Sera stared at him with an uneasy expression on her face. “Kyle. It’s this place doing that. It’s all a trick, a mind game. You don’t belong here.”
“And you do?” His words were softly spoken and he knew they shot her to the core. “Sita? Rama’s goddess?”
“Yes, I mean, no. Not me, Sera, and not you.” She stared at him. “Kyle, please. Snap out of it! I need you.”
“You only need me to find Dev, the love of your life. And then I’ll have nothing, so what’s the point? I’ve just been deluding myself that you ever felt anything for me.”
“No,” she said, “that’s Xibalba talking. You know that I need you. I need my friend, my best friend. I need you. I—”
“Why? You don’t love me,” he heard himself say. “You love someone else, someone you’ve loved for eternity. How can I compete with that? We … I never had a chance.”
“I do love you, Kyle,” she said. “I always have. You have to believe that. I don’t know what’s going to happen right now, but what I feel about you isn’t going to change. You are the only person I’d want by my side in Xibalba, the only one I trust to be here with me. Please believe that.” Her voice grew desperate. “Kyle, please, we don’t have a lot of time, and you said it yourself—they are going to try to break us apart here because we’re so strong together. Trust me, not this place!”
Slow clapping interrupted them. They spun around. A tall thin man was walking toward them. He had long white hair and a strong aristocratic face. Kyle felt Sera tense, but he let his arms hang limply by his side, staring in silent curiosity at the stranger.
“Stay back,” Sera warned.
“Welcome,” the man said in a sonorous voice. He looked straight at Sera. “We didn’t have a chance to meet the last time. You left quite suddenly as I recall. I am Ra’al.” She frowned in disbelief and a thin smile curved the corner of his mouth. “You saw what you most wanted to see the last time we met. This form is of my own choosing. I hardly think you would want to see the very person you were here to save, now would you? What’s his name again?” He tapped a long finger against his head. “Ah, yes. Lord Devendra.”
“What’s he talking about? Why would you see Dev?” Kyle said, and then it hit him. She’d seen Dev the last time she’d been in Xibalba when she’d seen Ra’al. Because Dev had been the one she trusted the most.
“Kyle,” Sera began, her eyes glued to his. “It’s not what you think. I—”
He’d never felt such hot pain knifing through him. Jealousy wound into simmering violent rage. “I’m the only one you trust?” he sneered, mocking her earlier words. “Doesn’t seem that way to me.”
“You know I can’t control what she feels!”
“But you can control what you feel,” Kyle snapped back venomously. “Say it, then. Tell me you don’t feel anything for him. Say it!”
“Kyle,” she whispered, pleading. “Time and place. Snap out of it. There’s a demon lord not ten feet from us. Pull it together. This is no time to be jealous.”
Kyle glared at her in stony silence until the thin man clapped again, the sound hollow and empty in the room.
“Wonderful,” he said to Sera, then looked at Kyle. His voice shifted into something dark and guttural, one that plucked Kyle’s memory. “Welcome. I’m glad to see that you have already met Prince Kalias. You’ve been such a good friend to return him home, haven’t you?”
“Kalias?” Sera said “Prince?”
Kyle felt himself falling into a black bottomless abyss. Then suddenly he was back in time. Five years old and crying, standing with a knife in his hand. Terrified.
He stared at the demon, backing away, his body shaking. It couldn’t be, but the voice was the same. The same voice he’d heard from his mother’s mouth twelve years ago.
“No,” he whispered.
Ra’al’s smile was icy, sly, and terrible. “Welcome home, my son.”
THE SINS OF THE FATHER
Your son?” Sera said in disbelief. She turned her gaze toward Kyle. “So, that’s what the demons were saying, the nekomata and then the demon girl. They were calling you prince, not price.”
“I don’t know what he’s talking about.”
“Don’t you, son?” Ra’al said. “I told you that you would return here and that all would be revealed in your seventeenth year.” Kyle shook his head but Ra’al continued. “I told you when you were a boy, remember?” Ra’al pointed to Kyle’s back. “Why do you think those markings on your head and body changed today of all days? It is your inheritance. You are bound to me.” He laughed, his lips pulling back in a sneer. “You’ve always known who you were, and now you’ve fulfilled your greatest purpose. You’ve brought me the perfect sacrifice.”
