Good Side of Sin

by Haigwood, K. S.

  Baddon’s eyebrows drew together in confusion. “He’s coming back. He just went to Limbo with Josselyn and Thoros to ask for Melina’s help.”

  Lameria’s expression flickered with surprise, and then fell. She shook her head. “But he told me that he would never see me again. His soul is going to belong to Lucifer soon.”

  Baddon snorted. “Only if we don’t win this battle against Lucifer, but if that happens we are all going to belong to Lucifer again, so—”

  Her face brightened. “He’s really coming back?”

  Baddon’s head bounced around on his shoulders, like a bobble-head doll. “If Melina lets them out of Limbo, he will be back.”

  Her teary eyes popped wide as her hand shot to her mouth in shock. “But why would he—”

  “Maybe he wanted tae say good bye in case it disnae work oot the way we all pray it will,” Troy interrupted. “And there will be no chance o’ that working out if we dinnae get out o’ this room and stop Marcus. Are you ready tae leave?”

  Baddon’s face fell. “There is no way out of here unless someone on the other side of the door lets us out. The whole room is made with silver reinforcements. In here we have no more than human strength.”

  Troy grinned. “Maybe a half-souled immortal has nae more than human strength when bound with silver, but I am an angel. You all need tae find a place tae hide until I return. My crew will stay with ye.”

  In the next moment, Troy fleeted out of the room. Baddon heard a sound, like muffled scuffling outside the silver door, and then the locks were released and the door opened. Three guards were lying on the floor of the basement and Troy was dusting his hands. He smiled at the group.

  “Well, c’mon. Eternity is no’ promised anymore.”

  Chapter 44

  Josselyn

  There was a faint hint of greenish purple shimmering on the horizon, almost like the Northern lights over an Alaskan winter night sky. The only difference was, we weren’t in Alaska, and it didn’t feel like winter. It was pretty—comforting even, if it was even possible for me to feel comfort at a time like this.

  I concentrated on the dancing lights as they swirled, instead of the overwhelming feeling that Thoros, Malcolm, Isaiah, Emma, Ethan, Aries and Melina were all staring at the back of my head. It didn’t help that Omega was looking at me out of the corner of his eye about every five seconds, either.

  Four… three… two… one… and there it was again.

  I couldn’t wait to get out of here, so I could put some distance between them and me. Just when I felt like screaming, the dock to the ferry came into view and my heart leapt in my chest.

  Finally!

  “Can we talk?”

  I gasped before I realized I had done it, and nearly fell off my saddle. Thoros had ridden up on my right and surprised me. I inhaled deeply, trying to ignore the feel of the inner magnet that was pulling me toward him, regardless of how angry I was with him. “Honestly, Thoros, it would be a waste of time,” I said, after a moment of careful deliberation with myself.

  “I don’t think anything said between us is a waste of time. I cherish every moment, every word said, with you.”

  Omega chuckled, and I could feel the tension pass from Thoros on my right to Omega on my left.

  I sighed.

  I suppose Omega sensed my annoyance, because he cleared his throat and rode ahead to the boy standing at the dock.

  “Look, I know we don’t have much time, but I just wanted to apologize—”

  My head jerked in his direction, and the sight of him took my breath away, despite the shock I felt from what he was saying. “Apologize!” I said, aghast. “You want to apologize? Seriously?”

  “I didn’t mean to—”

  “You didn’t mean to what? Lie to me? Not trust me? Tell me, Thoros, because I’m not sure I understand what you are so sorry about.” My voice was surprisingly calm. I even surprised myself how much it sounded like I didn’t care what answer he gave me, because, as much as I hated it, I did care.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t trust you to come up with another option to get us out of this mess. I jumped to conclusions, but I didn’t want you to have to be the one to bear this weight. Her terms weren’t fair.” He cleared his throat and looked toward the dock.

  I shrugged. “Okay. I accept your apology. You feel better?”

  “No, because you don’t mean it.”

  “Why does it even matter if I forgive you or not? You did this, and now it’s done. There’s no going back. We’re over,” I finished shortly.

