But I don’t have to move. I am moved. Cassian lifts me off the altar and kisses me hard. One more claiming. You are mine, Arielle, he says to me. Even in my head his voice leaves no room for argument. You always have been.
He can’t lie to me. Not anymore. And I can’t lie to him. I feel the truth of his words in my heart. I’ve always been his. There’s something flickering inside—a hesitation. I do belong to him. Have always belonged to him.
But there’s something else, too. And I don’t know what.
I still can’t move. My legs are jelly, and I feel like I can’t move my arms. I brace myself against the altar when Cassian places me on my feet and lifts my left arm into the air, showing the brand on my wrist. He lifts his own too.
The chamber vibrates with the echoes of a thousand voices cheering.
The brands are never the same. The flame chooses its shape when it enters you, and it is never wrong. I pull my wrist away from Cassian to look. A swirling shape draws itself from my wrist to the center of my forearm, formed from one single line. It seems familiar, but I can’t place it. It’s beautiful and delicate despite the angry redness of charred skin.
Cassian’s brand is much simpler. Five thick bands around his wrist and forearm like a sleeve.
Five? I ask him.
I don’t know.
I can feel the curiosity coming from him about mine, but we’re cut off by my father’s booming voice. “It is fitting that the Heir and Vessel is mated to the one who struck the most important blow against Asterium.”
The room sucks in a breath. You do not speak heaven’s true name in the underworld unless you have good reason.
“When Cassian struck down Asterium’s High Trinity, he gave us the opportunity we needed to weaken them. Now heaven is poised to fall. Even now, we prepare the final blow that will cripple the armies of heaven. And the crowning strike will be delivered to them by our Vessel. She will earn her crown, and rule.”
There’s more cheering, but I feel sick. Cassian manages to keep me upright, even though it looks to everyone else that he has me by the neck. At least this part is not a surprise. I knew I would be assigned something to prove my worth if I won the fight.
Cassian moves me, forcing me up the stairs closer to my father, and I realize why. A bloodied Telem is approaching with Nissa. Her clothes have been removed already and she’s completely expressionless. My heart aches. We’ve never been close, but I don’t want this for her. The hand on my neck guides my gaze away as they chain her down to that same altar.
“Arielle,” Arad’s voice booms, and he looks down on me, smiling. “Just as your consort has done, you will strike a blow to heaven’s heart. You will kill heaven’s High Trinity, leading us into the final battle of this war. And when you return victorious, Tartarus will bow to you.” He lifts his hands to the audience. “We will bow to you.”
“We will bow to you,” the entire room says in unison. My skin prickles. That’s far more than I’ve ever done. I’ve killed humans and lower angels. Beings of power. But not an archangel. They’ll burn me to ashes before I even get close. Unless I can get close without them suspecting.
Just like I have with my other targets.
It sinks in.
My father wants me to seduce heaven’s archangels so I can kill them. After binding me to Cassian, he’s still using me as a whore. Bile builds in my throat, and I grind my jaw closed.
“Now go.”
I nod. “I’ll prepare.”
Arad tilts his head again in that deadly way that makes my heart skitter. “The Heir of Tartarus doesn’t need any preparation. I’ve given you more than enough.” He nods to the opposite end of the cavern, and there’s a bubble of power forming. “I’ve found where the High Trinity is located. More than I should have given you.”
“My weapons—”
“Cassian,” he cuts me off. “Take her to the portal.”
Fingers tighten on my neck, and I hold my breath. For a moment I think he might resist. Tell the king to give me something. Anything. But he bows from the waist. “Yes, my king.”
He marches me down the stairs past the altar and a bound Nissa. Across the cavernous space towards the flicker of power that bends time and space. “Cassian, help me.”
“Stop,” he growls. “You knew this was coming.”
I’m not you. I pour into his mind. I can’t kill three archangels.
His face is hard when I look at him. Angry and nearly feral. He’s not any happier about this than I am. But just like me, there’s not a damn thing that he can do about it. You can.
