Blest (21 page)

Claire ripped open the door to the kitchen and headed straight for the living room, where the rest of the demons were preparing. She felt proud for maintaining her composure the entire time she’d been with Jim. The hardest had been kissing him, but she had repeated
I don’t love you, I don’t love you
in her head over and over, and that had helped. Even now, after all the time she had spent trying to channel everything into anger, there was still an echo of sorrow in her heart. But she had done it.

The demons snapped to attention when they saw her return. Everyone but Gunner, who was posted outside Sydney’s house, waiting and watching. Carlos stood in the center of the Scale, his hands clasped behind his back. His piercing black eyes locked onto hers, and she smiled.

“It’s done,” she said.

Ben let out a loud whoop of joy. “Tonight’s going to be the night! We’ll know where the Portal is in no time!”

“I still can’t believe you could yank Jim around like that,” Julia said. “Pretty impressive.”

Claire stared at Julia without blinking. “Yeah. Well, he’s always had a crush on me. I just made the most of it.” She and Carlos had told the demons that she was going to flirt with Jim and tell him about the “attack,” but that was it. Only Carlos knew the truth. Actually, the whole thing had been Carlos’s idea. Claire still couldn’t believe they hadn’t thought of it before. It was brilliant in its simplicity. Now that the angels thought the Portal was in danger, they would flock to defend it. Once the demons saw where the angels defended, they would go after them.

“Claire,” her father said, his voice silencing the joyous murmurs running through the rest of the Scale. “You’ve made me proud.” He put a hand on her shoulder, then turned around to face the other demons. “Gunner will follow the angels when they go to protect their precious Portal. I know it’s around the school, somewhere. Soon, we’ll know what they’re planning to defend and thus, where we need to attack.”

Ben erupted with another whoop.

“How do we get the Portal open?” Julia asked from the couch, resting her elbows on her knees and looking at Carlos expectantly.

Carlos’s black eyes gleamed. “Leave that to me.” He paused, as if thinking about something. “Just know that, when the Portal is open, there’s no room for hesitation. You have to act immediately. When you jump into the Portal and get to Glisten, you’ll regain the powers that were torn from us. You’ll be stronger than any of the angels there and, more importantly, you’ll be able to connect Slag to Glisten. If the angels try to stop you, kill them. The Tribunal no longer matters. The Pact no longer matters.”

“But . . . but won’t the Tribunal interfere if we break the Pact? If they know we’re going to use the Portal?” Erik stuttered. “Isn’t that what they’ve always told us?”

Carlos smiled darkly. “The secret is that all three members of the Tribunal are cowards. Lord Castile, Lord Valas, Lady Ichallas, they haven’t stepped foot out of Glisten for centuries. Their powers will fade rapidly if they leave. Some say that the fools themselves would fade . . .” He rubbed his fingers together. “Like a pile of dust. It takes a lot of power to leave Glisten. They would have to come through one of the Portals and, in effect, open it. They won’t risk it.”

As Carlos talked, Claire slipped around him and dropped onto the couch beside Julia. She felt a flush of warm victory, but she also felt nauseous. Over and over, she had to remember that Jim was playing her, too. Right now, he and Sydney were probably holding hands, making out, laughing at how the pathetic demon Claire had begged Jim to meet up with her and had given away the demons’ secrets. Well, she would show them. They would learn not to try to cross a demon. She looked around at the others, their eager faces turned on Carlos. This was her family, this was who she needed to protect.

Gunner exploded into the kitchen behind them, red in the face and shining with sweat. “The pool!” he panted. “They went to the pool at Pearlton High!”

“The pool?” Carlos asked incredulously. “Are you sure?”

“Definitely,” Gunner said, putting his hand against the kitchen counter, trying to catch his breath.

Carlos frowned, considering, then nodded slowly. “It makes sense, I suppose. The water would make the Portal nearly invisible, and Lumen could keep an eye on it at all times.” He turned to address them all. “Demons!” he bellowed. “This is our time! Together, we will conquer the Field and Glisten.” He looked at each of them in turn. “When I escaped Slag, I promised the demons imprisoned there that I would come back to rescue them. We will destroy the angels for repressing us for so long. For keeping us away from what is rightfully ours.”

