He didn’t know what he thought was going to happen this time, but he wasn’t exactly thinking clearly. He just acted on instinct.
As expected, when he hit the barrier, the blue light of Empyrean magic traveled over his body, and it felt like he’d been struck by lightning. It threw him back into the center of the sigil, his wings crumpling beneath him. He hauled himself to his feet, dazed, head pounding from the aftershock.
Just as he shook it to clear his vision, he saw Raphael body slam Sunshine, dropping to the floor this time. She was crushed beneath his weight, his wings spread to smother her, but still she didn’t let go. The sight was enough to make Raum lose his mind.
And maybe he did, because next thing he knew, he was charging the sigil barrier again. And this time, when he hit it and the light traveled over his body, he didn’t let it throw him back. Instead, he braced his hands in front of him andpushed.
Electric shocks traveled down his arms in waves. Again and again, the magic rolled over him, until it felt like he was melting from the inside out. He felt wetness in his eyes, nose, and ears and knew it was blood. His brain was probably liquifying inside his skull. He kept pushing anyway.
And then he actually felt a give in the barrier.
It flexed beneath his hands, bending outward. He pushed harder, squeezing his eyes shut, though the piercing light seemed to burn right through them. Everything was bright light. White-hot agony was the only sensation in his body.
The barrier bent outward further, and then he finally felt it start to tear. He knew he was shouting, but the sound didn’t seem to carry anywhere. There was a roaring in his ears so loud it obliterated all else. The pain started to steal his consciousness, and blackness crept in at the edges of his awareness.
And then the sigil actually broke.
He flew through and hit the ground, his wings splayed out, leaving black feathers strewn across the concrete. He lay there for a second, aware only of the pain throbbing in every cell of his body, unable to remember what he was doing or why.
A scream echoed distantly at the edge of his mind.Sunshine.
He turned his head, and there she was. She was still clinging to Raphael, while he continued his savage efforts to dislodge her, having climbed to his feet to slam her into the wall again and again.
Raphael’s wings were spread, and between each forceful collision, he would reach overhead to pummel Sunshine with thick fists. She’d formed her wings too, in a futile attempt to cushion her back against the wall that was now cracked from her body’s impact. Her face was streaked with blood, her features contorted with pain.
Raum rolled over. Sat up. His body throbbed and weakness wanted to suck him down to oblivion, but he didn’t have time for that shit right now. He lurched to his feet, the room spinning like a carousel from Hell.
In his peripherals, he saw Eva still trapped in her own sigil. He couldn’t hear her words—had his eardrums ruptured?—but he could tell she was shouting encouragement. She was shouting at him to get up. To get the hell up and go fight. He focused on the imagined sound and took a step forward.
His leg almost crumpled, but he locked his knee and managed to stay upright. He didn’t care that he had no strength—he’d happily use the rest of it to take out Raphael—but if wanted to be sure it was an effective attack, he was going to need a weapon. He would have shifted into his demon form, but he was pretty sure the effort would knock him unconscious.
His blurry, blood-clouded vision landed on Raphael’s discarded sword.
Raphael’sconsecratedsword.
He didn’t think. There wasn’t time for thinking, and if he had, he would likely have remembered the last time he’d touched a consecrated weapon and how much it sucked.
Before they’d become frenemies, Eva’s Grigori father had thrown a consecrated blade with startling accuracy straight into Meph’s chest. Raum had yanked on the thing until his hands melted off, and he hadn’t been able to pull it out. Jacqui, Eva’s mom, had shown up and done it instead.
He was well acquainted with the damage consecrated weapons could do to demons, but there wasn’t time to care now. Stumbling over to the sword, he bent and wrapped both hands around the heavy weapon, lifting it high.
Immediately, his skin up to his forearms burst into flame.
Fucking goddamn fucking shit—
The pain was excruciating. Mind-numbing. He had seconds until his burning hands lost their grasping ability and forced him to drop the sword.
With single-pointed focus, he charged the archangel. If he could have run him clean through with the blade, he would have, but he couldn’t risk stabbing Sunshine. So he aimed low. At the knees, since Sunshine’s legs were around Raphael’s hips and safely out of the way.
He swept the sword down in an arc, throwing all his weight into it, shouting with exertion and at the flames burning his hands off. The sword connected with the side of Raphael’s left knee…
And took his lower leg clean off.
Damn, it was sharp.
Raphael bellowed an unholy roar, and his remaining leg folded under him. Blood poured from the grisly stump. Raum had one good swing left of the weapon before his hands were equally stumpy.
He waited a split second longer than he perhaps should have, but it was worth it because the perfect moment presented itself. Raphael landed on his side, Sunshine falling away from him, though she never released the chain around his throat.
