Shadow Kissed 03 - Shadowman

burden, as he was the one to give you the hammer in the first place.”
    â€œYou speak of murder.” Khan looked at Custo, who looked back, steady and sure.
    â€œThe devil that escaped Hell has already murdered nine people,” Ballard returned. “You should have told us you opened the gate.”
    Khan hadn’t opened it, but he wouldn’t inform the angels and give them another reason to harm Layla.
    War, then.
    He reached long for Shadow and found it plentiful in the break-of-dawn filter of trees. Always at the brink of change was Shadow, ready and available. He’d need it all to fight the angels. And if they died and lost their souls, he would not care. He could teach them evil and darkness the likes of which no devil could contemplate. If the angels harmed Layla, he would do just that.
    Ballard lifted a hand. “Hold a moment, before you strike us down.”
    A black mist rolled across the grass, hissing as it met the shins of the angels. Khan would drown them in it while Shadow strengthened him. No angel was as old and canny as Death. No angel, even of Valhalla, could defeat the Grim Reaper in battle. Without Layla, he would become all his names, marshal the fae and knock down all the walls, all gates.
    The angels stood fast, as was their nature.
    In the midst of the gathering darkness, Ballard cocked his head thoughtfully. “Do you know how rare it is that the same soul is permitted two lives in mortality?”
    Khan gave a fierce grin. His Kathleen, his Layla, could do anything she put her will to. That’s how magnificent she was. And these emissaries of Heaven wanted to kill her?
    â€œAnd to be reborn in a space of time so near to the last is . . . well, it’s nothing short of miraculous. As far as The Order knows, it’s never been done, and we maintain excellent records.”
    Shadow darkened Khan’s vision. He was filled with it, gorging in preparation.
    â€œWe believe she had to have a divine purpose in order to come back to Earth. She had to have some great work that only she could do to be permitted this second chance.”
    â€œLayla came back for her child. Our child.”
    Ballard frowned. “Over the millennia there have been countless mothers who have longed for their children with equal desperation. All of them had to wait. Kathleen, we believe, was no different in that regard.”
    Kathleen was different in every regard, but Khan’s attention was caught. “Then what?”
    â€œWe have no idea.” Ballard shrugged and smiled in spite of the darkness grasping up his legs, his imminent demise. “These are momentous times, and she was there, with you, when all things changed. So, while it would be prudent to take immediate action with the gate, we will wait and watch with great interest.”
    Khan stilled, the Shadow rippling with his surprise. “You will not harm her?”
    Ballard nodded. “Layla is on borrowed time already. I wish her Godspeed with whatever it is she’s supposed to do.”
    Never had Khan known an angel to lie, yet he was loath to believe this turnabout. But if Ballard spoke true, then for now, Layla was spared.
    She was spared.
    The Shadow on the earth thinned.
    â€œThere remains, however, the problem of the gate and the escaped devil. The Order has some small hope that you, as the creator, can dismantle it without harming Layla. At the very least, we’d like you to try in the event she should suddenly pass and the world be left with a gate to Hell and a devil run amuck.”
    Khan could not leave her, not with such precious little time they had left together, not with a devil headed to Segue, and Layla’s life in the balance. Not with the wraiths and wights bearing down. Not now that he’d known the lost, abandoned child she’d been. “No.”
    Ballard’s jaw flexed at the refusal. “You misunderstand me,” he said. “We are running out of options. We want to give Layla the time she needs, but we will act on our own if we must. In either case, the gate to Hell cannot remain on Earth.”
    Again that conviction pouring out of them. Shadow still seethed across the winter frigid Earth, but they paid it no mind. They were all ready to die.
    â€œPlease try,” Custo said. “I do not like the alternative.”
    â€œAs ever, you are a murderer,” Khan cut back.
    â€œShadowman!” It was a new voice, Talia’s.
    Khan bent