FIFTY-TWO

The Battle of Abbadon and

Azrael

She squinted her eyes, shielding them from the bright sunlight that glinted off his hair and his sunglasses. Jack always did look dressed to kill, Mimi thought, finding she still admired him even after everything that had happened between them. “Abbadon,” she greeted, getting out of the Jeep.

“Azrael.” He nodded, as if they had bumped into each other at a coffee shop.

“What kept you so long?”

“I was delayed.” He shrugged.

“Well.” She tapped her foot. “Shall we get this over with?”

Jack nodded his assent.

They faced each other. Azrael, the ferocious and frightening Angel of Death, and her twin brother, Abbadon, the Angel of Destruction.

Then Mimi disappeared.

Jack gazed out at the crystalline sands, searching. The white desert was far from the crowds of Cairo, a fitting and se-cluded spot for a final confrontation. No one could hear them.

No one would come to anyone’s aid. This was a fight to the death. The blood trial.

He found Mimi crouched on top of one of the sandy rock towers. Behind her, the orange rays of the setting sun dimmed below the horizon. The warmth of the day faded as a cold wind swept across the desert floor. He watched Mimi’s shadow, the dark angel waiting for battle. She’s making me come to her.

She’s forcing me to make the first strike.

So be it. If there had been another way, he’d have taken it long ago. But there was no getting out of this. Azrael had to die in order for his love to live.

In an instant he was upon her. Striking at the rock where she stood, he shattered the pillar with his blade. A cloud of white dust filled the air; stone and sand ricocheted off his chest as the pillar collapsed in front of him.

Mimi laughed as she rode the collapsing column to the ground. “Is that all you can do, Jack?” she asked. “Or do you not have the courage to strike me directly?” She raised her gleaming sword and swung for his throat, the blade nipping his skin. First blood. A tiny stream trickled down from his neck as he fell backward.

“Strike back!” Mimi screamed with rage as she swung once more, and Jack did nothing but dodge the blow.

He lunged for her, but at the last moment his sword turned sideways and struck at the soft stone, sending a shower of jagged rocks toward Mimi. The air filled with the exploding powder of glittering seashells.

“You’ll only make this harder if you refuse to fight me,”

Mimi said, panting heavily. “Either way, this ends tonight.

Why not fight for what you want, Abbadon. If you love your little Abomination so much, then you must fight!”

“If that’s what you want,” Jack said, as he transformed in-to his true form, sprouting black feathered wings on his back and horns on his head, a true angel of the darkness. He towered above her, his black sword glinting with ebony sparks. His powerful energy whipped the sand into a tornado at his feet.

This is it, he thought. What he had dreaded for so long had finally come to be.

Mimi shrieked as she became Azrael, golden and terrifying, and Jack swung his deadly blade and made a clean swath across her chest.

She changed back into her human form and bit down hard on her lip. She would not give him the pleasure of hearing her scream. “That’s more like it,” she laughed. Then she was Azrael again, and Abbadon threw her against a tower. She slammed through the white stone and into the next so that the columns collapsed, falling like dominoes around them.

Abbadon lifted one of the tower-sized rocks to crush her for good, but Azrael flew upward into the dark sky, with Abbadon close behind. They flew up and up, and the desert swirled like a snow globe underneath them. Still they climbed higher, and Azrael attacked, flying in a wide arc. She slashed at Jack and he parried, the two of them dancing around each other in a violent ballet.

There was no more taunting. No more conversation.

There was only the pure, magnificent rage of two creatures once blood-bound, now bent on destroying each other.

From afar, the battle dance looked beautiful to those with eyes that were fast enough to follow the action. The two angels fought silently, moving with deadly speed as they cut and dodged through the cold night air.

Abbadon cut Azrael, and she fell from the sky. Her immense feathered wings stopped beating, and on the ground she was Mimi again.

She was bleeding from the head and chest, and she stared at Abbadon with so much hatred. She had forgotten how strong he was, that this was a battle she could not win. She was no match for the Angel of Destruction.

Jack reverted to his human form as well. The sight of that glorious creature falling from the sky tugged at his heart.

Could he really do this? He had to. He must. His heart hardened. Do it quickly, then, he told himself, as he launched at her one more time. With every blow, he could feel her weakening beneath him. Her sword bending to his until her wrist snapped and it fell away.

Mimi cried in pain. She could not hide it anymore. She was losing. Jack was too strong, and she knew her life was over. She steeled herself for the end. She reached for her weapon, trying to grasp for it in the sand…. She would not die this way, unarmed and helpless.

Jack raised his sword again, but this time, when it came down, the tip of the black blade only cut the edge of her shirt collar.

I can’t, Jack agonized. I cannot kill her. I never could.