Dark Awakened (The Devil's Assistant Book 2)

by HD Smith

  He shrugged, as if it didn’t matter how I got the job done. I felt a swell of power start at my core.

  The white wisps of energy flared out, covering my body. “You don’t understand. It’s too much. I need a way to use it reliably and control it.”

  Clearly he didn’t understand my problem. Even if I didn’t want to save myself, I had so little control I’d likely kill one of the quads before I ever got close to Raven. And if that happened the curse would kill me before I had a chance to defeat her.

  I clamped my hand around the pendant, tamping down the power that roiled within.

  He studied me more closely. Holding out his hand, he closed his eyes. My power flared again as a wave of energy passed through me. He sucked in a breath, shaking his hand as if he’d been burned. Eyes wide he said, “Unbelievable.”

  “Welcome to my world.”

  “You say Mab gave you that pendant?”

  I nodded.

  “After she gave you their blood?”

  “Harry’s blood, yes. I was really off the chain before the pendant reined it in. I thought this place might help as well, but it doesn’t.”

  His brows pulled together. “And Jayne’s blood, how much of hers did you get?”

  “I don’t know. It happened when I was a baby.”

  He gasped. “You’re—” he trailed off.

  “I’m what?”

  “The Revenant,” he whispered, all expression gone from his face.

  I remembered the prophecy. If war prevails, the torque of time changes hands, or the sacrificed child isn’t saved, the Revenant will be reborn. Did he think I was The Revenant? Wasn’t I supposed to be The Harbinger?

  He licked his lips. “There are four prophecies which seek to correct Jayne’s deeds.”

  I considered the list I’d seen. Starting with the one I’d assumed to be mine, to The Revenant, there were four: The Harbinger, The Horseman, The Time Queen, and The Revenant.

  I was about to ask why he thought I was The Revenant, but Kane wasn’t paying attention. Gripping the trowel in his fist, he walked to the far edge of the enclosure. He shook his head, muttering something I couldn’t hear.

  Closing my eyes I blinked my presence over to his location.

  “Stupid, stupid, girl. I warned you. I told you what would happen. And still you do this. One prophecy wasn’t enough. You had to cover all the bases. You had to win the damn game at all cost. Are you even dead yet?” he muttered in a mindless daze.

  I gasped when I realized he was stabbing his left palm with the trowel. “Stop. Please.”

  “Yes, my queen,” he said in an automated tone. He stepped back to his plants as if on autopilot.

  I opened my eyes, slipping back into my body. “Kane.”

  He didn’t speak. He stood there staring at his worktable as if he were doing the only thing he knew how to do.

  “Kane,” I yelled, hoping that would get his attention. “Wake up.”

  He blinked, looking down at his palm, then over at me. “You have the ability to use voice...why am I not surprised?” he grumbled.

  He must mean my persuasion, or had I used a power word on him and not realized it? “I didn’t make you do that,” I said, looking at his palm.

  “No, you made me stop.”

  “Is that a bad thing?”

  He held up his hand, palm out. The wound was gone. “Nothing here ever changes, child.” He looked back over my shoulder.

  I followed his gaze. The forest was back, as it had been when I arrived. The damage from my hellfire was gone. I wondered if the dummy in the clearing would magically restore itself too.

  “You should go. I’m old and tired and do not wish to play.”

  “This isn’t a game.”

  He chuckled a mirthless laugh.

  Angry, I said, “Do you really think this place will survive if the other realms fall?”

  “My home has already fallen.”

  “So that’s your answer? Doesn’t affect you or yours, so fuck it, let Raven have it?” I turned and started walking away. “By the way,” I said over my shoulder, “the fourth realm lives.”

  Chapter 36

  “You lie,” Kane called after me. “I would know. I would have felt it.”

  I spun around and stomped back to the gate. “Time Travel, jackass.” Power flared around me. White wisps of energy lapping out at the dome. “I’ve already done it. You’ll get the memo in about two weeks.”

  His eyes narrowed, then widened as the wisps turned an electric blue. Tendrils of power latched on to the sphere separating me from Kane. The muscles behind my eyes flexed. A green hue colored my vision. I was pulling enormous power from the dome. My body loosened. A sharp pain ran the length of my skull. I bowed toward the sphere of energy as my physical form thrummed a steady beat.

  I reached up to rip the pendant from my neck. I wanted it all, every last drop this supernova of power held trapped. I sensed the spiraling time loop that would never end. I felt every part of it as the memories of this place leeched into my soul. I saw the face of every man and woman that died in the clearing. I watched through another’s eyes as they banished Kane to this prison. I breathed in the world around me, knowing every square inch as if it were my own.

  I saw the world in front of me as if it were a literal ball I could destroy with one touch. I held the power to end everything. I reached out my finger, picturing the end of all days.

  I screamed as a dagger tore through the back of my hand, stopping me from removing the pendant. The power crashed around me. The blue wisps snaked off in every direction.

  I staggered back, feeling light-headed. A white pulse rippled over the dome, as if taunting me. I pulled the dagger from my hand, throwing it to the ground.

  “I’ll help you,” he said, pulling my attention away from the energy I craved, “for a price.”

