Infinite by Erica Crouch

Author:Erica Crouch
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781927940389
Publisher: Patchwork Press
Published: 2015-06-16T05:00:00+00:00

Zepar, Raum, and Jeremy are no longer alone when we return. There are a few dozen other demons—new, rested soldiers ready for battle. There’s bloodlust in their smiles, excitement in their eyes. Zepar introduces me the moment we come into view, and I’m pleased to see some of the newcomers take a knee in my presence. Good. Then they know who’s in charge here.

There are also a few dead angels, and a handful of dead demons, by the tree Raum had perched in when we first arrived.

“Rebels?” I ask.

Raum shrugs. “Sure.”

Zepar rocks his head back and forth, considering. “Well, most of them definitely were. There were one or two we were unsure of. Better safe than sorry.”

Jeremy is clearing snow out of the way, exposing a circle of dead grass. He sits on it, sounding like he’s dropped onto shards of glass, and whispers to himself.

“Lilith said we get to kill some angels,” says one of the new demons.

“You get to kill traitors,” I clarify. “Angels, demons. Whoever comes up against you.”

The others grin.

Time passes slowly as the storm Proserpine predicted moves closer, rolling darkness across the sky like a premature midnight. More arrive, and soon, the plain is so full of black wings and armored bodies that I can’t make out everyone’s faces. They all blend into the crowd, an indistinct mob vibrating with barely contained violence. There are so many soldiers waiting for the order to go forward that I can’t count them all.

Now this is what an army looks like. We are so much more than a small group of untrained, hopeful rebels who think they’re doing the right thing. We are well-trained killers with an ravenous appetite for the blood of our enemies. These soldiers can tear through their revolution in an hour flat.

Seeing so many savage warriors milling about, clad in dark armor, comparing weapons with their neighbors and talking about the death they’re sure to bring, I’m reminded of the day we took down Heaven.

The golden gates of Heaven were locked—as if that could keep us out. Hell’s army made quick work of it, shoving their way through and finding every angel they could. Some, they slaughtered immediately. Others were tortured. Many angels, though, fled. Or they tried to. When they realized there was no way to stop the onslaught of demons—we kept spilling in for hours, black feathers and leathery wings staining their pure-white refuge—they tried to run and hide deeper in Heaven. They didn’t make it far.

Who was there to lead their army? Who was there to order them to fight back? It was chaos. Pure, utter, delightful mayhem.

Angels, left to their own devices, are cowards.

Jeremy has a ring of space around him. Even the newcomers realize they should keep their distance—the few who come closer are instantly put off by the way he twitches and shakes, how he quietly talks to himself and then yells a word or two before lapsing back into a stuttering silence. On the occasions I’m near enough to hear him, I catch a snippet of the conversation, I assume, he’s having with Lilith.

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