Chapter 25

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

The barrier’s destruction still rang in my ears like broken bells as I dropped to my knees on the chapel floor. Dust and magical residue sparkled in the air, catching the hellfire light that now poured through the ruined doorway. We had all seven sculptures. Pride high on the north wall, Lust and Gluttony near the altar, Greed and Envy flanking the window, Wrath hidden in its alcove, and Sloth beneath my fingers, carved into the stone I knelt upon.

But having them and using them were two very different things.

Maci’s massive head pushed through the chapel entrance, her scales reflecting firelight across every surface. Behind her, Rage’s darkness seeped into the chapel like poison, turning the sacred air thick and heavy. Lisa and Zara still knelt where they’d fallen, drained from their failed protection spell. Justice stood ready with the mirror while Damon and Brody formed a protective line between us and the doorway.

We had seconds at most to act, and I still wasn’t sure how these seven carvings could save us.

“Now what?” Damon backed toward me, blade ready. “Please tell me someone has a plan for these demon sculptures besides admiring the artwork.”

“The artifacts,” I shouted in a moment of sudden clarity. “We need to match them with the carvings.”

Damon snorted. “Some of them are a little out of reach! Unless someone packed a ladder?”

“Justice,” I called, my mind racing as Rage’s darkness seeped closer. “You can reach Pride with your vampire speed. Use the mirror!”

Justice nodded and blurred up the wall like a shadow, his fingers finding impossible holds in the ancient stone. Maci’s fire chased him, but he was too quick, pressing the mirror against Pride’s snarling face. Light blazed where artifact met stone.

“Lisa, Zara,” Brody commanded, his shield deflecting another blast of flame. “Get the crown to Envy by that window. I’ll cover you.”

The witches moved in sync, the crown held between them as they chanted, using their combined magic to levitate the artifact toward the covetous figure. Rage’s shadows tried to intercept, but Brody’s shield spun through the darkness, dispersing it.

“Phoenix feather for Greed,” I called, clutching the glowing plume. “But it’s so high up…”

The phoenix, still perched on her pew as if watching a show, spread her wings. The gesture was clear.

“Oh, this is gonna suck,” Damon muttered as he helped boost me onto the phoenix’s back. “Try not to get barbecued up there, sis.”

Aurora’s back burned hot beneath me as she lifted us toward the Greed sculpture. Maci’s tail smashed into a pew below, sending splinters flying. My hands shook as I reached out with the feather, trying to keep my balance as the phoenix wheeled in the confined space of the chapel.

“Duck!” Damon’s warning came as Rage’s darkness whipped past my head. The phoenix banked sharply, and I nearly lost my grip on the feather. Below, Justice caught a falling piece of timber before it could crush Lisa and Zara, who were still guiding the crown into position.

“The phoenix grass!” I shouted to Brody as I finally pressed the feather against Greed’s grasping hands. Light exploded from the contact, momentarily blinding me. “Get it to Gluttony!”

Brody rolled beneath another blast of Maci’s fire, the phoenix grass clutched to his chest. The sculpture of Gluttony leered down from near the altar, its grotesque mouth open in eternal hunger.

“Little help here?” Brody called, trapped between the advancing demons and his target.

“I got you, Captain.” Damon launched off a broken pew, his blade slicing through Rage’s shadows, creating an opening. Brody threw the grass like a grenade, and Damon’s blade knocked it the final few feet into Gluttony’s maw. More light flared, and the chapel’s temperature dropped several degrees.

“Three more!” Justice shouted over the chaos. “Scales for Lust, hourglass for Sloth, and?—”

Maci’s tail smashed through a column, and part of the ceiling began to cave.

“The scales!” Justice shouted as chunks of ceiling rained down. “It has to reach Lust!” The sculpture writhed high on its pillar, half-hidden by shadows and decades of dust.

“Little occupied here!” Damon called back, blade flashing as he kept Rage’s darkness from engulfing Brody, who was still trying to recover from his throw.

The phoenix’s wings swept past me as she dodged another of Maci’s attacks. The downdraft nearly knocked Lisa and Zara off their feet. They stumbled, but the crown finally settled into Envy’s greedy hands, sending another burst of light through the chapel.

I clutched the harp tighter, knowing it needed to reach Wrath, but Lust’s sculpture seemed to mock us from its perch. Time was running out. I heard the ancient stones groaning above us.

“Together!” Brody’s voice cut through the chaos. He snatched the Scales of Balance and braced one foot against a half-destroyed pew. “Justice, give me a boost!”

