Beezle frowned at the packed earth, spinning around in all directions. He stopped moving after a moment and pointed.
“That way.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “Because we really can’t afford to mess this up.”
“Trust me,” Beezle said. “Do you think I would put future doughnut deliveries at risk?”
“True,” I said, and started blasting in front of me. “Go up and tell Jude and Nathaniel to start bringing the Agents down.”
Nathaniel floated down a few moments later with Chloe and two other agents held in a fireman’s carry. I had blasted about thirty feet of tunnel, and he brought them up and rested them just behind me.
Jude followed with two Agents, and I continued blasting as they went back and forth. I could feel tremors above me, and I suspected that some of Azazel’s soldiers had finally noticed the howling nephilim.
Beezle flew down with the update. “A company of soldiers came down to see what the nephilim was freaking out about. Fortunately for us, the nephilim was so crazed from being denied fresh meat that it turned on the soldiers. They’re duking it out as we speak.”
“Good,” I said, sweat pouring over my face as I blasted another ten feet of tunnel.
Samiel came up behind me. I’ll help you clear the tunnel. The other two will move the Agents.
I nodded. It was faster going with Samiel’s help. Nathaniel and Jude had the tedious job of running back and forth, collecting Agents, dropping them off near us, then running back for the others.
On one of these trips Nathaniel said, “I created an illusion in the room to look like the stone floor was still there. It won’t fool Azazel, and if anyone steps on it, they will still fall into the tunnel, but perhaps it will hold them off.”
“Maybe they won’t go all the way into the room. If they see the Agents are missing and we aren’t there, then hopefully they’ll just go back upstairs to raise the alarm. Good thinking,” I said.
Nathaniel smiled briefly and went back for more Agents.
I don’t know how long we were underground, dirt and insects falling in our faces, laboriously moving a few feet at a time, but finally Nathaniel said, “That’s enough.”
I looked back at him. He was crouched low in the tunnel like Samiel and Jude were. I had only blasted a path maybe six feet high and a few feet wide, and it was a tight squeeze for anyone not pocket-sized.
“We’ve passed beyond Azazel’s property line,” Nathaniel said.
“So we can make a portal?” I asked.
He stepped close to me, put his hand on the dirt in front of me and said the words of the spell in an undertone. I was caged between his body and the dirt wall in front of me, and could feel the heat that emanated from him. I stood as still as possible and tried not to think about how close he was.
A portal opened before us, and I turned around, giving Nathaniel a little nudge in the shoulder with my hand so that he would give me some space.
“The Agents go through first,” I shouted.
The noise from the portal was deafening in the small space, like being closed up in an elevator with a running vacuum cleaner.
Samiel signed to me before scooping up Chloe. I’ll go through with her. You push the others through one by one and I’ll catch them.
“At twenty-second intervals?” I said, trying to mentally calculate the time it would take for him to catch someone, lay them on the ground and turn around for the next Agent.
He nodded and squeezed past Nathaniel. I pressed up against the side of the tunnel, and he went through the portal.
“Jude, start passing them up to Nathaniel,” I said. “I’ll keep watch.”
Beezle flew up and landed on my shoulder as I pressed past Jude, looking anxiously back the way we had come. Jude and Nathaniel started passing the sedated Agents through the portal.
“What are you worried about?” Beezle asked. “Your earthworm plan worked. As unlikely as it seemed.”
“Yeah,” I said, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it had been too easy. Someone had to have figured out by now that we’d gone underground.
“This is the last one,” Jude called. “Let’s get out of here. I’m starting to feel like a badger.”
He went through the portal with the last Agent in his arms, and Nathaniel turned back to me, his hand outstretched.
That was when the roof of the tunnel blasted open.
18
IT WAS LIKE BEING INSIDE A TORNADO. NATHANIEL, Beezle and I were scooped up by a howling wind, spun in circles and slammed to the ground in the blazing sunshine.
We were in a little clearing in the woods surrounded by leafless maples. Snow had melted in patches and revealed green moss underneath.
I pushed to my feet, dizzy from being twirled like a top, and stared across the open chasm at my father.
He’d always appeared young and handsome, but while he hadn’t aged at all, his face was changed. He was pale as death, and long lines of grief were etched in his face. I’d have expected him to be surrounded by flunkies, but he stood alone. His dark eyes, the mirror of my own, were lit with flame.
“You killed my son,” he said.
“You killed my husband,” I replied, my fingers curled at my sides. I had desired this from the moment Gabriel had fallen into the snow, his lifeblood running from his body.
“I curse the day that I met your mother, that I allowed myself to be seduced by her,” Azazel spat.
“Oh, fuck you,” I said. “You were no damned innocent.”
Nathaniel had warily come to his feet beside me and was slowly backing away. At least he had the sense not to get between us. Beezle had flown up to a branch high above and watched us with bright eyes.
“You will suffer like none other,” Azazel said, and he flew toward me.
I didn’t bother to banter with him. I blasted him with nightfire.
He knocked my spell away easily, like he was batting away a softball, and landed on the ground in front of me. I slashed out at him with the sword and he shot me with a bolt of lightning that knocked the sword from my hand.
“Now you can no longer use Lucifer’s shield,” Azazel said, and he grabbed me by the shoulders, lifting me from the ground.
His hands were covered in flame, and I screamed as the heat burned through my skin like I was being branded. I kicked Azazel in the ribs with all my strength and he squeezed harder. I could smell my own flesh cooking, and my baby beat its wings in distress.
Azazel’s eyes went wide and he dropped me to the ground. I knew he’d felt the presence of the baby. I didn’t wait for him to get over the shock. I shot him in the face with electricity, aiming for his eyes.
He screamed, covering his face with his hands, and stumbled backward toward the pit. I struggled to my feet, my shoulders still burning. I could feel Azazel’s spell working through the layers of muscle down to my bones.
I blasted him again, and he fell backward into the tunnel.
“Madeline!” Nathaniel cried, and he tossed me the sword.
I barely caught it with my crippled left hand as Azazel flew up out of the hole again. I pushed out my own wings and rose to meet him.
He conjured a blue sword from nightfire and met my strike with his own. He slashed at me furiously, his anger seeming greater than ever now that he knew I was carrying Gabriel’s baby.
It was strange. The angrier Azazel became, the calmer I felt. I knew from long experience that when I was angry, I made mistakes. And I didn’t want to make a mistake. I wanted to see Azazel staked by my sword.