“Nate.” She tugged his hand to her lips and kissed his knuckles. He was on the precipice of sharing what had really happened so many millennia ago. Not merely an eyewitness to events or an unreliable chronicler of history. But the leading player.
And now, when she was so close to discovering the truth, she wasn’t sure she could bear to hear it.
“I’ve never spoken of this before.” His voice was raw, as though each word had been mercilessly hacked from the fabric of his existence. “Tell me to stop, Isabella.”
His dark eyes consumed her, torment and despair a suffocating cloak around him. Why hadn’t she noticed the ache behind his smile before? Was it because, even after she got to know him, she’d still been so prejudiced against his race that she couldn’t fathom such a thing?
He’d given her an out. She could take it.
But she’d never been a coward. There was a reason they were here, now. A reason why he needed to share what had happened during Ama-gi’s twilight hours.
“What did you tell him?’ she whispered.
He drew in a jagged breath, and a shudder wracked his big body. It was clear a battle raged within, and she pressed his fist against her cheek.
I’m here. A foolish gesture. But it was all she could offer him.
Finally, he spoke. “Ama-gi was a civilization built on mathematics and science. In many ways they were more advanced than humans are now, in the twenty-first century. They knew when the celestial body they’d been tracking for centuries passed through our solar system, it would devastate life on Earth.”
She knew the stories. Of how archangels had fled when Earth reset her clock. Over the last few days, when everything she’d believed had been twisted beyond recognition, she’d doubted the truth of it all.
But Nate had been there.
It had happened.
A sick sensation gripped her stomach. He’d mentioned the Nephilim. The offspring of archangels and mortals, who had all perished during the so-called Cleansing. Until now, she hadn’t given much thought to them, except to despise the archangels for having left them behind.
The raw pain in his eyes told her that wasn’t true.
What had Dagan done?
Nate remained silent. Was he waiting for her to ask him the question?
“What did you tell him?”
He ground his jaw, a deadly emotion flickering across his features. “We never had any intention of allowing nature to take her course. Not when it came to the lives of our beloved Nephilim. When the time came, we planned to save them, and our lovers. I made the mistake of thinking Dagan was on our side. That his thirst for vengeance was directed solely at our goddess. I shared our plans with him. And he betrayed us to her.”
She wasn’t to blame, but acidic guilt ate through her. This was why he despised the demon race. The archangels hadn’t abandoned their half mortal children. Somehow, Dagan had prevented them from saving the Nephilim.
“I’m sorry.” How inadequate, but she needed him to know that at last she understood his personal animosity against her race. “His actions were despicable.”
“His actions?” Nate gazed at her as though he didn’t understand what she meant. “Yes. They were. But the fault is mine for taking him to Ama-gi and perpetrating the lie of his origins.”
“You weren’t to know Dagan would double-cross you, Nate. You were just trying to help him.”
“A demon. The one race we’d been forbidden to interact with. If I’d turned my back on him as soon as I discovered what he was, no one would have found out about our plans.”
“Listen to me.” She pulled her hands free and cradled his jaw. This tough, warrior, archangel who carried a guilt that wasn’t his to bear. “You’re not responsible for the actions of anyone else. Do you hear me? Dagan deceived you for his own purposes.”
“I vowed to hunt him down and exact retribution, no matter how long it took.” There was a fanatical gleam in his eyes. Had he even heard her? “But he disappeared without trace. Not one of the rogues I encountered knew where he was, and as the centuries passed, they didn’t even know his name.”
A terrible, wondrous, realization dawned. “You could have fought him in the mountains. But you let him go. Because of me.”
His gaze sharpened, boring into her like a laser. “The outcome was too unpredictable. I wouldn’t put you in danger.”
“I’m the reason you lost your chance for retribution.”
“He’s surfaced again. I’ll find him.”
Even if it took another eleven thousand years? Yet he wasn’t directing any justifiable frustration her way, even though they both knew that, but for her, Nate and Dagan would have fought to a bloodied end in the sacred library.
