With a nervous laugh, he nudged her. “So I could meet you!”
“Oh, whatever! Really, why?” She nudged him back.
Because it’s safe here. “I don't know where else to go. I have no family, no life direction, and my grades suck too much to get into college. My fault, but the idea was to keep flunking so they had to keep me until I could figure it all out.”
When she frowned, he instantly wished he hadn't said anything. He was on the receiving end of her pity, and he didn't want that.
It was getting harder for him to keep things nonchalant. “Chey, it's not a big deal. I'm gonna figure it out. I've got a few ideas now on what I can do. Which is good because the school kind of wants me to graduate this summer.” He glanced at her, curious of her reaction.
Cheyenne cocked her head to the side and gazed up at him again with both eyebrows raised. “Who wants you to graduate this year?”
“The school board.”
“I didn't realize the school board cared so much about your education,” she mumbled.
“I didn't either, but they do.”
“And what happens if you don't?”
“I'll probably be kicked out either way,” he said.
Her frown deepened. “How long have you known about this?”
Groaning, he shook his head. “Not long, if that's what you're wondering. Either way, it doesn't matter how long it’s been because I figured something out and I'm not so worried about what I'm going to do after the fact anymore.”
“That's good, I guess. That you have things figured out, I mean. Why didn't you tell me sooner? About them kicking you out, I mean.”
“I didn't want you to do the girl thing and freak out. If I told you before I had a plan, you'd have worried yourself sick.”
“I'll forgive you for it this time. Next time, I might not. Secrets aren't something I like.” She gazed down at her hands. “Most of my life was kept from me, you know? And when I was with Zes, I continued to live in secrets and it destroyed our relationship and made everything worse. I don't want to go through that again, and I don't want you to either. After a while mysteries get exhausting — especially when they don't seem like they'll ever be solved.”
He bowed. “Thank you for being so gracious, Princess. I'll be sure to not keep any more secrets from you… after the surprise of course.”
“Ugh, you and that surprise again, you're killing me here!”
“I'll stop mentioning it then.”
“Thank you.” She rubbed his arm with her hand. “I'm glad you have a plan, and I hope I'm part of it. There's so much you can offer the world. It's nice to see you're finally realizing that.”
“You make me feel like I can do anything.”
“Because you can.” She kissed his nose.
Things couldn't get any more perfect between them. His Cheyenne was awake and thriving and more beautiful than ever. He leaned down to kiss her lips, savoring the soft warmth coming from off them. Just knowing she believed in him was enough to make him believe in himself. Of course, she was the only one who ever had that kind of confidence in him. Usually, he was on his own. He certainly had an ego big enough to help him get by, but having someone else in his corner made everything he was doing worthwhile.
I just wish I didn't have to keep so much from her. This is killing me. Taking in a cleansing breath, he was ready to take a leap of faith. Shouting from up ahead stopped him from doing so.
“Stay out of my business Akuji, or I'll make you regret it!” The distinct voice of Johnathan Orinda echoed across the school grounds.
“It is my business if you are doing something that is going to hurt your wife and your unborn child! If she will not stand against you, I will do so for her!” Mr. Thantos was shouting, and Denver had never heard the dark angel raise his voice before in all of his time at Vala.
Curious, Denver and Cheyenne ran to the entrance of the main building. The two men were fighting right outside of its doors. Or rather, Mr. Orinda was lying on the snow and Mr. Thantos towered over him, wings out stretched. Behind him was a sobbing Mrs. Orinda.
She shook her head. “Please, don't hurt him.” Denver realized then that she could have been talking to either man. Mr. Thantos might have been an angel, but Mr. Orinda was also a powerful warlock with a number of tricks up his sleeve.
“It's not what you think,” she whispered.
Shaking his head, Mr. Thantos stormed back into the building mumbling a sour sounding “Congratulations.”
“Are you okay?” Mrs. Orinda knelt down to help her husband up. He took her hand, grumbling quietly.
Denver watched the two of them, wondering what had even happened to begin with. Even he had to admit it seemed too interesting of a story to pass up despite his hate of gossip. But, the glare Johnathan was giving him was enough to make him tug Cheyenne along toward the dorms. Something in Denver's gut told him he was the reason for that fight.
Chapter Fifteen
Denver extended his hand toward the light which guarded his room. He'd been working on learning how to enhance his wards. Since no one else seemed inclined to help him, he figured he'd take some of Jonathan Orinda's advice and start seeing what his limits were. As it turned out, his limit was his own imagination.
Granted, he wasn't the most creative person on the planet, but when it came to knowing how to protect himself, he could think of some good ideas on how to stretch the light so it covered more space. He could also come up with plenty of fun ways to end Lucien's sorry excuse of a life. Maybe that made Denver vindictive and just as evil as the demon, but enough was enough. Lucien couldn't continue living, or at the very least he couldn't continue to roam free.
The light Denver was playing around with grew, stretching itself thin so that its appearance became less of a blinding white and more of a hazy covering. A weak ward, but it was still a ward all the same. Perhaps it would be enough to slow anymore demon assassins down. He wasn't sure. Ceete had been powerful. Would the others be just as strong?
