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“There,” said Hekata, her voice shrill against the wind. “We are close, now.”
I relayed the message to Missolis, who looked like she was faring a little better than the rest of the rebels at her back. Many of the demons we were bringing with us couldn’t fly and were being carried by those who could. That set-up had been manageable in Hell, where muscle fatigue wasn’t a problem. But it was a problem now—and a big one, too.
These demons were exhausted.
We couldn’t get to Helena soon enough.
“I think I see it,” said Missolis, pointing at a spot of light beyond the pyramids, away from any city lights and roads. It was a shimmering bubble in a sea of darkness, and even from this distance, Missolis was straining to look at it directly.
I nodded. “Remember what we talked about,” I said to her.
Missolis nodded. “I will. And my demons will behave.”
“I know. Come on.”
I dove towards the light, which by now I could tell was clearly a source of true Light. In fact, as I neared it, I started to pick out figures standing near the bubble. There were angels, at least six of them, Light bouncing off their armored rose-tinted pauldrons, chest plates, and weapons.
Dammit, Micah.
I had asked him to make sure there weren’t any weapons present, but he had clearly been overruled by Azrael, who stood at the front of the group of assembled angels. She was difficult to miss with her dark hair and her glowing sword of pure Light. I asked Hekata to stay behind me as I swooped closer to the ground, aiming to land directly ahead of Azrael and the rest of the angels.
Behind her was the portal Micah had built for us. It was a dome of semi-circular Light that danced, and sparkled, and shimmered. Inside the Light I saw Helena—a familiar courtyard of stone, and vines, and flowers. It was still day over on the other side of the portal, and the sunlight only served to intensify the colors coming through from the other side.
Such vibrant green, and rose red, and blue.
It felt like home… until Azrael demanded I take no further steps toward her. She had her sword in her hand, but she wasn’t holding it in a threatening manner.
Still, I raised my hands. “It’s me, Azrael,” I said.
“I know who you are,” she said after a pause. Her voice was sharp, and curt, and though she looked every bit how I remembered her, there was something different about her. There weren’t any scars on her face or any marks that I could see, but there was a kind of tiredness to the Warrior’s eyes that was hard to miss.
One by one, and then very quickly, the demons I had brought with me all this way began to land behind me. Azrael and her angels watched them all, eyes rapidly darting from side to side. The angels were stoic, though, and while they too had weapons drawn none of them raised them against the demons.
This was a show of force, a warning maybe.
At least I hoped that was all it was.
I swallowed hard. “If you’re here, then you’ve spoken to Micah?”
“Micah waits on the other side of the portal,” she said.
I couldn’t see him, but I knew he was there. He had to be. “Are you going to let us through?”
Azrael’s gaze lowered, and she tightened her gauntleted grip on her sword. “You convinced Micah, but I am not so easily swayed. I wanted to see this army of demons for myself.”
“This isn’t an army. We’re refugees.”
“Which is it, then? You convinced Micah that this army was going to help us drive back Lucifer and his sycophants. Now you claim it is not an army, that you are refugees. All I see are demons.”
“Well, hello to you too,” said Hekata.
I turned to look at her and urged her to stop talking with my eyes. “Azrael,” I said, “you don’t know what we’ve been through. You don’t know what I’ve been through. I know you don’t trust them, you probably don’t trust me, either. But I’m begging you. Let us through, give us shelter at Helena, and I promise you they will fight against Lucifer.”
“I don’t buy it. Demons rebelling against their master? Impossible.”
Hekata spat on the sandy dirt. “Lucifer is not my master,” she snapped. “I have no master, angel.”
Azrael didn’t look the least bit pleased with that outburst. She looked ready to raise her sword and bar our entry, but Missolis intervened, coming up between Hekata and me and placing a hand on my shoulder.
