by T. M. Cromer
When Set laughed, he surprised Damian.
Taking the time to center himself again, Damian thought about Sabrina and Vivian. He hated to humble himself to ask a favor, but he didn’t have a choice. One by one, he looked at the deities, meeting their gazes directly as he said, “Should the Darkness overtake me like it did my mother, should I become unstoppable on the earthly plane, I ask that you protect my wife and child. That you find or create a world for them to exist in without pain and suffering. Without fear of me.”
Once again, Set surprised him. “We shall see to your family, Aether. I will protect them with my life.”
Isis and Serqet nodded their agreement, and Damian focused on the latter. “Serqet, you once offered me a boon in return for the healing I gave you.” He swallowed hard when she frowned. “I ask that you bury the last of your animosity for the Thorne family and, by extension, Knox Carlyle. They are needed to help my daughter become who she was meant to be as the Oracle. She loves and trusts them.”
Gentle understanding flooded her face, and she nodded. “I know a parent’s love for their child. I know the desire to provide the perfect balance of affection and learning. This is the boon I shall grant you, Aether.”
He bowed low to hide the tears burning his eyes. “You have my eternal gratitude, my queen.”
“We can delay no longer, child,” Isis said as she stepped to the curtain. “When you have consumed the Evil from the gathered crowd, you will need to make a sweep of the Otherworld and search out the remaining Darkness.”
“Of course.”
“If you go mad from its influence, it will happen much sooner than it did with Isolde, Aether,” Set warned. “You have months at most.”
“Is there a vessel in the Netherworld where we can deposit it? One without magic?”
“I shall provide one,” Serqet assured him.
It ate at his guts that they would sacrifice a mortal, but there was no choice. The Thornes didn’t know about it, and if they found out before they crossed the veil, they would object. In magic, the basic rule was to do no harm. This process would harm at least one pure soul.
Feeling ten times older than his two hundred plus years, Damian said, “Part the curtain.”
Preston wasn’t surprised to see Set and the two goddesses appear with Damian, but he was thrown when they had a fifth person with them. A teenage girl, by the looks of it. One with wide, innocent eyes, who looked one step away from losing her shit.
“What is this?” he demanded as a sick premonition began to creep in. “Who is this child, and what does she have to do with this?”
Guilt flashed on Damian’s face—the only one of the four with any reservations, it seemed.
“Dethridge?” Castor’s tone was hard and expectant of an answer. On this, he and Preston were in agreement. They demanded to know what was happening.
“We need a vessel to contain the Evil in the Nether,” Set stated calmly.
“Fuck. No!” Preston didn’t care if they struck him down for his disrespect. “No way are we harming an innocent child.”
“There is no other way, Beloved,” Isis told him.
Royally pissed by her serene, understanding smile, he stomped to where she stood. “You knew this from the beginning? You set me up? Me, who has constantly done everything you’ve asked?”
She reached for him, but he stepped back, too furious to let her connect or use her magic to soothe him.
“I won’t be party to this,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Neither will my family.”
“Preston.” Damian’s voice was tired, but there was a distinct edge.
“Do no harm, Dethridge,” Alastair responded for Preston. “It’s the motto all witches are supposed to uphold.”
“This is the exception, Al. There’s no other option, and it’s too late to stop the process. I’ve consumed all of the Evil.”
They all stared in disbelief. Preston felt the weight of the innocent girl’s gaze. Those wide gray eyes reminded him of his daughters at her same age. He could no more hurt this girl than he could his own children. “I can’t be party to it,” he said hoarsely.
“Sonofabitch!” Quentin stormed to the other side of the circle to kick rocks with his biker boots. Holly rushed after him to offer the comfort only a wife could.
Alastair placed a hand on Preston’s shoulder and squeezed. “I’ll go in your place, little brother.”
“Who’ll go in mine?” Selene asked, arms crossed over her chest and an angry gleam in her eye. “Like Preston, I find this abhorrent and want no part of ruining this child’s life.”