I could make the light stronger. But to do so would have involved taking more of his own internal light from within his own heart. It wasn't a complicated spell by any means, but he was afraid to let too much of his “goodness” go. That small light in his heart was the only thing that made him different from Lucien. If light was the only thing to penetrate and defeat darkness, he'd need as much of it as possible. A shame, because the light was fun to play around with — much more fun than the darkness, and he had more dark than light inside of his heart.
Ceete was sitting in the corner of his room, watching from a chair with her feet kicked up onto his desk. “I think you are getting a handle on the basics of your magic, but you will never understand how to use it fully until you gain all of your power.”
“I know. I plan on getting all of my magic soon.” Denver grunted as he called the light back into him. He replaced it with darkness, working on conjuring up a black orb of magic. Once it was around the size of a softball he tossed it between his hands.
Slowly, Ceete sat up, her feet moving to the floor. “You mean you are going to see your father and have him give you your inheritance?”
“That's the plan.”
“He is crazy now. He might not want to.”
“Then I'll have to go with my backup plan.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Which is?”
“Put him out of his misery,” Denver said softly. “He shares a cell with the Devil himself. That has to be a form of torture.”
“If only you knew.” She shivered. Odd, to see a demon act afraid of something.
Denver sat down on his bed. “You need to tell me everything you know about that dungeon so I can make it down there alive.”
“There are three-hundred floors. Lucien has placed traps in the lower ones. I'm sure you can understand why. He knew that eventually you'd learn about who you are, and he needs to keep you away from your father if he has any hope of taking your inheritance. However, the traps shouldn'
t be anything you can't handle.”
“Yeah, I kind of already set one of them off,” he mumbled. “Missed getting turned into a pancake. Let me tell you, it was a lot of fun.” He pressed his lips together as he thought. I wonder if my magic connects me to the castle itself. Maybe I could use it to sense the traps up ahead. A small smile crept across Ceete's lips. He was pretty sure she was reading his mind then. Why not read my mind, right?
She laughed and nodded. “You are quite funny, my lord.”
“Stop flirting with me, we're family,” he teased.
“We are,” she said in all seriousness.
Pulling his knees closer to him, Denver studied her features to see if he could find some kind of genetic resemblance to her. “How exactly are we related? It'd be awesome to know.”
“Your mother was my sister. She was quite a bit younger than me — at least a couple of thousand years. She's also a different kind of demon, and a creation of one of Hades the First's much later descendants.”
Not many things could make his jaw drop in surprise, but that was one of them. “My mom is a demon?”
“Yes, a lesser one. I believe a demon of lust. Her purpose was to cause the human men to stray. She and your father spent a lot of time with one another in the underworld. One thing led to another and you were born. They were married for convenience and political reasons. They enjoyed one another so it worked out well enough, but it wasn't a marriage of love.”
Ceete stood and crossed the room, stopping in front of him. “Your father was not one to have long-lasting relationships. A trait you seemed to have acquired until recently. They both cared for you. He loved you with all his heart, and you were possibly the only thing that she came close to loving.”
He chuckled. “I have memories of her rocking me. Being the son of a demon explains a lot. I know I had a curse on me, but there are other things. My desire to drink blood, among other things.”
Ceete laughed as well, her head fell back and her vibrant red hair landed in front of her face. She blew the strands away. “Blood, yes, the euphoric taste. Oh, how she loved to drink. That was what she liked most about your father, his blood. The stronger the connection, the sweeter the taste, the greater the high.”
“Great, so that's why I like to drink from Cheyenne so much.” He shook his head. “She's literally my drug, the whole high-based-on-intimacy thing is at least slightly romantic. At least I like to think so.”
“You are as prepared for this journey as you can be. Except…”
He raised an eyebrow. “Except?”
Ceete gazed at him with such intensity even he was startled by it. She grabbed his hands. “You must still go through the final bath to bind the soul of Hades the First to yours.”
“Oh, that. Right…” Denver had been hoping he could avoid that part of the reincarnation process. After he'd done it to Cheyenne, Persephone kept trying to take control of her body. He didn't want Hades to try and do the same thing to him.
“If you are to make things right again, it must be done,” Ceete insisted. She forced him to stand. “I've prepared everything needed to perform the spell now. You have nothing to fear.”
“Not so sure about that,” he muttered, but he didn't see a point in arguing with a demon assassin. Allegiance or not, she could still break his neck with her pinky if she wanted to, or render him unconscious and perform the spell on him anyway. He grabbed his coat; he knew exactly where they had to go.
****
Under the gazebo was more than just a tunnel with pretty wall art. On the other side of the tunnel was an exotic garden. Denver only liked it because it reminded him of Cheyenne. She smelled like flowers and cinnamon candy, a curious combination of softness and spice.
The garden in the cave was where Ceete took him.
“Hades the First built this place as a shrine for his love,” she said as they walked through the tunnel. She gazed up at the mural and Denver could have sworn he saw tears in her eyes.
