by Amy Sumida
Petra paused to laugh maniacally. Chills ran down my spine. This bitch was calling Tritons coldblooded?
Give me something, Ky, I can't think straight with all that crazy in my face, I pleaded in my mind.
One second, my love. We need a song that will kill all of them quickly and release you.
Just kill those fuckers! RS growled.
“Anyhoo, I ordered them to bring you in alive if at all possible but in a pinch, I'd be content with proof of death,” Petra went on. “I'm just tickled pink that... what was his name again?” She turned to ask the satyrs.
“Kairn, Boss,” one of them supplied.
“Karen?” She asked in surprise.”
“It's pronounced: Kay-urn,” the same guy said.
She blinked then went back to taunting me, “I'm ecstatic that Kay-urn was able to catch you in his little net. Do you know him? No? He made it back to me safely too, just in case you're wondering. Evidently, your disappearance distressed your lovers so much that Kairn was able to get free of them long enough to escape. Isn't it nice when everything works out in the end? I believe they call that kismet.”
I believe they call that batshit bonkers, RS snarled.
Ky?!
I've got it, my love.
“Now, where shall I begin?” Petra tapped her lips with the tip of the knife. “I've got it! I'll start with your eyelids. This is going to be a long night—hopefully, a few of them—and I don't want you to miss anything.”
Petra grabbed my head, and I began to thrash. She huffed in irritation and stood back.
“Hold her,” she ordered the satyrs.
Two of them came forward to flank me as music began to play. Everyone froze. Petra lifted a brow and listened as if she couldn't quite comprehend what she was hearing. But before I could sing a single note, two gods stepped out of the shadows.
“I think we've heard enough to satisfy our curiosity,” Lucifer said casually to Darcraxis.
“Indeed,” Darc agreed, his eyes gleaming with fury and magic. “Now, we can kill them all in good conscience.”
“Guards!” Petra shouted as she swiveled around my chair and grabbed my hair. She jerked my head to the side, set her blade to my throat, and threatened, “Come any closer and she's dead.”
Everyone went still, even the satyrs who had come running to Petra's call.
Neither of you could have given me a head's up about Darc and Luke? I grumbled.
We were a little focused on you, RS snapped.
I was trying to come up with music, Kyanite added.
“That paltry knife won't kill Elaria,” Luke said in a cold voice; the Devil's voice. “Your unworthy hands touch a goddess, you pathetic fool.”
Pathetic. How long had they been standing in the shadows watching? I shivered and stared at Lucifer, searching for any sign that the evil part of him had somehow returned, perhaps found a way back in through his fury. Luke's eyes didn't even flick to me, not once. He just continued to focus on Petra. Darc, however, shook with rage and fear, his glowing gaze roaming over me to search for any injuries. Dark magic coasted over his hands, waiting to be unleashed, little tongues of it tasting the air with anticipation.
Darc and Luke looked at each other. Just one glance and something was exchanged between them. Something deadly.
Darkness and Light filled the room, swirling in inky swaths and blinding ribbons. Light illuminated shrieking faces while Darkness swept up to conceal. It created an almost strobe effect, giving me glimpses of carnage. The cries of the dying echoed in my ears, and Petra's fingers began to tremble. Her hold on my hair loosened and her blade wavered.
“I'll cut her deep enough to sever her head!” Petra shouted. “That will kill anything!”
Wicked laughter circled us and even I felt the acid lance of fear pierce my gut. The room grew cold and damp. Light faded until only Darkness remained; darkness so thick that it blinded. Funny how both Light and Darkness can hinder sight when used in the extreme. And how that loss can heighten all of your other senses.
A brush of moisture on my cheek like the caress of a fingertip. The flutter of feathers. The scent of earth after a hard rain. I went calm. Focused. These two men—these two gods—would never fail me. Darkness and Light. Sea and Sky. Love and fury. Both of them had sacrificed parts of themselves for me. And now, Lucifer risked becoming the thing he feared most to save me once again.
“You should have stayed hidden,” Darc's voice snaked around Petra and me.
“Your need for vengeance has called forth a terrible end,” Lucifer added.
Petra screamed as she was torn away from me, the knife clattering harmlessly to the floor. Light bloomed. A halo in the dark. A spotlight over a horrifying scene. Two beautiful faces twisted by hatred, stretched tight with rage. Two pairs of eyes glowed like burning water, churning and flashing with power. They stared down upon the remnants of a third face.
Bloody bone exposed. Lips torn away. Eyes rolling free of skin. Hair hanging by limp clumps.
Ferocious hands held Petra tightly as she writhed. Light blasted away her flesh as Darkness consumed it. The gods worked in tandem to rend their enemy's body bit by bit. A primal part of me rose and leaned forward; rejoicing in the carnage. But then I flinched, recognizing that savagery for what it was and realizing that Lucifer battled the same thing.
