The Rhyn Trilogy

by Lizzy Ford

  “I did it for a man I see as my brother.”

  “You keep saying that,” she said and rolled her eyes. “But I think you kinda like me, too.”

  “You’re growing on me,” he allowed. “Much like fungus.”

  Katie chuckled, and he was almost relieved at the sight of her smile. Her features had grown paler and gaunter under his watch. He feared the underworld would sink her spirit, too. One of them had to have some sort of hope they’d make it out alive.

  “Please, Katie, try to get some rest. We’ve barely had any down time since arriving, and you need it,” he said again. “I’ve gotta make sure nothing has found us yet.”

  “You need rest, too, Gabe.”

  “I’ll rest when you’re safe.”

  Another small smile crossed her face, and she sat down. Gabe left her, knowing even if she did sleep, it wouldn’t be long. Death may have ignored their presence in her domain for three days, but something had made her reach out to him now. He knew they’d have problems at some point and only hoped he could get Katie out of the underworld, before his own fate was sealed.

  Rhyn approached the boundaries of his newest prison – the one meant to keep everyone else on the Caribbean Sanctuary safe from the magic he couldn’t control. The ocean’s calming rhythm and flavorful breeze made the beach more bearable. Tents had sprung up two nights before, and the two people who could keep his powers from spinning out of control remained at the center of the beach. He was far enough away from the Sanctuary’s fortress not to cause a threat to those there, so long as the two people buffering him stayed close.

  He raised his head to the sky then held out his arm across what he’d figured out was the boundary of his buffers’ influence. Magic jolted through him like electricity, flinging him onto his back. His power spun through him, but it was nothing compared to what he would feel without the two buffers.

  “Again?” a youth’s voice asked.

  Rhyn lay still and folded his hands beneath his head, staring at the sky. He heard the angel, Toby, drop beside him, the glow of his Nintendo 3DS bright in the night. As one of Rhyn’s buffers, Toby was as trapped on the beach as he was.

  “It’s gotta hurt,” Toby said.

  Nothing hurts anymore, Rhyn thought.

  “Kris wants to assign Hannah as my new mom,” the angel continued. “I don’t want her as my mom.”

  “Why do you give a shit?” Rhyn asked.

  “I want Katie.”

  Rhyn’s jaw clenched, and he fought the raw feeling inside him, the one that betrayed him every time he tried to convince himself he’d survived worse. For the first time in his life, he’d thought he found his calling: protecting people as defenseless as his mate, Katie. And then, she’d died, and any purpose his life had died with her. Now, he just wanted to die-dead.

  “Auntie Hannah says she’d be my mom for all time, so I wouldn’t have to have any other moms.” The angel sounded troubled. “Rhyn, can I stay with you?”

  “No.”

  “I know, I know, Kris says I’m an angel and angels are supposed to protect humans and you’re anything but human but I still want to stay with you. Please, Rhyn?”

  “No.”

  Toby sighed loudly and turned off the glowing 3DS. Instead of leaving like Rhyn wished he would, the angel lay down beside him.

  “How long are we staying on the beach?” Toby asked.

  “Until Kris figures out how to send me back to Hell,” Rhyn said, suspecting this was what his brother intended to do. He couldn’t be trusted free. As hard as he tried, he had no control over his power without the buffers. Kris and his mate, Hannah – Rhyn’s other buffer – weren’t about to live the rest of Immortality on the beach with him.

  “You could kidnap us both and take us wherever you want to go,” Toby offered. “Then you’d be stable and you could leave the beach.”

  “Right, because I have somewhere to go.”

  “You can go see Death and ask her for Katie back.”

  “It doesn’t work that way for mortals.”

  “If you hadn’t un-bonded her, it’d work.”

  “Look, you little shit, why don’t you –“

  “Gods, Rhyn, don’t talk to him like that,” the eldest surviving brother of the seven brothers, Kris, snapped as he approached. “Did you ask him, Toby?”

  “He said no, like you said,” Toby said, disappointment heavy in his voice.

