Today we were in training at the Seilers’ house again when Neige found us.
I do not even remember what it was I was saying to the humans, but the words were cut off as if she had reached out with an icy fist and closed it around my throat. An instant after she made herself known, that ghastly laughter floated out of the air, and then she was standing not ten yards away, holding her great shield before her.
Therai sprang into the air, while Rachmanes drew his two-handed sword, colors glistening along its glassy edge. I swept the humans behind me and spread my wings to hide them from the gaze of the Apostate. The arrow was already on the string when Neige spoke.
“His peace be with you.”
All three of us stopped. I stared at her, and she grinned directly at me. Now that I had a clear look at her, she was surprisingly beautiful, her face smooth and lovely, except for the wreck of her left eye, which looked to have been slowly and thoroughly dug out of her skull. As I looked at the scars, I suddenly felt the horror of my own fingers scrabbling deep inside my eye socket and I shuddered all through my body and soul.
Behind me, Freya set her fingers against my back.
I forced myself to focus. I had a very careful game to play.
“And with you,” I answered Neige, and I lowered my weapon.
Still shaking with laughter, Neige looked the three of us over. She didn’t seem to notice the humans behind me. “Asoharith accepts,” she said.
My wings twitched wider. “I thought she might,” I said grimly. “Where and when?”
“Five and five and then six,” she said, resting her chin on the top of her shield. “In the place where she first heard your name. Asa’el,” she added, enunciating every sound of my name, and her voice cut at me.
“Ace,” Freya whispered.
I stood straighter, and Neige’s eye shifted to look through me. Her grin grew wider. “Will the snow muffle the flames, I wonder?” she said.
In an instant my bow was up again, but Neige vanished, leaving only an echo of her terrible laughter. The cold of her presence faded quickly under the heat of the sun, but I still felt chilled as I sent my bow away.
“What the actual fuck was that,” Kara demanded.
I turned to them, reading their auras with some anxiety. “Could you see her?”
“We didn’t see anything,” George said, sinking down onto the back steps slowly, as if he did not quite trust his knees.
“But we damn sure felt it,” Kara said. Her voice quivered as even her iron control was broken.
Freya was ghost white. “I saw her,” she whispered.
I should have expected it. They have been in close company with angels for weeks now. And after all, no evil can be hidden by a human spirit who chooses to see it.
“I am sorry that she frightened you,” I said, putting my wing around Freya. “But I do not think she saw any more than she must have already known—that you are vital to me, Freya.”
Even as I said so, I glanced up at Therai, who nodded and bounded out of sight, back to heaven. We will need to be sure that Neige did not learn anything important about the humans. Their safety and our victory depends on their being unknown to our enemy.
George followed my gaze, and then looked to Rachmanes, something sparking in his aura. “You didn’t fight her,” he said quietly. “She said something, and all of you stopped. Why?”
“Because she came to us in peace,” Rachmanes answered. He opened his hand, and his sword fell away into nothing with a ripple of colors.
“And you believed her?” George was angry. “That thing was so horrible that I couldn’t breathe, but she claimed she wasn’t here to fight and you believed her?”
“She invoked the name of God.”
“A demon can swear by God?”
“Not directly,” Rachmanes admitted. “But even in vague terms, such an oath cannot be spoken falsely. The moment she said it, we knew it for truth, and so we could not hurt her.”
“But then you were going to shoot her,” Kara pointed out, looking at me.
“Her intentions changed when she threatened Freya,” I said. “The peace ended there.”
Kara shook her head and threw up her hands. “None of this makes any sense,” she said. “What kind of peace could you have with a Fallen?”
Rachmanes looked at me, and I sighed. “Neige was responding to a message we sent out weeks ago, not long after my return. We proposed to resolve all of this quickly and directly with a single duel between myself and Asoharith.”
I was watching Freya’s face when I said this. The shock fell away as she lifted her head at me, but the horror remained. She had known the plan, of course, but now it is a reality, and she feels the peril of it.
“You’re going to fight her alone?” George whispered.
“Are you shitting me?” Kara demanded. She whirled on Rachmanes. “Did you know about this?”
“It was the decision of our seniors,” Rachmanes said. “It is their hope that this will be the way to minimize casualties.”
“Except Ace,” Kara said. “You can’t honestly think that she’s going to hold to any rules. She’ll do whatever she can to kill you.”
“Yes, she will,” I agreed.
“Then how can you think this is a good idea?” George asked.
“More to the point, if this was your plan, why the fuck have you been bothering with us?” Kara asked, folding her arms.
“Because I also have no intention of holding to the rules,” I answered. “Or rather, I intend to be fully ready to break them as soon as Asoharith does. And when she does, you three will be my secret weapon.”
They were staring at me. I knelt and spread my wings wide so that I could send strength and reassurance to them.
“I am less concerned about the duel itself,” I explained, “than I was about the time leading up to it. My greatest fear was that Asoharith would continue her assault on you, Freya, and maybe on the rest of you as well. But now she will be planning the duel itself. She knows that I will come to her, and that will leave us in peace until then.”
Freya was trying to smile. Kara only stared at me.
George was still frustrated. “Wait, so when will it happen? And where?”
My heart twisted. “It will happen sixteen days from now, on a two-lane road in North Carolina.”
“Why there?”
“It is significant to Asoharith.”
