Had she fought Raum too? Though Ash had already mentioned Raum helping them, she had no recollection of the draconian’s presence.
She looked up at Ash. “Did I hurt you?”
He brushed a hand over her forehead, where something had struck her in the fertilizer explosion. “Don’t you remember?”
She shook her head. “Just ... just flashes. Like a dream. Did I hurt you?”
“Only minor injuries. Lyre and Raum were fine.”
Her eyes narrowed and she gave him a hard look.
He sighed. “I had a few cracked ribs and lost some blood. Already healed. Raum did worse to your ribs.”
She pressed a hand to her chest where it still ached. “He did?”
“You’ll need to tell Lyre right away that you forgive him.”
“For what?”
His fingers closed around her hand and he turned it over. A shiny pink circle marked the center of the fleshy heel of her hand.
“What is that?”
“He shot an arrow through your hand. He also shot you in the leg.”
Her eyes widened. “It wasn’t one of those exploding needle arrows, was it?”
He smiled briefly. “No. But he’s still fretting about your reaction.”
She looked back down at her hand and her stomach twisted. Her throat closed and she had to force the question out. “How many people did I kill?”
His arms slid around her again, pulling her close.
“I don’t know,” he said softly. “But they all would have died anyway. Samael’s company killed everyone at the facility.”
Fresh tears welled in her eyes. Did it matter that they would have probably died anyway? She was the one who had taken their lives.
Ash stroked her hair again. “It’s not your fault. It was that goddamn Sahar. It did the same thing to me.”
She trembled in his arms. Was that all it had been? She’d been afraid of what the vicious rage of the Sahar would do to her if combined with her merciless daemon bloodlust. She’d known she was taking a big risk carrying the Sahar while unable to control shading and her bloodlust, but she’d done it anyway, unwilling to give up the safety blanket of the Stone’s power. It was that same dependence again—instead of depending on Ash, she’d been depending on the Sahar to bail her out.
And she’d killed a lot of people as a result.
“It’s not your fault, Piper,” Ash told her, his voice soft. “You’d just watched your mother die. You weren’t in control.”
Had she been out of control? Had she been a raging monster ... or a ruthless killer? It was so difficult to remember anything, but her vague recollections didn’t match anything she’d experienced before. She didn’t understand. She wasn’t sure she was blameless. She wasn’t sure about anything.
She pressed her face against him, taking slow breaths to calm her shaking hands. He pulled the blanket up over her shoulders, tucking it around them. A wavering smile, hidden against his chest, curved her lips—the powerful, deadly draconian holding her while she wept and wrapping her in blankets to comfort her. Then guilt slashed through her tiny moment of contentment, remorse that she dared smile when her mother’s body was nothing but ashes in the debris of the fertilizer plant.
Ash pulled her closer as she shivered with grief. She let out a shuddering breath, trying to focus on something else.
“Samael destroyed the whole facility,” she whispered. “He destroyed it and killed them all because I went to them with the truth, didn’t he?”
A moment of silence passed before he answered. “I think Samael was planning to eliminate them no matter what. He had to destroy the evidence before someone like Maasehet could start digging for more of his secrets.”
She bit her lower lip, a chill of dread creeping down her spine. “What did his army do after destroying the plant?”
“I don’t know. We didn’t wait around to watch.”
Her feeling of dread grew. Had Samael taken his army back to the Underworld, their mission complete? What if he hadn’t? If he’d brought an army to Earth, the Ra family couldn’t ignore that. They would have to either cede control to Samael or bring in their own army. It could spiral into an all-out daemon war in no time.
She met Ash’s dark, somber eyes and knew he’d already considered everything she was thinking. “This is it, isn’t it? Samael is beginning his next move.”
Samael wanted control of Earth, and he’d been working toward that goal for years, every small step like a move on a chessboard. This could easily be the beginning of the end—the first step toward a war that would end with Hades controlling her world.
“Why are we here?” she demanded. “We can’t do anything in the Underworld. How are we supposed to stop him from here?”
Ash’s eyes were sad as he brushed his fingers over her cheek. “We can’t stop him. We’re just two people without an army.”
She stared at him, desperation rising in her. He was right. Alone, how were they supposed to stop a war between the two most powerful daemon families?
“And you,” he continued, “can’t go back at all. Samael knows you have the Sahar, and so do the Ras. If war is coming, controlling you and the Stone could mean the difference between victory and defeat.”
She curled up against his chest, hiding her face again. He was right about that too. A shiver ran through her as she remembered the look in Samael’s eyes, that gleam of lust for her power. He wanted her as his tool, his weapon. The Ra family wanted the Sahar just as fervently, though she didn’t know if they would want her with it, not after she’d killed their heir.
