I

n the blink of an eye, Amaya took in the situation: Dina at the other end of the room surrounded by Darklings and a barricade of tables and benches. Gideon, weaponless, facing her.

Another blink and the room filled with UnHallowed: Bane, Zed, Riél, Gadreel, Ioath, Daghony, and Rimmon. Chay and Kush just popped in from the shadows. Oh, fuck! Kush just spotted Malphas.

Amaya jumped into Kush’s path, only to be swatted across the room. Her wings opened just in time to keep her from slamming into a vending machine. Hovering in the air, she had a choice: save Malphas from Kush or help save Gideon’s wife from the Darklings?

Malphas wasn’t taking any shit from Kush. The two were slugging it out, trading blows, as if they enjoyed the pain. Kush hauled back and hit Malphas so hard, it knocked his human façade off. His perfect suit, tie, and shirt shredded. Crimson tattoos were carved into his flanks, over his shoulders and down his arms. In stark relief against his pale skin, they glowed in conjunction with his black, flame-edged wings making an appearance.

Malphas pinned Kush to the floor. Kush knocked him off and was on his feet attacking again. His skeletal wings on full display.

“Dina! No!” Gideon shouted.

Amaya spun in time to see Dina dart through a side door. A portion of the Darklings followed her while the rest stayed behind to engage the UnHallowed.

“You can’t kill them,” Bane shouted.

“Why the fuck not?” Rimmon had a Darkling by the throat, his blade raised to strike, the metal bands around his wrists glinting in sync with the blade.

“Because there are humans trapped inside of them. Killing them will damn you,” Bane stressed.

“We’re already damned!” Zed raised his sword to strike. Bane tackled him as the Darklings swarmed the UnHallowed.

Amaya couldn’t stop any of it. Bane couldn’t ask them to not kill the Darklings and sacrifice their lives. Could she? What would Braile do?

He’d find another way.

Amaya opened herself up and stretched her senses. Instead of fighting the grace in her veins, she embraced the gift bequeathed to her. All at once, the structure of the room faded and she could see the dormitory style bedrooms on the floor above, and the offices below, the outer walls, and Dina racing for a balcony with Gideon too far behind to stop her.

The building was a five story brick structure built decades ago, by the condition of the crumbling plaster and mortar. They were currently on the third floor with Amaya nearest the outer wall on the opposite side of the room away from the battle.

She gathered her strength; felt the mounting tension in her muscles surpassing the usual kickass level, moving into the badass—don’t fuck with me—level. She flew across the room and hit the wall with the force of a missile. It crumbled on impact and the sun poured in.

She trusted the UnHallowed to take shelter while she flew to the other side of the building in time to see Dina’s swan dive off the balcony. She heard Gideon’s scream as the Darkling peeled out of Dina’s body and incinerated in the sunlight. Amaya tucked her wings and swooped in seconds before Dina went splat. She flew to the open balcony doors and delivered her into Gideon arms.

“Let me die. Should’ve let me die,” Dina whispered.

“Never. I’m never letting you go. You die. I die.” Gideon cradled Dina close to his chest. “Promise me you’ll never do that again.”

“Not if it means keeping you safe,” she murmured, and kissed him.

Amaya’s heart fluttered at the tenderness between the couple. She turned away to give them some privacy.

“I should’ve used the medallion.”

Amaya heard Gideon whisper. She had a second to wonder what medallion? Then another crash sounded. She spun back to the couple as Bane barged into the room. His pace slowed and a smile cracked the fury on his face. She read the silent question in his eyes and nodded. I’m okay, transmitted silently between them.

He glanced at Gideon, then said to Amaya, “I came to find you, but the fight’s not over.” He yanked a mirror off the wall and tossed it to her. “Sunlight freed some of the humans when you burst through the outer wall, but not enough. Direct sunlight deeper into the room, before we have no choice to kill all of them.”

Amaya tucked the mirror under her arm, jumped onto the balcony railing, and leaped. Five hard beats of her wings and she coasted around to the other side of the building to the gaping hole she’d created. Inside, the battle raged. A few humans lay unconscious in the sun, free of the Darklings that had inhabited them. Not enough to end the fight.

She had a moment of pride. The UnHallowed warded off the Darklings, fighting them hand-to-hand without weapons. With the exception of Kush. He was still kicking Malphas’s ass. Or vice versa. Hard to tell. Former Archangel of Atonement versus a Demoni Lord. Popcorn and beer should’ve been at hand, but duty first.

