by C. M. Owens
My eyes water when my restraint breaks, and he turns away, unable to face me as I break.
“You’re wrong. You dropped everyone to the ground, except me, Gage. You could have killed me, but you only made threats that you never tried to carry out. So say whatever the hell you want to, but I still trust you. I know you won’t hurt me.”
He turns back around, his jaw tense with anger. “That is why we can’t be together. You can’t fucking trust me, Kimber. Not now. Gavin is so much stronger than he used to be, and it’s going to take me more power than you know to kill him. And I don’t want you anywhere around me when I find him.”
The first tear falls to my cheek and I wipe it away violently and quickly, cutting my eyes away from his. “Ever consider that maybe your problem isn’t a curse?” I ask him, forcing myself to meet his gaze once again. He studies me but says nothing, so I continue. “You sabotage yourself, Gage. And that’s fine. If you want to be miserable and do things alone when you could have an army of friends at your side, then fine. Fuck you. I won’t stand in your way when you’re doing such a damn good job of it yourself.”
I turn and walk away, and just as I figured, he doesn’t even attempt to stop me. Ella is at the bottom of the stairs when I reach the last step, and she nods knowingly before following me out. I have to find what Gavin wants and destroy it before he finds it and uses whatever it is to kill Gage.
Chaz appears at my side when we reach Thad’s car, and he moves over just as the blonde changer jogs out to join us.
“What’s going on?” he asks me, at the same time Thad asks, “We leaving?”
Karma appears beside me, and I look over at her. “We need to figure out what Gavin is after. Any chance you know where some of the prisoners might have gone upon escape?”
She tightens her lips and nods. “There’s a guy who would definitely get involved to help them out the second he heard of their escape. He may not have been helpful in tracking down the rings, but he’ll help us track down the survivors.”
Chaz and Thad exchange a look, then sigh in acceptance.
“Gage just kicked me out of his house,” Dice says while joining us. “So what’s the plan to keep him from getting killed by his brother?”
Karma turns to him just as I do, and I say, “We find him first.”
Chapter 20
KIMBER
“This guy is a little… paranoid, so let me do all the talking,” Karma says as we walk into the old pawnshop that has seen better days.
“Sure,” I mumble eyeing a doll that is a little too creepy for my tastes.
A guy who looks like something from the cover of GQ walks around the backside of the table, dusting his hair from his eyes, and he looks over to us.
“Mortals don’t look that hot, so I can only assume you’re not here to buy a fake Rolex, now are you?”
“Perceptive,” Karma says. “We’re actually here for another reason, and since you’re the go-to for refugees, I’m hoping you can help me. Have you seen a girl who looks exactly like me in almost every way?”
My eyes widen. I hadn’t even thought about her twin sister. In all of the chaos, it has been the last thing on my mind.
He turns to study her face, and he frowns. “Twins? Man, that’s rare in our world. You one of the refugees? Someone cranked out the big guns and took down all the rings at once.”
A small smile twitches at the corners of her lips as pride swells. “I’ve heard. But now I need to find my sister. Her name is Kya.”
He looks around, and he slinks back to check the windows.
“Yeah,” he says, and Karma’s hands fist. “I’m only giving you her address because of these,” he says, pointing to the marks on her neck. “And because she really does look just like you, only she has longer hair.”
Tears start spilling from Karma’s eyes and a sob racks her body. “She’s alive,” she says while weeping.
The guy frowns while handing her a tissue. “Yeah. She’s staying just down the road. Most of them haven’t made it far yet. They’re all searching for others that they’ve been missing for a while—a lot of them were split up in the rings. She found a deserted cabin in the woods shortly after breaking free, and she gave me her address in case another needed a place to crash.”
Karma nods, and she grips my hand tightly for support. He hands her a piece of paper with the location on it, and she clutches it with an iron grip. “Thank you,” she whispers hoarsely.
I don’t say anything, but I nod toward him. He doesn’t acknowledge me, so we leave, and Karma holds my hand as tight as she can all the way outside.
Dice is laughing while talking to Chaz. He turns and sees us, and for the first time ever, I see true emotion on his face as he swiftly comes to tug Karma into his arms. “What the hell?” he asks softly, running his hand up and down her back in a soothing motion.
It hurts to see that, since even the incubus is capable of feeling love. Gage shut me out, and Dice is comforting a girl that he truly does love. This world really is fucked up.
“She’s alive,” I hear Karma whisper.
That reminds me that even though I’ve lost Gage, something good has come of all this. Now we just have to make sure it stays good.
“I need to go meet up with Kane and Alyssa while you go after Karma’s sister,” Chaz says, putting his phone away.
Karma looks over at him, then nods as though they’re sharing a silent conversation. Chaz looks around, making sure no one can see him, and then he vanishes, leaving behind a gold trail, and I move to the driver’s seat. It’s time to save Gage.
***
Karma’s hand trembles as she knocks on the door. We stand there and wait for several long minutes, but then I hear Thad curse before jerking Karma back and shoving me to the ground as five arrows pound into the door.
“Roll out the fucking welcome mat,” Dice says dryly, looking around for the archer.
