Ash groaned. “That’s my face. Ow!”
“I think I’ve dislocated my butt,” Gabe said. “Is that even possible?”
“Sorry, Ash! Shadow, you bloody superstar! You’ve done it.” Nahum brushed debris from his eyes and opened them slightly, but he could barely see anything. Dust filled the air, and he started coughing. “Are you okay? Why are you so quiet?”
“I think you should move. Quickly.”
“What the fuck have you done?” Niel bellowed.
“The roof is cracking, and so is the floor.”
As if to emphasise her point, an ominous shudder shook the entire room.
Niel grabbed the stone door frame as the floor buckled beneath him. He was only just in time.
With an enormous crack, a chunk of rock dropped out of the ceiling and shattered the slabbed floor as it crashed through it. A section of the floor tilted precariously.
Niel flung out his other hand and grabbed Ash on his right. “I’ve got the door! Hold tight!”
In seconds his brothers had all gripped each other, forming a chain, but Gabe was the furthest from the door and was sliding towards the gaping hole as Nahum clung to him. A chunk of slab had upended, and Gabe braced himself against it as Niel gripped the frame with increasing desperation.
“I’m okay!” Gabe yelled. “For now. Shadow! Where are you?”
“Over here, trying to help Niel.” She was flat on her belly, half in the corridor, arms wrapped around Niel in an awkward embrace as she tried to help, her legs braced against the frame. “The passage seems unaffected—so far, at least.”
“Well, that’s something, I guess,” Niel complained, as her head wedged under his armpit to get a better grip.
“Can anyone extend their wings?” Ash asked, his voice strained. “I have no room.”
“Me neither,” Nahum said. “Where’s Amato?”
Niel grunted as he twisted to see across the room through the settling dust. “I think he’s under a pile of rubble. Yep, I can see his leg. At least the floor’s stopped moving.” He was trying to reassure himself more than anything. Although he was strong, he was carrying most of the weight of his brothers, with only Shadow and the slab Gabe was wedged against helping him. If he lost his grip now, Shadow would not be able to stop him from sliding.
“I might be able to open my wings,” Gabe said, tentatively bracing himself more carefully. “I can’t see into the hole, though. I don’t know how deep it is. It might only be a couple of feet down.”
“Or it could open into a cavern system, and we’re screwed,” Ash suggested. “But I guess we might be able to fly then.”
“Bear with me.” Gabe twisted again, testing his weight against the slab, and digging the fingers of his free hand into the cracks around him.
Niel took stock of the room as the dust cleared. It was a wreck. The altar and Belial’s statue were covered in debris, and both were tilting precariously. The hole in the roof where the seal had been revealed a solid mass of earth and rock that could come tumbling down at any moment. They had to get out of here. He tentatively tested his strength, pulling against the door frame, but he barely moved an inch.
Gabe adjusted himself once more. “I’m going to open my wings really slowly.”
It seemed that everyone held their breath as Gabe’s wings carefully unfurled, catching chunks of stone as they did so. He slid for the briefest movement and then stabilised again, and finally they were fully extended. Niel felt the weight he was supporting ease. But they all knew the next step would be the hardest. The room was barely large enough to encompass his wingspan, and for him to fly he needed to move his wings.
Niel braced himself again, renewing his grip on the door frame and feeling Shadow tighten her grip around his chest.
Then everything shifted. Suddenly, Gabe was airborne, his wings filling the room, and the turbulence sent whirls of dust around again. Niel hauled himself upwards as the weight of his brothers reduced. Shadow squirmed backwards, helping to drag him to the passage.
It was impossible for Gabe to lift either of his brothers, and as Ash and Nahum started to inch backwards too, Nahum asked, “Can you see what’s below us, Gabe?”
“There’s a narrow seam in the bedrock, and it goes down a good way, from what I can see. It looks like the part you’re on is solid. The weight of the falling seal must have broken through a weakened section. I think you’re right, Ash. It’s some kind of cave. Or it might even lead into old sewers or something.”
Niel resisted looking at him, focussing instead on dragging them backwards, and with relief he cleared the door frame with his shoulders. In a few more minutes, they had wriggled clear and were wedged into the passage, covered in sweat and debris.
“That was too close,” Nahum said, breathing heavily. “Gabe, is it worth trying to get down there? Could there be anything related to Belial?”
Gabe shook his head. “Unlikely. I don’t trust the roof not to collapse further, either. But I want Amato, if he’s still alive.” He carefully landed on the more stable part of the floor and removed debris from the man’s prone form. “Bollocks. He’s dead.”
“Is there anything we can salvage?” Shadow asked. “Anything on his body? Or can you get the remaining jewellery?”
He didn’t answer as he patted the corpse down. “Just his knife. If the box is full, it’s pointless for me to take the rest of the jewels.”
“We can’t just leave them here!” Nahum protested. “Others must come down here. Maybe more of Belial’s disciples.”
But the second the words came out of his mouth, the statue started to topple.
“Gabe! Move!” Shadow cried out.
Gabe had mere seconds to leap out of the way and take to the air when the statue crashed to the ground, taking another chunk of the floor away. With an ominous crack, the rock beneath them split again and the huge, winged angel plummeted into the gaping hole, Amato’s body tumbling in after it.
“Time to go!” Gabe yelled, angling towards the door as everyone made room for him to land.
Without a backward glance, they all fled from the destroyed shrine, and Niel could swear he felt the ghost of Belial’s presence pursue them.
Three
“Two months,” Jackson said, “and scarcely any leads.”
