The angels’ animated overhead conversation sprinkled glitter in with the falling snow. It looked like a rainbow was melting in pieces.
“Claudette, the girl he holds is in danger,” the Devil said, scowling up at Everett again. “He’s talking a bunch of smack. Honestly, I could give a rat’s ass if the world blows up, or even if you all decide to take the douchebag back to base camp and crown him king. I want that girl on Earth with these half-breeds. That’s the best, safest place for her. Tell them to do that, and I’ll go quietly.”
Satan met Jason’s eyes. I know you can hear me. Listen, things are going to get ugly. They’re likely to take Everett’s side. Can you promise me you love her? Do you love Emma?
Jason had known angel Emma for a day, really. Maybe twenty-four full hours, but it felt like a lifetime. He knew he loved her. He knew he loved her when he tore off her wing. He knew he loved her when he came to and she was there, standing in his forever as a human girl.
“I do.” Jason looked up at her in the sky.
Okay. No matter what, get her out of here. No matter what.
Claudette flew quickly and softly to rejoin the circle, but she seemed reluctant to report Satan’s demands to her peers. On the ground, Jason pointed out different strategic places for his family to stand. Dean prepared to start tossing nature by snapping the branches off trees and gathering boulders.
The sky-high argument was escalating. Finally Claudette pushed Gabriel into asking for Emma.
Seraph Gabriel looked cautiously at Everett as he made his point. “Everett, it seems these are very unusual circumstances. Why don’t you give Emma to Claudette, and you and I can go back to God and figure out what needs to be done?”
Satan met Jason’s eyes and told him again, silently, No matter what.
Everett used his wings to pull himself away from the crowd. His arms tightened around Emma. His eyes were growing shifty, despite his wide smile. “I’m sure that’s exactly what needs to happen, Brother Gabriel. But we need to handle the Devil first.” Everett nodded down to the forgotten clearing.
Jack had one card left to play. He closed his eyes and opened his hands. The concentration took immense power. As he began the process of transforming, he drained the life from the surrounding plants. The trees that stood proud and true beyond the clearing turned into massive wooden raisins. With their roots shriveled and tapped, the trees came crashing down. Tree by tree, via a colossal game of dominoes, the clearing grew bigger.
Satan took deep breaths. He could feel the attention of the angels and half-breeds washing over him. He ignored them all.
He tilted his head back when he achieved the pinnacle of his power. Rings of trees stood dead, their lives offered for his needs. Satan shouted as his own wings grew and began to form behind him. The smoke that traveled with him now surrounded him like a tornado. His completed wings were massive and stained so inky black they were almost blue. Instead of endless magic and glitter, his wings shed red and black steam. He stretched them out and flew immediately. The angels were poised to fight, but their sweet nature compelled them wait for him to make the first strike.
“Hello, fucking fairies. Didn’t know I could get my own ride, huh?” Satan had held on to his cigarette throughout his transformation, but he now took a drag and tossed it. It landed and exploded like a bomb in the center of the trees. “Everett. The girl?” Satan held out his arms.
Everett smiled. “Of course you know I can’t give her to you.”
“Can’t say I didn’t try, right?” The Devil turned as if to leave, then snapped back and threw a handful of invisible pain into Everett’s face. He smacked Everett’s arms as he winced from the onslaught to his senses.
Emma fell from Everett’s grasp. She couldn’t even scream as gravity took over.
The Devil dove immediately. He could hear some of the other angels pursuing her as well.
“Slow bitches,” he scoffed. He reached her just before she got to Jason’s arms.
Satan wrapped his wings around Emma and veered away from the ground. They looked like a feather-wrapped rocket and were going just about as fast.
He kissed her face and ran a hand down the length of her body. His touch freed her from her paralysis. Emma gasped like she was coming up from being held underwater.
“No. Oh, no. Please. Jack, that was awful. That was so awful.” She reached around his neck and released a wracking sob. “To not be able to move…” Emma dug her nails into his skin.