Never had a woman been more beautiful in her righteousness. Preston crossed to her and wrapped her in his arms. He let his tight hug say what the knot of angry emotion clogging his throat refused to allow. Her return embrace was just as fierce.
His family lined up, shoulder to shoulder. Spring spoke for them. “We won’t harm an innocent.”
Serqet approached her, and a grudging respect shone from her eyes. “You won’t be. We are the ones responsible, child.”
“We can find another way.” Spring dared to touch the Goddess’s forearm. “Please, Exalted One. Let us find another way.”
Uncertainty flashed on Serqet’s face as she looked back at her brother and sister. With something like sadness clouding her visage, she said, “The vessel must be free of magic and possess a pure heart.”
“Why weren’t we told before?” Knox demanded to know.
“We knew this would happen,” Damian said as he rubbed the place between his brows. “You fucking Thornes all have this unwavering code. This bloody goodness that allows no room for gray areas. It’s time you realize our world isn’t black and white. Neither is magic.” He locked eyes with Alastair. “You know, Al. You’ve always known, and you’ve always lived in the gray.”
Alastair paled, but lifted his chin.
Preston hated that his brother’s deeds were being laid out in front of him as a way to prod the others into this heartless plan. “Al has done what he’s needed to protect our family.”
“Exactly!” The Aether pointed at him. “Exactly, Preston. And now we are asking the rest of you to do the same. We have to protect our world.”
“Use me.” Spring’s softly spoken words caused a guttural yell from Knox. The ground around them trembled with his fury.
“No! No fucking way in hell!” He swung her to face him and glared at the rest of them before cupping Spring’s face. “You will not take her place. I forbid it.”
She shook her head. “Knox.” Her love, understanding, and compassion were rolled into his name.
“No, Spring. Not you. Anyone but you.”
“I can’t let this girl linger in that world to potentially go insane, Knox. I’ll never be able to live with myself.” She placed a hand on his cheek. “I—”
“I’ll do it,” Selene whispered. “I’ll be the sacrifice you need.”
Preston’s heart stopped for three beats before it resumed at a breakneck speed. Through the ringing in his ears, he heard Castor swear. With dazed eyes, Preston saw him loom over her and begin to argue. But he was frozen to the spot and couldn’t even tell Alex to back the fuck off.
Shoving Castor aside, she approached Preston. “I told you I would do what I could to save your family, agápi mou. This, I can do.”
His brain kicked into gear, and he was finally able to speak. “No one is sacrificing anyone. Neither you nor my daughter are being left behind in the Nether.” He turned to Isis. “Spring is right. We’ll find another way.”
Oddly, it was the teenager who stepped forward. “I chose to do this of my own free will.”
Preston wanted to yell at her. To scream she had no idea what she was in for. But he never had the chance.
“The Oracle chose me,” the girl said. “She said she’d come for me when the time was right.”
“The Oracle?”
Preston wasn’t sure who asked the question, but Damian was
standing close to the girl with a frown dark enough to instill fear in the bravest of hearts.
“Sabrina told you this?”
“She showed me everything.”
“Sonofabitch!” They all felt the slap of the Aether’s temper. “Beastie!”
A ripple of energy zinged around them, and Sabrina dropped her cloaking spell. “Yes, Papa?”
“Explain yourself.”
The temperatures around them dropped, and Preston could see his own breath with every exhale.
“I didn’t want you to stay in the Nether.” The tremble in Sabrina’s voice was slight as she approached her livid father. “You’re needed here. With me, Mama, and Nate.”
Preston had never heard such an impressive stream of swear words as Damian released, but he didn’t have time to admire the show. The ground around them pitched, and he was sure the seismographs were going crazy for the scientists in the area. Dust floated down from the shifting stones towering above them.
