Seals (20 page)

There was one she’d never see before, a red
knight. Even his steed was red. Just like the other knights, he was
clad in red armor that hid most of this monstrous and muscular
body. He glared at Kara with loathing. The knights sat silently,
watching and waiting.
But for what
?

Where was the fourth knight
? Kara
couldn’t see the knight called Death.

She didn’t care.

She heard the scraping crunch of footsteps
on pebbles behind her. She turned around, and her smile faded.

A crowd of men, women, and children came
stumbling through one of the tunnels. Their hands and feet were
shackled. Their clothes were ripped and stiff with their own blood,
and they were covered in cuts and bruises. Many of them wept, and
they cowered as they dragged their chains into the chamber. They
looked horrified when they saw the archfiends. Children cried.
Their faces were streaked with dirt and dried tears.

Her nose burned at the reek of them. They
smelled of fear and death. They were human slaves. It was a glimpse
of what the world would be like if the archfiends were not
stopped.

Kara’s head pounded more savagely than
before as unyielding rage boiled up inside her.

“What is the meaning of this?” Kara bit back
her anger.

Betaazu appeared to relish her rage. He
smiled and said, “Human initiation, an introduction to their new
gods.”

Kara looked at a little girl, no more than
eight years old.

“Slaves,” she hissed. “Human slaves. Isn’t
it enough that you’ve plagued them with disease, starvation, and
war? Now you’ve taken those who’ve managed to survive and made them
into slaves. It’s sick.”

“It’s a new regime. A cleansing. The humans
that survive will have to obey and worship their new gods. There’s
no other choice for them.”

Kara watched as the human slaves were
prodded into position by a group of imps. The imps yanked and
pulled on the mortals’ chains, laughing and taunting them with
sticks and whips. The crimson stains on the imps’ hands and
knuckles left Kara with no doubt that they had tortured these poor
souls. The slaves formed a straight line facing the archfiends. The
imps bowed low and waited.

A male fiend with a shaved head moved
forward. “Renounce your old ways and embrace the future. Kneel and
worship your dark gods.”

The slaves didn’t move. Maybe they were too
afraid to move, or too shocked. Kara had the feeling that some of
them were about to faint. She didn’t know what they had gone
through. It must have been terrible. But still none of the slaves
moved.

“Kneel before the gods,” commanded the
fiend. “Choose the dark gods and live…or chose death.”

One of the mothers was the first to kneel.
She clung to her children and pulled them down with her. And then
all the other bent and broken slaves kneeled, too. All except
one.

An elderly man covered in angry blue and
purple bruises stood his ground. His white hair was caked in blood.
He reminded her of Mr. Patterson, and she bit down on her lip.

“Kneel, Frank,” whispered one of the
men.

“Do it. It’s not worth your life,” he said
in a low voice.

But Frank didn’t move. “It is to me.”

The other man shook his head sadly but
didn’t speak again. The other slaves kept their heads low and their
eyes on the ground.

The male fiend was at Frank’s side faster
than Kara had time to blink.

“You worthless human! How dare you be
impertinent before your gods, human? You insolent, miserable mortal
scum. Kneel! Kneel before the dark gods!”

The old man held his head high and squared
his shoulders.

“I will not. I never believed in this
hocus-pocus before. I can’t deny that I’ve seen things that I can
never explain, and that I don’t understand. But this…”

The man raised his chained wrists and
gestured toward the fiends.

“…I can see now that there are both good and
evil forces in the universe. You claim to be gods? I don’t know if
that is true, but my heart tells me that you are not gods, but
devils. I don’t know what you are, or why you are here. But if I
did believe in a god, it would be a just god, a kind god. It would
not be a god that kills and forces the weak to worship him.”

“If you don’t kneel now, old fool,”
whispered the fiend, “you will die. I promise you.”

Frank’s old eyes twinkled with tears. “I
don’t fear death because I believe our spirits live on.”

