20
Outside, above the ceiling of the shining dome, the sound of flapping, leathery wings was mixed with the shrieks and whoops of the demons that had crossed over from the Void. They flew overhead, invisible in the darkness.
"We're going to have to make a run for it!" Diego yelled to the Nephilim. "Stay in tight formation! Archers stay sharp!" Alec and Simon nocked arrows to bowstrings in unison with four crossbow-wielding Centurions and nodded their readiness.
The knot of just over forty Shadowhunters broke from the cover of the golden bubble and rushed out into the snowy darkness. Clary led the team down the path that ran along a ridge and bypassed the valley where the wards were anchored. Dozens of witchlights came to life, and their shaky light bounced across the trampled-down crusty snow as the Nephilim ran easily.
Claws descended from above, and Alec was the first to shoot. His runed arrow went straight through the demon at such a close range and lodged itself deep in a second creature above. Both screamed and dissolved in midair even as more of the monsters plummeted down into the group.
Sharp, elongated beaks stabbed at the Shadowhunters as grasping claws strained to reach past the sudden blaze of seraph blades and assorted weapons. Bowstrings hummed, bringing down a handful of the creatures before they crashed into the Centurions holding the rear of the line.
Blades slashed out in the circle of witchlight and pieces of the demons flopped lifelessly to the ground, their black ichor staining the purity of the snow.
Marcos Monteverde screamed as the needle-sharp beak of one of the flying monsters speared through the joint of his left shoulder, and his sister spun fluidly to decapitate the demon. The other creatures flapped madly to spiral back up into the concealing darkness to circle, regroup, and launch a second attack.
"Keep moving!" Diego hollered over the cacophony of demon shrieks.
Not even a hundred yards later, the flying beasts swooped down on the group again, hitting them hard on three sides this time. Blue and pink flares signalled where Magnus and Seraphine were striking back from the centre of the group, and sweat beaded on Max's forehead as he worked to spread a degree of protection over the Nephilim. Claws skittered over a glossy, dark blue shield for a few extra moments before breaking through to the Shadowhunters, buying them precious seconds to find their targets.
Trapped somewhere near the front of the formation, Rayce couldn't properly bring his staff to bear. He whipped it off his back and split it into its two halves just in time to parry a shiny, black beak that slashed at his head. The electrum and adamas sheared through the bone cleanly, and he spun anxiously, eyes searching the air above him for more of the creatures.
Nearby, he saw the woman who had taken him down in the Consul's office on his first trip to Alicante. Pale witchlight reflected off three white scars that marred one side of her face, showing clearly as she grimaced and shoved the weight of one of the demons back and then stabbed it through one glittering black eye with her seraph blade. Its clawed wing jerked up and ripped at the side of her neck just as it started to vanish, and she screamed as new gashes opened from her ear down to her collarbone.
We're being torn apart! Rayce ducked as another demon dive-bombed toward him. He shifted outside the group and slashed at the unprotected backs of two of the monsters locked onto one unfortunate Clave Shadowhunter.
The demons lifted away again into the night, and this time, there were three Nephilim down in the snow. Their comrades scooped them up without hesitation as the group continued to retreat, following a now-limping Clary.
With demon blood spattered across the front of his distinctive gear, Diego called up to the front of the line, "How much farther?"
"Nearly half a mile," Clary gasped, pushing herself to run faster despite the line of fire burning across her right thigh from where a demon had managed to claw her.
Rayce's heart sank as he melded his staff back into a single piece once more. We won't make it. He looked up again, his split-coloured eyes dark with worry. Unless... He made the decision in an instant, drawing the horn of the Hunt from within his cloak and lifting it to his lips with a prayer.
A long, baying note echoed across the ice and rock, and a few of the Shadowhunters stumbled in confusion until they caught sight of Rayce in the witchlight, his white hair shining in the night as he summoned the Faerie warriors to the fight. His fiery-maned mount materialized at his side and he swung himself up into the saddle for what he hoped was the last time.
