He stepped away from them and tucked in his chin, the air shimmered and a flash of amber light filled the room. When it cleared, the Davin that stood before them was something entirely new. His hair shimmered gold and green, and huge iridescent emerald wings rose up from his back.
“What is this?” Erebus’s hand was on the hilt of his sword.
Davin held up a hand. “My true form. I’m an abomination. My mother was a djinn and my father and angel. If the angels find me, they will unmake me, so I hide.”
Brett winced. “You’re not hiding now.”
“Yes, because this is the only way to find her. I have the same abilities as Sabriel. I can go to her. I may not be able to track her like her guardian angel, but now that he knows where she is, I can tune in to the angel frequency and find her that way. But once I do that, there won’t be much time. They will sense me, hone in on me, and come for me. I will get her back to you, and then I must leave.”
Baal nodded. “Bring her back and we will petition the angels to allow you to remain among us as the honourable djinn you have proven yourself to be.”
Davin smiled wryly. “That is kind of you, but there is no need. I believe that this is to be my fate, and I accept it. The few weeks I have had here have been the happiest of my life. Please tell Kenna that it was an honour to have known her.”
He closed his eyes and vanished.
“So what now?” Lauren asked.
Baal fell back into the nearest seat, his face pale. “Now we wait.”
22
My head rang from the blows the guard had rained down on me. I’d laughed in his face, taking the hits like a fucking trooper. Yeah, he was pissed—pissed that they’d lost some leverage. But that made Mum’s death count for something.
A shudder ran through me. I wanted to raise my head and check out the black shit’s progress through my veins, but my limbs had gone into shut-down again. How many times had he injected me now? Three? No, this was the fourth round. Round and round the merry-go-round. Sabriel. I needed my angel. He could hold my hand, couldn’t he? Where was he? Why wasn’t he here? Had he forsaken me? Forsaken, ha! Listen to me with my fancy words. Impeding death was turning me into a scholar. Or was it poking holes in my mind to mimic Swiss cheese. Wait. The cell was being sucked away.
“Kenna? Kenna hold on.”
Sabriel? My heart lurched with hope, but the cell was gone and I was back in the cavern again.
There was no time to dwell, I needed to act fast and burn the shit out of the taint inside me before Legion grabbed me. I’d done it three times. I could do it again, right? Except this time, when I reached for the flame, it didn’t flare to life enthusiastically. In fact, it was barely a flicker. Oh god, had I used it all up? Was that even possible? Maybe it needed time to recharge? Orin’s guard wasn’t giving me time to recharge!
The shadows on the cavern began to lengthen, moving toward me. Behind them was the maw, waiting to devour me. It was coming, getting closer—too close. Come on, please. Squeezing my eyes shut, I focused on the power inside me, channelling everything I had left into that flickering tired flame. Just one more burn, please. I needed time. Just a little more time.
Icy breath caressed the nape of my neck, and a low chuckle reverberated around the stone chamber.
“Not long now little pig. Soon you will belong to Legion.”
My bowels went fluid just as the flame surged up to do its thing. I opened my eyes, back in the cell to find Sabriel looking down on me.
I winced and attempted to sit up. “What took you so long?”
Sabriel’s eyes glistened with tears. “I couldn’t find you. I tried and tried, but I couldn’t find you, and then you called to me.”
“If I’d known that was all I needed to do…” A cough wracked my body and something wet crawled up my throat, filled my mouth. I wiped at it, my hands coming away crimson.
“You’re bleeding,” Sabriel said.
“I’m dying.”
“No.” He shook his head, pulling me into his lap and cradling me. “I won’t let you.”
“You can’t interfere, remember?”
He made a sound in his throat, part laugh and part pain. “For the first time in my existence, I truly hate what I am. What I have become.”
I sighed into his shirt. “You lied about Baal, didn’t you?”
He rested his chin on my head. “Yes.”