Justice blurred across the chapel, hands locking together to form a step as Maci’s tail swung through where he’d been standing. Brody leaped, his soldier’s precision making the impossible look easy. Justice’s vampire strength launched him high enough to slam the scales into Lust’s waiting grasp.

This time, the burst of light was blue-white, pure as a mountain stream. Rage howled as it touched his shadows, making them recoil.

“Two more,” I gasped, watching Justice catch Brody before he could fall into the debris below. “But Sloth’s in the floor, and Wrath?—”

Maci’s fire cut off my words, turning the air to steam.

“The hourglass!” I shouted over Maci’s roar. “It needs to touch Sloth’s carving, but we’re all walking on it!”

The floor beneath us was a maze of broken wood and stone, Sloth’s lazy figure barely visible through the debris. Rage’s darkness swirled around our feet like black water rising, trying to keep us from reaching it.

“Everyone up!” Brody commanded. “Get off the floor, now!”

Lisa and Zara scrambled onto the remaining pews. Justice snatched Damon out of the way of Maci’s tail and deposited him on a stone ledge. The phoenix wheeled overhead, her wings stirring the air like a hurricane.

“Sawyer,” Justice called, his gaze meeting mine. “Together!”

I understood immediately. Still clutching the harp and hourglass, I ran toward him as Maci’s fire chased my steps. Justice’s hands caught my waist, then I was airborne, spinning above the chaos. For one heart-stopping moment, I hung suspended over the chapel floor.

I threw the hourglass.

It tumbled end over end, catching the light from the artifacts we’d already placed. Rage’s darkness surged up to intercept it.

“Oh no, you don’t!” Damon’s blade flashed, cutting through the shadows at the perfect moment. The hourglass slipped through, striking Sloth’s carved figure dead center.

Light exploded from the floor like a geyser, forcing Rage’s darkness back. But we weren’t done. Wrath’s sculpture still waited in its alcove, and the harp in my hands hummed with anticipation.

And now Maci was between us and our final target.

Justice caught me as I fell, but Maci’s massive form blocked our path to Wrath. Her scales blazed like fresh-forged metal, her wings spanning nearly the width of the chapel. Behind her, Rage’s darkness gathered like a storm cloud, knowing we had only one artifact left to place.

“The harp,” I gasped, feeling it pulse against my chest like a second heartbeat. “We have to reach Wrath’s sculpture!”

“Through that?” Damon gestured at the wall of dragon and demon blocking our way. “Great. Just another Tuesday for us, right?”

Six artifacts glowed now, their light creating a web of power through the chapel. But without the seventh, without the harp reaching Wrath, it wouldn’t be enough.

Maci’s tail smashed another pew into splinters. The impact sent Justice and me rolling in opposite directions. The harp’s strings hummed with tension, almost singing with the need to complete the circle.

“We need a distraction,” Brody shouted. “Something big enough to?—”

The phoenix launched from her perch directly at Maci. Fire met fire in an explosion of gold and crimson, two ancient powers colliding in the sacred space.

“Now!” Justice screamed. “While they’re fighting!” He appeared at my side as pieces of the ceiling rained down. “Sawyer, I can get you there, but?—”

“We’ll only have one shot,” I finished. The harp thrummed in agreement, its song rising above the chaos.

“Incoming!” Damon’s warning came as Rage’s darkness surged toward us like a tidal wave of shadow.

“Go!” Brody’s shield spun through the air, cutting a path through the darkness. “We’ll cover you!”

Lisa and Zara’s voices rose in unison, their spell creating a brief corridor of clear air. Justice’s arms wrapped around me, then we were moving with vampire speed, the world blurring around us.

The wall rushed toward us. Justice leaped, using broken pillars as stepping stones, carrying us higher with each bound. Rage’s shadows clawed at our heels while Maci’s fire chased us up the wall. The Wrath sculpture waited in its alcove, its carved face twisted in eternal rage.

We were almost there when Maci’s wing clipped Justice’s shoulder. We spun in the air, and I felt his grip loosen. No time to think, no time to fear. I pushed off from his chest, launching myself toward the sculpture as Justice fell away. His golden healing marks flashed in the chaos.

The harp sang in my hands as I reached for Wrath, my fingers stretching toward the carved face that had waited centuries for this moment. The other six artifacts pulsed with light below, so close to completing their purpose. Rage’s darkness swirled around me, Maci’s fire burned above, and the space between me and the sculpture seemed to stretch like an eternity.

If I could only reach it…