“What the hell do you want?” a child’s voice says from behind us, and Dice yelps before cursing.
I turn to see it’s a doll instead of a child, and Karma moves to be in front of us. “We’re here to find my sister.”
The doll steps back, and her glassy eyes scroll up and down Karma with recognition, but then it sighs. “You shouldn’t have come here. It’s not safe. Not yet. You need to go.”
Karma starts crying again, and says, “Kya? Please tell me that’s you.”
The doll drops to the porch, lifeless, and then the door swings open as a girl steps out. There’s no doubt she’s Karma’s sister, but her hair is much longer, almost swiping her waist, and her eyes are far more jaded.
Dice is forced to support Karma when her knees weaken, and Kya’s eyes soften as she stares at her sister. “Come in,” she says, looking around.
Ella appears on the porch, and Kya gasps before launching a streak of red at her. Ella barely dodges it, but before Kya can strike again, Dice yells, “She’s with us!”
Kya studies her for a minute, and then it seems as though recognition hits. “You’re the queen’s daughter, aren’t you?”
“You know about her?” Thad asks curiously.
Kya turns to him and moves aside for us to enter. “Well, I’m not up to date on everything yet, but I’m a fast learner. We heard rumors in the prisons. Come in. I don’t like feeling exposed.”
We all filter in, but Ella grabs my wrist and tugs me backwards to whisper, “The cabin I woke up in… This is it.”
That strikes me as curious, but she shakes her head, telling me not to say anything. Did Kya save her? No. If she had, she would have recognized her instantly.
“I tried texting you back after you sent this address,” she whispers.
“I left my phone back at the hotel. We checked in after we left Gage’s house. You sure this is the same place?”
She looks around, studying the old cabin. “Positive.”
“You girls coming or going?” Dice asks from the doorway.
Ella walks in
first, and I follow her. The door shuts behind me, and I study the small, intimate surroundings. It’s just a one-room cabin, and everything is in here. A small stove, a sink, a couch, and two small beds—both unmade and messed up.
“You have a guy living with you?” Ella asks while motioning to a pair of jeans that look like they’d belong to a very tall man.
“That’s not what you’re here for,” Kya says defensively.
“No,” Karma says, wiping away her tears. “I’m here for you.”
She throws her arms around her sister, but Kya’s eyes widen and she vanishes only to reappear in the back corner, moving as far away as she can.
Karma lets her arms fall to her sides, and Kya’s lips tighten. “Sorry,” she says softly. “I’m not… I don’t like being touched.”
Karma swallows hard while nodding in understanding. “I’m sorry. I’ve just been searching for you for so long.”
Kya frowns and looks around. “You want to know about the ring leader, don’t you?”
Dice nods in answer when no one else speaks. Kya sighs as she answers, “Well, until the other night, I had no idea who it was. A few of us stayed behind to collect some of the anointed weapons that survived. But we ended up seeing the face of our lead captor instead. Sorry we weren’t much help, but we were weakened and in no shape to fight.”
She looks down shamefully, and Ella speaks up. “Someone helped, because I was brought here.”
Kya’s eyes snap up, and she tilts her head. “You’re the one who flew into the shield, aren’t you?”
Ella lets it all sink in for her, and Kya continues. “That was ballsy. You could have been killed.”
Ella shows no regard for that, but she takes a step closer. “Tell him thank you for me.”
Kya’s lips twitch, and she nods. “I will.”
“Do you know anything at all that can help us find out what Gavin is searching for?” Thad asks her, drawing her attention to him.
“No clue. But I do know it had something to do with the twins.”
“Twins?” Thad echoes.
“The creature gods I’m sure you’re aware of by now. There was a lot of interest shown in them.”
“Why?” Ella asks.
Kya moves away from her corner, but still keeps her distance as she answers. “I don’t know. But it might have something to do with the strength and bond between immortal twins.”
Her eyes shift to Karma’s for a second before she looks away again. “Imagine the strength behind creature god twins. Especially them. They were hexed at birth. The hexer connected them physically. The marks of one reflect on the other. The fate of one will be shared by thy brother.”
“Kane was hexed, too,” I say thoughtfully.
“He was hexed to keep his night stalker form until his sire was dead,” Ella says, her brow furrowed in confusion. “To keep Castine from using him. What about the twins, though? What does that hex mean?”
Kya frowns. “It means they suffer the same fate. Always. If one was struck by an anointed whip, they both felt the pain and endured the marks left behind. Anointed weapons can leave scars even on immortal bodies. And they loved testing the hex. Fortunately, those weapons haven’t been active during the centuries they were incarcerated. Only the past couple of decades.”
“What do you mean they both felt the pain?” Karma asks.
“It means they tortured one of them daily. But I never heard him make a sound. One girl says they used to both scream in pain centuries ago when they were first caught. But then one stopped screaming. He figured out a way to stop the pain, and in turn, the other one felt twice as much of the pain. The marks still rose on the other’s skin, but the pain doubled in the one who accepted the beatings. She said one day he stopped giving them the satisfaction of hearing his cries.”