His voice trembled with passion, a thrum of anger Claire could feel deep in her chest. She admired the way Carlos could take people and shape them, make them feel the things he wanted them to feel. He inspired other demons and helped them realize their potential. She knew that she had impressed him, especially now that she had played a key part in finding the Portal.

“Carlos,” she managed. “How did you escape Slag?”

He looked at her, his expression unreadable. “I escaped Slag by learning that you are never who you want to be,” he said. “You are who you
have
to be. On your way to becoming a demon, you may wear many masks. Identity is fire . . . not stone.”

Claire nodded. He wondered if he could tell how much it had cost her, talking to Jim. Probably. Carlos talked about how getting back into Glisten would allow demons to read minds, but he already seemed pretty good at it. She grinned. Maybe she would immediately get that power if she got into Glisten. Then no one could ever fool her, make her feel weak again.

“Demons, are we ready?” Carlos roared. “Are we ready to end our thousands of years of imprisonment, of living under the Tribunal’s heel?”

The demons cheered and hollered. Claire raised her voice with the rest of them, trying to make sure her father heard her voice. They poured out the door and shot off into the sky, heading straight for Pearlton High School. The clouds above the school swirled like a whirlpool, gathering momentum.

“Nora and Maria killed each other by the school,” Carlos shouted from ahead of them. “When an angel and a demon spill blood, and other angels and demons approach, there’s always something like—”

A lightning bolt sliced through the sky like a knife, striking right by the entrance of Pearlton. Thunder boomed around them. The noise vibrated in Claire’s head. She gritted her teeth and forced herself to remain calm.

“Like that,” Carlos said.

“Shouldn’t we get to the ground?” Erik asked, panicked. “Won’t we get struck by lightning?”

Carlos didn’t answer.

Another lightning bolt zig-zagged through the sky, temporarily lighting the school’s somber brick walls, making the building seem like it was part of a black-and-white photograph. Claire blinked furiously, trying to focus. A wild cackle escaped from Carlos and a tornado swirled down. He seemed to direct it, and yet at the same time the howling wind pulled him along with it. He vanished, only to reappear at the edge of the gym holding two curved swords. He kicked open the door of the stout little maintenance room attached to the gym.

“What’s he doing?” Ben asked.

“That’s the sprinkler room. He’s going to lower the water levels for the pool,” Claire said in admiration. “So that we can get to the Portal.”

The demons landed in front of the sprinkler room just as Carlos emerged, bearing a wicked grin. “Looks like Miles just lost another family member.” He kicked a red-haired head away.

Julia blanched. Erik trembled. Even Gunner paused for a moment.

“Stop that!” Carlos barked. Lightning struck behind him, where the tornado he had summoned spun out of control. “Death is inevitable. You either suffer it, or you deal it. I need to trust each one of you to use your knives down there.”

Claire trembled with anticipation. It wasn’t that she
wanted
to kill, but the thought of it thrilled her. Carlos was right. What better way to show power than to wield it over someone else’s life? She was the first to draw her knife. Carlos smiled at her and she smiled back. They charged into the gym together.

The Feather huddled nervously around the pool. Each time the lightning flashed outside, the cavernous room would explode with white, illuminating everyone’s faces and making their wings glow. Thunder rumbled around them. Jim caught sight of a tornado winding its way beyond the track and into the soccer fields behind the school, scattering leaves and grass into the air.

Miles shifted beside him, nervously tossing his Sky Knife back and forth in his hands. General Lumen had tried to stop him from coming, but he had argued with her, claiming that he wanted to avenge Nora’s death, and she had given in, saying he’d earned that right.

The fear was thick in the air, both from the Feather and the older angels. Leo’s parents—Jack and Mary, both teachers at the elementary school—had come to help defend the Portal, too. Jack was a big, burly guy with a scruffy black-and-gray beard. Mary was short and stout. Frank, Miles’s dad, had gone to keep watch over the sprinkler room while Kacey hovered by the doorway with Sydney and General Lumen. The adult angels, the true Guardians, all had swords that were crafted from the same white steel as the Sky Knives.

Minutes passed. Outside, the rain poured in sheets. Jim and General Lumen made eye contact and she gave him a curt nod. He had gotten Lumen and Sydney away from the rest of the Feather to tell him what Claire had said. At first, he had tried to be secretive about it.

“I found out that the demons know where the Portal is,” he had told General Lumen. “And they’re planning to attack tonight.”

