by S. A. Moss
Somewhere in the middle of the kiss, my leg had and up hitched around his waist, and I was vaguely grateful that almost all the Guardians were gone from the Haven at the moment. Making out with my human charge in a hallway in the middle of a crisis would likely not be considered professional behavior. Even—maybe especially—after he’d just told me he loved me.
A thrill raced through me at the thought, and I sighed into his mouth, wrapping my arms tighter around him. He chuckled, breaking our kiss. “You okay there?”
I nodded, ducking my head to rest it against his chest. He tightened his grip on me in in the best hug I’d ever had. “Yeah. Just… absorbing.”
Alex’s heartbeat thrummed in my ear, sounding so strong and reliable. It obviously hadn’t gotten the memo from Reeva that he was dying.
A tiny spark of hope lit in my chest. Alex is so strong. Maybe he can find a way to survive this.
As if he could hear my thoughts, Alex pressed a firm kiss to the top of my head, speaking into my hair. “I’m not giving up, Cam. If I die, I die. But I’m not lying down until the bitter end. I’ll be here fighting beside you for as long as I can.”
I closed my eyes, soaking up much of his strength and determination and goodness as I could.
A wave of cold air washed over me, and I shivered, my eyes snapping open. I blinked. Were the walls… rippling? Another wave of cold hit me. I pulled away from Alex.
“What is it?” He followed my gaze down the hall.
“Did you feel that? The cold.”
He shook his head. “No, I didn’t. Is something wrong?”
I stepped back from his embrace, running my hands over the stone wall. It didn’t appear to be rippling like mirage anymore, but something definitely felt off. Without even knowing quite why, I reached out with my senses to feel for the aether of the castle around me. The Haven was surrounded by a shield that the Seer maintained at all times from her resting place in the tower. It was what made this place a haven, safe from the dangerous supernaturals that lived in the Wild.
Except now, there was a tear in the shield.
I couldn’t tell how big, or where. But its pattern resonated with the disturbance. After a moment, the ripple in the shield faded. Was the tear repaired? Had anything—or anyone—gotten through while it was damaged?
There was only one person who would know.
“Yeah, I think something is wrong,” I breathed. “We need to go visit the Seer right now.”
He grabbed my hand, and we took off down the corridor.
Dammit. I took back my earlier gratitude about the rest of the Guardians being gone from the Haven—the halls we ran through suddenly seemed desolate, vulnerable. If someone had infiltrated the castle, would Alex and I be able to defend it on our own?
I glanced back at Alex. “Someone tore a hole in the shield.”
“How is that possible?”
“It shouldn’t be,” I muttered grimly. “This can’t be a coincidence. Someone tried to empty out the Haven so they could sneak in.”
I threw all my weight against the door leading to the walkway to the Seer’s tower, forcing it open as quickly as the heavy wood and old hinges would allow. The moon-like suns hung low in the sky, casting a dusky glow over the landscape. Wind buffeted us as we dashed across the stone walkway, stinking slightly of sulfur. I’d just spent two weeks in the Shroud, and I still wasn’t used to that smell.
Yanking open the door to the tower, I ushered Alex through ahead of me. We raced up the stairs, our path lit by sconces placed along the winding staircase. When we finally reached the top, I pushed the door open and rushed inside, forgetting about any proper decorum in my hurry.
“Seer! Did you feel—”
I skidded to a stop, my heels digging into the soft carpet leading to the Seer’s dais. Alex crashed into me from behind, throwing his arms around me to stop us both from falling.
My father and an oni with deep red skin stood over the Seer. The oni’s bald head snapped up as we burst into the room, his cat-like eyes following us. But I only registered that out of my peripheral vision because my eyes were locked on Sirius.
“What are you doing?” I screamed at him. “Leave her—!”
Before I could finish, I felt Alex’s body stiffen behind me. His arms, which had been wrapped around me, were pulled away and forced to his side. I whipped around, reaching for him. But his body was yanked out of my grasp, floating gently toward the front of the room.