  Rhyn ground his teeth, fury bubbling within him. He wanted them all gone, so he could spend the remainder of his long life laying here alone, waiting for Death or one of her assassins.

  “Go back to the tents,” Kris instructed the young angel.

  Toby went without another word, and Rhyn drew a deep breath to settle his emotions.

  “You haven’t been sleeping,” Kris said and squatted beside him.

  Rhyn glanced at him, taking in the arm in a sling. Kris was healing from an attacker Rhyn had saved him from, the day Katie killed herself. Rhyn had lost his mate the same day he earned some small piece of respect from his brother.

  “Is your offer still on the table?” Kris asked.

  “What offer?”

  “The one where you become the Council’s assassin.”

  “You seem to forget I can’t go anywhere without your mate and the damn angel,” Rhyn said in irritation.

  “Where I want you to go, I don’t care if anyone survives,” Kris said. “I have an idea. The two of them can walk you through the shadow world and you can jump through the portal.”

  “You don’t intend for me to return.”

  “It would be a noble death for a good cause, if it came to that.”

  “What is it?” Rhyn asked.

  “I want my castle back,” Kris said. “Scouts are reporting it’s overrun with demons and Darkyn has adopted it as his terra headquarters for his trips here from Hell. Go in and wipe out the demons.”

  Rhyn’s thoughts drifted to the castle. He felt the urge to destroy it, not save it. After all, it was where he and Katie spent the few good moments they’d had, where he’d found something worth living for. And where everything had gone wrong.

  “I can wipe out everything,” he mused.

  “I’d be happy with the demons gone,” Kris said. “I want the castle. It was our father’s.”

  “When do I leave?”

  “In the morning. Pre-dawn.”

  “Alrighty.”

  Kris rose but didn’t leave. “Rhyn, if you come back, we can try to find some way for you to live as normal a life as possible,” he said slowly. “I’m converting a room at this Sanctuary into a lab, for when we find Ully.”

  “We both know this is a suicide mission.”

  Kris was silent for a long moment. Then he said, “I’ll tell Toby to leave you alone so you can get some sleep tonight.”

  Rhyn listened to his brother pad away in the soft sand. He’d spent thousands of years in Hell wishing to be dead-dead. Tomorrow, he’d have his chance.

  The ocean’s cold breeze swept over him, and his thoughts turned from his dead mate to his best friend, Gabriel, who had tried to kill him then disappeared. He’d lost them both, the only good parts of his life. He’d left Hell only to fuck up his life worse than before.

  His eyes closed. He hadn’t been able to sleep in two days but fell fast into a deep, peaceful slumber. Katie awaited him in his dreams, looking as she had the day he lost her. They stood in the spot where he’d fought his friend, Gabriel, and the demon lord, Darkyn. She wore a sweater that made her light eyes glow. Her hair whipped in the wind chilling his body.

  When his eldest brother died, he’d felt pain and anger, but he’d never felt the crippling ache he did standing on the rocks near the ocean staring at Katie.

  “’Bout time you showed up,” she said, crossing her arms. “I’ve been waiting for you for two nights.”

  “Maybe you should’ve told me your plan before drowning yourself,” he snapped.

  “Seriously? You’re g
oing to lecture me? Who un-bonded who?”

  “I get no rest, even in my sleep.”

  “You’re about to get all the rest you want. An eternity full. Are you really going to let your jackass brother send you on a suicide mission?”

  “I am,” Rhyn said. “I’m done fucking up my life and everyone else’s.”

  “What if I told you I’m not dead?”

  “Bullshit.”

  “Oh, because you Immortal jackasses know it all, right?” She raised an eyebrow. “You’re doing exactly what Kris wants you to, Rhyn, going to your death like a lamb.”

  “I’m better off as demon fodder. I was doomed when I was born a half-demon.”

  “You can’t believe that,” she said, her features turning from irritation to concern. Katie approached him and stopped within arm’s reach, gazing up at him. “Rhyn, you’re better than this.”

