The Knight: The Original's Trilogy - Book 3

by Cara Crescent

  Kat’s gaze went back to the cards. Oh, Gaia. The Tower—when he remembered being possessed. The Eight of Cups—living his own life after being imprisoned in his own body for three hundred years. The Three of Swords crossed by the Wands . . . . “What’s the miscommunication? What’s the result?”

  Trina shook her head. “Pick one question, Kat. You know how this works.”

  “What’s the result?”

  Trina motioned to the cards. “Pick one.”

  Kat knelt. She hated picking cards. Always feared picking the wrong one.

  “Close your eyes. Hold out your hand and put your finger down on a card.”

  She did as Trina instructed, letting her hand hover over the cards while she cleared her mind. She lowered her hand until her finger touched a card, opened her eyes and flipped the card.

  “The Hanged Man.” Lilith knelt next to her and reached out as if to caress the card, but stopped at the last moment. Instead, her fingers passed over the man diving out of the tower in the first. “He’s tormented.” Lilith’s eyes closed. “He’s going to do something drastic. Something that could lead to his end, but that could also lead to his future.”

  Whatever he did, it would be painful. Difficult.

  Trina paced across the room. “What the hell do you expect? By all rights Crowley should be dead. Or imprisoned. We’re messing with fate.”

  “No, we’re not.” She was tired of this argument. “The goddess guided me to him on the astral. The goddess. Not the Watchers.” The goddess was good and kind. She wouldn’t set them up for failure.

  “If this had been meant to be, then why are we hiding it from the Watchers?” Trina waved her hand in an arch over her head. “From everyone?”

  Kat shook her head. “The Watchers don’t understand. They couldn’t see him while he was possessed but Gaia could. Gaia led me to him.”

  Trina opened her mouth to argue, but Lilith shook her head. She reached across the cards and gently took Kat’s hand. “Clear your debt. Help him clear his. Do whatever you need to do because if you fail, maybe you lose him. There’s a sacrifice here, in the combination of these cards and I couldn’t imagine sacrificing my mate. I don’t think I’d survive losing James.”

  She nodded in a jerky motion. “I planned to clear my debt anyway and I’m sure he—”

  “Does he remember anything?”

  Lilith swatted Trina. “Tact, please.”

  “Bite me, Lil.” Trina’s gaze settled on Kat. “Does he?”

  Trina had always been one to cut to the heart of a matter. “He’s remembering some of what happened, but not that he was possessed.”

  Trina rolled her eyes. “So he can’t tell us the Wayward Watcher’s name?”

  “Not yet.”

  She shook her head. “The fucking Watcher is trying to break out of the tower. Every other day, he rams the walls so hard they break.”

  “The tower reseals each time,” Lilith added.

  “Yeah, but he’s up to something. He wants out. We need that damn name.” Her gaze was unrelenting as she turned to Kat. “Once he remembers being possessed, he could lose his shit, you know that, right? Then we’re all screwed.”

  Somehow, she needed to find a way to convince them. “He’s not a threat, not to us.”

  “From what you’re telling us, he sounds like a threat to everyone . . . especially himself.”

  “Because of the curse!” Kat got to her feet. “Because he’s remembering horrible things he did . . . but not that he was possessed by the Watcher. He thinks he committed those atrocities and he can’t reconcile it with who he is.”

  Trina scoffed. “Tell him.”

  “I tried. Every time I say the word Watcher he has a seizure.”

  Trina closed her eyes, tipping her head back. “A memory curse. Does he even know who he is?”

  “Yes.”

  “That he was a Guardian?”

  “Yes.”

  “That he killed the old coven?”

  “No. That wasn’t him. That was the Watcher. I don’t even think—”

  There was a rap at the door and James walked in.

  Kat lowered her voice, but finished what she was saying, “I don’t think he even has a violent nature.”

  “Who?” James looked from face to face.

  Lilith cleared her throat. “Kat was saying that we’ve never seen Crowley unpossessed and that he might not even have a violent nature.”