Jack wrapped her waist in his strong arm and altered their flight path, swooping back toward the foliage below. He murmured to her, the world inside his wings so much quieter than the one outside. “You’re safe. I’ve got you. Shh…” Jack stroked her hair with his other hand.
“I’m tired. This fighting — I’m so tired of it.” She’d stopped sobbing, but tears still streamed from her eyes. Then, twitching as if she’d been prodded, she added, “Where’s Jason? I — I have to save him.”
“Don’t worry, pretty child. It’ll all be over soon.” He kissed her forehead carefully.
“You have to let me talk to the angels,” Emma said, her eyes locked on the Devil’s once again. “I can tell them Everett is a swamp donkey.” She took a few cleansing breaths.
“Wouldn’t life be grand if it were that easy?” The Devil spread his wings. He hovered close to the top of the trees at the edge of the river. “I need to power up again. Can you hang on?”
Emma wrapped her legs around his waist and hugged his neck.
He closed his eyes and tilted his head back. “I’ll be vibrating a little. Take advantage of that if you’d like to — and you can scream my name now that you know it.”
Emma punched him in the arm, and he smiled. He did indeed vibrate as he sucked the life from the trees, and the river below bubbled like a pot on a stove. Fish rushed to the surface and bobbed there, belly up. The act of siphoning life off the land was silent, but the power it produced was fantastic. The Devil was a vampire on the soft neck of Mother Nature. As he finished, a slow, sexy smile revealed his white teeth.
“Now I’m ready to face anything. You need to tell me what you want, gorgeous,” he purred.
“What I want?” Emma could hear the beat of wings. The angels were coming en masse from close by. “I want the fighting to stop. I want Jason to realize he’s good. I want my wings.” She paused, hoping what her heart told her would make sense when she said it aloud. “I want you to be out of Hell.”
“Okay, I should have been more fucking specific,” Jack shot back. “What you want for your forever — I can hand you one of two options.” He seemed relaxed as he held her close, totally tuning out the steady cadence of the aerial army approaching. “You can stay on Earth or I can take you back to Hell with me. Choose wisely, my princess. The choice is permanent and the outcome is far-reaching.”
Emma looked down and found Jason standing in the trees below, then gazed back at the Devil’s sexy, very close face. She was shocked at how difficult the choice was. I care about Jason — about saving him. Why can’t I focus on that? Who would choose to go to Hell? An eternity with Jack, though…That would be something else altogether. But then, for a divine moment, her mind cleared. She remembered the true nature of Hell — the Hallway, the darkness, the screaming. She just couldn’t do it.
Satan smiled sadly. “Don’t say it out loud, pretty child. I see the answer in your eyes.”
She placed her hand on his cheek. “I’m so sorry. I wish someone could be what you need.”
“Go with the half-breed. Get far away from here. Can you do that for me?” He looked down his nose at her, trying to bring a smile around.
Nodding, Emma turned until her eyes again found Jason standing next to a shriveled tree. He was waiting for her.
The other angels were almost upon them when Jack simply stilled his wings. He nuzzled her neck as they took a heart-stopping fall together. Just before they plummeted into Jason, Jack removed the hand that had been supporting
her back. From his palm, a blast of power and fire halted their descent like a parachute.
When Emma looked back at him he wasn’t even trying to smile anymore. He looked off into the distance above her head and opened his arms. Emma kissed his cheek gently, waiting to see if he’d meet her eyes, but stubbornly he wouldn’t.
Jason held out a hand to her, and Emma took it.
“You two haul ass.” Satan looked up at the angels now landing like falling leaves around them. “Everett won’t bother you again.”
Jason scooped Emma up, but she was still trying to figure out what the hell everyone was doing. The angels did seem to have sided with Everett, and they all began powering up at once.
Jason, can you hear me? Emma asked without speaking.
He glanced at her face and nodded as he ran. She began picturing the things about Satan that made her feel compassion.
The Devil — his name is Jack. He used to be a man, and an angel. And he’s all alone if I leave. They’re acting on lies.
