Days of New: The Complete Collection (Serials 1-5) (64 page)

He must have spoken the thought allowed, because Lucifer’s head jerked toward him, his black eyes wide with surprise. Michaela sucked in a breath beside Clark, and Camille went very still.

“She really did,” Lucifer said quietly, just to Clark.

“You love her?” Clark asked, scrutinizing Lucifer’s face.

“I do,” Lucifer admitted, his shoulders slumping with the admission. “And she says she loves me, though how, I can’t imagine. But I’m starting to believe her. She really can be quite stubborn.”

“Then you can have my magic. Frankly, I never wanted it to begin with.”

Michaela turned to Gabriel and the other Archangels. “Gabe,” she said quietly, using a voice that Clark felt he shouldn’t be overhearing, “will you let Lucifer go without a fight? Are you fine with him having Clark’s magic?”

“It’s not mine,” Clark said quickly. “It never was.”

“If he gets that power,” Gabriel said, voice low and angry, “he could ruin us all.”

“No, he could just ruin you. And your leadership in Hell.” Clark stuffed his hands into his pants pockets; everyone’s attention was on Gabriel.

“What makes you think that he won’t just kill you after he gets your magic? Technically, you murdered him once before. Maybe he wants revenge.”

Clark shrugged. “I can trust him.”

Gabriel just shook his head. “You people are crazy. He’s the devil!”

“No.” The voice surprised Clark. He swiveled back around and looked at Camille. Everyone else regarded her with equal surprise. “Maya was right. There is no god and there is no devil. It’s just us. And the only way we can save all that we’ve destroyed is to stop the destruction.”

“You can trust him? After all he did to you?” Gabriel asked, eyes raised, voice scoffing.

“It’s what Zarachiel would have done.”

* * *

“You’re running the wrong way, Miss!” Dante hissed, trying to keep his voice low so that the twins didn’t hear them.

Maya glanced over her shoulder. As soon as Dante had told her to run, Maya spun around and dove into the woods. “No,” she said, pausing only long enough to speak to him. “We need to go this way.”

“But, Miss! Lucifer is talking to Gabriel on the rock overlook. We need to go to him! He’ll keep you safe!”

“We can’t go to Lucifer. The twins are coming after me to hurt me in front of him, to make him fight. If they’re going to catch me, I want it to be as far from Lucifer as possible. So that he doesn’t see them.”

“But—”

“The twins are powerful, Dante. The likelihood of us escaping is narrow. I don’t want to be caught and have made their job easier by running straight to Lucifer. Besides, maybe we can hide or something farther away. But we have to go this way.”

Maya was already breathing hard, as if she’d been running for an hour. Her heart pounded with adrenaline, her palms slicked with sweat. She was scared, and she knew Dante could likely smell her fear. A huge part of her wanted nothing more than to run straight to Lucifer and let him save her. But that would be wrong; that’s what the twins expected her to do. They were probably waiting to intercept her between the clearing and where Lucifer stood with Gabriel. She couldn’t play right into their hands. If they were going to hurt her—or worse, kill her—then she would fight to be as far from Lucifer as possible.

Even though it nearly broke her heart.

Not waiting a second longer, Dante nodded his head tightly and flapped his wings, crossing the space between them in seconds. “Let’s go then.”

“You shouldn’t go with me,” Maya began, but Dante was already shaking his head.

“I’ll protect you, Miss. For Mast—for Lucifer.”

Maya blinked to keep the moistness from pooling in her eyes. “Thanks,” she said instead, feeling the thickness in her throat.

Maya turned back to the woods and started into them, Dante fluttering in the air above her head as she wove through the twisting tree trunks and debris littering the forest floor. She ran when she could, keeping her legs free of the briars and bramble. When she couldn’t run, she stumbled through the thick bushes and thorns, ripping her body free from the tangles until she could take off again.

