she
realized she didn’t know much at all about the other beings in
Horizon. She had never really cared. She was selfish. He had died
in vain, and it was all her fault. Let her own true death come, she
wanted it.

She lay on a hard stone floor. Water
trickled in the distance. The air was damp, and it smelled of
sulfur, rot and toxic gas. At first, it reminded her of Tartarus,
but it
felt
different. It was hot, too hot to be Tartarus.
And what limited air there was, was choking hot, suffocating.
Wherever she was, a mortal couldn’t survive here.

And it wasn’t the Netherworld either. She
still felt the pulls of the mortal world. She was still on Earth,
but she just didn’t know where.

The ground pulsed against her cheek like it
had a beating heart, like it was alive. Even lying down, she felt a
hot wind blow in and out with a tempo like it was breathing. It was
creepy but it faded away like remnants of a dream as she fell in
and out of consciousness.

After lying down for what felt like hours,
she tried to move her arms. They were bound and so were her feet.
Rope. If she wanted to, she could find a way to rip her bonds
apart. But she didn’t want to. She deserved this. All of it.

She crawled on her hands and knees until her
head hit something solid. A wall. She managed to turn herself
around and sat with her back to the wall. Her head still throbbed,
and she could feel the nasty bump where she had been hit.

She had nothing left to give. With the death
of the oracle, she had inadvertently become the monster she feared.
It had been inevitable, just as Salthazar had said. She was meant
to become this monster.

She would die in the bleakness of this
place, in her own hell, alone and forgotten.

“I killed Mr. Patterson,” she whispered in
the dark, needing someone or something to hear her confession. “I
killed him.”

Had the white oracle seen this part of the
future?

She didn’t understand why Salthazar hadn’t
ended her right then and there back at the bookstore. It would have
been really easy for him. But he didn’t. And now she was here,
somewhere, as their captive. But why?

The two remaining seals were probably broken
by now. And what was the point in even thinking about it? It was
all over. The angels would be annihilated and billions of mortals
would be dead. Horizon would be destroyed, and there would be
nothing left. She tried hard not to think about it.

A door scraped open somewhere nearby. She
heard hushed voices, and then heavy tread of feet approached her.
She kept her head down.

“Finally. You’re conscious.” It was
Salthazar’s voice. He sounded as though he’d been waiting a very
long time for her to wake up.

“You’ve been out for nearly an entire
day
.”

Kara frowned.
Why was that important to
her?
She felt that it should be, but she couldn’t remember why.
She let the question dissolve.

“They shouldn’t have hit you so hard.” The
demon lord sounded irritated this time.
Was that a hint of
concern she detected?

“I was getting a little worried. But what’s
done is done, and now you’re up. I’m very happy to see you well
again,
Kara
.”

Kara snarled at the way he said her name,
like he longed for her. It disgusted her. Did he think they were
somehow going to be an item? If he did, then he was delusional. She
didn’t want anything except for an end to her miserable life.

“Why don’t you just kill me and get on with
it,” she growled.

Her voice was raw, like she’d swallowed a
glass full of razor blades. “I’m no use to you…or to anyone.”

Kara could hear boots on the stone floor
nearby.

“Kill you?” Salthazar was right next to her.
“Whatever gave you that idea? We
don’t
want to kill
you…
I
don’t want to kill you.”

He paused, and Kara thought she heard him
lick his lips.

“I can see now that all the rumors about you
are true. You may just be glorious now…but you will be magnificent.
You were always destined to be great. Your father knew it, and I
know it. Even the dark gods know it. And you were always destined
to be on
our
side—
not
the angels. You know that I
speak the truth.”

Kara grunted. She wanted him to shut up.

“What I mean to say is that angels and
demons are practically the same. We are all spawn from the same
supernatural creators. We are all built the same way, and we all
have the same abilities and desires. Mortals worship the angels,
and the angels want that. We want it too, is that so wrong? Of
course not. Why shouldn’t we be worshiped alongside the angels? We
are just a different kind of angel, if you will, a better kind. A
stronger kind. And you’re one of us.”

