Iniquity (The Premonition, #5)(15)

Eerie whistling sounds from the sky surround Reed’s manor house. The wild calls come from all sides—in stereo; they carry with them a sickening lullaby that raises goose bumps on my arms. The sun is gone like an unwanted guest. Its absence makes my feet heavy with fear.

“Where’s my ring, Evie?” Xavier demands. His lips brush the shell of my ear. “Tell me quickly, and then slip back in and I’ll lead them away from you.”

I quake as I grab his hand, tugging it. I try to make him move with me back toward the barrier. “You’re not staying out here alone. I’ll protect you—”

But all at once, the freak show begins. The wicked black-winged shapes of reconno?tres, demon scouts from Sheol, pour out of the shadows of the clouds. Hundreds of them fly like migrating birds, following swirling wind patterns and shifting in geometric formations until they dive en masse. Black leathery wings puncture the air with moaning soughs that disturb the gravity of snowflakes. A group of these creatures break formation from the rest to circle Xavier and me; wings blur by with the reek of brimstone trailing them in a rancid haze.

Next to me Xavier rips from my grasp. Nearly obscured from my sight by black monsters, his wings are forced wide by sharp talons. The reconno?tres lift him into the air. He fights back with his spade-shaped blades, slicing limbs and wings from the ones in front of him. Yellow-colored pus blood spews out of them while shrill screams hurl from the reconno?tre’s ghoulish, taffy-puller mouths.





A dark flurry of reconno?tres snatch Xavier into mid-air. He kicks like a mule, sending a few of them tumbling away from him. As they go, they claw feathers from his wings that swirl in the air and compete with snowflakes for supremacy.

A slash to my ribcage makes me suck in my breath as a reconno?tre’s long, silvery talons dig under my skin. They’re not faceless like I had thought. The space above this one’s jagged mouth is covered with a dozen camouflaged eyes. Pools of black barely contrast against his skin as they blink at staggered intervals so that he never lacks a moment of sight. The scent of sulfur wafts from his gaping maw as he leans forward, presumably to eat me. His forked tongue hisses out as saliva drips from several rows of bared teeth. Suppressing the urge to scream, I hold up my hands, expelling bursts of light from them. Blood-curdling shrieks fly from him as overripe-tomato eyes pop and yellow blood mists the air. His skin runs like melted wax before he drops to the ground, writhing from pain.

“Evie,” Reed’s rough voice makes me glance his way. He uses his forearms to push against the magic keeping him protected. “LET. ME. OUT!” The ring on Reed’s hand begins to glow with blue fire; the center of which becomes a beacon. Light cuts through the film of magic in front of Reed, allowing him to plunge through the barrier. Seeing him emerge on my side of the wall, my mouth hangs open in shock.

At a run, Reed kicks into the air. Using the same kind of blades that Xavier has, he slices through reconno?tres, sending pieces of them to the ground. Smoke rises from the carnage he creates; severed limbs turn to ash, dirtying the pristine white of the new-fallen snow.

I concentrate, collecting energy from all around. It flows, filling me with the sizzle of electricity. When I release it, it punches holes in the black clouds. Light shines through to batter the same-sized holes in the flocks of flying Sheol scouts amassed beneath white-capped clouds. It kills all the demons it touches, turning them to ashes.

The golden glow of Russell’s clone rushes past me. It enters the body of a reconno?tre poised to cleave me in two with his moon-shaped blade. The black figure convulses in agony; beams of light burst from inside him before firecracker-like flames turn him to dust in a shimmer of sparks. Similar things are happening to the reconno?tres closest to us as hundreds of Russell’s brilliantly lit images render them to dust.

Following his lead, I go down on one knee, forcing clones from me. Hundreds of them branch out in gold-colored streams of light to kill my enemies. I almost smile as the harrowing, black creatures ignite around me, but when I stand, the sky changes again. A new wave of darkness settles over us, the holes in the clouds fill in. Cold wind shifts from it, blowing my hair away from my face. My eyes circle the area. Russell is guarding Anya, Zephyr is doing the same to Buns and Brownie, but they’re all still protected near the house. Claw marks bleed in Xavier’s skin, lending an air of authenticity to his homicidal expression while he mutilates reconno?tres with impunity. Reed is just in front of me, acting as my shield, but there are thousands of hellish scouts swarming in. We’re going to be overrun soon.

I try to bring more energy to me, but it retreats, shifting perceptibly to dance over my skin; it continues to draw away from me across the snow-covered lawn to the wooded area just beyond. There’s someone there, someone powerful enough to divert energy from me. There’s a scent, too, a mark left in the air, which at once seems so morbidly familiar that it makes me recoil from it in revulsion. All my instincts alert me to the presence just beyond the tree line—it’s someone who, if my heart can be believed, scares me to death.

Before I can react though, I hear a loud whoosh, like a gas stove being lit. A carpet of flames rolls out from the woods. The fire hits us in seconds, and because I expect fire to have intense heat, I’m confused that it’s not burning me. Instead, it’s like gale-force wind. Twisting bodies of reconno?tres blow like dead leaves in its current. The ground trembles as a shockwave rumbles outward, tearing up the frozen ground. It hits me with the force of a moving train, making me close my eyes. As it quiets, a familiar voice whispers in my mind, “I’ve missed you, Simone. You’re more achingly beautiful than ever. Perhaps I will let you live long enough to give me the child you stole from me that night.”