Page 111 of Grave Revelations

Azazel’s lips turned down.I will stop her and end this once and for all.

“No! Don’t leave,” Rebecca said aloud, terror shooting through her.

His ebony wings twitched at his back, but his mind was silent.

“Please.”

The tapping at the glass grew louder, and Rebecca returned her focus to the creatures outside. A dark mass swooped low, reminding Rebecca of a flock of geese as they dove among the crown in unison before crashing against some invisible barrier. One by one, they redoubled their effort until a single creature burst through the foyer wall.

“Demon!” Rebecca said, opening her palm as flames erupted at the center.

Azazel stepped into its path, and it froze. “You are mine,” he said, and the demon’s red eyes glazed. “Find Elizabeth.”

“I had it,” Rebecca grumbled.

You cannot vanquish demons unless they harm you first. Remember the rules of seraphim. You must let me handle them.

Rebecca swallowed, glancing beyond him at a sky growing thick with inky, swirling creatures.

Two more demons breached the wards, and Azazel sent them away with the same instruction.

A loud bang sounded against the door, followed by another.

“Release me!” a child screamed as something crashed into it again.

Rebecca hadn’t needed to hear her voice to know Elizabeth was there. Every yellow-eyed creature outside her window swiveled its head. They moved as one, converging outside the door.

Rebecca lunged forward, but Azazel wrapped large fingers around her biceps, halting her.

I’ll take care of her.

Rebecca met his eyes.Together.

He nodded, and they faced the door as Elizabeth’s high-pitched voice carried to them. “Sophia, bring me the lance. Children, help Sophia.”

Glass shattered as hundreds of creatures pushed against one another to get to them, falling into the room. They scrabbled over each other, scratching and scraping in their desperate bid to reach her first.

Azazel lifted Rebecca into his arms and launched through broken glass, spinning as he wrapped his wings around them and pressed through a mass of nails and claws, bursting into the sky.

Rebecca peered over the side of his arm at the conflux of creatures surrounding her estate.

That was close, she thought to him as she reached over to the sheath at her back, the blood draining from her face as she touched it.

It was empty.

Chapter 73

Dina

Dina winced as she was jostled in the Fallen’s grasp. He had grown impossibly large, leaving one poisoned claw tip embedded in her chest, rendering her magic null.

“Don’t do this, Samael.”

“Do what, sister? Save our kind from the machinations of Father?” he asked, squeezing his massive fingers around her. “Free us all from his hold? Ensure none will ever be forced to part with half our souls again?”

She wriggled in his arm, but his grip was a vice, and she screamed as wing bones cracked beneath his claws.

“Your other half… was vile. Her magic… twisted the magic… of other… witches. She had to… be stopped.”

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