The building shook again, dust drifting from the rafters, and books tumbled from their shelves.

“Uh, Sam?” I swayed on my feet, another blast rocking the structure. “How sure are you about those calculations and Lucia’s ultimate power?”

“Certain.” He reached out and steadied Nancy. “The book was quite clear.”

“Which time zone?” Ania gripped a nearby chair.

“What?” I stared at her, eyes wide.

“It’s tomorrow in New Zealand, right?” Ania stumbled left and tightened her hold.

We all exchanged a panicked glance.

“Oh, fuck.” My mind spun as I tried to formulate a plan that didn’t involve the world ending.

Another blast rocked the building and it sounded like someone fired missiles at the library. Or mystical lightning bolts and blasts of hellfire.

I swung my attention to the librarian. “How long can your wards hold up against this?”

She ran to the wall and pressed her palm against it. Runes glowed on the surface, swirling around her hand. “Not long.” She shook her head. “They were made to stop almost any force on Earth, but Lucia…”

“Is a lot stronger than that,” I nodded. “Right. Keep the girls here.” I palmed my sword and headed for the door, the other strapped to my back.

“You’re going out there?” Ania’s eyes widened.

Sam and Jezze joined me at the door and I looked back at the pregnant girls. Uncle Luc stepped in front of them, adjusting his cuffs and straightening his jacket.

“I’ll wait here.” He tweaked the handkerchief in his pocket. “Anything that gets through that door will have to face the wrath of a former archangel.”

Former archangel and demon without a soul. He didn’t have love in his heart, but his possessiveness shined brightly.

“Sounds like a plan.” I looked to Sam and Jezze. “Let’s go take down a goddess.”

I yanked open the door and headed for the stairs, adrenaline and hellfire burning through my body.

“Oh, infans,” Uncle Luc called out to me. Maybe I didn’t hate that nickname as much as I thought.

I turned back to look at him. “Yeah?”

“I think you’re outnumbered.” He smirked and raised a hand, his fingers curling upward. “Why not take some of your old playmates along with you?”

He lifted his hand and a circle opened in the ground, edges crackling with hellfire, the scent of sulfur permeating the air. I breathed it in, enjoying the flavors of home filling my nose. I wasn’t sure what’d come through that portal to Hell—dems or souls. I’d played with both. Translucent forms raced out, swirling through the air and rushing toward the stairs. Damned souls, then. The ones that’d first taught me what it was like to be evil, when my mother was determined to make me a little more like her.

These were the spirits of the dead, called back from their eternal damnation in the service of the true Lord of the Damned. I grinned, darkness stirring in my heart, that old part of me anxious to play with these friends once more. I spun and raced up the stairs, ghosts of the wicked, the evil, the most horrible people who had ever lived, flying alongside me. Their screams filled the air, their undiluted joy sending shivers down my spine. They reached out with wispy claws, eager to rake them across living flesh and gorge on screams.

We bolted down the hall and through the lobby, bursting through the front doors to face Lucia and her followers. What greeted us was far more than I’d expected. Several hundred thralls filled the parking lot, each of them bearing weapons. Behind them was a rank of dems, each standing over twelve feet tall, their bodies covered in black scales and hands tipped with long, dark claws.

At the edge of the lot stood Lucia herself, along with her priest. The priest had his broken wrist in a sling, arm pinned to his chest. The other held a silver emblem bearing the sigil of Lucia’s temple. He chanted, shouting magic toward the skies. Above us the clouds roiled, casting down lightning bolts that struck the library in rapid succession.

“Caith, darling,” Lucia shouted, staring at me and laughing. “Thank you for leading me right to the second mother. I was so worried I’d never find her without your help.”

I growled and pulled my other sword free of its sheath. I swung them in arching circles before pointing them at the crowd, signaling the spirits of the damned. They flew forward in a wave of fury, slamming through the horde of Lucia’s followers.

Men and women screamed as the ghosts raked their minds and souls. Invisible claws dug into each human and tween, sinking their thirsty nails into their weak brains. They couldn’t kill, unless the person’s heart was weak. Then their target could perish from fear itself. What they could do was rattle a person’s nerves to their core, consuming them with uncontrollable fear. Half of her followers fled, some scared by the sight of ghosts and others struck by their assault.

Path clear, I raced for the dems, blades flashing. Hellfire blazed across my swords and they cut through dark scales with ease, spilling burning black blood onto the ground. Three rushed me at once, black claws flashing through the air. I parried one and then hacked off another just above the wrist, making my opponent howl in pain. The third raked its claws across my back, and my flesh burned with the pain. I growled and spun, swinging my blades as I moved. One went high and the other low, slicing into the demon at the neck and abdomen. I sliced him open, rivers of blood flowing toward the ground.

To my left, Jezze hurled blasts of magic at every dem that came near, knocking them back and shattering their bones. A half dozen rushed her at once and she pulled her hands back, channeling an orb of crackling energy between her palms. She hurled it forward and it exploded, vaporizing the coming darkness, leaving nothing but ash in the wind.

Sam was in his element. With his feather back, his connection to On High was reforged, at least in part. He raised his hands and a sword materialized, the length blazing with a holy light that nearly seared my eyes. He took one mighty swing and a wave of light cut a line through the dems, slicing them in half. Several more jumped at him, their claws raking flesh. Angelic blood spilled on the ground, but he didn’t stop. He simply screamed a battle cry of righteous fury, slashing through every dem that came near.

They each met On High’s angel of destruction.

When I sliced a clear path through the nearest dems, Lucia’s priest stood before me. He raised his unholy symbol, shouting prayers to his dark goddess. Blasts of lightning shot from the sigil and streaked toward me. I thrust my blades out and the lightning shot through the metal, coursing through my body. My skin buzzed and hair stood on end. I clenched my teeth, battling to withstand the energy.

I swung my blades around in a wide arc, gathering strength and then unleashing it back at the priest in a massive blast of darkness and heat. The priest’s body rocketed across the parking lot, slamming into a van and crumpling the metal door. He slumped forward, dropping to his hands and knees, smoke rising from his body.

I ran at him, not giving him a chance to recover. I raised one of my swords and he met my gaze, no fear in his eyes.

“I die,” he whispered, “that my goddess may be victorious.”

Realization punched me just as my sword descended, slicing through his neck and lopping off his head. Before it even hit the ground, I whirled and scanned the battlefield. Sam and Jezze still battled the dems while the ghosts raced among the thralls, continuing their psychic assault.

No sign of Lucia.

“Dammit!” I ran as hard and fast as I could, racing to the library, hoping I wasn’t too late. I didn’t know when or how she’d slipped past me, but I’d been a fool. I’d allowed Lucia’s arm, her priest, to distract me while she went for the prize.

I burst through the front door, panels slamming into the wall, and raced across the lobby. Before I even reached the stairs to the basement, I heard it.

Terror.