Ten
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Samkiel
R ain poured from the sky, droplets bouncing off the metal chains that
swayed in the growing wind. A storm had followed me here, one I’d
created by accident. I changed out of the suit as I landed, the fabric of my new clothes light but durable, like the ones we used to wear on Rashearim. The black long-sleeve shirt and matching pants made blending in with the shadows at the end of the alleyway easier. The nap Logan had forced on me days ago had helped. Sleep, even for a moment, let me recharge, even if all I dreamt of was her once more.
I stayed low, surveying the area as several people moved large wooden sealed boxes onto a ship. I counted at least fifty heartbeats, but from the magic that hummed off their skin, they weren’t mortal. Witches. That explained how they were moving those large crates so easily.
“Come on!” one man yelled. “This storm isn’t letting up, and we have two more. We can’t be late.”
A gust of wind battered the docks, and the massive gray ship swayed. I needed to calm down. The rings on my fingers vibrated, begging me to summon a blade. I would welcome the opportunity to let off some steam. It had always helped in the past, but then I had never been tied up in knots over a woman. It had never been about someone I cared so deeply for.
They loaded the remaining crates and closed the thick doors on the back of a large truck. The engine revved, lights shining as it pulled away. Now that the vehicle was out of the way, I realized this was no ordinary cargo ship. It was massive. How much material was he moving? The trees behind the fence bent beneath the force of the howling wind, and the rain continued to pelt the concrete. I pulled my hood up and studied the treeline, my eyes
straining against the darkness. It felt as if someone or something was there, yet I saw nothing.
I shook it off, turning back toward the ship as the last few people boarded. They joked as the ramp slowly creaked and disappeared. I waited until the ship left the harbor before I shot back up into the sky.
M y feet hit the deck with a soft thud . I landed in a crouch and remained there for half a second to make sure no one heard or came from below. I had followed them from above, riding the storm for a few miles.
The city lights were so far away now you’d have to be a Netherworld or Otherworld creature to see them.
Where were they going? Originally, I had wondered if they were going to Novas, Kaden’s previous base of operations and his home, but that was in the opposite direction from which the ship sailed. They seemed to be headed to the middle of nowhere. I moved, staying close to the bridge. No one was at the helm, but the witches on board had taken control. I could feel the magic they wielded.
Voices echoed from below. “I’m not going back up front. It’s fucking freezing, and now it’s raining. It’s like the damn storm is following us.”
I heard shuffling feet and a mean chuckle before another man said, “His instructions were clear. He said we need someone on watch, so you go.”
“No, you.” There was a pause, and then the stench of anxiety floated through the air. “You heard what they said. They are calling her winged death. You hear a clap like thunder before she descends and rains fire. She is hunting anyone fucking involved in that girl’s death. We’re done for, and of course, the idiot had to tape it.”
“I would love for you to call Kaden an idiot to his face,” the other voice shot back.
“I will if you go watch.” Laughter, deep and quick, followed before I heard footsteps coming up the stairs.
“Okay, you have a deal, and I want that recorded.” Shadows slowly climbed the stairs. Their footsteps were heavy against the metal steps,
neither trying to stay quiet.
The man in front half turned, laughing with his friend. “I’m surprised Santiago hasn’t told him that to his face. My—”
He stopped as his friend’s eyes grew wide. He turned his head slowly toward me, looking to see what made his friend suddenly drip sweat. His eyes stopped at my chest and then slowly traveled up.
His throat bobbed as fear leaked from him. “Oh, fuck.”
“Y our magic is weak compared to the goddess who made it ,” I said , flipping open another crate. This one matched the others: boxes and boxes of sheets and rods of iron. The ship rocked, the heavy waves buffeting it.
The room smelled of iron and the burnt flesh of the witches that had tried and failed to attack me. Santiago grunted from the ceiling, where I held him with my power. I flipped through the pages on the clipboard, circling two of
the crates.
“Why are you moving so much iron?”
“Go to Iassulyn!” Santiago grunted, struggling against the invisible hold. My head tilted up, and I lowered the clipboard in my hand.
“You know of Iassulyn?” My lips turned down in a frown. “I’m impressed. It’s a realm outside of time and space. A place so brutal only the vilest and damned end up there when they die.”
I waved my hand, and his body dropped to the floor next to me, landing chest first. He raised his head, the gash on his nose threatening to open
again.
