Ashael snorted. “The same reason most people don’t want their god among them, all protestations aside. Gods tend to point out their followers’ hypocrisy, and few want that.”
I didn’t argue. History wouldn’t be on my side. Instead, I said, “Best to let sleeping gods lie, then.”
Ian extended his left arm to Ashael. “I don’t care what the horn wants. I told you I’d fetch it for you, so here. Take it.”
Ashael gave the horn a look I couldn’t read. Then he met Ian’s gaze and smiled as if he had never wanted it in the first place. “Who am I to argue with an ancient relic’s preference? But you did fulfill your end of our bargain, so I’ll fulfill mine, and take you and Veritas to Yonah’s now.”
“Wait.” Both men turned. “We need to get Silver first,” I told Ian. “He’s already been alone too long.”
Ashael’s expression darkened. “I did not agree to transport anyone else.”
“Believe me,” I said with a dry laugh. “When you see Silver, you won’t mind.”
Chapter 21
The small plane bounced like a stone skipping across a pond. If we got any closer to the ocean’s surface, we’d soon sink like that proverbial stone, too. But Ashael seemed more concerned with staying below radar than keeping a safe distance between our aircraft and the Pacific.
Ashael teleported us everywhere else, so I’d assumed he’d teleport us to Yonah’s, too. Wrong. After we picked Silver up back in Pennsylvania, Ashael had teleported us to a small, private airport in California. The Cessna Skyhawk he rolled out could have been his plane, or he could’ve been stealing it. With demons, either was a possibility.
Then Ashael had flown us out over the Pacific. The flight had been smooth until an hour ago. Now, another rough patch of air shook the Cessna hard enough to make us bounce in our seats. Silver whined. I reached over the short distance to his seat to give him a reassuring pat. Ashael glanced back at the Simargl and for a second, his gaze softened. Then, he caught me watching and his coolly arrogant expression returned.
Too late, I thought in amusement. I saw that.
Ashael’s appreciation for celestial-created rarities like the horn obviously included Simargls. And Silver, who’d had a horrific experience being owned by a demon, seemed oddly at ease with Ashael. Maybe it was because Silver sensed Ashael’s duel lineage? After all, Silver had loved my father on sight, too.
“You might want to hold on to your pet now,” Ashael said. “It’s about to get rough.”
“Any rougher and we’ll crash,” I muttered, but picked Silver up and held him in my lap.
“Exactly,” Ashael replied in a mild tone.
I waited for the punch line. When Ashael said nothing, I realized he wasn’t joking.
“Explain,” Ian drew out.
“If getting to Yonah’s was easy, he’d be dead by now,” was Ashael’s reply. “Still, if either of you object to the risk, I’ll turn the plane around, but then my part in this is done.”
Asshole!
Not much could kill vampires, but a plane crash could. I couldn’t even use the endless expanse of ocean below us to deter Ashael. The demon could teleport away before a drop of that salt water, burning to demons, touched him.
Ian pulled out his mobile. I couldn’t see who he was texting because he was too quick. Then he turned it off.
“If we don’t return from this flight, consider yourself marked for death by three of the world’s strongest vampires,” Ian said coolly. “That’s only if I don’t kill you myself first.”
Ashael’s scoff was both elegant and contemptuous. “As if you had the power to kill me.”
Ian’s arm slammed across Ashael’s throat. The horn also shot out, its tip now elongated and very close to Ashael’s eye.
“That a dare?” Ian asked.
Not a muscle on Ashael moved. Good thing, too, since one wrong slant on the yoke might slam us into the ocean.
“Ian,” I said in as calm a tone as I could manage. “Please don’t stab the pilot while we’re still on the plane.”
Ian kept staring at Ashael, the ram’s horn a twisting, tangible threat between them. I didn’t know how Ian had made it move, let alone in such a way. But he had, and Ashael acted as if the horn’s tip was coated in demon poison.
“Veritas will not be harmed,” Ashael finally said, his former mockery gone. “Neither will you,” he added somewhat reluctantly. “You will both arrive safely. I give you my word.”