“Join us,” said the demon lord.

He was so close now that he must be kneeling
beside her.

“Join me, Kara. I’ll take care of you.
You’ll be worshiped by my side for all eternity. You and I are
equals. We can rule them all, my darling.”

Kara felt a cold finger brush her cheek.

“You are even more beautiful now than any
creature in all the worlds,” he crooned.

His hand was in her hair now and slowly
making its slippery way to her wings.

“Embrace the darkness. Don’t fight it, my
darling.”

Kara didn’t even flinch as his fingers
continued to inspect her body. She was numb. Her soul was numb, and
she didn’t care. She could only see the oracle’s terrified
face.

It would have been better if her father,
Asmodeus, had killed her that night in the cemetery. Better to have
suffered her true death there. Her body didn’t feel like it was
hers anymore. Her light was nearly extinguished, and she sensed
that the darkness of her transformation was almost complete. She
didn’t fight it anymore. She let it come.

She guessed that she wasn’t reacting the way
that the demon lord had anticipated because after a moment, he
removed his hand, and she heard him pacing over the damp
stones.

Were they in a cave?

The pacing stopped.

“If I let you out, promise you’ll behave?”
purred the demon lord.

Kara slowly lifted her chin, straining to
hear anything familiar that might help her pinpoint her
location.

“I hate having you locked up in here. Your
place is by my side. We will rule the Netherworld together.”

Salthazar paced around again.

“I want you to
see
. I want you to see
and hear those lying angels as they squirm and beg for their lives.
Together we will tear their souls apart.”

Kara’s head felt heavy. She felt drained and
tired.

What was this idiot mumbling about? Why
couldn’t he just shut up and kill her already?
“Get her up,”
commanded Salthazar. “And remove the blindfold. I want her to
see
everything.”

Kara was about to argue that he should leave
it on, but the bonds that tied her feet were cut, and the blindfold
was pulled off her face.

She blinked the black spots from her eyes as
Salthazar lifted her to her feet and steadied her. She was
surprised to find that she could actually stand. Her wings were
still bound with rope.

As her vision cleared, she took in her
surroundings. Black, glimmering walls surrounded her in a space the
size of her small bedroom. But this was no bedroom—it was a prison
cell in a cave or dungeon. She was a bird with clipped wings, and
she would never to fly again. She accepted her fate. It would all
be over soon enough.

Salthazar was only accompanied by two higher
demons. They didn’t seem to regard her as much of a threat to them
anymore.

She looked down. Her hands were caked with
black demon blood, but there was also golden blood mixed in with
it. It was smeared over her hands and fingers. She still had the
oracle’s blood on her. She resisted the urge to cry.

The two higher demons held her firmly by her
arms.

Why was it so hot?

“Forgive me, my darling, but I cannot remove
the bonds around your hands,” said Salthazar. “Not yet. But soon, I
promise. I suspect that you still have remnants of angel deep
inside you. But once you are fully converted, you will join me in
battle. You will be magnificent to watch. You will be
perfection.”

Kara wrinkled her nose at the reek of his
strong, musky cologne. It was almost like he was trying to mask the
stink of rot and death that demons naturally exude. It wasn’t
working. It only accentuated the smell even more.

What was his problem? Was he trying to
seduce her with his perfume
?

He stood so close to her that she wondered
if she smelled like a demon now, too. His black eyes rolled over
her ever so slowly. Handsome as he was, his eyes were still
unsettling and unnatural. She looked away.

“The dark gods have asked for you,” said
Salthazar,

He straightened his shoulders proudly. “So,
naturally, I have to keep you bound for now. I can’t risk you doing
anything foolish and embarrassing me. But they’ll come off, once
you’ve proven yourself worthy to be a child of darkness.”