Amaya hovered, her wings beating faster than she thought possible, and angled the mirror. Low on the horizon, she deflected the sunlight into the recesses of the building and shouted, “Heads up!”

She tried not to hit any of the UnHallowed, she really did, as she swept the beam low. Those with wings grabbed those without. Kush and Malphas crashed through the ceiling and took their battle to the next floor. A second later, they were back through the same hole along with a fresh wave of Darklings now focused on them.

Amaya kept aiming, incinerating all the Darklings she could, leaving unconscious humans in their wake.

Until the sun vanished behind a dense cloud.

The Darklings reverted back to attacking the UnHallowed instead of cowering from the light. The UnHallowed backed away, not wanting to hurt the innocent trapped within the seething ether that comprised Darklings. The last thing she wanted was a repeat of deaths at the farm when Bane unknowingly killed three humans shrouded beneath Darklings.

She had to do something, but what?

What would Braile do?

The answer came easily. Braile would shoulder the burden, because that’s the kind of leader he was.

A weight settled in Amaya’s palm and she didn’t need to look down to see the empyreal sword in her hand. Her entire body knew it was there by the power suffusing each cell and by the radiant glow cast from the blade. She tucked her wings and entered the fray.

Swipe to the left.

Spin and swipe to the right.

Lunge. Duck. Swipe. Thrust. She kept moving. Kept fighting. Not blindly, but with calculated swipes, until the remaining Darklings fled through the hole in the ceiling Malphas and Kush created.

Breathing slightly increased, Amaya rose from her crouched position and surveyed her handy work. Four humans were down with a fine layer of ash covering them. Two had leg wounds. One had lost an arm. But the last one…

She misjudged her aim in the writhing miasma the Darkling presented and struck center mass. The African American male didn’t have a chance. He died quickly.

“There’s a phone in the next room. Does 911 work in Mexico?” Someone went off to make the call. She didn’t know who because she couldn’t take her eyes off the body. Did he have a girlfriend? A wife and kids? Aspirations? Was he a good man? Did it really matter? She wasn’t judge or jury…but was his executioner.

What would Braile do? He wouldn’t whine. He would accept responsibility and move on.

Amaya knelt next to the body. She touched his shoulder, registered his cooling skin, the hole in the center of his chest, and the blood. A lump blocked her throat. It took a few tries for “I’m sorry” to scrape out of her throat. “Forgive me.”

She rose and faced the UnHallowed and Malphas. She didn’t shy away from their penetrating gazes, their judgment evident. She squared her shoulders and accepted the burden, Braile would do no less, and neither would Amaya. In turn, each lowered their eyes and tipped their heads to her. Her chest expanded on a light breath she hadn’t experienced in what seemed like forever. She’d never been part of a group. Never shared camaraderie with anyone that knew her origins, how she came to be all that she was. Never had anyone’s back to watch and knew hers would be as well-guarded. Did she have that now? And if she did, dare she trust it?

Rimmon strode back into the room with Gideon carrying Dina. “The police and ambulances are on the way.” His gaze darted between Amaya and everyone else. “Did I miss something?”

Bane walked over to her, but she shook her head. Comfort wasn’t what she wanted. The pain of this man’s death belonged to her alone and she had to own it. Warbling sirens reached her, different from the sirens in the US, but it meant the same. “Time to go.”

“We regroup at the farmhouse,” Bane said.

“I say again. You are extraordinary,” Malphas murmured. She heard, and chose to ignore him.

“Dina needs to recover. I’m not leaving her again.” Gideon rested his chin on Dina.

“She had a Darkling inside her. She is not coming back with us.” Kush wiped the back of his hand across his bloody lip. Black, bloody lip. Shredded clothes. Blood dripping from his chin landed with a hiss and burned a dime-sized hole in the floor. Malphas looked equally as bad.

“Had a Darkling inside of her. She’s free now so I don’t need Malphas or any of you.” Gideon glared at Kush.

“Just like that, you’re no longer one of us?” Zed joined the conversation between Kush and Gideon.

“As long as Dina isn’t welcome, neither am I.” Gideon held his woman close.

“Gideon is one of us and by extension, so is Dina. She’s welcome.” Daghony put it to rest.