Ian lowered his arm. The horn lost its rapierlike shape to coil back into the flexible one where it resembled a 3-D armband. Ashael gave the magic relic a look I couldn’t read, then said, “Hold the yoke” and let Cessna’s version of a steering wheel go.
Ian grabbed the yoke when Ashael closed his eyes and raised his hands. I didn’t have time to ask what he was doing before his power blasted out. My eardrums ruptured from the sudden, explosive pressure shift. Ian ground out a curse I could no longer hear as blood ran from his ears, too. Still his hands remained rock steady on the controls.
Light exploded ahead of us, flashing in simultaneous bursts of colors that looked like lightning coated in rainbows. A tunnel formed amidst the dazzling display, showing a glimpse of something large and dark on the other side. Ashael opened his eyes and grabbed the controls from Ian with one hand. The other was still aloft, pouring more power into the tunnel/temporal anomaly/whatever it was. Then he steered us right into the circular kaleidoscope.
The small plane shook so hard, the metal sounded like it was screaming. I was tempted to scream, too. The plane couldn’t take more of this without coming apart. I had to clutch Silver to keep him from hitting the roof from how violently we were thrown around. Still, my head bashed against the plane’s side panel until I saw and tasted blood.
Suddenly, the dazzling flashes of color ceased, revealing a calm sky with a moon casting silvery beams on the ocean and island beneath it. The island was almost entirely taken up by the tall, imposing mountain I’d glimpsed from the other side of the tunnel. The punishing turbulence stopped, too, but my sigh of relief turned into a gasp when Ashael pointed us right at the mountain and increased speed.
“You see the big mountain in front of us, don’t you?” Maybe he was temporarily blinded from all those flashing lights . . .
“Yes,” Ashael replied, proving my ears had healed enough to hear again.
“Then why are you aiming for it?” I demanded.
“No one likes a backseat driver,” was his airy response.
That was it. If we lived, I was committing fratricide—
We passed through the mountain instead of smashing into it. That’s when I realized it was glamour designed to stop anyone from seeing the real island. A glance out the window now revealed a generous stretch of beach, lots of trees, and several buildings I could only glimpse before Ashael dropped the plane down and circled back, aiming for the beach.
I didn’t bother telling him sand was too soft to land on. For all I knew, it wasn’t sand at all. It was probably a runway glamoured to look like ordinary beach sand—
The plane landed hard, wheels ripping off right after tearing into the soft terrain that, yep, was sand, which I found out when it blasted through the broken windows while the plane was flipping end over end. Metal and glass also took turns pelting me, and I hit my head so hard, I was briefly knocked unconscious. When I came to, I was upside down, clutching Silver so tightly in my arms, he whimpered.
I let Silver go. He scrambled out of the nearest smashed-open window. The side door next to me suddenly tore free, revealing Ian. Blood dripped from multiple cuts as he bent to rip my seat belts off. He caught me before I fell out, ignoring my protests that I could walk. He refused to put me down until we were several meters from the smoking plane, which Ashael was now slowly crawling out of, too.
“This is your idea of her arriving here safely?” Ian asked in a blistering tone.
Ashael flicked a line of blood from his forehead once he was free from th
e wreckage. His cuts finished healing by the time he replied, “We’re all fine, are we not?”
With that, the plane caught fire. Ian gave it a pointed look before replying, “Oh, right as rain,” with scathing sarcasm.
Dammit, my luggage was about to burn! My head still rang from what had probably been a skull fracture, but I managed to pull a swath of water from the ocean and splash it onto the plane. The fire turned to smoke as the water doused the flames.
“Don’t!” Ashael said, sounding appalled.
“Salt water in the engine is the least of your concerns,” I replied, then stopped when all the water began streaming out of the plane and back into the ocean.
My eyes narrowed. Ashael wanted to play that game, huh? I pulled more water toward the plane, only to have it slam back down into the ocean so hard, it foamed.
“Stop it,” I snapped to Ashael.
He paled, which was odd. He was getting on my last nerve, but I would hardly slaughter him over a watery version of tug-of-war between siblings . . . wait, what was he looking at?
