Page 81 of When Monsters Fight
“No. What are you doing? Get down. Get back on your knees.”
My lips smile for the first time in what feels like an age. “Make me.”
The light blazes brighter and a frisson of fear rushes up my spine, a primal instinct related not to them, but to God. Tohisdivine wrath, tohispower. Not the Dominions.
Never the Dominions.
They can’t hurt me. They can’t hurt anyone without someone else to wield their sword.
I duck my head and break into a sprint straight into the light.
Chapter 44
RUE
Michael rushed me and I tensed, ready to evade, ready for the dance that would keep him occupied. My mind screamed at me that this was insane, that there was no way to beat him, but Soul Reaper hummed in my hand, funneling conviction into me.
Michael’s sword arched toward me, and I brought Soul Reaper up on instinct to counter.
The clang of metal on metal, the hiss of power, a shockwave of impact up my arm, a flash of light, and I swung away from him, giving in to muscle memory and allowing the sword to lead me.
Because it was.
It was driving me.
Another clang. Another impact. I cried out in pain at the shockwave that rocked my muscles.
My body wasn’t equipped for this.
Michael stepped back, shoulders heaving. “You are trulyformidable, Rue. I cannot wait to have you writhing beneath me. To taste you. To own you.”
What? No. No way. “That’s never going to happen.”
But Gabriel and the watchers were still pinned, screaming words that I couldn’t hear from behind a shield that Michael had created.
I was alone.
I was tired.
And the power in the sword was burning through my body. An involuntary cry fell from my lips.
“Drop the sword,” Michael said. “Before it damages you too much.” He frowned in concern. “Rue, please, drop it. It doesn’t have to be this way. Just come with me. I can heal you.”
“I’d rather the sword kill me than be with you.”
His expression shuttered. “Then so be it.” He swung at me, and this time I knew it would be a killing blow. Knew that I wouldn’t be able to counter, even as the sword brought my arm up to do so.
A primal roar shattered my eardrums, and Michael was knocked off his feet by a crimson blur.
Shem!
He was awake. He was fucking awake, with his fist pummeling into Michael’s face over and over.
The blade in my hand glowed brightly, and Shem’s voice filled my head.“The relics, Rue. Use the sword to destroy the relics. It will free Lucifer. Hurry, I won’t be able to hold him off much longer.”
I turned and ran toward the nearest relic shard and swung the sword at it. The blade connected with a thunderous crack, and the fragment disintegrated, cutting off that stream of light. No time to stop. I hit the secondfragment, then the third, aware of Michael’s yell of rage and Shem’s counter bellow.
There was only one relic left.