That sends a shiver down my spine, and for some reason, Kya’s eyes flick to Ella. “Be glad you weren’t born centuries ago when creature gods weren’t so accepted. That could have been you. And your kind is fascinating to them. Don’t go anywhere unguarded, because they’ll be coming. They lost two, but they’ll accept one if royal blood is coursing through its veins.”
Thad picks up his phone and sends a text.
“Don’t worry about that,” he says under his breath. “Her parents will put her on lockdown the second I give them a warning.”
Ella curses him, but he ignores her. My eyes fall back on Kya. “If we find them, do you think they could help?”
She frowns while shifting uncomfortably. “No. They won’t be together. The rings turned them against each other. One shut out the other’s pain, making him endure it on his own and twice as much. That creates bitter ties. You should go. I won’t be here much longer. It’s too dangerous to stay in one spot right now. They’ll be scrambling to replace all the power they’ve lost.”
Karma goes to her again, but keeps a respectable distance.
“Come with us. We’ll protect you.”
Kya’s eyes water, but she straightens her back and clears her throat. “I have friends that need me, and I don’t know you. They don’t know you. I realize you think because we’re related that we can just fall into being sisters, but I can’t. I’m sorry, but…”
“But we are sisters,” Karma says.
Thad tugs my hand and Ella’s, too. He’s right. This is private between them. We walk outside, and Dice follows, running a hand through his hair and looking truly distraught. I’ve never seen the incubus show concern until Karma.
“I need to get Ella out of here,” Thad tells me, and I nod in agreement.
“You can’t be serious,” Ella growls at me.
“You’re my sister. I don’t want you hugging a corner one day the way Kya just was.”
Her eyes shift from anger to something else, and in a blink, she’s hugging me almost painfully tight. I hug her back, and we just stand there that way for several long minutes.
“You’re just as rare, Kimber.”
“If they wanted a gate opened, they wouldn’t have been paying special attention to creature gods. Your ass is too valuable,” I say jokingly while sniffling and laughing at the same time.
She pulls back, and then she slaps Thad’s chest. “I’m only doing this for her. You couldn’t force me to go. I can kick your ass, you know?”
Thad smirks. “Yes, princess, I’m perfectly aware of the fact you could hand my ass to me any day of the week, considering you’re twice as tough as Alyssa. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have given it my best shot.”
She smirks before turning back to me. “Be careful. Call me if you need me.”
I promise her I will, even though we both know I won’t, and Thad leads her away just as Karma comes out of the cabin. Furiously, she wipes away her tears.
“I’ve spent my entire life searching for her. I was tossed in the rings and all I could think about was finding her. And she doesn’t want to have anything to do with me,” she says through a hoarse, rasp breath.
Dice goes to her, but she shrugs him off. “I just need to get some rest. This is exhausting,” she tells him, walking over to my car, and Dice mumbles something under his breath about women and drama.
But I know he’s deflecting. This is probably killing him, just like it’s killing me that Gage is pushing me away.
Chapter 21
GAGE
“You going to just throw her away?” Drackus growls while appearing in my living room.
I sip the scotch, not bothering to look up and meet his snarl.
“I didn’t throw her away,” I mumble halfheartedly. Even though we both know it’s a lie. “I’m keeping her safe.”
“She was safer with you, dumbass. Now she’s out there doing this alone! She won’t let us help, because she wants us watching Ella. I’m having to catch all the information they’re gathering through Thad and Chaz instead of hearing it from my own daughter.”
She won’t get close to Gavin, no matter how hard she tries. I’m not worried abou
t her stumbling onto a lead. But I’ll make sure she stays away from this. Gavin is too smart to be caught by someone as young as Kimber.
“Do you really want her around me after what you saw?” I ask him, standing up from my couch and pushing aside the scrolls I’ve been reading over tirelessly since the ring raid. “Because I’ll have to go to that place again, Drackus. It’s the only way I’ll be able to kill my brother. You saw her. She wouldn’t leave. She wouldn’t fucking leave. Do you really want her around me when that happens?”
He tightens his lips before sucking in a ragged breath. His silence is my answer.
“That’s what I thought. You of all people should know how dangerous someone can be when the power consumes them and turns them into something like we become. I’m not risking her life.”
He looks up at me, and I see the man who once took me under his wing. Everyone hated him. Everyone feared him. But in all honesty, he was the first person to genuinely give a damn about what happened to me.
“I think she’s in love with you, Gage, and that will drive her to the ends of the earth to protect you. Do you understand that? She fixates on things important to her. I can only imagine what she’ll do to save you. And whether you realize it or not, she’s damn good at finding things no one else can. If she finds Gavin before you, what then?”
That won’t happen. “I have his records,” I tell him, pointing to the scrolls. “He had them hidden in one of the offices, but I know him. I know how he thinks. I spent half a century with him. I wanted to change, and he didn’t. Two centuries ago, I thought I killed him. I thought I had freed Morgana from her ties to him, and I left him for dead. Now he’s back, and he’s going to come after me because I’ve once again defeated him. It’s going to get nasty, Drackus. Kimber will be so much safer far away from me.”
He snorts derisively. “You think she’s far away?” he asks incredulously. “She’s in town. She’s staying at a hotel, and she’s already closer to learning what he’s after than you are.”