Sacrifice?
Fear slid along Sera’s spine. Kyle’s tattoos had changed. Maeve and her mother had said he had demon blood. Had this all been some elaborate trick to get them both here? Even Izei had said that Kyle would betray her.
She edged closer to him. “Kyle, it’s not true what he says, is it?” He didn’t answer, his mouth opening and closing without speaking.
“That blade you wield,” Ra’al continued, “Mordas, can only be claimed by a descendant of mine.”
“Then you’re lying because I saw others use it,” Kyle said hoarsely. “The Ifrit used it to get Fyre from the Daeva.”
“I gave leave to Azrath to use it for that purpose,” Ra’al said. “Mordas serves me and none other. Had they tried to use it for anything but what I intended it to do, they would have failed.”
“And what purpose are you talking about?” Sera shot out. Ra’al turned cold black eyes in her direction. His laugh was chilling.
“You already know, Serjana,” he said, spitting out her name. “The end of the world.” He laughed again. “It’s no secret. Azrath will now be able to open a portal to the Mortal Realm.”
Sera blanched but hid her agitation with arrogance. “I’ll never let you do that. The balance must be maintained. As above, so below. You know that, Ra’al.”
“And so it shall remain. Only in the new world, Azrath will rule Illysia and I shall have the rest.”
“Azrath is an Azura Lord. He cannot live in Illysia, no matter what desecration he has done to his immortal form with Fyre. The wards of the Trimurtas forbid it.”
He sent her a cunning look. “Not if the Trimurtas are no more.”
Ra’al strode to the door at the back of the room, beckoning for them to follow him. Sera hesitated, but Kyle moved forward without hesitation. He seemed to be in some kind of trance.
“Kyle, wait. What are you doing?” she whispered. He didn’t answer but rather slipped into the next chamber. Sera took a deep breath and entered behind him, almost choking.
They were inside a massive cave. Fires burned all around a huge pit of molten lava, and all manner of demons crowded the edges of it, crowing and laughing maniacally as human bodies fell into the lava. It was an image of hell from books and movies, and Sera’s stomach heaved from the sheer horror of it. Then she looked up.
Dev was tied upside down to a beam suspended in the middle of the cave above the swirling pit. Sera felt tears sting her eyes and her fingers curled into fists at her side.
“Is he alive?” Sera rasped.
“More or less,” Ra’al said with a sly leer.
Ra’al moved to stand on an outcropping of what looked like red marble, his bearing imposing, and began to transform into the image they’d seen on the wall in one of the earlier chambers. Black horns extended from his head and his body elongated into the heavily muscled form of a terrifying beast. His face was split by a snarl, each of his teeth fanged to sharp points, his lips black as death. The true form of the Demon Lord.
“Kalias, Son, come and take your place,” he growled. He turned back to the pit, globs of lava bubbling beneath him.
Sera grabbed his arm. “Kyle, no!”
Kyle turned cold dark eyes upon her. It was a look that Sera had never seen
before, one that emitted sorrow, despair, and utter hopelessness. He didn’t look anything like the Kyle she knew. She hardly recognized him.
“He’s right, you know,” Kyle said softly. “About who I am. My deep, dark secret. I’m a monster.” He glanced at the demons all around them. “I’m just like them. Maeve knew it. Your mother knew it, too. You should have let them kill me when they had the chance.”
Sera shook her head fervently, her mind reeling. “No. You’re nothing like them, like him. You don’t belong here no matter what this place is telling you. This isn’t you.”
Kyle held her shoulders, then her face, his fingers winding in her hair. “But it is, Sera. I’ve known all along what I was. I was never totally honest with you even though I wanted to tell you everything. I was afraid that you would run screaming. And now look at us. We’re both in hell, in Xibalba, and it’s not as bad as I’d imagined it to be.”
