The Rhyn Trilogy

by Lizzy Ford

  Chapter Three

  The demon lord, Darkyn, circled the shape-shifting demon, looking for any signs its true nature hadn’t been completely screened by the combination of its own skill and the injections. Demons that could take on the forms of whatever human they pleased were rare, and Darkyn had hand-selected the one before him for this mission. Impressed, he stood back and motioned the cowering Immortal in the corner forward. The Immortal scientist, Ully, crept towards them, the chains around his feet rattling with each step.

  “The transformation is complete?” Darkyn asked.

  “Yes,” came the hushed answer.

  “Certainly looks convincing. I see why Andre recruited you. And the immunity blood?”

  “It’ll render him near-invincible for several days.”

  “Define several for my demon.”

  “Four, maybe five. He can test for it by cutting himself. When he no longer heals instantly, the shots are wearing off,” Ully explained.

  “And there is nothing hidden in these injections that will alert your kind?” Darkyn asked again.

  Ully shook his head and looked down. “It’ll work like it should.”

  “You’re a smart creature, Ully. If I suspect you’ve betrayed me, I’ll turn my new super-demons on your Immortals. Four days is long enough to wipe all of them out.”

  “Except Rhyn,” Ully whispered.

  “Rhyn,” Darkyn dwelled on the name of the half-breed. “He’s about to lead my demons to the underworld. With the Immortals in disarray and Death’s … mistake, I can own the underworld before Rhyn can control his power enough to stop me.”

  “He won’t do it,” Ully whispered. “He won’t betray his brothers.”

  “The Immortal side of him is weak. He’ll do whatever it takes to get his mate back, and I intend to plant the idea in his head.” Darkyn turned his attention to the shapeshifter. “You will kill any demon or Immortal in your path. They must believe you are who we made you to be. Understood?” Darkyn ordered.

  “Yes, my lord,” the shapeshifter answered.

  “You are to find your way to the underworld. When you are there, you will plant this in the ground.” He handed the demon a small pouch that contained the concentrated magic of Hell. One pouch wasn’t enough to break through Death’s weakened barriers, but three would. “Your name is Gabriel. You will find the death-dealer you resemble and assume his place until the sign is given in the sky for you to attack.”

  “Yes, my lord.”

  “Go. Await my messenger. Once Rhyn enters the underworld, you will follow him,” he said, looking over his creation with satisfaction.

  The super-demon opened a portal and disappeared.

  Darkyn held out his hand. An hour glass with streaming black sand appeared in his palm. He’d lost three days already. Four was cutting it close. Once the bond between the half-breed and its human re-emerged a mere seven days after it was severed, Rhyn could channel his power again. Death was waiting for that day, and Darkyn had to beat her at her game. That meant making it into the underworld in four days.

  He glanced at the demon guards in the corner and motioned for them to leave. A moment later, a thin figure entered the room. The last of the shapeshifters created, this one was a mirror image of the mad scientist, Ully.

  The Immortal cowering in the corner gasped. Darkyn circled the super demon in satisfaction.

  “You have your instructions,” he said to the demon.

  “Yes, my lord.”

  “This is for the underworld, and this you will know when to use,” Darkyn said. He handed the shapeshifter a pouch identical to the one he’d given the other shapeshifting demon and a small talisman on a chain. “Go. Remind Jared what happens if he disobeys me.”

  “Yes, my lord.” The Ully demon left.

  “And now, Immortal, we wait,” Darkyn said to the mad scientist. “I want you to see the underworld fall and the Immortals destroyed as you die. Unless you’d like to take Sasha’s place in my lab.”

  “Sasha was a traitor. I’m not,” Ully said in a quiet voice.

  “When I take over Death’s domain and her army of souls, I’ll be invincible. By my side is the only place anyone will be safe.”

  Ully shook his head again.

