He tensed against her, but when he spoke there was no undertone of anger or resentment—just gentle acceptance. “Yeah, he’s here. He’s come for you, just as I knew he would. There’s an army of Rogue warriors laying seize to the Dark Court as we speak. It won’t be long before they reach Gahn.”
“Did you find out what he was planning?”
Haden nodded. “I did. It’s worse than I thought.”
“What are you going to do?”
With infinite gentleness, he cupped her face in his hands and tipped it to meet his determined sea-green eyes. Bending forward, he placed a chaste kiss on her forehead and leaned back. “Give you back to Liam—where you belong. It’s where you’ve always belonged, Olivia. I just refused to admit it. He’s the only one who can take you to Landaketa. You need to go with him and don’t ever look back. It’s the only place you and your young will ever be safe from the threat of the Dark Court.”
Why did it feel like this time he was telling her goodbye? “What about you?”
“The insurgency is greater than I thought, and once I’ve delivered you to Liam, I will destroy Gahn before he can do any more damage. Olivia, you know that I’ll always—.”
An explosion rocked outside, the shockwave causing her to stumble against him. The sharp crack of splitting stone erupted around them as small fissures began running up the foundation walls. The castle groaned, raining dirt and sand down on them.
“What’s happening? What’s all that noise out there?”
“The ground is fracturing. Sheol is a realm built upon a bed of sulfurous rock. Beneath the surface is a ball of fire, much like Earth, only the distance to our core is much less. The land cannot resist the stress of war, and it is cracking, creating volcanic fissures in the ground. I have to get you out of her before the castle falls.”
“But what if Gahn catches you, or the others?”
Haden reached behind his neck, and it wasn’t until that onyx opal fell away from his neck that she realized he’d been wearing her necklace. “Most of them are fighting. I’m not sure where Gahn ran off to. I left him to come here when I heard you scream. But it doesn’t matter. I’m taking you out another way.”
“What are you doing?” she asked when he reached toward her and fastened the chain around her neck. The heat of Haden’s body was still captured in the stone that now rested against her chest. As the clasp latched, she felt that surge of supernatural power flooding throughout her body.
“I’m giving this back to you. You need it more than I do, Olivia. When we go out there, it’s going to be a war. Stay close. Listen to me. I’ll get you to Liam.”
She nodded and threw her arms around his neck, pulling him down for one last quick hug. “Thank you, Haden. I knew you wouldn’t abandon me.”
What sounded like another explosion, which she now knew was the earth’s battle cry, rocked the ground, sending chunks of rock raining down on them. Haden cursed and reached up, unwinding her arms from his neck to take her hand. “We have to go,” he said curtly, leading her out of the cell. When they reached the hall, she headed left toward the stairs, but he turned right toward the wall. Their arms stretched tautly and she stumbled backward, bumping into him.
“Where are you going?”
He shot her an impatient scowl. “Olivia, please. Just stay close and quit asking questions.”
What was he doing? They were at a dead end. She was about to point that obvious fact out to him when he let go of her hand and pressed his palm against the stone wall. To her utter surprise, it began to move, but only opened several inches before jamming.
“What’s wrong?”
“The wall is jammed by the shifting foundation.”
She followed his gaze up to the ceiling that now had a precarious tilt. “Well, can’t you just…push through it?”
“No, I can’t just ‘push through it.’ This rock is a foot thick. And even if I could, this passage is secret and I’d like to keep it that way in the event this castle doesn’t come crashing down. This little escape route has saved my life more than once. Grab that torch,” he commanded, nodding behind them.
Olivia grabbed the light and brought it closer, holding it out as Haden slid his hands toward the edge and shoved. She refused to allow herself to notice the way his muscles strained under the protest of the stubborn door, or the fading scratches across his shoulder blades. Rock scraped and groaned, but finally it yielded another several inches, leaving about a two-foot gap between the door and the wall. And none too soon, because another shockwave rattled the castle, sending a large chunk of ceiling dropping beside them that engulfed the two in a plume of dust.
Olivia began to cough and Haden took the torch with one hand, grabbing her arm with the other and shoving her toward the narrow opening. “See if you can fit through there.”
She made it through, but just barely. “I’m in,” she said, taking a step into the tunnel.
“That’s good. Here.” He handed her the torch. “Now just keep heading straight until you can’t go any farther.”
“What! You’re not coming with me?” Her shrill voice echoing ‘with me’ ‘with me’ ‘with me’ down the dark, terrifying shaft.
“I can’t fit through here, Olivia. The opening is too small. I have to go up and out. I’ll meet you on the other side of that wall. Just wait for me. I’ll get you out. I promise.”
Another crash sounded behind him, just like the first and she knew the castle was slowly falling in around them. “But—.”
“I don’t have time to argue with you, Olivia! Just go! We have to get out while we still can.”
Swallowing back her frightened plea not to leave her, she nodded and turned to head in the direction Haden told her to go. As the scrape of grinding rock ushered in the echoing crash of the hidden door, Olivia shuttered, wondering how much worse this could possibly get than being sealed inside the bowels of the Dark Court.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Haden raced for the stairs, dodging falling rocks and crumbling debris when something slammed into his shoulder, cutting deep into his flesh. “Son of a bitch!”
