From Ashes and Embers (Ceasefire Series Book 3)

by Claire Marta

  The first glimmer of fear breaks through my stoic façade. Do they plan to cut off my cock? Twisting in my bonds, trapped, I can do nothing but swing from side to side. A fly trapped in a spider’s web. The chains rattle, echoing. Magic stings my flesh, threatening and hazardous. Burrowing through the layers of my skin, it winds around my dormant wings. Bursting free, they unfurl, spreading wide the long black feathers flex.

  My gut clenches in horror.

  Shears held open she positions my wingtip between the sharp edges. The whisper of blades meeting fills the air. Chest heaving violently, I can’t hold in my scream. Agony. It’s excruciating. Thrashing through my system.

  “Ah finally. I was starting to wonder what would get such a delicious response from you.” Slinking to the other side, Arianna moves to my other wing.

  A plea for them to stop shrivels in my throat.

  They aren’t done with me. From the satisfaction on their lovely evil faces now, they gleamed a reaction they won’t stop. My suffering is now assured. They’ll use the weakness I’ve betrayed.

  “We’re ensuring you won’t bleed out,” Arianna purrs, her sickly-sweet breath next to my ear. “Scalding the ones that need sealing with fire.”

  The shorter of the sisters jiggles the blow torch clutched in her hand before strolling behind me.

  A hiss of a flame reaches my ears. Tensing, I brace myself for what I know is to come. I feel nothing at first, then the searing heat starts building in waves. My vision blurs with pain. Convulsing, writhing, mouth ridged and open, the scream tears through me.

  Fingers curl in my soft plumage. Ripping, tearing, each one is pried from its home the quills discarded on the floor beneath.

  Shuddering, I suck in a shallow breath.

  Giggles slips from the females’ lips.

  “Just like plucking a plump chicken,” one remarks. Capturing another handful of feathers, she pulls them out, peeling parts of me away bit by bit.

  Arching in the air, my roar of suffering entwines with their laughter.

  “When I get loose, I’m going to enjoy killing you,” I croak, voice thick with the pain that washes through my taut dangling frame. “Tick tock motherfuckers.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Jane

  Kneeling on the floor, tiny rocks bite into my knees through the material of my skirt. Hand outstretched, I feel energy converging in my palm. Beyond the furthest recesses of the concave, my attention remains locked on the flowers blooming on a craggy ledge.

  A slither of light blasts toward my target. The petals decaying, withering, curling into brown little lumps that fall like cheerless confetti. Stems shrivelling, they char the fragile stalks easily blackening them into nothing. Instead of the one single bloom, I pinned all my concentration on the entire flourishing plant life, clinging to the cavern wall, withers and dies before my eyes, catching ablaze in a chain reaction.

  My disappointment is sharp.

  I knew before I started I was going to fail. Weeks now trying to harness the raw power inside me and all I have to show for it are emaciated plants. There’s no way to shake the negativity from my mind.

  “Damn it.” Sagging into the rough rock wall, a mountain of pressure threatens to rip my stomach apart with nausea. How can I protect myself? Arianna will come for me when she realizes I’ve been lying to her. My fate will be worse than what Raziel faces now. I’m not strong enough. Not worthy. Flawed. Unhappiness seeps through the cracks in my thoughts.

  There’s no hiding from his screams. They fill the cavern, agonised and painful as Raziel’s torture progresses. Seconds, minutes, hours crawl by before they lessen to a desolate sobbing. Going against the Furies is suicide. Their powers here are absolute as well as their magic. Seeing him suffer at their hands is something I refuse to continue to watch. Doubt and fear cloud my mind, yet I know in my heart this is the right thing to do. Resolve strengthens me.

  I wait until the sisters are feeding on the other poor soul who’d stumbled into our realm. Changed into a long woollen skirt, t-shirt, and a pair of comfortable trainers I make my move. Hand stilling on the handle of the door, I hover outside the cell. I have an hour at most to do what needs to be done. Creeping into the room, the metallic smell of blood is strong. Chained face down on the floor, Raziel lays unmoving. The full horror of what they’ve done hits me. Mouth trembling, I cover it with my hand to stop myself crying out. Spread out, what’s left of his magnificent ebony wings quiver. Plucked and torn white bone gleams through broken plumes that are left. Scattered all over the stone floor long iridescent feathers shimmer in the light. They’ve mutilated him. Taken his magnificent appendages and hobbled his ability to fly.

