Judgment Day (Templar Chronicles Book 5) by Joseph Nassise

She had been instrumental in helping him and the rest of Echo escape the Beyond when Cade’s injuries at the hands of the fallen angel Baraquel had stranded them there while investigating the Eden facility. Weeks later Riley had been with Cade when he had unearthed Gabrielle’s body and discovered that she wasn’t truly dead - her body lived on while her spirit was trapped in the Beyond. He’d also been present when the Necromancer had summoned the Adversary to inhabit Gabrielle’s empty, physical form during the ritual at the Brooklyn Container Facility.
    He might not have known her personally, but he would bet everything that the woman on the bridge was Gabrielle Williams.
    And yet it wasn’t.
    Something was...off.
    Maybe it was the way she held herself with such perfect, deathlike stillness. Or the icy chill that ran up his spine at the very sight of her. Or the way his animal brain was screaming at him to get the hell out of there, the same way it did every time he encountered something that was higher up the food chain than mere mortals.
    Riley knew in that moment that he wasn’t looking at Gabrielle Williams.
    He was looking at the Adversary in human form.
    He could feel his heart racing as he remembered the last time he’d faced off against this particular foe. Never had he felt more helpless than when the Adversary had taken over control of his body and forced him to fight against Sean Duncan, his friend and fellow Echo Team sergeant. That battle had ended with Riley’s sword shoved through Duncan’s chest and Duncan’s knife embedded in Riley’s throat.
    He had been completely at the Adversary’s mercy the whole time and it made him shudder even now just to think about it.
    Keep it together, Riley told himself. You’ve faced this bastard before and you can do so again. This time he’s on your turf.
    He turned and beckoned Martinez over to him.
    “Pass the word that we’re moving up. The men are to hold their fire until I give the word. When I do, it’s weapons free.”
    “Understood.”
    As Martinez turned to go, Riley reached out and grabbed his arm, stopping him.
    “One more thing. Let them know that the thing on the bridge isn’t human. It might look like it, but it’s not. They need to keep that in mind when push comes to shove.”
    “Roger that, Captain.”
    As Martinez turned to bring the men up to speed, Riley began walking toward the Adversary, determined to put an end to this once and for all.

    # # #

    Cade crouched amidst the brush at the edge of the train tracks, watching as the Templars moved down the tracks toward the bridge. Riley was already there, standing in the middle of the span, with the gun in his hands pointing at a second figure standing on the railing as if ready to jump off into the waters far below.
    Something about that second figure was immediately comforting to him, like the sight of home after a long absence, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on why.
    The figure was smaller than Riley, that was easy to see, but he couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman from this far away, never mind who it might be. He was going to have to get closer if he wanted to understand what was going on.
    Cade stood, hoping to get a better view of the heads of the men in front of him. A gust of breeze chose that moment to cross the bridge and in doing so it swept a long lock of hair out from behind the figure’s head.
    A lock of auburn-colored hair.
    The shock of recognition was like a lightning bolt through his brain and Cade was already rushing forward even as the woman reached up to corral her wayward hair and push it back behind her ear with a motion that was intimately familiar to Cade.
    The woman on the bridge was his wife, Gabrielle!
    Cade’s heavy footfalls alerted the soldiers ahead of him and they spun about, the muzzles of their weapons pointing in his direction as they prepared to fire on the unexpected intruder.
    Riley’s shouted order to “Hold!” saved Cade’s