Page 8 of When Monsters Fight
“Silence!” Kabiel snapped, then to me, “You’re a fool coming here to deliver such news. Hope is all that is keeping my watchers tethered, and you come here to take that away?”
What? Wait…He thought hope was lost? Shit, he didn’t know there was a way to get into Gehenna. “No, Kabiel. You don’t understand. The relic fragmentisin Gehenna, but we can go after it. There’s a doorway to Gehenna in the church.I plan to open it and go through, and I want…No, Ineedyou and some of your watchers to come with me.”
“Monsters to fight the monsters you may encounter,hmmmm?”
I lifted my chin. “You won’t be so much of a monster when I’m done with you.”
He scanned my face. “You hope to get us into the church. It would take a vast injection of Morningstar power to achieve that goal.”
But there was longing in his tone. Longing and pure hope.
“I can do it with Jilyana’s help. I can evolve you enough to get you through the church and into Gehenna.”
Soft chitters echoed around us as the devolved absorbed this information.
“Pick your troop, Kabiel. I won’t be able to evolve everyone, so pick wisely. The rest will have residual power to feed off during the channeling.”
His nostrils flared, and he stepped back, the tips of his spider legs sinking into the earth and making no sound.
“I would choose you all if I could,” Kabiel said. “But I cannot. My brothers, you have fought valiantly against the growing darkness. Fight a little longer, and powers that be willing, we will once again find the light.”
I hated this. Hated that I couldn’t help them all, but my ability had limits, even with Jilyana’s help.
Kabiel took a moment, his gaze blank as he looked inward. When he spoke, his tone was studded with authority. “Asbeel, Kokabel, Yomiel, and Matarel, you will join me.”
Four devolved emerged from between the trees, just as large as Kabiel and slightly more devolved-looking than he was, but each looked humanoid enough that I was sure Icould get them to a state where the wards on the church wouldn’t hold them back.
Jilyana took my hand and gave me a nod, letting me know she was ready when I was.
“Gather around.” I stepped closer to Kabiel. “Gather close.”
Kabiel put his arm around me, drawing Jilyana closer in the process. She tensed, and I squeezed her hand to let her know it was okay.
The other four devolved moved in so that we were surrounded by them. The rest remained hidden in the shadowy canopy above.
I pressed my palm to Kabiel’s pectoral. “Jilyana?”
She hesitated before pressing her palm to his other pectoral.
I looked up at the watcher. “Are you ready?”
His silvery gaze skipped over my features, lingering on my lips before locking on to my eyes. “Yes, Rue. I am ready. We are ready.”
I closed my eyes and reached deep into myself to open the door to the Morningstar power. Lucifer’s power. It blasted into me with such force that my back arched and my eyes snapped open. Kabiel stared at me, stunned, his mouth a soft ‘o’ that was quickly obscured by white-hot blazing power.
Jilyana’s grip on my hand bordered on painful as we held the connection for achingly long seconds until my lungs were too tight to breathe and my eyes sizzled in their sockets.
Enough.
Now was enough.
I squeezed my eyes closed, found the door, and pushed. The last time I’d been too weak to close it alone, but withJilyana helping me to channel the power, I had enough strength to slam it closed.
It cut off, and my knees buckled. Jilyana’s hand slipped out of mine, but Kabiel’s hold on me tightened so that I was pressed to him, cheek against the very pectoral I’d just had my palm against a moment ago.
“I’ve got you, Rue.” His voice sounded different.
The gooseflesh-inducing raspy quality was gone, replaced by a smooth baritone that sent a different kind of shiver up my spine.
