His gaze snagged on the soul bag at his brother’s hip, and he knew what he would do.
Snapping the ties with a firm yank, he freed the bag and ripped the mouth open wide. With his empty hand, he tossed it to the ground beside them.
Stale air swirled as the vicious portal opened, searching for anything not grounded in flesh to consume. Nathaniel’s hold on Chloe tightened as he ripped open the front of Saul’s shirt and snatched the pendant from around his brother’s neck. He was about to give the portal a snack.
Saul’s eyes widened. He scratched and clawed at Nathaniel as his skin dissolved. His mouth became a whirl of black glitter shaped on a soundless scream. He became as insubstantial as the air the bag inhaled in greedy gulps.
He writhed as suction from the portal found purchase and breathed him in.
Saul would burn for eternity. If Nathaniel joined him in the end, so be it.
There was no life for him after Chloe. Her death had hollowed him out, left him as soulless as the husks of mortals whose souls he had harvested. What did it matter how Delphi punished him? Nothing was worse than knowing he had failed Chloe.
Back on his feet, Nathaniel made for the cliff’s edge, where he’d first seen the glimmer of light. Shining in his hand, Chloe’s soul illuminated a shallow ledge and he jumped down to the rocky outcropping.
At his feet, a bloody jumble of charred and broken limbs jutted from the rocky ground. As he lifted Chloe’s remains into his arms, her soul withdrew as if confused by his discovery.
Tears burned Nathaniel’s eyes, but the heat evaporated them before they could fall. Each stroke of his thumb down Chloe’s cheek drove home the fact that he would never again hear her laughter or feel her touch, never see her smile or taste the full curve of her lips.
Nothing Delphi did to him now could be called anything short of mercy.
The axis of his world had tilted when he met Chloe, bent toward her as a flower in search of sun. Without her, his existence slipped back into darkness. Death, his centuries-old companion, made a welcoming bed and asked Nathaniel to lie in it.
Nathaniel jerked as hard fingers squeezed his shoulder.
Delphi sounded pleased. “Balance has been restored.”
Willing to plead with Delphi, Nathaniel caught that cool hand in his. “Please, spare her. She is an innocent in all of this. I beg of you, summon Gavriel. Let her soul return home.”
“My brother can no more enter Hell than I can Heaven.” He pulled away. “This mortal’s soul is blighted. It cannot journey to Aeristitia.”
Silken warmth surrounded Nathaniel as Chloe’s aura engulfed him, covered his face and neck with ghostly kisses of assurance before she abandoned him and strained toward Delphi.
“What is it, child?” He allowed her light to fill his hand. A strangled snarl rose in Nathaniel’s throat, earning him a sharp glance from Delphi. “Silence, Weaver. Let her soul impart its message.”
Delphi plucked the root of Chloe’s soul from Nathaniel’s hand as if picking a flower.
It guided him toward the ledge, then shrank against him, muting her light.
“I see.” His lips set in a grim line.
On numb legs, Nathaniel lumbered to Delphi’s side with Chloe’s body in his arms.
In the valley below, thousands of opalescent creatures growled and snapped at one another. Nude and filthy, their human shapes belied their animalistic manners. Wild red eyes, sharp with hunger, lit the pitch-darkness surrounding them. Still more scrabbled across the ground as they exited what looked to be a doorway carved from obsidian stone.
“There must be thousands of them.” Delphi peered into the darkness. “Saul must have worked centuries to create this number.” He frowned when he noticed the arch and the milling bodies beyond it. “More hide inside that cavern.” His expression turned pensive. “Resurrection is a divine talent, which means Aeristitia has a traitor in her midst.” Glancing toward Nathaniel, he said, “And for no one to have reported the absences in their soul pits, he must have had allies among the harvesters as well.”
“I couldn’t tell you if he did.” And he no longer cared.
“We must leave this place.” Delphi gave the creatures one last glance. “Now, before they catch wind of us. They’re vampiric, sustaining themselves on the souls of the living or eating the flesh of their own.” He further shielded Chloe with his hand. “She’s fresh. They’ll scent her first.” He grasped Nathaniel’s shoulder and black mists swirled around their ankles and swallowed them down a different kind of portal.