Darcraxis had always been good. Nothing dark had ever held sway over him; he was its master, after all. He could rage and then release it. Kill then make love to me tenderly. I had been the one who our children feared. I had been the evil to his good. I knew he would come through this without issue, but Lucifer and I were different.
Our mastery was over light; darkness did not bow to our will. Perhaps that's why we kept coming back to each other. Why he couldn't walk away from me. Opposites attract but similar forces unite. They sympathize. They understand each other. In that way, they share things that opposites never can. I knew that the Devil threatened to take Lucifer again because I could feel Faenestra hovering just above my skin, reaching for the evil seed inside me; the small portion of her that I could never remove. No matter how many times you cut away evil, it will always leave a stain.
That stain was laughing at me now.
“No,” I moaned behind the gag. “No.”
I closed my eyes and blocked out the brutality. I pushed the evil back down into the depths of my being. I buried it. But even with it safely set away, I shivered. Because I knew that Luke couldn't look away. The Devil hovered over the God of Angels today and guided his hand. Tears spilled down my cheeks. I didn't want to lose the man Luke had become, and that realization scared me. It meant that he meant more to me than I'd thought.
As the terrible sounds of Petra's torturous death continued, I did the one thing that I had never done before. I prayed.
Lucifer, remember who you are. Don't let him in. Don't be that man again. Please, Luke.
My love, you don't need to pray. You are a goddess. Sing! Kyanite urged.
The haunting melody of “No Rest For the Wicked” by Klergy began, just a soft moaning like restless spirits. My voice seeped out of my throat with my magic, surging through the sliver of kyanite there. It was a song about survival. About making a stand, even when it's against yourself, and about running when you have to. When you have wickedness inside you, you can't ever let your guard down. But the music wasn't merely a warning. I opened my eyes and sang to both of the gods before me, laying the lyrics over them like a shield and letting them know that I was with them. I would protect them as they avenged me. Together, we would find a way out of the evil that threatened to consume us.
Darcraxis stopped immediately, his hands slipping away from the trembling satyr. Darkness pulled back, reined in by its master, and my husband stepped away from the carnage in horror. But Lucifer held on. His wings expanded and Light intensified around him. Without Darcraxis' Darkness to dampen it, the Light blazed as bright as the Sun and illuminated the piles of corpses around the room
as well as the pitiful creature that had once been Petra Demos.
Fury continued to fill Lucifer's eyes and his lips pulled back in a ferocious snarl. Blood coated his hands, soaked his sleeves, and patterned his wings and clothing in splashes that told a tale of woe. Pieces of Petra lay around the God of Angelus, discarded like filth. Lucifer's beautiful face shifted, bones sharpening, and I knew the Devil was moments away from taking control.
Darc rushed to me and freed me. As soon as my gag was gone, I switched to my physical voice and pushed more magic into my music. I focused my song on Lucifer alone as I stumbled over to him. Darc steadied me then laid his hands on my waist as I continued to fight for Luke.
I laid my hand on Lucifer's shoulder, and he trembled violently. Music swam between us. My grip tightened. I poured my heart into the words, showed Luke that I knew what he fought. That he wasn't alone. I reached out to him in the way we had first connected. I told him through music that I stood with him in his storm, and we would weather it together. I slid my hand down his arm and over his bloody fingers to weave mine between his.
The stone hanging over my heart, the one we had created together, started to warm. The combined power of Light, Fire, Darkness, Water, Onyx, and Spellsong beamed out of my pendant and into Lucifer's. A moan drifted from between his clenched teeth and the stone on his chest glowed darkly.
Lucifer closed his eyes, his shuddering subsiding into tension. His fingers clutched Petra, and she whimpered. I let go of my song so I could use my own words to reach him.
“I'm alive, Luke,” I said in a strong, clear voice. “She didn't hurt me, and she has suffered enough for what she planned to do. Her crimes have been punished. Justice has been carried out. Finish it. I know you're keeping her alive just to torture her, and that isn't you. Not anymore. That part of you is gone. I cut it away, and I will not let it return!”
I shoved my fingers down and around his palm to hold his hand. Lucifer cried out and clutched me back. Petra fell away, dead instantly. As soon as he let her go, I swung myself into Luke's embrace and held him tightly as he wept.
“She would have hurt you,” Lucifer whispered in my ear. “I couldn't bear it if she had.”
“I know,” I whispered back. “It's okay now. You saved me.”
“But the things she said,” he growled and shuddered. “The things she wanted to do to you.”
“She was insane. You are not,” Darcraxis announced calmly as he laid a hand on Luke's shoulder. “You are not evil, Lucifer. Hold onto the Light. Use it to banish your darkness.”
