From Ashes and Embers (Ceasefire Series Book 3)

by Claire Marta

  “How can you even know that?”

  “I don’t understand it, but I feel it right down to the depth of my soul. This is where Lucifer tempted Eve with the apple of knowledge.”

  “But it’s a wasteland…” I point out, wrinkling my nose.

  Shifting slightly, his lips graze my temples in a tender kiss. “Maybe it was tainted after what happened…I don’t know, but I’d bet hard cash that this is the garden.”

  Awareness of our surroundings filtering in, I register the silence. “The storm has stopped.”

  “Hmm, it was over a few hours ago, but I didn’t want to disturb you.”

  Reality returns with a bump; this haven is an illusion. Wasting time will get us killed.

  “We better get moving.” Sitting up, I push the tumble of my messy, crazy hair out of my face. “Arianna will already be hunting for us.”

  Snatching up his shirt, Raziel tugs it over his head, covering the delicious sight of his muscular torso. “How far do you think we have left until the portal?”

  “A few hours, maybe, if we’re going in the right direction.” Using the trunk for support, I get to my feet. Fingertips caressing the knobbly bark, I silently give thanks to the tree for being here in our time of need.

  “I’ll go first,” he informs me, rising to his own. “If there are any surprises waiting for us, I’ll deal with them.”

  The color has returned to his cheeks. From the way he prowls around the limited space, it’s easy to see some of his strength has returned. Our reprieve is at an end. Rested, focused, I only hope it’s enough to get us out of here.

  “I can take care of myself,” I assure him.

  “Oh, you don’t need to remind me of that, sweetheart. I’m well aware of what you can do when you get angry.”

  “Does it frighten you?” I tease.

  “The fact you can melt my balls off if I piss you off?” His hand moves to cup his groin protectively. “I’m petrified, so it’s a good thing I can’t go without your pussy. My dick is too addicted to the sugary high of having you come on the end of it.” Giving me a wink at my giggle, he cautiously climbs through the hole. “All clear.”

  Unease hits me the second I step out. The rain has lifted the veil of fog. Licking the ground in white shreds, it coils ankle high. Above, swollen grey clouds hang ominously, preventing the sun from shining fully. Wide, open the heathland is dominated by coarse shrubs and plants. Far off in the distance, a ring of large, grey standing boulders marks the portal.

  “Over there,” I tell him, gesturing. “There’s where we need to go.”

  “Let’s get moving then.” Lacing his fingers through mine, he pulls me in the direction.

  The walk will be long, but I know we can make it before sunset. Swinging my gaze behind to take in the mountains, it freezes on the two forms that flicker into life.

  The Witches.

  “Raz.” I don’t need to say anymore. The terror in my voice is enough to convey what I’ve seen.

  Spinning on his heels, he confronts the sisters. “Shit.”

  They approach, the mist trailing around them in deathly tentacles. Slaves to their whim, they’d mastered it a long time ago. No longer hiding in their human forms, their green mottled scales gleam in the muted sunlight.

  “We will avenge Tiana!” Arianna calls, hatred thrumming from every inch of her hideous form.

  “No, you’ll be joining her,” Raziel says with so much certainty it gives me hope that he’s right.

  Unsheathing the knife on my waistband, I place the handle in his palm. “Here.”

  Shoving it back into my hand, he shakes his head. “You need it.”

  “I can fry an egg at fifty paces with my bare palms. I think it will be more use to you,” I remind him, hoping that it’s still true.

  Before he can answer, magic prickles the air.

  “Surrender. You’re no match for us, Jane,” Arianna interrupts us in a hiss. “The Nephilim is weak and wingless. He cannot defend you.”

  Raziel gives me a hard, intense look. Somehow, I know he’s telling me he’s prepared to fight to the death for me with or without his abilities. A warrior to the end even if things look helpless. My solider. Not out of obligation or orders. From love.

  Padding barefoot toward us, their confidence is intimidating. Calista peels off her focus, redirecting on the male at my side. The sinister expression she’s wearing sends a shudder down my spine. She means to finish what they started with his wings. Blind him. Remove his arms and legs until he has no way to escape.