Bane turned on Malphas. “I told you not to talk to her.”

“Fine. I’ll talk to you. I’ll talk to all of you.” Yet Malphas’s gaze remained on Amaya. “You have to be the poorest excuse for an angel.” The room silenced. “You don’t know how to shield your wings, don’t know how to form or control a dimensional pocket, but worse, you killed a human, mumbled an anemic apology, and brushed it off. In case you didn’t know, or these idiots”—he waved a finger at the UnHallowed—“didn’t tell you, angels don’t kill humans—ever. And when it does happen, they fall apart, crying, wailing, tearing their hair out. They lament—for centuries.”

White noise filled her head, but she fought it.

“Enough, Malphas.” Bane lined up next to her. Daghony, Kushiél, Rimmon, Zedekiél, Chayyliél, Ioath, Riél, and Gadreel lined up around her.

She didn’t need them shielding her. She could handle Malphas all on her own, even with a pounding head. “So what? I’m a different breed.”

“Different breed?” Malphas snarled. “There are different angels but they’re all the same breed. They follow the rules or they’re kicked out. They become UnHallowed or worse, but you don’t seem to be afraid of that. Or afraid of anything. I want answers or this partnership is over.”

Everyone started arguing like a bunch of old women, which didn’t help the buzzing in her ears.

Fine! Malphas wanted the truth. She’d give it to him because after all of this, what the hell did it matter?

“I’m a Halfling! There. Now you know. Half human. Half archangel. Happy now? Can we find the Cruor and be done with it now that you know my dig bark ecret.”

Suddenly, her tongue was thick. She couldn’t form a coherent sentence. What’s wrong with my tongue?

One second the world was in living color, the next, a white out. The sword slid from her numb fingers. The clank, a distant echo, but she couldn’t concentrate on that when her knees buckled. She hit the floor. The pain snapped the world back into focus for her to see Bane and Malphas rushing forward. Briefly, she wondered who would get to her first.

Then all went black.

* * *

“A

maya!” Bane caught her before her face hit the ground. Never had he been more afraid than having her limp body in his arms. “Amaya! Baby! Talk to me! What’s wrong?”

He shook her, gently at first, then enough to rattle her cage. She lived, her heartbeat was strong beneath his hand, and she had no wound, so why wouldn’t she—“Wake up!”

A hand landed on his shoulder. He looked up at Zedekiél to find the last thing he expected—sorrow etched on the face of the former Archangel of Mercy. It’s just a matter of time, he said through the UnHallowed’s private link.

Bane yanked his shoulder free. No!

Too much power in one so small, so young. Rimmon knelt beside Amaya, studying her as one studied a dead animal on the highway.

She’s not dead! Bane shouted through the link.

Yet, Chay said, standing close. Humans cannot contain the power of celestial beings.

Rimmon brushed his knuckles across her forehead. She’s a candle caught in a thunderstorm. No matter how brightly she burns, she will be snuffed.

“No.” Bane stood with Amaya clutched in his arms. What Rimmon said couldn’t be true. Braile wouldn’t do that, not to a human, not to someone entrusted in his care. Neither would Michael. Both were entrusted with humanity’s survival. They wouldn’t use one…yes…they would.

The end justifies the means. Always has, always would when it came to the Celestial Order. But to take an infant and turn her into—

Fuck! I won’t lose her. There has to be a way. Michael will find a way to reverse this or—

Lose the UnHallowed. We stand with you, brother. Daghony said. In turn, each UnHallowed tipped their head.

Bane had never been more grateful. He looked to Zed. How long does she have?

That I can’t say. Containing her use of Braile’s power may help.

We’ll get her back to the farm and let her rest. “Give her to Malphas.” Chay tipped his head at the demon. The Demoni Lord stepped forward ready to accept the burden.

Violence, at a level he’d never previously experienced, gripped him. “Touch her and I will kill you.”

Malphas halted. “I have a Villa not far from here. If you keep to the covered walkways, the sun will set by the time you’re in the open. Then it’s only a few miles south of the city.”

All waited for Bane to nod.

“Address,” Ioath demanded. Malphas rattled off the street and number. “We’ll scout ahead.” Ioath and Gadreel stepped into the shadows.

“Lead the way,” Kush ordered, and this time Malphas had no snide reply. He obeyed.