The fucking souls needed to get out of here. “Run!”

Their paralysis broke and they turned to run, but too late. The cloud swallowed them. Pinpricks of light bloomed in the seething darkness before winking out one by one.

Cora’s hands fizzed and lit up with power, ready to attack. My scythe glowed brighter, reacting to the threat because it was headed our way. And then it wasn’t a cloud, it was a fucking army.

Dread draped in black flowing garments, some ridge-nosed, some beautiful—second- and third-generation Dread, nephilim and their creations. They walked toward us, and leading the charge was Vale, the ex-reaper and blood of Samael.

His smirk said it all. We were nothing. We were two against a horde. He raised his hand, and the army halted while he came forward. He stopped several meters away, his gaze flicking to my scythe.

“Seraphina Dawn. Blood of Samael. Blood of my blood,” he said.

“Hello, Vale.”

“We have no quarrel with the Underealm. There doesn’t need to be any more death.”

“No quarrel? You attacked us in the warehouse.”

“But we didn’t hurt you. We simply needed your scythe power, and if you’d just let us have it, then there would have been no need for us to resort to attacking Azazel. It wasn’t an easy decision, but it was one life to save the many.” He smiled. “I see, however, that you circumvented our plan. It served its purpose, though. It powered the sigil on your walls long enough to drain your wards.”

Wait. “You used Azazel and his voralex to power the spell to bring down the wards.”

“It had to come from somewhere, and human souls are potent sources, as the Beyond is very much aware.” He sighed. “We feed so our ancestors can live. That’s all. We take what we need and no more.”

“Really? Didn’t you just devour a host of human souls.”

“We’ll need that energy to break open the doors. The voralex is merely a crack.”

“And what about Evelyn? Didn’t she get the memo on not killing for sport?”

I was stalling, and it was working, because the longer I kept him jabbering, the more time backup had to arrive, and maybe the Beyond would get their arses in gear and shut their crack. Fuck, that sounded weird.

“Evelyn was temperamental,” Vale said. “I don’t hold her death against you.” He sighed. “And as much as I’m enjoying this conversation and your attempt to stall in the hopes that the cavalry arrives, it’s time for us to take our ancestors home. Through us, they will ascend.”

“Um, Fee,” Cora said from the corner of her mouth. “Shouldn’t backup be here by now.”

“Oh, they’re here,” Val said. “They just won’t be able to get in. Your wards may be down, but ours went up as soon as we entered.”

Horror pooled in my stomach.

“So you have two choices. Either you get out of the way and live. Or stand your ground and die.”

Fuck. Where was Dayna? No, it was better if she stayed away. “Vale, I’m sorry for what happened to the Dread. I am, and right now, I have no sympathy for the Beyond. If your actions weren’t going to ripple into this world, then I’d step aside and let you through, but I can’t do that. Because if you do this, it will upset the balance. It’ll mean more human souls will be needed to power the Beyond. If you do this, you’re sentencing millions of souls to burn.”

He tilted his head to the side as if considering this argument. His brow pinched in a frown, and for a moment, I thought I’d gotten through to him, that maybe he’d see sense. He’d been one of us once. A reaper. A demon. He’d protected humans.

His brow cleared, and he shook his head. “We’ve suffered long enough, and we will suffer no more.”

They weren’t his words. They were the Dread’s words—the original celestial army speaking through him. My time was up.

“Move or die,” Vale said, and then he advanced, bringing his army with him.

“Fee?” Cora asked.

I squeezed my eyes shut. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I’d thrown her into danger once, I wouldn’t risk her life again. Never again. “Go. Get out now.”

She gave me an incredulous look. “Like hell. If I go, you go.”

I slipped backward through the gates, then shut them on her. “Jasper!” I screamed his name with intent.

He appeared beside Cora.

“Get her out of here.”

He glanced at the advancing horde.

“No,” Cora cried, but Jasper grabbed her, and then they were both gone.

The horde was almost at the gates, and they’d get through, no doubt, but the narrow opening would create some kind of bottleneck.

I’d take down as many as I could. I wouldn’t be able to stop them, but I’d cull the fuck out of their numbers. Every Dread down would be one human soul saved, and once this was over, the Beyond would pay for all the souls they’d burned. They’d pay for what they did to Aunt Lara.