  A big rough, callused hand brushes the back of mine. “Remember your powers are connected to your emotions. Don’t be frightened to let go. Let it consume you. Forget everything else. They won’t show you any mercy.” Raz’s eyes are lit with battle and resolve. “So, return the favor, and don’t stop until both of them are nothing but dust. No pity. No compassion. They don’t deserve it, Jane.”

  There’re so many unsaid things hanging between us. Heartache and pain. Understanding and acceptance. Heart rioting in my chest, I watch him move away. The old tree stands bleak and silent, to our left a dark shadow against the grey washed backdrop. Memories of our shared moments within its shelter cram my thoughts, but I bury them deep.

  Concentrating, I reach for the primal force lying dormant in the center of my soul.

  These bitches murdered my parents. I won’t let that go unpunished.

  Awareness flickers in one tiny bright flare. It curls through my veins, throbbing in time with the rapid beats of my heart.

  They’ve lied to me.

  Used me.

  Influenced the whole of my life onto a path they’ve dictated.

  Beat me.

  Brainwashed me.

  Forged me into something I know I shouldn’t be. Stole the life I should have had and made me their slave.

  The flare within becomes aglow with anger and pent up resentment.

  My life is my own. No one will ever tell me what to do again. Raziel has set me on a new path. I may not have their magic, experience, or age, but I know what I harbor out classes anything they can conjure. The blood of gods runs through my veins. Eons old. Potent, forceful. Arianna wants the heritage in my DNA, then I’ll give her it all.

  We circle each other.

  Somewhere at the corner of my mind, I’m aware of Raziel evading Calista’s magical blasts. Although he can’t teleport or use his wings, he’s still agile and fast. A veteran in warfare. Capable of anything he sets his mind to.

  “You might have caught Tiana by surprise, but that will not be the case with me, girl.” Arianna’s voice is tight with wrath. She watches me, unblinking, with a reptilian stare. No sign of deterioration shows in her irises. With a sick feeling, I comprehend then these eyes are new. Plucked from the male they’d been feasting on when we’d made our escape. Hips swaying, she pads barefoot toward me, her green skin bright in the overcast light. Mist curling around her legs, it bends out toward me, licking at the air in hungry tongues.

  Her intimidation has worked in the past. Sent me cowering meekly and obediently but not this time. She’s taught me that the powerful inflict pain and hold sway over the weak, and now I’m no longer fragile and manageable.

  Death tingles from my fingertips. A desire to lay waste and dismantle. To raze and flatten whatever stands in my path. “I thought you needed me alive?”

  Her grin shows off rows of sharp yellow teeth. “I do, but that doesn’t mean your mind needs to stay intact. I intend to leave you an empty shell we can breed and use.”

  Bred.

  Whored out.

  Nothing but their servant.

  With a roar of fury, everything within me is flung headlong. Bursting from every cell, every molecule. Luminous light spills wildly from my outstretched palms. It corkscrews through the air, unstoppable and deadly. Reflexes ready, Arianna pivots. Blast shooting off into the distance, it becomes a glittering blur.

  Magic thrashes its way across my breasts, slammi
ng me backwards. Rough bark meets my spine. Tasting blood in my mouth, I spit it to the coarse grassy ground.

  “You have Persephone’s eyes. Your great-grandmother also chose to look at us with the loathing I see in yours now.” Arianna comments, slinking after me with the cold indifference of a snake, her spell ebbing in her claws. “I’ve always wanted to pluck them out and wear them as my own. Now I’m free to do so.”

  I grimace pain from her blast still stinging through my skin. “Even if you win, your plan will fail.”

  “Why? Because the Nephilim’s seed might not be potent enough? We have potions and charms to make sure his cum produces the outcome we need.”

  I shake my head, the one secret she doesn’t know, although harrowing, it brings a bitter smile to my mouth. “I’m not talking about him.”

  “What then? You?” Arianna snorts. “We checked your fertility from the day you first bled. Your womb is ripe and ready to be filled.”