  “Very well.” Darkyn suspected twisted Immortals like Sasha were rare. One of the brothers on the Council That Was Seven, Sasha had been strategically placed to provide Darkyn more information than he’d hoped for. Sasha’s only flaw had been his madness, which ultimately resulted in his death. Sasha had identified Ully, who was hand-selected by Andre. While Darkyn didn’t know the full details of how Andre had gotten Death to release the once-dead human, he did know Andre and Death wouldn’t have done something so important if Ully wasn’t the brilliant scientist he was.

  It was unfortunate that Ully would be killed as soon as the three shapeshifting demons reached the underworld, but Darkyn didn’t believe in loose ends.

  “Guards!” he called to the demons waiting outside the door. “Take Ully away.”

  The Council’s scientist hunched as the demons took his arms and withdrew him from the chamber.

  Darkyn glanced at the sand in the hourglass. He had one more chain of events to set in motion.

  Rhyn uncurled from his position on the cold, wet ground. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep and didn’t expect ever to wake up, not with the magic tearing him apart. He looked around, disoriented. The magic in his blood had stabilized as it did when Hannah and the angel were around, yet he didn’t see them. His thoughts drifted to the second night of the strange dream.

  Had a dead woman touched him and somehow calmed his magic?

  “I’m sorry, Rhyn.” Toby emerged from the early morning shadows of the forest.

  “Go home, Toby.”

  “I can’t open a portal.”

  Rhyn pushed himself up. He was freezing and drenched. He tested his power and found it wasn’t just calm – it was bound. He couldn’t access its depths, couldn’t call upon a portal to send the damn angel home. Couldn’t destroy this awful place.

  “Did you do this?” he demanded. “Bind my magic?”

  “I can’t do that.”

  “You’re saying we’re stuck here?”

  Toby shrugged and then shivered. Rhyn looked him over, noticing the angel was as wet as he was.

  “What was your plan?” Rhyn snapped. “Just dive through the portal and then what?”

  “What was your plan?” the angel shot back.

  “Destroy everything. It’s what I do best.”

  “Katie wouldn’t approve.”

  Rhyn bit back his response and looked around. No matter what he wanted to say or do, he was stuck with the angel in the forest.

  “I’m cold,” Toby complained.

  “You should’ve thought of that before you jumped.”

  “Hungry, too.”

  “C’mon,” Rhyn muttered.

  He stalked off into the forest, away from the castle and cliff. Toby clambered through the brush and trees after him, the angel’s footsteps loud where Rhyn’s were silent. Rhyn found a deer path and followed it until he reached a snowy meadow. Crossing it, he continued to look for a place to stash the angel where the kid wouldn’t freeze to death. After another hour of walking, he found a small pocket in the roots of a massive tree.

  “Are there bears in there?” Toby asked as they stopped.

  “Better than demons. Go.”

  The angel looked up at him doubtfully then picked his way across roots to the pocket in the tree trunk. Rhyn scavenged for what dry wood he could find and took the armful back to the tree. Toby was huddled in the small cave, shaking with cold. Rhyn focused the little bit of magic he had remaining on the wood. Fire sprang up. With it, Rhyn felt a stitch of the seam binding his power snap. More magic leaked into his body, warming him.

  “Ever skin a demon?” he asked Toby.

  Toby looked surprised.

  “What’d you think we’d be eating?”


  “I don’t want to eat a demon.”

  “Oh, that’s right. You didn’t plan ahead when you jeopardized my suicide mission,” Rhyn said. “If I’m doing the hunting, you’re eating demons.”

  The place where Katie touched him in his dream stung. Rhyn moved out of the drizzle, close to the fire, and peeled off his shirt. There was a welt resembling a bee sting where she’d touched him. He frowned.

  “I’ll eat tree bark. But I’m feeling sleepy now,” Toby said suddenly in a rushed tone. “You should go hunt.” The angel ducked into the cave, clutching his backpack to his chest.

  Rhyn looked around, wondering what spooked the kid. He sensed nothing and pulled his shirt back on. The angel was still shivering despite the fire. He needed dry clothes and probably, human food. There was one place where Rhyn could find them.

  “Stay here,” he said. He went back to the deer trail and jogged through the forest to keep his body warm, making it to the castle in an hour.