When he could see again, they stood between pillars of white marble with scowling seraphs to either side.
Delphi motioned Arestes forward. “I need you to take care of this.” He gestured toward Chloe’s body.
The seraph inclined his head with a somber expression. “I will ensure her remains are properly tended.” He opened his arms, expecting Nathaniel to pass her over.
Though Nathaniel was aware he held only a shell and that he should give her into another’s care willingly, he couldn’t let Chloe go. His fingers tangled in her hair as he cradled her broken body to his chest.
Across the way, Chloe’s essence flickered in Delphi’s hand. Urgent in its attempt to draw his attention, it was as if she wanted to reassure him she was still her, still with him, just different.
Another time he would have laughed as a woman born of flesh comforted a man born of the spirit, assuring him the soul lived on even after the body died. With less resistance, he surrendered her body to Arestes. Her soul had no use for its broken casing now.
Delphi stroked the fluttering spirit with featherlight strokes. “My thanks to you, little one.” His attention shifted from her to Nathaniel. “You defied me, tampered with the fate of a mortal, which is expressly forbidden. I should have reclaimed your shears and left you stranded beyond the wall to wander through Hell until those creatures devoured you.”
The fistful of light Delphi held struggled against him. He frowned at it. “Quiet down or you’ll wear yourself out.” Then he addressed Nathaniel. “Despite your second lapse in judgment, I find myself in the unusual situation of being indebted to your mortal and having a fair idea of what she’ll ask for as her due.”
Nathaniel’s focus riveted on Delphi’s hand out of fear his fingers would open.
Perhaps sensing how little of Nathaniel’s attention he held, Delphi passed over Chloe’s soul gingerly. “She has saved you, Weaver. Remember that, and honor her for it.”
Chloe’s love had shattered him, healed him, remade him into a better man than he had been the day he met her. She thought he had saved her life, but she was wrong. She had saved his.
Accepting her soul with sweat-slick palms, Nathaniel tried not to tighten his grip, but the urge to hold on as tight as he could to his beautiful Chloe was too much and he failed. Mistlike warmth crept through his fingers to twine around his torso. Exerting the minutest pressure, Chloe gave the best hug she was capable of giving. It was the best he’d ever gotten.
“Do you still have Saul’s pendant?” Delphi asked gruffly.
Surprised to find the chain still dangled from his limp fingers, Nathaniel handed it to him.
Delphi tied a knot in the broken length. “Come.” He beckoned Chloe and she went.
At first, the links passed through the column of light, but as he held the links outstretched, the wavering mass beneath took shape. Became more human in appearance and gradually filled out in detail. Subtle changes shifted across her skin as if the soul had already forgotten Chloe’s form and labored to reinvent her appearance.
With a final surge of incandescence, the remaining light absorbed into the new skin it had created and a perfect replica of the Chloe he had known suspended in the air before him.
Life surged through her, making her gasp for air her newly formed lungs forgot to supply. Her large brown eyes whirled over to Nathaniel, and she reached for him. The movement broke the invisible cord holding her aloft and she fell.
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He lurched, slid on his knees, then caught her in his arms. Once down, he lacked the strength to rise. All he knew was the sweet apple scent of her hair and the smooth softness of her skin. His arms shook with gratitude as they enfolded her.
Confusion swirled through Chloe as her wispy limbs solidified. Moments earlier, she’d been a swirl of dancing colors, desperate to impart a message her limited form struggled to convey. Now she was sort of wrapped in skin. Aware it wasn’t hers, though it looked familiar.
Forgetting all the new sensations bombarding her, she focused on one thing, the most important thing—Nathaniel. In the struggle to see him better, she’d fallen; no longer insubstantial, her body had weight and it obeyed the laws of gravity even in this strange place.
Before she gasped from her surprised free fall, Nathaniel caught her in his arms and crushed her to him. She couldn’t breathe to complain and didn’t want to. His arms were a heaven she had feared never reaching again.
