“Are you all Italian?”

“No.” She shook her head. “Some are Spanish, German, French… They took girls travelling alone, mostly.” She clutched Estelle’s hand. “We have nowhere to go, and no money, although,” she glanced at her bag, “I still have my bank cards.”

“I will find you money. Lots of it. You’ll have to look after each other, but I swear that I will help. How long have you been here?”

“A few months, I think. I’ve lost track. Others have been here longer. They took our phones from us.”

Estelle gave Chiara her own key and phone, after entering the directions to their rented villa. “Head here. It’s about half an hour away. It’s safe, and no one else is there. We will return there soon, and I promise to help you. Now, follow me.”

In a few more minutes she had led them up the stairs as Nibal had directed, using magic to open locks, until finally they reached the garage. The half a dozen women squashed into one large four-wheel drive, the stronger women rallying the younger ones along. Estelle opened up the gate and leaned in through the window to Chaira again. “I’ll be with you soon.”

“Will you call the police? I don’t think we can face that.”

“We’ll dispense our own justice, don’t worry about that. Tell me, though…did these men hurt you?” She listed the names of Ozan and his friends.

Chiara shook her head. “It was mainly Jiri, Mikal, Karim, and Pirro. Nibal wasn’t lying. He was kind. So was Ozan.” Her eyes filled with tears. “No one crossed Jiri.”

Estelle nodded, her resolve strengthening as she watched them leave, the car lights disappearing as they rounded a bend, and then turned back to the house. Now, she would unleash her vengeance.

Shadow rose from her crouched stance as the flying debris from the bomb settled, and cocked another arrow as a weird, hushed silence fell.

She spotted Gabe lying sprawled on the floor, half covered by the door that had been blown off its hinges. Another man had been blasted out of the room, too, and lay in a muddled heap. Dorian was at her side, still dazed, but she was clear-headed. She edged forward, seeing Gabe move beneath the rubble, and motioned to Dorian. “Move the door and help him up. Who’s that behind him?”

“Karim.” His voice was scarcely a whisper.

There was still no sign of Jiri, and keeping her bow aimed and steady, she kept moving forward. Karim groaned and sat up, his groan becoming a growl as he saw Shadow. She had a clear head shot, and she didn’t hesitate. Her arrow pierced his forehead, killing him instantly, and he fell backwards.

Still no Jiri. She stepped around Gabe as Dorian dragged the rubble and door off him. The doorway was only feet away now, although less door and more hole. The room smouldered behind it and flames danced in patches, but where there had once been a wall was now a big, gaping hole to the outside, and Jiri was nowhere in sight.

Shadow ran to the gap in the masonry, scanning the area. A figure lay spawled on the ground, one arm at a strange angle. Jiri. But he was still alive, and he sat up, glaring at Shadow. She shot a volley of arrows, but it was already too late. Jiri was glowing with an incandescent white light, and his wings were unfurling behind him.

She couldn’t stop him. He had already summoned Belial’s power. She grabbed JD’s weapon instead and fired.

Maggie had very little idea of what was going on, other than that things were about to get serious.

The level of worry and nervousness had escalated as the group in Hermes’s lab watched and attempted to help JD’s preparations. Now, it seemed, he was ready.

“Right,” he declared, clapping his hands. “Time to play.”

“I’d hardly call this play!” she remonstrated. “We might all die!”

“Hush woman, you nagging old rump-fed runion, it’s all in hand. Back behind the obsidian line now. Well back.”

It seemed JD had decided to use his choicest Elizabethan swear words on her. She found it quite endearing. “Screw you, you jumped up knave with a badger’s arse.”

“Nice retort, madam.” He winked at her. “You may leave if you’re worried, but I assure you that you will miss a treat.”

“I’m not going anywhere!”

He flapped his arms at all of them. “Back!”

Harlan, Jackson, Zee, and Eli retreated with her to the back of the room. Nahum and Olivia had been banished to the garden, well away from the lab. Olivia had been worried about the effect on her baby, understandably, and so had Nahum. JD had fiddled with geometric grids, and adjusted his instruments that he hauled in from his old lab with their help, and now the place hummed with power, including that of Belial’s jewels, of course.