My father’s voice booms behind us, speaking about Nissa and Telem’s soul bond and their duties to my throne.
I shake my head and Cassian stops in front of the portal, turning me to face him. His mouth crashes down on mine, hands roaming across my body possessively to give us a few seconds. Do what you do best, Arielle. He says, and I try to ignore the pain in those words. We both know what I do best. I’ll do what I can.
Do we still have later?
He looks down at me, dark eyes burning. We fucking better. I’m not through with you.
We’re out of time. Reaching out, Cassian rips the medallion from my arm at the same time that he shoves me backwards. I fall into dark power just as Nissa begins to scream.
CHAPTER FIVE
_______
Freezing cold wraps around me as I fall into water. Fuck. It’s not that deep, and I brush the bottom only seconds after hurtling into it. I need to get out of wherever it is. Pushing off the bottom, I force myself to the surface and haul in a breath. I wasn’t prepared for water.
Hell, I’m not prepared for anything right now. I have nothing. No weapons. No clothes. No knowledge of where I am except for my target. The fucking High Trinity.
Of course Adar would do this. Make my assignment impossible so that I may never earn the throne. Even though he’s bound to follow the laws of Tartarus, including the ascension of a vessel, that doesn’t mean he won’t twist them as far as they will go. And my father loves power.
If I am killed trying to do this, Nissa can’t take my place. He’s accepted me as heir. And he will have ‘no choice’ but to rule the Underworld until the next vessel can be trained.
I look around. I’m in some kind of canal. There’s a high wall on one side and a sidewalk on the other. Streetlights loom through the fog. But thankfully there are stairs not too far away. Boats frequent the edges of the canal, so this is a place where frequently enter and exit the water.
I’m vibrating with cold, but I still look carefully down the street in both directions. I don’t know what time it is here, but it’s dark. Climbing out of a canal in the middle of the night, naked and wet, isn’t the ideal situation even under the best of circumstances.
There’s no one in sight. Good for me. Possibly means that it’s the middle of the night. Again, that will work to my advantage. I need to find clothes first thing. Some kind of weapons second. And some place to hide third. So I can figure out what the fuck I’m supposed to do.
There’s an alley across from the stairs, pooling with darkness. I haul myself out of the water and run across the stones to hide in the shadows. Shit this is freezing. In the human world it’s February. Not a good time to be in the water. Instinctually I reach for my power to warm myself, and just barely stop myself. I let the pain fade into cinders.
I’m hunting the High Trinity, and they’re close. I can’t use infernal power here. They’ll track that in a second, and any chance I have at the element of surprise will be gone. I curse again, this time out loud. I’m completely on my own.
I creep down the alley towards the other end. It’s dark enough that I can’t see much, the fog obscuring my path even more. I nearly slip, stopping short when the alley ends in another canal that’s flush with the buildings. What the fuck?
There are a few lights in the buildings along the water, enough to tell me that there aren’t any sidewalks along this piece of water. All rig
ht. Dead end.
I catch a break—there still aren’t any people on the street. More lights to the right, so that’s where I go. One block at a time, sprinting to the next alley and concealing myself in the shadows until I’m sure that it’s still clear. As I’m going I pass a few bridges that loom out of the fog and lead to equally dark streets on the other side of this canal.
Laughter sounds down the street and I duck out of sight. But it’s not anyone coming towards me. There’s a group of people a few blocks down, sitting outside what must be a bar. They’re laughing and smoking, bundled up in coats. Shit. Creeping one block closer, I pass another place that’s open and recessed into the ground. The windows are at my ankles, and the neon sign gives me pause…Venezia.
That’s Italian.
Holy fuck, I’m in Venice.
That explains all the canals.
I don’t speak Italian, so now there’s a language barrier on top of everything else. My limbs are starting to shake with cold, and I flex my fingers and toes to keep the blood moving as I watch. Okay. One block closer. I don’t exactly have a plan, but I’m out of options at the moment.
