Free Plague of Angels by John Patrick Kennedy

didn’t really abandon them, did he? He left them you two.” She raised her blade. “Earth is mine to walk on, Caelum. It has always been mine, and I will not give it up for the likes of you.” She looked over to Orion. “I’m killing him now, Orion! But not,” she ground her hips harder against Caelum’s body, and every word she spoke was punctuated with a moan, “Until… .I… .take… .my… .pleasure! Yes, Caelum! Yes!”
    She arched herself back, pretending ecstasy.
    To his credit, Caelum attempted to kill her.
    His sword-arm, so weak as to be useless, swung up, the blade aiming for Nyx’s throat. She blocked it easily with her own blade. “Oh, Caelum. Noble until the end.”
    Her sword smashed down into his chest, rupturing his heart. His body exploded into gold dust, a lustrous cloud that filled the air around her. Nyx breathed it deeply, knowing it was his essence made manifest. She took into herself his very being, and the euphoria it gave her was stunning, a dizzying surge of light and heat that filled her to her core.
    She rose, and slowly walked over to where Orion struggled. “Caelum got to die nobly,” she said, conversationally. “A blow of the sword to the chest. Heart and Caelum all exploding at once into nothingness.” She leaned close and whispered in Orion’s ear. “You aren’t worthy of such a death.“
    She knelt on his back, grabbed his hair and pulled it back with one hand. She flicked the whip, wrapping it twice around his neck. On the second one, she let go of his hair and grabbed the end, pulling it tight. She leaned back, and Orion’s bloody, wrecked body reared back at an impossible angle. His remaining hand scrabbled desperately at the steel-hard lash digging into his neck.
    Shifting, Nyx drove her diamond heels into his back, pushing off them as she pulled harder and harder. He was an Angel. He did not need breath, and she did not intend to strangle him. Instead, she pulled the whip ends tighter, watching it cut into his flesh. Golden blood spurted from his neck. Still he flailed, and still Nyx pulled the whip tighter.
    His head, when it came off, shot away from his body, and sailed briefly through the air before it, and all the parts of his body, exploded into gold dust. Nyx breathed him in as she had Caelum, and rose to her feet.
    Tribunal said I should use the word when I am alone, she thought. God was gone, and there was no other angelic presence on the earth, now. This is as alone as I will probably get.
    She had no idea how long it would last, though. Caelum said three Angels could walk the earth, now, which meant she had to act fast before they sent another two down.
    Taking a deep breath, she spoke the word.
    The tongue of Angels is not the tongue of God. His language was the language of Creation. The words in it were not just symbols. Each of the words in the language of Creation was a true name, and held in it the essence of the thing named. Using one of the words, one could call things into existence.
    Or bring them to you from another plane.
    The word flowed from Nyx’s lips, and reverberated through reality. It was masculine and feminine at once, and when she spoke it her voice became something she had never heard before. The ground, the air, the earthly realm itself, trembled as the force of the word rippled through the world like waves after a tsunami. A penetrating disquiet swept across the earth, a deep disturbance felt at once by all living things. Creatures paused what they were doing, and sleeping people dreamed of fear, though they didn’t know why. Those awake prayed or hid, as though cowering would spare them.
    It’s his Name, Nyx realized. Tribunal’s true Name.
    The world kept vibrating, and with each syllable a golden sigil slipped from her mouth like smoke from a pipe, gleaming against the night sky. Four sigils for four syllables. Their shine was bright enough to turn the darkness to daylight. She instinctively squeezed her eyes shut, but even