Except that wasn’t true. Dagan had possessed an unfair advantage. He could have destroyed Nate in the blink of an eye.
An icy shiver crawled over her arms. She could so easily have lost him.
“We will.” She dropped her hands to his broad shoulders and warmth unfurled deep inside when he encircled her waist, linking his fingers together against the small of her back. She’d hunt Dagan into the depths of hell, if it helped Nate to achieve the vengeance he needed. She just hoped it would assuage his misplaced guilt.
There was still something she couldn’t work out, though. The enigmatic comment he’d made on the beautiful dinosaur planet haunted her.
There wasn’t much left of the Earth we’d known once we escaped
Had Dagan somehow disabled all the archangels? She couldn’t imagine such a thing could be possible, but what else could Nate have meant?
“How did he imprison you all?”
“Dagan didn’t imprison us.” Nate’s beautiful, aristocratic features hardened. “He whispered into the humans’ ears. Spread discontent and anger that we—the archangels—had chosen who would live and who would die. His final act before leaving Earth was to confront our goddess and tell her of our unforgiveable sin. He knew it was the one thing she would never tolerate.”
“Your unforgiveable sin?” The Watchers indoctrination espoused a multitude of sins that archangels were guilty of. But she no longer believed in their propaganda.
“She created archangels to worship her, to love only her. She had no idea how many had fallen for mortals on Earth. How they waited for their beloved to be reborn, life after life. But even if she’d decided to turn a blind eye to that, she’d never forgive the reality of the Nephilim.”
“The goddess imprisoned you?” Horror at what he was telling her shivered across her skin. She should have guessed. Only an immortal from the Alpha Pantheon, the ancestors of every minor god and goddess who now existed across the entire universe, could possibly have possessed the power to do such a thing. “And abandoned the Nephilim on Earth?”
“I was one of the last to answer her call. I saw the start of the uprisings but even then, I didn’t realize her true motives.” He clenched his jaw, as though he’d been about to say more but had changed his mind.
What more could there be? He’d shattered any remaining thread of illusion she’d held about the corrupted morality of archangels.
“And when you managed to escape her prison, it was too late.”
“We destroyed her prison.” Bitter satisfaction painted each word. “The planet Nibiru where we’d been created. Her laboratory. By then, Earth was unrecognizable, the Nephilim killed, and the mortal population decimated.”
The legacy of the catastrophic events had lived on, embedded in myths and legends, an unheeded warning to future generations. But the truth had still been perverted.
Not only by humanity. Even Nate couldn’t separate his own distorted convictions from the unvarnished facts.
“Dagan betrayed you,” she clarified, not just for herself but to make him see it, too. “And the goddess prevented you from saving the children. You aren’t the guilty one here, Nate.”
Self-loathing distorted his features. “I was the one who told him of the plan. If I hadn’t, we wou
ld have taken them all to Nibiru.”
“And she would’ve be fine with that?”
“It would have been too late for her to do anything about it.”
“Do you really believe that?” She took his hands and squeezed his fingers. “You might have saved them from the natural disaster. But what about afterwards? Even if Dagan hadn’t told her about the Nephilim, she would have found out about them, when they went to Nibiru. If she hated their existence so much, do you think she would have really allowed them to survive?”
For the first time, uncertainty flashed over his face. “We could have protected them.”
“Maybe. But you’re talking about one of the Alpha Goddesses and she managed to incarcerate all the archangels. That’s some incredible power, Nate. If she went to all that trouble to keep you from saving the Nephilim, I can’t see how she would have behaved any differently toward them, no matter when she found out about them.”
Silence echoed between them. Obviously, he had once known the goddess and she never had. But her logic was sound.
Slowly he exhaled a long breath. Was it her imagination or did some of the tension ease from his body? “You could be right.” He sounded reluctant to admit it. “But we’ll never know, will we?”
