“The Guardians are prohibited in my domain.” Kala sounded infuriated by the breach. “That wasn’t a random probe. They’re searching for your pet, Gabriel.”
“What do you mean, they backed off?” Gabe glared at her. “They never back off.”
“Yet they did.” Kala’s wings shimmered in outrage. “The question is, why?”
Chapter 30
Aurora
“I don’t know.” Aurora glanced at the prisoners sprawled on the floor. None of them were moving. “They reached for me, and then they just … stopped.”
“I’m taking you home.”
And she knew that once he got her there, he’d never allow her to leave the island again.
She backed up another step.
“No. Wait. Don’t you see what this means? Your protection is working far more than you thought it would.” He’d told her she had negated his protection by breaching dimensions. And although it hadn’t been enough to hold back the Guardians on Eta Hyperium, clearly that wasn’t the case anymore. She had no idea why the dynamics had shifted, but more to the point it appeared Gabe didn’t, either. “It means I can come with you to help rescue Evalyne.”
“Is this really a human?” Kala sounded fascinated. “It behaves like a fucking goddess. I’ve seen the aura of archangels’ pets before, but they’ve never looked like this one’s.”
“You’re not going anywhere near the Guardians’ Voids,” Gabe said, ignoring Kala’s remarks. “It’s too late for Evalyne.”
Ice slithered through her heart. What had he discovered from raiding the pirates’ minds?
“They killed her before handing her over?”
“No, they delivered her three months ago.”
Three months. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what Evalyne had gone through, but why was he so sure they were too late to rescue her?
“But you can’t know for sure she’s dead.”
“A human is questioning the word of the Archangel Gabriel and is still in possession of all its faculties? What’s going on?”
Gabe shot a toxic glance at Kala but didn’t respond to her question.
“The Voids where the Guardians live are devastating to archangels. If Evalyne truly possesses our blood, then she died weeks ago.”
She must have misunderstood him. “You don’t mean you’d die if you tried to rescue Evalyne? How is that possible?”
He gripped her hand and pulled her close. “Through an agonizing process of disintegration until there’s nothing left.” He turned to Kala, who looked intrigued by that revelation. “I’ll be in contact when I’ve spoken to the Premier of Andromeda. Let me know when you’ve exterminated the cell responsible.”
And then he teleported them back to his island.
* * *
Gabe
Gabe held onto Aurora after they arrived home, and the way she kept her arms around him with her head against his shoulder was a balm for his outrage against the pirates. But it wasn’t enough to calm the frantic thunder in his mind or the ugly fear that gripped his heart.
The Guardians had come for her again. And because he had been intent on extracting every last fragment of information from the guilty, he hadn’t been aware.
Ice shivered through his veins, and one terrifying truth pounded through his brain.
I nearly lost her.
And he would have, if the Guardians hadn’t retreated voluntarily.
Yet bound inextricably with the dread was a soul-destroying revelation and it didn’t matter how fiercely he tried to deny it.
If she died because of his negligence, the fabric of his existence would unravel. But it wasn’t just guilt at having failed to protect her that corroded his soul. It was the horrifying prospect of losing her that clawed through his heart.
He didn’t need to examine her aura in order to see what had baffled Kala. He knew why the Guardians could no longer touch Aurora.
Kala had seen the glowing halo of love and devotion in Aurora’s aura. Something the demon would have never encountered before. Since the beginning, archangels had taken mortals as lovers and given them their protection, but not for millennia before Kala’s birth had an archangel …
Fallen.
The only way Aurora could be safe from the Guardians’ clutches outside his island was if she was an Immortal’s beloved.
Eleni is my beloved.
There was no decree written in blood, but he’d always believed archangels could have only one beloved. Wasn’t that the way it should be?
Archangels didn’t fall lightly.
But against all the odds he had fallen again. For Aurora. And by doing so, he had given her the ultimate protection.
His love.
Despite Zad’s assurance that by loving Aurora he didn’t betray Eleni, guilt scorched through him. He should have seen this coming, should have prevented it. Although how could the inevitable be prevented?
He had told her things he’d never shared with another living being. Because, at primal level, he’d recognized she was his equal. And always had been.
But he couldn’t tell her. Not yet. Telling her would force him to face the knowledge she was mortal and he an archangel, and unlike his Eleni, Aurora didn’t even have the advantage of archangelic blood to extend her fleeting, fragile, existence.
Vertigo slammed through him, vicious and raw. This was why he’d denied it. Why he hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it.
Because Aurora would die, and he would once again have to endure.
Except things had changed.
She possesses a soul.
She could be reborn. And he would search for her, life after life, eternal.
But he still didn’t want her to die.
Aurora stirred, and with deep reluctance he loosened his grip on her. She eased back just far enough so she could look at him, and her eyes enslaved, just as they had enslaved him from the first moment he’d seen her.
“How do you know about the Voids, Gabe?” Her voice was soft, as if she knew this was something he’d never spoken of before.
Yet he’d told her so much of his life. As his beloved, she had the right to know everything.