All around him, Hunters were coalescing as the horn called them back into the Mortal world from deep Faerie. Rayce took in the dark looks on their faces and hardened his voice, standing up in his stirrups and brandishing his double-bladed staff over his head. "Turn your blades on any demon that draws breath upon this island tonight. I command you to fight back against the creatures of the Void and to protect the Nephilim and their allies. No half-measures or delays – unleash the full savagery of the Hunt on the demons!"
Wild howls lifted from the throats of his Hunters as they drew their weapons. Rayce had no idea how much time had passed in the Eternal Forest since he had left, but the Faeries seemed even more bloodthirsty than before. Skeletal horses, hissing serpents, and many more unrecognizable mounts charged upward into the night at the urging of their masters, and the Hunt collided with the demons in a deadly clash.
The part of Rayce that was tied to the Hunt wanted to join them, wanted to rip and slash and tear at the monsters until there was nothing left, but he felt Sera's hand on his leg and it brought him back to the present. He banished his steed and slipped his hand into hers gratefully as the group started running again.
No more dark shapes dropped out of the sky, and the Nephilim were able to reach the ritual site unhindered as screams both Fey and demonic in origin cut through the night above them.
"Get going," Alec puffed at Rayce and Sera before he turned back to listen to Diego's commands.
Seraphine slid down the last dip toward the area of cleared rock and slowed as she approached it, her tail twitching nervously as she reached the edge of the ellipse of demon glyphs. Sera felt the same nauseating thickness in the air that was created by the conflicting runes of the site. She shivered as salty spray crashed over the western edge of the island and sent a freezing mist over the farthest circle of adamas runes.
On the ridge behind them, a new bloom of bright light was blossoming outward as Magnus wove a protective dome over the area to blunt any demon attacks. The air lost some of its bite and the wind quieted. The brightness revealed the silhouettes of the Nephilim as they spread out to cover the perimeter, some of them scrambling up to the high-ground provided by the pile of rubble that had lain across the site for centuries.
"That's our cue, darlings," Seraphine called bravely. She reached out her hand to Rayce. "Start here, if you please. Sera, get over to your circle."
Rayce swallowed and he felt his heart rate speed up. The black runes seemed to absorb the light of Magnus' shield, and it was hard not to notice the contrast with the adamas runes that Sera had stepped into to wait for him. They shone with purity. He felt the familiar ache in his chest when he looked at Sera in the golden light across the site, and she caught his eyes with her own.
'Have faith,' she mouthed, touching her heart.
A smile crept across his face unbidden and he turned the staff in his left hand to slice across the meat of his right thumb. He barely felt the sting as blood welled up and dripped down onto the ellipse.
"That's valuable stuff! Don't waste it!" Seraphine chided him, and he knelt down quickly to trace over the first rune at his feet. The glyph glowed like embers in a fire pit when he finished, and Seraphine's gasp of wonder was all he needed to keep going. His blood ran into the sigils and was sucked up greedily as it stoked the ellipse back to life.
Seraphine's lilting English accent vanished as she began chanting in a low voice that dripped with poison, every syllable laced with ancient power as she slowly called upon the runes when he awakened them. He crawled from one glyph to the next, squeezing his thumb sickeningly to keep the blood flowing. When nearly three-quarters of the runes were reactivated, he started to see brilliant silver stars across his vision and he felt a wave of dizziness. He leaned back on his heels and fumbled in his boot for the stele Sera had left for him.
Rayce pressed the tip to the inside of his left forearm awkwardly with his injured hand and sketched a quick blood replenishment rune. The stele burned as it dragged across his flesh, but the rune curved outward and took shape, black lines stark against his pale skin. He felt Seraphine nudge him meaningfully with her toe without breaking the cadence of her chant, and he hunched back over the demonic runes.
When the last rune was traced over in his blood, all of the markings flared deep red like the belly of a volcano, and Rayce quickly rolled away from the ellipse. Seraphine stood inside, her arms raised over her head as she brought her recitation to a crescendo, her dark cap of curls streaming back from her face in a wind that existed only within the circle she controlled. She clapped her hands together with a thunderous crack and a final exclamation in whatever demonic language she was using to bend the ellipse to her will, and the runes pulsed in time with her heartbeat. Ecstasy played across her features for a moment before her brows furrowed in concentration and she shot a pointed look at Rayce that plainly said, 'What are you waiting for?'