Denver nodded as he listened. “Not surprised. Chey likes flowers, so I'm sure every heir to Persephone that's ever existed loves them too.”
“It was to show her the promise of her greenery that can be found in the underworld now. To show that he could create life anywhere and out of anything. The water here will be pure enough for us to perform the spell.”
“I remember that much,” he said. “About the water, I mean. This is where I brought Cheyenne when I bonded her to the soul of Persephone the First. Something tells me I did it wrong, though, because of all the nasty side effects Cheyenne is having.”
Ceete shrugged. “We'll see.”
The scent of flowers filled his nostrils as he entered the garden. Denver took off his shoes and socks so he wouldn't disturb the lush grass under his feet. Not to mention, he loved how the grass felt between his toes. It was soft and cool against his bare skin. All around him were flowers spanning every color of the rainbow. Most were far larger than a normal flower should have been, some being big enough for him to use as a chair. Tiny pink buds decorated vines all along the walls of the cave. So much life in such a small space.
Positive energy surrounded him. Denver didn't have the same kind of connection with the flowers as Cheyenne did, but he had a suspicion that the plants liked his company — if only because of her. She had told him they knew more than most people did. Perhaps they knew who he really was and how important he was to their mistress.
He looked over at Ceete. “Do you care if I strip? Wet jeans are not my thing.”
“Whatever is most comfortable for you. I certainly do not care. I swaddled your naked body when you were an infant, so it's not like I'd be seeing anything new,” Ceete said, walking to the pool of water toward the back of the cave. There was a small creek running through the cave, which emptied into the pool. The soft trickle of water always relaxed him for some reason. Even before he'd met Cheyenne, he had enjoyed going to the cave. It had been his escape from the real world, a place untouched by Lucien and his darkness.
Denver scoffed. “There's a big difference between a baby and an adult body.”
Giggling, Ceete pulled her hair back into a ponytail. “There is nothing about you I would lust over.”
“Good.” He pulled off his shirt and tossed it into the grass before wiggling out of his jeans and kicking those away. The boxers stayed on. Normally, he wouldn't care about how much anyone saw of his body. Ceete wasn't anyone.
Once he was undressed, he stepped into the water, glad that it was as warm as the rest of the cave. “Okay, let's get this over with, shall we?”
Ceete walked into the water and without any warning, she forced him under it. He barely had time to hold his breath.
She's not going to kill me. This is all part of the process. He had to remind himself over and over again. Ceete was only doing the exact same thing he'd done to Cheyenne. He'd held her under the water until she had passed out. Not one of his finer moments, that he was sure of. At the time, he would have done anything to get out of Lucien's employment.
Denver refused to miss out on the adventure by being weak. His lungs felt as if they were on fire, but something else was happening inside of him as well. Unable to hold his breath for any longer, his lungs filled with water — and it was like he took in the richest, most satisfying air, in his entire life.
Thank you, a soft voice said inside of his head.
Denver was almost whole.
Chapter Sixteen
Passing out in the pool of water hadn't been something Denver had intended on doing. He'd done it anyway, he was sure of it. Because the last thing he remembered was gazing up at Ceete through the water, feeling more alive than any other time in his life, and then the next thing he knew he was lying in his bed back at the dorm room. Unlike Cheyenne, he remembered what had happened. Ceete hadn't performed a second spell to make him forget the whole thing. Denver was awake and aware of his ancestor, Hades, living inside of him. His head throbbed, but the rest of him felt amazing
. Energy coursed through his entire body.
Not wanting to waste it, he rolled out of bed, and jogged to his bathroom. Two painkillers, and a shower later, and he was as good as new. Too bad it was a weekday. He'd have loved to take Cheyenne out on the town and made the most of the day. However, being awake in time to get breakfast from the cafeteria before classes, for a change, was a plus. Usually, he skipped breakfast and kept a snack in his bag.
Denver hadn't even realized how early it was until he glanced outside his bedroom window and saw the sun had just risen. What time did I wake up? This is crazy. He gathered up his things and ran outside. The urge to do flips through the courtyard tempted him. What would people think if they saw him acting so happy? Probably that I'm either possessed, or high. He snickered.
His good mood deflated when he noticed Cheyenne walking through the courtyard with Zes. Not just walking, clinging to him. Her arm was draped on his arm and she was laughing at one of his stupid jokes. Zes had a crummy sense of humor. Unless she was laughing at his “adorable”quirkiness. Either way, Denver didn't like what he was seeing. Gag me.
If the two had just been talking, Denver wouldn't have felt a need to stalk across the courtyard in a jealous rage. Given what he was seeing with his own eyes, he was pretty justified in his reaction.
“Eh-hem!” Denver cleared his throat loudly. She rolled her eyes, which was not like her at all. He especially didn't think Zes would have been capable of giving a glare so sharp it gave even him shivers.
Zes folded his arms in front of his chest. Cheyenne didn't bother to let go of him. She touched his shoulder, petting him like he was a dog.
“What do you want?” Zes snapped.
Denver ignored him. “'Sup, Chey?”
She scowled. “I'm going to eat. Repeat, what do you want?”
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