  Rhyn crept carefully through the demon scouts positioned throughout the forest surrounding the castle. The demons wore the Dark One’s uniform of all black with waterproof cloaks and hoods. The demon side of him rendered his presence similar enough to a full-demon’s that the others wouldn’t be alarmed. He sized up each demon he passed, until he found one who appeared to be his size. The creature didn’t hear his soft step, and the snapping of the demon’s neck was the only other sound in the falling rain.

  Rhyn stripped and changed into the demon’s warm clothes. He pulled up the hood and strode into the forest, towards the castle. Beneath the hood, he took in the numbers of demons present. There weren’t as many as he expected but far more than he could fight without his magic. He entered the castle, and his step slowed as memories he’d buried wriggled free.

  He went straight to the basement, where the body of their father had been kept. The key to keeping the demon’s away, it had been stolen by Sasha, the brother who betrayed the rest of them. Rhyn pushed off the hood as he entered what had been the most sacred chamber of the Immortals.

  The coffin was gone, but the mutilated body of his demoness mother remained on the far wall. Rhyn stood before it as he had less than a week before. This time, he felt something towards the decapitated creature: hatred. She’d made him what he was, a disaster no one could fix except for a dead human.

  “The preferred fate for any demon,” a woman’s voice said.

  He tensed, guessing who it was without turning. He felt Death’s cool presence, the same coolness that preceded Gabriel’s visits.

  “And half-demon,” Death added.

  “I welcome it,” Rhyn replied, facing the small woman with flowing white hair and gown. “What the fuck do you want?”

  “I came to see what was worthy of the attention of my best assassin,” Death said and looked him over. “I see nothing but Gabriel’s human weakness for a creature he should’ve let die-dead.”

  “Funny - he was right about you. You’re the cold bitch he said you were.”

  She frowned, a ripple of something else crossing her pale features.

  “Don’t like that, do you,” Rhyn said. “I’ll ask you again. What do you want?”

  “I came to warn you. You cannot destroy this place or start a war with me before four days have passed.”

  “Why not?”

  “You simply cannot.”

  “I don’t give a shit about your agenda. Tell me why it matters to me.”

  “I can make you dead-dead right now,” she reminded him.

  “I won’t fight you,” Rhyn replied. He flung open his arms, giving her his whole body as a target. “Kill me. Do me, you, and everyone else a favor!”

  She stared at him.

  “I got nothing to lose.”

  “There’s Toby,” she said.

  “He means more to you than me.”

  “Gabe.”

  “You mean the assassin you sent to kill my mate? Not sure we can be friends after that.”

  “Katie.”

  “Already dead. And you can have my brothers right now. I’ll give you the order I prefer you to kill them in,” Rhyn said.

  “There are factors at play I cannot share with you,” Death said. “You would risk destroying this world and every human in it?”

  Rhyn smiled.

  “Of course. You’re a half-demon. It is not in your nature to care for anything beyond you,” she said, frown deepening.

  “You took everything I cared about,” he growled. “If I can destroy everything to spite you, I will.”

  “I am not your enemy!”

  “I don’t care.” His anger growing at the petite woman who’d taken Andre, Katie and Gabe from him, Rhyn stalked towards the door.

  “Then I will grant you a favor.”

  He stopped at her words, surprised.

  “One favor from a deity of unimaginable power,” she said. “In exchange for four days.”

  “Katie,” he said instantly.

  “Done,” she replied just as fast.

  Rhyn turned to face her. “Alive, not her body or pieces of her or anything twisted.”

  “She will be as she was before she walked into the ocean.”

  Speechless, Rhyn’s heart flip-flopped at the prospect of seeing his mate again.

  “Do we have a deal?” Death asked.

  “Yes,” he forced himself to say. “But if you trick me, if the fourth day comes and Katie isn’t alive, I’ll wipe out everything and hunt you down.”

  “Agreed.”

  Part of him rejoiced while another part of him thought the boon was too easily won from the creature before him. There had to be a catch. Death wouldn’t agree to anything so easily. He found himself wishing for the advice of Andre or Kris, men smart where he was brash. She said nothing else and Rhyn turned away, striding out of the chamber.

