Chortling with glee, Cain forced the Apostle’s arm back and swung her sword.
The blade slashed across Gabriel’s chest and abdomen, spewing blood into the air in long strings as he collapsed back against the console.
Screaming in rage at Cain’s control, the Apostle fought to break free. She cared little for Gabriel’s life. It was the violation of having her own body taken from her that she hated. Reaching out with her free hand, Cain clenched a handful of the fallen man’s shirt. Yanking Gabriel up, he drove the Apostle’s blade through his belly and whatever breath he had left in him came out in a slow wheeze as he collapsed against her.
In a frenzy, Cain used the Apostle’s leg to kick Gabriel off of her blade and lifted him up by a fist around his throat. His eyes darted around lazily, and the Apostle could tell that he knew he was dying as he fought to breathe.
Cain forced the Apostle’s blade up, letting the point hover above the bridge of Gabriel’s nose. Relishing in his victory, Cain held the pose, so that Gabriel saw and understood just what his fate would be.
Gabriel’s eyes shifted to the Apostle’s face and narrowed in defiance. He was a brave man to look his own death in the face and glare back defiantly.
Howling with laughter at the look, Cain seemed to caper around in the Apostle’s mind like a lunatic, leaving her frozen in place.
Gabriel winked at her. The Apostle had no idea what it was supposed to mean.
He was seconds from death, yet he winked at her as if conspiring over a childish prank.
With a heave that seemed to be the very last of his strength, Gabriel lifted his right hand. Somehow he’d managed to keep his grip on his pistol. Surprise washed through the Apostle as the barrel knocked her blade aside, and jammed into her left eye.
The chamber revolved as he pulled the trigger, but no explosion of pain came from the bullet tearing through her skull. The click of a misfire filled the air.
As Cain came to himself and began to shove the tip of her blade toward Gabriel’s throat, the Apostle sighed inwardly with relief. Though he was near death, Gabriel still fought. She had to admire his stubbornness if nothing else, but she would just as soon not have that gun go off in her face.
Another click sounded through the air as the cylinder of the revolver turned, and another bullet refused to fire.
As Cain drove the Apostle’s blade toward Gabriel’s throat, the trigger was pulled one last time.
At first the Apostle wasn’t quite sure what happened. There was a loud noise, and half of he world ceased to be. Her head was knocked backward so severely that she thought her neck would break as something slammed into the top of her eye socket.
Warm wetness poured down her face and her grip on Gabriel loosened. The third bullet had fired, and her left eye had been blown right out of her metal skull.
When the shock of the moment passed, the pain hit her. Sharp and hot, like
molten metal pouring into her eye, it jabbed deeply into her skull and she threw back her head, shrieking. Only once had she felt more pain than this.
Growing stronger and sharper with every beat of her heart, the pain forced Cain to flee from the Apostle’s mind, no matter his resolve to remain despite it. Stumbling backward, she clutched both hands to her ruined eye. Blood poured through her fingers and the pain seemed to wash all thought away. She screamed again, and again, trying, without success, to shake the pain off, or will it to lessen. The vision in her remaining eye began to waver as unbidden tears welled up in it.
Falling back against the console bonelessly and then to the catwalk, Gabriel lay bleeding, still clutching his pistol. Rage took over and the Apostle stormed forward, holding one hand to her empty, bleeding eye socket, and retrieving her sword with the other. While there was still life in his body he would see and know that he had been completely defeated.
Kicking Gabriel sharply in the ribs, the Apostle turned him onto his back so he could watch. Stepping to the console, she raised the sword above her head, and paused so he would know and understand what she was about to do.
*****
The Apostle shrieked like a banshee as Gabriel fell against the console, and then to the catwalk. He couldn’t feel his legs or the wound in his belly. He thought she might have severed his spine when she ran him through. His body shook with blood loss and shock, and everything seemed very far away.
He felt the impact of the Apostle’s foot in his ribs as she rolled him over and raised her sword over her head to smash the console.
He’d been right. The pain of losing an eye had broken her master’s control over her. Of course she’d probably want to kill him herself now for having half-blinded her.
Pity the bullet hadn’t punched through her skull and killed her too. He’d thought it strange that she cut her arm before running for the Gate, but then he’d put it together with the things she’d said. She’d cut herself to free herself from her master’s grip for just long enough to escape, but Gabriel had ruined it by closing the Gate and Cain had taken her again when the wound miraculously healed seconds later.
None of that seemed very important now. His pain, his thoughts, and his body
felt distant as he watched and wondered why, exactly, the Northern Sage had sent him to fight a being so much stronger and more resilient than himself. It didn’t make any sense.
He obviously hadn’t had what it takes to beat her, so why send him at all? He’d obviously grown as a person, and maybe even started on the path to redemption, even if he’d put more than a few feet wrong on the way. But was that the only reason he’d been sent? To have a change of heart and realize the wrongs of his life?
No. The Northern Sage had sent him for a reason, and he had failed. Now he was dying for the second time, and he would never see Sam again.
It’s strange what realizations can come to a man when he’s minutes away from
death. Gabriel had a sudden moment of mental clarity, and the clouds in his vision seemed to part as he focused on the Apostle. He’d been sent to this time and this place for a reason. He hadn’t been sent to fight the Apostle. He was a mere human, and she was something else entirely above his class. How could he have ever been stupid enough to think that he could win?
He hadn’t been sent to fight. He’d been sent because he had an unequaled skill with words. If he could convince a jury that Satan himself was innocent, he could damn well talk the Apostle into pressing that button! That was the reason he was here. That was the reason he had been chosen.
*****
A sharp pain jolted the Apostle’s spine as something tugged on her tail.
Looking down, she saw that Gabriel had a handful of her fur. She tried to shake him free by lashing her tail, but he wouldn’t let go.
“Listen to me,” he wheezed, blood bubbling from his mouth and nose.
“You dare touch me,” the Apostle shrieked in rage. “Take your filthy hand off of me!”
“I don’t have much time. Please. It’s my last request before I die. After I say what I need to say, you can do whatever you want, but listen to me for just one minute.”
The Apostle was not sure what made her lower her sword. Perhaps it was the
look in his eyes, or the tone in his voice. Before she knew it, her sword arm was hanging at her side.
Showing bloody teeth, Gabriel smiled. “If you destroy this place it will cause something called a paradox that will devour all of space and time. It won’t just destroy things in the future. Things in the past will also cease to exist.”
“So what,” the Apostle growled. It felt like someone had jabbed a red-hot poker into her eye and was busy twisting it for all he was worth.