  Gods, but he could smell her sweet scent! Her large eyes seemed to see right through him. He feared reaching out, in case she slid through his fingers like smoke. He’d lost her in life; he wasn’t going to risk losing her in his dreams. He could imagine closing the distance between them, sweeping her up into his arms, and making love to her on the beach.

  The way he should’ve done, before she’d walked into the ocean and killed herself to protect him from a fate he deserved.

  “You should’ve let them kill me,” he said in a hoarse voice. “I could die peacefully knowing you were safe, but I’m not worth saving.”

  “You’re the only Immortal I’ve met worth saving.”

  “Stupid little human.”

  She rolled her eyes at him.

  “How’s Death?” he baited. “Gabe says she’s a bitch.”

  “I haven’t met her yet.”

  “Rhyn.”

  He snapped awake at the voice. The dream seemed so short, but the sky had begun to lighten on the horizon. The dream faded as he sat up. Toby stood nearby, his young face solemn. The angel looked ready for a journey with his backpack and sturdy boots. Beside him stood Hannah.

  “I’m ready,” Rhyn said and rose. He rubbed his stubble-roughed jaw.

  “We appreciate this, Rhyn,” Hannah said.

  “Voluntarily going to my death? You’re welcome.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  At her hushed tone, Rhyn turned. Hannah held one of the lanterns donated to their exiled party by the Sanctuary. The blond woman was pale and gaunt.

  “The Immortals need a home,” she said. “They can’t live scattered around the world.”

  “Right.”

  “You’re not the only one hurting, Rhyn.”

  Out of respect for Katie, he bit back the bitter words at the tip of his tongue. He stalked past her, waiting for the moment he could release the pent up fury and magic. He’d make a crater of the castle and the surrounding countryside!

  “You can’t leave me here,” Toby said, running to keep up. “You need me if you want to survive.”

  “I don’t.”

  “But when Katie comes back, she – “

  “Enough!” Rhyn said and gripped both the angel’s shoulders. He shook the youth. “She’s dead-dead! Get over it.”

  “But Rhyn – “

  Rhyn released him and walked away again, towards the tent where Kris was staying. Kris stood outside, waiting for him. He held out a familiar dagger. Rhyn hesitated then took it. It had been their eldest brother’s before his murder, and their father’s before that. The ancient dagger was heavy and cold in Rhyn’s hands. It was the symbol of the enforcer of the Council That Was Seven, the only of the seven brothers sanctioned to kill in cold blood on behalf of the Council and Immortals.

  “You’ll need this when I’m gone,” Rhyn said.

  “We’ll see,” Kris said. “If you survive, it’s yours. If not, I’ll find it when I return to the castle.”

  Fashioned by Death herself, the dagger was immune even to magic as strong as Rhyn’s. He tucked it into his belt. Rhyn ignored Hannah’s approach, and Toby shuffled his feet.

  “I wish there was another way,” Kris said.

  “You’ve wanted me dead for thousands of years,” Rhyn pointed out.

  “That was before you saved my life.”

  “It wasn’t the first time.”

  Kris frowned and opened his mouth to speak when Toby gave an exasperated sigh.

  “Let’s get this over with,” Rhyn said.

  Hannah looked less than pleased, but Toby’s face brightened. Kris opened the portal to the shadow world and held out his hand to his mate. Hannah took his and one of Toby’s hands, and Toby slid his small hand into Rhyn’s.

  The feeling of the angel’s soft, cold hand in his own reminded Rhyn of the first thing he’d touched in Hell that hadn’t been stone. Gabriel had brought him a book with a worn, leather-like cover, and he’d lost himself dwelling on the sensation of buttery leather under his fingertips after the hazy nightmare that had been his existence in Hell.

  The sense returned, and Rhyn looked down. Toby’s hand was all that felt real after the past three days.

  “Is that it?” the angel asked in a hushed voice.

  Rhyn looked up at the brightest of the portals lining the otherworldly landing between worlds. He released Toby’s hand.

  “Rhyn,” Kris said. “Be careful. I mean that. We’ll figure out something.”

  Rhyn glanced back to see both Kris and his mate frowning as they watched him. He didn’t understand both their concern and eagerness to get rid of him, but felt familiar coldness settle into his chest. There had been two other people in the entirety of the universe that cared for him, and the two people with him now were not the same.

