Seals (27 page)

The archfiend’s face twisted in rage.

“Never. Never will I set foot in that…that
dungeon.”

The archfiend laughed.

“What? You think you can cage us up again?
You? A little angel speck? Don’t be foolish. Even the best of your
kind weren’t able to vanquish us. What makes you so sure that you
can do it?”

It was Kara’s turn to smile. “I’ll figure
out a way. Trust me.”

Kara felt the golden ring on her finger and
rolled it gently. She could feel the reverberations in the energy
fields that surrounded the Earth.

She also could sense the thousands of demons
that were slowly making their way toward her.

The archfiend saw Kara’s shoulders
tense.

“There is still time to fix this
little…hiccup.”

Black mist coiled around the archfiend’s
hands and fingers.

“We will not go back. I will not go back. I
will find a way to change you back, to put you right again.”

“I’m perfectly fine the way I am, thank
you.”

Kara felt a shift in the air, and even
before she saw them, she knew that all the other archfiends were
coming. She looked to the sky. The dark web had vanished. All the
creatures of the Netherworld stopped to watch as the other five
archfiends landed next to the female.

The faces of all the archfiends were
disturbingly beautiful. But it was a cold and intense beauty. She
sensed the evil in that beauty now. They stared at Kara, and she
could see the wild fury in their cat-like eyes. Oh boy, were they
angry with her.

She gave them her best smile, a smile that
David would be proud of.

She watched as Jenny knelt beside David and
was surprised and relieved when he sat up. The color had returned
to his dazzling blue eyes.

He smiled at her, and she felt a pang in her
chest. She had almost killed him. Well, Death had. She couldn’t
think about that now.

The air moved around her, and Beelzebub
landed in front of Kara with a flap of his great wings.

He inspected her slowly, and then his voice
boomed, “Tilia! What is the meaning of this? Where is Death?”

The female archfiend held her head high.
“I’m…I’m not sure. The creature just slipped away, vanished, and
left this one instead. I can’t explain it. Perhaps there was a
mistake with the extract—”

“There was no mistake,” growled Beelzebub.
“Not in the extract.”

He turned to Kara. “She did this. Somehow,
she destroyed the essence, our essence.”

“What of the seals?” asked one of the male
archfiends? “Has the final seal broken?”

“It hasn’t,” interrupted Kara. All the
archfiends turned their attention on her. “It’s not broken. You
failed. And now it’s only a matter of time before you return to
your cages forever.”

“I will destroy you!” Tilia flicked her
wrists and beams of shadow shot straight for Kara.

But Kara was ready, and in a flash of golden
light, she darted out of the way. The shadows merely scorched the
ground where Kara had been.

Kara grinned as she looked into Tilia’s
surprised face.

But then Tilia’s surprised look turned into
a grin of her own, and she unleashed her fury again, but this time
at David.

But Kara was already moving. She shot into
the air faster than she’d ever moved before and gathered David and
Jenny into her arms. She protected them with her body as the beams
of darkness hit.

Although Kara yelled in pain as the darkness
coiled around her, and the feeling of death tried to enter her
again, she did not succumb to it. Her elemental power broke free of
the tendrils of darkness and blasted them into tiny particles.

Kara turned from her friends very slowly.
She was trembling with uncontrollable anger. She was going to rip
them to shreds.

But then she saw something in their eyes,
something that told her that she needn’t worry.

She could see fear in Beelzebub’s perfect
face.

Kara knew that he sensed the change. He
sensed that his time left on Earth was short.

The archfiends began to shimmer. Their
bodies were fading away like ghosts.

Kara knew what she needed to do. Her
elemental power blazed around her like a glowing star. Let them all
tremble in fear of the monster that they had woken. Kara soared
into the sky in a blaze of golden light.

She spotted the three knights hiding nearby
and saw their recognition of her power in their eyes as she neared
them. They brandished their weapons and pressed their steeds toward
her. But it didn’t matter. She was light, and they were darkness.
They didn’t belong.