“Infidel!” cried the fiend. “Useless bag of
blood.”

He punched the old man in the stomach so
hard that he keeled over and blood spilled from his mouth.

“Stop! How dare you!” Kara surged forward
but was pulled back sharply by Betaazu. She thrashed and kicked in
his hold, but he didn’t let go.

The fiend lifted the old man by the neck and
dragged him to the edge of the ravine.

The man cried out and fought as hard as his
old limbs and strength would allow. But he was no match for the
supernatural strength of the fiend.

With a final struggle the fiend tossed the
old man over the ledge. His scream rang in Kara’s ears, her knees
trembled, and then she heard him no more.

A low growl slipped through her teeth as a
wild fury seized her.

“Let go of me,” she snarled.

She yanked hard, but the demon held
firm.

“Monsters! You monsters! I’ll kill you. I’ll
kill you all!”

In a single, swift movement, she twirled
behind the demon. His grip faltered, and she jumped back, ready to
run at the murderous fiend, but Betaazu caught her again
easily.

“Stop moving or I’ll break it,” he snarled.
“Or I’ll throw you over, too.”

“Do it,” she spat. “Throw me over,
demon
.”

The muscles in his jaw tightened. “Don’t
push me.”

But she did. She swept her leg into the back
of his knees, and he fell. He didn’t release her as they hit the
ground, and she landed on top of him.

Betaazu seemed pleased. “I must say that I
like this very much.”

If her hands hadn’t been bound, she would
have punched him. But she made do and ploughed her elbow into his
face.

The demon lord cursed as he flipped her on
her back. She knocked her head on the hard stony surface and saw
stars. He leapt to his feet and tried to pull her to her feet
again, but she kicked him hard in the stomach. She made her way to
tackle him, but he caught her by the shoulder and threw her to the
ground again. Then he kicked her in the face, grabbed her wrists,
and pinned her to the ground.

“Enough,” he growled. “There’s no point to
this. I’ll always win. You’re outmatched, Kara. Just give it
up.”

Kara thrashed under his grasp and finally
gave up. Only when she stopped did he pull her back to her
feet.

Kara looked at the slaves. They were
watching her, pleading for her help. But she was trapped and
shackled, a slave just like them.

And there was nothing she could do about
it.

Kara looked away from them and tried to hide
her own fear.

Could they see that she was an angel? Is
that why they pleaded with her silently? Did they know what she
was? But how could they?

Perhaps the supernatural veil that had
prevented humans from seeing angels had been lifted from their eyes
by the archfiends. It wouldn’t matter anyway. The monster inside
her had devoured every last trace of her angel essence and left a
only a beast in its wake.

But what if she was wrong?

Perhaps the mortals had
seen
something good in her. After all they had sought her out. They had
asked for her help. They knew something. They could see something
in her. She had sworn to protect them.
Could they read it in her
eyes?

It had taken all her strength to fight off
Betaazu.

Maybe she had already given up. Maybe she
hadn’t fought as hard as she might have because deep down she knew
it was pointless.

Kara watched the imps lead the human slaves
away down another tunnel. A child let out a whimper, and Kara’s
essence began to boil again.

She looked at her hand and gave a little
gasp. A small flicker of gold winked at her from her finger.

Kara had forgotten her ring. Maybe it could
give her the answers that she needed. Doing her best not to look
too conspicuous, she glanced down at the ring again.

One of the seals must still have been
unbroken.

A mischievous smile spread on her lips.
There was still a chance to save them all.

And then something inside Kara awoke.

Chapter 17

I
t was sudden. The
tiny light inside her pulsed and grew. Her head began to clear. She
didn’t want to die anymore. She wanted to fight. There was still a
fight left in her, whether it was angel or not, it didn’t matter.
What mattered was what she’d do with it. She held on to that
feeling. A veil had been lifted, not just from her mind but from
her eyes. She could
see
now. She could see everything. Maybe
it was a result of becoming a monster, but she seemed to have
developed some sort of sixth sense and x-ray vision. Everything had
slowed down around her, and her perceptions had sharpened.