  “Get up, go.” Crouching with growing desperation, I drop the bundle of clothes I’m carrying before unfastening the chains binding him down.

  “Jane?”

  Pain squeezes inside my chest at the hoarseness of his voice.

  “I mean it, Raz. Go before they realize you’re gone.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Raziel

  “Raz, get up.” A gentle hand strokes the clamminess of my skin.

  Tink.

  She’s here.

  Not a hallucination. Living breathing.

  I’ve been so wrong about her since the start. I can only imagine the suffering she’s lead living here in this hollow, abandoned Hell. Tied to these creatures. Not the life of privilege and luxury of a Fae. She’s set me loose, and I’m not about to waste it. I may be as weak as a kitten from whatever those bitches have been giving me, but that won’t stop me. Adrenaline’s worn off. My insides are a chaotic mess of agony, but somehow, I find the strength to push up onto my knees, then onward to my feet. Retracting my mutilated wings, I let them fold into my back, vanishing beneath the skin. It doesn’t lessen my anguish but eases my mind that they’re no longer vulnerable. They’ll regenerate. It’s not the first time I’ve had them damaged just not to this extent.

  Tink’s delicate hand braces my shoulder, steadying me when I sway.

  “You’re coming with me,” I tell her, capturing her wrist. A territorial need to touch and connect pounding through my veins.

  Multi-colored hair rippling, she shakes her head. “I can’t.”

  “Bullshit. I’m not leaving any child we might have already conceived in the talons of these sadistic psychos.”

  Not like my father abandoned me. I’m not going to be that arsehole. If my fairy is carrying our offspring, then they’re going to know me. She won’t end up like my mother, discarded and deserted.

  Jane’s attractive features harden as she comes at me, all resolve and anger in her golden eyes. I barely have time to block her punch. My moves are sluggish, slower than regular, leaving me uncoordinated and clumsy. The bite of a blade presses into the skin of my throat.

  “I am not pregnant!”

  “How can you be sure?” I ask, still reeling that she managed to get past my defences so quickly. Fuck she can fight. Why hasn’t she displayed these skills before? All this time, I’ve thought her something weak and frail.

  It’s also come to my attention I can’t teleport. Whatever magic they have this place drenched in is blocking my abilities.

  Her expression dims, and for one brief second, sadness shows. “I’m sure.”

  “Well until that’s unquestionable, you’re not going to be out of my sight. No. Your stubborn little arse is coming with me, like it or not.”

  Rolling her eyes, she lowers the knife, re-sheathing it at the waistband of her skirt. She looks less than thrilled, but I don’t give a shit.

  “I’ll take you as far as the portal; that’s it. Here, put these on.” Bending, she grabs some clothes from the floor, shoving them into my arms. I discover a worn pair of jeans and a t-shirt. With her help, I dress, every movement making me wince with the pain pulsing through my back. I don’t want to think about my wings. They’ll heal like the rest of the injuries I’ve endured, but the agony of having them sliced and diced
is something that will forever remain.

  “We don’t have long. The Furies are feeding right now, so they’ll be distracted,” Jane explains.

  “Feeding?”

  She doesn’t reply to my question. Instead, taking my hand, she leads me to the door. Each step I take is a negotiation rather than an order. Everything hurts. Focusing my mind away from the pain, I take in the construction of the corridor. Rock, just like the room I’ve been held in. To hazard a guess, it’s some kind of natural tunnel work. Fortified, hidden, it’s a perfect place to remain unseen. Burning torches light our way through the network of narrow passages.

  Bringing her finger up to her lips, Jane conveys the necessity for silence in her action.

  Senses sharpening, sounds echo toward us from an open cell.

  Soft whimpering. Slurping, munching. Something being torn apart.

