Black Night

I wasn’t going to stand there and let Samiel chase me all over the clearing. My magic was ineffective against him. He had taken my sword and part of my hand. My best bet was to grab Gabriel and fly out of there before Samiel had a chance to figure out what was going on.

But as I spread my wings to fly up, Samiel grabbed my ankle. Right. He was an immortal. He could see me even though I would be invisible to a human. Stupid. My brain wasn’t working right. I was too tired from my ordeal in the Maze and, hey, just a little blood loss.

I blasted his hand where it gripped my ankle but he held on tight. It was as if he’d been programmed to destroy me and he was not going to stop. Ever. He dragged me down and began to hit me in the face with the same steady determination that he had used the first time we’d met.

It is very hard to strategize when you are being pummeled to death. But I had a flash of wrapping Antares in a rope of nightfire.

I called up all my strength, all my will, all the power that had helped me survive the Maze. The clearing was suddenly lit with a blaze of sunlight, and I knew that it came from me.

A sinuous strand of nightfire curled out of my palm and wrapped around Samiel’s arms. It whirled around him until he was bound completely from neck to midthigh. He fell to the ground and so did I, my eyes momentarily blinded from sweat and blood, and my head dizzy.

After a minute I was able to get up, collect the sword, and stagger over to Samiel. He sat on the ground wrapped in the nightfire rope, and his face was furious.

I knew that if I killed him, Lucifer would be pissed at me. Amarantha was right—Lucifer was fanatical about his bloodline. But if I didn’t kill Samiel, he would just keep coming after me until he succeeded in pounding me to a pulp.

I raised the sword, intending to cut his head off. He watched me, not flinching, not making any attempt to save his own life. He was angry that he had lost, but there was also something resigned in his face.

That resignation made me stop, made me lower the sword to the ground.

Samiel shook his head at me, and he seemed angrier still that I had halted his execution. “Ed-by.”

“Ed-by?” I said. “What is that, some kind of demon curse?”

“Ed-by!” he shouted. “Ed-by, ed-by, ed-by, ed-by!”

Something in the rhythm of his words reminded me of the vision I’d had of him and Focalor in the Forbidden Lands. Ed-by. Enemy.

“Enemy?” I repeated and as I looked at him all the pieces clicked together.

Samiel’s total silence in the face of pain. The grunting and gesturing he’d used to communicate with Focalor. The strange pronunciation of “enemy.”

Samiel couldn’t hear.

“Ed-by!” he shouted, and his green eyes were filled with furious tears that ran down his face. “Ed-by! ED-BY!”

I backed away, shaking my head. Suddenly he didn’t seem like first cousin to the Terminator. He seemed like a lost and broken child. He’d come after me because he had seen me harm his mother, and now that I wouldn’t fight him he had nothing left.

I sat down on a rock and covered my face with my right hand. What the hell was I going to do with him? He was an abused kid who’d been raised by two psychopaths. I couldn’t kill him, no matter what he had done to me and mine.

My hand still bled, although the flow seemed to be slowing a bit. I held Lucifer’s sword to the stumps and they cauterized as my wounds had in the Maze. And yes, it hurt like hell and there was a lot of yelling involved.

I ignored Samiel for a moment and crossed the clearing to Gabriel. He still breathed, although it was so slow and shallow that I wasn’t sure how long he would last. I broke the arrow in half and pulled it from his body, grateful that Gabriel was out cold. Then I used the sword to seal the wounds, and turned back to Samiel.

He was rocking in the center of the clearing, his legs straight in front of him like a child’s. He kept repeating “ed-by” over and over again.

I knelt in front of him and put my hands under his chin so he would look up at me. He yanked his face away from my touch and I dropped my hands.

“I am not your enemy,” I said slowly and clearly. I’d seen him communicate with Focalor in the Forbidden Lands, so I assumed that he could read lips.

“Ed-by,” he repeated stubbornly.

I shook my head. “Not your enemy.”

“Ed-by!” he shouted.

I held up my hand to show him my missing fingers. “I have paid a blood price for harming your mother. Our quarrel is over.”

He stopped shouting at me and looked thoughtful for a moment, then shook his head. He clearly understood me if I spoke carefully.

“Dead,” he said, although it was a struggle for him.

“I did not kill your mother,” I said. “Ramuell killed her.”

This was true. I had fought Ariell to a standstill, but Ramuell had eaten her.

His eyes filled with tears again. “Dead.”

“Yes,” I said. “But I am not your enemy.”

He hung his head, and tears dripped off his face. I hated to keep him wrapped in the nightfire rope. It had to be causing him horrible pain even if he didn’t express it.

I released the spell that held the rope together, and suddenly Samiel was free. He looked up at me in astonishment.

I stayed crouched where I was, only a few inches away. I was taking a terrible chance. If I hadn’t gotten through to him, he would probably descend on me before I was able to respond.

“I am not your enemy,” I repeated again.