They were heaped in the centre of the grid, and their strange energy had been temporarily dulled by a forcefield of JD’s own design. Nevertheless, with hands clamped over their ears and the dark goggles on, they huddled at the back of the room. It was madness to stay, really, and they all knew it, but neither could any of them drag themselves away. Once her glasses were firmly in place, Maggie saw another three fields rippling between them and Belial’s jewels. JD had retreated behind the second one.

His back was to them now as he held his controls, and he held one hand up, counting down from three with his fingers. With a terrifying display of light and noise, his alchemical weapons fired their beams at the jewels. The pressure built in the room, and Maggie’s hair stood on end, even on her head. So did the others’, their hair floating in a nimbus around them before settling again. The hum of power was still discernible despite the fact that they had their ears covered, and it wavered in volume, like musical pitches.

Then a boom rattled across the room.

They all staggered and jostled together, keeping each other upright. And then another boom resounded, and a rainbow wave of light flashed from the far end of the lab so brightly that Maggie closed her eyes and ducked her head. The pressure continued to build as her hair once again lifted off her skin. She felt breathless, terrified, and somehow exalted… As if in the presence of something great.

Exalted?

She lifted her head, blinking against the light, and saw an enormous figure almost as white as the light surrounding it, wrestling as if trying to break free. Wings caught in rainbow hues, and Maggie gripped Harlan’s arm. He too lifted his head.

“Holy shit,” she gasped out. “Is that a fucking angel?”

Eli was on her other side and leaned close, arms around her shoulder in a protective gesture. “Not just any angel.” She glanced at him, but his eyes were fixed on Belial. “He doesn’t want to let go.”

“It’s just like with Olivia,” Maggie said, “although, that battle lasted for far less time.”

JD fiddled with his controls as he staggered back. The play of light changed, and this time it was like the Northern Lights again, as a ripple of vivid green flashed across the room.

The writhing figure, wings outstretched, emitted a keening note of despair that Maggie knew she had felt more than heard, and then there was another enormous boom. The shockwave it released pulsed across the space, slamming through one protective wall after another, until with a dying ripple, it washed up against the obsidian shield and faded.

She closed her eyes tightly, and when she opened them again, Belial had vanished.

As the light dimmed, and the pressure decreased, Maggie tried to see JD. Where was he? Was he dead? Unconscious? Pulverised into dust?

She blinked with surprise as her focus returned. JD was none of those things. He was dancing a mad jig, kicking up his heels and crowing like a cockerel as he cavorted around.

“Well,” Harlan drawled, “I guess it’s a success.”

But Maggie couldn’t celebrate yet. “Has it worked on the other jewels, though?”

Lucien had turned into a super-soldier, confounding the fighting Nephilim, and that had worked to his advantage. With the addition of JD’s weapons and the bomb blast, the fight quickly became uneven.

When the bomb exploded, Pirro had been thrown off his feet, and Barak had leapt on him. Lucien aimed at the men with guns. Both had been thrown across the room by the blast, but one still gripped his weapon. Lucien shot him before he could recover. The other man scrambled for it, but Jabril was already on him. Another Nephilim fought Habib, while Ash took on three of them all at once. Lucien ran to help him, shooting one with his alchemical weapon, battering the other with his Nephilim shield. Samir was also fighting his brothers, and it was ugly and brutal.

Lucien glanced over to Pirro, and with horror saw him stab Barak in the abdomen. He fell to the floor, hand pressed to his wound as blood poured from it. Pirro ignored him and started to glow with the incandescent light of angels that Lucien had been warned about. It summoned everyone’s attention, and they all fell back.

Pirro roared with pleasure as his wings unfurled and his sword filled with light. “Now you will feel Belial’s might!”

Ash grabbed Lucien, pulling him back as the two fighting teams disengaged. This is it, Lucien thought. I am going to die at the hand of a Fallen Angel and his mad disciple.

He didn’t even think to use JD’s weapon, watching instead with admiration and terror. His breath caught in his chest. Ash fortunately kept his head and shot at Pirro instead, but now that Pirro was drawing on Belial’s power, the weapon had little effect.

And then something weird happened. The light faded, and Pirro’s face turned from a mask of victory to one of confusion. “Belial!” he roared, face upturned to the sky. He looked down at Barak, incensed with rage, sword flashing as he slashed wildly at him. “This is your fault!”