by Lizzy Ford
“Give it time. One man – even Andre – couldn’t solve the world’s problems. You just have to wait it out. And hope we all come to our senses before the end of the world,” Kiki said with a small smile.
“That’s not good enough. I have a duty to fulfill, an obligation to my Immortals,” Kris said, pensive. “And I don’t feel adequate compared to Andre.”
“You’re more than adequate, Kris. All of us look up to you. You don’t have Andre’s legacy as the family protector, but you’ll find your way. You’ve lost your spark. Is this why?”
“Mostly. And part of it is Jade,” Kris whispered.
“You have a penchant for betrayers, that’s for sure.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“Lilith, Jade, I’m just hoping Hannah isn’t among them,” Kiki said.
“Lilith?”
Kiki’s features shuttered and went stoic. “Never mind that one. Bad joke.”
“Lilith would never betray me, and neither would Hannah,” Kris snapped. “You know better, Kiki.”
“Maybe. In any case, whatever you felt for Jade, you have to figure out how to get over it. You have your mate. I’ve been waiting for mine for a lifetime. Unlike you and Rhyn, I’d welcome a partner to share eternity and this disaster of a world with.”
“I’m appreciative. But sometimes I look at Hannah and see Katie,” Kris said, recalling how he’d taken Katie’s blood by force soon after she went to the castle. He’d never forgive himself for that, even if Rhyn’s mate deserved little more respect than the half-demon himself. “Hannah is lovely – and my duty. Jade was …”
“Dead-dead the moment he betrayed you. I may sound like Rhyn, but if someone turns on one of my brothers, I want that person dead-dead,” Kiki said flatly.
“Thanks,” Kris said, managing a smile. “You’re about as effective at pep talks as Rhyn.”
“Don’t get me started,” Kiki said. “Go see Hannah and take a nap. This will all blow over soon, and things will go back to normal.” He slapped Kris on the arm. “Ok?”
“Thanks,” Kris said again. His response was enough to satisfy Kiki, who left the tent.
Kris lingered, deep in thought, until Hannah sought him out. She still looked pale. He smiled at her, understanding what it was to mourn the loss of a sibling. As much as he missed Jade, he was glad he at least had Hannah to fall back on. She had Katie’s beauty – without the abrasive personality.
“How’re you feeling?” he asked, holding out a hand to her.
“Better.” She took it and squeezed. “Was that Kiki I saw leaving?”
“Yeah. Apparently Rhyn has gone on some rampage to kill Death. Kiki wants us to go to the underworld and stop him.”
“Oh, no, Kris, you can’t!”
“It’s against Immortal Code,” he said. “But if he pisses off Death, we’ll have her and the Dark One after us. One deity for an enemy is bad enough.”
“She’s too powerful for him to kill. She’d probably laugh at him and he’ll come crawling back to you,” Hannah said.
Kris let out a surprised laugh at the image in his mind of Rhyn being sent packing like a misbehaving puppy.
“Really, Kris, I don’t think you should go without me,” Hannah pressed. “If Darkyn is serious about killing us, he’ll come back. I’m safer with you.”
“I won’t be gone long. You’re safe here,” he assured his beautiful mate. “Kiki thinks this is the only way we’ll get Toby back, too.”
“What did Rhyn do to Toby?”
“Let him get snatched by Darkyn. I guess Toby is in Hell. Kiki thinks we can break him out, if Rhyn will take us there.”
Hannah’s pretty eyes grew dark. Kris kissed her on the forehead, not wanting his mate to worry, even if he didn’t know what would happen once he and Kiki left for the underworld.
“How will you get out of Hell?” she asked. “If you need Rhyn to get in, do you need him to get out?”
“Hopefully he doesn’t ditch us,” he said with forced lightness. “You’re too precious to me to worry. I’ll be back in a day or so, I promise.”
“You don’t know that. I heard the Immortal underworld is an awful place. What if Death decides to keep you or Rhyn drops you in Hell forever? What will I do? I’d rather die with you.”