I exhaled as the gates crashed open, and the horde poured in.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Azazel

“Fee!” I wake up in a cold sweat, heart pounding, blood rushing in my ears. Something is wrong with Fee.

“Azazel?” Uriel joins me in the lounge. “Fee and Cora went to Deadside to stop her aunt’s ascension.”

The lift pings, and Grayson comes running out. His face is as white as a sheet, and his gaze locks with mine.

“Fee,” we both say in unison.

“Something’s wrong?” he says.

I’m on my feet in an instant. “We need to go to Deadside now.”

Alarm bells are going off in my head.

The air fizzes and Cora appears by the pool table. She screams, clawing at Jasper.

“You bastard. You fucking bastard. I hate you!”

“Cora, what the fuck?” I rush over, and she flings herself away from the malevolent spirit and into my arms. “What happened? Where’s Fee?”

She looks up at me with rage-filled eyes glistening with tears. “She’s in trouble, Az. The Dread have her cornered. They’re going to kill her.”

My body freezes, and then fire is rushing through my veins. I release Cora and head for the exit, wings itching to burst free.

“You can’t get in,” Jasper calls out. “New wards. Dread wards. You won’t get in.”

Grayson fixes his furious gaze on Jasper. “You got in.”

Jasper sighs. “I play by different rules.”

Cora grabs his lapels and shakes him. “Take us back. Take us in. Dammit, Jasper, if you don’t help me save her, I swear to you I’ll never forgive you. I’ll fight you. I’ll find a way to hurt you, I’ll—”

“Fine,” Jasper snaps. “But I can only take one at a time. Who wants to go in first?”

“Me,” we all say at once.

“It’s my duty to protect her,” Keon states.

I open my mouth to argue, but Grayson cuts in.

“Azazel goes first, and I go next.”

Keon doesn’t argue any further. He’s smart enough to know that every minute counts.

Cora makes a sound of protest, but Grayson grips her shoulders. “I need you to rally the pack. We need them all. Do you understand?”

She nods. “I got this.”

Jasper bridges the distance between us and grabs my wrist, and the world fills with ice.

Fee

My scythe was a fiery arc cutting a path through the air, slicing at Dread. But for each one I brought down, another got past me.

“Fee!” Dayna landed beside me, her daggers moving so fast they were a blur.

Ida was somewhere here too, and the other HQ reapers. No time to think. No time to help anyone. Just fight.

I wanted to get to Vale, to take him down, but he was evasive, keeping a distance as he herded his Dread toward the voralex. How many had gotten through? Why the fuck hadn’t the Beyond shut down the doorway?

I took two more heads.

“Stop her!” Vale screamed. “Kill her.”

Yep, that was me he was talking about, and now the Dread stopped beelining for the house and surged toward me.

Fuck.

A blade here, a talon there. I used the scythe to keep them back, but there were too many. Pain ripped the back of my thigh. I lost my balance for a second, but it was enough for a Dread to get under my defenses, and then fire pierced my side, tearing a scream from my throat. I twisted, pulling my body off the blade, and swiped with my dagger, cutting the Dread’s throat.

“Fee, watch out!” Dayna cried out.

The back of my head exploded with pain, and I hit the ground with my knees. My scythe winked out as the world darkened.

“Fee!”

Dayna…

There was a band around my neck, squeezing and making it impossible to cry out, making it difficult to breathe, and then I was being hauled up. The darkness trying to claim my sight retreated, and Vale’s furious face filled my vision.

“You should have walked away,” he said.

He opened his mouth, and the world was filled with light. I’d been here before. This floating place. This wonderful place.

Just let go. Just let go and float.

And then the light winked out because Vale’s head was gone. Azazel stood in his place, eyes blazing with righteous fury.

Yes, we’d been here before.

Vale’s body dusted into embers, and with it, the force holding me aloft vanished. My body gave out on me, legs buckling.

Azazel grabbed me around the waist and kissed me on the mouth. Ice filled me like cold fire in my blood, ripping through the effects of the Dread’s kiss and bringing me back to life.

He pulled away. “Hold on.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck as he gripped me with one arm, spinning to decapitate a Dread.

He wielded his blade with power, keeping me out of harm’s way. “Put me down. You can’t fight while holding me.”

“I fucking can.”

The roar and snarl of wolves tore the air.