She screamed her rage, for the all the
mortals they had killed. “Murderers!”

Kara became a whirlwind of black shadows and
wings. She cut through the knights as though they were mere paper
cutouts. With a last flicker, their bodies turned into dust, and
the knights shimmered and disappeared.

Suddenly the ground shook below her feet,
and she could hear screaming. But it wasn’t angels crying for help,
this was something else.

Kara glided back to David and Jenny. She
could see it had already begun.

A beam of fire erupted from the bowels of
the earth, shot up through the air, and tore a hole in the sky. It
was just like the rift she had seen before. It wavered and
shimmered. It looked as if it were waiting for something.

Then the archfiends cried out. Their bodies
wavered and started to fall apart. An invisible force was pulling
at them. One by one the archfiends were sucked into the portal and
disappeared.

Beelzebub grabbed on to a large boulder and
yelled at Kara. “I will return! I will destroy you! I will destroy
you all!”

But suddenly his body disintegrated, and he
was swallowed up by the portal, just like the others.

The archfiends had been beaten.

Cheers rose up, and Kara turned to see the
smiling faces of the angels that had stayed behind and
survived.

With grim determination, the angels
unleashed their fury on the demons.

It wasn’t like anything she’d ever seen.
They fought with purpose and ferocity. They fought like they were
going to win.

A battle cry sounded, and Kara saw Metatron
charge into combat, slicing and dicing his way through the hordes
of demons.

“Kara! Kara! Kara!” The angels shouted her
name as a battle cry. Now they had something to fight for.

Without their endless supply of power, the
demons retreated and vanished into the cliffs and back into the
dark depths of the volcano, back to their Netherworld.

The angels had won the war.

Chapter 25

T
he cheering lasted
all through the night after the last of the demons had disappeared.
The angels celebrated their victory. The mortal world and Horizon
were safe.

Although
her M-suit was on its last legs,
Kara stayed behind. She didn’t want to go back to
Horizon. Not just yet.

She
stood on the spot where she’d last seen the archfiends.
The
angry gray clouds slowly dissipated to reveal a night sky that
glimmered with stars.
Memories
of what she’d done in the name of Death pulled at her heart.
These were things that she’d have to live with. There was no other
choice.

The thought of losing Mr. Patterson pained
her the most.

“What are you thinking about?” David moved
next to her.

Kara gave him a slow, bitter smile. “I can’t
believe I nearly killed you.”

“Nah, you didn’t. Not even close,” he
teased. “I was just pretending. I was doing the gentleman thing and
making you think you were winning, when in fact you weren’t.”

Kara’s laugh died in her throat. She looked
as if she were overwhelmed with sadness.

“Tell me. What’s the matter? What’s in that
head of yours that’s putting on such a sad face?”

With a trembling voice, Kara recounted the
events that had led to the oracle’s death.

“It wasn’t your fault,” David said gently.
She couldn’t look him in the eye.

“You can’t blame yourself for this. He
wouldn’t want you to.”

That part was true. Kara knew that Mr.
Patterson wouldn’t have wanted her to feel guilty about his death.
He had chosen to come with her, even though she had asked him not
to.

Kara looked up into David’s eyes.

“Are oracles like angels? Will his soul live
on?”

“I’m not sure, but something tells me that
they do. He’s probably back in Horizon waiting for you.”

“I hope you’re right.” Kara smiled briefly.
“Most of this was my fault you know, whether you want to admit it
or not. They used me to do horrible things—”

“That you had no control over.” David
grabbed her shoulders and made her face him.

“It wasn’t you. The Kara I know would never
hurt anyone. I know you’re stubborn, and most of the time you think
you’re right—and you are sometimes—but not with this. What the
archfiends did was not your fault.”

Even though she knew David was right, it
would take her a long time to come to terms with what she’d done.
David couldn’t possibly understand. But she loved him for trying to
keep her spirits up.

David…

She’d almost killed him, and yet here he
was, full of admiration and with love sparkling in his eyes. She
trembled with the temptation to pull him into her and kiss him.