Even if she didn’t know who she truly was. Or what she meant to him.
She was the reason for his existence.
But even now, with her, he didn’t want to talk about it. Yet knew he must.
“After Eleni and …” Helena. He should tell her about Helena, but her name lodged in his throat. They would talk of his daughter another time. “After she and the others perished, I lost my mind. Rampaged through the universe. Finally ended up on an obscure planet in the Fornax Galaxy just so I could plague the hell out of an obnoxious demon called Eblis.”
“Eblis? I thought you were friends.”
He guessed they were, even if officially they remained enemies.
“I won’t bore you with the details of our decades-long feud. But during this time, he was involved with a mortal who had a small daughter. Eblis was besotted with the kid. Anyone would think she was his own. Except demons aren’t known for their great parenting skills.”
“What happened?” Trepidation filled her eyes.
“The Guardians abducted her. It was random. They had no idea a first-generation demon watched over her, and even if they did, it would have made no difference. Eblis hadn’t given her his formal protection, so in their eyes she was fair game.”
“The protocols apply to both archangel and demon?”
“Yes. Much as we would all like to deny it, the fact is there isn’t much difference between us. Except for archangels, every Nephilim birth was a rare and precious gift. Whereas demons rarely fell in love and the males usually had no idea how many offspring they’d spawned.”
“Did Eblis try and get her back?”
“He wasn’t there. But I was. Stoned out of my skull as usual. This little kid—I liked her. Seeing her dragged into their world turned my guts. I could barely see straight, but I plunged through tha
t violet split in reality with only one thought in my mangled head.”
“To save her,” Aurora whispered.
He threaded his fingers through hers. So much of what had happened during those early centuries after he’d failed Eleni and Helena was a drug-and-alcohol-induced blur. But he remembered leaping into the Voids. He’d never forget the time he’d spent in that hell.
“I fought the Guardians for her. Not something I’d recommend. But they finally relinquished their grip and I tossed her through the rapidly shrinking rift. Right into Eblis’ arms. Then the rift closed, and I was catapulted into the center of their cursed Voids.”
“Christ, Gabe.” Horror burned through each word. “You were trapped in there with them? What did they do to you?”
He knew what she was thinking. She was wrong.
“Nothing. They can’t touch us, remember? Protocol. They wanted me out. I was polluting their domain, but here’s the thing. I refused to leave.”
“But what—I thought—”
“Within seconds of entering the Voids my skin started smoldering. But that’s nothing to what that place did to my wings. It was like acid seeping into the root of each feather, corroding it from the inside. Agony like nothing I’d ever imagined. And I embraced it.”
Her fingers tightened around his. Did she know that just by being here, listening to him, was giving him more comfort than he’d known in millennia?
“With Eblis’ help, Zad, Mephisto, and another archangel, Az, finally tracked me down. It’s not easy breaking into the Guardians’ realm. By the time they found me I was half mad with the pain but still refused to leave. They didn’t give up. They’ve always been stubborn bastards.”
“But you recovered.” He heard the anguish in her voice. He pressed her hand against his heart and offered her a tired smile.
“Despite how hard my DNA worked on repairing the damage while I was in the Voids, by the time they pulled me out I was a mess. I’d gone beyond anything our archangelic powers of regeneration could handle. In the end, they took me to the astral planes. The ultimate realm of healing and renewal.”
“It was the astral planes that healed you.” Awe threaded her voice.
“Nothing else had worked. It took decades. My soul in the astral planes, and my physical body here, on this island, absorbing the vibrations through the spiritual connection. Eventually, I healed enough to return to my body, but there’d been an unexpected side effect.”
Understanding dawned in her beautiful blue eyes.
“The island’s protective shield.”
“I was like a nuclear reactor in meltdown. We didn’t figure it out until later, but when I returned to my body, the essence of the astral planes couldn’t be contained in a physical form. It flooded into the atmosphere, encasing this island. The Guardians can’t ascend into the astral planes, and that’s why they can’t gain access to this island. But equally, it acts as an effective barrier against anyone wanting to ascend into that realm from here.” He sighed heavily. “I’m responsible for the force field, but I can’t manipulate it. It just is.”
Tenderly, she cradled his jaw. Such a light touch, yet he could feel it deep in the heart of his being.
“But your wings … were beyond repair?”
His wings. Ancient sorrow surfaced, but it was no longer all-consuming.
“They were destroyed long before I was dragged from the Voids. There was nothing left to salvage. When I finally regained my senses, I was bitterly glad they’d gone. They were the one thing our goddess loved above all else about us. Our glorious wings. Her own unique creation.”
He rolled his shoulders and felt the phantom tug of long-destroyed muscle and feathers. Yet still the ache did not consume.
“That’s how we discovered the Voids aren’t archangel friendly.”
Her thumb caressed the corner of his mouth, and all he wanted to do was lose himself inside her once again. To try and scrub his soul of the knowledge that he had failed to save a child who was, perhaps, the last Nephilim child in the universe.
