32

The car became a coffin filled with hollowed figures.

Like an organism of one mind, Clay’s victims all turned at the same time. Fresh blood still leaked from their bodies. Their eyes glowed like haunting white orbs.

Clay had made an army before I could even pick myself up off the floor.

I sat on my knees, trembling like a frightened kitten and not a great demon of Hell. He had no regard for the lives on that train. I knew from the moment I smelled his dark magic that he was perfectly capable, but seeing his evil firsthand? That was a brutal slap of reality.

“Wishing you were asleep now, princess?” His snicker came out quiet and creeping, like skittering rats. He took confident strides toward me, and survival kicked in, rattling me from my gloom.

I was trapped in a metal box with a psycho.

Get your ass off the ground and run!

A tickle, so delicate I almost missed it, trailed up my arm like the back of someone’s finger. I looked down at dust particles, at least, that was what I thought, until I saw the same sheen of soulful violet. As soon as the ethereal specks settled on my skin, a spark warmed my insides.

The old woman had been dead for a few minutes, but that had been her . What was left of her. Her soul barely grazed me, but it had been enough. I brought my hand forward as if to push Clay back. Nothing happened at first, but then a small burst of dark matter left my palm.

The surge charred the seats closest to me and created a small shock wave. Clay dove out of the way, avoiding it entirely. I squeezed the dead woman’s shoulder one last time, thanking her from beyond the grave, and then ran .

A dam broke from behind me.

The undead followed through the wreckage with impressive speed. Hundreds of voices carried above us from the lucky cars that hadn’t fallen from the tracks. We’d crashed on an intersection with bystanders flashing their phones and narrating the scene from the safety of the sidewalk. Especially Guy and the Ghoul.

“ Go !” The roar split my throat. “You’re not safe here.”

The Ghoul still hadn’t relented, even in its state of dangling body parts. Whatever magic fueled the beast disregarded pain. It caught Guy with a heavy, backhanded smack that rolled him across the gravel. He lifted his head and revealed pinkened skin on his scalp.

The sound of nails scratching rudely alerted me to my own peril. Zombies climbed out of the train. A shredded piece of met al on the ground threatened to cut my ankle open. Not a bad choice of weapon.

Except not . I didn’t want to kill the people I’d just tried to save. They were already dead, but I couldn’t stomach the idea of hurting them again. Some demon I was. I just watched as they got closer, mindless and clumsy while I clutched the metal piece.

The earth shook. Something landed close to me. I lost my footing but forced my head around to see the new threat. As I feared, the second Ghoul had arrived; dropping down from somewhere, unseen.

I hastily backpedaled, paying no heed to the zombies. My weapon felt extra tiny in my hand. The Ghoul’s height and width surpassed the first. Hundreds of fingers created the bumpy texture to its massive arms. Its torso almost appeared clothed except the cloth was made out of the many faces of the dead. Their jaws hung open, and the eyes shifted in no clear direction. Holy shit .

Distracted by the terror before me, I fell right into Clay’s trap.

With a rough tug, a long, black sleeve wrapped across my chest and secured me against my captor. The edge of his jagged blade pressed into my neck. His hood served as the only divider between us, warding off his hot breath. “Calm down, Jessebel. A little cut is all it takes.”

With the warning loud and clear, he released his grip to fight the sharp metal out of my hand. It hit the ground, taking my hopes with it. The remaining zombies formed a half moon, using the Ghoul to close us in a circle.

Clay dragged the knife past my chin and up to my face. I saw my tense reflection in the black metal. And Clay’s. His blood- orange eyes crinkled above his massive grin. While his skin resembled stretched plaster, he still looked younger than I ex pected for a mass murderer.

I felt for his arm holding the blade and tried ripping it away. The coolness of his skin sparked hope in me. I could sap him of his vitality. He’d realize it too late!

Instead of a soul, I found something more twisted than the smile on his face.

Unlike anything I’d encountered, Clay’s body hosted something sinister, and the blackened roots ran deep. I felt them coiling around his muscles and poisoning his veins. And as soon as I sensed it, it sensed me .

