Darkness Reborn (Order of the Blade #5)

by Rowe, Stephanie

  “Well, let’s figure it out.” Ryland turned and hurled his machete into a nearby tree. It sliced off a branch that crashed to the earth with a thud right next to Gideon. “Toss that to me, will ya?” Gideon lobbed the massive branch to Ryland as Ry called his machete back to him. Then he turned toward the meadow. “Let’s see what we have going on here.” He took the branch and heaved it into the air, launching it way out into the middle of the meadow.

  It spun around in the air, twirling around as it fell down past the level of the ledge they were standing on. The moment it fell below the edge, into what would have been the pit last night, it exploded mid-air, shattering into thousands of fragments that showered over them. Kane held out his hand and caught some. The wood was burning with a flame that was green, black and brown. A noxious stench was emanating from it.

  “Well, shit.” Gideon said. “That’s not very polite. We could have gotten hurt.”

  Kane snorted, and then realized it was the kind of snarky comment Thano would have made, and his amusement faded. “Thano’s in there, and so is Luc. You guys ready?”

  The team moved closer, and heavy hands descended on Kane’s shoulders. He let out his breath and gripped Sarah’s hand, locking her down against him. He was going to take them down there, but hell only knew what they were going to land in. It wasn’t going to be a meadow and flowers. That much he was sure about.

  “Jesus, man.” Ry said quietly. “What the hell are we going to meet down there?”

  Kane met his gaze. “Hell, I think.”

  Ryland nodded. “Me, too.” He looked at Sarah, and his eyes darkened. “I don’t think the angel should go down there. Why bring her?”

  “Because we can’t leave her behind,” Kane said.

  “I’ll stay behind with her,” Ryland said. “It feels wrong to take her in there. I’m feeling it.”

  Kane scowled, his adrenaline rising to a fast peak at Ryland’s interference. “It’s not your call, Ryland—”

  “I’ll make it mine.” Ryland stepped back, holding out his machete. His eyes were gleaming back. “The angel should not go down there, Santiago. I know it.”

  Kane was about to argue, when he felt a pulse of darkness in his mind, a nudge of violence that told him to resist Ryland, to shut him down. It was his thought, but at the same time…it wasn’t. He hadn’t thought that. Something else had tried to put the thought in his head. Son of a bitch. What the hell was going on? All he knew was that something or someone wanted him to bring Sarah down there, and that was enough of a reason not to. Ryland was onto something. He was sure of it. “Fine. Sarah stays.”

  Sarah shook her head. “No, Kane—”

  “Yes.” Kane quickly scanned the crew, dividing them in half. He gripped Sarah’s arm and pulled her close. You swear to me that you will use your powers to kill anything that gets you. I’ll come back for you, so don’t restrain yourself. Got it?

  Sarah gritted her jaw. “I need to go with you, Kane. I’m the one he wants.”

  “And me.”

  “Both of us,” she acknowledged. “It doesn’t make sense to split us up.”

  Kane ground his jaw. “He’s got to be hiding down there right now, Sarah. He can’t come out until sunset. I don’t want you down there now, but I swear I’ll be back before it gets dark.”

  Sarah bit her lip, but finally she nodded. “Keep your mind open to me, and come back if I call you.”

  He nodded and pulled her close, giving her a long kiss. She melted into him, and Kane let himself get lost in her kiss. He didn’t want to let her go. He really didn’t. But he had to, and it wasn’t simply because of what he’d told her.

  The truth was, he didn’t know what he would become when he went down into that hell, and he didn’t want Sarah anywhere near him when he arrived in it. He met Ryland’s hard gaze, knowing that the warrior had some kind of connection to Sarah that would keep her safe with him. “Ryland, you stay here with Sarah. Quinn and Elijah, you come with me. The rest of you stay.”

  Quinn shook his head. “Drew stays with me.”

  “Yeah, fine.” Kane met Ry’s gaze and understanding passed between them. An understanding that Ryland would unleash that same monster as before if necessary to save Sarah. Kane had no clue what Ryland had turned into last night, but he knew that it had been called out in defense of Sarah. Ryland wasn’t Sarah’s soul mate, but there was something he had going on with the angels that Kane couldn’t deny.