“Damian.” The warning in Alastair’s tone was sharp. “Calm down before you kill us all.”
With impressive self-control, the Aether reined in his temper and pulled back his power. “Tell me everything, Sabrina. Leave nothing out.”
Chapter 33
Their group remained quiet as they watched the Aether, Set, and the goddesses quietly discuss the Oracle’s vision on the other side of the circle. Sabrina was animated, and her small hands waved toward their group as she gave her impassioned speech.
Selene wanted to bundle the girl into her arms and remove the curse of the second sight so the child could play. So she could be normal, instead of carrying the weight of the world on her diminutive shoulders.
Preston pulled Selene aside, and in a low voice, he demanded, “How in the hell could you offer yourself up for a sacrifice?”
“I couldn’t bear it if you lost your daughter and Knox lost his wife. She has sisters and a family who love her, Preston. I’m nobody.”
“No, Selene. You’re wrong,” he said with feeling. “You’re somebody. To me.” He cupped her face between his hands and kissed her with infinite tenderness. “And I don’t want to live without you, my dearest love.”
A sob was torn from her, and she threw her arms around his neck. “Oh, Preston. I love you so much, but I can’t let that girl waste away in the Netherworld with no human contact, believing she’s uncared for. Believing she’s disposable to all of us.”
“Then I’ll take her place.”
She drew back to stare up at him. Shock making her grow cold. “What? No!”
“I know I’m loved. By you. By my family. I’ll also understand my sacrifice was for all of you, and maybe on my lucid days, I’ll be able to use that knowledge to console me.”
Selene listed all the reasons why it would be foolish for him to take the girl’s place, but he simply watched her with a weary amusement. She opened her mouth to try again when she noticed Isolde.
The Enchantress stood off by herself. Her expression was troubled and bordered on fearful. She couldn’t seem to tear her attention away from the teenager, and all the while, Isolde continuously rubbed her arms as if to ward off the cold.
“What do you suppose is wrong with her?”
Preston shook his head. “I don’t know. Wait here.”
As he approached Isolde, Preston wondered what could possibly be upsetting her. She practically trembled, and sweat coated her upper lip.
“Isolde?”
Her gaze darted to him, but as quickly, returned to the girl. A deep emotion clouded her eyes, turning her irises black. “She’ll go mad,” she whispered. “She’s only a child. A baby compared to me, and yet they think she’ll be able to control it? She’ll go mad in days.”
“No she won’t. I’m taking her place.”
Her gaze snapped to him and stuck. “You’re foolish if you do, Mr. Thorne. You don’t know what it’s like. The voices. The constant pressure inside your skull. You’ll do anything to relieve it.” She looked away and swallowed hard. “Anything. Even murder innocents and steal their magic to feed it. To make it happy for a short time so you can have peace.”
“How long did it take for you to give in to its demands?” Fear began to build inside him, but he tamped it down.
“I’m not sure. A few years at most. I wasn’t as strong as I believed myself to be.” She frowned and looked across the circle toward her son. “He’s emotionally stronger than I was. But he also possesses more magic. The Evil will be feasting on it even now, growing more powerful by the minute.” Isolde closed her eyes. “It is supremely foolish to delay, Mr. Thorne. Every moment wasted is a moment the Evil grows stronger and taints Damian’s thoughts.”
Preston’s internal alarms were sounding, and his anxiety tried to get the better of him. “What do you think we should do?”
“Let them use the girl. Sabrina selected her for a reason.”
“I can’t—”
“You can!” she snapped. “Trust her. Trust her visions and stop trying to be a bloody martyr.”
“I’m not!”
“You are.” She waved a hand to encompass his family. “You all are. But if you take her place and there is one cell with magic left in your body, the Evil will use it to escape and return here. No one will be safe.”
“But—”
Again, she cut him off. “That girl is mortal. With no magic, the Evil will eventually die. Sabrina will know when the time is right to return for her. She’s young enough, and she can be healed.”