Whatever malicious entity he inhabited responded to my touch. A thousand needles pricked my palm and dragged up my arm. A harsh gasp scraped the back of my throat. Shaken to the core, I retreated higher up his arm where the sleeve covered him.

What was I supposed to do with that ?

If Clay had any idea what I’d tried to do, he didn’t reveal it. Instead, he carried on like we’d met for brunch. “I planned this moment quite differently but couldn’t shake these assholes off you. No one should bother us now.”

Recalling how Guy had fallen, my heart sank even lower.

“What’ve you done?” I asked, looking at his mindless army.

“Them?” His dry chuckle made my skin crawl. “I gave them greater purpose! Humans aren’t relevant anymore, just para sites surviving only by the coddling of angels. It really bugs me, you know?”

The laughter darkened. Despite his feeble appearance, his strength doubled in the mere seconds we stood there. He brought me to my toes while his arm crushed my collarbone.

“What do you want?” I spoke through my teeth and kept my eyes locked on his weapon. The metal had dents from torture under its crafter’s hammer. Something inside the blade squirmed , like a malignant worm stuck in a tube.

He let up just a bit so I could touch the ground again. “I’ve been anxious since that night. I knew I had to step up my game if some random girl could interfere with my Ghoul. But you’re not random, are you? A lost demon. Abandoned, just like me.”

I shuddered at the thought of being anything close to what he was. “I wasn’t abandoned…”

Clay swayed, swinging me along with his movements. “Sure. That’s why you have no teacher. No family. Just an obsessed, ex-cultist who snatched you from your unholy cradle.”

“My aunt wouldn’t go near a cult,” I countered, “And she definitely wouldn’t steal kids.”

“You’ve been with her all your life and I know more about that witch than you do?” he asked with a wet scoff, “I hope you aren’t actually this stupid.”

The longer he took keeping that knife at my face, the less sanity I had left. His chin landed hard on my shoulder. He didn’t quite have the putrid stench of the dead, but that could just be the smokiness of his magic acting as a neutralizer. “Have you noticed how people are around you? Are they too nice when they shouldn’t be? Or maybe, they get violent.”

I said nothing and waited.

“A demon’s lure can be so unpredictable. You manipulate these insects without even trying. You can never trust them. You can never love them. And they’ll certainly never accept you.” Clay’s delight left his wicked tongue like a children’s song. His words carved an opening in my chest so wide, it amazed me that I didn’t bleed out. No. He’s evil. Evil people lie. He was just trying to get under my skin.

“The only thing you can expect from them is their hate and their need to control you,” he added, “but it’s you who controls them. If you have someone to show you how.”

I couldn’t stop shaking. Evil people lie. Evil people lie.

I did love. I loved Naomi. I loved… Well, I grew attached to my new friends. And I knew those feelings were similar. If something happened to Zak, Tori, Guy, Jarmiel—really any of them—I would feel sad, just as I would if Naomi were hurt. That couldn’t just be explained away.

Clay continued humming in my ear, “I’ve seen your loneliness, deep inside your dreams. Power separates us from the weak, naturally. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We’re more alike than you realize.”

I did my best to sound firm, but the tremor in my voice gave me away. “I don’t need you .”

His spidery fingers left my shoulder and curved around my chin.

“No need to act so righteous, little demon. No one’s coming that you need to impress. It’s just us, two demons that the world, and even Hell, turned its backs on.”

I shivered.

“I brought you a gift.” He forced my sights back up at the Ghoul. I gasped as it shifted, snapping bones and creating a cavity in its chest. Bile burned my throat once more. A more put-together body was spat out from the unholy mess.

Faris slid across gravel, scraping up his back. The ink-like bindings constraining him reached his neck and across his mouth, splitting the edges of his lips. His long face looked dark purple, either from bruising or suffocation.

“How did—” I stopped. Stunned.