Caught in a particularly nasty thorn bush, Maya’s struggling only captured her tighter. Instantly, she thought of Camille trapped in the briar brush with a broken wing. Maya shuddered. Dante reached down and tugged at her arms, his wings working furiously to pull both of them free. Gasping and trying not to cry out from the pain, Maya kicked her legs, feeling the thorns rip through her simple cotton dress and into her skin. Finally, she was free, tumbling across the ground and dragging Dante down with her. Wincing from the pain, feeling blood trickling down her legs and sides, Maya righted herself with Dante’s help and limped farther into the woods.

She didn’t know how far they made it, but each step helped to clear her head of fear. Even if she was going to die today, at least she was still fighting to save Lucifer. It was morbid and horrible, but the thought made Maya feel better about her situation. Thinking of Lucifer up on the outcropping talking calmly and rationally with Gabriel made her pump her arms faster and leap over fallen logs and tangled bushes.

She ran until her dress clung to her body from sweat and her hair fell limply in her eyes, sweat rolling off her nose like salty tears. Or maybe she really was crying. Either way, she didn’t stop. Even when her legs felt like anchors dragging her deeper into the earth. Even when Dante faltered above her, his wings giving out with exhaustion.

“We can make it, Dante,” Maya said, gasping. “Look for someplace to hide.”

“Yes, Miss,” Dante huffed, ducking his round body under a limb.

Maya didn’t hear the sound until too late.

Dante beat his wings and stopped, obviously hearing the whooshing sound immediately. A moment later, Maya screeched to a stop too, head cocked to peer up through the twining tree limbs. “Did you hear that?” she whispered.

Dante nodded. “We should hide, Miss.”

The sound came again. Wings. Circling back above their heads to search the woods. Maya slowly crouched down. Dante joined her, and together they scuttled back to some thick brush. Trying not to cause too much movement, Maya eased herself into the mess, hoping that the thorns and evergreen needles would hide her from the twins.

She shivered. Dante took her hand.

For a long moment, the twins circled above their heads. Their wings caused the limbs above Maya’s head to billow about and scratch against each other like nails down a chalkboard. She barely dared to breathe, much less move. Growing dizzy from the lack of oxygen, Maya took a careful breath.

The wings faded away, taking their eerie breeze with them. Maya let out a sigh of relief. “Do you think they’re—”

A hand closed around her ankle and ripped her forward. Maya screamed. Dante clung to her hand, ripping her backward so hard that her shoulder popped. But the twins were stronger, and Maya skidded out, her dress bunching up by her hips, and looked up at a twin. She didn’t know which one it was, but there was only one. The second was missing.

“There you are,” the twin hissed, reaching to yank her up from the ground.

Maya kicked and screamed some more, managing to land a few solid blows to the angel. She went crazy, not bothering to think about what she was doing. She just fought and flailed and struggled with all she had. The twin struggled to keep his hold on her, when, from the brush behind her, Dante burst from the thorns and dove toward the twin like an enraged wren protecting its nest.

Dante dove and scratched, always keeping out of the twin’s reach. The demon’s claws caught on the angel’s cheek, ripping the skin and peeling it back like a cut apple. Maya scrambled off the ground and stumbled away, struggling to find her footing.

Behind her, she heard a moist thud and Dante’s cry of pain. She spun back around. The twin stood over Dante’s fallen body and kicked the little demon like he was nothing but a ball back into the thorny mess. Maya gasped, drawing the angel’s attention. Before she could try to run away, he was on her, arm wrapping around her body and drawing her into the air.

Maya kicked her feet and struggled, but it was no use. With his other hand, the twin grabbed her hair and held her in place against his chest. Up and up they went until they broke free of the tree line. The angel flew them upward so fast, that Maya felt ice forming along her arms and a crushing weight in her lungs. They broke through the cloud layer and disappeared. Maya couldn’t see anything. She couldn’t move in the twin’s crushing grip. She could only look up and see the angel’s black eyes glinting down at her.

They’d flown upward so fast that she doubted Lucifer had seen her, and now they remained hidden in the clouds.