  “That was before the Devil cursed me.”

  The witch stills, calculation and shrewdness crawling across her grotesque face. Raising my head defiantly, I let her see the truth in my expression. Every damning detail.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Raziel

  Pain detonates through my ribs. I don’t even realize I’m airborne until the ground comes up to greet me. Fear jolts me to full awareness. I’m not going to lose Jane. I’ll battle harder than I ever have before. To save my woman, I’ll risk everything.

  No pain.

  No victory.

  My wings may be tattered and torn, my strength not fully restored, but I have my cunning. Study my opponent. It’s the first thing the Devil taught me. Find a crack, a slither of weakness in the armor, and exploit it. You don’t always need to have muscle and powers to bring an adversary down.

  Rebelliously, I push up quickly onto my feet.

  “That all you got?” I taunt, dusting down my ripped jeans. The scaly female’s asset lies in magic. Her hands. In combat, she’s only as fast as her spells and the slash of her claws. At close quarters, her physical weakness shows. Her eyesight also isn’t as keen as mine. I’ve noted the lapses in her vision. Striking out seconds too late.

  Long thin tongue flicking out, it licks along her lips. “I should have been allowed to take your vocal cords along with your wings. Cutting you up is going to be a treat. Once Jane has conceived, your cock will be mine.”

  “I’d rather fuck a cactus then put my dick anywhere near one of your holes.”

  Her laugh is humorless. “Oh no, sweet Angel. I plan to slice it off and eat it.”

  A howl of pure madness splits through the second of silence. “No! That cannot be. Damn the Devil and his malicious tricks. I’ll peel the flesh from his baby and feed it to his mate!”

  Scaled head turning, the female I’m fighting centers on the commotion. Taking the distraction, I charge before she can raise a hand. We crash to the floor, rolling, punching. Claws rake the side of my face. Shoving her off me, I lunge at her throat with the knife. At the last second, she raises her hand to block it. Blade cleaving easily, I ram it through her palm. Blood gushes from the corners of the wound. Screaming, lips curling up, the bitch goes for my eyes with her free hand. Clasping the wrist, I twist until it breaks with a snap. Knee on her chest, I keep her trapped. Her scream of rage morphs into a screech as I slide the dagger deeper. Forcing it down, I hammer it into the ground. Pinned like a bug to a board, she squirms, desperate to free herself.

  “No. You can’t do this to me.” The wildness in her milky eyes betrays her fear.

  Grasping her restrained wrist sticky and wet with the blood spurting from her wound, I rotate it until I feel the fragile bones shatter. “Watch me.”

  Writhing, bucking, she spits in my face. “You can’t have her. She’s ours. We laid claim to her even before she was born.”

  “Jane belongs to no one. Her life is her own and her choice what to do with it from now on.” Removing the blade from her palm, I let the knife slide right into her heart. Disbelief flickers in her wide credulous eyes before they turn glassy.

  “No!” Arianna’s shriek is high and ear shattering from somewhere behind me. Swivelling, I’m just in time to see her swing her arms around, magic streaming from her taloned hands. Rolling to the side, I manage to dodge it. In the same instant, I see Jane unleash herself. Everything happens in slow motion. The redheaded monster twisting clear. Pulsing, roiling, Jane’s power blisters the air. Hitting me square in the chest, it rips through me with the force of an erupting volcano. Even though she blasts me once, it’s set off a chain-reaction. Red hot as Magma and just as destructive. It sears through my flesh, bone, blood. My scream of agony is deafened by Jane’s own desolate cry. The laugher of the last witch left standing rings through my ears.

  I’m going to die.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Jane

  “Raziel!” My scream is hoarse in my raw throat. I’m barely aware of the slice of the cold wind as it whips my hair into a frenzy around my face.

  He drops to his knee in the coarse grass, the stunned expression he’s wearing decimating me.

  I’ve killed him.

  Condemned him to death.

  My chaotic energy dismantling him into nothing but dust. My heart crumbles to an empty husk in my chest. Catastrophic. Brutal.