High above the demon city of Pandemonium in the Oculus chamber, Lilith screamed and clutched at her chest as the last rune of the ellipse strangling the Mortal realm's wards was reactivated and the circle was complete once more. Asmodeus, enraptured by the large-scale assault playing out across the face of the Oculus, spared a glance for her as she fell to her knees in shock.
"Impossible," she panted, her chest heaving with disbelief. She made a slashing motion at the viewing portal, interrupting Asmodeus' scrying to replace it with an image of the ritual site where she had damaged Heaven's protection a thousand years before with Sammael at her side.
Asmodeus made an angry noise in his throat and whirled on her, but her black eyes were riveted on the scene before her. A warlock stood inside the throbbing ring of glyphs with her arms raised and power flooding through her small frame. A familiar boy was crawling across the bare bedrock toward a girl with blazing gold eyes. Lilith recognized both of them; she had spied on them in her owl form in Idris after they had spent a very entertaining night together.
"What is this?" Asmodeus scoffed at her. "Still obsessed with the Nephilim, Lilith?"
She gritted her teeth. "Stop... them." The boy... the son of her son. Blood of her blood. But Sammael... she forced the Oculus to bring the boy into focus as the girl helped him to his feet inside a ring of adamas runes. Slightly-pointed ears showed through his white hair, betraying his Fey ancestry, and she screeched in pure rage as she pieced his heritage together.
"Kill them!" She screamed at Asmodeus as hissing black vipers poured from her eye sockets. "They're trying to seal the wards!"
Sera watched in awe as her tiny warlock friend seized command of the demonic ellipse once Rayce's gory task was complete. It looked like something out of a nightmare; the bedrock around her had cracked and split until the scarlet glyphs flaring across the scorched stone made it seem as if she were standing on a lava field. The fiery glow reflected off Sera's golden eyes as she stared in amazement.
Rayce crawled across the adamas glyphs at her feet and she pulled him up with one hand as she laced the fingers of her left into his right to press an iratze to the gash across his thumb. He smiled gratefully and leaned his forehead against hers with his eyes closed for a moment before turning back to see if Seraphine would succeed.
"Hell's maw," Sera whispered unconsciously as the ground rumbled under their feet in protest against the incredible amount of power now funnelling through the twisted circle.
They could see Seraphine's mouth moving as she directed the flow of magic, her small hands weaving expertly, and her eyes fixed unwaveringly at one of the runes near her feet where Rayce had first spilled his blood. Sera and Rayce followed her gaze and forgot how to breathe as the glyph suddenly vanished in an oily, black cloud that was sucked into the wind whipping around Seraphine's body. A smooth, unmarred piece of stone now interrupted the unnatural ellipse.
"Raziel..." Rayce breathed. "She's doing it."
Sera looked up at him fierce excitement in her eyes. "Now it's my turn." She drew out one of the cold iron blades that Zeke had given her before their journey to the Unseelie Court. Kneeling down next to the first of the adamas runes, she experience another wave of the same feeling that had washed over her the last time she had come, that sense of almost understanding the markings.
She sliced down her thumb without hesitation and traced the rune in a shaking line. Red seeped into the adamas, and as she completed the first symbol, the blood that had filled in the grooves flashed to molten gold and solidified. Her breath caught in her throat at the transformation. Rayce gripped her shoulder reassuringly, lending her his strength.
I really hope you're up there, Ithuriel, she prayed silently. The rest of the runes transformed under her blood as she continued around the small circle. Across the site, Seraphine had managed to clear another of the demonic sigils, and was showing no sign of stopping.
When the circle was complete, Sera rose to her feet to watch the golden glyphs spark to life and send their light shooting upward, spearing through the darkness and up into the clouds above. The brightness enfolded Rayce where he was standing with his hands resting lightly on Sera's waist, both of them staring up through the blazing shaft in rapt wonder. Impossibly far above them, a glimmer of the most achingly sweet joy winked down at the Mortal realm.