Too late
, Maya thought. She knew what the twin was going to do. She knew how Lucifer would react. But she didn’t know what it would feel like to die. She whimpered.

“Have a nice trip back down,” he said as he released her.

At first Maya felt nothing but freedom from the angel’s grip. Then she felt the air racing past her face, making her dress cling to her legs as she tumbled head over heel. Then her stomach wrenched upward and tore through her throat.

She was falling.

Falling like an angel.

She broke through the clouds and saw the green gorge rushing toward her. She flailed her arms and kicked, like she might find a foothold in the air, but she only managed to make her body twist and tumble harder, until she didn’t know up from down. Lucifer had to see her now, she thought. Everyone probably did. So when a scream threatened to tear itself from her mouth, Maya clenched her jaw tight and held it in. Lucifer wouldn’t hear her scream, she told herself. So she fell quietly.

The rock outcropping flashed by, but she didn’t hear anything. No screams for her. No frantic yelling for someone to do something. She passed by so quickly that she couldn’t even make out anyone. But she came close enough to feel the coolness of the rock skim past her.

The evergreen trees were close enough now that Maya saw she wouldn’t land on the forest’s floor, but a slab of the cliff instead, where rocks jabbed upwards like broken teeth. Maya twisted back around, the blue sky and the outcropping flashing above her. There was a great crack. And the rocky ledge crumbled.

Boulders tumbled free and crashed down toward her. If she somehow managed to break her fall on a tree, she still had no hope. The rocks would crush her.

She screamed.

She hit the ground far sooner than she expected.

She hadn’t seen it coming.

The impact was like an almighty clap across her side. Stealing her breath. Stealing her life.

This is it
, she thought.

The blackness came gratefully soon. She didn’t see the rocks coming down to crush her. She saw nothing but blackness. Felt nothing but the black.

This is it
.

* * *

“Did you see that?”

“See what?” Camille asked.

They’d interrupted Gabriel and Lucifer’s argument, but Clark didn’t care. He looked up and saw a tiny black dot against the blue sky. It seemed to be growing larger, like it was falling toward them.

Around him, the angels noticed his attention and looked upward too, shielding their eyes against the sunlight.

“Is that…?” Camille started.

“Maya!” Lucifer screamed. “That’s Maya!”

Lucifer spun and leapt into the air. Beside Clark, Camille did the same. But they didn’t make it far. Their bodies were swatted back down, slamming into the rock hard enough to make the ledge give a warning, ominous groan. Michaela and Gabriel were next, but like Lucifer and Camille, they were shoved back down by an invisible hand in the air that seemed to be wielding an insanely large fly swatter.

Spinning, Clark was just able to see Maya flash by next to the rock. She was a blurry mass of plain cotton, light hair, and pale skin. Clark dove after her, searching his mind for the right words etched into his arms. They came quickly and easily, but the words were lost on his lips as his body twisted up into the air and crashed back down into the rock.

A horrible crack filled the air. The ledge gave beneath him, the earth dipping and sloping.

“Clark!” Camille shouted, diving after him. Her hand grasped his ankle just as the rock fell away beneath him. For a moment, he was suspended above it all, and he craned his neck to look down.

He didn’t see Maya hit the ground, but he saw the boulders. They broke apart against the rocky bottom of the sloping gorge and tumbled farther down, reduced to tiny bits of stone. But against the cliff, there was a thick splatter of blood beneath one particularly large rock that hadn’t broken apart.

Clark gagged and looked away. Maya had been crushed beneath it, her blood thick and rolling down the rocks.

Camille jerked him up and hauled him onto the part of the ledge that hadn’t broken off. On his back, he gasped for air. Tears rolled down the sides of his cheeks. Someone was screaming.

It was Lucifer.

Clark sat up and saw the fallen angel struggling in Michaela’s arms. He yelled and fought against her, but she held him back, her eyes locking onto Clark’s.