She was convinced she was right, but he had a point. “Nate.” She gave his hands a little shake. “Humanity survived. And so did the Nephilim. Archangels were wrong when they thought they all perished. But Dagan knew. And the question is—why was he using the pirates on Anzu to hunt them down for their blood?”
Chapter 28
Nate
Isabella’s question drilled through his mind, wrenching him from ancient memories and into a present nightmare. He’d been so caught up in hunting Dagan because of the past, he’d overlooked what had been right in front of his nose. Disgust curdled his gut. “No. The real question is why is he working with the Guardians?”
“I don’t know. Are they very powerful?”
Were they? He knew next to nothing about them, except for the fact their race had been ancient even before the Alpha Pantheon had come into existence. “They live in the shadows of the universe. And hate any living thing that is different from themselves. Which is basically the entirety of creation.”
“There’s no mention of them in the Watchers history.”
Frustration gnawed through him and he slung a glance around the ruined pirates’ nest. “We should sift through this rubble. There might be something we can use.”
“Since we’re here.” She gave him a faint smile. It was obvious she held out as much hope as he did of finding anything useful.
They split up and he prowled the underground chamber. The demons had done a good job of destroying every trace of the pirates’ existence. Charred remains of their technology were scattered across the floor and when he flattened his hand on the wall, there was no lingering sense of who had once inhabited the place.
He crouched and picked up a mangled piece of hardware. Had Kala downloaded the information before destroying all the evidence?
“Nate.”
He stood and swung around. Isabella was across the room, looking at whatever had caught her attention. “What have you found?”
“I don’t know. It’s—unnatural.” She backed away, her focus still on something he couldn’t see.
He was by her side in an instant. And then had to forcibly stop himself from recoiling.
A ribbon of the Guardians dark atmosphere floated in midair.
“It’s like it’s trying to escape something.” She sounded unnerved. “But there’s nothing there.”
Gingerly, he circled the phenomenon. Her description was apt. As though an invisible door had slammed shut, trapping a fragment of atmosphere in this underground chamber.
“It’s from the Guardians’ domain, within the Dark Matter. But it’s not trying to escape. It’s trying to return there.”
She shuddered. “There’s something not right about it.”
He knew exactly what she meant. “It’s poison to archangels. Maybe even to demons.”
“What does it mean?” She turned to look at him. “Is there a gateway to their world from here?”
If there was, he sure as hell didn’t want to open it.
“It’s proof the Guardians have been here.” But had Dagan?
“We should capture it.”
He eyed the malevolent darkness, that continued to ripple in a nonexistent breeze. They already had samples that were being examined. There was no need for any more.
Except it was the only damn thing they’d found here.
“Agreed. I don’t suppose you have anything we can collect it in?”
“Sorry. I left all my hazardous chemical containers at home.”
He grinned, before he recalled how the Watchers had destroyed her home. Nijah had yet to pay for that. And so would Zane, even if he was working for Eblis.
“I’ll find something. Will you be okay here for a few seconds?”
He knew she would be. But he had to ask. Just because.
“I’ll be fine.” She smiled and pushed her hands into the pockets of her jeans. How could two such simple gestures be so mesmerizing?
“Before I go.” He went up to her and cradled her face. “May I initiate a telepathic connection?”
She sighed. “That’s the most romantic thing anyone’s ever asked me.”
Despite where they were, he laughed. “Yeah, I have my moments.”
“No, seriously. I didn’t know it was a thing. Eblis never asked and telepathic demon bloods just dive right in.”
“What can I say? You need to get out more,” he said, before creating a telepathic connection with the delicate threads of her mind.
Sure you’ll be okay? He didn’t need to double-check. He just wanted to hear her voice in his mind.
Don’t worry. I’ll scream your name if I need any help.
He was still smiling seconds later when he rematerialized next to her. She hadn’t moved.