  Had they told their mates about the deal the three of them had made?

  His lips parted. He shook his head. “I trained him, Kat. Believe me when I say he is a born and bred killer. That one had the ability to turn his emotions on and off faster than those strobe lights they have at the Knot Works. I used to envy the hell out of him.”

  Lilith grinned. “You’ve been to the Knot Works?” She glanced at Kat. “It’s a kinky sex club down in Freemont.”

  Kat’s lips parted. James had been a priest when human.

  “What?” He shrugged. “I followed a mark in there once.” His brows furrowed and he glanced at Kat. “Did you find Julius?”

  Trina saved her from having to answer. “Did you need something?”

  “You feeling left out, Sunshine? Got nothing for you. Came to update my mate.” He winked at Lilith. “The coven traced the Devil’s Bible up through about nineteen twenty-two. The coven had it at that point, but they can’t find anything about it after then. I’m going to—”

  “Why do you need the Devil’s Bible?”

  Both Trina and Lilith turned to look at her and she fought not to squirm. Lilith looked away first, glancing at Trina before saying, “We’ve done more research on the Tanin’iver and we’ve come across references to the Devil’s Bible. We think there’s more pertinent information in the book than what we’ve discovered so far.”

  Kat shook her head. “There’s nothing in there about the Tanin’iver.”

  The women shared a look. They were talking to each other in their minds, she was sure.

  James cleared his throat. “Does the book have blank pages?”

  Yes. “I don’t remember.”

  He shrugged. “Well, it should. The information should be accessible through those pages.”

  “Out.” Trina waved him off. “We’ll be down in a few minutes. Girl talk. Boys. Kissing.”

  He shuddered. “I’m gone.” He leaned over and gave Lilith a quick kiss.

  Trina closed the door behind him. “Where’s the book?”

  It was her book. “It has bad spells in it. Awful things.”

  Lilith smiled. “Kat, you know us. We believe in karmic retribution the same as you. We want the information on the Tanin’iver. We’re flying blind. We can’t help you if we don’t understand what we’re up against.”

  Or did they want to know if he was important to them? Would they discover that killing him wouldn’t affect their relationships with their mates now that they’d been brought together? Would they decide he wasn’t worth saving? She shrugged. “I’m losing my Magic. I don’t know how long I’ll have to wait until I can go home nor how long before I’d be able to return with the book.”

  Trina’s lips quirked, she shot Lilith a sidelong glance.

  “That’s okay. Trina can go back with you.”

  Trina’s glance turned into a glare.

  “The Watchers can’t see you.” Lilith shrugged. “It has to be you.”

  They were going to help. “Since she’ll be there already . . . .”

  Lilith nodded. “She’d be happy to take care of the curse.”

  Lilith winced. Trina must be yelling in her head.

  Trina motioned to Kat. “Come on.” Trina crossed the room to her. “Let’s get this over with.” She took Kat’s hand, closed her eyes and in the next blink they were inside Kat’s house. “Where’s the book?”

  Gaia, she had a one-track mind. “Upstairs.”

  “And your mate?”

  “Upstairs. I put a sleeping spell on him to mak
e sure he’d be safe while I was gone.”

  She nodded. “Don’t take it off yet.”

  Kat smiled. Nodded. Trina was going to help him.

  “Don’t.” She pointed at Kat, shaking her head. “I’ll take a look at him, I’m not promising anything.”

  “They’re this way.” She led the way upstairs, and into her bedroom. Everything would be fine now.

  The goddess knew if Abaddon was born into the human realm in isolation, as he’d been born into the universe, he’d be doubly vile. So she created a mate for him. Soft where he was hard. Fiery where he was ice. Kind to his mean-heartedness. Sweet to his sour. A soul mate who would change him as they met in life after life. Who would melt his frozen heart and teach him love.

  The goddess grinned. This would be good.

  Chapter 19

  Kat led the way to her bedroom, crossed the room, and knelt on the floor next to her mate. The book would stay hidden in her dresser until after Trina had removed the felo-de-se curse.