  He was going to have to trust that, and trust his woman with the man that no one on the damn team trusted to do anything except to go rogue. Keep her safe.

  Ryland’s eyes narrowed. I will.

  Kane nodded and looked down at Sarah. She lifted her chin and met his gaze. “Kane,” she said, touching his arm. “I just thought of something.”

  He raised his brows, unable to tear himself away from his woman. Dammit. He didn’t want to leave her behind. “What’s up?”

  “How are you planning on killing Luc? Your weapons didn’t work on him before.”

  He shrugged. “We’ll find a way—”

  “I can kill him. My light can kill demons. You know it can.” She sighed, and met his gaze. “I have to go. There’s no other choice.”

  Kane swore. “No—”

  “This isn’t your decision,” she snapped. “This is my town, and it’s my child I have to protect. I’m going in, and you can come or not.”

  “It’s my child, too—”

  “Then make the right choice.” Then she tore herself free of his arms and sprinted down the slope into the grass.

  Kane swore as noxious smoke rose up around her, sucking her out of sight instantly. “Jesus!” He immediately opened his blood bond connection with her and locked down on her location instantly. “Come on,” he shouted. “Now!”

  Everyone grabbed him, and Kane teleported, his entire being focused only on one thing: the woman who made his heart beat. The woman who was going to get herself killed.

  *

  Sarah’s body was screaming with pain as she landed on the seething earth. The rocks were glowing with orange heat, black with burned ash, and the air was so thick she could barely breathe.

  Her skin was on fire, and she stumbled with dizziness. She immediately unleashed a quick pulse of her white light, and it cleared an air pocket around her. There was dark smoke swirling around, and shadows undulating in and out of focus. Dark trees were waving over her head, the branches slashing as if there were a brutal wind trying to tear them out of the earth. It felt like she was in a place of eternal night where darkness was a constant protection for the evil festering beneath the earth.

  “Oh, no,” she whispered, realizing that’s exactly where she was. Nothing was asleep down here. Nothing was resting until sunset. Down here, the atmosphere was buzzing and humming with the lethal energy that would be unleashed onto her village when dusk hit.

  Cold pain wrapped around her ankle, and she looked down to see smoky black tendrils creeping up her leg, the same thing that had grabbed the men last night. “No,” she said, and she lit up her leg. The white light burned the smoke off, freeing her. Sweat beaded across her brow, and she knew she was draining herself each time she used her powers, but she didn’t care.

  She was at war now, and she would fight until the end. She pressed her hand to her belly, and sent warmth into the life she was supposed to protect. “This time, it’s going to work out okay,” she whispered fiercely. “This time, I’m going to get it right—”

  “Sarah!” The air pressure shifted, and suddenly Kane and the rest of his team materialized around her. He grabbed her arm, his face frantic with worry. “You’re okay?”

  His fear for her safety was so intense it brought tears to Sarah’s eyes. She nodded, and remembered Ana’s advice. That somehow, she had to look past the exterior and know the truth about who he was. But as she looked at him, as she opened her heart to him, she saw his eyes turn black and a wave of darkness flooded her.

  Kan
e dropped his hand and turned away from her, staring into the woods. “He’s here,” he said, his voice low and guttural, unlike she’d ever heard it before.

  “Who?” Gideon moved close to Kane, his weapon out. All the men were scanning the woods. No one was moving until they had a sense of what was going on.

  Kane moved restlessly. “Luc—”

  The earth suddenly erupted below them, turning from solid footing into a seething, bubbling swamp of noxious fumes. Sarah screamed as she fell in, and all the men were sucked in with her. Kane lunged for her hand, and her fingers touched his as it sucked her down, closing over her head. Kane! Her fingers slipped out of his grasp, and then she was sucked away.

  Sarah! Kane’s anguished bellow filled her mind, and then it was gone, and all she could hear was the mindless screams of thousands of people being sucked to their doom.

  *

  “Sarah!” Kane bellowed with raw terror as she disappeared into the muck. He immediately opened his mind to her. He found her instantly, and he tried to dematerialize…and nothing happened. “Shit!” He frantically charged through the sludge and dove into the mess where he’d seen her go down. The mud was thick and toxic, burning his skin as he fought to swim through it. The mire was blocking his path, not letting him through. Panic assaulted him, and he fought harder against the muck. “Sarah!”