"Heaven's gate," Rayce sighed blissfully.
Without warning, black and violet lightning crackled across the night sky with a deafening boom of thunder. A swirling Portal coated in a glossy black sheen ripped the fabric of the night just outside Magnus' protective barrier, and dozens of Shadowhunters whirled to face the threat. Above them, the Wild Hunt continued their deadly aerial ballet with the sharp-beaked monsters.
Sleek, blue-black furred demons pounced through the gateway like great cats, landing lightly on six massive paws each before springing forward in great leaps to attack the Nephilim ranks. Deadly tentacles waved menacingly from above their front shoulders and lashed out with stunning speed to catch the first Shadowhunters unprepared. One of the Buenos Aires fighters caught the barbed end of one tentacle across his face, and when the suckers were ripped away an instant later, his face went with them. Hissing viciously with their ears laid back, the creatures stalked forward even as one more figure emerged from the Portal.
Standing nearly nine feet tall on the Mortal plane, Asmodeus stepped through from the demon city of Pandemonium clad in his immaculate white-enamelled armour. His helm was ornamented with a crown of barbed wire that glinted in the light pouring from the ritual site. Silver flies dotted the vambrance plates over his forearms. Through the open face of his helm, he smiled delightedly, baring his pointed teeth when his cat-slitted eyes fell on his son.
"You always were my favourite, even when you annoyed me," Asmodeus called to Magnus over the snarling of his personal guard. He turned his head to look at the diminutive warlock standing inside the cracked ring of burning runes. "But perhaps I should have given your sister more credit!"
Rocked into stunned disbelief, Magnus allowed the shimmering protection inside the rim to flicker for a moment before snapping it back into place.
"Shall we end this now?" The demon unsheathed the Hell-forged blade at his side with one hand and closed the visor of his helm with the other.
The six-legged feline creatures launched themselves forward into a volley of crossbow bolts that shot straight through them without any apparent effect. One arrow pinged off Asmodeus' shining helm and he whipped his head around to see the dark-haired leader of the Nephilim standing tall on the rubble that had once covered the site, already notching a second arrow.
His angel-touched partner stood next to him with a seraph blade blazing in his hand.
"Hey, ugly!" Jace shouted, laughing maniacally. "Looking for us?"
A second arrow flew straight and true and wedged itself into the slit of Asmodeus' visor, dangerously close to penetrating the demon-wrought armour. Inside his helm, he snarled wordlessly and turned away from his son. Magnus couldn't go anywhere without dropping the protection around the site; the warlock would be right where he left him when he returned after dealing with these... children.
The subway tunnels below New York City echoed with screams and snarls as Downworlders clashed with demons in a bloody free-for-all. The body of a werewolf went sailing across the tracks to slam into a tiled wall, leaving deep cracks and a smear of dark red fur.
Lily Chen hissed at a Moloch demon that was charging toward her, and then reached out with blinding speed to seize its head and twist sharply. She strained for a moment, flexing with inhuman strength to completely tear the monster's head from its body. She neatly dodged the splash of demon blood that spurted out before the body folded back in on itself and took its head with it back to whatever realm it called home.
Behind her, a werewolf crunched down hard on a Drevak demon and narrowly avoided becoming a pincushion when the deadly spines shot forward. All around the unusual pairing of vampire and werewolf, demons were dissolving under a savage flurry of teeth and claws. They were harder to kill without the runes of the Nephilim... but tear them into enough pieces and they die like everything else, Lily mused to herself.
She threw a pointed look at the werewolf at her side. "I can't believe you woke me up for this, Maia."
The wolf's lips curled up into what might have been intended as a smile and a deep chuffing sound in the back of its throat was probably supposed to be a laugh.
As the dust from shattered columns began to settle, a cheerful 1920s ragtime tune rang out and the inner pocket of Lily's neat, dark suit jacket started to buzz. She drew out her cellphone with one manicured hand and lifted it to her ear.