  Dread coiling up, my grip on the fragile bones of Jane’s hand tightens. I’ve seen enough terrible and fucked up things in my life time, but I can’t shake this sense of foreboding. Tip-toeing to the opening, she peeks inside. The radiance of her tumbling hair blocks her expression from my view, but I feel her go ridged in my hold.

  Cautiously guiding me, she tugs me swiftly past the door, but it’s enough for me to glimpse the gruesome sight within.

  The only thing I recognize of my captors is the brightness of their red hair. Their skin has gone from pink and healthy to mottled and green. Scales armor their heavy breasts. Squatted down, the three forms eat ravenously. Tearing clumps from the still breathing male, gagged and chained, they paint their lips with blood, sinking fanged teeth into the flesh. His chest cavity lays open. Crimson pumping from the jagged wound, flowing a river over the stained floor.

  Their victim’s eyes plead for a swift death, but it’s something I’m sure he won’t be granted. I’m not disgusted. Growing up in the Devil’s court, plenty of the demons there eat living creatures. Consume another being’s power and vitality. It’s the fact I now know the truth of their deception. Seething with outrage, I continue to let Jane drag me to freedom.

  Darting me a look, her gaze shines with something. Fear? Apprehension? I don’t know.

  Bringing her into my chest, my lips skim the rim of her ear lobe. “Jane, those aren’t Furies.”

  My whisper earns me a darkening frown. “What?”

  “I slept with one once. Breanna. If these were the three Greek Goddesses of vengeance. don’t you think she’d be one of them?” I confide, not missing the flash of jealousy she gives me. “Also, Furies aren’t flesh eaters.”

  “Clever half breed.”

  The voice behind us makes both of us jump.

  Stepping protectively in front of me. Jane stares down the reptilian-like female. “Is it true. Arianna? You’re not really Furies?”

  Horizontal, rectangular pupils in orange irises watch us with alien intent. “Stygian witches. I’m still amazed you believed our lie. but then why would you doubt our word? It just goes to show how naïve and stupid you are.”

  Relics that have been unearthed from a forgotten past. These monstrosities are echoes. Greek myths and legends to mankind. I’m surprised they haven’t been hunted down and eradicated. The pantheon that they’re linked to has long since crumbled.

  “You’re just as pathetic as your mother. She couldn’t follow the plans we had set out for her either. Instead, she ran away and mated a filthy Fae.”

  Jane’s confident stance falters. “My mother?”

  “Do you know she begged us to let you go the evening we had her and that excuse for a mate she had tied herself to slaughtered. She wanted you to be free of your destiny. The one she had rejected.” The Witch’s laugh is cruel. Her sisters slink from the doorway behind her, green scales anointed in the juices of their prey.

  “You murdered my parents?” Shock resonates through Jane’s words. Inching up behind her, I let the heat of my body bring some comfort to her distress.

  “And took you for ourselves to serve our purposes, yes. Your great-grandfather has no idea you still exist. We were once fear and revered. The very gods themselves sought us out for our knowledge and wisdom. Now, they’re nothing. Not even soil or dirt. Faded from existence with their grandness. This will not happen to us. The Underworld needs a new ruler. One who won’t stay cowering in the darkness. This is our time to rise, restoring with us the old ways.”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Jane

  I blink back the burn of tears.

  My parents were killed by these creatures, who had taken me in. Who had raised me. I’ve been blinded by the burden I thought I’d been destined for. Yet now I find it’s all a hoax. An elaborate plot.

  “You used me.” The words are raw with anguish. I barely feel Raziel pressed up behind me. Everything I know has dropped away, spiralling into chaos.

  “Of course, we did.” Arianna’s grins, showing of an array of sharp bloodstained fangs. “And you will fulfil your purpose. Help us recapture the Nephilim. Conceive his offspring. We will allow you to raise it under our guidance. Fight against us, and you will be used as nothing more than a vessel to be exploited and disposed of.”

  Grief morphs into brutal emotions. I’m suddenly paralyzed with sheer fucking rage.

  “Like you tried to do with my mother,” I spit, new born hatred consuming my soul.