He stumbled through the mounting debris and reached for the source of the throbbing pain. His fingers slipped into the laceration and touched his scapula. The wound was deep, but it could have been worse.
The castle groaned under its shifting weight, raining more rock down on him. A part of him couldn’t believe this was actually happening…the Dark Court was going to fall. As Haden raced up the stairs, he could only pray it held firm until he reached Olivia. He’d hated leaving her behind in those tunnels. Although their connection had been severed, he knew she was terrified. His preternatural instincts told him that much. Not even the Sheol’s sulfurous stench had masked the bitter almond scent of her fear, or her thundering pulse echoing a staccato of terror. Her aura threw off waves of sapphire and crimson, surging like the rushing tide that threatened to catch hold and drag him under, paralyzing him in her bone-deep fear.
As Haden reached the top step, the cacophony of war raged louder. He could only hope the warriors were so caught up in the melee of battle, he could easily slip outside and around to the back of the castle undetected. The thought of leaving her down there, alone and terrified, settled like a lead weight on his chest.
Haden entered the common room and was heading for the door when he spotted a scythe hanging above the mantle. Changing direction, he marched over to the fireplace and lifted the blade from the wall.
“Going to join the battle? I thought you’d turned tail like an unseasoned whelp when you ran out of here.”
Haden froze the sound of that gravelly voice turning him to stone. His muscles ached to whip around and cleave Gahn’s head from his accursed body, but he could tell by the grating echo, the bastard remained just shy of striking distance. Head or heart—either would do, but they were the only injuries lethal enough to kill a demonic archangel, and Haden knew he’d only get one shot so he’d better make it count.
He’d known that POS wouldn’t let his hatred of her rest, but he’d thought she was safe enough locked inside the cell. Clearly, he thought wrong, underestimating Max’s ghoulish abilities. And in that split second that felt like an eternity, he’d answered the question he posed to Liam only a few short weeks ago: How do you kill a ghost? Answer: Wait for the bastard to take corporal form and cut his fucking head off.
“I wasn’t running,” Haden growled, taking his hand from the scythe and then slowly turning to face his father. “Although I am surprised to see you holed up in here. Why aren’t you out there leading the charge, driving your army to a swift and sudden victory?” he asked, mockery edging his voice.
Gahn took a step closer. Not close enough. Haden forced a casual stance, his hand aching to unleash the blade sheathed in the baldric at his hip.
His father gave a negligent shrug. “Why fight the war when I’ve already won the prize? I shall collect my spoils while my soldiers keep Liam and his army occupied. By the time he reaches the castle steps, I’ll be long gone with the female—.”
Coward…
“I’ve been thinking… What good is a kingdom without subjects to rule? So I’ve decided to take you up on your offer.” Gahn took another step forward.
Closer…
“What offer was that?” He struggled to don casual indifference when every cell in his body raged for him to attack. The urgency to get to Olivia was riding him hard, cracking his patience like a jockey’s whip.
“To breed for me. Olivia will be your Eve. I know that you fancy her. And I, being the benevolent father that I am, will give her to you. Call it my peace offering.”
Fuck…he didn’t see that one coming.
“You will give me sons—many sons and daughters. And when we overthrow the heavens, I will wipe the earth of its inhabitants and create a new race—a superior race, and they shall be my people. They will serve and worship me.”
Bloody hell…Gahn had truly lost his mind. How ironic was it that the one person he hated most in this world would offer him the one thing he wanted the most. He’d be lying if he said the thought didn’t tempt him. Here, presented on a silver platter, was an opportunity to seize everything he’d ever wanted. A wife…children…lots and lots of children…
The only problem was he’d have to sell his soul to possess it—betray his God, betray Olivia, and swear fealty to an egomaniacal tyrant.
“Think about it,” Gahn said, stepping within reach and holding out his gnarled hand. “I can give you your heart’s desire. Join me. A new army awaits my command. Together, we will be unstoppable.”
Olivia would be mine…
The thought echoed through his mind like a drum roll. Then, as if on its own accord, Haden watched, momentarily stunned as his right arm voluntarily lifted and he reached out to grasp the knobby, boned hand extended in partnership—a binding truce.
As their palms connected, those skeletal fingers wrapped around his hand with surprising strength. An odd chill seeped into his palm and began spreading up his arm like poison in his veins. Triumph gleamed in his father’s soulless black eyes as evil incarnate snaked up his arm. The bastard was infecting him with his essence. Haden fought the urge to rip his hand back, a knee-jerk response to having one’s soul enslaved.
Steeling his resolve to see this through, he tightened his grip of his father’s hand and pulled him in for a hug. With his free arm, he wrapped it around Gahn and gave him a manly slap of the back as he growled beside his ear, “The workings of your mind never cease to amaze me.”
A self-satisfied chuckle rumbled in the demon’s chest as the painful kiss of death began to seep into Haden’s. He was tempted to remain still. In another minute, he would no longer possess the conscience that plagued him since his salvation. He would be free of the bondage of morality Olivia had foisted upon him by seeing something in him he’d refused to see in himself.
