Black Lament Read Free Page A

face under a haze of red.
    I felt him struggle, try to push me off, but his arms were locked tight against the side of his body. He should have been able to move me. He was an angel, and I was only a half-blood. But I had a strength I’d never had before, a strength fueled by rage and betrayal.
    My hands closed around his throat, squeezing tight. I pushed at the fragile accordion of his trachea, wanting to crush it to a pulp, wanting to kill him once and for all.
    “Maddy!” Beezle shouted, but his voice sounded far away.
    “Maddy, you’re going to kill him!”
    “Yes,” I whispered, and when I looked at Nathaniel’s purpling face I saw Azazel’s malicious grin as he pushed his sword into Gabriel’s heart.
    Nathaniel bucked hard, trying to throw me off again, his eyes wide and desperate.
    Another pair of hands covered mine, peeled my fingers off Nathaniel’s throat with unnatural strength.
    “No!” I said, clawing at Nathaniel’s neck, drawing blood, trying to renew my grip.
    Those same arms surrounded me, pulled me from Nathaniel, carried me backward as I kicked and screamed like a madwoman.
    “Samiel, no!” I shouted. “Put me down! Let me be!”
    I felt Samiel shaking his head behind me. His arms tightened. Beezle fluttered in front of me. Nathaniel coughed, gasping for air.
    “Maddy, you have to calm down,” Beezle said.
    “I will not calm down!” I screamed. “I want him dead!”
    “He didn’t kill Gabriel,” Beezle said. “He’s not Azazel.”
    “No,” I spat. “He’s Azazel’s lackey. He sold people’s memories to vampires. He sold children’s memories. He knew Azazel was planning to rebel against Lucifer. And he tried to kill me the last time we saw him; do you remember?”
    “He’s a cockroach, I agree. But if you kill him like this, you’ll never forgive yourself,” he said.
    “I’ve killed plenty before,” I said bitterly.
    Ramuell. Baraqiel. Amarantha.
    “To defend yourself, or someone else,” Beezle said. “Not like this. You’re not a cold-blooded murderer.”
    I thought of Azazel again, and said, “Yes, I am.”
    I could—I would —kill Azazel without a shred of pity or remorse.
    Nathaniel got to his feet, rubbing his throat. The sight of him made me furious all over again.
    “You’d better run,” I said, struggling against Samiel’s grip. “Because when I get down I’m going to finish what I started.”
    “I will not run,” he said. “I came to speak with you.”
    “I’m not sure this is the best time,” Beezle said to Nathaniel. “She seems a little… unreasonable right now.”
    “Don’t talk about me like I’m not here,” I said. “I’m not a child.”
    “Then cease behaving like one,” Nathaniel said.
    I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re not doing yourself any favors here, pal. What did you come here for?”
    “I told you, to speak with you.”
    His calm demeanor was making me angrier, which hardly seemed possible. There was a well of rage inside me that I had barely tapped. I’d been so foggy with grief that I’d forgotten how furious I was until I saw Nathaniel.
    “How can you stand there like that, arrogant as ever? How can you stand there and pretend that you’ve done nothing wrong?” I said.
    “Because I have spoken with Lord Lucifer and atoned.”
    I froze, blank with shock. “You… what? You spoke to Lucifer and he didn’t strike you down on the spot? You participated in Azazel’s rebellion!”
    “I had no other choice,” Nathaniel said icily. “Azazel was my master, the lord of my court. I must do as I am bid.”
    “That’s a really convenient load of bullshit,” I said. “You had choices. You could have chosen to go to Lucifer when you had foreknowledge of the rebellion. You could have saved the lives of the people that were killed before you sucked their memories from them. You could have done a hundred things differently and in the end you chose to do exactly what you were told even if you knew that it was