Page 145 of The Star's Sword

More snickers. “She thinks she can use her sword.”

“Cleo, come back and talk to me a minute,” Simon yelled.

“I can’t,” I said, ready to lunge at another one. “They’ve got Samael.”

My friends were luckily staying back, unsure how to fight light beams.

“It’s a special sword,” I said, trying to hit another one, as it merely split into beams of light and scattered out of reach. More snickers. “Because I’m the Morningstar.”

“We have the Morningstar.” A large light, one with the deep booming voice Sam’s father had when he kidnapped him, moved forward. “We are solving the problem now.” As he laughed again, the light flickered brighter.

I put my hand up, trying to stare into the light.

Celestials were all about illusions, and ninth realm celestials would be the worst. They had even created a fake ninth realm to fool others who made it up there.

Something still had to be unreal. I lunged forward, swinging my sword at another huge light ball that was feeding on Samael. It moved out of my way and once again I failed to hit it.

How was I supposed to kill these things again?

Os sent an ice flurry at one of them, but once again, the light merely scattered then gathered again, to more laughter.

Mor tried to use a portal to take a swing at one from behind, but she was merely knocked back by an invisible shockwave, forcing Griffin to move behind and catch her.

Mark cracked his knuckles, then flew down in to get between Samael and the other ninth realm celestials, and I saw one of them extend a crackling beam of electricity, which shocked him, freezing him in place as electricity moved through him.

It stopped and Mark hung there, steaming, but raised a hand and gave me a thumbs up.

“They aren’t so strong,” Mark said, as he was stunned again.

“Get out of there,” Zadis said, shooting a yellow spell at Mark, that hit him with an explosion of yellow sparks and surrounded him with a yellow glow.

Mark looked down at his skin, just as another attack hit him. But he recovered almost instantly, due to the protection Zadis had given him.

I moved toward another star that was hovering back toward Samael, presumably to feed on him.

Zadis shot spell after spell at the star, but it didn’t move, just split over and over and came back together.

As my friends began to attack in more earnest, testing anything we could against these odd, giggling celestial balls of light, the entire sky seemed to thunder around us, becoming darker.

And the balls of light only flickered brighter, like they were feeding on our frustration.

“Cayne might know what to do,” Simon said. “But I forbid him from coming to the ninth realm. He isn’t immortal, like me, and we can’t afford to go get him out of hell again.”

I frowned. I hated being without my coach, but he was right. He was a demon but had no other resistances.

I turned back to my friends, because if their attacks couldn’t work, I didn’t want them here.

Eventually, the ninth-realmers were going to stop giggling and actually attack, and who knew how strong their power actually was?

I looked to Simon. “I think I need to do this alone.”

Simon’s red eyes flashed with surprise. I was already getting used to him in this form, to my shock. No matter what, he was still Simon.

“Can you get the others down safely? Wait in the eighth realm?” I asked him.

Simon shook his head. “I won’t leave you and Samael. I’ve been here since almost the beginning. You might need me.” He grinned. “Plus, I literally can’t die.”

“But they made you,” I said, looking at the light balls, which were lunging playfully at my friends, then dodging their attacks by splitting apart and coming back together. “Couldn’t they hurt you as well?”

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