Page 100 of Sleeping Redemption
My eyes settled on Sylas as he dropped his hand back down to his side and stepped up to me. Both his hands grabbed my shoulders firmly as his eyes stared at mine.
Staring at me, he spoke firmly, “We have to be prepared.”
“For what?” Zorah questioned as her voice raised an octave in alarm at where her mind was going with all this vague talk.
I gritted my teeth as I kept my eyes focused on the archangel in front of me, his hands squeezing my shoulders. “For Sylas to use his sword on her.” My voice was barely recognizable even to myself under the roughness of emotions scratching it.
“I thought Lee-Lee’s Divinity Sword was the only thing that could take her out?” she asked, the confusion present on her face.
Sy explained, “It is. However, the sword of an archangel trumps that. Each Divinity Sword I’ve ever created contains asmall piece of my blade. So, in a way, a little bit of Kin’s sword is in my own.”
It finally struck Zorah how serious things were. Her face shifted from one of sadness and harshly reversed course into one that mirrored a strengthened determination.
“We won’t let that happen,” she firmly stated, as though it could be willed into truth.
All I could do was nod with Zorah’s noble pledge.
Before leaving the gastropub, we all came up with a fast and loose game plan. There were four of us and one of Kinley. Under normal circumstances, those were good odds. We’d see, under a more unusual situation, if they held up.
As we arrived at the nightclub, a small gathering of people attempted to gain access but failed miserably. One human complained about being locked out, while another suggested that maybe they closed early.
“That’s not a good sign,” Rook pointed out.
Sy nodded toward the alley, “Let’s take the shortcut inside.”
Stepping out of sight around the corner of the building away from nosey humans, we took the supernatural way into the club. Our entire group went from standing in the alley to inside the nightclub in a blink of an eye.
The sight that greeted us was a punch straight to my gut. Every human occupant was on their knees, and in the center of the room was Kinley. She was on her knees with her hands clasped together in what looked like prayer.
Sensing our presence, her head shot up as her eyes opened. The spellbinding blue hue I’d come to adore was gone, replaced by an ominous shadow of black and blaze of orange and red.
Rook took a step forward, and Sylas stopped him with a firm grip on the demon’s arm.
“Hold up,” Sy roughly ordered.
Kinley rose to her feet, her blackened wings and her arms extended out to her sides. Her palms were face-up, and swirls of black smoke licked at the tips of her fingers as though her nails were smoldering.
“Leave,” she said with a hollow voice that barely even sounded like the angel I knew and desperately loved.
I shook my head. “We aren’t abandoning you when you need us most.”
“So be it.” There was no argument, no plea for us to change our minds, there was nothing that reflected she gave a damn.
I looked to Sylas, already finding his gaze on me. The situation before us was worse than having her rambling about voices.
She gave a small snap of her wrists, and suddenly, every human in the club rose to their feet. It was a synchronized movement, like a well-practiced army falling in line.
“Then you’ll watch him burn,” Kinley warned us only moments before a blast of heat swept through the air.
It started with one droplet of fire raining down followed by another. It was like watching a summer rain that started with a light drizzle and began to pick up, escalating toward a violent thunderstorm.
The intention was clear as hellfire began to fall from the air all around us that she was going to destroy every mortal soul in there.
There was an eerie silence to the assault. Kinley’s intended victims didn’t scream. They merely stood there, even as the flames made contact with them. An unmistakable stench of burning hair, clothes, and flesh began to weave its way through the air.
It wasn’t just her power we were dealing with anymore; it was Lucifer’s.
There was no time for a discussion, just the execution of the plan we had thrown together. Sy released Rook’s arm, and he took off like a slingshot. His speed put him behind Kinley before the rest of us could take a step.