I followed Ashael’s gaze and saw something silver flash in the sea. Not a trick of the moonlight; its movements were too precise. It headed for shore, and the sea foamed in its path. Then that frothing part of the sea formed into a tall, humanoid shape that walked right out of the water to stand before us.
Oh, shit, I thought, staring at it. What are you?
Chapter 22
The creature stared back at me. Silver growled, edging away from it. The creature glanced at the Simargl, and then it looked back at me again. At once, its body changed until it formed into an exact replica of my appearance.
“What is it?” I whispered to Ashael.
It reminded me of a water nymph, but water nymphs were tiny creatures that required constant contact with liquid to survive. This thing had been a head taller than Ian before it formed into a watery version of me, and it stood on the beach without needing to be within reach of the surf.
“Leviathan.” Ashael’s voice was a rasp. “They guard these shores, and no one touches the waters without their permission.”
“That’s information that would have been helpful before,” I said through clenched teeth.
“How was I to know you’d break a cardinal rule within ten seconds of arriving?” Ashael shot back.
“Enough.” Ian extended his left arm. The horn straightened until it resembled a long, dark sword. The creature’s head swiveled toward Ian, and it smiled.
Ice coated my bones. If the grave could smile, it would look like that.
“Ian,” Ashael said without looking away from the creature. “The horn might work on everything else, but it won’t harm a Leviathan. Touch one of them, and you’ll drown forever.”
Okay, that sounded horrible. “How do I fix what I did to make it angry?” I asked Ashael in a low voice.
“Try apologizing and giving it an offering.” I didn’t like the new uncertainty in Ashael’s tone. He might annoy me by sounding like an imperious prick most of the time, but if the Leviathan made Ashael afraid, we should all fear.
“Do not skimp,” Ashael went on. “Leviathan are telepathic, so your offering has to be something very precious to you.”
I stared at the Leviathan as I began walking toward the smoking plane, my sharp gesture warning Ian not to follow me.
“I am truly sorry for trespassing on your domain,” I said as I reached inside the plane, using my hand instead of my gaze to find my luggage. Instinct told me that if I looked away from the creature, I’d regret it.
“It was a violation of your sovereignty,” I went on. “I ask forgiveness only because I committed my crime in ignorance. Please”—more blind reaching, cutting myself on the twisted metal and glass until I felt the smooth sides of my biggest suitcase—“accept this offering as a token of my regret.”
I pulled the suitcase out, kneeling to unzip it. I stayed in that supplicant pose as I felt around in it until my hand hit something large and hard. Slowly, I unwrapped the clothing I’d packed around the object to reveal the glittering bouquet of Faery Queen Crimsons I’d secretly brought with me.
Ian made a short, sharp sound. Now I was glad I had to keep my gaze solely on the creature. I didn’t want to see Ian’s face as I laid the magic-infused flowers at the Leviathan’s feet. The roses seemed to add the moonlight’s beams to their own blood-red radiance, shimmering as the Leviathan picked them up. It cocked its head at them in a very humanlike way, then it looked at me.
Leviathan are telepathic, so it has to be something very precious to you . . .
I let myself feel how badly I didn’t want to give up the only gift Ian had given me. I opened my memory of seeing the roses for the first time, touching their petals in wonder while pretending not to want them because I couldn’t bear for Ian to see how much I loved them. I also acknowledged the recklessness of taking them with me. If things took a wrong turn during our travels, I’d be caught red-handed with a magical object; something that could earn me an instant death sentence. But I hadn’t wanted to part with the roses. They reminded me too much of Ian—rare, surprising, dangerous, and oh-so beautiful . . .
The Leviathan pulled the flowers into itself. They shimmered against the watery veil of its body for a moment, then both of them disappeared back into the sea.
Ashael let out an audible breath. “Whatever those were, thank the gods you had them.”
Must mean my offering was accepted. “Anything else I should know about that could get me killed or drowned forever?” I asked while trying to smother my sense of loss over the roses.
Ashael gave me a sunny smile. “Not off the top of my head.”