  He swallowed, and then blew out a heavy breath as he looked away from me. “That’s not what I want. I love you, Josselyn. I did it to protect you. I was wrong. And, yes, you’re right, I’ve really messed everything up, but what if things were different? I was careless and stupid—as Malcolm loves to remind me—and scared for you, for us, but what if I could find a way to fix it? Do you think you could ever forgive me… and actually mean it?”

  My jaw clenched as I gave him a hard stare. “I have given you so many chances with my heart already, Thoros. You are the only man I have ever loved, and yet you are the only man that has ever hurt me. And I’m the fool who lets you keep doing it over and over and over again.” Oh no. There they were: traitor tears. My emotions were returning. Why now? I scrambled to hold on to the coldness.

  He shook his head slowly as he stared at my shining eyes. “You’re not a fool, Josselyn. I am. I am so sorry for hurting you, but I know there has to be a way to fix my mistakes and earn your trust again. Just promise that you won’t give up on me. I won’t stop until I reverse the damage. I swear I won’t.”

  I couldn’t believe I was actually listening to this. And what was worse—I wanted to believe him… again. What was wrong with me? Love has made me plum stupid! I huffed. “What you’re talking about doing is impossible. You know that, right?”

  He smiled. I suppose that gave him all the hope he needed. “A wise man once told me that impossible things happen every day; they are called miracles.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I see Malcolm is still giving his famous pep talks.”

  “It’s really hard not to like the guy.”

  “He tell you what to say to me?”

  Thoros shook his head. “No, he just informed me of how stupid I am, as if I didn’t already know. He gave me the kick in the backside I needed to come up here and talk to you instead of riding back there wanting to rip Omega’s heart out through his back.”

  I sighed. “He was apologizing, too.”

  “He—ahh!” His hands came up quickly to cover his eyes as if they hurt.

  “What’s the matter?”

  Quicker than I could follow, he reached across to me and jerked the reins from my hands, and then flanked his horse hard. “Yah!” he shouted, and I nearly fell off my saddle backward from the jolt of my horse following his lead.

  “Thoros!” I leaned forward, hugging Duchess’ neck as if my life depended on it. “What the hell are you doing?”

  He didn’t answer me. He just kept riding, pushing his horse harder and faster, and pulling mine along with him. We passed the dock and Omega’s stunned expression, but Thoros only slapped the horse’s hind quarters with the reins to make him go faster.

  “Thoros, stop! You’re going to get us killed!” He didn’t stop. He took us into territory we had never been in. Omega’s warning screamed in my head, ‘Duchess knows her way around the area pretty well, but she’s no match for some of the predators that would easily find you.’

  I heard voices shouting from a far distance behind us, but I was afraid I would fall off if I moved to look or wave for help. This was too much. Thoros had gone too far. He had no idea how to protect us from anything in this world, yet he carelessly dragged me out here because he didn’t believe I had forgiven him? This was not the best way to earn my trust back! I needed a stick. A big one. One big enough to hit him over the head, so I could get away before he had a chance to catch me again.


  “Thoros, please—”

  He looked back at me with something in his eyes. Was that amusement? Why was he doing this? He really was trying to kill me! There really was no turning back or changing anything after the contract he had signed, so he wanted me dead so I would belong to Limbo, too. How was this fixing his mistakes? It was only making them worse.

  I reached up by Duchess’ bit and took the taut straps with my fingers. After getting a firm grip of the leather, I yanked as hard as I could. I hadn’t realized he had the reins wrapped around his left wrist, and when I yanked the strap it threw him off balance in his saddle, causing him to pull on his own reins. My eyes grew wide as the sequence of events slowed down to super-slow motion. From the sudden shift of his weight in the saddle, Thoros’ horse was spooked and skidded to a stop directly in front of my horse.

  There was no time to stop or prevent the catastrophe from happening. We collided, and I saw the horror cross Thoros’ face before my horse lost its footing in a tangle of legs.

  We were going down.