“He followed you here. Unluckily for him, I followed him too.” Clay beamed like he expected me to praise him next. Faris already knew where to look. His wide-set eyes glowered for a moment until panic took over. He dropped in front of us; a lamb to the slaughter. All he could do was wriggle but doing so made him choke on his gag.

“What should we do with him?” Clay asked, waving his knife in front of us. Faris shriveled like a burning leaf. I shook my head but Clay’s nails pressed deeply into my tender jaw.

“What?” he snapped, “He’s the one who wants you dead. Punish the worm. It’s your right.”

He waited for an answer. And was he wrong? What right did Faris have to my life? He knew of my existence for all of a few days and decided it was enough to kill me. Sent his friends to murder me while I slept in Clove’s lab.

Worm.

Looking at his pathetic shape now, he really was a cowardly worm.

Gods . I shook Clay’s words out of my head with a sharp jerk. My blood raced with something other than fear. Sympathizing was idiotic, but killing Faris wouldn’t give me triumph either.

“You’d spare this human trash?” Clay grumbled. His forceful huff hit my face, but then, he smoothed his rough thumb over my cheek; a bit tender and awkward considering the situation. After a long pause, his hand fell away from my face entirely. “Mistress says I should be patient with you.”

Clay pointed his knife at the ground and granted me a foot of space. I turned it into four. Who was this “Mistress” and what authority did she have over him? He seemed like a loose cannon until that point.

I faced him. “You still haven’t told me why you’re doing this?”

Sleeplessness outlined his eyes in deep purple rings, reminding me of Guy. His pitiful tone mocked any real emotion. “They didn’t tell you about Mommy and Daddy. If they did—” He stopped himself with a nervous hiccup. “ Oh . I wish I could’ve seen the angels squirm. Did you finally figure it out, Princess ?”

“I… I don’t care,” I said.

“Liar.” Clay captured my attention with his gaze, orange shifting to red and then black. My muscles itched to strike him, especially when he started closing the gap between us again. He grasped both of my arms, the knife sandwiched between his palm and my bicep.

“Your old man lost track of his little hellspawn, and now, you’ll be hunted by assholes like me. Forever,” his voice trembled, along with the rest of him, “Heaven and Hell are just brats fighting over their toys. We can break the cycle. Never answering to any gods. Never dying.”

His mania was too much. I twisted away but his hold tightened. My sleeves guarded his vile spirit from me, but I wasn’t eager to feel it again. “I’ll take that into consideration,” I lied, “You can let go now.”

“Are you even listening? What’ve I said that makes you think you can just go ?”

He graced me with another troubling sneer as his forehead met mine. “We were made to be gods. We’ll burn Terra to the ground and sit you on a pretty throne of ashes. Doesn’t that sound fun?”

“Not really,” I said, still trying to hold any semblance of power in our situation, but inside I was screaming “ get the hell off me, you’re insane! ”

“Come with me.” Clay’s voice cracking startled the hell out of me. His menacing act seconds ago digressed into an awkward plea. Before he could continue, he was ripped from my sight by a silver hook across his entire belly. The blade whistled in the wind and threw Clay into his line of zombies.

Guy took his place beside me, breathing heavily. Sweat and blood pooled from his brow. Black ooze splattered across his shirt and smelled like putrid rot. “You okay?” he asked, his voice husky.

I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the blood. “You’re not.”

He brushed away my concerns and locked eyes with mine. “Shit. Another one?”

The Ghoul paused, going eerily quiet before releasing a terrible roar. Guy cursed a god I didn’t recognize, at least three times, and then swung his scythe.

Even with a cluster of bodies to cut through, he was able to remove the main head in one foul slice. It had several more but the abomination staggered. I had some Ghoul blood of my own decorating my clothes. Poor Faris, still curled up, got rained on by the stench.

I’ll admit, I forgot he was down there.

Clay rolled his crumpled body from the ground, face pinched. He glared at the gray smoke that started curling at Guy’s feet. I saw it too, and followed the ethereal trail up to see a face made of bone instead of flesh.