  A cold hand suddenly grabbed him around the neck, yanked him out of the mire and flung him into the woods. He landed on hard ground, and immediately began swinging his flail at the earth to dig through it to Sarah. Sarah! I’m coming!

  No response. It was as if she were dead. “No!” He screamed his rage, his desperation, his fury as he fought harder against the earth that had suddenly turned hard again. Taunting him. Not letting him through. He tried to dematerialize again, and nothing happened. “Shit!”

  “Sucks, doesn’t it?”

  Kane whirled around and saw Luc lounging against a blackened tree trunk. His body was in shadows, undulating in and out of focus. His hair was streaked with soot, and his skin looked noxious and poisoned. His face was bony and haunted, but his eyes were glittering with power and intention. “I sat there and fought for Elizabeth after you killed her, but I couldn’t save her.” Luc’s eyes narrowed. “Do you know why I couldn’t save her?”

  Kane clenched his flail, quickly assessing the situation. His entire team was gone, sucked into the muck with Sarah. Ryland, you find her under there and keep her the fuck alive. No answer. It was as if they were all dead to him. The only living creatures were Kane and Luc. “No. Tell me.” His instincts were screaming at him to attack, to destroy Luc, but he didn’t move. He knew Sarah would still be alive. Toxic swampland couldn’t kill her. He knew it. He kept telling himself she was okay, trying to hold his shit together long enough to figure out how to get to her.

  He was too experienced as a warrior to make a move without a plan, and he forced himself to stand still as his mind frantically sifted through possibilities.

  “Because I’m bound to this hell,” Luc spat out. “I can never leave, until I find a replacement.”

  “So I hear.” Kane looked down at the earth that had swallowed Sarah. It was solid now. Locking her away from him. Fuck that. It couldn’t be solid. There had to be a way through.

  Luc hadn’t moved, and he was watching Kane with an interested gleam. “There’s no way through. I control the earth.” And at his word, the earth began to seethe again. Kane dove into the earth, and it went solid before he hit it.

  Kane! Sarah’s voice burst into his mind, and it was torn with agony. Pain. Suffering. Hell.

  His adrenaline went haywire, and he gripped his flail. Sarah! Call me to you! He felt a sharp gasp of pain as if she’d been struck, and then she screamed. His entire body began to shake with the need to save her, and he felt dark, brutal anger rolling through him. “Let her go, you bastard!”

  Luc grinned. “Make me.”

  Sarah screamed again, and her suffering broke through the last reserves of Kane’s control. He launched himself at Luc, and slammed his flail toward the male’s head—only the demon turned to smoke and disappeared as Kane reached him. Kane landed and whirled around as Luc reformed behind him. Sarah screamed again in his head, tearing apart the last of Kane’s sanity.

  He bellowed with rage and attacked Luc, swinging ferociously. Luc howled with maniacal glee and attacked him, striking with hard, fast blows that inflamed Kane even further. He couldn’t even think, couldn’t plan, couldn’t focus. Darkness just streamed through him, giving him strength and power, ripping through his controls until he was nothing but pain, violence and destruction.

  He welcomed it. He let it consume him. He allowed it to infuse his body with power. His muscles strengthened, his speed quickened, and his body magically turned from flesh to smoke. Luc struck at Kane, but he had already turned to smoke and the older warrior’s blade went right through where Kane used to be. Kane threw back his head and roared with victory, basking in the sensation of power tearing through him. He channeled the demon power into his cells, and his entire body turned to smoke.

  Luc turned to smoke as well and then streaked through the woods and went straight down into the earth that had sucked down Sarah. Kane bellowed with power and rage and followed him, plunging straight into the ground, his body separating into thousands of smoke fragments as he finally, fully embraced exactly what he was.

  *

  Sarah unleashed another flash of white light as another demon tried to sink his claws into her belly. It wasn’t just Calydons. They were full demons. They were—

  “Sarah.” Jacob threw the demon aside and strode up to her.