He squeezed her gently. “It’s not all bad news,” he said. “Come see.”
She blinked in confusion. He pushed to his feet, drew her up with him, and helped wrap the blanket around her shoulders. With an arm around her waist, he guided her to the tent’s entrance and pushed one of the flaps aside, just enough for them to look out.
Shadows streaked the ground from the low evening sun. Unfamiliar trees surrounded them, their roots twisting across the rocky ground. Two dozen yards away, a small fire crackled merrily, surrounded by over a dozen people.
She stared, eyes flashing over the strangers. Seiya and Raum stood a little ways from the fire, talking, while Kiev sat beside an older lady, gesturing as he spoke. A cluster of dark-haired women surrounded Lyre and they suddenly burst into laughter at something he said. Several children sat in the dirt, closest to the warmth of the flames.
“Draconians,” she breathed.
“All the draconians from Asphodel,” Ash said.
She looked up at him, her heart squeezing at the catch in his voice, the husky emotion. He stared at his kin with fierceness shining in his eyes.
“How?” she asked.
“Raum.” He shook his head. “He’s been preparing for years. He’d just been waiting for the right time. As soon as Samael left for Earth for the Gaian operation, Raum freed them and rushed them out before anyone knew what he’d done. There are none left there—no one Samael can hurt to force us to return. No draconian will ever serve Hades again.”
Her eyes moved from one draconian to the next. A boy around Kiev’s age held a dragonet in his arms as he listened to Kiev talk—likely an animated tale of his recent adventures. So many pale, gaunt faces, but they looked so happy, free for the first time.
She lifted her gaze to Ash, smiling. “This is amazing. You had no idea Raum was planning it?”
“No.” His expression darkened briefly. “He didn’t trust me not to betray the others to protect Seiya.”
“Oh,” she said. She was starting to get an idea about why Ash and Raum didn’t get along. “Would you have?”
He hesitated. “I don’t know.”
She nodded and leaned her head on his shoulder. “I understand.”
They stood in silence for a few minutes, watching the draconians. Lyre’s hair was like a pale beacon among all the dark heads. The draconian women were mesmerized. They’d probably never seen an incubus before
. They’d probably never been outside Asphodel before. Piper’s heart broke for them. But they were free now. It was truly the lone ray of light in the darkness that had fallen over the last twenty-four hours.
“What now?” she asked quietly.
“Raum has a location in mind already. This is as close as we could get by ley line. From here, we fly.” He lifted a hand and pointed.
Beyond the canopy of trees, the jagged peaks of towering mountains rose, scraping at the sky. A lonely moon hovered just above the tallest peak, her two sisters out of sight. Golden light from the setting sun bathed the western faces, casting harsh shadows over every crag of rock.
She swallowed hard, her eyes burning. So they would retreat into the remote mountains of the Underworld, hiding from Samael while whatever happened on Earth happened without them. It had all been for nothing, hadn’t it? If she’d just kept her mouth shut and her suspicions to herself, she never would have dragged her mother to Habinal City to be murdered—murdered for no reason.
“It isn’t over, Piper,” Ash said.
She tilted her head back to find him looking down at her, his grey eyes somehow both fierce and compassionate.
“This isn’t the end. We might not be able to stop whatever Samael is planning, but we can make his life hell.” His hand touched her face, fingers brushing across her cheek. His voice softened. “We will make him pay.”
His hand curled around the back of her neck and as he drew her lips to his, she knew he was right. His mouth closed over hers, intense and urgent, and she slid her arms around his neck, pulling him closer with equal need.
This wasn’t the end. If war was coming, they alone couldn’t stop it. But they wouldn’t give up. They wouldn’t run away. And together, somehow, they would make Samael pay for each and every one of his crimes.
To be concluded in
Book 5 of the Steel & Stone series:
UNLEASH THE STORM
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you for reading Reap the Shadows and for your support of the series! I can hardly believe how far we’ve come, with only one more book to go in Piper and Ash’s journey.
Thank you to Breanna, for never forgetting to ask me how writing is going and being ready to drop everything to read a chapter. Thank you to Elizabeth for another fantastic editing job; your eye for detail continues to be priceless. And thank you to my amazing husband; there’s so much you do for me and so many ways you support me that I can only sum it up by saying ... thank you for everything. Absolutely everything. You’re the best.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Annette Marie lives in Western Canada with her husband and their adorable, hell-raising kitten Caesar. She’s decided one cat is probably enough.
Reap the Shadows (Steel & Stone Book 4) Page 29