  I tried to brace for the horrible impact, knowing if I didn’t move as soon as I hit the ground that Duchess would roll right over me. I tried to ready myself to roll once we hit, but my left boot was stuck in the stirrup, and that was the side Duchess was going to land on.

  It was going to kill me. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind.

  I looked up at Thoros’ panicked eyes and outstretched hand, and knew his fingers were out of my reach.

  “Josselyn, no!” I heard him scream, and then there was another sound: a drum beating? No, it was horse hooves, beating on the dirt road I was about to splatter. The other horse was close, so close I feared it might trample my body once I hit the ground.

  I felt a jarring impact, and then I was bouncing. Was I dead? Did I belong to Limbo now?

  I opened my eyes and saw the ground rushing by at an alarming speed. After I gasped for breath and got some oxygen to my brain, I realized that I had, in fact, not hit the ground; I was lying on my stomach, in front of a saddle, on a white horse.

  As the horse slowed to a stop, I finally got the chance to turn and see who had rescued me from my imminent death.

  Omega.

  Thoros

  “Yeah, that was so not what I meant when I told you to make miracles happen,” Malcolm said as he arrived at the scene, but Thoros ignored him as he dropped from his horse and ran toward Josselyn.

  Omega was helping her down from his steed. The guy had saved her life, and Thoros knew he owed his own to Omega for that, but that wasn’t his main concern right then. He had to know that she was all right.

  “Josselyn—”

  “I’m okay,” Thoros heard her say, and then Omega blocked Thoros’ view of her.

  “Josselyn, please, you have to know I didn’t mean for that to happen. I just—I have no idea what I was doing—”

  He was nearly to them when Omega opened his mouth. “Josselyn doesn’t want to talk to you—”

  “Get out of my way, Omega,” Thoros said, irritated. “Josselyn—” Thoros tried to walk around Omega, but the guy moved to the side, cutting off his access. He growled as he stepped into Omega’s personal space, glaring down into the odd greenish-yellow eyes of the male. Thoros’ jaw muscles flexed under the pressure of his teeth clenching together. “Get out of my way or I will move you out of my way.”

  “Don’t fight,” Josselyn said. “Thoros won’t hurt me, Omega.”

  “Well, it looks to me like he just tried to kill you!”

  “That wasn’t me!” Thoros snapped. “But since we are on the subject, didn’t you just try to kill her a few hours ago?”

  The two men stared each other down, ready for the other to make the next move.

  Josselyn

  “Melina…” I whispered, and Thoros broke eye contact first, to look at me.

  “What?”

  There was a loud cackling of laughter, and I looked to see Isaiah staring, open-mouthed at Melina. “Melina, please tell me that you are not the cause of this atrocious act against Josselyn.”

  “Now, you don’t really think I would do something like that, do you, brother dear?”

  My blood was boiling in my veins, but I knew there was no sense in starting a fight with her. Not only would she win, but it would waste valuable time we didn’t have.

  “You only have twenty-one hours and sixteen minutes left to spend with your soulmate, Melina. I suggest you stop wasting your time.”

  Her expression turned somber. “The time does not begin until I leave the gates of my world,” Melina said matter-of-factly.

  “Wrong. Maybe if you hadn’t been so busy trying to screw me over, you might have paid better attention. Your time started the moment you agreed to the deal.” I huffed, and then started walking toward Duchess.

  My hands shot to my open mouth, and I screamed when I spotted the heavily-breathing black beauty lying in a tangled mess of broken legs and blood. I ran to her, sure that I could do something to ease her suffering.

  Tears streamed from my eyes, blurring my vision, but I knew where the animal was, and I knew what I had to do to heal her. I placed my hands gently over the first bad wound I came to and… nothing happened. Then I remembered Omega saying our powers didn’t work in Limbo. I raised my face to the opaque sky and screamed in frustration, and then turned my fury on Melina.

  “You did this! This beautiful animal is suffering because you are a selfish person, Melina. Give me access to my gift so I can heal her!”