“Kyle, what you see is not real,” Sera said desperately. “Demons laughing and dancing? Is that what you think this place is? It’s not. This is a show that Ra’al has put on to make you feel otherwise. People come here to suffer for eternity.” Sera gestured at the pit, her voice strangled. “Look at them! They’re jumping to their deaths over and over and over. This is a place of depravity and pain and hate. Those things don’t define you—they never have.”
“But Ra’al said it himself. I’m bound to him. It’s who I am—”
“No!” She grasped his shoulders and shook him. “I’ve seen who you are, Kyle Knox, and it’s not this. Some stupid birthmark doesn’t make you his son! Your family is in here.” She tapped his heart and then hers. “I’m your family.”
Kyle shook his head, stepping away from her touch, his hands dropping to his sides. “You don’t know anything about me. You don’t know that I went to Azrath so that I could become immortal on Earth to be with you. They … I … killed Dae … people to make that happen. What kind of good person does that? What kind of good person kills anyone for his own selfish greed? A demon, that’s what.”
“Everyone makes mistakes—”
“There’s no going back from what I’ve done, Sera.”
“Micah doesn’t think so, and he was there. You tried to save yourself from here, what’s so terrible about that? At least you’re trying now to right that wrong.”
“Micah never knew about this. He thought I was a half-breed. But I’m the son of a Demon Lord of Xibalba who possessed my mother—that changes everything. Anything human in me will die.” Kyle choked out the last word.
“No, it won’t,” Sera shot back. “Don’t give up, Kyle. You only have to give in to what Ra’al wants of your own free will. He cannot force you. You don’t have to do this.”
Kyle stared at her and then at Dev, who still hung motionless in the middle of the cave. “What do you care, anyway? You found Dev, so now you can go live your happily ever after.”
She stood in front of him now, her tears turning into steam from the heat of the pit. “Don’t you get it yet, you idiot? I don’t have any happy ever after without you in it!”
Kyle raised conflicted eyes to hers. “What are you saying?” he whispered.
“I’m not saying anything I haven’t said before. You just heard what you wanted to hear,” she said almost screaming the last words.
“And him?” He jerked his head toward Dev’s body.
“I can’t change what Rama and Sita shared, Kyle. All I can tell you is what I feel about you,” she snapped. A startled look flashed across Kyle’s face and Sera felt a small bit of hope for the first time since they’d entered the cave room. “Are you with me, Kyle?” she asked.
She could see him fighting—see the darkness within him trying to convince him that she was deceiving him. He closed his eyes and when he opened them, Sera felt faint with relief.
Kyle swallowed. “So, what’s the plan?”
Sera bit her lip, glancing at Ra’al out of the corner of her eye. “I don’t have one.”
“How about get Dev and portal the heck out of here?”
“And him?” She nodded to Ra’al, who was addressing his minions. “He won’t let you go so easily.” She glanced at Dev. “And how do you propose getting to him?”
Kyle frowned. “You have a point. Well, we know Ra’al wants me. You can attack me and we can offer a trade, me for Dev. We’ll pull the old bait and switch.”
“But what happens after that?” Sera stared at him, agitated. “After we get Dev? What happens to you?”
“I’ll figure something out.” He saw her hesitation. “Don’t worry, by the time you open that portal, I’ll be right behind you two.”
“Prince Kalias!”
The chanting of Kyle’s name grew louder. He and Sera walked toward where Ra’al stood, and Kyle turned to her just before joining his father on the marble outcropping. He held her hand tightly. She could see every emotion he had ever felt for her glowing in his eyes.
“Trust me,” he mouthed.
Sera bit her lip, unable to say anything. She squeezed his hand. She knew that if she opened her mouth, she would start crying, and that was the last thing she needed to do just then. She waited a few steps until Kyle had reached the front of the dais before she summoned the hellfyre, drawing the eyes and ire of all the demons in the cave, including Ra’al.
“I cannot let you do this,” Sera said to the Demon Lord.
The hellfyre flared brighter, swirling around her like liquid flame. Sera flexed her shoulder blades and felt the hellfire burn hotter. She held both swords in her hands like a warrior of Illysia about to march into battle. The chanting of the demons fell silent.
