Candace appeared at her side and slammed Diel to the ground, knocking the wind from him enough that he had to fight for breath to even stand. The minute he did, Naomi landed a kick to his back, and Diel hit the ground beside Sela.
Noa turned around, and her sisters slotted back into formation. Dinah stood in front of them, the head of their targeted arrow. Gabriel was spread on the ground too, wonder and awe in his eyes. The rest of the Fallen were livid as they dragged themselves to their feet with fury in their killer stares.
“Fuck your weapons,” Dinah said, from the front of the Coven’s cluster. “We saw the Brethren train endlessly when we were imprisoned. We saw how they fought from the small, barred window in our dorm that gave us a view of their training field.” Noa felt the memories of those days stir inside of her. The sight of Auguste training his Witch Finders with military precision. Dinah and her sisters had initially watched them as a way to pass the time, then in more and more detail as the Coven grew older. They studied their every move. Priscilla, Noa and Dinah wanted to know how they moved … they wanted to know how they could be defeated.
That knowledge had saved them.
It had freed them.
“They find modern weaponry sinful, unjust … cowardly.” Dinah leveled a pointed stare at Bara. “They fight with fists and knives, and shun guns of any kind. They believe God will protect them, His chosen people.” The Fallen were on their feet now. Each of them hung off every word that Dinah said. “If we go into their nest, if we attempt to take them down, if they manage to rob us of our weapons we must be able to fight them with the same strength and efficiency that they will unleash on us.”
Dinah walked right up to Bara. “Your flame thrower won’t save you against them.” She moved to Uriel. “You are stronger than us, bigger physically than us, and you can defeat us one on one. But”—she stopped before Sela—“the Brethren don’t fight as individuals. They are one.” She stopped before Raphael, then Michael, and lastly she halted in front of Gabriel.
“We are few, but if we can merge into one unstoppable unit, always knowing, trusting that someone has your back behind you, we can maybe, maybe, defeat them in small numbers. Chip away at them, one surprise attack at a time.” Dinah took her place again with her sisters. “Those bastards hurt us. Abused us. Tortured us. Did unspeakable things to all of us in this room.” Noa felt the hatred for the Brethren pulsing from the Fallen just as much as it pulsed off the Coven.
“The world doesn’t know they exist. It would never believe they are real even if we shouted their crimes from the top of the John Hancock Tower. Who could possibly believe such a thing is happening in the dark underground of the real world?” Dinah pointed at each of the gathered people. “It’s up to us. It can only be up to us to take them down.”
She folded her arms across her chest, her incredible inner strength evident to all. “There’s no room for pride, vanity or arrogance in this war. If we do this, if we take them on, we must be ready. Be humble to the mammoth task before us. We must be better than they are, in every conceivable way.”
Silence grew heavy in the gym. “How did you escape?” Gabriel asked, voice careful and tender. “How did you successfully run away from their clutches?” Diel’s head twitched as he watched Noa. Noa breathed. She needed their two groups to work, to become one. The Fallen were the only people the Coven knew who could tear the Brethren down alongside them.
And the pretender priests had to be brought down.
“We practiced,” Dinah said. “At night. When they left us alone. We trained. We grew strong even when they hurt us to the point of exhaustion. Priscilla …” Dinah trailed off at their elder sister’s name.
“She was the one who pushed us,” Candace said, picking up where Dinah had left off.
“Priscilla hated the Brethren most of all.” Jo shook her head. “No, that isn’t true. We all hate them, with every fiber of our being. But Priscilla was different.” Jo cast a quick glance at Noa.
Noa held her chin up. “The same darkness that flows in your veins,” Noa said