"Hello?" A pause. "Mmhmm. Yeah. We know. Yes, seriously." She idly examined the nail of the fourth finger on her left hand while she listened and noticed that it had broken slightly, leaving a rough jag that was guaranteed to snag on an expensive part of her wardrobe. Pity. "The Lightwoods warned us about this last week. The Praetorians have been doing double patrols this whole time, and my regrettable alliance has forced most of the New York clan into doing the same. Where have you been?"
Maia gave a low growl, and two groups of three wolves each split away from the group, racing in opposite directions down the tracks to scout for more demons.
"We're way ahead of you, Nephilim," Lily sighed. "Look, we just cleaned out the area around the York Street station. As if it wasn't already hard enough to get around during rush hour in this city, now the people have to deal with demons and buskers."
Howls from the southern end of the tunnel signalled where Maia's scouts had found more demons, and she rolled her big yellow eyes at Lily to tell her to wrap it up.
The vampire delicately bit the offending jag off her damaged nail. Good enough for now. "We'll handle things down here until sundown. You keep things under control up there, unless you can spare some bodies to give us a hand. We'll use the tunnels to get around." She ended the call and pocketed her phone.
"The Shadowhunters say this is for real, just like the Lightwoods said." The leader of the New York vampires tucked a stray strand of dark hair behind her ear. "They're using the phrase 'global event'," she said, making air quotes with her fingers. "Very dramatic, as usual."
Maia made the same, strange laugh in the back of her throat again and then pushed herself back up to all fours, trotting forward to follow the sounds of her pack with Lily at her heels.
All over the world, in every time zone, demons crossed through gateways drawn in the blood of their brethren on the weakest points of the world's wards. Hundreds had sacrificed their lives so that thousands upon thousands more could pour through.
Warlocks who had cast their own nets of protection or wardings around their cities were alerted immediately, and were able to quickly raise others to defend their cities. The son of Magnus Bane had been quite clear with his instructions, and none of them had been willing to cross the famous warlock. Easier to cast the spells and have them amount to nothing than to be revealed as having ignored the warning later.
Children of the Night answered the call reluctantly, but came like shadows to descend on demons when screams of terror rose. In other cities, great wolves streaked along streets in full daylight, heedless of being seen by the occasional Mundane with the Sight. They threw themselves into the underground mezzanines to hunt down the monsters that threatened their territories.
Much of Downworld had been united as messages had spread from one nest to the next, from one pack to another, multiplying the warnings given by the strange brothers, Rafael and Max, and carried by word of mouth into hundreds of ears far beyond their original reach. Downworlders had always been far more interconnected than the Nephilim who held themselves aloof from the rest, and now they seemed better prepared than the Children of the Angel answer this new threat.
Still, dozens of Institutes had been running on high alert since listening to Simon or Isabelle Lightwood, and they had held fast to their loyalty to Alec. Their response was swift and deadly, and Shadowhunters stood ready, shoulder-to-shoulder with Downworlders in many cases, to fight back.
But there was a limit to how much could be done, and many more countries were caught unaware and unprepared for the chaos that poured out of circles drawn in black ichor. Demons tore into Mortals unchallenged and revelled in the glory of fear-drenched shrieks. They ran unchecked across the cities to reap a rich harvest of helpless Mundanes with no help in sight.
Diego spun the handles of his seraph blades in either hand as he crouched down low to face off against one of the cat-like demons that had come through with Asmodeus. The weapons spun in tight circles and then he gripped them comfortably, ready to strike. The roughly tiger-sized creature hissed, opening its mouth wide to show serrated teeth. Its tentacles hovered over its shoulders warily for a moment before they slashed forward at the Executor.
He raised his left blade to parry the attack and shot forward to counter with his right, but he met no resistance with his weapon. Instead, he felt double hammer-blows in his left side and chest as invisible appendages slammed into him. Barbed suckers dug into his gear and then he was sent spinning off balance as they were torn away, along with diamond-shaped pieces of his distinctive jacket.