“This should hold it.” He’d acquired a high-grade medical phial from one of the premiere hospitals in Andromeda. As Isabella nodded in approval, he pulled on his leather gloves. At least they’d give him some protection against the alien substance.
Isabella attempted to take the phial from him. When he held it out of her reach, she gave an exasperated sigh. “I’m only half-demon, remember? This stuff won’t affect me as badly as it might affect you.”
That might be true, but he still wasn’t going to risk it. “Let’s just get this done. I’ve more questions I want to ask Kala.”
“That’s assuming she’d even see you again. I could ask her when I go to the capitol.”
He clamped his jaw shut before he told her there was no fucking way she was going to the capitol. At least, not without him. Instead, he concentrated on easing the alien atmosphere into the phial. It shouldn’t be this hard. But despite fierce concentration, his hand shook and sweat prickled his skin.
Isabella wrapped her hand around his, steadying his grip, until the last wisp had been captured. He sealed the phial and let out a harsh breath. “That was fun.”
She took it from him before he could stop her, and held it up, scrutinizing the contents.
“I can still feel its affect, even through the glass.”
“Here, give it to me.”
She turned and then stiffened. “Zane just contacted me. Dagan’s back at the mountain with Nijah.”
Fire pumped through his veins. “I’ll take you to Gabe’s. You’ll be safe there.”
She shoved the phial into her pocket and grabbed his hand. “We’re going to the mountain. Your powers will work in the atrium. It’s only when you go inside that they’ll be suppressed.”
He hesitated for only a fraction of a second. It was long enough for him to imagine every possible, horrifying outcome that involved her. But in the end, the choice had already been made.
“Stay out of his way,” he warned. And teleported them both
to the entrance of the atrium in Inanna’s former temple.
Dark anticipation throbbed through his blood. This was it. After millennia of searching, he was finally about to confront the demon who’d betrayed his people.
Dusk had fallen and swathes of red and deep purple painted the sky. On the raised platform where he’d witnessed Isabella conducting the initiation ritual, stood Dagan and Nijah.
Zane emerged from the shadows that led into the heart of the mountain, his focus on Isabella. “Eblis should be informed.”
“No.” He released Isabella’s hand and stepped forward. “Dagan is mine.”
He strode along the aisle to the platform, where Dagan faced Nijah. Deep in discussion, neither of them appeared to realize they were no longer alone.
Suited him.
Without warning, Nijah shot into the air, clutching her throat, her eyes bulging in terror. With a casual flick of his hand Dagan catapulted Nijah across the atrium and she smashed into the wall behind Nate.
Even when the demon didn’t know he had an audience, he was fucking dramatic.
As Dagan followed the progress of his victim, he caught sight of Nate, and a mocking grin spread across his face. “Hey, Nate. I knew you’d be back.”
Nate drew his sword. It wasn’t immortal forged, but in the two thousand years since he’d acquired it from a renown warrior race in the heart of the Andromeda Galaxy, it had served him well.
“Then you know why I’m here.”
Dagan leaped from the platform, his wings outspread, and landed two sword lengths from Nate. “Unfinished business.” With a flourish, Dagan drew his own sword. “Very well, if it will help appease your conscience.”
“Fuck my conscience. This is vengeance for the Nephilim.”
Bella
Keeping her back to the wall, and eyes on Nate, Bella followed Zane to where the broken body of Nijah slumped. Blood matted her hair and streaked her face, and her arm was a mess. Bella swallowed at the sight of Nijah’s snapped humerus that poked through the shredded flesh.
“I didn’t betray our demon lord.” Nijah’s hoarse whisper sent shivers along her arms. Zane crouched by Nijah’s side, his face impassive. “I’ve served him faithfully for more than two hundred years, since the day he revealed that my destiny was to lead the Watchers. I should have entrusted you with the truth, Zane.” Her glazed eyes caught sight of Bella and her body convulsed. “This is all your doing, traitor.”
Salvation: A Realm of Flame and Shadow Novel Page 24