“It should be me.” Tears flowed from her eyes. Her future, her past, blurred together. She was wrung-out, didn’t know what to think anymore, didn’t know she could hurt anymore, but she did. She ached. It was all so wrong.
Jack’s magic faded, then vanished. He touched Hugh’s arm briefly, sending out a shower of red sparks. Then he moved away.
The portal opened fully, revealing an array of armed forces of demonic creatures stretching as far as the eye could see. And at the fore, riding a chariot of gold, was a terrifying visage of a mad God. Hugh raised his blade and stepped into the portal.
“I forgive you,” Raine screamed, finding her voice. She struggled in vain against her uncle’s hold. “I forgive you!”
Hugh paused, mid-stride. He looked back at her over his shoulder. Nodded once. Then he took the final step, crossing fully into the other dimension. A horrific sound thundered around them as the portal sealed itself closed.
Chapter Twenty
Jack stumbled back, fried to the point of collapse.
He forced himself to move a body that wanted to drop. Raine was hurting. Her pain reached out to him, touching him to his very rotten core. One leg, then the other. He dodged strikes of the creatures who had pledged allegiance to Kerr. He refused to consider them knights. Not after watching Hugh give it all up for certain death. If he was lucky. If he wasn’t? The future that awaited the old Templar was too awful to even contemplate.
Jack used a pistol to shoot the vermin standing between him and Raine. He didn’t say a word, just drew her into his arms, and held her. Yes. The world was still at risk. But the world was always second to him. She was first. Not noble. Not selfless. But that was him. Nobody’s hero.
“He’s gone,” she said shakily. “I never knew him and now he’s gone, and I never will.”
“I know.” He had no idea what else to say. There were no words that could ease that kind of pain. Only time. A fuck load of time.
Behind the barrier, Hugh was screaming at them, but the magic that separated them kept his vile oaths from them as well.
“I know this is hard,” Edward said, defending against attackers. “But we’re not out of it yet, kids. Raine, how do we get to Kerr?”
She broke away from Jack. “I’m going to kill that bastard.”
“Not if I get to him first. Have you found a way in?”
“The barrier exists only on this plane. It doesn’t penetrate the mists.”
“See? I knew you could do it.”
“Hugh—my father—he gave me the idea.” She was shaken, but her eyes were sharp. “Anyone feel like a drive?”
Jack had to reload twice while they fought their way to Edward’s car. Holding the portal had drained out all the power of the Carmot. He was tapping something, probably pure sorcery, unsure how he was able to do it, but happy he’d found his way back home at last. Even that had limits, though.
“We need to lock onto the scarabs. They’re the beacon.” Raine’s fingers flew across the dials that impacted the astrolabe.
Edward jabbed a finger at the dashboard. “There. I’ve got it. In the harmonic moonstone. Hold on!”
He floored the gas, shifted into drive, and jumped the car into the mists.
All the air pushed out of Jack’s lungs as they suicide-jumped a tunnel. It was the craziest of options, risky as hell, but it did the trick. A second later, they landed inside Kerr’s barrier, to the sound of squealing tires, and the Druid’s foul curses.
Edward was first out, Raine hot on his heels.
Jack focused on destroying the scarabs. Once gone, all should be well. Or so he hoped. Magic, like life, didn’t always work the way you planned.
Raine drew her father’s blade. “I’m going to spill your guts, Kerr.”
“We need to try and take him alive,” cautioned Edward. “Take him back for interrogation.”
The Druid mocked them in his old tongue and raised a blade of his own. It was shaped like a sickle, and throwing off magic in dark waves.
Raine realized the soul blades wouldn’t work. She didn’t know how, only knew that it wouldn’t neutralize Kerr. He was one with order, so invulnerable to them.
She cast the sword aside and reached back inside herself for the power she knew rested in wait.
“What are you doing?” Edward cried.
“Owning my power.” Other than that, she wasn’t sure. She didn’t know how to summon. Didn’t know how to direct. She didn’t think. She let it come. Coaxed it to rise within her.
