Something was amiss. Niki knew it, felt it in him. She could hear it in his breathing and his heartbeat. Something wasn’t right here. But what could it be?
“Tryton?”
“Shh,” he hushed her, squeezing her fingers impossibly tighter in his, never once glancing her way.
“It’s this way,” Cady said, quickening her pace. “I can feel it, stronger now.”
“I’ve been too selfish,” Tryton murmured.
Niki frowned and tripped over a ridge in the floor.
But it wasn’t a ridge at all. It was a doorway. An elaborately carved Egyptian cover stone was nestled deep in the ground. It led the way to an immense, perfectly rectangular doorway carved into the wall of the passageway. Niki crossed it, hot on the heels of everyone else, and was floored by what she saw awaiting them beyond the threshold.
The passageway opened into an incredibly vast room of columns and statues—all in the ancient Egyptian style—that seemed to stretch on forever. The ceilings and columns stood hundreds of feet high at least. Cinder’s illumination barely reached halfway upwards to light it, but there were other, as yet unseen sources of illumination that caused the great room to glow a soft amber hue.
“What is this place?” Emily asked on an awed whisper of breath.
“This way,” Cady began trotting across the vast room and they all followed her faithfully.
Niki looked ahead, far ahead, to a deep pocket of shadows. As their group raced toward it, Tryton began lagging behind, pulling her back, as he would not release her hand.
“Tryton, come on,” she pulled at him.
“Don’t hate me,” he said, surprising her.
“What?” She frowned. “What are you talking about Tryton? You’re not making any sense.”
“I’ve been a fool,” he said with stunning fervency. “I’ve held back from you, fighting against fate. Fate is inevitable. There is no escape.”
“What’s the matter with you?” she gasped, worried.
“I love you,” he said, shocking her to her toes. “I do. I loved you from the first moment I saw your sweet face. I have a heart. I have loved for centuries—that’s why I’ve made so many mistakes, that’s why I’ve been so selfish and secretive all these years.”
“I love you too.” She smiled through her tears and tried to tug him along—the others were getting far ahead of them now. “Come on.”
“I had to tell you, before this. Before the end—”
“End? What end? This is a beginning. Now come on, I want to see what’s ahead. Maybe Raine’s waiting up there for us to save her.”
Tryton pressed a hard kiss to her mouth. “I won’t lose you,” he vowed.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she promised, and this time when she tugged on his hand, he followed her. They broke into a run to catch up with the team and Niki’s heart was racing—but not from exertion.
He loved her!
She’d been right all along. She’d known he loved her. And now, finally, he knew it too.
No matter what he feared might happen, she swore to herself that she would do everything in her power to keep that love safe. He was hers, her man, her one true love—nothing could change that. Nothing.
They ran for what felt like forever, just they two. When they caught up with the others, Obsidian was struggling to shove a round disk—another odd door covered with ornate hieroglyphics—out of its resting place in a wall. It was big and thick, made out of a shining black stone that looked suspiciously like…well, like obsidian.
“It won’t budge,” Obsidian gasped, as if surprised his strength hadn’t been enough to move the disk.
Niki realized he must, indeed, be incredibly strong. Stronger than she would have guessed. She looked down at herself, wondering just how strong she might now be if she were to put her new Shikar body to the test.
“Let me help,” Cinder moved forward to assist with the disk.
The two men strained and pushed and beat against it, but to no avail.
“I could just Travel us to the other side,” Grimm said with no small amount of impatience.
Emily chuckled quietly.
Of a sudden, there was a bright, blinding flare of light from around the edges of the disk, illuminating it on all sides. Obsidian and Cinder both tripped backward in stunned surprise.
“Did you do that?” Obsidian asked, frowning fiercely.
Cinder shook his head. “No, that wasn’t me.”
There was a mighty shudder of the earth at their feet. A deafening rumble had them all clutching at their ears protectively, and thousands of years worth of dust motes swam about them like a tiny sandstorm, stinging their eyes. The walls trembled, the columns undulated alarmingly.
And then all was still.
“What the fuck was that?” Steffy exclaimed.
The ground shook again, more violently this time, and Niki shrieked her surprise. She kept her balance but only just, staying on her feet thanks mostly to Tryton’s steady, unwavering hand clasped strong around her own.
“Don’t hate me,” he said again, softly.
She squeezed his hand as the world about them shuddered and rolled.
The earthquake fell still again, but Niki wasn’t taking any chances that it would stay that way. She braced her legs far apart, ready and expecting another shift of the earth beneath her feet at any moment.
The light appeared behind the disk again and then—lo and behold!—it rolled easily off to the side, revealing a round, open doorway behind it.
The soft amber light inside beckoned them further. Cady led the way, with Obsidian directly behind. Next went Steffy and Cinder. Then Edge and Emily. The Traveler paused before stepping through, looking back at them through the shadows of his cowl.
“The time is now Elder,” he said enigmatically.
“I know,” Tryton answered.