“You’ll be treated well among the Immortals for the rest of your life.”
Hannah raised an eyebrow.
“We take care of our own,” he said.
“Except for Rhyn.”
“He’s a half-demon. He doesn’t belong in either world. I’ve gotta get ready to go. Please, don’t worry, Hannah,” Kris said. “It’s late. Go get some rest.”
“You won’t change your mind.”
“No.”
She hesitated then kissed him on the cheek and turned to go. Kris watched her, unable to shake the uncanny sense it was the last time he’d see her.
Chapter Seven
“Rhyn, what if this is the only time we ever have together?”
Rhyn shook his head, uncertain how he’d ended up on the dream beach when he’d just walked through the portal from the castle in the Alps to Death’s underworld. He faced his dead mate. Her blue eyes were large, and she looked tired.
“It won’t be,” he said. “I’m coming to get you.”
Instead of looking cheered at his words, she looked unconvinced.
“You’re welcome,” he said, bristling.
“I’d be happy to see you,” Katie replied. “But, Rhyn, what if you can’t save me? What if this is all we have?”
“Why do you say that? It can’t be. It won’t be.”
“Let’s pretend like it is, just for now.”
“I don’t want to pretend.” He searched her features with his gaze, not understanding her strange insistence that she was really dead. She was troubled. This much he could see, though he couldn’t tell why.
“Do you ever wonder what would’ve happened, if we’d both been able to live?” she asked.
“No.”
“You don’t think about where we’d live or how we’d fit in with the other Immortals?”
“I don’t like this game,” he said.
“I don’t think both of us will make it out of the underworld. It makes me think about all the things I wish I’d done before I died. I wanted to backpack through Europe and go on a cruise somewhere warm. I wanted to make love with you on the beach under the full moon. Without worrying about demons or Kris or anything.”
“Katie.” Rhyn took her hands tentatively, growing more confident when she didn’t disappear. “I will get you out, and you can do those things. We can do those things together. I swear it.”
“I hope so, Rhyn.” She hugged him hard.
Rhyn wrapped his arms around her, marveling at how real her body felt in the dream. Her hair tickled his face, and he rested his chin on her head. They held each other for a long moment. His thoughts grew dark as he thought about what it would take to save her. He’d have to risk the wrath of Death.
“Rhyn, will you promise me something?” she asked, propping her chin on his chest to look up at him. “Will you promise to protect Hannah, Toby and everyone else, even if it means losing me?”
“No.” His grip tightened instinctively around her.
“You’re a good man, Rhyn. You’ve done so much to help me and your brothers. You must do this one last thing for me.”
“It won’t come to that,” he said hoarsely. “I’d destroy everything to get you back.”
“I know you would, and I’m asking you not to. I’m asking you to protect what’s left of good in the world.”
Her words fell heavily, as if she knew she was already doomed to her fate in the underworld. Rhyn said nothing for a long moment.
“I chose to sacrifice my life so that you’d have the chance to do this, Rhyn. Don’t make my choice a bad one,” she told him.
“It was a bad one,” he said with a snort.
“Sometimes all we hav
e are shitty choices,” Katie said. “Promise me!”
“If it’ll shut you up, fine.”
“Thank you.” She took his hand. They walked towards the beach that had formed his prison for three days in the real world. She faced him. “I want to kiss you one last time, but I’m not ready for you to disappear again.”
Heat surged through his body, but he hesitated. She really believed this was the last time they’d be together.
“Is this place even real?” he asked.
“Does it matter?”
Rhyn smiled faintly, admiring the woman before him. She was foolishly stubborn and lippy – and he loved that about her. She was the first creature ever to see beyond his half-demon curse. She’d stayed strong in Hell, through confrontations with demons and Immortals alike, through his own failures. She hadn’t just survived; she’d found some part of him to believe in.