I can see the group clearly now. Three men and a woman. They’re beyond drunk, Italian accents lilting in the night air. Though I’m so cold that I can’t imagine it right now, one man has abandoned his coat completely over the back of his chair. If I can manage to stay in the shadows and fog, I might be able to grab it.
The woman stretches and leans her head on the shoulder of the man next to her. She says something sleepily in Italian and smiles up at him. He looks down at her too, and the love in his eyes makes me ache. I want that. I’ve always wanted that. And there’s a part of me that wonder’s if Cassian will ever look at me with that kind of emotion in his eyes.
Or maybe we’re both too broken and battered to ever let those kinds of walls fall. Even for each other.
He helps her up and they say goodbye to their two friends and step back into the bar. The man is reaching for his wallet, so they’re closing out their tab. One man just heads off down the street into the fog after waving to his friends. He passes within a foot of me, and I hold my breath. The last man—the man with the coat—lights a cigarette.
He stands and wraps his coat around himself and wanders off in the opposite direction. He leaves a path in the cloudy air that fills with the smoke he blows in his wake. Well, there goes the coat I was hoping to steal.
I feel the burn of dark power a second before I hear the whispered words. “Buona Sera.”
The man who left is behind me, way too close. I don’t know how he got that close without me hearing him. Until I feel the pulse of familiar power. This man is not himself. “Get the fuck away from me.”
A feral smile and his eyes gleam an unnatural violet. “I don’t think so, vessel.”
Instinct kicks in, and I straighten, ignoring my nudity. “If you know who I am, demon, then you know you should not be here.”
The man’s body quivers, like he’s fighting the possession. I hope that he is. I can’t use my power to force this demon out of his body, but the power that he’s using could attract attention that I do not want.
“You are not my queen yet,” the demon snarls. “And I want a taste of the darkness you carry.”
Terror ripples down my spine. “Go back to hell, and I will not tell Arad what you tried to do.”
He chuckles, the sinister sound echoing down the alley. “If I take word back to hell that I overpowered and tasted the fallen angel’s mate. I will be heralded a lord among demons. Even by your father.”
I hate that he’s right, but he is. And he’s in a body that has six inches and a hundred pounds on me. Not to mention the power that he’s willing to use. I see the moment he decides to move, and I’m not fast enough.
He grabs for my arm, and catches it. The water still clinging to my skin is an advantage. I drop to the ground to free myself and push off down the down the alley from him. If the layout of the street is the same then I’m screwed.
I could jump in the water, but this demon will follow. The last thing I want to do is to fight him in the water. The alley is short and I don’t have time. He’s right on my heels, my own feet slipping on the damp stones.
Fuck. I can see the end of the alley and it dumps into the canal. There has to be something else. I haul in breath after breath, trying to keep my senses sharp and my heart rate down. But that’s not working.
The demon snarls, and I can taste the panic in my mouth. You are better than this, Arielle. My mind spins, and I am better than this. I already know what I have to do, and I don’t want it. In these situations, it’s the things that scream against your instincts that are usually the most helpful.
I need him closer.
Pretending to trip, I let myself crash to the ground while trying to protect my body as much as I can. It still hurts like hell. He’s on me in a second, catching one of my ankles and dragging me back towards him. I claw at the cobblestones to get some leverage, but I have none.
It’s the middle of the night, but there are still people here, and close. I scream, hoping that someone will hear me. Maybe they’ll help with a distraction. But the sound is barely out of my mouth before his hands slam over my mouth and crash my head into the stones. My vision blurs with pain.
“Shut up, you bitch,” the demon growls. “Parading around Tartarus like you’re something special. But you’re just a whore born at the right time.” The fingers over my mouth tighten, sure to leave a bruise. He climbs over me, making his intentions clear with every movement. I’m dizzy, and I feel sick, but I wait. “And now you’ll be my whore too.” He licks his lips and leers, pressing his forearm across my throat so I can’t breathe or scream.