“You took my fucking hands.”
“Yes, yes, I did.” I kneeled next to him. “I warned you what would happen if you put your hands on her. You should have listened.”
A sick, wet laugh left his lips. “Gods, you really are sweet on her.
Pathetic.”
“Says the man who… what was that she said?” I paused. “Oh, yes, couldn’t take the word no.” My blood boiled, remembering what she had
said that day in El Donuma. I know he had never fully touched her, but that he would even try made me want to summon Oblivion to end him.
“Hey, you can’t blame me for being curious. Everyone that’s touched her has turned into a whipped dog. Even gods, I guess.”
With a flick of my hand, his body hit the ceiling once more. I heard his ribs crack, and he grunted before choking on a laugh.
“Have any of you considered that maybe it’s her that is so mesmerizing and not what’s between her legs?” I used my power to press his body hard enough against the ceiling that the metal groaned.
“He wasn’t kidding.” Santiago’s laugh died as he looked at me. “You really are in love with her.”
His shock soon turned into a smile, then a full-on laugh, when I dropped my hand. I held him above me and turned to rip off another crate lid instead of answering.
“Oh man, you are so fucked. Do you really think Kaden, of all creatures, will let you have her? Let anyone truly have her? She is the first and only one he has ever made. He isn’t letting her go.” Santiago grunted, the pressure of my power grinding against him.
I knew that. Everyone knew that. Kaden had proven he would do anything to keep her, including dragging her back in pieces if he had to.
“I am very aware of how far he is willing to go. He has poisoned her, degraded her, threatened her, had monsters drag her back to a hole in the ground while she screamed, ripped her to pieces, manipulated the people closest to her to betray her, and then he took the one person she loved away from her all because she refused to return to him.”
With another flick of my hand, Santiago slammed to the ground. He landed in a heap and let out a pained cough. I turned as he rolled over onto his back. He was half smiling as if it was the funniest thing in the world that Kaden had done so much to hurt her so badly. My control snapped.
“Do you find that humorous?”
The lights in the ship went out, and the engine died. Total darkness fell as thunder, loud and heavy, cracked the sky, so strong we could hear it in the bowels of the ship. I laid the clipboard to the side, the blackened silver ring on my finger humming. Tendrils of purple and black mist wafted off the death blade, and Santiago’s eyes went wide, the smile and laughter fading from his expression. I saw my eyes flare silver in the reflection of Santiago’s gaze.
“Do you know what Oblivion is, Santiago?” I moved the tip of the blade closer to him as he struggled against my invisible, vise-like grip. “It’s a weapon I made long before you were even a thought. It was meant to be an instrument of peace, formed at my accession. Only I carried too much anger and grief at the time. Feelings I couldn’t control spilled over, and I created this instead. It is every horrible emotion a god should not feel, yet here it is.
It is a true death blade. There is no peace, no Astheroth, no Iassulyn, no nothing. It makes you into particle matter to be reused as the universe sees fit. Your conscience is gone. No you, no quirks that make you special, no memories, dreams, or nightmares. It is true death.”
Santiago swallowed, sweat and fear pouring off him. I glanced at the blade in my hand and back toward him.
“I had not summoned it since Rashearim fell, not until her. Do you know why? Because there are no boundaries I will not cross if it means keeping her safe, especially after everything you all have taken from her. It is the highest law not to touch anyone in my court or what I consider mine.
That act alone is punishable by death, and she is mine. It will be your end.”
“Well, from what I’ve heard, I don’t think she knows that.”
His smirk died as the tip of the blade touched his suit jacket. The material beneath broke off and turned to ash, floating into the air around us.
Santiago’s eyes bulged as he watched it spread, and then he snapped, “Listen, I don’t know, okay? I don’t know.” He stumbled as if he couldn’t get the words out quickly enough. I lifted the blade from him before it spread further. “Kaden doesn’t tell any of us anything, especially after Alistair died and she left. He trusts no one but Tobias now. If you want
answers, real answers, find him.”
“Why the iron? The ships?”
“All I know is he’s building something.”
My brows furrowed. “Kaden can’t build a god-killing weapon with Etherworld metals and minerals, and that’s what he would need to kill me.
Only Azrael could make something from nothing, and he is long dead.”