“How do you know?” Sydney had asked forecfully. “Is it . . . did you see Claire again? Did you?”

Jim had been terrified that Lumen would punish him if she found out about Claire, but then he realized Sydney must have already told her. Briefly, he related his meeting with Claire on the water tower. General Lumen had only nodded through his whole explanation. Finally, she had asked a single question. “Do you trust her, Jim?”

“Yes,” he’d said. “I trust her with my life.”

“What about everyone else’s life? Sydney’s life, Miles’s life, my life?”

He’d gulped, and nodded. Claire loved him. She was telling the truth, he knew it. “I do,” he’d said.

“All right, then.” Lumen had nodded once. “That’s enough for me.”

“Angels!” she shouted now from the front of the gym, her voice echoing. “Some of you remember Carlos from the War of the Broken Wall. He’s a shell of what he was then, but he’s still powerful. I want the Feather to avoid fighting him at all costs. Let the adults deal with him. It’ll be your job to fight the rest of the Scale.”

Jim’s stomach lurched at the word ‘fight.’ What did that really mean? He could see that Leo and Miles were thinking the same thing. They barely had time to train with their knives. And now they were expected to defend a Portal from a demon attack?

He scratched the back of his neck and glanced at the pool again. The ceiling was high, which meant every little noise was reflected and echoed back a hundred times over. Angels clearing their throats, whispering to each other, swearing . . . He leaned closer to the water, looking at his dull reflection in the glassy surface. It seemed a little odd that he was defending Glisten, a place he had never been and filled with people he had never met. If he died today, would anyone in Glisten even know it?

“Dude,” Miles said quietly. “I want you to know that if we don’t make it out of here, it’s been good knowing you.”

Jim looked at him incredulously. “We’ll be fine.” The response was automatic, and he knew as he said it that it could be a lie.

Miles snorted and tested his weight on his ankle. “I am not ready for this, man. Not by a long shot.”

Jim smiled grimly. “If I’ve learned anything since I got my wings, it’s that nothing in life happens when you’re ready for it. You just deal with it.”

Miles nodded. Jim could tell he was thinking about Nora. The silence between them blossomed. He was still amazed that Miles had insisted on coming, even though his wings were blackened and useless, hanging limply from his back. He would be at a serious disadvantage.

Jim could practically feel the anxiety and panic floating through the air all around him. He gripped the Sky Knife in his sweaty hands. The wait was awful, but he knew that what was going to follow would be worse.

Suddenly, the water sloshed around in the pool, the movement getting more violent. He peered at it closely. “The water!” he shouted. “The water level is falling!”

General Lumen and Sydney glanced back at him from across the room. Lumen adjusted her grip on her sword. “They’re coming,” she said.

Miles stepped up beside him to look into the pool. “But if the water is going down, my dad—he was in the sprinkler room . . .” He squinted hard at the draining water. Across the room, Kacey let out a sob, then stood up straighter, setting her jaw.

Suddenly, the door by Sydney and General Lumen exploded off its hinges in a fiery mess, sailing across the room. Sydney and her mom jumped out of the way just in time. A tall man with red scales flashing across his face strode through the smoke, a sword in each hand. Other figures flanked him on either side. As the smoke cleared, Jim saw that Claire was beside the man. His heart sank. She must have been forced into coming along for the battle. He hoped that she stayed safe. Maybe he could get near her, and figure out a way to protect her.

“Angels!” the tall man—that had to be Carlos—yelled. The remnants of the door crackled around his feet, orange flames licking the air. Outside, another flash of lightning struck. “You tried to hide this from me. But I escaped Slag, do you really think finding a Portal would be a challenge?”

“We’ll put you back in Slag!” General Lumen cried. “You’re a monster, Carlos. You broke the last Pact. You killed angels in their sleep, you killed their children!” She seemed hysterical, the words rushing out of her. “And when we banished you to Slag, you did the same to the demons there!”

“Catherine. How great to see you again—and how reassuring to know that you haven’t changed at all.” He set his jaw. “Angels don’t understand any kind of sacrifice other than dying. But there are more honorable, more painful ways to sacrifice yourself. The death of who you were. Again and again. That’s more meaningful!” He swept his arms toward the demons behind him. “Everything I did, I did for us. For all the demons still imprisoned in Slag. They’ll be free, now. Tonight!”