Edward had engaged Kerr, giving her the chance to move behind the mad man.
Raine stepped past his swirling, bloodied robes and reached her hand upon his shoulder.
Simple magic. The kind contained in the contact of a single touch.
Unformed power roared through her, the chaos of the void. It traveled unchecked into the Druid. Kerr screamed in pure terror, then arched backwards. Raine thought his energy was attempting to push back, so she broke contact. Kerr convulsed. Once. Twice. White foam erupted from his mouth. He reached out for her with twisted hands, grasping the air blindly. Then he dropped to the ground in a boneless heap.
Edward checked his pulse. “He’s been neutralized.”
“I want to kill him.” And she did. The bloodlust went beyond anything she’d experienced to date.
“Let him stand to face justice. Your father and I worked fifty years for this moment. He was proud of you, Raine. Always. He couldn’t show it but he hoped you knew it.”
Her shoulders sagged under the weight of grief, fatigue, and countless other emotions she couldn’t seem to even classify. “I know it now.”
She faced Edward. “You know the truth. Will you tell me? All of it?”
“All of it.” His body shifted, normalizing into the more human form. Hair receded, feral eyes turned placid blue again. “There’s not much more left. We knew Kerr had turned when he set Jack up, but we didn’t know where it was heading. When he sent us undercover with Thaddius Archer, years later, we figured it out. Archer was a specialist in Alchemy, and Kerr wanted all his research. Then I got chicken pox. Of all things. I got attacked by a rogue Were when I was recovering, and since I’d been in mortal form, I caught the curse. I couldn’t go back to the Order, but it served our purpose. We waited for a time to fake my death.”
He reached down and picked up his brother’s sword. “In the meantime, Hugh fell in love. Then you were born. Your mother tried to sell you. We were worried Kerr would try to use your magic, so we came up with our plan. I’ve been out in the cold, working off the grid, to find out what he was up to, while Hugh kept you close and protected in the knight’s stronghold.”
Looking back, it all made perfect sense. And it fit Hugh. Disciplined. Powerful. Unyielding. “How did you know it would lead to this?”
Edward smiled. “Suriana isn’t the only one with esoteric energy in the blood. The lycanthrope triggered dormant magic in the Spencer bloodline. I’m no Jack Madden, but I’m not half-bad when it comes to picking up the occasional vision.”
She took a ragged breath. Ran her hand through her hair. “Is this it? The last of the conspiracy?”
He looked around him. “That’s it, Raine. All done.”
Jack came around from the opposite side of the obelisk. “We have one more task left. Raine, I know I don’t have the right to ask, but can I borrow you one last time?”
He looked rode hard and hung up wet, and still, he had that audacious, absurd smile firmly in place. “I’m still mad at you,” she said, offering her hand.
“I know.” He touched her, tapping the magic. Power roared between them, then spun out to the obelisk. “I’m decommissioning these artifacts. Fuck the Covenant. No one needs this kind of trouble.”
As one, the scarabs shattered to dust. The obelisk shook violently. The barrier, both Kerr’s and the outer ring, vanished.
Pieces of rock flew into the air as the Needle compressed back to its original size and state.
“We should back off,” suggested Edward.
They all took cover behind the car as a Covenant strike team led by Ramon swarmed the clearing.
Jack reacted first, scowling at the Spaniard. “Nice of you to arrive.”
Ramon, in his Armani, looked wildly out of place. “We’ve secured the area, but not for long. This is going to be difficult to explain to the police. So, Jack, how are you feeling?”
Something in Ramon’s normally controlled voice triggered worry in Raine. And Jack. He stiffened, stood straighter, as if readying for a fight.
“Tired. Otherwise okay. I ate a lot of Carmot. I assume I’ll be paying for that shortly.”
“Yes. About that.” A new voice echoed through the air. There was a flash, and then Loki stood before them, Seth at his side. “Jack, when we were talking in the men’s room, I might have accidentally imbued you with a little immortality.”
“I wondered why I came back to life. Thought it was all the Carmot.”