“This is good timing, Cam.” Sirius’s voice was calm and smooth, as if he were telling me we’d arrived just in time for dinner. “I need your boyfriend’s help with something.”
21
Shaking off my shock, I sprinted for the front of the room.
I didn’t have a plan, except to reach my father and hit him. To hit him and hit him until he finally stopped hurting the people I loved.
Unfortunately, I was barely a match for Sirius when I was fighting smart. When I attacked out of blind rage, I didn’t stand a chance. Before I made it halfway across the room, a vice-like bind wrapped around me. My feet were dragged together as my arms were pinned to my body. I would’ve gone flying if Sirius’s bind hadn’t supported me. Instead, I was held upright, hovering an inch off the floor, completely incapable of movement.
Shit! Focus, Cam. Focus!
Trying to clear my mind, I tuned into the bind holding me, trying to find a weakness in the pattern that would allow me to unravel it. It was incredibly tight—I could feel it squeezing me like a huge, invisible python. And I couldn’t find a weakness anywhere.
I kept part of my mind focused on that task, even as I narrowed my eyes at my father. “You need his help? With what?”
He smiled, and I wanted to scratch his eyes out. “I think you can probably guess. I had planned on taking the Seer to the earthly plane, but I wasn’t entirely sure that would break her shield on the Haven. But making her mortal will most definitely sever her connection to the aether.” His expression darkened. “I know that from experience. And if we kill her, she’ll never be able to put the shield back up.”
My mouth dropped open as my blood ran cold. “Kill her?”
Not answering me, Sirius turned to Alex. “It seems appropriate that you be the one to help us now, since it was your interference that ruined our plans before.”
Alex glared at him. “I won’t do it. I thought you’d have figured out by now that you can’t make me use my power. Didn’t those two weeks teach you anything?”
Sirius inclined his head, as if to say, you have a point. “They did teach me something, actually. I learned we didn’t have the right incentive. But I think we do now.”
In a flash of movement, the bald, red oni gestured toward me. I barely had time to register the motion before a blast hit me. The bind holding me prevented me from flying backward, but that just meant my body absorbed more of the impact.
It felt like getting hit by a car.
A harsh cry tore from my throat, echoed by Alex’s yell.
“Cam!” His eyes were wide with fear, and his body jerked slightly as he fought against the bind that held him. Whipping his head toward Sirius, he shouted, “You son of a bitch! She’s your daughter!”
Sirius’s eyes flickered slightly, a shadow of grief crossing his features, but he remained calm and stoic. “She can’t die.”
“But she can still feel pain!” Alex snarled.
He wasn’t wrong about that. My body was already healing from the blast, but I had to suck in shallow breaths against the cracked ribs in my torso. The red-skinned oni grinned at me. His teeth were black, making his mouth look like a gaping pit.
“Alex!” I gasped. “Don’t do what he says. No matter wha—”
The oni threw out his hands again. Sharp pain tore through my shoulder, just under my collarbone. I screamed as dark blood poured from the hole in my shoulder, soaking the front and back of my shirt. The oni had thrown an aether blade at me, and it’d pierced straight through.
/> I tried to refocus on unraveling the bind that held me, but the pain made my brain fuzzy.
Before I could think, another aether blade sliced through my abdomen. Agony radiated out to all my limbs, making me shake. If my father’s bind hadn’t been holding me upright, I would’ve collapsed to the floor.
Blackness edged the corners of my vision, and I shook my head weakly. “Alex… don’t. I can’t… die. Don’t—”
Another blast hit me like a freight train, jarring my entire body. Several bones cracked, and a line of blood trickled out of my nose. Spots flared before my eyes, and when I blinked them away, the whole room seemed darker. The light pouring through the three large windows at the front of the room seemed to dim. Alex was yelling something, but I couldn’t put together the words in my head.
“Haru. That’s enough.” My father’s voice was distorted, seeming to quaver.
“She can take more,” the red oni hissed. He raised his hands again, but Sirius shoved them down.
