Half of them were gone.

Panic bubbled in my throat and I fought it down as the wall of fire continued. I followed its path, knowing what I’d see.

Layla and Roth were now closed off, and it was just the three of us.

“Give up,” called Gabriel. “You’re not going to win. You lost the first day man sinned. It’s already too late. It’s always been too late.”

I hated it—hated it so much, because Gabriel...he might be right. I looked out, the ground choked with mist and smoke, and I could see a mass of demons coming forward. A practical army of them left, and it was just three of us.

Zayne landed beside me as a horrible, sinking realization hit me. I looked down at my dagger, stomach hollowing. I turned to him, my gaze searching out those beautiful blue eyes.

Zayne’s gaze dropped and then lifted back to mine. Understanding skittered across his face. “No.”

“I have to.” The back of my throat burned.

“No, Trin. Absolutely not—”

My eyes burned. “He can’t use me to open the portal, Zayne. He can’t. I have to end this and I can. If he can’t use me to open the portal—”

“I don’t give a fuck about the portal.” He shot forward, catching my wrists. “I will not allow you to do this.”

A crack started in my chest. “I don’t want to, but it’s the only way.”

“If we leave now—if we run—we aren’t going to win the second round,” Lucifer warned. “It’s either now or never. One way or another.”

“Shut up,” Zayne snapped, and I was surprised Lucifer said nothing in return. “Forget this. Forget all of this. We run. We keep running and hiding until the whole damn world falls apart.”

“Do you hear what you’re suggesting?” My eyes widened.

“I don’t care,” he swore. “I don’t care about any of this. All I care about is you.”

“You don’t mean that—”

“The Hell I don’t,” Zayne growled.

I twisted, not making it very far as Zayne held on to my wrists. My gaze collided with Lucifer’s once more, and the look on his face said it all. It had to be now. There would be no later. Gabriel would capture me. He’d kill Zayne. He’d kill Roth and Layla and anyone else who was still alive. I couldn’t let that happen.

“I love you, Zayne. I love you with every fiber of my being,” I said, and then nodded at Lucifer.

He charged forward, slamming into Zayne’s side as I pulled with all my strength, breaking his hold. Zayne and Lucifer hit the ground, and it was...

It was surreal, like an out-of-body experience. As if it wasn’t even me who stood there, right hand steady as Zayne shouted, as Lucifer held him down, turning his head to the side, away from where I stood in a gesture I wouldn’t have expected from Satan. I felt nothing as I lifted the dagger. Or maybe I was feeling everything and it was too much, overriding my senses. I lifted my eyes, not wanting to see nothing, but all I saw was gray smoke as I—

A trumpet blared, the sound sudden and loud, seeming to come from all around us. The ground and the very air around us rattled, throwing Lucifer to the side. Zayne popped to his feet, and in a second, his arms swept around me, clamping them to my sides, but I didn’t fight him as I stared up at the sky.

At stars.

33

“Someone is in trouble,” Lucifer sang from where he sat on the ground. “And it’s not meee.”

Zayne and I looked over at him as he threw his head back, laughing.

Gabriel flew into the air, appearing above the shifting horde of demons and angels. “No! No!” he shouted. “You have got to be kidding me.”

The trumpet sounded a third time, and I looked up again. The glimmers of bright lights in the sky were rapidly growing closer.

“Do you see this?” I breathed.

“I do.” Zayne held on to me tightly.

Stars fell out of the sky, one after another.

That’s what they looked like as they raced toward Earth. Dozens and dozens of them. Angels. Actual battle angels.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

Their wings were bright with grace and their weapons fiery, golden flames. The demons started to turn, to run, but it was too late as they swept through the horde between us and Gabriel.

“You have got to be kidding me!” shouted Gabriel once more, rising into the air. “Now? Now You decide to do something?”

“Someone is about to have a fit,” Zayne remarked.

Gabriel took out several trees.

“About to?” I asked.

A tree fell onto the roof of the house as the ground ahead was lit with heavenly glow.

“It’s not over,” Lucifer said. “Not yet.”

He was right.

“We need to move fast,” Lucifer continued. “I doubt the battle angels are going to hang around. Neither will Gabriel.”

The specks of bright light surrounding the angels were already disappearing, launching back into the sky.

“You ready to finish this?” Zayne dipped his head to mine. “The right way?”

“What I was going to do was the right way in that moment,” I stated, heart slamming against my ribs. “It’s not now.”

“We’ll talk about this later,” he promised, and I rolled my eyes. “I saw that.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“You rolled your eyes.” He let go of my arms.

“I did not.” I totally did.