I said no more, but Freya’s brows went down. She understood.
“And if she doesn’t cheat?” Kara asked. “What are the rules of this duel?” When I didn’t answer, she moved her gaze to Rachmanes, and her aura was surging like waves in a storm.
He bowed his eyes before it. “One against one, under the eyes of representatives from both sides. We will form the circle, and the combatants must stay within it. Aside from this, we have no role in the duel. Asa’el and Asoharith will fight with one chosen weapon each, until—”
But he could not say it. It was I who told Kara gently, “Until one of us is dead.”
Freya’s fist on the railing clenched to white.
“Kara, it will not come to that—” Rachmanes began.
A single glance was enough to silence him. Kara moved her gaze back to me, and the anger in her eyes and her aura felt like a wave of hailstones.
“I did not tell you,” I said, “or George, because it was irrelevant until Asoharith accepted the proposal.”
She lowered her head. “But Freya knew,” she said. It wasn’t a question.
George whirled on Freya. “You knew about this? Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Nothing’s changed,” she said, her voice hoarse but steady. “Our part is still to support Ace.”
“But only if Asoharith breaks the rules first,” Kara said. “And if she doesn’t then he’s just going to throw his life at her feet. Yeah, she might shred his soul, but at least his honor will be intact.” Her voice was razor-edged with sarcasm.
“In direct battle I will win,” I said.
“That didn’t work so well last time,” George said, grabbing Freya’s wrist and lifting it to show the scar still pink on her skin. She jerked away from him.
“That wasn’t direct battle,” Rachmanes said. “That was an underhanded attack on Asa’el’s vulnerability, and even then she may not have succeeded if not for the surprise of her identity. Fallen fight best in the shadows, but angels will always have the advantage in the light and the truth.”
“Then why would she agree to this?” George demanded. “Unless she is already planning to cheat, and what if she comes up with some way of doing it that you haven’t thought about?”
“If she does cheat, then all restrictions are lifted from the rest of us,” Rachmanes said, grinning, “and the wrath of heaven will fall on her and all the others.”
“So it becomes a brawl. And you expect us to be in the middle of that?”
Rachmanes was visibly startled. “We will not risk your safety,” he said.
“But we will be there,” Freya said. George and Kara both looked back at her as she pulled herself to her feet. “We have to be there. The Fallen have to see what we can do to them, so they won’t come after us again. That’s the reason Ace decided on this plan.”
George buried his head in his hands.
“You should have told us,” Kara said.
“It was irrelevant until Asoharith accepted the challenge,” I pointed out. “And I thought there was still a chance that we may not have to involve the two of you.”
“And that’s the problem.” Kara pushed past both George and Freya to stand on the porch, her hands planted on her hips. “Therai! Get your ass back here.”
Therai sprang out of the air almost immediately, but she backwinged hastily at the sight of Kara’s aura in storm. She landed beside me, her expressive eyes on Kara’s face.
“Now you listen to me, and you better listen too, Cobb,” Kara said, low and furious. “We said we were in. We chose to fight with you. We didn’t ask for you to protect us. George and I are goddamned grown adults who can see how important this is. We are not about to be left out of the Long Fight. Now I will thank you not to hide any vital details or plans from us anymore, because it doesn’t matter if you try to leave us behind, we will be there to end this. I will sacrifice every moment of normal life I have left if it means I can keep all of you alive, and I do mean all of you.”
Her gaze speared each of us in turn, and the vicious anger no longer seemed so intimidating. There did not need to be tears in her eyes for me to understand the love that was there.
“Thank you,” I murmured, for what a gift it is to be so fully taken into such a guarded heart.
She glowered, and then spun around, swatting Freya across the head for good measure. The back door of the house slammed behind her.
George sighed and got to his feet. “I have more questions,” he said, then added ruefully, “which will surprise none of you. But we can talk again after Kara’s calmed down.”
“I am sorry that we did not tell you, George,” I said. “But we do still hope that we have not changed your lives beyond repair.”
“Let me remind you that the way you changed our lives was by bringing us together,” George said, still a bit stiff. “We don’t want that repaired. And if Freya’s past the point of no return, then we’re going with her.” He gave her his hand as he went after his wife, and she smiled up at him.
Rachmanes turned to me when he was gone, radiating relief. “I will answer his questions when he is ready to ask them, Asa’el. We should relay the news to Salathiel.”
Therai signaled that she would do it, but I shook my head. “I think you should stay close to Kara, Therai. I will go.” Then I glanced at Freya, still leaning against the railing. “In a moment.”
They took the hint and vanished, and I stepped close to Freya. “Are you all right?” I asked her. After all, she did see the Fallen, and that is not an easy thing to do.
She lifted her hand, and I rested my palm against hers. “Are they all so horrible?” she asked.
“Neige is particularly nasty,” I said. “But you would not call them demons if they were not awful.”
She closed her eyes. “I know you’re confident about this plan, Ace. Just—I need to hear you tell me it’ll be okay.”
“It will be okay,” I answered immediately, and I believe that. Facing Asoharith directly will be difficult, but I do believe that I am stronger. And if she does cheat, then I will have not only my siblings to help me fight, but my human family as well.
And if we win a decisive victory, no Fallen will ever be brave enough to strike at them again. They can live in peace, and that is the real goal I am fighting for. What Guardian would not want his charges to be safe?