Seth and Loki exchanged looks. Raine grew more nervous. In the presence of shifty Gods, conspiring looks meant no good. She held her breath.
Seth spoke up. “The combination of Carmot, Loki’s spell, and all the freaky magic taking place between the dimensions kind of caused you to ascend. It’s why you’re so tired. You’re not used to the drain it takes to hold mortal form. Congrats, Madden. You’re a God.”
“The hell I am.” Jack lunged for Seth.
Edward was the only one with enough presence of mind to grab Jack and hold him back. “Easy, son, let’s not start another war.”
Raine backed away from him.
“I’m not a God,” he insisted like a petulant child.
But he was, she thought. He’d ascended. From demi to full. Forget his sorcery, this was even better. Jack had won. He’d bested everyone, and hit the lottery. Not only was justice his today, but so was destiny.
Raine shouldn’t care. She hated him, right? Was angry at his betrayal. The men closed around him and a royal argument began, Jack raging at its center.
She turned her back to the chaos, and walked to the edge of a clearing.
A lone bench seemed to have survived the carnage.
She sat down, her heart heavy, her soul cold.
Somehow, she hadn’t expected this outcome. And how could she? Such stunning betrayal, such life-changing revelations. All of it as the world hung on the brink of destruction. And there was Edward, telling her all the knights prepared for this. Edward and Hugh, giving up everything. Following orders not as blindly as she thought, but following some crazy inner edict that had them sacrificing everything for people who’d never knew they existed. Never cared.
It hit her then. She couldn’t do that. She couldn’t take the vow and give over her free will. Jack was right about her. So was Hugh. She had a power she needed to own, not fear. Even if she could work magic as a knight, she couldn’t work with her own free will, and that was part of her. Something she couldn’t sacrifice. And Jack. Damn him. He was a part of her too. Except he was moving on, and so was she, in very different directions.
Jack loved her, that she knew. But as a man. Gods didn’t experience mortal love. They didn’t have the capacity. Whatever Jack felt would fade. Fast. He’d forget, as if what they shared had never existed.
Raine hung her head in her hands, and let pain roll over her, washing her clear of all the other confusing emotions. She needed to find a new future. But maybe later. Because right now all she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and forget the last three days. Stay curled up until she didn’t hurt anymore. Maybe then she’d be clear enough to figure out her next steps. Figure out what future really awaited.
A weight settled beside her.
She lifted her head. Jack smiled at her.
“Ramon offered me my old job back.”
The inanity of the statement shocked her out of her malaise. “You’re a God, Jack. Why the hell do you want your old job back? You can’t have it anyway. You know the rules.”
“Ah, the rules.” He threw an arm around her shoulders but she shrugged it off. He looked a little hurt, but kept on talking. “If I’m a God, this pain I have in my heart will soon fade. Become a distant memory. I’ll lose my one and only chance at happily-ever-after. I told them to fix me. Take back this God crap and return me to my normal, disreputable self. They’re going to cast me out. You know: make me fall. I think it’s fitting for me, don’t you?”
“You’re not making sense.”
“I love you, Raine.”
“You betrayed me.”
“Because I’m an idiot.”
“You’re an ass.”
“That too.”
She turned to stare at him. In the rising light of dawn, color suffused his pale skin. Dark circles ringed his eyes. His clothes were torn, and covered in dirt, grime and blood. He looked like total shit. Unelegant. Vunerable. Strangely human. “What do you want from me?”
“A do-over.”
A do-over? She almost laughed. That statement was so patently Jack. “You don’t get to do-over with what you’ve done.”
“How about a second chance, then?”
She wanted to give it to him. She didn’t want to hold this pain, didn’t want to carry the burden around. Knowing the truth made it easier to understand why he did what he did. She’d been so mono-focused in her vision of the Covenant’s perfection, so sure of the knighthood and its unassailable mission. Looking at the corpses of the dead knights who’d followed Kerr’s madness, knowing the terrible cost of the events, she realized how her rigid ideas had been blinders to a broader truth. “I understand why you didn’t trust me, Jack, but it still hurts.”
