Lost Cause by Z.J. Cannon

Author:Z.J. Cannon [Cannon, Z.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Z.J. Cannon
Published: 2022-07-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

Juliana screamed as she fell. She landed with a growl of pain. I stopped at the end of the staircase and peered down.

Juliana was in the center of the angel trap, crouched on one knee, axe raised. The room glowed with that faint orange light that seem to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. The door, the one Vek had used when she had first shown me the place, was closed. But I knew Vek and her demons were just behind it, and the hostages too. The demons wouldn’t have wanted to take them too far away and risk Juliana losing the scent.

The fall must have been at least thirty feet, probably more. Juliana shook it off like it was nothing as she pushed herself to her feet. Her visor glinted orange. She looked up at the ceiling. I pulled back and hoped she hadn’t caught a glimpse of me.

She switched the axe to one hand and pressed the other up against the wall, tracing the glyphs with her fingers. I saw her tense up as she recognized them for what they were. She couldn’t speak the language of Hell the way I could, but during her Inquisition career, she’d come into contact with enough demonic magic to know it when she saw it.

She walked in a slow circle, the fingers of her free hand brushing the marble wall. When she reached the seam of the door—not as expertly hidden as the one in the statue—she stopped.

“I know you’re out there,” she thundered. “Come out and face me!” Her voice was doubled—her low growl, overlaid with Joan’s higher tones.

She stepped back and watched the door. Nothing happened.

With a roar, she swung the axe high and brought it down hard. With her strength behind it, the blow was strong enough to send a jolt through the marble that I felt from all the way up on the stairs. But the door didn’t budge.

A two-tone hum started up below me, in a harmony that set my teeth on edge. All the little hairs on the backs of my arms stood on end.

The symbols on the door lit up orange. The glow traveled in a spiral up the wall until every symbol was alight.

The door slid aside with a deep groan. But the symbols carved there didn’t move with it. They hung in the air where the door had been, traced in ghostly orange light.

Vek stood on the other side of the door. She was wearing her human form. Her scarred lips twisted in a smile of cold triumph. The demons—and their hostages—were nowhere to be seen.

“Looks like I’ve caught myself a big one,” she said, in a voice I hadn’t heard from her since our days in Hell. I’d forgotten how much she used to enjoy the thrill of the hunt.

“Vekaniel,” Juliana growled. “You might as well drop the human disguise. I know it’s you under there.”

“After how hard I worked to get this form back?” Vek shook her head. “You almost cost me the chance to be human.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.