Jason slowed to a walk. But Emma heard nothing from him — verbally or nonverbally — no matter how hard she tried. Now that she was human, Jason’s mind was silent to her.
He seemed to realize this, because he spoke instead. “What could you do? How can you help other than doing what he asked?” He seemed patient and anxious at the same time.
I could speak for him, tell the angels to spare him.
Just then a huge explosion rocked Emma and Jason. He kept them stable and after a moment updated Emma on the Devil’s thoughts.
“Jack’s taking their blows now,” he said. “They seem really intent on getting him back to Hell.” The sky was illuminated orange and purple from the battle. Magic flew between the groups. The ground began to shake.
Jack doesn’t want to go back to Hell.
Emma struggled and Jason put her down to walk. His jaw tensed. “He’s giving us this opportunity to get away. His sacrifice will be for nothing if Everett gets to you again.”
The trees around them began to wither like late-summer flowers. Jack was getting more strength. Jason shielded Emma with his body and covered her ears carefully as the crack sounded. It was as if a volcano had erupted.
What’s happening?
“I can only read Jack. He’s facing them all, but he’ll only strike Everett. He’s fighting valiantly.” Jason watched her face. Emma put her finger on his lips. He kissed it, asking a question with his eyes.
I have to tell the other angels the truth. They’ll never forgive themselves if they act on another’s sin.
“Can’t we wait until Everett has been defeated?” Jason spoke around her finger. His green eyes pled for her safety.
Emma hated her useless human form. She had nothing to offer Jason now, except to be his snack.
“The most powerful part of you has never been on the outside, Emma.” He gently stroked her elbow.
Emma tried not to picture how her mortal life would be, how quickly it would end, but he saw it anyway.
“One day with you has been more important than a hundred forevers.” He smiled. She still had a finger on his lips.
I knew you were good.
“Then I think we’re a great match.”
Jason looked to the sky, and Emma turned in time to see Jack thrown into the tie-dyed projection of the hate from the battle. One of his wings was missing.
“No! They’re killing him. Jason, I can’t just stand here. Please don’t ask me to. I know you could make me. Please. He’s not hurting the other angels?” Emma put her hands in her hair.
“No, his attacks are for Everett only. He’s just absorbing the other blows.” Jason put a hand on her shoulder.
Emma wasn’t sure if it was for comfort or restraint. Take me back.
Jason nodded to her like the gentleman he was and carried her back to the clearing, now filled with broken life and wasted trees. They were just in time to witness Everett cracking Satan across the face while Seraph Gabriel and another angel held Jack’s arms. Jason locked his arms around her.
She used her voice because it was all she had. “Stop! All of you. Stop! You assault the wrong man. I command you as a seraph!”
The other angels paused their beams of righteousness. Everett took the moment to knee Jack in the crotch.
“Everett lies to you. I’m telling you to let Jack be. He only sought to protect me.” Emma looked from one beautiful face to the next.
Everett created two lightning bolts and held them like swords. With every word he spoke he sliced into Jack. Though there were no physical wounds, Jack convulsed as if a million volts were coursing through him. They probably were.
“Don’t…listen…to…her… She…has no…wings.” Everett was merciless in his onslaught.
Emma begged Jason in her mind. Let me go! You didn’t bring me here to watch. Let me go!
His arms untwisted, and she stumbled forward. Everett added thunder to his lightning, and Jack’s head lolled on his neck. Emma knew Satan would no longer have his feet under him if the seraphim weren’t holding him fast.
Emma fell with the thunder. Everett had overestimated, and Gabriel and the other seraph reeled from the blow as well. Jack’s arms were free, and he snapped to attention immediately. Emma’s slow feet carried her to the scene, Jason at her side all the way.
Jack licked one of his hands like a cat and then the other. Soon he had two mini suns at his beckoning. He tossed them right into Everett’s face. The evil angel fell to his knees on the ground. Jack laughed at his agony and pushed Everett’s face effortlessly into the snow.