The idea of caring for her overwhelmed him again. He’d never had a reason to try to control his power or to focus on anything other than surviving. That a simple little mortal could show him just how little his Immortal and demon powers really meant humbled him. If he found his way, it would be because of her.
Her distress and sorrow were, buried but he still saw them. She was trying to be brave, asking him for one last moment of comfort before what she thought was the end. He owed her that, and so much more.
“No, it doesn’t,” he said softly. He reached out to her. His hands trailed down her soft cheek and tangled in her wayward curls. With his index finger, he drew a line from her chin, down her neck, between her breasts and rested his hand on her belly, where the hatchling grew.
A different kind of sorrow filled him, one he recognized as regret. If he failed, he’d never see the little girl Katie carried. Their hatchling would be as stubborn as her mother, and he could almost imagine huge eyes as blue and clear as Katie’s peering out at him from a sweet, curly-headed demon child’s face. He wished he’d told Katie how terrified – but thrilled – he’d been when she told him about the hatchling. He wished he knew one fucking thing about raising a child or being a mate. Every one of his brothers could’ve managed these things, but his nature left him better apt at destroying than nurturing.
At least he could kill anything that came near his mate and child, if he had the chance. He’d been reluctant to accept any role with the Immortals, fearing his own broken nature was too weak.
“I’m sorry, Katie,” he said.
“You have nothing to be sorry about.”
“I didn’t protect you. You shouldn’t have had to make the choice you did.”
She took his hand, squeezed it and then wrapped her arms around him. “I don’t regret it, Rhyn. You’ve had the deck stacked against you. The least I could do was give you a second chance.”
“You’re the only one who would.”
“The Immortals need you. They’re too fucking stupid to know it, but Kris can’t manage Hannah let alone the Council,” she added. “You have so much to give, Rhyn. You just have to believe you can.”
“I’d trade everything for you.”
“But you won’t, because you promised me,” she reminded him. “Besides, you have to show up Kris and the rest of them.” A peaceful quiet settled over them until she spoke again. “Do you like the name Hazel?”
He shrugged.
“If we would’ve lived through this, I’d name our baby Hazel.”
“When we get through this,” he corrected her.
“If we get through this, we get to spend our lives together. I don’t know anything about you, Rhyn,” Katie said. “What the hell happened to you to make you as you are?”
“I’ve always been broken.”
“I don’t mean broken. I mean, how are you not a traitor like Sasha or a cold jerk like Kris? How did you spend so long in Hell and still try to follow parts of the Code? How did you and Gabriel become friends?”
“Gabriel is more of a brother to me than my own brothers. I don’t know why I am the way I am. I don’t even know much of the Immortal Code, just the few key parts Andre used to lecture me about. Loyalty to my brothers, my mate, the Immortals, humanity. Respect for Death and her domain. Other variations of those.”
“Then start from the beginning. Tell me your story.”
Rhyn hesitated, unable to shake the disturbing sense that Katie’s interest came from her resolve that this was the last time they’d see each other.
“I was born, wandered the Immortal world for the first few years. I met Gabe, and he took me to Andre, who raised me for a few years, before my brothers decided I was better off in Hell,” he summarized. “That’s it.”
“There’s more to you than that.”
“If you say so.”
“Gabe has been your guardian angel,” she added. “I’m happy he found you.”
“Me, too.”
“I think he’s in trouble, Rhyn.”
“What do you mean?”
“Something’s not right. I guess he can take better care of himself than Toby,” she said. “Have you found Toby yet?”
“I have an idea where he is.”
“You have to protect him, Rhyn. He’s too young to get himself out of things.”
Rhyn glanced from the rolling teal waves to his mate. Her words about Gabe were troubling, and he couldn’t determine if she was purposely vague or really didn’t know. Her pretty face was puzzled, and he frowned. She was beyond tired. Whatever was happening to her in the underworld, it wasn’t good. Anger filled him. As much as he wanted to stay in the dream world in case it really was the last time he saw her, he couldn’t help her while stuck in the dream.