Coarse patches of dried brown gunk on his shirt rubbed against her tender skin. This odd rebirth had left her nude and her skin baby soft. Then she noticed Delphi and realized she had an audience.
“Can I borrow your shirt?” Her voice rang strange through untried ears.
Nathaniel stared down at her, unblinking. His hands trembled where they held her. His expression was one of shock, as if he couldn’t believe what he saw was real.
Her lips met his throat and he shivered. “The shirt?” She stroked his cheeks, his jaw, forcing him to feel her hands on him and acknowledge her.
His glazed eyes snapped into abrupt focus, and he pulled the shirt over his head and down over hers in one smooth motion. Seams ran down her sides because the shirt was inside out, but she didn’t mind. It fitted her current self-image to perfection.
Across the way, Delphi cleared his throat.
Chloe scrambled to her feet, but Nathaniel plucked her from the ground. Once he stood, he placed her bare feet on his shoes so her delicate soles wouldn’t burn. Then he wrapped a firm arm around her, forcing her to lean back into him. “I don’t understand,” she said to Delphi.
“You have nothing to fear from me.” His harsh features softened. “I owe you a debt of gratitude, and I always pay my debts.”
“I did you a favor,” she said, wondering at how quickly everything had happened.
“And I have done a favor for you.” His gaze touched on the pendant hanging around her neck. Then he glanced at Nathaniel. “Two, if one counted such things among friends.”
Her cheeks burned. “I didn’t mean to be rude.”
“I’m sure.” The slow curve of his lips transformed his face into something as fearsome as it was beautiful. “You sacrificed yourself to show me Saul’s army with no reason to think your actions would lead to any outcome other than your death, and his.”
Silence seemed like the best policy at the moment. If he wanted to give her credit for more than wanting to save her and Nathaniel’s hides, then she wouldn’t stop him.
“Now here is where I find my problem.” Delphi brushed a length of midnight hair over his shoulder. “Nathaniel altered your base composition when he shared his soul with you. The human, Chloe McCrea, was marked for death, and she has died. That debt has been settled.”
“I was human when I died.”
“No, you weren’t. If you had been, I couldn’t make the offer I’m about to extend.” He crossed his arms. “Your soul is an odd mix of human and angel because Nathaniel is part of you, even though as the Soul Weaver he cannot claim to be either of those things himself. I didn’t realize what he’d done until I held your soul myself. Since you were still alive when he bound you two together, instead of a resurrection, he essentially created a new type of Nephilim.”
“Delphi,” Nathaniel argued, “her parents were human. She was—”
“What she was born as is not what she died as,” he said, silencing Nathaniel with a raised hand. “In special cases, as with your nephew, I’ve been given leave to appoint emissaries of those Nephilim who choose to serve Heaven’s cause.”
Behind her back, Chloe pinched Nathaniel. “Let the man speak.”
His answering growl rattled her teeth since her body was pressed so fully against his, but he conceded the point and let Delphi continue uninterrupted.
“You were able to use your bond with Saul to gather information, and you gave your life to share that information with me. I won’t forget your sacrifice.” Delphi kept his gaze locked with hers. “Nathaniel has given you an inadvertent gift. I believe in time, such a skill could be honed. Your new talent perfected.”
He smoothed a hand across his jaw. “In their current state, I’m unsure of how or if Saul’s army of immortals can be destroyed. It would be foolish to think they will simply disband because their leader was lost.” His expression darkened. “Saul had divine assistance, which means he may not be incapacitated but recovering even now.” He looked to her. “And there are others among us who helped hide his secret. They must be found and punished.”
His momentary pause let his words sink in. “I could use someone with your abilities to help me divine friend from foe. You could save many human lives, as well as those of our kin, by unearthing the traitors among us.”
Chloe’s sudden increase in value became clearer. If she could tap into Nathaniel’s and Saul’s minds, she could do the same with any other harvester. But that meant… “I would have to remain marked for the bond to work on others, wouldn’t I?”