“You’re under arrest if that needs to be said.” Guy’s naked jaw moved for the words to easily flow, even without the use of lips. The blood from his brow trickled down and disappeared into his gaping eyeholes.

“Careful, reaper.” Clay’s eyes burned with hate-filled passion. “Death can’t take me now.”

“Sounds like you can take a beating.” Guy brought his scythe forward, crusted over and dripping with new blood.

Triggered, Clay leaped forward and made furious slashes of his own.

I retreated from their fight and my heel bumped against Faris. He prepared an accusing stare. The balls on him, having the au dacity to scowl while completely helpless. If I wasn’t concerned about Guy, I would’ve given him a nice kick.

Harsh intent emanated behind Clay’s weapon. The brutal motions only seemed to brush the vapor-like substance existing on Guy’s person. An opening presented itself, and Guy hooked his scythe into Clay’s ribcage.

I clutched my own chest, feeling the pain from where I stood. The same black liquid as the Ghoul trickled down the staff. He stole back his scythe, splitting Clay down the middle.

“ Fuck . That hurt.” Clay sputtered, wobbled for a moment, but then started to laugh. The hue around his eyes deepened to a striking eggplant. “And you ruined my coat.”

“You weren’t lying about not dying,” Guy drew close to me again; drenched in vile blood and made of bones. Somehow, those aspects about him made me feel safer. “How long do you want to play this game? Until you’re in cubes?”

“Quit getting in the way…” Clay hissed and his struggling laughter became more aggravated, “You and your god had your time. It’s mine now. Mistress gave me the power to do whatever I want. Take whatever I want. And, I intend to.”

His face suddenly brightened as he pointed his knife at me. The Ghoul that Guy had just decapitated rumbled from its core. Its oozing opening from the neck stopped and, with horror, I saw why.

The new zombies sacrificed themselves to the single mass. One by one, they pressed against the Ghoul only to be swallowed up. I winced and gagged at the crunch of each bone and popping of bursting skin. The Ghoul rearranged its human puzzle pieces to create a new, monstrous shape. Eight arms. Eight legs. Eight sets of jaws.

Shit.

Clay hadn’t made a verbal order but the Ghoul seemed to answer its master’s distress with an angry screech. The arachnid figure bulldozed into us and I went flying into someone’s car, breaking their window with the back of my head.

Stars. Growls. More stars.

I groaned. My natural stitching tugged at the gash in my scalp. Too slow. I was running out of juice. Another mortal injury and—

The Ghoul’s crashing feet coming toward me. One of the eight hands crafted rose above my lying frame, but Guy brought his bloodied weapon down hard on the wrist. The fleshy mess hit the ground and the magic gluing all the pieces together came undone, leaving a pile of carnage.

“Gods!” I sat up and flung a severed arm off my thighs.

“Sorry.” Guy said halfheartedly before returning his attention to the Ghoul. “Grab Faris and get out of here. Wait for Zak.”

With that, Guy herded the Ghoul back with more blows. Would he really be okay? It looked like he took less damage while in his bony form, however that worked. Still, I’d rather help him than help Faris.

Ugh. Faris . The temptation to let the purifier fend for him self tickled at my conscience, but he could hardly do that. He squirmed in a heap on the ground. The Ghoul had him barreling over like a useless log, but he was otherwise alive.

It would be easier if I untied him.

Or used him…

His soul pulsed, polluted with his anger toward me. Taunting me. I hovered over him, earning a violent jerk. When I lifted him by the tight restraints across his chest, fear flashed across his face. He felt dense, but I managed to get him over my shoulder.

His was the only potent source of energy I could sense nearby, now that the survivors from the train were Ghoul guts, but I pushed the idea of draining his vitality out of my head. I couldn’t count on him surviving my touch in his current condition. The last thing I wanted was more death on my hands, even his.

When he made a gruff sound from beneath his gag, I snapped. “Complain and I’ll drop you.”