I exhaled in relief. My heart hadn’t steered me wrong. I wanted to be mad at Sabriel, but I needed him. Soon the guard would return with the final dose that would conquer me. I was out of juice. If they injected me again it was over, Legion would have me. But I needed to know, to understand, why my friend had tried to break my heart.
“Why did you do it?”
His chest rumbled in a sigh. “Because I love you.”
I raised my head to look into his azure eyes and he reached up to push the damp tendrils of hair off my face.
“I’ve loved you forever Kenna. I loved you when you were Dante and I love you now.”
What? “What did you say?”
His smile was filled with sorrow. “Another rule broken.”
“Sabriel? What did you mean you loved me when I was Dante?”
“Your soul has been through many incarnations, and one of the first was Dante.”
This should be shocking news, so why did it feel right? “I was Dante.”
“And now you are Kenna. You are entirely you, but your soul lived in a different body once, and those memories are there somewhere, just not accessible to you. You were Dante once, and you were formidable—a true warrior.”
“What really happened?”
“I was tasked to watch over you, and I was intrigued. Why send an angel to watch over a djinn? But angels do not question the creator, and so I did my duty, until it became a duty no more. I fell in love with her, with the you of the past. And for the first time an angel felt envy, jealousy, and the urge to lie. It was I who left clues to convince Baal that Dante was having an affair with Erebus. On the day that she died, she’d been with Erebus, yes. She’d lied to Baal about her whereabouts, yes, but only because they’d been searching for the perfect wedding present for Baal.”
“You made Baal believe Dante was on a tryst with Erebus?”
He tucked in his chin, and closed his eyes. “Yes.”
I swallowed the bitter bile rising up in my throat. “Go on.”
“Baal was on the cliff side when Dante found him. He’d been upset, thinking of how to confront her. There was an altercation and Dante slipped and fell to her death.”
“So it was an accident.”
“Yes. Baal discovered the gift in her dresser a few days later, with a love note addressed to him. He realised his suspicions had been unfounded, that Dante had truly loved him.”
But it was too late. She was gone.
“You were gone,” Sabriel said echoing my thoughts. “They punished me for my transgression, but not as harshly as I punished myself, and then they gave me you to watch over. I knew who you were as soon as I laid eyes on you, and it was as if my heart came back to life. But I was adamant not to make the same mistake again.”
“But you did.”
He nodded. “When you told me you loved Baal, something inside me snapped. It was as if something else took over, and words, horrible lies, came spilling from my lips. I wanted to bite them back, but at the same time I wanted to see where they led.” He leaned his forehead against mine. “This is where they led. If I hadn’t placed doubts in your mind toward Baal, he would have been with you in that carriage. He would have saved you.”
Where was my anger? The tirade toward him for betraying my trust? It seemed the fire had taken my rage with it.
“It’s too late now.” I pressed my hand to his chest and pulled back. “You can’t interfere, but you can deliver a message.”
He blinked back tears and nodded.
So I told him everything I’d learned. “You need to let them know wh
at they’re dealing with. You need to tell Baal to find a way to kill it. Tell him … tell him I love him.”
Sabriel pressed his lips together. “I won’t need to. They’re on their way. They know Orin has you. Your friend Brett has been having dreams. He told Baal … your conclusions are the same. And Brett may have a solution, a way to end Legion.”
So they were on their way. Hope was a fickle thing, deserting you one moment and holding your hand the next. I shrugged it off. It was unlikely they’d find me in time. Not without Sabriel leading them to me, which was something he couldn’t do.
The key scraped in the lock.
The guard was back.
My time was up.
23
This time there was no messing about, no creepy I’m-gonna-get-you approach. This time Legion grabbed me by the throat and dug in its claws. This time I looked into its eyes, so many fucking eyes staring back at me, into me, pulling me apart into tiny pieces of myself and reorganising my essence into neat compartmentalised parts. Here was the piece that loved my friends, the part that was loyal to my cause. Here was the element that loved donuts and anything loaded with sugar. Here was that naughty sex drive, and the deeply buried component that yearned to be whole, that wanted a flesh and bone leg to stand on. Legion was taking me apart, and there was nothing I could do but sob silently as it claimed my mind.