  Sarah gasped, rolling onto her side, holding her arms protectively over her belly. Her brother’s eyes were rogue red, and his claws were out. Just like before. Just like before. “Jacob,” she gasped. “Don’t—”

  He didn’t hesitate. He just struck right at her stomach and this time, God, this time, Sarah didn’t hesitate either. She unleashed every ounce of power she had at him, and he screamed with agony as she torched him.

  He fell to the ground beside her, writhing in agony as death sank its claws into him.

  She’d killed him this time. She hadn’t held back. She’d killed her own brother, who she loved so dearly. Because she didn’t believe she could bring him back anymore.

  Her own brother.

  “Oh, God.” Her body began to shake, and nausea churned in her belly as she tried to crawl away from him. “I’m sorry, Jacob,” she gasped. “I had to make a choice—”

  “Sarah.” He rolled onto his side, his eyes brilliant blue.

  Sarah gasped, staring at him. “Jacob,” she whispered. “Is it you?”

  “Yeah.” He held out his hand. “You did it. You broke me free of Luc’s hold.”

  Tears filled her eyes, and she crawled over to him, taking his hand. His hands were cold and clammy with the onset of death. “Jacob, God, I’m so sorry—”

  “Me, too, Sarah.” He held out his arms. “But thank you for saving me, for bringing me back.” He smiled, that same, beautiful smile he’d given her so many times in his life, the one that had always melted her heart for her baby brother. “For giving me one more chance to see you with my own eyes, and to tell you that I love you.”

  “Oh, Jacob!” She fell into his arms, hugging him desperately as his life force began to fade. “Don’t die, Jacob. Please.”

  “I’m not going to.”

  There was an edge to his voice that sent a chill through Sarah, and she froze, staring into his face. “Jacob—”

  “You shouldn’t have made the same mistake twice, Sarah,” he said. “I thought you were smarter than that.” And then his eyes turned red, and he jammed his claws right into her belly and twisted them.

  And in that moment, the white light inside Sarah died for good.

  *

  Kane streaked through the earth, emerging just in time to see Jacob plunge his claws into Sarah’s abdomen. Fury to
re through Kane, and he erupted into a blinding frenzy of outrage. He tore across the clearing and ripped Jacob away from Sarah. The warrior started to dematerialize, and Kane turned his hand to smoke and wrapped the tendrils around the youth’s throat, spreading his taint through the kid’s body and latching onto every cell, holding onto it, refusing to let it go.

  Jacob’s eyes widened with fear when he realized he couldn’t teleport, and Kane lifted his lip in a snarl. “And now you die!” He swung his flail and sank it deep into the kid’s belly—

  “Kane,” Luc snarled.

  Kane whirled around as Luc lifted Sarah by her hair, holding her above the earth like a rag doll. Blood was pouring from her belly and her skin was covered in thousands of microscopic fractures. She wasn’t even bothering to hold onto Luc’s arm or get away. She was just dangling, all fight, all hope, everything utterly gone, her life ebbing from her.

  Raw, unbearable anguish ripped through Kane. Sarah!

  Kane dropped Jacob and sprinted across the cave toward Sarah, but Luc turned them both to smoke and streaked away from him. “Sarah!” Kane turned into smoke and streaked after Luc, his entire body screaming with agony as he raced after them, trying to get to her, trying to save her. Sarah. Their baby. “Sarah!”

  Luc got further ahead, and Kane saw a glowing red light up ahead, the opening to a cave. He suddenly knew that he would never find Sarah if Luc got her to that light. He tried to teleport again, and again, nothing happened. The same tendrils that he’d used to bind Jacob were holding him back, locked down in his cells.

  Get her, you bastard. Ryland’s voice echoed through Kane’s mind, and he turned to see Ryland sprinting out of the forest behind, weapons out, followed by the rest of the team. Unleash the monster like you did before.

  Kane didn’t hesitate. He closed his eyes and came to a complete stop. He opened himself to the darkness within him. He accepted the violence. He looked into the soul of the man who had killed his own child and his own sheva, and he accepted him. He slowed his breathing and allowed himself to access the power that had consumed him and given him the strength to wipe out a town and kill his own family. He invited it into his body. He allowed the demon taint to coat his heart and poison his cells. He gave himself over to the very thing he’d been fighting for five hundred years to deny, and he gave it free reign over who he was.