Page 128 of Endless Terrors
His tone made it clear this topic was a dead end. I twisted my lips thoughtfully, then nodded. “It’s a solid plan. There’s just one problem.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah.” I lifted my sword. “I can’t let you do it.”
“I won’t fight you, Fortuna. You expect me to be evil, to be some monstrous thing. You need me to be the embodiment of hate and greed, because it kills you to be responsible for your own shortcomings. Tell me, if I were to be vanquished, would you breathe easier? Or would you find a bottle to crawl into, to hide from the nightmares of what you’ve done? I’ve made peace with who I am and who I have to become. Can you say the same? Go on, tell yourself another lie.”
Heilel raised his eyebrows, expecting me to fall right into his trap. But I’d learned my lesson when it came to engaging in psychological warfare with the devil.
“Either shut up and fight, or get the fuck off my property,” I said.
He sighed, and the sound was heavy with disappointment. “It didn’t have to be this way, Fortuna.”
I smiled bitterly. “Don’t kid yourself, baby. It was always going to end this way.”
He just kept standing there with that sad look on his face. I waited for Heilel to say something like Ladies first or I’d be happy to break the ice. Things he’d said to me before. But he must’ve been impatient to get inside, because he launched at me without warning. I barely managed to react in time. I shouted in pain as the clash of our swords reverberated through my entire body. Heilel swung around, coming at me again, and I barely managed to block him. He was toying with me, I thought dimly. Proving that I was nothing more than a fly in his web. Some small creature.
But I refused to back down. I met him blow for blow, fighting with every shred of strength I had in me. I didn’t even consider using my abilities, as I’d originally planned. I could hardly form a coherent thought, much less multitask and get into Lucifer’s head at the same time.
This was different from the day we’d fought in his tower. Every clash felt like a blow to my heart, my soul. I could see from the tightness in Heilel’s jaw and the shadow in his eyes that it was hurting him, too. As we kept fighting, I heard his voice as I’d heard it the night I gave in to him. I didn’t expect to love you.
“Enough of this,” he said abruptly.
My sword swiped through empty air, and I’d put so much strength behind it that I staggered. Heilel didn’t even notice. He swung away and strode over to the fence. Before I could speak, he pulled one of the posts out of the ground—plucked it, like the embedded wood was nothing more than a weed—and turned back to me. He closed the space between us in a blur. I had an instant to register the sight of the devil’s blue eyes before a star-bright burst went off inside my mind.
He’d stabbed me with the stake.
As pain roared through my stomach, I realized, dimly, how much he’d been holding back. I sank to the ground, looking down at myself even though part of me didn’t want to. There was something … confusing, about seeing a hole in my own body. Like my mind was fighting to accept it, even as I thought, Holy shit, there’s a hole in my stomach.
Somehow, I ended up on my back. The white sky filled my vision, and rain hit my cheeks, my eyes. I squinted against it just as Heilel leaned over me. He wrapped one hand around my throat and used his other to drive the stake deeper into my gut. “And now I will give you a gift,” he said through his teeth.
I resisted the urge to scrabble at his hold. He had me, and I knew it. I glared up at him and snarled, “Death isn’t a gift. Not if I have to spend all of eternity with you.”
“Death? You think so little of me? No, the truth about who killed your parents, my darling. It’s been locked away all this time. Have you ever asked yourself when the dreams started? Those cozy ones with you and your pretty friend?”
“Fuck you and your riddles,” I spat, wrapping both my hands around the base of the fence post. Defying him, I leaned upward and shoved my face into Heilel’s. Agony screamed through my body.
His eyes burned. “I—”
Uttering a warrior’s cry, Lyari was suddenly there, moving in a blur of bright glass and swinging hair. But her sword sliced through empty air; Heilel was already gone. He reappeared a few yards away, his gaze seeking mine again. I was still on the ground, bleeding out on the damp, cold grass. Once again, Lyari went for him, displaying a breathtaking speed I’d never seen her use before.
Even Heilel was taken off guard, and his arm blurred as he lifted his own sword. Lyari didn’t give him a chance to sift. She was already coming at him, her blade singing. The sound became another violent clash as their swords met. Then it happened again, and again, their feet scraping over wet gravel as they fought.
The devil may have had the advantage of age and experience, but all of that was nothing against Lyari’s explosive, incandescent rage. I did nothing to stop her, because there was something about her expression I recognized. It was the same face I saw in the mirror when I thought about the crossroads, or Belanor. Something had been taken from Lyari, and in this moment she was reclaiming it. I knew she could very well lose this battle, and yet being aware of the risk still didn’t compel me to intervene. Some battles were inevitable. Some battles had to be fought, regardless of how they might end.
It only took a couple minutes for Heilel to finally lose his patience. “Stand down,” he snapped, blocking Lyari again.
But Lyari didn’t stop. Their swords continued to flash and clang. “You. Do. Not. Control. Me,” she bellowed.
They moved so fast that I couldn’t watch the fight anymore. Their arms were blurs, their weapons striking with such speed that I kept waiting for them to shatter. My eyes finally caught hold of the fighters again when their swords crossed and both stopped there, Lyari looking at Heilel with steel in her expression. She would never relent.
He leaned his face close to hers and said, “I release you from your contract. I have no further use for you, anyway.”
Lyari reacted as if he’d yanked something out of her, or maybe shoved something back in. Her sword clattered to the ground, and she staggered, just barely managing to regain her balance at the last second. Heilel turned like he’d already forgotten her existence. He showed no signs of exertion as he sheathed his sword, then looked over at me. I was still on the ground, several yards away. His battle with Lyari had brought Heilel partway down the ditch.
Unable to move, I just lay there and stared at him. His mouth opened, and he was on the verge of speaking, but then he paused. Something about his expression made me go still, too. I stopped breathing. My eyes searched his. Hope broke through the shadows around my heart like beams of light.
Was there actually something good inside him? Did love matter to the devil more than whatever plan he had for Thuridan Sarwraek?