Please …
Who was I imploring?
I was inside Legion, being sucked down and fragmenting as I went. They were hungry for me, eager to know me.
“Kenna, come back to me,” Sabriel’s voice latched onto me like a hook in the back of my skull. “Come back to me.” The downward motion halted, and I began to rise.
“Yes, that’s it. Come back.”
The gloom was below me now, still reaching for me, but I was moving too fast out of its reach. Sabriel was doing something, goodness knows what, but he was saving me. And then something latched onto my ankle. Cold and uncompromising, I jerked in place, suspended between Sabriel’s pull and Legions tug.
No. I wasn’t going down there. I kicked out, swaying in place. The abyss echoed with my screams of rage.
“Get off! Get off me now you fucker!”
“No, no, no,” Sabriel’s sobs joined my cries. “I won’t. I won’t let you go.”
Heat bloomed in my chest, spreading outward, eating away at the black goop inside my veins. This wasn’t fire, this was something else, something familiar yet alien. Legion’s grip on my ankle loosened and I kicked out again, and again. The warmth filled me and wrapped around me like a loving embrace. I was flying. My heart was soaring, and there was light raining down on me from above. I lifted my chin and felt it caress my face with loving fingers.
“Home, Kenna, come home.”
I opened my eyes on a gasp. Sabriel’s face was a beatific vision. His smile emanated love. A single tear slid down his cheek and his lips moved, mouthing the words: I love you. And then he shattered into a billion motes of light.
“Kenna, you’re all right. You’re safe.”
“Davin?” How was this happening? Why did he have wings? I was dead. That’s what this was. I was dead and this was all an illusion, a trick of my dying mind.
“You’re safe.”
His arms were pretty solid for an illusion, and his hair against my cheek felt real enough. “This is real?”
He pressed his lips to my forehead. “Yes, Kenna, this is real.”
The cell was filled with light rising off his shoulders, and glowing from his wings. I’d never seen Sabriel’s wings …
“Where did Sabriel go?” I knew. Deep down I knew, but I needed to hear Davin say it.
“Home. He is at one with the creator now. He gifted you his angel light, his divinity. He saved you, and he will forever be a part of you. But you will not see him again.”
A sob caught in my throat. “He’s dead.”
“Nothing ever really dies. But we have no more time left. We must leave this place now.” He clasped me tighter. “Close your eyes.”
Leave, yes. I needed to leave, but there was someone I had to take with me. “Mum, we have to take Mum.”
Davin glanced down at the twisted mutated body of my mother. “She is already home, Kenna. Her soul is at peace. That is merely a shell. Close your eyes.”
And then we were stepping into a dazzling portal of light and it was impossible to see.
24
“Kenna? Can you hear me?”
I opened my eyes and stared up into Baal’s beloved face. His jade eyes roved over me, his brow furrowed in concern. The tightness around his eyes and mouth spoke a thousand words. I reached up and touched his lips.
“I can hear you.”
An exhale exploded from his lips, and then I was hauled up against his chest. He buried his hands in my hair and pressed his lips on mine. He kissed me as if I was the last breath of air and the last drop of moisture on an arid planet. My eyes burned and my throat tightened as the sobs I’d held back pressed against the back of my nose.
I’d thought I was going to die, that I’d never see him again. Never get to tell him how much I loved him. I kissed him like it was my last moment on earth, which it almost had been, and then I pulled back and locked gazes with him. He blinked back tears, but I didn’t bother. I let mine fall. And then we were laughing—totally inappropriate, relieved, crazy laughter.
Someone coughed.
I looked up, noticing the other occupants of the room for the first time. Erebus, Lauren, Brett, and Irina were looking at me strangely, almost warily. And what was that in Irina’s hand? It looked like a tattoo gun. I noted the burning in my left hand for the first time. Shit, it was covered in black ink—swirls and whorls—and beneath it, barely visible, was the pulse and shift of black veins.