The demon reaches for the pants on his host, and I make my move. I slam my knee between his legs and strike the elbow crushing my windpipe a second later. Demons are immune to pain. Their human hosts are not. He howls and I shove him off me towards the wall of the alley. The kick I land to his jaw sends agony through my bone, but I don’t stop. I grab his head and slam it into the bricks of the wall, blood spattering across my skin.
The demon explodes out of the man’s body, roaring with rage and power. I don’t know I’m in the air until I hit the other alley wall and all I see is red. There’s no air, and a demon’s claws around my throat until I hear the shouting.
The demon snarls in my ears. “Telem sends his regards, vessel. You will pay for this.” And then he’s gone, and I choke on the air that I can finally breathe.
My vision is still blurry and all of me hurts. My head throbbing from where he slammed it into the ground and the rest of my body from…everything. The throne room and Cassian and this.
I just need a second to pull myself together before I’ll move again. But something tickles in my brain. There was a shout that didn’t come from me. Who else is here? I shake my head to clear it, but it hurts.
There’s power coming down the alley, but a different kind of power. Bright and shining and pure. It seems to illuminate everything like a spotlight, even though it’s not visible.
Angel, my gut says.
Just like I was afraid of. There are rules in this war, and demon possession breaks a lot of them. It also gives off enough infernal power to be a beacon to any of heaven’s forces.
I blink against the brightness is my mind. Or are those my eyes? I’m still hazy. A figure crouches down in front of me. A voice, deep and rich. “Are you all right?”
The light is overwhelming. Pure light and heat that makes me feel safe and a pull like I’ve never felt before. He’s an angel. And he can’t know who I am. He has to think I’m nothing more than a girl who was attacked. For now.
I look at the body of the man the demon took, lying still across from me. Swallowing, I find my voice. I don’t have to work to make it shake. “Did I—” I shake my head. “Did I kill him?”
Someone else crouches over that body, their power bright but not brilliant. “No,�
� my angel says. Light forms above his palm, casting a warm glow on the alley around us.
My vision clears enough for me to see him, and I have to stifle a gasp. He looks like Cassian. At least enough to give me pause. Dark hair falls long around his shoulders where Cassian’s is short. And this angel’s eyes are more blue. But he’s beautiful. The same strong jaw and nose. The same powerful body that hides unimaginable power.
I’m staring at him, but I’m not sure why. I’ve seen angels before—I’ve killed angels before. I know what it feels like to have gold blood on my skin and sense holy light extinguished by my hand. Seeing him is different.
He’s looking down at me, over me, and I’m suddenly very aware of how I look.
The cold seeps back in. I’m sprawled on the stones, still utterly naked. Blood that’s not mine is splattered across me. And I’m tired—tired—of anyone seeing me like this. Especially this brilliant angel who’s looking at me with kindness and pity. I try to cover myself and he realized what I’m doing.
“Here.” He strips the shirt he’s wearing over his head and hands it to me. It’s only a t-shirt, but I take it from him and slip it over my head. It’s still warm from his skin, and big enough that it falls around my waist. “Are you all right?” He asks again, that deep voice infinitely gentle.
I’m honestly not sure. But I know I need to play the part. “I don’t know.”
“Will you let me help you?”
My eyes snap to his, and I don’t doubt that it’s a genuine question. And everything in me wants to say yes. Before I can open my mouth, my gaze snags on his bare torso. Smooth skin and built muscle. He’s gorgeous. My fingers itch to reach out and touch him the same way that they do Cassian—just to see if it’s real. And to see if the lines of him feel the same as I’m already imagining.
The light he’s holding glints off metal, and I go still. It’s not a reaction that I should have had, but I don’t know that I would have been able to stop this it if I tried. Wrapped around his arm is a silver chain with a medallion that’s painfully familiar. I would recognize it anywhere, even if a nearly identical one hadn’t been bound to my own arm less than an hour ago.
Queen of Darkness (War of Heavenly Fire Book 1) Page 4