  All my life I’ve been alone, hungering for love. Raziel offered me everything my life has lacked. Once again, it’s been snatched away, yet this time, by my own hands. We’ve been doomed from the start.

  “Watching him die by your doing is all the sweeter.” Arianna’s laugh is scorn filled. “You may have Hades’ blood running through your veins, but you are no Goddess.” Shifting her fighting stance, the gossamer thin material of her skirt floats around her ankles like the mist still clinging so lovingly to her grotesque form. The smugness on her reptilian face only gouges my pain of loss deeper.

  My gaze hardens, mouth a slashing thin line. “I no longer have anything to lose. I’d rather die than be your slave.”

  My reason to fight is burning to ash. I have nothing left to battle for. The future lays as barren as this landscape around me. I’ve tasted love. Seen freedom. There will be no going back. If my destiny is to die here, then so be it. We might not be together in life, but I’ll willingly be with Raziel in death.

  “You’re no longer any use to me, but be sure I will have a throne,” Arianna assures me. “I will make Lucifer pay for what he did by taking his infant child and raising her as my own. Once she comes of age, I’ll breed her for a male heir and take Hell as my Kingdom instead.”

  I may hate Lucifer with a passion but not his child. Innocent, blameless, she doesn’t bear the sins of her father. The thought of this creature snatching and raising her brings bitterness and rage. She would live the life I’d been forced to endure. The beatings. Humiliations. Made to feel less than nothing, my only worth the linage I bear and could pass on. Each flaw they’d made me believe I have to keep me meek and submissive.

  “I won’t let you take baby Juliana.” My heart vibrates with vengeance. This witch won’t leave this battle field breathing. She’s a monster from the past that should already be extinct.

  She cocks her head, a twisted smile teasing her lips. “You’ll be dead, Jane, and there will be no one to stop me. Not even the Devil himself will be able to find us. How do you think we’ve survived for so long?”

  Chapter Forty

  Raziel

  Legs giving out, I’m barely aware of my knees hitting the ground.

  Everything is blurred. Each cell in my body on fire.

  Hands spread out in front of me, I see cinders spark beneath the flesh sparkling, glittering. Before my eyes they blackened and carbonize. Nerve endings overloading with sensation, it threatens to drag me into unconsciousness.

  Jane.

  She’s fighting alone.

  Trying to survive Arianna.

  I can’t fail her.

  Won
’t break my vow to protect her, this time.

  A veil of red descends over my vision. Crystal clear, it shrouds my world in crimson.

  There’s a trembling in my soul. A reckoning.

  Addictive darkness pulls me under, bursting free.

  All becomes fury, wrath.

  I want to survive.

  There will be no surrender to death.

  I’m not done.

  I’m a fighter and won’t back down.

  Fuck fate.

  This is not how it ends.

  Not burnt alive like my mother. I will not submit. Not roll over like a fucking wounded animal and accept it.

  Jane’s decimating power continues to pulse through every particle of my frame. Primeval. Archaic. Something shifts. A tiny ripple. I feel a burning in my blood, infusing me with energy. Wild, dangerous, it matches the force trying to destroy me.

  I embrace it with everything I have. It feels right. A touch of something I’ve always had slumbering dormant. Deliciously black, peppered in corruption and sin.

  The blaze charring my flesh draws upward, dancing above my skin. Licking along my arms they converge in my palms. Heady, an overwhelming high, I marvel at the beauty. Hungry, crackling it leaps from hand to hand.

  A weapon.

  All Those centuries working for the Devil and it’s made me who I am, and nothing is going to stop me now. Not some forgotten witch or even Lucifer himself.

  Attention flickering up, I find Jane in the middle of a battle with Arianna. They’re both unaware of me. Thought I was dead. Thrusting my palms out, I let the inferno fuelling my soul loose. Roaring outward in an arc, it lashes through the hot swirling air. It catches Arianna’s hair alight, the force sending her hurtling backward to meld with the tree. The flames rolling around her figure consume quickly. There’s no escape. Latching onto the gnarled bark, it wastes no time devouring the dead trunk.