  “What price?” I snarled, dropping to one knee, gasping for breath.

  Clutching my wrist, I watched as the blood dripped from the wound. The blade had gone clean through the palm of my right hand. I felt the pain as if I could see the severed nerve endings. Imagining them connected, I said, “Heal.”

  A blue spark of energy twisted up and out of the cut. I bit back a scream as it stitched the skin back together. Within seconds my palm was unmarred. I was healed. I fisted my right hand a few times. All pain was gone.

  “First, never remove the pendant,” he warned, holding out his palm. I once again saw the ugly gash he’d made with the trowel. “You very nearly changed a truth. You must never change a truth. And that pendant is the only thing keeping you in check.”

  As I watched the wound closed again, this time I saw the blue spark as it wove its way through his flesh. Within moments his palm was unmarked.

  “What truth?” I asked.

  He held both hands out, turning from one side to the other, as if introducing the world around us. “This place is a truth, a fixed point outside of time. You nearly destroyed that.”

  I stood, remembering the images and thoughts running through my head as I’d tapped into the power of the advisor’s refuge. I’d seen the world through its eyes. At first I’d assumed it must be Jayne’s eyes, but Jayne hadn’t seen the men and women die in the clearing. She wasn’t the one here watching, trapped in the time bubble with Kane. I thought again of the Banished prophecy: A loyal servant must hide with the lost truth, or the beginning of time will cease. I’d felt the time bubble, sensed its awareness. One touch and it would have burst. Would that have destroyed all time? And was Kane the loyal servant or the lost truth?

  I could feel it—him—watching me.

  “Why must this be a truth?” I asked Kane. “Maybe he’s just old and ready to die?”

  He laughed. “You are but a child. How—wait, you said he. You know.”

  I shrugged. I knew of prophecies and contenders. I was The Harbinger and the World Killer. “I’ve tasted the power of this world and seen through its eyes—his eyes.”

>   Kane smiled. “There’s hope for you yet.”

  “What’s the price for your help?”

  “You must return my old friend to his rightful place.” He glanced around as if meaning the bubble. Was that the lost truth? “You must bring me the Prince of Time.”

  The Prince of Time? “Who?”

  “The Harbinger prophecy. A truth discovered will restore all time,” he recited. “It’s the only one that matters. Ignore the others, they will just distract you.”

  “You called me the Revenant.”

  “Yes, you are also one of the four horsemen, and possibly the Queen of Time if all auguries are to be believed.”

  “The Harbinger, The Horseman, The Queen of Time, and The Revenant,” I said, reading off the prophecy titles, “but Raven’s The Horseman.”

  “Any one of you can play the different parts, so don’t assume that only one applies to you.” As I was trying to absorb what that meant, he continued, “I’ll teach you what you need to know, but first you must give me your word. The Prince of Time must be brought here. He must meet his maker.”

  “His maker...the being that watches this place?”

  Kane nodded.

  I raised both eyebrows. “You got a name for this prince guy or am I posting flyers?”

  Chuckling, Kane said, “He is what is lost. He is what you must return.”

  The full Harbinger prophecy— Mab’s words—ran through my thoughts again, just as it had in Death’s library:

  A great mystic of the fourth realm foretold of a harbinger—a girl—who would set right what was lost by the Ancients. She would be of human birth, otherworldly lineage, and possess the blood of the Fallen. She would have the power to see the truth and would restore time within all the realms.

  “This Prince—he will restore time within all the realms? He will make it whole again? No more inadvertent time travel when using a portal from one realm to the next?” I asked.

  “Correct,” Kane nodded.

  “So, you’re the only one that knows this?”

  “Yes, well...and Jayne,” he said.

  “Jayne’s dead.”

  “Part of me hopes you’re right.” He wore a sad smile on his face.

  I drew my eyebrows together. I couldn’t even begin to factor in the idea that Jayne wasn’t dead. One incredibly fucked up problem at a time.

  “Now we begin,” he said, conjuring a dagger and throwing it directly at my head.

  I stumbled back, as the dagger whizzed by me.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Training you,” he said. “You requested control of your power and the ability to use it. Practice makes perfect, I think.”

  He sent another dagger, this one aiming at my heart. Blue energy engulfed me, and hellfire coalesced in my palms. Once again, I threw a wild streak of power at the blade, which should have flattened the cottage, but only managed to cascade over the protective sphere, and as before missed the blade completely. I dropped to the ground before it reached me.

  “How is this helping?” I screamed.

  “That’s what you need to figure out,” he muttered as he readied another dagger.

  I rolled as it shot toward me, thunking into the ground near my head.

  Pushing off the ground, I nearly knocked myself off balance as I scorched two perfectly tilled rows in the earth. I turned as the blade skimmed across my cheek. A crackle of energy spun around me as I cried out from the pain.

  “Not again,” I screamed, throwing my hand toward the blade.

  A sonic boom, followed by a wave of blue light erupted from my core. I watched as it flattened the landscape around the cottage, blown to dust as if an atomic bomb had just detonated. Only the cottage remained standing in its wake.

  “You should try harder,” he said.