  Her eyes grew wide in shock, but she snickered lightly. “I cannot give you something I never took away, you silly girl. Only natural powers an individual was born with will work in Limbo. That’s why the seer can still feel her energy. She was born with hers, but she is no healer, neither am I or Isaiah. If your worthless alflight wasn’t so ignorant, he would be able to heal her or make her fly, if that’s what you so wished for him to do.” She rolled her eyes when I just continued to glare at her. “Oh, for Christ’s sake, it’s only a horse! I have thousands more where she came from. Omega will fetch you another.”

  I jumped to my feet, ready to claw her eyes out or rip her black heart from her chest, or maybe both, if I had time before someone grabbed me. I stopped short when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, and then noticed Ethan climbing down from his saddle. He had one of his palms out, facing me, and was looking at me cautiously as if I had murder in my eyes.

  He pointed to the fallen horse at my back. “Do you mind if I take a look at her? I won’t hurt her; I swear it, Josselyn. I just want to see if I can help her, that’s all.”

  Help her? What could he do? His powers were still dormant. What could a human do besides knock her in the head to put her out of her misery?

  He kept walking toward us, but I didn’t move from my protective stance. I could hear Duchess’ heavy, garbled breathing behind me and knew her lungs were quickly filling with blood. She was drowning. “What are you going to do to her, Ethan?”

  He shook his head, keeping careful eye contact with me. “I don’t know, but my whole body is tingling. I feel a strong pull from that animal. I have no idea what will happen if I try to help her, but I do know what will happen if I don’t. Please…”

  I took in a deep breath and moved aside. He then rushed to the horse and dropped to his knees by her neck. His hands thrust forward and, before he even touched her, a blinding gold light shot from his palms. Both Ethan and the horse’s bodies jerked violently under the immediate power of the magic shooting from his palms. Ethan’s face was crimson and strained, thick veins were raised at his neck and temples, and a glistening sheen of sweat was lightly beaded across his brow.

  Everyone watched in awe as the human mortal transformed into a walking, talking miracle.

  Almost as quickly as it came, the light went away and Ethan slumped to the dirt-packed ground.

  “Ethan!” Emma shouted, and fell to his side in hysterics, slapping his face and putting her ear down close to hi
s mouth to see if he was still breathing.

  I knew he was alive—passed out from overexertion, but alive nonetheless. Oh my goodness, what a week! I felt relieved in a way. I mean, Isaiah had been right about Ethan and his powers, so it made me a little more confident that we could win this thing—if we could get out of Limbo before Melina succeeded in killing me.

  What I didn’t understand—and I wasn’t about to ask her now—was why Melina hadn’t tried to use Ethan for her own personal get-out-of-jail-free card, if he was capable of releasing Lucifer from the bowels of Hell. I deliberated with myself a moment. I was almost positive there would be more surprises thrown my way before all of this was over. I needed to pay extra attention and keep Ethan close by my side. I had let myself get distracted, of late, but I had a theory now why Lucifer wanted him, and Melina was acting like she couldn’t care less. She couldn’t use him, because no souls were allowed in Limbo. It was all about ownership of the alflight’s soul, and if Ethan would use his gift for good or evil. He had free will, and not even Lucifer could take that from him unless he owned his soul. But if Lucifer had Ethan’s soul, couldn’t he release Melina from Limbo? Yes—yes he could, and that was exactly why Melina agreed to go see Lucifer, not to help us, but to free herself. She had only demanded I give her Thoros to distract me, and I had fallen for it.

  I tried to control—or at least hide—my expression as I looked over my shoulder at Thoros, hoping he would see the fear in my eyes and decipher what was going on in my mind without giving away the secret. We had all screwed up. Coming here was all part of the plan, but whose plan? I had a sinking feeling that we were preparing a war against the wrong opponent, that we had another enemy that had been acting as our ally all along.

  “If you’ll get us out of here, I’ll do my damndest to save the world.”

  I looked up at Isaiah, but he was talking with Aries and nodding toward the horse and Ethan. The voice in my mind hadn’t sounded like his anyway.