Ra’al nodded at two demons standing behind Sera, and she swung her weapons backward without even looking, disposing of both attackers instantly. She spun to deflect a second attack from the left, and then twisted in a fluid sequence of moves so that she stood just behind Kyle, her sword across his chest. He played his part well, freezing, his eyes widening.
“Try that again,” she snarled to Ra’al, “and your prince dies.”
A hideous laugh echoes throughout the cave. “You won’t hurt him. He’s your best friend, is he not? Maybe more?” Ra’al’s tone was slyly mocking, almost daring her to do it, but Sera knew that it was a test. Ra’al would never sacrifice Kyle, at least not to her. His monstrous pride would never allow it.
“Try me,” Sera said coolly. She lowered her blade so that the tip of it drew a fiery line along Kyle’s arm. He flinched and then screamed as the fiery pain sunk deep into his muscles. “Next time, it will be his throat.”
She stared at Ra’al in silence, her face an indecipherable mask, jaw clenched, and waited. “What do you want?” Ra’al’s manner was indifferent. But Sera knew he was seething, she could see in the taut tendons of his face. He wanted to rip her apart.
She nodded to where Dev was hanging. “I want him.”
“Ah, the Trimurtas. I wish I could, but he’s not mine to give.”
Sera knew he was playing games. If she was going to negotiate Dev’s release and save both Kyle and herself in the process, she needed to play some games of her own.
She laughed and saw a furrow shadow his face. “That’s funny. I never picked you for being Azrath’s petty slave.” The furrow deepened. She was getting to him. “So, is that how it works? He calls the shots and you obey like a good little demon?” She glanced around, a smile on her face. “I get it. You do all the heavy lifting down here, and he gets all the glory. I thought it would be way harder to get the best of a demon lord, especially one as powerful as you.”
Ra’al slammed his fist into a chunk of marble hard enough that several shards broke loose. “Enough!” he roared. “Azrath is a fool if he thinks he has gotten the best of Ra’al. I let him believe he has the upper hand, but I am the one who holds all the power. I have him,” he nodded toward where Dev hung from his post, and turned to two demons who had entered the hall bearing a large mirror-like frame. Ra’al’s leer was mon
strous. “And I have him.”
Nate.
Even in the mirror, Nate’s little body seemed so tiny, his blond curls a tangled mess. Sera could see that he was not conscious. Was he dead? Her body went cold at the thought. She almost felt her legs buckle despite her brave stance.
“What is that? Some kind of trick?” she snapped.
“It’s a special mirror.”
Ra’al grinned and it was vile. Even as she fought down a wave of dread, she saw a masked face appear in the mirror next to Nate’s quiet form—one of a young boy with a head full of snakes. The recognition was swift and cold.
Dekaias, the Demon Lord of the first dimension of Xibalba.
Sera remembered how she’d seen him last—drinking the blood of a child. This time he wore a sort of mask obscuring most of his face. A slender hand slid forward in the mirror to caress Nate’s head and Sera could feel the demon’s desire from where she stood. Her stomach heaved and she gagged involuntarily.
“Don’t you touch him!” she shrieked, eyes smarting impotently. Dekaias turned to stare at her, his eyes contemptuous, and bowed.
Ra’al licked his black lips, enjoying her horror. “Don’t worry, he’s safe … for now.” The mirror winked into a gray ocean of nothing.
“Why should I trust you?” Her voice was dispassionate. “He could already be dead for all I know.”
Ra’al laughed again. “You can believe what you wish. The mirror is real and the boy is not dead, just sleeping. His body would not have survived the journey here.”
Sera felt her rage rise to boiling point, her right hand shaking into sharp flame. “If you’ve hurt him, I will—”
“You dare to threaten me?” Ra’al growled in fury.
Sera felt a hot consciousness that wasn’t her own invade her, and she gave in to her inner rage. Grasping Kyle by his neckline, she faced Ra’al’s rage head-on, her words shaking with feeling. She could feel Kyle’s shock.
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