Santiago pulled his worried gaze from the blade and looked at me like I had grown horns. “Who said Azrael was dead?”
My head reared back. “I saw it. When the Ig’Morruthens attacked, he died helping his wife escape. The light burned the sky. How can you tell me not?”
“Alistair could make you see whatever he wanted.”
“Alistair? Alistair never set foot on Rashearim. You’re trying to buy time with lies.”
“Why would I lie?” he practically stammered, as if afraid I would place Oblivion close to him again. “The Kings of Yejedin have almost as much power as your lot.”
“Kings?” It was my turn to stammer. “Alistair was no king.”
“You really don’t know who Kaden is at all, do you?” Santiago asked, genuinely confused.
The information ran too fast through my brain. If Alistair was there, did that mean Kaden and Tobias were, too? But how? I needed more answers.
Were they the last three Kings of Yejedin? Had Nismera and the other traitorous gods not only called on the Ig’Morruthens but the Kings as well?
I had seen Azrael dead, seen him turn into that clear blue light. I started to tell him how idiotic his words were, but I paused as thunder slapped the sky again. Only the power behind it wasn’t mine this time.
“Winged death,” he whispered.
Santiago’s heart raced, the beat like a drum. He was terrified, and this time not of me.
“G et me out of here alive , and I’ ll tell you everything I know . I promise.”
I stopped and turned, Santiago skidding to a stop as I faced him. I raised my hand, pinching my fingers closed near his face. “Stop talking.”
That’s all he had done. Her arrival had reduced him to a shriveling mess. He knew she was here for him, and he’d practically pissed his pants. I waited to hear the fire I knew she would send through the ship, but it did not come. The witches I had knocked unconscious should be awake by now, but I didn’t hear a single scream or murmur. The worst part was the quiet.
I grabbed him by the shoulder, his shirt bunching in my grip, and pushed him forward. “Keep walking.”
“Don’t you think it’s safer to head away from the main area of the ship?” he said, digging his heels in and trying to turn back.
“Make no mistake, your safety is not my concern,” I said as I summoned an ablazed sword. I placed the tip of the blade against his back.
Santiago paused before sighing and moving forward again.
“What’s the point in threatening me if you are just going to kill me, anyway? You already took my hands. I can’t cast magic now.”
I remained silent and pushed him forward. He stopped at one of the oval metal doors and looked at the handle before raising his arms to display his missing hands. My jaw clenched as I stepped around him to turn the large lever and push against the heavy door. It swung open, revealing an empty room with no exits. I shifted to the side and waved my blade, gesturing for him to enter. I did not trust him at my back, no hands or not.
“You are alive for two reasons. The first is that you have information I want,” I said.
“What’s the other?” he asked, turning when he realized I hadn’t
followed him in.
I grabbed the edge of the door. “Bait.”
Santiago’s eyes bulged, and his face went slack in shock as I slammed the metal door. “You can’t fucking leave me here!” he yelled, and I heard him kick at the door. “She will kill me! Aren’t you supposed to be the good guy?”
I twisted the handle, locking him in, and leaned against the door. “I never once said that I was good. That is just a fable you all tell yourselves, I suppose. You tell yourselves that I will show mercy. You believe that to be the law and govern the realms, I have to at least be neutral, but sometimes a king has to be a monster.”
With a sigh, I pushed away from the door and called on my fire.
Directing it through my eyes, I melted the edges of the door. I continued speaking as I sealed him in. “I will admit that I do seem more erratic, and I am aware it is because of Dianna. It’s confusing and frustrating. I have never felt for another how I feel about her. She makes me feral and possessive, but not in the way your master is. I would never hurt her, and I cannot allow her to keep hurting herself. That’s what she’s doing, and her pain grows every time she kills. She feeds and takes others to sate the part of her born from grief. She is trying to bury herself under those kills and prove to herself that she is the monster you all believe her to be. None of you know her. She is so much more. Dianna was kind to me and helped me
when I did not deserve it, so I must also be that for her. She has no one else.
Kaden and all of you made sure of that.”
The pulsing heat in my eyes died, and I watched as the metal cooled.
The beating against the door stopped as soon as I started speaking. I heard him sigh and then a thud as he dropped to sit on the floor.
“You’re a hopeless romantic idiot.” It was the last thing I heard him say as I took the metal stairs two at a time.
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