She noticed something strange about the
archfiends. Something was
off
—they were off. Their bodies
seemed to shimmer and fade, like ghosts or wraiths that were
constantly struggling to stay solid. It was as though part of them
belonged somewhere else…

Mr. Patterson had said that the archfiends’
powers were lessened on Earth because of the lengthy duration of
their imprisonment. Somehow they were still
linked
to their
prison by the seals that had kept them confined. To gain full
control over their powers, they would literally have to break out
of their cage.

The more she observed, the more clearly she
could see it. Their skin was semi-transparent. It was a subtle
shift, but it reminded her of when she had begun to fade.

They hadn’t fully broken out yet! They
wouldn’t regain all their lost powers until all the seals that had
confined them had been broken.

Beelzebub roused Kara from her thoughts.
“Tell us how you and some of your angel guard learned of the
existence of my knights?”

He stared at his globe.

“You are but a speck of dust in the timeline
of creation. You couldn’t have known about them. I know you didn’t
discover them on your own, so you must have been informed by a
reliable source that had in-depth knowledge of the gods. Only a few
possess that knowledge. So, tell me who informed you of their
existence?”

Kara pressed her lips together. That
information would never come out of her. She’d already caused the
death of one oracle. There was no way she was going to endanger the
oracle mothers, or any other creatures for that matter. If the
archfiends were as clever as the gods like they claimed to be, they
would probably guess soon enough. If she could buy the legion some
time, she would.

“Who in that pitiful regime you call a
legion
advised you?” asked the archfiend again.

His voice rose in annoyance, and she
wondered how long she could keep this up before he smashed her into
smithereens. The black veins on his face throbbed as he raised a
brow.

“Was it an archangel?” spat the dark god.
“Or the one who calls himself
the Chief
?”

A flicker of surprise showed in Kara’s face,
and the archfiend’s eyes narrowed. He had seen it, too. She didn’t
know how they even knew about Horizon’s head guy, but then again
Horizon had seen its share of traitors. Her own father had been
one.

Kara just shrugged, but she kept her eyes on
the archfiend during the whole interrogation. She had to keep him
guessing to keep him busy.

Beelzebub’s face was unreadable.

“Why go after the knights when the rest of
your
kind
are being slaughtered? I’m surprised that you
weren’t with your precious legion. They could have used a creature
like you at the front, even though they are going to lose. You must
have been an angel of some importance if they let you go.”

His yellow eyes glowed. “What was it you
were searching for?”

This inquisition could last forever if she
didn’t give him something to think about, so Kara kept her face as
blank as she could.

“We weren’t searching for anything,” she
said. “We were just doing our duty as guardians. You know, saving
mortal lives, the lives you want to destroy.”

The archfiend laughed a terrible wicked
laugh. But when he spoke again there was no trace of laughter.

“Are there more plans to try and stop my
knights? Tell me! It’s very important.”

Kara raised her brows.

“I’m sure it is, but I don’t know what
you’re talking about. I’m just a guardian—or I was—they don’t tell
me anything.”

The commotion of the battle below them grew
louder, and the fear in the pit of her chest increased.

Beelzebub leaned forward in his throne.
“What do you know of the
seals
?”

Everything relied on her answer.

She suspected the archfiends could read her
mind. She didn’t have a plan—not yet. First she needed to free her
bonds. Her eyes moved to the death blade that hung around
Salthazar’s belt.

“Seals? The water animals that live near the
ocean?” said Kara, looking back at the giant man sitting on his
throne. Her voice steady. She hoped it was a good enough lie.

“I can taste your lies,” said Beelzebub.
“Somehow the legion discovered the connection between the seals and
the knights. This is why you thought you could stop them. But you
cannot stop this.”

He paused and then added, “Mors vincit
omnia.”

Kara made a face. “Sorry, my Latin’s a
little rusty.”