“Quite the show,” said an achingly deep voice behind me.

I spun, lighting my swords up with angelfire. Two vir reapers, a male and a female, stood twenty feet away from me, their forms half hidden in the darkness between the snowy trees. What startled me, though, was that I couldn’t feel either of them. Even when reapers suppressed their powers, I could still sense them a little, but these two were just dark. Like two black holes sucking in my emotions and what was left of my strength. Like zero energy.

“I am impressed,” the male added as he moved toward me, his voice rough and gravelly, echoing through my gut. Twisted bull’s horns stuck out of his bald head, and his body was massive and brawny, but he didn’t look like his size would slow him down. His skin was dark, and his accent was thick and unfamiliar. And his eyes—frigid and the color of moonlight on snow—drilled into mine. “You must be the Preliator. How small you are. I could break you in half.”

“Who are you?” I asked, studying them both. My first thought went back to Cadan’s warning about the vir reapers who would come for me if the nycterids failed. I guessed these two were old—very, very old—and so skilled that they could suppress their powers enough that I didn’t have a clue what they were really capable of. I made a silent cry to Will to return soon. If I had to fight them both at once, it wouldn’t be pretty.

“I am Merodach,” he said. “This is Kelaeno.”

My fears had just come true. The female, Kelaeno, looked at me with holly-red eyes and a sharp-fanged grin. With long, tangled, dark hair, she was more disturbing than frightening. I stared at her face, perplexed by her skin moving as if something stirred beneath it. Her features contorted just enough to be noticeable, as if the bones changed under her skin. Every other second, her face shifted from an animal’s to looking like a woman’s and back again. I couldn’t tear my eyes away.

“Ellie!” Will landed beside me in the snow, his white wings outstretched, and Ava wasn’t with him. He stepped forward and thrust out his sword, poising it at the newcomers. He was still out of breath from the battle, and I hoped that the new reapers weren’t here to fight.

Merodach surveyed Will’s show of aggression curiously. “The Hammer of Gabriel,” he said with a dark smile. “In the flesh.” Wings, leathery and black as night, spread from his back like a cobra spreading its hood.

At that moment, I felt a quick flash of smoky black power from Merodach, strong enough that I lost my balance as it rushed past my body. The warning was clear and imminent: He was powerful and more than willing to kill.

“What do you want?” Will asked, not flinching from the demonic vir’s display of power.

“We have a warning for the Preliator,” Merodach boomed.

Kelaeno stepped forward, pointing a taloned hand at me, her eyes still on mine. Her face continued to change, like its form was unstable, and dusty gray-brown wings appeared out of her back and spread high and wide. Shadows like daggers cast over her face from around the splayed feathers, making me blink hard as I wondered if I was seeing what was truly in front of me. The skin on her face sank and grew taut over the bones as they stretched, elongating until her appearance was utterly inhuman, and then her face returned to normal. She began to speak, her lips having difficulty forming the words as her face transformed back and forth.

“You, the mortal Gabriel, the gift for the demon queen,” Kelaeno rasped, her talons curling and unfurling as she stepped toward me, so close I could almost taste her rancid breath. “Your strength in heart and hand will fall to a reaper’s bane before your eyes.”

Nausea wormed its way up my throat as my body froze. Her golden eyes flashed and her lips curled into a sinister sneer as she gauged my reaction. She tilted her head and licked her lips before she continued.

“Mark me well, for you will lose everything you love most dear before you finally lose your soul.”

As her words began to eat their way through my stomach, Will’s sword swept between Kelaeno and me. She reeled back with a screech. His foot rammed into her chest, and his ribs cracked sickeningly as she lashed her talons out at his skin. Her power exploded, the spiraling orb of blackness swallowing all the light around us. The blast knocked Will into me, and I darted to the side as he crashed to the ground. I dropped to my knees beside him.

“Kelaeno!” A familiar, terrible voice shattered my senses as it rang out above the chaos.

I froze, ice tearing through my veins, and I looked back up. Will dragged himself to his feet, and I followed him.

Kelaeno’s wrist was trapped by another hand—Bastian’s. His black hair gleamed like obsidian, and his cerulean eyes blazed neon as he and Kelaeno bared their teeth at each other. Kelaeno snapped her jaws in his face and laughed.

“You will not harm the Guardian,” Bastian growled, low and guttural.

Kelaeno sneered mockingly at him and yanked herself free. Bastian blinked and straightened in surprise, as if he hadn’t expected her strength—as if she’d been hiding it from him.

“You only want the girl,” she snarled back. “I want the Guardian’s guts between my teeth.”

I shivered and held on to Will’s arm as he stepped in front of me, shielding me. The weight of the immense energy belonging to three reapers thousands of years old pressed on every inch of my skin, sinking through to my brain, making me dizzy as if the altitude had changed suddenly. We couldn’t defeat all three of them—especially now, after the fierce battle against Orek.