“That’s right!” Gahn jeered triumphantly. “Stick with me, boy, and we’ll set the world afire! Literally!” He laughed at his joke.
The grating cackle twisted in Haden’s gut. His heart thundered in his chest, rebelling against the poison threatening to extinguish the light in his soul.
But the light would not go out. With a holy anger, it surged brighter, hotter, battling back the darkness threatening to consume him. At that moment, Haden realized that as the war raging outside, the war within had already been won—the darkness just didn’t know it yet. But they would…
With an explosion of preternatural speed, Haden released his clasp on Gahn’s back and grabbing his dagger, plunged the blade into the bastard’s black heart. The demon gasped and tried to jerk back, but Haden’s grip tightened, bones crunching beneath his grasp as he yanked him closer, impaling him to the blade’s hilt. With a savage twist, Haden let out a gut-wrenching roar filled with a lifetime of rage, of grief—of vengeance—and severed the organ. Shock and betrayal briefly registered in the demon’s eyes before the eternal flame burning in the depths of his damned soul flickered.
“That was for Anya,” Haden growled, yanking the blade free of his chest cavity with an arching twist that rendered a fist-sized hole. “That you thought I’d ever forgive you for what you did to her proves just how pompous—how arrogant—how delusional you truly are. My only regret is that I couldn’t make you suffer as she suffered!”
Gahn wheezed as if trying to speak, but only crimson spittle formed on his lips. His knees buckled and he made a desperate grasp for Haden’s throat that he easily deflected. Grabbing a fistful of the demon’s hooded mantle, Haden suspended his sagging weight in the air, unwilling to relinquish his grip on the evil bastard until he’d drawn his last gurgling gasp of breath.
All too soon, the demon’s life extinguished, and with it so did the insidious poison spreading through Haden’s veins. Gahn’s end wasn’t the satisfyingly battle he’d envisioned. Imagining that fight-to-the-death had served as both a balm to his suffering and a holy fire, fueling his rage over the centuries. But as long as Gahn was dead, he told himself that none of that mattered right now—not when Olivia was trapped beneath the underbelly of the Dark Court.
Olivia knew these tunnels… But how? It wasn’t possible. Or was it? The feeling of déjà vu swept through her with startling surreality when Haden slammed the door closed behind her. It was as if she were in a dream… That’s it! A dream! These were the same tunnels she’d stumbled through when she’d dreamt of Haden. Impossible… Yet, somehow she knew that up ahead the tunnel would split, leading up a very steep stairway. To what, she didn’t know, or to what end the tunnel would lead remained a mystery. She only knew what Haden had seen before Liam had woken her.
Okay, she could do this. At least that’s what she’d been telling herself since getting locked inside here. She had to believe Haden would come for her. He wouldn’t have saved her from Max only to let her perish in these hidden tunnels. Her pulse thundered inside her chest. Another boom sounded outside, ushering in the ominous groaning of the castle. Forcing one foot in front of the other, she continued on.
Just like labor pains, the earth’s tremors were coming more quickly and with greater intensity. A loud crash boomed behind her and Olivia yelped. She whipped around so fast the torch nearly extinguished. A wall of dust rolled through the tunnel, barreling toward her. She barely had enough time to cover her face with Haden’s shirt before the cloud engulfed her. As she stood there forcing her breaths to slow, Olivia wondered how much time she’d have before the whole castle came crashing in on her.
Apparently not very
long, because a few minutes later an explosion shook the foundation and the ceiling gave way right in front of her. A startled scream tore from her throat as she leapt back. Darkness enveloped her, the torch unable to burn through the dusty haze. She couldn’t breathe. Olivia coughed, trying to rid her lungs of the polluted air. Oh Lord, she was trapped—unable to turn back, and she couldn’t go forward. Olivia was stuck in a tunnel and running out of oxygen.
Chapter Forty
Haden raced from the castle and was immediately engulfed in Armageddon. Although the soldiers of the Dark Court far outnumbered the dozen or so angels, those black-winged warriors fought with skill and tenacity unequal to the likes he’d ever seen before.
Gahn was a fool, he thought, ducking as a battle ax swung for his head. If twelve angels could wreak this much havoc, imagine what a hundred could do—a thousand… It didn’t matter if the Nephilim gained the Dark Court entrance to the Holy City, they would never defeat the armies of Heaven. Even now, the ground trembled and shook beneath the mighty power of the Creator’s elite.
An angel swung at him, narrowly missing his throat this time. Snarling an oath, Haden countered the assault by throwing his shoulder into the demon beside him. The force of his blow sent the bastard into the path of the warrior’s blade, and Haden leapt off the steps, skirting the battle. It just didn’t feel right, killing an angel, and he’d try his damnedest to avoid it if possible. His sins were piled high enough as it was, the last thing he needed was to stand before the High Court and answer for that one.
As he worked his way through the uproarious battle, Haden took care to skirt the black-winged warriors. The mounting sense of urgency to get to Olivia was the only driving force in his mind. Already he’d taken too long to get to her. She should be at the tunnel entrance by now, and every minute he delayed in reaching her was one more minute she’d remain entombed—terrified and alone.
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