“I will stand by you always,” Grimm promised formally.
“We have come full circle at last.”
“You knew it would come to this one day.”
Tryton nodded. “I knew. I feared it, but I knew.”
“You did what you thought was right,” Grimm assured him with quiet vehemence.
Niki looked questioningly from one man to the next.
“But I was wrong,” Tryton said, gritting his teeth against the admission. “I let it go for too long.”
“You don’t know that yet,” Grimm said.
“Come on,” Niki said softly. “Whatever you’re dreading isn’t going away, so let’s go face it together.”
Tryton looked at her, surprised. Then, miraculously, he smiled. “You are a goddess,” he said.
Niki laughed. “I’m glad you noticed. Now come on.” She wouldn’t take no for an answer this time. She dug in her heels, tugged his arm hard, and stepped ahead of Grimm, crossing through the doorway. Ready to face what lay beyond with her true love at her side, she stepped across the threshold.
Into the soft amber glow of the future.
It took a moment for Niki’s eyes to adjust to the light, but when they did she was not a little surprised by what she saw.
This room was smaller, more the size of Tryton’s meeting room—indeed it wasn’t too unlike it at all, cozy and welcoming. It was empty but for a few stone benches, some brightly glowing torches perched in mounts on the walls, and beautiful hieroglyphic carvings and paintings upon every available surface. And a simple, stone throne.
Upon which a blond-haired man sat, silent and unmoving.
At his side stood a tall, straight man with broad shoulders and narrow hips. He wore a cloak and hood, so his features were hidden for the most part, but Niki could see the orange-yellow glow of his Shikar eyes burning out as he watched them.
Cady frowned and approached the throne, unafraid. “You.”
The man in the cloak stepped away from the throne, coming to meet her. Obsidian growled and stepped between them. Cady grunted and tried to push her husband aside, but he would not budge.
“I don’t understand,” Cady said around her husband, to the man. “What’s going on here? Why do we keep running into you?”
The man reached up.
Obsidian’s Foils made an ominous schnick sound as they erupted from his forearms threateningly.
The man paused then, more slowly, reached up to push back the cowl hiding his features.
Cady, afforded her first good look at the man, screamed on a gasp. “No! It’s not possible…”
Tryton let go of Niki’s hand and took a step forward, approaching the throne, as Cady, Obsidian and the cloaked man eyed each other. Tryton moved towards the other, the blond man, whose shining head was bent, his features shadowed and unmoving. He could have been dead for all Niki could tell. He was still as stone, seemingly oblivious to his surroundings, silent and lifeless as the grave.
Tryton stood before him, taking that one last step that would put him within arm’s reach of the blond statue…when the man moved.
His head lifted. The light hit his features, illuminating his face.
Niki’s gasp was lost in the echo of everyone else’s. Everyone but Cady’s, that is. Her eyes were still locked with the other stranger’s.
The man’s face…it was Tryton’s.
The two looked so much alike. But for their hair—Tryton’s was more gold than this strange man’s—they could have been twins.
The man stood, dust motes dancing off of him with each movement, as if he hadn’t moved from his perch upon the throne in centuries. He smiled stiffly, as if the expression was alien to him.
He looked so much like Tryton. Niki looked from one to the other, confused and stunned, as were the other Shikars.
The man spoke at last, his voice metallic and ancient and chilling…but oddly compelling. “Hello, brother.”
Tryton nodded slowly. “Hello, Daemon.”
Lord Daemon, scourge of the Alliance, leader and creator of the Daemon Horde opened his arms in welcome.
And Tryton stepped into his embrace, returning it with a fervor that stunned them all.
…And there were voices and thunders and lightnings and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great… And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found – Revelations
Chapter Seventeen
The long ago past…
He smiled, watching his younger—by only a few moments—brother play with the primitive peoples along the shoreline. He moved his hands over the sand, watching with excitement as it swirled and moved. Seconds later, a beautiful flower bloom appeared, an exquisite sculpture of glittering earth.
There came a shriek from the shore and he darted his head up to see one of the primitives fall back, clutching at her foot and weeping.
He raced down to her. He soothed her as best he could with his words, but these strange beings that looked so much like his people and were yet still so different, had no understanding of language. He shushed her, looking at where the jellyfish had stung her foot. The girl continued to weep, but not so loudly now—thank the Fates, he hated to hear a female weeping—and he called over to his brother.
“Here,” he instructed, when his brother dropped to his knees beside him. Taking his sibling’s hands to lay them upon the girl’s foot, he coached softly, “Do it just as Mother showed you.”
The boy who looked so much like him smiled, eager to practice his new skill as he was eager to practice all things Shikar. He turned to the girl, laying his hands on her foot. He grunted in concentration, a few minutes passed in silence as he worked the magic, and then she was healed.
“Good work,” he praised his brother, feeling like a god when the girl hugged them both in thanks.
* * * * *
Flash forward…
“Mother says we are not to love them,” his brother warned him.