“Oh, god! It’s still inside me!” I flapped my arm desperate to shake it off.
“It’s okay,” Baal pressed me back into my seat. “We have it contained, and once your flame has recharged you can burn it out of your system. It seems that even Sabriel’s angel fire wasn’t enough to cleanse your body.”
Okay, I could handle this. It was contained, beneath a web of enchanted ink. I swung my legs off the chaise. “Where’s Davin?”
Baal shook his head. “He had to leave. I’ll explain later, but right now you need to tell us what happened to you. Davin told us about the taint, he found Sabriel trying to revive you. You were dead,” Baal swallowed, his eyes darkening. “Or so it seemed.”
Legion had taken me then, but Sabriel had pulled me back. The story fell from my lips with ease, but then I got to the part where I’d had to kill Mum, and I faltered.
“It’s all right,” Brett said. “You did what she wanted. You saved her.”
I nodded, and wiped at my running nose. Was I crying again? Damn this shit. Damn Legion for taking my mother, and my friend, and countless others. We had to end this. Baal offered me his handkerchief.
“Thanks.” I blew my nose. “But there’s more. Mum told me about Orin, she told me he’s my grandfather.”
The room was deathly silent.
“The birthmark on his face...” Brett said. “I saw it, or at least I thought I did but then I convinced myself it was an illusion.”
“But that makes you the only surviving heir to the Twilight throne,” Baal said.
“Right now I don’t give a damn about that. I just need to stop Legion.” I continued skimming over the conversation with Sabriel, my stomach turning because I’d have to tell Baal soon, how I’d doubted him and how … how I was Dante, or had been. I was still trying to wrap my head around that one. I finished to a hush.
“We have to find a way to stop it,” I met Erebus’s gaze, then Brett’s. “We have to kill it.”
“I dreamed of The Hunt,” Brett said. “Long story, but basically they told me that only harmony of the races could kill it. They’d managed to weaken it and trap it using the blood of the ocean people. It took wiping out a race to push it bac
k into the abyss. And the ascendants of the ocean people died from grief at the loss of their children.”
“Wait,” Erebus said. “They’re not all dead.” He looked to me. “We have Adamaris back at the fortress in Evernight. He’s still in the pool in the garden.”
I pressed my lips together. “We’re not killing him to take his blood, besides I doubt it would help much.”
Erebus snorted. “No, it would hardly be a harmonic action. But he may know another way to weaken Legion. He is old, ancient. He must have been here when this thing landed in our world.”
It was a long shot, but it was all we had, because being on the verge of attack wasn’t really conducive to harmony.
I met Erebus’s silver gaze. “How bad is the hoard?”
“It’s stirring and beginning to awaken. I must return to Evernight soon. The others will need my assistance.”
We didn’t say it, but the unspoken comment was there—maybe we should have held off on severing our tether. But even if we hadn’t, with the state I was in I’d have been little help to Erebus and his clan.
“Are you taking the dark djinn with you?”
“A few warriors. The rest will remain here, at your disposal.”
“No. I’m coming with you. Baal can hold the fort in my absence. I need to speak with Adamaris.”
“And how will you do that?” Lauren said. “I heard tales of the oceanic folk while growing up, I’m not sure how much is myth and how much fact, but the consensus is they cannot communicate above water.”
Yes, Adamaris had struggled to speak to me above water, but he’d spoken to me fine when I’d been under it. “Irina, is there a way to allow me to speak underwater, to breathe, even if it is for a short time?”
Irina nodded. “Yes, I think there may be. I’ll just need to gather some herbs. It will take a couple of hours to steep.”
I looked to Erebus. “You good to wait?”
He nodded.
“Lauren,” I smiled at my friend. “I need you to keep an eye on Orin and let us know as soon as he is mobilising his forces.”
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