He grabbed each of Everett’s wings and settled a sturdy motorcycle boot between the angel’s shoulder blades. Jack’s pure concentration radiated from his face as he ripped the wings out of Everett’s back like they were stubborn weeds in a garden. The fallen angel screamed with horror and torment.
The angels reacted to the Everett’s pain and aimed beams of angry blue light at Jack once again. Satan tossed the wings aside and moved through the quicksand of their crippling combined forces. He stepped up to stand on Everett’s back. Under the Devil’s full weight, Everett dissolved into the ground like melting ice.
Jack fell to his knees as soon as Everett was gone, but still the angels fought for all they held holy. He stood quickly, fencing the space around him with a tsunami of angry flames.
He can’t keep that up forever, Emma thought urgently. When that curtain falls, they’ll send him back to Hell.
Jason put a hand on her shoulder. “That’s where he belongs. He is of that place.”
Emma shook her head. “He’s been alone for the longest time.”
Seraph Gabriel spoke in his clear, prophetic voice. “Human Emma, step away from the half-breed. You may come here to us.”
The way he moved and spoke made it obvious Seraph Gabriel was very used to getting his way. Righteousness, and his status as a seraph, gave him authority.
Jason took a step away from Emma, but kept his eyes on her face. “They don’t trust me? Do they think I’ll hurt you?”
Emma tried to remember what being endlessly right felt like. She took a step back and could feel the fire on her shoulder blades. Always with the freaking fire.
She gasped as the Devil’s tattooed arm wrapped around her waist and dragged her backward. As quick as Jason was, she was through the wall before he could get a grip on her. She began kicking as Jack pulled her against his chest. The angels’ blue light ricocheted off the flames. She could glimpse them through the inferno, but they couldn’t see her, just as she hadn’t seen Jack until he pulled her through.
Jack set her on her feet.
“Ouch,” he winced, shoving his remaining wing out of the way. His voice wasn’t full of the vibrant cool she’d come to recognize in him.
“Did they hit Jason?” Emma tried to walk back through the flaming barrier, but met a solid wall.
Jack watched her as she turned to hear his answer. “No. They won’t hurt him if he doesn’t at
tack them. You know that.”
His hand shook as he wiped his brow. She did know that. The angels would never hurt a soul on purpose — without stupid-ass Everett egging them on.
“Why were they firing?” Emma searched through the flames until she could see Jason. He was talking animatedly with her old co-workers.
Jack put one knee and one hand on the ground to steady himself. Maintaining the wall seemed to be costing him everything he had left.
“I took Everett out before he could prove what a shitball he was. Doubt blooms strong in the virtuous. They were trying to get me, if that makes you feel better.” Jack put his other knee on the ground.
He was pouting about her choice, Emma realized. She brought herself closer to him. Alluring as he was, and despite the goodness lurking deep within him, now that she’d made her decision, her defenses were up. Hell defined him — made him who he was. Its essence was within him, whether he wished it so or not. She tried once, then twice, and finally on the third attempt, she made herself comfort him by putting her hand on his head.
“They would have gotten me too,” she told him. “I guess I don’t garner tons of trust.” Emma kneeled so she could see his face, her heart softening once again.
He put his other hand down as well. Finally this mighty being was on all fours.
She pushed his hair out of his eyes. “What are you doing?”
He seemed to be mediating. “I’m trying to get up some courage, and I’m going to need a little fucking time to make that happen.”
Even now, she could feel the force of his potential power rippling through her.
“Are you going back to Hell? Can’t you go back?” Emma tilted her head so she could see his eyes.
“Stop giving me kindness. Can’t you see it hurts me?” He was angry, but too weak to fight her.
She waited. The force flowing through her backed down an octave.
“Emma, I can’t go back there. I know what my job would be, and I can’t face it.” Satan pushed himself to kneeling.
He tried reaching for one of his cigarettes, but his hands were shaking too much to get them out. Emma pushed his hands away and dug into his pocket. She pulled out the hand-rolled paper tube. The Devil puckered up, and Emma put the cigarette to his lips.