I looked up and met Lucifer's gaze. The cold was gone from his eyes and as I watched, the sharpness that had been rising beneath his skin receded. Lucifer let out a trembling breath and crumpled over me. Darc stepped aside, but I held a hand out to him. He took it and squeezed it, his ocean eyes conveying everything that lay within his heart. Luke looked up and saw the exchange. Instead of being hurt by it, he reached out and pulled Darc into our embrace, his wings curling around us.
Lucifer was smiling when he let us go and stood back. “I came to save you, my vicious, but the two of you have also saved me. Thank you.”
“We Gods need to stick together.” Darc pounded Luke's back affectionately.
“Those of us who still have goodness inside our hearts, at least,” I amended with a soft look from Darc to Luke.
Chapter Forty-Six
We arrived back in Sarah Jane Wilson's yard looking as if we'd just come off the set of a horror film. My lovers who had been left behind, Cerberus, and Verin gaped at us as we recounted the events for them. Around us, Shining Ones and Angels gathered, just as shocked as my men, although they had a hint of pride in their eyes as well. Every soldier enjoys knowing that their leader is brave and even a little bloodthirsty.
I was wrapped into several hugs despite my disgusting condition. Declan even produced a handkerchief to rub the blood from my lips in a sexy, slow slide before he took his time kissing me. Then I grabbed the handkerchief and scrubbed the rest of my face clean as the men chuckled.
“I'm getting real tired of watching an enemy capture my mate,” Gage growled and pulled me back into another tight embrace.
“And my best friend,” Cerberus grumbled.
“At least she wasn't completely defenseless this time,” Torin said with a note of self-recrimination. “Because of something I did.”
“Torin, enough.” I slipped out of Gage's arms to hug Torin. “We've already gone over this; you were trying to protect me with that collar. You couldn't have known that Poseidon was possessed by a god who could use the onyx to ground my magic.”
A sharply inhaled breath caught my attention. I glanced over and saw Verin gaping at me.
“What's your problem, dude?” Cerberus asked. “I swear, if you start your—”
“You were wearing a collar when we first met,” Verin cut Cerberus off, focusing on me. “Black and polished.”
“Yes,” I said warily. “You and I met before Torin could remove it.”
“That's the collar King Torin is referring to?”
“Yes,” Torin said in a low voice as he narrowed his eyes at Verin. “Why do you ask?”
“You were without magic?” Verin's tone was strangely strangled.
“Yes, that's was why I was so grateful when you showed up. All I had was my physical strength and”—I grimaced—“that's not always good enough. Especially when my opponent can turn into an octopus.”
“She turned into an octopus?” Cerberus asked with wide eyes. “Gross.”
“It was kinda.” I made a disgusted face at Cer. “All squishy.”
“Ewww,” Cerberus whined.
“You had absolutely no magic?” Verin persisted.
“Dude, how many fucking times does she have to say it?” Cerberus huffed. “Her magic was suppressed. No magic. Zero, zilch, nada, ling.”
“Ling?” Gage asked.
“It means zero in Chinese.” Cerberus shrugged. “I figured he'd understand it.”
Viren grunted—big surprise—but I heard the oddest tone to it. Was that regret? Guilt? I wasn't sure. I still didn't understand why he had come along in the first place. Of all the people I knew, King Verin of the Lóng would have been the last person I'd expect to offer me help. Well, near the bottom.
“Anyway...” Cerberus drew out the word as if he were bored with this conversation.
“What I want to know is how Petra escaped us and why our numbers were incorrect?” Torin asked in bafflement.
“Petra said she had a friend who helped her.” I shrugged.
“A lover in fact,” a voice growled.
All of us spun around to see a ghostly figure standing across the yard from us. He stepped forward and as he walked, he started to solidify, his eyes becoming clear first. Fire leapt within the dark orbs as they focused on Darcraxis and Lucifer venomously.
“You're a jinn,” I said in disbelief.
“Yes. A jinn who fell in love with a satyr. It was the most unexpected of romances and the most passionate.”
“You're the one who helped Petra escape the funeral!” Cerberus declared in revelation.
Jinn can travel by using their spirit forms. They become incorporeal and in that state, they slide between realms; a process referred to as reeing. I had joked about it once but it didn't seem so funny anymore. That man had ree'ed one of our prime targets to safety and because of it, several innocent women were dead.
“I have done much for the woman I love,” he said cryptically. “As would any of you.”
“The nymphs,” I murmured. “You're how the Demos Family transported them, aren't you?”
“Petra needed her brothers to take her more seriously. She wanted to prove to them that she could be good for the family. Those fools never saw her worth simply because she was a woman. I was eager to help them see the truth; that she was the most cunning, brilliant satyr alive.”
“And the extra body we found?” Banning asked.
“
Extra body?” The jinn scowled.
“We had a list of Demos family members,” Declan said. “We identified all but four of the bodies but there were five names left on our list. We tracked down one final female satyr, completing our tally. Except now we know that Petra escaped. That's one extra body. Did you bring in a corpse to deceive us?”