  Trina sidled into the room, angling her gaze at the floor. “Why’s he on the floor?”

  “It’s where he fell.” She and Lilith may have promised to give Julius a chance, but they were hesitant allies at best. “He’s asleep and his eyes are covered. You have nothing to worry about.”

  The tension in Trina’s shoulders eased. “Sorry, but he’s mesmerized me before and it wasn’t a pleasant experience.”

  “Not him.” Her tone was firm. “The Watcher.”

  “Oh?” Trina waved to his face. “Like you’re not worried? You have him blindfolded.”

  “It’s a bandage, not a blindfold.”

  One dark brow rose.

  Shoot. “I guess I didn’t quite tell you everything.” She sighed. “Before I got here that first day . . . the curse made him cut his eyes out.”

  Trina recoiled. “What?” She shook her head. “Memory curses don’t—”

  “The memory curse is wearing off on its own. I’m more worried about the felo-de-se curse.”

  “Goddess bless you both.” Trina dragged her fingers through her hair. “Is it time-based? Trigger-word-based?”

  “It takes effect at sunrise every day. The rest of the time, he’s fine.” Sort of. Except for the cutting.

  “Why didn’t you come sooner? You’ve been doing all this on your own?” She crossed the room. “Dealing with two curses plus whatever trauma he has?”

  Sympathy from Lilith had threatened her composure earlier, but getting it from Trina, who was always tough as nails, made her crumble.

  “Oh, damn it, don’t cry.” Trina plopped down next to her on the floor and patted her shoulder. “I suck at the whole comforting thing. Are you sure he’s worth it?”

  Kat sniffed and used her sleeves to wipe her eyes. “I weighed the pros and cons again today and the bottom line is whether or not he still had the capacity to make a positive difference in the world.”

  “And you think he can?” Trina shot Julius a side-long glance.

  “I know he can. He’s made a difference for me.” She wiped her eyes again and dragged in a deep breath. “Okay. I’m all right.”

  “Does he still have eyes?”

  Oh, he had eyes all right. “Um . . . well, yes.” Trina reached over and Kat smacked her hand away. “You don’t want to—”

  Trina frowned. She magicked the bandage off his head. “It’s not that bad. The way you reacted I half expected him to be deformed.” She reached for him again.

  “Don’t touch—”

  “Back off.” Trina pointed at her and waited.

  Lilith wouldn’t have been this pushy. Kat sat back on her heels, and worried her lip between her teeth. What if all those little eyes clustered in his left socket meant something bad?

  Trina huffed. “Fine. It’s probably best if I don’t touch him anyway. Lift his eyelids.”

  Kat pulled back the left lid.

  “His eyes were completely gone?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You’ve done a good job healing him.”

  Kat released the lid and pulled back the other. She didn’t want to look, so she kept her gaze trained on Trina.

  “What the hell is that?”

  The question didn’t carry any of the notes of shock or horror she’d expected. Kat’s gaze dropped. The right eye had changed. Now it had all the characteristics of a rounded, multi-faceted diamond; clear, with lots of chiseled edges that caught and fractured light. Even though she couldn’t see them, she knew what was under there—those little eyes were looking out from behind their new shield.

  “I’ve never seen anything like it.” Which was true. His eye hadn’t looked like this before.

  “Can he see at all?”

  Kat nodded. Even with his eyes covered. “Seems to, yeah.”

  “You do realize your plan isn’t going to work, right?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, when I saw your reaction to the male they brought in today, I knew it wasn’t him.” She waved toward Julius. “And I figured you intended to switch them at some point. I thought maybe you gave the other one scars to make them look different..” She shook her head. “But they look exactly the same . . .”

  Kat stared. “And . . .?”

  “And no one is stupid enough to believe they’ve been apart for three hundred years and have the same damn scars.”

  Why hadn’t she thought of that? Kat covered her eyes with her hands. “At first I was practicing my new talent and then I planned to turn Julian over to you and keep Julius . . . and then he was there, being put in jail and I figured it was done. But I’m losing my Magic. There’s no way I can keep a glamour on my mate to hide his scars all the time.”