“Here she is,” said a familiar voice.

Kara’s spirit rose at the sight of Jenny,
Peter and Ashley.

“Thank the souls, you’re all safe.”

Kara’s troubles washed away momentarily as
she took in the sight of her friends, alive and well. She threw her
arms around them and squeezed them in a hug, ignoring Peter’s
protests and pulling him in, too.

Finally she let them go. “I’m so glad to see
you guys. You have no idea. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing
any of you. You’re all so very special to me.”

“You’re special to us too, Kara,” said
Peter, but he avoided her eyes.

“Well, you’ll be surprised to know that a
lot more of us did survive.” Ashley gave a wave of her sword. It
was still caked with dried demon blood.

“There were casualties, of course, but more
injuries than deaths. It’s a miracle I think.”

“I don’t know much about miracles, but it’s
a relief to see you safe.” Kara’s chest swelled as she watched
their happy faces.

“We all saw what you did, Kara.” Peter
straightened his shattered glasses on his nose, and Kara wondered
why he even bothered to wear them. “You saved us. You did it.”

“We all did,” said Kara, a little
embarrassed. “This is everyone’s victory. We all played an
important part in it.”

“Maybe,” said David. “But you most of all.”
He caught her eye, and she couldn’t look away.

“Well, I told you she was a fairy.” Jenny’s
eyes brightened at the sight of Kara’s wings. “A golden fairy.”

Everyone burst out laughing, including Kara.
Her friends’ laughter was the most beautiful thing she’d ever
heard. She never wanted it to end.

“Truthfully, I don’t know how long I’ll have
them.” Kara had already sensed that her golden wings, like weights,
were gradually lifting from her shoulders.

“I can’t explain it, but I feel like they’re
leaving me. Like I won’t have them for much longer.”

“Well, that’s too bad because we could have
used them.” The archangel Ariel walked slowly toward them. Her
metal armor was stained with black blood, and her grin was
fierce.

“You never cease to amaze me, Kara.” Ariel
beamed. “The legion is lucky to have you. But something tells me
you’re not as thrilled as the rest of us.”

“I did some terrible things when I was
Death.”

Ariel put a hand on her shoulder. “You just
said it, as Death, not as Kara. That wasn’t you. And we can’t hold
you accountable for something that horrible creature did.”

“Told you,” whispered David.

“Ariel’s right.” Metatron’s cigar dangled
from his lips.

Immediately Kara knew there was something
different about him. His entourage was missing.
Were they
dead?
She didn’t like the lipstick angels, but she didn’t
necessarily want them dead. Well, not all of them.

“You were possessed. You were being
controlled by a demon,” continued the big archangel. “You were not
yourself, and the legion doesn’t condemn angels who have been
possessed. Under our laws, an angel who is not in control of their
actions cannot be convicted of any crime.”

“Am I still under arrest, though?”

Kara had the feeling that even though they
had won the war, Metatron didn’t forgive or forget easily. “For the
other thing?”

Metatron looked at Kara with a blank
face.

“In view of recent events, let’s just say
the arrest warrant has been lifted.” He exhaled a cloud of gray
smoke. “For now, that is.”

Kara shot David a look and tried to control
the laugh that wanted to burst from her mouth.

But then she lost her smile and turned to
Ariel.

“What about the mortal world? All the
diseases and the lands poisoned by the knights? All those sick
people? What’s going to happen to them?”

“The mortal world will heal. The crops will
grow back. The animals will thrive again, and the sick will
recover. It has already begun. Most mortals will not remember this
experience, the oracles are already back hard at work adjusting
memories and correcting lapses in time.”

“And the archfiends?” Kara’s eyes moved to
Metatron, but he only seemed interested in his cigar.

“They used up all of their resources,”
answered Ariel. “They cannot break free. I can say it with
confidence. They will never break out again.”

Kara couldn’t help but feel a little proud
at what she had helped accomplish. The world was safe, for now, and
now was certainly good enough.