  “She couldn’t even bear a male heir. You will breed until you produce one. When he comes of age, he will take one of us as his Queen, and we will govern the Underworld by his side.”

  Fingers entwine with my cold numb ones. The warmth from Raziel’s touch sends everything inside me up surging.

  “Burn them all down.”

  Eyes widening, I tilt up my chin to meet his gaze. “Raz?”

  His expression is calm in the flame, light from the torches crackling on the wall. “No son of ours is going to be a slave to these decrepit husks. Do it, Rainbow. I know you can. Don’t be frightened of what’s inside you.”

  My heart pounds rapidly in my chest, the sound filling my ears with the fear I’ve held onto. The thought of setting it free consciously has me breaking out in a cold sweat. It would only lead to another failure. Lucifer was right. I don’t have the discipline.

  “She doesn’t know how to control herself, let alone unleash it,” Arianna sneers, green scales shimmering hypnotically in the orange glow. “Do you really think we would have allowed her to grow into her full potential?”

  I could hurt Raz.

  Kill him.

  The thought sends a wave of pain through my being.

  “Run.” Locking my hand around Raziel’s, I take off down the corridor at a sprint. We need to get out. Words spin in my head. Reality that gouges out misery and despair.

  “Jane, slow down.” His pained voice infiltrates the anarchy.

  I’m dragging him along in my wake, neglecting the hinderance of his injuries and fleeing blindly. Taking a left, I reduce my pace. The exit lays before us, the colder fresh air moist with the mist that never leaves. We’re high up in the mountain side. The only way down is a treacherous path that takes hours to traverse. I’d hoped to be halfway before they discovered us gone. Now they’ll be hunting us every step of the way.

  “We need to…” I don’t get to finish my sentence as Raziel is thrown clear across the corridor with a ball of sparking magic. He hits the wall with a cry.

  Taina hisses, palm still suffused with the spell she’s conjured. “Give it up, Jane. Rebellion doesn’t suit you. I thought it had been beaten out of you, long ago.” Sashaying toward me, her blood tainted skirts swirl around her green scaly ankles. She’s so confident I’m going to submit. Give in and hand over Raz.

  Rage.

  It spews up faster than magma, bringing with it destructive powers that have the world below my feet quaking in fear. I’d pledged to myself to set Raziel free. They took everything else from me, but they won’t make me break this promise. Unleashing a shriek, I don’t even try to contain it. Spillin
g from every fiber, every atom, it blasts into Taina before she even knows what’s happening. She shrivels before me, but I keep on going, slamming the white-hot potent particles into her body. Her screams give me sick satisfaction. Flesh blackening, it falls in on itself, sending burning remnants into the air like glowing fairy lights.

  They’ve brainwashed me into believing their fabrications for so long. Used me as their puppet, but I won’t be manipulated anymore. Breathing turning labored, I somehow find the stability to switch the torrent off. Power ebbs, receding to a soft hum through my blood.

  Twitching, clawing at her own reptilian skin, Taina disintegrates, fragmenting into a pile ash. Astonished, I stare at what’s left of her.

  There’s no guilt or remorse. I feel nothing.

  “No!” A yell breaks the silence.

  Finding the source, Arianna’s deadly spell hits me with a force that takes me off my feet. Airborne, I’m sent backward air rushing past me.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Raziel

  Jane’s stunned gaze meets mine a split second before she vanishes through the entrance door of the cave and over the edge.

  I move on instinct. Gut churning in fear, arms pumping, I run after her. As I hit the ledge, I dive.

  It’s a sheer drop. Below, I see her hurtling toward the rocks. Jagged, harsh, there’s no way she’ll survive if she smashes into them on impact. Her terrified scream is ripped away on the icy wind as her limbs move helplessly. The mess of her multi-colored hair whips wildly around her beautiful face.

  Agony pulses through my back as I spread my damaged wings. I have no fucking idea how much help they’ll be, but if I can protect her from the fall, it’s worth trying. My ability to fly is all but zero. Adrenaline pumps through my veins. Whatever it takes. I’ll do whatever is needed to reach her.