“Wait!” my father commanded. He turned to Alex, speaking urgently. “You can end this. You’re right, she can feel pain; but she can’t die. So the cycle of injury and healing could go on forever. Unless you help us.”
“She should’ve killed you when she had the chance,” Alex bit out.
Sirius nodded, looking almost sad. By now, I knew better than to trust that though. “I believe she should have. But she didn’t, and now here we are.”
Without warning, Haru threw his hands out again. Thousands of needles pierced my flesh, wrenching an agonized shriek from me. My father looked at him sharply, then returned his gaze to Alex, a muscle in his jaw twitching. “Alex. It is in your power to stop this.”
Tears poured down my face, mixing with the blood flowing from my nose. My injuries were slowly repairing themselves, but my healing power couldn’t keep up with the rate at which the attacks were coming.
Alex’s gaze was locked on me, his expression tortured. I knew I must look awful. My shirt and pants were soaked with blood, and I could feel small rivulets of it running down my skin from the thousands of pinpricks that had pierced me. Even as the injuries themselves healed, the evidence of them remained. If this went on much longer, I’d look like Carrie on prom night.
“Alex, no.” My voice was a rough whisper. “I can take it. We can’t let them—”
I should’ve expected the blast this time, but it caught me by surprise anyway. The red oni whipped his hand out, and an arcing blade of aether swept across my thighs, cutting to the bone. I gritted my teeth, trying not to shout, but a deep groan poured from my lips.
“Enough!”
My head snapped up at the shout.
But it was my father who had spoken, not Alex. He gestured, dragging Alex’s aether-bound body into position at the side of the alter where the Seer lay. With her eyes closed and her body lying perfectly still, she looked dead already. But it was through her existence that the protections on the Haven remained in place. If she became mortal—worse, if she died—there’d be nothing to keep the Fallen out.
Sirius forced Alex as close to the altar as possible, forcing one of his hands to rest on the Seer’s shoulder. Then my father stepped back. He seemed wary of letting Alex touch him, as well he should be. I was sure if Alex got the chance, he’d kill him.
“Do it,” Sirius urged. “Save Camille from this pain.”
Alex renewed his struggles against the bond holding him, but he couldn’t move. He couldn’t pull his hand away from the Seer.
Suddenly, her eyes snapped open. Sirius and the oni both stumbled back a step, their fearful gazes fixed on her. For all his talk about how weak the Seer was, my father couldn’t deny the power she radiated. It wasn’t a violent, controlling power like his, but that didn’t make it less potent.
“Sirius.” The ancient woman sighed, and my father actually hung his head like a schoolboy who’d just gotten caught coloring on the walls. Then her eyelids flickered, her gaze turning in my direction. “And Camille, daughter of a Guardian. You both have so much pain, so much rage. One of you covered in blood, one steeped in it.”
“Make her mortal,” my father commanded Alex. I wasn’t imagining it; this time, his voice really did waver. “Now!”
Alex shook his head, staring down at the Seer’s blunt features.
Her eyes drifted closed again. She couldn’t keep them open for more than a few minutes at a time.
“Your time is up, old woman,” Sirius spat. “No Guardian will have to take orders from you any longer.”
Slowly, her eyes drifted open again and her solemn gaze met his. “You are right, Sirius. My time is up.”
Faster than I’d ever seen her move, her hand darted up to grab Alex’s. He jerked in surprise, but the bind prevented him from yanking his hand away.
The Seer’s back bowed, arching away from the altar she’d lain on for thousands of years. She drew in a deep, rattling breath that seemed to suck up all the oxygen in the room. Her cheeks hollowed out, her skin sagged, and when she released the breath, her whole body seemed to deflate.
I gaped, nearly forgetting the pain that still blazed through my body.
“Alex, no! What are you doing?”
22
He looked up at me in panic. “I’m not—”
“At last.” My father darted around to the other side of the altar, partially obscuring my view of the Seer. As he moved, he reached for the dagger sheathed at his side.
