Iniquity (The Premonition, #5)(29)
I feel Emil everywhere in the air, a thorn in my side in a very literal way. I groan and grasp my side below my ribs as if I’ve been stabbed—or hooked. An invisible force yanks me forward. My feet slide across the floor, the tips of my toes curl under as I’m dragged. Xavier latches onto my waist from behind and tries to hold me back, but he lets go of me when it becomes apparent he’ll snap me in two if he doesn’t. I stop only when I’m pressed to the half-open window.
A lone figure is in the yard below. Strawberry-blond hair lifts in wisps in the crisp wind. His blue eyes engage mine, and he smiles a wicked grin. A heavy, gray coat that reminds me of the officer’s dress uniform he owned a century ago covers his broad shoulders. Beneath his collar a dark, soft scarf is tied in a meticulously elegant knot; it brushes against his smooth cheek. The lines of matte buttons on either side of the wool coat are impossibly straight.
Emil smiles, his lazy eyes hood with pleasure. I exhale in a rush. He could be his own great, great grandson; he looks so much like his old self. Swiftly, he elevates off the frozen ground, not by the use of wings, but by an invisible force of power that I’ve only ever seen Brennus accomplish—or clones. It takes him just a moment to be inches from me, studying me like a scientist studies a germ under a microscope.
“Simone,” he murmurs. The muffled resonance of his voice filters through the glass. The tone is so familiar. He causes a shiver of revulsion to run down my spine.
“Emil,” I snarl, my lips taking the shape of hatred, “I’m not your Simone anymore!” I don’t see anything but him, and as for feeling, there’s nothing inside of me but pure, unmitigated rage. Punching my hand through the glass that separates us, I clutch a broken shard of it in my fist. Thrusting it forward, I use it to stab him in the neck.
A gush of red spurts from Emil’s throat as the glass in my hand tears his flesh away. It feels like a knife cutting through watermelon rind as I drive it upward into his gaping mouth. Blood oozes from him. His eyes widen in shock, causing a grim smile to stretch my lips. It only lasts an instant before I’m ripped through the windowpane by Emil’s power. Twinkling, broken pieces of glass shred my cheeks like razorblades.
I tumble through the air under Emil’s power, smashing into a tree in the yard. Branches and bark cut into me before the trunk gives way and topples over. Instead of falling with it, Emil reels me back towards him as if I’m a fish caught on an invisible hook. Levitating in the air, he forces me to the space above the street. Opening his mouth wide, he pries the shard of glass out from beneath his tongue and tosses it aside. Spitting blood, he snarls and casts his arm back, the invisible hook inside me cuts deeper and I cry out in pain.
My wings spiral and beat in an attempt to break free of his magic. His arm casts again and I lurch to the side, slamming into an oak tree. The trunk splinters, sheering in half as wood and snow explode into the air. Teetering, the top of the tree falls over, smashing the parked car beneath it. The car’s alarm goes off, shrill and deafening. Hovering above it, my hands go to my head, trying to hold it so that I’ll somehow stop seeing double. Emil takes exception to the noise from the alarm. He magically lifts the car up off the street and tosses it into the Sansbury’s’ living room. The noise abruptly ends as the car catches fire and explodes, blowing the roof off their house.
That’s when I notice the rooftops lining the street. They’re covered with angels—fallen angels. Dark wings spread wide as every hierarchal type of fallen angel watches me struggle to break free from Emil. The door of my house opens. Divine angels pour into the yard with their wings outstretched in the golden glow of a waning sun. Xavier bursts forth from the window from which I was dragged. All the Fallen take flight, attacking him like vultures do a corpse. The divine Powers are quick to move into the fray, skewering Fallen to protect their Seraphim commander.
My heart feels like it’s about to separate from my chest. I raise my hand throwing a white-hot beam of light at the Fallen who are nearest to Xavier. Orange flames and smoke curl the white feathers of the archangel on Xavier’s back, turning them black. He cries out in agony as his flesh melts from him. My magical light lasers through the hatchet-wielding fallen Power about to cleave Xavier in two.
I lose my focus on them when Emil cracks an invisible whip of magic and embeds a second searing hook into my other side. I scream in pain, before gritting my teeth and focusing on the evil bastard once more. My hand wraps around his invisible energy as I try to yank it from me without success.
Emil shakes his head, acting as if he’s concerned about me as I writhe in pain. “Now look what you’ve made me do. We’ve made a mess and I only wanted to reunite with you. I’ve missed you, Simone,” he says with red spittle coming from his mouth. “I’ve missed hurting you. You shouldn’t have run from me. You know how I hate to have to come and find you.”
“Inconvenient?” I ask with a pant of pain, hoping the look in my eyes kills him. “How’s this?” I growl. Pulling energy to me, I focus it all into a pulse of light that flows out of my hand. Intending to fry him with it, he merely lifts his palm, deflecting the intense heat of my magic, redirecting it into the Martindale’s’ two-story colonial. The house explodes into flames, melting a gaping hole in the aluminum siding.
“Simone, did you just try to murder me?” Emil smirks. “And here I thought you’d be happy to see me.”