“You didn’t know before?” Aurora’s whisper curled through his jagged thoughts, pulling him back to reality.
“Why would we? We knew of the Guardians, but not through personal experience. And we were protected as the Alphas were protected. Not because we were beloved, but because our DNA was pure first-generation Immortal.”
“And now I’m protected through you.” She sounded as if she was thinking aloud. “If there was some way to pinpoint where Evalyne’s being held … I have an idea. It might work.”
“No.” His voice was harsh. “Dark Matter doesn’t behave in the same way as the rest of the universe. It’s not easy entering those vast sectors of space, and even if I did manage it, I’d still have to break into the Guardians’ Voids. The chances of finding Evalyne in that endless labyrinth are virtually nonexistent. The only way Zad and the others found me was because the Guardians were so desperate to get rid of me they laid an energy trail. Even then it took years. Evalyne, if she’s still alive, doesn’t have that kind of time on her side.”
“I wasn’t suggesting you teleport in and grab her.” Oddly, she sounded offended. “I know you can’t enter the Voids again.”
Then what was she suggesting? Because there was no fucking way he’d allow her to go into that hell.
“There’s no way of discovering where she is. And even if by some miracle we did, teleportation doesn’t work in the Voids. Their physics are completely alien to ours.”
“I’m not even talking about teleporting, Gabe.”
He knew she wasn’t, but if one of them had to enter the Voids, it damn well wouldn’t be her. Why did she have to be so stubborn? Why could she never accept his word?
Yet if she was any different, she would not have captured what remained of his heart.
“Please, just listen to me.” She threaded her fingers through his, and he knew he’d give her anything she asked of him. Except he wouldn’t risk her life on a hopeless quest.
“When I tried reaching my mother’s dimension, I was in the exact place where she’d entered our world. I had the flower she’d worn on that day, and I focused on that flower and the meadow of flowers she used to talk about from her world. I was attempting to psychically connect our two worlds together.”
He did understand. Could it be possible to locate Evalyne in a similar way? But even as hope flared, reality crashed through.
“That’s different. I assume you succeeded because your DNA is of two dimensions. There was a prior connection, even if you’d never been there before. It’s not that easy to cross into a parallel universe.”
“But Evalyne isn’t in another universe. The connection would be between two points in this dimension.”
If she could locate the exact position of the child, there had to be a way he could rescue her. Am I seriously considering this crazy idea?
“There’s no guarantee you could make a connection within the Dark Matter, never mind penetrate the Voids.”
“We have to try.” Her voice was fierce, and her eyes glittered with determination. “We’ll never forgive ourselves if we don’t.”
Pride surged through him at how she didn’t flinch from danger.
She was right.
“We need to find something of Evalyne’s for you to focus on.”
“Yes.” She sounded startled, as though she hadn’t expected him to realize that.
“We’ll look through the chest of her belongings her father gave me.”
“I don’t think there’s anything in that chest that will give me the connection I need.” She sounded nervous.
“In that case, we’ll visit Jaylar again. See if you connect to something in his home.”
“That’s not what I mean.” She cleared her throat. What was she finding so hard to say? “I need something unique and precious. With my mum, I had the flower that only grows in her dimension. With Evalyne, it’s her necklace.”
“Her necklace,” he ech
oed. She couldn’t know of Helena’s, so what was she talking about?
“Please believe me.” Guilt dripped from every word. “I’d use mine if I thought it’d work, but we both know it’s only a cheap fake.”
She does mean Helena’s necklace.
But he’d never told her of his daughter. How did she know?
“I’m sorry.” Her whisper drifted through his mind, strangely disconnected. “I discovered the picture of you with your family the day I arrived. I saw your daughter wearing her necklace.”
* * *
Aurora
Aurora held her breath as Gabe finally focused on her. She’d never intended letting him know that she’d looked through his things. That she had discovered he’d once had a beloved daughter.
But to have any chance of rescuing Evalyne, they needed that artifact. It was a link across time and the cosmos between two beloved Nephilim.
“She was four years old.” The words were bleak, torn from his soul, and pain squeezed her heart. She had been little more than a baby. “We never expected we’d have a child. Nephilim could conceive with mortals, but not easily. What were our chances, Nephilim and archangel, when we were both cursed by the same vindictive goddess? But finally, we held our baby in our arms. And I couldn’t save her.”
“Because your goddess betrayed you. It’s never been your fault.”
“I was sworn to protect them.” Had he even heard her? Would he ever hear her, when it came to trying to assuage the guilt that corroded him? “I would’ve torn the universe apart to keep them from danger. They were my beloveds, Aurora. I’d have laid down my immortality for them, but instead …” He gritted his teeth and his eyes glittered like raindrops through a fractured rainbow. “They died and I survived.”
A tiny piece of her heart withered. He would never forgive himself, no matter what she said. The necklace was too precious to him. He’d never allow her to use it for something that she couldn’t even prove would make a difference.
“Evalyne is four years old.” His voice was hushed. Her heart broke a little more.
Redemption: A Realm of Flame and Shadow Novel Page 23