But before he could raise it to strike, the Seer’s breath changed to short, gasping pants. Her body jerked and her eyelids flickered so fast it looked like she was having a seizure.
“Your time… is up… too.”
Her voice had changed. It sounded like rocks grinding together, and every word seemed to take massive effort. The knuckles of the hand clutching Alex’s were white.
“Alex! Don’t kill her!” I shouted.
The light streaming through the windows behind Alex caught the gold in his hair, giving him a glowing halo. But his face, cast in shadows, was a mask of horror.
With a small, almost childlike noise, the Seer released her last breath. Her body stilled, her limp hand slipping from Alex’s grasp.
It should’ve looked no different than usual—the Seer stretched out on the altar, unmoving. But her flesh sagged in a way it hadn’t before, and blue veins were visible under paper-thin skin. She looked more human than I’d ever seen her.
She was dead.
If I hadn’t been sure of it from her appearance, the wave of energy that followed convinced me. It burst through the room, sending an icy chill down my spine. The curved walls of the tower room seemed to ripple like a mirage. Then the energy vanished.
A roar lifted from outside, breaking through the silence in the room.
Sirius sheathed his dagger and backed away from the altar, shooting an intense look at Alex before crossing to peer out the window.
“They’re coming.” His voice was tight. “I must join Akaron.” He turned to the oni, who was leering at the Seer’s dead body. “Watch these two. Let Cam’s injuries heal. I’ll be back for them as soon as I can.”
Sirius turned on his heel and headed for the door. I twisted my head to follow his path with my gaze.
“Yeah, hurry up, Dad! Wouldn’t want to be late for the apocalypse, especially when you put so much effort into making it happen! You think you can control Akaron? Or any of the Fallen? You’re wrong! You unleashed hell on humanity, and Mom would hate you for that!”
My stomach still hurt like hell, and every word I shouted was like a dagger to the gut. But my rage at the man who’d brought me into this world burned through me like lava.
I didn’t care who I had to go through or what I had to do. One day I would kill him. I swore it.
My father stopped with his hand on the door. He didn’t look back at me or even address me. All he said was, “Leave her be, Haru. Let her heal.”
Then he was gone. The roaring from outside rose in volume. De
mons must’ve been hiding in the thick woods surrounding the Haven, waiting for the moment the protective wards went down. Now they were pouring into the Haven—and through the doors in the portal room to all corners of the world.
Sucking in breaths through my nose, trying to master my pain and rage, I tugged at the threads of the bind holding me. Maybe someday I’d be strong enough to break binds without intense focus, but I was nowhere near that point yet.
Alex was gazing down at the Seer with a dazed look on his face. Had he truly not meant to kill her? Had she pushed her life forced into him like I had in his apartment? I wanted to believe that. He couldn’t have done this on purpose. Not to save me.
The red-skinned oni sauntered toward me, his bald head gleaming in the dim light. I realized belatedly that the light streaming through the windows had dimmed when the Seer had died—as if it had been her generating the light, not the weak suns outside.
He came too close, invading my personal space. Running a finger across my collarbone, he collected some of the blood smeared over my skin. It blended almost perfectly with his dark red skin tone. When his black tongue darted out to lick his finger, I almost gagged.
The oni smirked.
“Leave you be, he said. Leave. You. Be.” He leaned in, his hot skin brushing my cheek as he spoke into my ear. “I was in that stronghold when you destroyed it, you know. I was crushed by falling rocks. And in case you’re wondering, I didn’t enjoy it one bit.”
I swallowed. Oh, shit.
His rough fingers grabbed my chin as he licked the blood off the side of my face. He smacked his lips right next to my ear.
Don’t react, Cam. Focus. Concentrate.
A shudder ran down my spine, but I kept working at the bind holding me, unraveling it.
“Leave you be, he said,” the oni repeated, his voice hissing like a faulty radiator. “You know what? I think I will. We’ll see how you like being crushed.”