But he knew a way to love them without killing them. And now that he knew it—an older male had given him the secret—there was no way he was going to deny himself such pleasures as could be had with the human women. “I never said I wanted to love them. I just want to fuck them.” He chuckled and it was an earthy sound, even to his own ears.
“It is not wise.”
“You are always too conservative, my brother, my love,” he scoffed. “You will end up being the oldest virgin in history if you keep this up.”
“I just have a feeling,” his brother said, frowning at the rebuff. “I do not think it wise that you go down this path.”
“Are you having visions now like The Seer?”
“No, but I just—”
He snorted. “I want that one.” He pointed to a lithe redhead as she worked in the field, gathering berries. “She has legs so long,” he shuddered, feeling himself grow hard as stone. “I could wrap them around me twice.”
The girl looked up, noticing him as all the maids did. She smiled, a come-hither look in her simple brown eyes. He smiled back, and left his brother in the dust as he ran up to join her.
The call of his name on his brother’s lips echoed behind him. He never looked back…
* * * * *
Flash forward…
“You cannot teach them our words.”
He started and turned to see his brother behind him with a stern, disapproving look marring his handsome features. He sighed and turned back to the group of humans who were eagerly awaiting their next lesson. “You, always with a warning on your lips. I see no harm in this.”
“You never see any harm in anything,” his brother said in exasperation. “But it is forbidden to teach them our words. It has always been. They are not Shikar. They are not like us.”
“Go away and leave me to my own devices. Don’t you have a lake to make or a river to redirect somewhere?”
“Stop this now, it can go nowhere! You cannot teach them our words.”
“Just watch me.” He frowned and intensified his efforts to teach the primitive peoples a way to communicate that involved more than grunts and gestures…
* * * * *
Flash forward…
Her skin was lovely and black and smooth. The black tattooed line about her eyelids gave an incredible, exotic slant to her beautiful, almond-shaped eyes. Her linen dress blew in the warm breeze, revealing a lush, full shape that would have shamed any Shikar female.
One look at her as she walked in the harvest procession, the breeze teasing the lovely black locks of her ceremonial wig, the lotus petals flying from her hands as she tossed them about, and he knew that he was lost.
He had to have her.
It took many months to woo her. For the first time he’d felt the weight of time like a burden on his shoulders, he who had never even really noticed its passage before. It had been so long a time to him, these months of chasing her.
Though he was a god here, she was yet a maiden, and a worshipper in one of the temples. To take her would be to take her status in the temple, to insult and degrade her. After being touched by a man—even a god such as he—she would no longer be fit to dwell within the holy place. Her people required of him a ceremonial mating, a bond promised to her in the eyes of law and custom and religion.
He hated how people manipulated religions to suit their own needs and agendas. But in this instance, perhaps for the first time in all his life, he was willing to follow the rules. For her.
To a point.
It had been hard—indeed he’d been quite hard since the very moment he first laid eyes on her—but he managed it somehow. It was the longest he’d ever taken to woo and win a woman, but the wait and the fight only seemed to make the winning all the sweeter.
He had claimed her as his goddess. His beautiful and perfect Litha. And tonight he would claim her as his, make her his queen.
And Fate willing, he would make her a Shikar.
He was sure he could do it. He’d been working on animals and fish for centuries now, out of curiosity and boredom. How could he have known all this time
that these experiments were merely a preparation for the real thing—for this one woman?
Gods, how he loved her! How he wanted her. In her he saw all the good things he knew he could be and do. Her soul shone bright like a beacon, pulling him and luring him and proving to him that he’d been right all this time in thinking that there was something infinitely special about humans, despite their flaws and weaknesses. There was something so special and amazing about this one woman that outshone even the most favored and adored Shikar female.
And tonight she would be his forever. He would see to it.
He whistled as he walked through the palace. A palace he himself had designed. Indeed he was responsible for everything around him, in some way or another. Without his aid, humans would have never gotten this far and he knew it.
Everyone knew it by now. Though he hadn’t wanted the humans’ thanks, he was quite enjoying the benefits of being worshipped as their god. Not their one true god—while he had no belief in a true god, he had his suspicions, and wasn’t one to taunt the powers that might or might not be—but he was worshipped as a god all the same. Didn’t he deserve it, after all? For all his hard work and dedication to these beings, these humans, who were really only strangers on their world?
No. He wouldn’t think that way anymore. His woman would not like such thoughts, he felt sure. No. He must work on his arrogance, get it out of the way and get on with loving her and her people for who and what they were. Fragile and newborn they might be, but they were a part of his world. His woman’s world. He would learn to think differently of the humans, he must.
Damn it, his brother had been right all along. He grinned. He hated it when his brother was right. It was just so often that he was…he should have listened to the warnings.
But if he had listened to reason all this time, then he wouldn’t be here now, on his way to his marital chamber within the palace. Indeed, none of these temples and statues and palaces would even exist if not for him. And neither would she…his woman, his love, his mate.
Lord of the Deep Page 14