Faris shut right up. With a sharp turn, I took us toward the open street. More people had fled. Thank the gods. My energy was on fumes and the need to devour Faris’s soul gnawed even harder. It would be easy. I already had him in my hands…

We didn’t make it far before Clay swooped in with the same, unreal speed he showed before. He flipped his blade out, ready to make a killing blow. I gritted my teeth, unsure if I should drop Faris or throw him. In a panic, I did both.

Free of Faris, I knocked Clay’s hand away just in time. My pride dwindled when I realized he hadn’t been aiming for me at all. He swung at me next with the butt of his blade. I ducked be fore it could bash the side of my head.

My heart strained to pump any faster. I longed to train with Zak again. At least then I knew I wouldn’t get stabbed, but the speed of their attacks were almost similar. I just imagined my angel instead of the devil.

With a roar, I caught Clay’s next swipe in my hands, clamping onto his arm for dear life. Our strength matched in that moment, which meant neither of us were moving. Clay’s glowing gaze spotted Faris by our feet. His smile turned cold.

“Remember that I asked nicely first, Jessebel,” he said, “But I’m not leaving empty handed.”

I waited a second too long. Clay twisted us together un til I was pulled into his shoulder and he drove me into the ground. He looked down on me and planted his feet on either side of my hips.

“I expected some resistance, but this is getting annoying.” He bent down and wrapped a cold and calloused hand over the lower half of my face. Just then, Faris— freaking Faris—wiggled toward us. Muffled words spewed from his gag. I couldn’t be sure, but I think his intent was to distract Clay. And it worked.

For the split second he took Clay’s focus off me, I launched myself upward, fist raised. The thud from my punch hitting his groin let me know I’d hit my target well. Clay lurched. His face twisted until I thought he’d pop. I grabbed him by his torn coat collar, pulled him down, and with one foot thrusting into his ribs, sent him flying behind me.

It took every ounce of willpower not to give up and lay there, but Faris was already bumping against my leg. My labored breathing made the hairs framing my face dance. I got myself up and readied to haul Faris away again. When I stopped, Faris’s brow flattened.

I gripped at his ropes. “I can’t do this on my own. Can your issues wait until this is all over?”

He blinked, unable to give me a verbal answer. I wanted Faris to nod at least, but he granted nothing of promise. If Guy couldn’t kill the undead, maybe Faris’s light magic could.

Or he’d kill me, but I decided it was a risk worth taking.

The material refused to give way. It required something more than my bare hands, but I couldn’t explode so close to Faris, if I even had the energy to. But no time for trial and error. I closed my eyes and searched my own soul for anything I could use.

Please. Help me.

Cold darkness swam behind my eyelids, but eventually, a tiny spark answered my pleas. It warmed the tiniest spot in my core, searching for a way to ignite itself. I called to it, using my emotions as kindling. Don’t blow him up. Don’t blow him up. Don’t blow him up.

The rope popped.

I watched the material get eaten away by a fast acting, mul ticolored flame. Faris released a garbled breath like he’d been holding that in for the last twenty minutes. He cast the remaining binds off and sat in silence with me.

My senses took over; hair standing on end. Even with my back turned, I painted the outline of Clay down to his stance and position. I turned and caught Clay’s knife inches from Faris’s neck. I’d gotten too close to the sharp end that time.

He added to the pressure and kept me down in my compromising position. I shifted my sights around him to see Guy. The Ghoul hadn’t given him time to breathe. Even the chunks he cut down would come back to life and swarm him.

Clay hissed through his tightly clamped shark-mouth, “Forget the reaper. LOOK at me !”

Shadows took shape around him, giving him several extra arms like a Kraken. I counted them, dread pooling in my stomach as I remembered something similar from my dreams.

The tendrils pancaked me into the rough asphalt, pound ing the air out of my lungs. If he’d struck any harder, my bones would’ve shattered. A new split in my lip forced me to taste my own blood. My brain felt that one too.

A white light made a blazing trail in the air, piercing one of the tentacles. Clay left my body and fell back several steps. His hellborn, octopus growth flailed on his back in equal distress.