The fire on the doors winked out of existence and reappeared along the black blades in Carlos’s hands, dancing along the steel. “Now . . .” he said. The word echoed all around, as if Carlos was right in Jim’s ear. “Let’s dance to the music of chaos.”

He let out a long yell and charged straight at Lumen. Leo hopped into the air and cut down toward the group of demons with his knife raised, yelling Nora’s name. Miles half-hobbled, half-sprinted around the pool, brandishing his knife. Leo’s parents and Kacey followed. Jim wrung his hands on the hilt of his blade, unsure where to go, where he was most needed. Despite their training session, the Sky Knife still felt clumsy in his hands.

He saw a familiar, black-haired figure flying toward him.
Claire
. Maybe she was planning to meet up with him so they could escape together, leave the whole battle behind. He grinned as she came closer, waving. She didn’t smile back at him. As she crossed over the pool, her red wings flapping behind her, she pulled the red knife from underneath her belt. And pointed it at him. He stood there, frozen, while she flew over him and slashed down at his face. He ducked right at the last second.

“Claire? What are you doing!” He whipped around as she landed behind him. She didn’t pause, didn’t hesitate, just rushed at him. He brought his knife up to parry hers and their blades sang against the high ceilings in the gym. To their left, the pool gave one last guttural
glurk
and the water disappeared. Jim could see faint, white swirling lights exposed to the air. The Portal.

“What are you doing?” he exclaimed again, hopping away as Claire swiped the knife at his face.

“Conquering my last fear!” she snarled, trying to jab him in the stomach. He deflected her knife with his own and pivoted around her. But she kicked him in the knee and he crumpled to the floor. She drove her knife straight down and Jim rolled away, hearing it clang against the floor. He scrambled to his feet and jumped into the air, flying to one of the bleachers by the pool. He landed on the top bench, about fifteen feet up, and tried to catch his breath. Below, there were flashes of movement across the floor as angels and demons dipped in the air and on the ground, exchanging blows. Carlos hacked at General Lumen with his two flaming blades, but she seemed fearless, blocking each one with her own sword. Leo elbowed Ben in the face. Kacey had driven Julia into a corner.

Claire slammed down in front of Jim. “Just face me! Or are you too ashamed that you were the one that got played this time?”

“Played?” Jim hopped off the bleachers, floating in the air. She looked up at him.

“You know what I mean!” Claire’s face was red. “A lie for a lie!”

Jim was confused for a second, but then it dawned on him. She had never wanted to reconcile. When they met at the water tower, she was lying to him, using him to find the location of the Portal. He thought of what he had said to General Lumen—
I trust her
—and felt his stomach twist. This whole battle was his fault. By trusting Claire, he had doomed all of the angels in the room. Maybe all of the angels in Glisten, too.

Claire leaped from the bleachers at him. He raised his knife to defend himself and the blades skittered across one another again.

“Claire,” he said, swooping down toward the ground. “I love you.”

“What?” she snarled, landing a few feet away.

“I love you,” he said again. She sprinted at him and their knives met. She sliced at his neck and he bent backward to avoid the blade.

“Stop that!” Claire hissed. “Just fight like a man!”

“I love you.”

The third time made her stumble. She tripped, mid-charge, and Jim grabbed her elbow, pulling her into him. He wrestled the knife from her grip and she thrashed around against him. “Claire,” he whispered.

“Stop!” she screamed.

“I just want you to know that I still love you,” he said quietly.

She made a noise, somewhere between a moan and a cry of rage, and shoved him away. He was thrown off-balance. She grabbed her knife from the floor and jumped onto him before he could get back up. Her knife came down in a whoosh, but he caught her wrist, straining to keep the point of the blade from reaching his neck. She squirmed on top of him, trying to drive it home.

With one final heave, Jim pushed her up and rolled on top of her. He pinned her wrist to the floor, sending the knife sliding away. He looked into her brown eyes, trying to find the old Claire, but the eyes looking back at him were boiling with hate. If Claire knew that Carlos had killed his way through the Field and through Slag and still followed him, there was no hope. Even if he let her go, she would kill him.

He took a deep breath, steadying himself. Claire bucked underneath him, screaming. And then Jim drove his knife straight toward her heart.