“I know, Raine. Please, give me a shot to fix things. I’ve never known what it’s like to love someone, I’m out of my league. But I know I can be the man you want me to be.”
And who was that man? The perfect lover? He already was.
Then what, she thought. What man did she want Mad Jack to be?
She touched his face, bruised and dirty from battle. His silky skin warmed beneath her palm. The connection they shared offered her comfort. Crazy, wacky Jack offered her surprises, smiles, untold risks. Her breath caught in her throat. The pain was still there, but the burden was lighter. The weight not so oppressive. She wanted him to be Mad Jack, she realized. That’s the only man she wanted him to be, and she wanted him to be hers.
“I’m afraid,” she admitted. “I don’t know what’s next, Jack. I can’t be a knight. That’s not who I’m becoming. But I’m committed to the Covenant. Someone has to hold the dark at bay.”
“I know.” He threw his arm back around her and held her close. “No matter what you want, where you head, I’ll be there for you. Even if where you head takes you away from me.”
There is was. The core of him. The complete acceptance. No matter what, Jack took it in stride. It had been like that when she first met him, first joined with him. And despite everything, it was still there. Her anchor. Tarnished hero or not, he was made for her, and she believed letting him go would kill her as sure as a blade to the heart.
Forgiveness. Trust. No easy things for her. But she believed. She’d take the risk.
Raine settled into the comfortable embrace, let the connection flow between them. “I want you too. Cake and ice cream. Whole thing. But no more betrayal, Jack. No more secrets. I won’t tolerate it anymore. I’ve lived my life too long in the dark. I’m seeing light for the first time, I’m not throwing the switch off ever again.”
Epilogue
Jack watched Raine practicing with her father’s soul blade. It had been three months since Hugh had stepped into the alternate dimension, and still no sign of him. She still hurt. It killed him to know there was no way to fix it, but still he tried. Every last contact he had was on the job, trying to figure out a way to locate Hugh, then get him back home. Even Havers had committed with rare abandon to the effort.
“Raine’s good.” This from Ramon, standing in the
dark shadows of the late afternoon. “Spencer’s legacy was always, first and foremost, martial.”
They were in Jack’s revamped New York apartments, in the large room built to accommodate the martial instruction Edward was providing his niece while she figured out which direction she planned to take. Jack trained her, meanwhile, in how to work with her magic. The trust he’d undone was being rebuilt, moment by moment. Some pleasurable. Some terrifying.
“Have you ever been in love?” he asked Ramon. “It’s crazy. Consuming. Scares me shitless.”
“Let’s just say I came out on the losing end of betrayal, no second chances for either party.”
“Not good.” Jack took a drink of Ramon’s favorite scotch. It had been a wedding present, along with a few other interesting items. He glanced at the gold band on his hand, glinting in the fading light. It seemed to twinkle with a glow all its own. Not for the first time he felt himself grinning like an idiot. “If she hadn’t given me a second chance. Man. I don’t know. I don’t even want to think about what that would be like.”
Ramon sipped at his own drink. “Death,” he mused. “Except you’re still alive. Facing each day, knowing you have an eternity to survive. Alone.”
The desolation in the words was uncharacteristic for the smooth, emotionless Ramon Salazar. Jack stared at his sort-of boss, and old companion. “Why’d you really stop by?”
“Mostly to tell you about the preliminary results of the inquiry,” he said, control back in place. He finished the drink in one quick swallow and set the crystal glass on the window ledge. “And to let you know. I’m taking a vacation.”
The strange news rocked him on his heels. “You? A vacation?”
It was like death taking a holiday. Insane.
Ramon shrugged. Instead of a suit, he was attired in a casual oat-colored sweater and a pair of Tommy Hilfiger jeans. He’d traded the loafers in for a pair of Merrell trail shoes. The look was flattering, made him appear younger. More carefree. More… Jack searched for a word. Human, he finally settled on.
“I need you to mind the store while I’m gone.”
ImmortalIllusions: The Eternity Covenant Book2 Page 30