Sweet Reckoning (The Sweet Trilogy #3)(88)
“Father”—my voice trembled with emotion—“let your will be done—”
Pharzuph charged for me, a complete madman with glowing red eyes and gelled hair flying out of place. Kaidan’s knife arm went up, but before he could release, my father took Pharzuph down to the ground, crushing his windpipe and holding him there. Kaidan went to one knee next to them.
“It’s too late, Father. This is your opportunity to make amends. Please consider it.”
“I will not grovel at His feet!” Pharzuph choked out.
My heart hurt to see Kaidan’s hope for his father, which was sure to be shattered.
Kaidan looked up at me, pained but resolute, and nodded for me to continue.
“I pray forgiveness for the souls who once betrayed you and have reconciled. Return them to their rightful home, and let those spirits who still harbor hatred be returned to hell—”
The room filled with terrifying shrieks that made me flinch down into a crouch and hold the blade higher. An overpowering warmth and lightness spread over me. The room, which had been so dark, was brightening.
“It’s working!” Kaidan said. “Keep going!”
Kobal broke from the mob and rushed toward me with his teeth bared in fury. Blake and Kopano grabbed him, and Marek stood over him with a gun pointed to his face.
I prayed louder now, and as the words left my mouth I felt a sense of . . . magic. I didn’t know how else to explain it—as if I’d called upon something ancient and mystifying. There was going to be a reckoning here tonight, both sweet and terrible.
My voice shook with emotion as I spoke loudly. “Please, banish all the demons from earth!”
And then something else began shaking. The ground.
At the very last second, I knew there was one more element essential to my task—one more prayerful request that had nothing to do with the prophecy. I spoke faster as the earth rumbled ominously.
“I ask with all my heart that the demon stains be washed from the souls of all Nephilim, both here on earth, and those who came before us. Please allow us a chance at redemption.”
A furious gurgle came from the earth, and the room tilted, throwing us all off our feet. The sword flew from my hand, immediately extinguishing its glowing blade. It rolled and bounced into a giant crack in the floor, where the earth was opening. Leather chairs and tables were thrown around the room. The dark-winged angels were torn unwillingly from their places in the air, and from their human bodies, shrieking and flailing, being spiraled downward into the gaping hole. We watched as Pharzuph’s soul was pulled by invisible arms out of his handsome young body and sucked down with the others. Kaidan stared at the hole where his father disappeared.
An army of heaven’s angels flew in from all sides now, beautiful and magnificent, and the remaining dark angels moved, making space. A huge white cloud of vapor descended on the bright room, causing us to shield our eyes. Peace, whole and beautiful, settled over me, and the purest kind of love filled my heart.
It is well, I heard whispered in my ear as I crouched on the tilted floor.
I turned to my father next to me. He motioned toward the other dark souls as they transformed from black to gray to gleaming snow, ascending lightly above us. My dad and I looked one last time at each other.
“You did good, baby girl.” It was time for him to go. I squeezed him around the neck. He gave me a grateful smile as he let me go, and then his spirit rose from the body of Big Rotty. His shining soul flew above me, wings flapping.
“Good-bye,” I whispered to him. But I couldn’t be too sad, because I knew I’d see him again, and he was going to be with Mariantha. All the things that were so crazy on earth would shed away and cease to matter.
The angel army led the way up, and the newly brightened souls followed, rising through the ceiling to their long-lost home. Kaidan grabbed me in a tight hug. As we looked at each other, I felt a strange tug within me.
From our chests, where our badges appeared, dark smoke was expelled, dissipating into the air. We gasped to see each other’s badges change to bursts of white.
And then a rushing of air made us turn to the opening in the earth. Souls of redeemed fallen angels and Nephilim from the underworld were flying upward by the thousands. We watched their ascent with pure amazement.
The building gave an ominous creak all around us, followed by a vicious quaking. Dust and dirt billowed up throughout the room.
“We have to get out of here!” Kaidan yelled.
Surrounding Neph grabbed hands and pulled one another up. We all ran as fast as we could, hurdling bodies on the ground, jumping over furniture and mounds of uprooted earth. Zania fell as the tremors under us increased, but Kaidan and Kopano pulled her up, and we ran to the back alley stairway, where we pushed through the heavy metal doors and sprinted upward, out into the Nevada summer night.
CHAPTER THIRTY
NEW LIFE
In the aftermath of Las Vegas’s worst earthquake in recent history, humanity showed its best. The streets were crowded with people. In the midst of the mayhem, complete strangers were helping and comforting one another. Miraculously, only thirteen people were killed in the quake—an eclectic group from around the world, eleven men and two women, all in the Lunar Room of the Galaxy Nightclub, which sat directly above the fault line. Rumors flew about the scandal of Big Rotty and his “faked death” followed by his real one.