Preston finally understood why it was important for the teenager to be their sacrifice. Isolde had known all along, and while it didn’t sit well with her—her body language and agitation were clear indications—she wouldn’t fight what had to be done.
“Your family… she’ll hate you all with a burning passion once she understands no one is coming for her right away.” Isolde turned her sad obsidian eyes on him. “Be prepared for another enemy, Mr. Thorne.”
“The cycle never ends, does it?”
She glanced over his shoulder. “They’ve come to a decision. And if I’m not mistaken, so have you.”
“Yes. I suppose I have.”
“Who plans to fuel up the miscreants?” Alastair asked when their party all gathered together again.
“We do.” Set eyeballed Preston with attitude. “Are you prepared to do what you must?”
“Yes.” And he was. Isolde’s explanation had made him see they truly had no choice.
“Good. Anything other than the current plan is a fool’s errand and waste of our resources.”
“But—” Spring and Selene began to argue.
The God huffed out a breath, his irritation with the interruption causing him to snap. “Enough!”
Lightning flashed overhead, and thunder boomed on the heels of the fading bolt.
“Set—uh, Exalted One—” Spring tried once more to object.
“Child, you must listen to me now. You are pure of heart, but not of body. And should we remove your magic, the faint echo of it will linger. It is enough for the Evil to cling to, and it will escape.” Set had softened his tone for her, his favorite human, but his face hardened and his voice became cold when he said, “I will hear no more. This is Ra’s will.”
Ra. The father of the deities present, and an all-powerful god with a short fuse. Way shorter than his son’s, and that was hard to imagine.
Preston curled his pinky around Spring’s. “It’ll be okay, child. I promise.”
Her dismay grew stronger when she realized this was actually happening, and she couldn’t save the girl. “Dad… please.”
He hugged her tightly. “It’ll all be okay,” he promised gruffly.
After releasing her, he hurriedly drew the girl aside. The humane side of him wanted to save her, but the hardened warlock who’d seen and learned too much in his life knew he couldn’t. Not yet. “What’s your name, child?”
“Annabelle.”
“Annabelle is lovely. D
o you have a surname?”
“Walker.”
“Well, Annabelle Walker. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Preston Thorne.”
Solemn-faced, she extended her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, too, sir.”
He shook it with a smile. “Where are you from? Do you have family?”
“Pennsylvania. It’s where my mom, dad, and brother are.” She bit the cuticle of her thumb. “The Oracle, was she telling the truth?”
“Of course,” Preston assured her with as much warmth as he could muster, having no idea what Sabrina had shared.
Tears seeped from her large gray eyes. “Brandon will live? The cancer will go away?”
“We’ll make sure of it.”
“She said you’ll set him up with a scholarship. You do things like that.”
Preston turned his head enough to see Sabrina smiling in his direction. “Yes. I do things like that. He’ll have the best education money can buy, Annabelle. I promise.”
“Good.” She scuffed the dirt with her sneaker, not meeting his eyes. “Sabrina also said you’d help Dad find a job. Brandon… well, Dad had to be there for him. My mom couldn’t.”
Because she was small for her age, Preston drew up the pant legs of his slacks and squatted so he was looking up into her angelic face. “Annabelle.”
The tears streamed faster down her pale cheeks, but she bravely met his steady gaze.
“I will see your family wants for nothing, child. Your brother will live a long, healthy life. Your mother and father will be taken care of as well. The mortgage paid and financial security for life.” He brushed back a lock of her light-brown hair. “And when you return, you’ll have all the finest things, too.”
Sabrina had approached as he was speaking, and when he finished, she grabbed Annabelle’s hand with hers. “See, Annie? I told you Preston is the best.” She hugged the older girl around the waist. “You’ll be scared and sad for a little while, but you don’t have to be. When you come back, I’ll teach you magic, and we’ll be great friends.”
“What kind of magic?”