  Trina rolled her eyes. “You almost had a plan somewhere in all that convoluted mess.”

  “I’m stressed. I didn’t think it through.” And now he would pay the price.

  “The Watchers would’ve clocked on anyway.”

  “You sound like your mate.”

  Trina grinned.

  “I blocked the house from the Watchers when I put up the shield.” Kat got up and paced. “I mean, they know he’s here but they haven’t seen him since I arrived so they don’t know if he’s scarred or blind or dead.” The Watchers didn’t know. No one but she and Trina knew. She pointed. “You can fix this.”

  “What?”

  “Give him a glamour. We have two days before you turn Julian over to the humans, right? Julian can die, Julius can live.”

  “And what? I keep a glamour on him forever?”

  That wasn’t realistic. “For a while.” She nodded. Rubbed her hands together. This could work. He would never have to go before the coven. Never need go to trial. “I’ll switch them so Julius is in prison and Julian is with me. Then I can call in that I’ve found Julius. They’ll come, see him looking as they’ve always known him to look—without the facial scars—and they’ll lock Julian up and release Julius.”

  “Do you hear yourself? I think his madness is catching.”

  “Please? I don’t know what else to do.”

  “Fine.” She mumbled a few words under her breath and waved her hand toward Julius. The scars faded. “But nothing else, do you hear me? I’ll give you this: I’ll get rid of the curse, and no more until I’m certain he’s innocent.”

  She launched herself at Trina and wrapped her in a quick hug. “Thank you!”

  “All right. Yeah. Fine. The only reason this might work is because they made the other one—”

  “Julian.”

  “Whatever. They made him wear a hood. When they take Julius into custody, they’ll make him wear a hood too. You’ll have to report him.” She pointed to Julius. “And then switch them once they bring you to Machon. You’d better conserve your Magic.”

  She nodded. “I will. I won’t use any more until it’s time to switch them.”

  “As soon as I hear they’ve brought Julius in, I’ll remove his glamour and put it on Julian.” She waved her h
and toward Julius.

  This would work. They had a plan.

  “Quit smiling. He’ll still have to prove himself to the coven, if he doesn’t . . . .” She let the threat hang in the air.

  “He will.” Kat nodded. “I know he will. You’ll see.”

  Trina sighed. “If he does, then we’ll all help you with him. We’ll make sure he isn’t left alone.”

  Relief poured through her. Everything would be fine now. She’d done the right thing asking for help.

  “Enough. We need to get to work. I need a summoning jar, holy water, and salt. I want you to keep him asleep no matter what happens.”

  Kat ran downstairs and gathered the items she requested. When she came back, Trina had moved Julius to the bed.

  She put the salt in the bottom of the summoning jar and set the lid next to it on the nightstand. Then she twisted the lid off the bottle of holy water. “How are you going to get the curse into the summoning jar? Are you going to use your telepathy?”

  “No.” She folded her arms over her chest and stared down at Julius. “I’m not keen to be in his mind.” She glanced at Kat. “I’m not being mean, but I don’t think I want to know the gnarly details of what the Watcher did to him or with him these last three hundred years, you know? I’ll exorcize the curse. Then bind it in the jar.”

  “Do you need anything else?”

  “No.” Trina sat on the edge of the bed. “Don’t let him wake up. Curses are foul things; the last thing we need is for him to wake up and freak out because he doesn’t know what the hell is going on.”

  Kat nodded. “Be quick. I’ve used a lot of Magic today and I don’t know how much longer I can hold him. He wants to wake up.”

  Trina leaned over him, chanting Psalm 91.

  Julius’ muscles twitched. His frame shook. His head lashed to the side, pressing into the pillow.

  She sprinkled some of the holy water over his body as she continued the spell.

  He arched back, his body bowing off the bed and then he flopped back down and went still.

  Too still.

  Trina stopped the spell.

  “What’s wrong?” Nothing had come out of him.