  Adrenaline shot through him as he faced the portal. The only other thing that made him feel alive was killing and destroying – the demon side of him that always won out. He salivated at the thought of demon blood and walked to the portal.

  “Toby!” Hannah cried.

  A streak tore past him just as he reached the portal. The angel moved with inhuman speed as he sprinted and dived through the portal ahead of Rhyn, disappearing.

  “Shit! Rhyn you – “

  Surprise and then alarm filled Rhyn. He’d walk happily to his own death, but angels were sacred creatures among the Immortals. He ignored Kris and plunged through the portal.

  Kris had opened it near the cliff. On the other side of the world from the Caribbean Sanctuary, the French Alps were dark and cold, and it was sleeting. Rhyn slipped in the muddy snow beneath him and looked around for the angel. His plan of blowing up everything hadn’t included an innocent like Toby being hurt.

  “Toby!” he shouted, furious at the angel.

  He neither saw nor heard anything else around him. Too fast, he felt the buffers’ effect on his powers lessen, and magic exploded through him. He dropped to the ground, unable to stabilize the raging power within him or release it to destroy everything around him as he planned. He gritted his teeth to keep it contained, silently cursing both the angel and Kris for not just letting him die-dead, like he deserved. Agony tore through him as will combated magic, and he seized on the ground, helpless.

  Katie!

  Chapter Two

  Katie followed her instincts through the dreamscape until she climbed the last rocks and saw Rhyn curled in a ball just on the other side of a small ridge on the Sanctuary. Her heart leapt, and she hurried to him. In her last dream, he’d been there one moment then disappeared, just when she reached out for him. She couldn’t help wondering if these dreams were more than dreams. This wouldn’t be the first time she lived out reality in a dream.

  “Rhyn? What’s wrong?” she asked, pausing near him.

  His teeth were grinding loudly enough for her to hear, and his face was ashen and drawn in a look of pain. He couldn’t answer – that much she discerned at the rippling muscles of his clenched jaw.

  She knelt beside him and touched his arm tentatively, waiting for him to disappear again.

  Ins
tantly the grinding of his teeth stopped, and his ragged breathing began to slow. He uncurled, and she withdrew her hand before he disappeared from the dream again. Even so, she wasn’t able to shake the warmth of his magic flying up her arm and through her, reminding her of what it was like being near him when she was alive. Even the skin of a half-demon was smooth and warm. She used to resent the way his touch made her feel like she belonged to him, until she’d walked into the Caribbean knowing he might never touch her again.

  ”What … did you do?” he rasped.

  “Thank God!” she exclaimed when he didn’t disappear. “What are you doing? Did you do what Kris said?”

  “Toby,” he managed. “He went through the portal.”

  “So that coward of a brother of yours sent a kid to face a bunch of demons?” she demanded. She wanted Kris dead in that moment, even if the arrogant Immortal was her sister’s husband.

  “Toby went before we could stop him.”

  “Oh,” she said. “Is he okay?”

  “Trying not to blow him up. I can’t control it.”

  Katie watched him stand with effort. The strain on his face was clear, and a tremor of fear crept through her.

  “You can do it,” she said.

  “I’ve never been able to.”

  “Rhyn, you can. I know you can. How else can you protect him and everyone else?”

  He looked at her hard. She saw the resignation to his own death in his silver eyes.

  “I didn’t drown myself so you could give up!” she snapped, growing upset.

  “I’m not giving up. I can’t fucking control it!”

  “You are the strongest person I know. If anyone can do this, you can,” she told him. “And I forbid you from killing Toby! He’s annoying and mouthy, but he’s just a boy. Or an angel or something. I can’t imagine killing an angel is any better than killing a little boy.”

  Rhyn said nothing. She watched him pace, his long, muscular legs drawing her eyes. A familiar ache filled her, one that made her want to launch herself into his arms and never leave the dream world. It was better than traveling the underworld with Gabriel or fighting with Kris for an ounce of respect.