Page 113 of Cursed
With an ear-splitting scream, she turned on him and shot a line of black fire from her sword.
Cain twisted his wrist, summoning a half-circle shield which blocked the dark energy from touching his body, then he stabbed his sword through her throat.
She collapsed to the polished floor with blood pouring from her mouth.
Everyone he struck fell to the ground. He became an adult in a room full of children, batting weapons away as easily as taking candy from a baby.
I should be mad at him.But instead, I’d forgiven him even when he’d left me. What else could he have done under the circumstances? If he would’ve stayed, we both would’ve died.
“You stupid, stupid girl,” someone shouted.
I turned and lifted my summoned sword, even though I had no idea how to wield the monstrous weapon.
Samael’s face loomed in front of me, furious and sweating. He reached through my shield and jerked me to his side, his sharp armor smelling of metal.
“What...how can you touch me and not get hurt?” It was dumb to be wondering about this in the middle of a battle, but it didn’t fit with my previous experience of the Fallen.
“You should’ve stayed on the mountain. It was safer.” He blocked an incoming blow by an angel with blue hair and golden wings then absorbed her wall of summoned golden spears with a blanket of black shadows. The sharp spears clattered to the ground.
Her eyes met mine for a moment before swinging back to Samael. “Release the Nephilim, you scum.” She thrust toward him again, but he easily blocked it, feinted a stab toward her side, then smacked her on the ear with the flat of his sword.
Crumpling to the ground, her eyes rolled to the back of her head.
“Ridiculous woman didn’t even recognize me.” He yanked my elbow and dragged me out of the battle to a dark corner of the room. “Stay here. Donottry to help. You’ll only make things worse or get yourself killed.”
“Why would you care if—”
A demon with a jagged cut running down his cheek, dripping black blood, ran toward us, but Samael pivoted with grace, slicing the demon’s head from his neck. With a thump, it rolled across the floor and left a blotchy stain of blood every time the knobby white bone of the severed cervical spine touched the stone.
“What...?” I swallowed a gag. “You killed a Fallen,” I gritted between my clenched teeth, trying not to vomit.What is happening? Samael is a demon, yet he protected me from one of his own.
“I’m calling Cain to come get you. I don’t have time to play babysitter.” Samael used a wing and pulled me to his torso.
Jabbing an elbow into his side, I jerked away from his sweat-soaked skin, but he clamped a hand on my wrist, squeezing until I dropped my sword.
“Ow. Let me go.”
Samael closed his eyes for a moment then opened them and nodded, as if answering an unspoken question.
Still in the middle of the hectic fight, swinging his sword and bashing his shield into the faces of his enemies, Cain carved a path toward me, his sparkling silver-blue stare never leaving mine for long.
Even in such a blood-soaked, chaotic scene, Cain’s beauty shone through the dark castle. There was an inner glow about him I’d never noticed before, and I couldn’t tear my attention from his clenched jawline or intensely hungry eyes.
When Cain reached me, Samael dropped my arm. “She’s your problem now.”
“Are we even?” Cain kept his hot gaze on me even as his words were for Samael.
I could barely focus on the nightmare unravelling around us. All I could think about, even though he hadn’t chosen me, was how lonely he must’ve felt being surrounded by such evil. His vengeance had probably been the only thing keeping him going. It certainly hadn’t been love or kindness.
Samael held up an old-fashioned key made from a shimmering white material. “Yeah, we’re even.” A calculating smile twisted his lips even as he lunged and planted his weapon between a Fallen’s shoulder blades. “You and I aren’t really that different, you know.” He pulled his glowing sword from the wound, and the demon crumpled to the floor. Samael cast me a quick, unreadable look. “Things change when you find the other half of your soul. Old alliances crumble and new desires take hold.”
I frowned.What exactly is he talking about?
A look of understanding dawned in Cain’s confused stare, then he clasped Samael on the arm. “So, this is what the key is for—to free her?”
Samael’s lips thinned. “Yes. She deserves better, certainly better than me.” He gripped Cain in a quick embrace. “But I’m all she’s got now. It’s time to get out of here. You look better in white. Black was never really your color. It clashed with your hair.”
A rumble of laughter shook Cain’s chest. “I pray we see each other again under better circumstances.”