  “I just destroyed this place, how much harder do you want it?”

  “Try smarter then—think before you act. Control it.”

  This was impossible. Hearing another snick, I put my hand up to deflect, this time to try a gentler approach. Unfortunately, I shot too early and again used too much energy. The dagger broke through the sphere and slammed hilt deep into my palm.

  I yelled in frustration as the pain rode up my arm. Blue sparks of energy wound around my body as if I were overloading for another world killing blow.

  “Redirect the energy,” he yelled, “or die.”

  I focused on the power that swirled around me like a cyclone. Redirect it where? It continued to build. I had no control over it.

  A spark of white energy snaked over the sphere protecting the cottage. No, I couldn’t end this place. I had to control the power. I could do this. I had to do this.

  Focusing on the tip of the blade that protruded through my palm, I concentrated on pushing it out with my mind, then watched as the tendrils of power crawled toward my injury. I willed the energy to heal the cut. As they had before, the blue sparks pulled the skin together, repairing the damage.

  The power was still building. The momentary distraction for healing did nothing to stop the level from increasing.

  I closed my eyes, slipping outside my body.

  From this angle I saw the roiling ball of light at my core. It spun and twisted, wrapping around itself, merging and folding as the power grew. I watched as the build-up pushed its way toward the surface.

  I considered the light as it turned back in on itself. Could I contain it as I had with the spells? I imagined it trapped within a giant geode, but the rock burst apart almost before it closed. The energy at my core turned blue as it started pulling in power from the time bubble again.

  “No,” I yelled.

  Directing my palms toward the ground, I tried venting the excess power. Sluicing it away wasn’t really an option anymore—there was too much of it, especially here.

  I shot a stream of blue energy into the ground, cutting through the hard dirt as if it were butter.

  “You must master it. Own it or die.”

  “You’re not helping,” I yelled through clenched teeth.

  My hands shook as the flow left my body, but it was like a never ending well. It wasn’t slacking. I tried fisting my palms, but that didn’t work.

  I walked around my body, studying it from all angles. On the second pass I spotted the electric blue current running along Mab’s mark. It danced there, as if entranced or trapped. The Boss and Harry’s marks were the same. At first I tried to pull the power over the marks, which had a small effect, but not enough to hold it back completely. I released the power I’d attempted to corral. The residual energy remained as the wave reentered the main flow.

  There had to be a way to contain it. If I could stop it from spinning, that might quell the buildup—or force it to implode. I tried not to consider that option.

  Taking a deep breath, this time I focused on reversing the ball of light at my core. It would have to stop moving to spin the other way. Maybe that was the secret—continually force it to switch direction.

  It was hard at first to make the power budge, but as I applied more pressure, using the energy to achieve my goal, the ball of light slowed. With one more mental push, it reversed and started twisting in on itself in the opposite direction.

  The hellfire was no longer shooting from my palms, but I could feel it building again. I allowed the energy to flow until I sensed the tingle on my skin. I once again reversed the stream. This time it was easier, or more automatic as if I were training it to behave. After watching another few cycles, each one becoming a rhythmic pulse of the self-contained energy, I opened my eyes—then immediately dropped to the ground, unconscious from exhaustion.

  Chapter 37

  I opened my eyes, squinting from the sun. My stomach ached as if I’d done a thousand crunches, but the power it took to constantly reverse the spin was holding the surge at bay. I felt normal, or at least as close as I was ever going to again.

  My mouth was dry. I was hungry too, but I put that out of my mind and sto
od.

  The time bubble—Kane’s prison—had repaired itself, and Kane was once again tending his pots.

  “Is there anything to drink here?” I asked, voice raspy and dry.

  Kane turned, with a bewildered look on his face. “I thought you were dead.”

  I dusted off my pants. “Not yet.”

  He raised both eyebrows. “Where did the power go?”

  Ignoring his question, I asked, “Did you really think I was dead?”

  “You’ve been unconscious for three months—give or take a week. Should I have considered another outcome?”

  My mouth hung open. Three months?

  “I thought perhaps you were a permanent addition,” he continued, looking back at his pots.

  “Three months! How?”

  Had Raven won? I surveyed the area around me. The grass I’d been laying on returned to its lush perfection before my eyes.

  “Have I been laying here the whole time?” I asked.

  “Yes, of course, where else would you go?”

  “This doesn’t make sense. I think I would have remembered my body laying here by the gate when I arrived the first time.”

  He chuckled.

  “What the hell is so funny?”

  “You’re not dead,” he said, clearly still amazed by the fact.

  I threw my hands in the air. “We’ve established that...now tell me how I missed my body the first time.”

  He eyed me. “You haven’t returned yet. You may not return for hundreds of years, or you’ll walk up that ridge any moment and blink yourself into a never ending time loop.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I glanced back, hoping I wasn’t about to crest the ridge.

  “Rule one, my dear—never run into yourself. Nasty things can happen if you do. Of course, it is almost impossible. Time will not allow it to occur easily.”

  WTF. “So what should have been two weeks has somehow stretched into three months?”

  He shrugged. “Or you slipped back in time farther than you intended. Time here is perception more than reality, but everything has limits.”