Chapter 118

DEATH OF AN ANGEL

Jack was more powerful than Faultless expected. Having shed its human skin, the creature seemed to have grown stronger and more confident. And when it gripped Faultless from behind, its talons tearing into Charlie’s throat, he thought he’d been lied to by Lew. Just like Jack said.

They wheeled around in the darkening sky. Down below, London crumbled.

He can kill me, thought Faultless, trying to pry the claws away from his throat. And if he does, what happens then?

Faultless flexed his wings, flapping them violently in an effort to dislodge Jack.

As they swooped and flailed, Faultless glimpsed the people a mile beneath him, desperately trying to flee the falling city. The earth opened, and hundreds fell into the chasm. Buildings fell and crushed hundreds more. Others drowned as the Thames overflowed.

For a moment, he wondered what he was fighting for.

Is it worth it? Can’t I just let him kill me?

But then his mind filled with Tash, with his mother, with Rachel, with Jasmine, with Hanbury.

Again he felt nothing for them, but something in the far distance of his mind was calling out to remind him what they had meant to him.

Remember, the voice was calling, remember your heart . . .

A surge of energy raced through Faultless. He grasped Jack’s wrists, and with a yell of rage, prized them apart. The skin of his throat came away too, but it didn’t affect him.

What was skin when you were an angel?

He yanked his adversary over his head and flung him through the air. Jack sailed through the clouds, sparks flying off his body.

Faultless flapped his wings, guiding himself in Jack’s direction.

He speared himself towards the other, rage contorting his face.

As he dived, hawk-like, Faultless saw that his adversary was regaining his balance by using his cape. And then he faced the oncoming Charlie, beckoning him.

“Come on, brother,” he growled. “See if you can better me. See if our father lied to you.”

Faultless hesitated.

It was enough time for Jack to act. He stretched out his arms, and his cape spread out. The faces that seemed to live in the folds came alive again. Before, they had been masks of pain. But now, suddenly, the expressions had changed.

The faces snarled with hatred.

Dozens of them embedded in the cape.

Faultless tried to pull out of his lunge, but it was too late.

They spooled from Jack’s cape, hate-fuelled faces attached to the bodies of serpents. They shot towards Faultless, jaws wide to display sharp teeth. Their black eyes glistened, their nostrils flared. And from their throats came shrieks of fury.

Faultless reared up, his wings flapping wildly as he readjusted his flight.

But the first demon struck him, its teeth sinking into his chest. Faultless yelled out and bashed at the fiend’s head, but then another smashed into him, latching on to Charlie’s arm. More came in, swooping, taking quick bites at him and retreating or sinking their teeth into him and holding on. He howled with rage, striking out at the demons, slicing at them with his wings.

Laughter filled the sky.

A few yards away, Jack hovered. The serpents were still attached to his cape. He pointed at Faultless and said, “After they’ve finished with you, I’ll have them spit you out—what’s left, that is.”

Faultless fought for his life. He managed to dislodge one of the demons and decapitate it with his wing. The others loosened their grip on him, as if they’d felt the dead serpent’s pain. Even Jack faltered.

And then Faultless swooped. His huge wings powered him at a tremendous speed, making him nothing but a blur to anyone who was looking up at that moment.

With the demons still attached to him, he zoomed in a circle around the Jack-thing. Faultless looped around his adversary, winding the serpents around him.

Jack shouted, “No . . . no . . . stop . . . ”

But Faultless flew furiously. His wings battered the air. The biting demons tore at his skin. But as they tightened around their master’s body, their grip on Faultless slackened.

Soon, Jack was wrapped in his cape and coiled in the serpents. They were knotted together around him and shrieked with panic. They whipped about, trying to escape. Jack screamed at them as he was dragged around. Sparks flew from the coiling mass of flesh formed by him and his demons.

“Let me live, brother,” he squealed. “Let me live, and we’ll share this world between us . . . let me live . . . ”

Faultless said, “No,” and went in for the kill.