  Sensing demons in the upcoming halls, he replaced his hood and stepped from the stairwell leading to the basement into the hall on the main floor. Half a dozen demons paced the corridor, three dressed as scouts like he was. Rhyn made his way through his half-brethren, once again getting an idea of how many were there. He wasn’t about to believe Death until he saw Katie for himself. A minute after midnight on the fourth day, if Katie wasn’t standing beside him, he’d need the knowledge of where to set off the atomic bomb within him.

  He ascended two floors to the hallway where Kris’s supplies had been stocked. He recalled how hard it could be taking care of a helpless creature like Katie or Toby. He strode to the chamber that had served as a department store full of clothing to Kris’s Immortals. Not surprised to find the chamber ransacked, he sifted through the remaining clothing on the floor. He guessed Toby’s size and stuffed a bag with a few items before going to the food supplies. Demons didn’t eat human food, and the storage area was virtually untouched. Rhyn grabbed several cans and packages of foodstuffs then left.

  The forest was growing dark when he reached the tree to find the angel sitting in front of a dead fire, shaking with cold.

  “You couldn’t add wood to the fire?” Rhyn asked, irritated by the helpless creature.

  “I tried,” Toby chattered.

  Rhyn started the fire again and sat beside Toby. He handed him the bag of clothing and food. Toby withdrew the clothing skeptically.

  “Are these women’s clothes?”

  Rhyn looked at the articles of clothing the angel held up, unconcerned.

  “The coat is pink and there are purple hearts on the sweater,” Toby said. “I think I’d rather freeze to death.”

  “It’d make my life easier.”

  The angel sighed, dumped out the food and sorted through it. He held out a can finally and Rhyn took it.

  “Can’t open it,” Toby said.

  Rhyn ripped it open with his teeth and handed it back.

  “So what’s the plan?” the angel asked. “Are we raiding the castle?”

  “Soon,” Rhyn replied, dwelling on his conversation with Death.

&n
bsp; “Thank you, Rhyn. I expected you to abandon me. Kris says you don’t know how to care for anyone else and Hannah said -”

  “Fuck them.”

  “Yeah, fuck them. They were mean to Mama,” Toby said. “Can I tell Kris to go fuck himself when I see him again?”

  “I’d be disappointed if you didn’t.”

  “I know you don’t want me here, but I’m glad I came. I like you best of all, Rhyn. Maybe I should call you Dad. Or Pops or Father.”

  “What?” Rhyn demanded.

  “You’re Mama’s mate. Do you like Pops better?”

  “If you call me any of those things, I’ll hang you upside down from this tree and watch you starve.”

  “You should get used to it, though, Pops. What’ll you do when your daughter is born?”

  “Daughter?” Rhyn echoed. “Katie’s …” dead. At least, she was for another four days. If Death kept her word, Katie would be back. “How do you know Katie will be alive in four days?”

  “Really, Rhyn? You think she’s dead?” Toby asked and rolled his eyes. “She’s alive now. I told Kris and Hannah the same thing. No one listens to me.”

  “I’m listening now.”

  “I’m her guardian,” the angel said. He puffed himself up, the scrawny body of a juvenile who hadn’t thought to carry more wood to a dying fire. “If she was dead-dead, I’d have to have a new human, but I don’t. Kris wanted me to choose a new one, but I – “

  “Where is she?”

  “Probably stuck in the Immortal underworld,” Toby said with a shrug. “She’s not in the mortal world. I’m sure Gabriel will take care of her. He knows his way around the underworld. I’m old enough to start to access the angel memories. But I don’t know if this has ever happened before.”

  “He’d have to defy Death to keep a human alive in her domain,” Rhyn said, considering. The histories of humanity – and Immortals – were passed down from angel-to-angel in the form of memories. He’d heard them mentioned before but didn’t know much about angels. “No wonder the bitch agreed to my terms.”

  “Who?”

  “Death. She told me I couldn’t destroy the world for four days and offered me Katie’s life in exchange.”