Diego rolled through the snow, the ice sending flashes of cold through the new rents in his gear. What just happened? The demon circled on its six massive paws, and the tentacles lifted high once more before smashing back down toward him.
The Centurion threw himself out of the way desperately, and was rewarded with a twin-clubbing from the dangerous suckers again nearly five feet away, and two more pieces of the tough gear were ripped out of his thigh and back. He sprang up immediately and lunged aside blindly to avoid a massive swipe from the demon's front paws.
An arrow thudded into the creature's flank and Diego's head whipped around for its source.
Simon was already sighting down the shaft of a second arrow, aiming at a spot roughly six feet to Diego's left. It streaked through the air, hopelessly wide of the mark, and the Executor cursed under his breath until he heard a roar of pain and saw another arrow quivering in the demon's haunches.
"Displacer beasts!" Simon yelled from the position he was holding near the top of the rubble pile now that Jace and Alec had vanished with Asmodeus in pursuit.
Diego dived backwards on a whim and skidded into a drift of snow, narrowly avoiding another attack. The demon snarled and flattened its ears back against its skull. "What the hell does that mean?"
"How have none of you guys read the Monster Manual by now?" The former Dungeon Master shouted back down as he nocked a third shot and sighted several feet away from his target again. "Watch the footprints in the snow!"
Suppressing every swear word he knew in four languages, Executor Rosales took the advice of a former Mundane and bounded forward with both seraph blades driving toward the centre of six heavy indents in the snow.
The shining weapons plunged into an invisible body and the displacer beast's image to his right threw its head back to scream in agony. Encouraged, Diego ripped the blades sideways through what he hoped was the demon's body and then felt his weapons tear free. The monster dissipated into smoke as it was banished back to its world.
I will never hear the end of this.
Sera watched in horror as the Greater Demon stepped out of an inky black Portal that had opened, and she heard Alec's voice in her mind again, 'Sera's talking about opening paths between Heaven and Hell, and we're all that's going to be standing there to guard it! If we die, and those circles are open, what then?'
She lifted her hand to cover her mouth. This is all my fault. A smear of blood from the slice across her thumb painted her lips red and left a salty taste in her mouth.
Rayce pulled his gaze away from where the cat-demons were charging forward and the Greater Demon had gone after Jace and Alec. He cupped Sera's face in his palm and turned her away from the battle, too.
"We have to do it now, Sera," he said gently. "It's the only way to help them."
Her lips parted slightly and she squeezed her eyes shut. "I'm afraid," she whispered.
Rayce lifted her other hand, the one that still held the iron blade, and wrapped his fingers around hers tenderly. He carefully rested the tip against his bare chest and brushed his thumb across her cheek. "I'm not," he lied.
He leaned forward slightly, mindful of the blade between them, and kissed her softly. The warmth of her lips sent a thrill through his body and a slight sigh escaped him. If this isn't Heaven, I don't know what is.
"Do it," he breathed.
Another burning scarlet rune in the demonic ellipse vanished as Sera opened her golden eyes to look into Rayce's split-coloured gaze one more time.
"I'm so sorry."
Sera pushed the blade into his chest and let go of the hilt as if she could undo what she had done. Rayce gasped as the tip pierced one of his lungs and his eyes widened in shock. He tried to take a breath through the intense burning, and doubled over instead, falling to his knees inside the circle of flaring golden runes.
Rayce coughed in a spasm of agony and then choked on the blood that filled his mouth. His hands shook as he fought the natural instinct that was screaming at him to pull the blade out, and instead he seized Sera's hands in his own.
Her face had gone white, and her eyes were huge as her own breathing raced ahead of her heart beat as she knelt in front of him. I did this. It felt like her heart was going to jackhammer out of her chest. What if I was wrong? Lady Luck had lost before...
A sharp snick clicked in the space between them, and Sera gasped when Rayce leaned back slightly so that she could see that the clasp of the cloak had sprung open as its magic sensed its master's imminent death.
Sera tilted her head back to look straight up the shaft of golden light in which they were enclosed and took a deep breath, praying that someone was listening.
Help me!