Ian gave Ashael a look that would have made anyone else back up a few steps. Then he went to the plane, grabbed his own suitcase from the smoldering remains, took mine as well, and returned to lay his free hand against my back.
“Let’s head inland before the sea sends us any new visitors.”
I don’t know what I expected from a magically cloaked island filled with people rejected from every supernatural species. Gloomy caves? Stone castles? Replicas of Superman’s Fortress of Solitude? Whatever my expectations, they hadn’t included something that reminded me of a Sandals Resort with a few medieval twists.
Bonfires made up the exterior illumination around buildings that could have been hotels or mansions, depending on your perspective. Multicolored tile roofs added vivid splashes of color atop their sand-toned walls, with plants spilling like green waterfalls over the residences’ many balconies. Elaborate slides ended at mosaic-tiled swimming pools, with cabanas taking up space around the many aquatic recreation areas.
One thing was certain; I wasn’t touching that water. For all I knew, those pools were day-care centers for baby Leviathan.
And all of the recreational areas were empty. The rows of windows on the hotels/mansions reflected the bonfires’ glow back at us, making it impossible to see inside. I could hear the sounds of people within the buildings, though, even if few had heartbeats. The pool areas might be empty, but this place was far from deserted.
New arrivals must make the island’s residents skittish. I couldn’t blame them. If they were here, their species and others wanted them dead for reasons that basically amounted to “You’re different, so you scare me.” Funny how those same people rarely paused to consider how terrifying they were, handing down death sentences from their positions of power or privilege.
“Yonah’s in this house,” Ashael said, striding in front of us. “Come. He’ll be expecting us—”
Ian had Ashael in a headlock before I could blink, that horn snapping out to draw a pearl of blood beneath the demon’s eye. I knew I was bordering on the irrational side of exhaustion when I could only think, What now?
“What are you doing?” Ashael hissed at Ian.
“Testing a theory.” Ian’s voice was like silk sliding over daggers. “Earlier, my mate Timothy jumped back from this horn as if it were pure silver ai
med at his heart. You also didn’t move when it was near your eye on the plane, and you’re not moving now even though it isn’t made of demon bone. Means this horn is universally lethal, isn’t it?”
My eyes widened when Ashael gritted out, “Clever boy.”
The horn could kill vampires and demons? And form into different dimensions as if it knew what its wielder needed? No wonder Ashael had wanted it! Every warrior I knew would give their right arm for such a weapon, myself included.
“Pity you can’t teleport yourself free,” Ian continued. “This island’s spelled against that, as I found out when I tried to get Veritas to safety after you crashed the plane, and multiple times again when that watery monstrosity threatened her. Still, makes sense. No telling who’d show up if just anyone could teleport in here, right?”
Ashael could still rip all the water out of Ian, and Ian didn’t know that. “Ian, let him go,” I began.
“He tried to kill me.”
That cut my protest off. “What?” I said, fury slicing through me when Ashael glanced away from my accusing stare.
“Yes, by neglecting to mention something else important about the horn.” Ian’s tone was light despite the razor’s edge of rage running through it. “Namely, that whoever takes it from its owner will get the back of their head blown off.”
That’s why Ashael had dropped his blood-generated spy cam right after Ian had found the horn! He hadn’t been tired. Ashael hadn’t wanted me to see the proof of his treachery when he could simply claim ignorance and call it an “accident” later.
“You bastard,” I managed to say, my voice shaking with fury.
Ian let out a dark chuckle. “My thoughts exactly.”
“Vampires can survive head wounds,” Ashael hissed. “Getting captured and interrogated was the least you deserved for using Veritas as your latest plaything.”
“Oh, the head wound wouldn’t have killed me,” Ian agreed. “But the other guards might have, when I was defenseless. Luckily for me, one of the guards was an old mate of mine. More than that, I sired him, and every vampire knows the greatest sin among our kind is betraying your sire unto death. That’s why he kept me safe while I healed, so I woke up with the horn wrapped around my arm like a bloody pet. Must’ve decided it liked me after it nearly decapitated me. I knew Ashael had set me up when he refused to take the horn from me earlier. He didn’t because he knew what would happen, didn’t you, mate?”
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