He closed his eyes, trying to wake himself up. He was losing time to find her. When he opened his eyes, he was still on the beach.
“I gotta get outta here,” he said.
“Why?” she asked.
“I have to find you.”
“I’m right here.”
“No, the real you. I have to find you before it’s too late,” he said impatiently.
“What if – “
“We have forever to talk things out,” he said. “But I don’t have forever to find you.” Rhyn trotted away from the beach as he spoke. Katie scrambled after him.
“Rhyn, wait!”
“Katie, I can’t. I’m running out of time.”
“Be careful, Rhyn.” Her soft, forlorn words sounded like a farewell.
“This is killing me,” he muttered. He strode to her, wrapped his arms around her, and kissed her. She yielded more easily in the dream than she ever had in real life. Her soft, warm lips welcomed him hungrily, and he lost himself in her sweet musk, warm skin and honeyed taste. He didn’t want to leave; he wanted to spend the rest of his life making love to her on the beach. He wanted to feel his skin pressed against hers and for her to run her fingers through his hair before scraping her nails down his back. He wanted to take her every way he could imagine, until they lay spent and panting on the beach, until nothing but their entwined bodies and souls remained of their world.
If he stayed, he’d lose her forever.
Struggling against the demands of his roaring blood, Rhyn closed his eyes, sought his magic and willed himself awake.
The phantom Andre was squatting beside her when Katie awoke. She jerked, surprised at how close he was. He was real enough for her to feel his body heat, even if he was invisible to everyone but her and moved without a sound. The fact that Gabe was sleeping a short distance away didn’t seem to faze the ghost. Instead, it pointed to something it had written in the dirt beside her.
Demon.
Katie pushed herself up. She raised an eyebrow at the word. Andre pointed to the death-dealer.
“You think Gabriel is a demon?” Katie whispered.
Andre nodded. She frowned.
“Or are you a demon?” she challenged.
The specter shook its head and rose, moving away without disturbing the flora on the jungle floor.
“Because
I should trust a creepy ghost that looks like someone I once knew over the Immortal who rescued me from Death.”
Gabriel snapped awake at her words. Andre didn’t bother to disappear, as if no longer worried the Immortal might see him. The death-dealer looked lost for a moment then rose and strapped on his weapons. Katie ate her food and water cubes, waiting for Gabriel. She fingered the second necklace he’d given her, not convinced Andre was wrong. The beads felt like plastic, and something about Gabe had changed.
This Gabriel really did look like the Gabriel she knew. She looked hard at his hands before he pulled on his black gloves. The shapeshifter demon that took on Ully’s form hadn’t fully been able to disguise its arms and hands.
Gabriel’s hands looked like they were his.
“Gabe, what happens in three days?” she asked.
“We’ll find out when the time comes.”
“What happens if I feed the trees?”
“Come again?”
“Can I feed them?”
“I don’t give a shit.” He turned his back to her to start walking, and she was grateful he didn’t see her reaction.
Andre took up his position flanking her, and she shot him a look. She couldn’t imagine why a demon would want to pose as Gabriel – and insist on guiding her through the underworld. Her limited experience with demons was that they all wanted to kill her or drag her to Hell or to Darkyn. This one had taken over Gabriel’s mission.
Then again, she didn’t know what Gabe’s destination had been. Katie looked behind her, wondering what she was missing. Her eyes went to the slithering tree branches overhead. She couldn’t survive on her own in the underworld. That much had been made clear to her by Gabe. And escaping a demon on her own didn’t seem like a smart option.
She counted the food and water cubes she had remaining. A few of each remained, long enough to get her through the day, but not long enough for more than one day.
“Gabe, I need more of these,” she called, holding up a food cube.
The death-dealer faced her then pulled a satchel over his head. He handed it to her. She took it and opened it. There were two small pouches of cubes and nothing else.