Nathaniel’s voice sliced through their conversation. “Chloe would be at too great a risk. If she connects to a harvester, her soul would be vulnerable, even as a Nephilim. To say nothing of her mind, the psychological effects of what she would witness.”
“The choice is not yours to make, Weaver.” Delphi dismissed his concerns without preamble. “She would remain marked, but I offer her the chance to wear a second mark as well.” His bared teeth gleamed. “Mine.”
Cold fury surged through her bond with Nathaniel.
“What about a second mark?” Digging in her heels, she shoved Nathaniel back before he plowed into Delphi but only by the skin of her teeth. “Let’s all calm down, okay?”
Agonized blue eyes blinked clear of their rage. “I apologize, meira.” He added, “Delphi.”
Things were heading south fast with Nathaniel so strung out, and Delphi wasn’t helping matters. Didn’t he know not to wave a red flag at a bull unless he wanted to be shish kebabed?
She wasn’t fool enough to think she could rein in Nathaniel for a second longer than he allowed her to, and if he decided she was in danger, nothing would stop him from protecting her. Even at the cost of their fragile negotiations.
Delphi appeared undaunted. “You’ve seen my brand before, I’m sure. It’s the silver mark embedded in the skin of Nathaniel’s shoulder. When he exchanged his wings in order to wield the shears, he became my emissary. The mark is my proof of ownership, as well as a protection.”
“If I agree”—Chloe forced her fingers through Nathaniel’s fisted ones—“then what do we get out of the deal?”
“In exchange, I offer you full ownership of the pendant you now wear and the ability to move between planes. You may live where you will as long as you heed my summons and you may wear humanity when it suits your purposes,” Delphi said. “As Nathaniel is mine, so now will you be.”
Her head spun at the thought. His offer meant her continued existence, but it was a high price to pay. And Nathaniel… Delphi hadn’t mentioned his fate.
As if sensing the direction of her thoughts, Delphi countered his proposal. “I also offer you the guardian of your choice since your new situation will come with its share of danger.”
Nathaniel tensed behind her. Chloe thought he held his breath.
Her words tripped out in an eager rush. “I choose Nathaniel.”
Delphi paused long enough to make her sweat.
“Although he has shown questionable judgment in these past w
eeks, I will need his shears and talent in the coming days.” Delphi’s gaze met Nathaniel’s. “You are to be this soul’s guardian. If any harm comes to her, the blame will be yours, as well as the punishment.”
Nathaniel pressed a hand to his heart and gave a solemn nod, the best he could do with her plastered to his front.
Delphi continued. “After careful reflection, I’ve also decided you are no longer fit to harvest souls. I must ask you to surrender your soul bag.” Nathaniel tossed it over almost before Delphi finished his request. “The others will fill your pit for you, and you will only access it while in Dis, during your weaving time.”
When Delphi glanced back at Chloe, the almost-smile teasing his lips let her know everything would be okay. They were back on his team and he was oddly pleased by his newest addition. “Your request is granted.”
“Thank you.” She elbowed Nathaniel’s gut.
“Thank you for saving her,” he grunted, “and for sparing me.”
Delphi gave them a nod. “Give me your pendants.”
Chloe dropped hers into his hand. The sensation of her skin dissipating bottomed out her stomach. The rainbow-glitter outline it left behind was similar to Nathaniel’s composition. His contribution to her makeup was a golden patch curling over her heart.
Nathaniel handed over his pendant and assumed his other form as well.
Within Delphi’s closed fist, light spilled through the cracks of his fingers. When he opened his hand, a pair of silver bands sat on his palm. He placed each one on the ring fingers of Chloe’s and Nathaniel’s left hands.
More than a little freaked out by the way her flesh regenerated beneath the metal and spread outward, Chloe eagerly sought something to keep her attention focused elsewhere and found it in Nathaniel.
Biting her bottom lip, she had to admit he looked kind of sexy when he was all gold dusty.
Delphi took her hand in his and twisted the ring. The engraved inset spun while the band remained in place. “Turn it counterclockwise and your spiritual form will be revealed. Clockwise, and you resume your former, human appearance.”
Soul Weaver Page 25