Faris crawled close to where I sat but didn’t dare touch me. Smart. He glanced at me once before turning his attention back to Clay. “I have one left,” he said and reached into his shirt to reveal a single, unlit bolt.

The bolt was brought to his lips, and he whispered words I couldn’t hear. It responded to the secret and burned brightly. “His weapon controls the creature.” Each word Faris spoke to me sounded like it pained him to do so. “Makes him powerful too. It won’t break easily.”

He pointed to where the knife had fallen. My chest tightened. That was an opportunity if I ever saw one.

“If you can’t destroy it, get it somewhere he can’t reach.” Faris huffed before standing himself up. I’d wanted to hate him some more, but a molecule of respect bloomed as I watched him hobble headfirst into danger. All he had was his short bolt and one, good-working leg to carry him on.

Clay would absolutely kill him. Easy.

Even worse, I realized then that if I couldn’t destroy the blade, then he’d die for nothing.

It wasn’t an answer of if. I had to destroy it. My feet carried me toward the tiny source of evil. I dropped into a slide, ready to feel the hilt hit my fingertips, but something caught my ankles and dragged me back.

Clay had managed to remove the bolt and still had six or more shadow whips to use. Each tentacle tangled around me and cut off my circulation while the spare choked Faris until he turned blue.

Failed. Again.

The one at my throat spiraled up my head, stealing my breath. Unimaginable pressure swelled in my skull. Clay dangled me in front of him. His expression remained void of remorse as I suffocated.

I heard Guy’s voice somewhere in the madness. Too far. It killed me so much that I couldn’t see him. I didn’t know if a servant of Death could die. My heart ached at the thought. It would’ve been nice having a familiar face guide my soul to my end.

“I don’t get it.” Clay’s voice softened from his spitting wrath before. “I offered to show you real power, real freedom. This is the last time you can leave with me. Willingly.”

Things weren’t looking good for me. Even worse for Faris. Clay hadn’t offered a bargain of any kind, and I doubted he would. I noticed the feeling of needles again from his corrupted soul.

The tendrils … His soul .

He wore it like a coat and was strangling me with the sleeves. His soul. Right there! Just out in the open. Touching my skin.

My resolve wavered. I didn’t want to feel more of his cor ruption. Two seconds with his blackened soul had been enough. Absorbing it could have deadly consequences. But so could doing nothing.

My nails found the coils nearest my wrist, and I dug in deep. I fully expected hell but underestimated it at the same time.

Pain. Anguish. Rage.

Horror.

A boulder sat on my chest. Screams of the damned and tor mented lived in my ears. Something sharp clawed at my skull. My stomach. Dissecting me. Sweat fell from my brow in beads, but it was worse than any fever. I let his energy in until I couldn’t anymore.

When my eyes snapped back open, everything silenced. Felt no pain. Heard no sound. Heat poured out of my eyes. Something new lived in my bones. The malicious energy fractured my skeleton and begged to be released.

Clay wore a bewildered scowl. He had just opened his mouth when the chaos broke free of my body. My power trembled the earth. Shook buildings. The golden stars that usually accompa nied my darkness were overshadowed. Clay’s malignant arms burst . Each one, sparking at the ends, like a string of fireworks. He tumbled over himself to avoid getting scorched as well.

My arm snapped loud and quick, falling limp at my side. I prayed that relief would follow once I released the buzzing beneath my skin. Destroying his shadow tentacles alone cost me my left side.

Clay’s eyes rattled in their sockets as he scanned the ground.

His knife . It needed to be destroyed, but Clay’s energy burned its way to my organs. Just a few feet away, I saw the glint from Clay’s weapon. Like a woman possessed, I willed the dark mat ter through me and channeled my intentions at the necromancy weapon. Every last cell of that abomination I wanted ablaze.

The demonic materials screeched at my touch. Clay’s voice rang like a desperate cry but sounded miles away. It didn’t matter. He’d never make it. There was a chance I wouldn’t either.

I’m sorry I never found you… Auntie.

I secured my fingers around the hilt.