Five
OceanofPDF.com
Samkiel. One Week Later
M y fingers danced across the clean silk bed sheet. Our scents lingered
here no more, only the memory.
“This will be your room while you are here,” the short, dark- haired vampire said as she shoved the large dark carved doors open. I stepped inside, the smell of cologne attacking my senses. My head swung to the massive dressers that I assumed held more items in them than I needed.
A suit like the one Logan had provided for me lay in the center of a large canopied bed.
“My Lord Ethan has provided you with everything you should need, but if there is anything we can do for you… personally, please let us know.”
Her gaze trailed over me suggestively. I heard the snickers from the other vampires from where they lingered by the door.
The heat of her gaze should have stirred something inside me, but it did not. Not like the woman upstairs who had ignored me from the moment she met her friend. My lip turned up at the idea I would lower myself to care.
He was nothing.
“That won’t be necessary.”
There were sighs of disappointment from the hall.
“Well,” the small vampire in front of me said, “if you change your mind…” She stared at me a moment longer, her gaze lingering far too long for my liking before she left, closing the doors behind her.
Their inappropriate whispers fluttered down the hall as I turned back toward the room. I wondered if Dianna’s was the same size or larger. Wait, no, no, I did not. Shaking my head, I glanced up, calming my nerves.
Everything here was overly cumbersome, as if they compensated for the
power they knew they did not possess. I moved further into the room, passing furniture too small for me, and eventually made it to the washroom.
After showering and dressing, I picked up the small device Logan had given me. I buttoned the last button on my shirt before calling him. The phone rang a few times before a small feminine voice filtered through.
“Ms. Martinez?” I asked, surprised that Dianna’s sister had answered.
“Oh, hey. If you’re calling for Logan, he is not here,” Gabby said. I heard her take a bite of something, the crunch loud in my ear as she chewed.
“And why has Logan abandoned his station?”
Her laugh echoed through the phone. “Dianna is right. You talk funny.”
Her comment made my chest react in a strange way. A small flutter, like a bird’s wings, spread warmth through me.
“Dianna speaks about me?”
Silence fell as if she realized she’d said something she shouldn’t have.
“Speaking of my sister. How is she?”
I swallowed. “She is… well.”
“Hmm, and you guys are getting along… well?”
The way she said that word, mimicking me, reminded me so much of Dianna that it brought a small smile to my lips. It seemed I was becoming attached to the feisty, dark-haired woman. I could feel her even now. The running water in her room shut off. I wondered if the Vanderkais had put me in the room beneath her as a way to taunt me. Would she take lovers above me? I shook my head. Why would that thought even cross my mind? I blamed weariness, travel, and being engulfed in her scent for too many nights. If we stayed here, would she stay away from me too? I glanced at the bed and knew I needed her to keep her distance, especially after the dream I had mere hours ago. I wanted her too much, and if I were honest, I had no resistance against her when she was near.
“Where is Logan?” I asked, my voice turning stern as my smile dropped. “You are not to be left alone.”
“Calm down,” Gabby said, just like her sister. “He is close by, or kind of. Neverra and he usually sneak off for about thirty minutes or so to do it. I guess they are trying to respect my space, although it wouldn’t bother me.”
“They left you alone to do what?”
“It! You know? Sex,” she said, speaking fast, her voice a hushed whisper.
I made an exasperated noise as I rubbed the bridge of my nose. Crass.
Definitely her sister.
“Okay, please have him return my call as soon as Neverra and he return.”
“Do you plan to do that with my sister?”
I nearly dropped the phone. “Ms. Martinez, I can assure you that is not my intention,” I managed to choke out, even if the dream from last night told me otherwise.
Gabby said nothing as she chewed, the crunch coming through the
phone. “Why? Do you think she’s ugly?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Too loud?”
“Never.”
“Is she mean to you? She was mean to me when we were little sometimes, but I stole her toys and then her clothes when we got older.”
“She is not mean to me.”
No more so than I deserved, and only when she was mad at me.
“Oh, so it’s because you think she’s a monster?”
“I never… Why are you questioning me on my intentions toward your sister so thoroughly?”
She chewed once more. “I’m just checking.”
“My intentions are clear. They always have been. We are to find this book and then secure it. No more.” I looked up, hearing her feet move across the floor. “No less.”
“Hmm, well, that sucks. My sister has been through a lot of bad things.
Some of those things I had to help her crawl out of, and I wasn’t always sure she was going to make it. It would be nice to have someone with good intentions in her life.”
Dianna’s words from above drowned out whatever her sister said as she spoke to someone. My teeth ground as I realized who was in the room with her.
“Well, I would not worry about that. It seems the vampire with whom we are staying has plenty of intentions.”
Gabby snickered, and I realized exactly how I sounded. “Drake?
Please. If they were going to have sex, it would have been when I first got her back from Novas. She was in a dark place then, very dark. I helped pull
her out, but it was a scary time. She and Drake became really close after, but it was always just a friendship, nothing more.”
“You helped her?” Curiosity got the best of me. “What transpired?”
“That is top-secret sister information. Maybe one day, if your intentions change, she will tell you. Or maybe she won’t. All I’m saying is that anyone would be lucky to be cared for by my sister. I never gave up on her, and if you guys are going to be partners in this whole mission, maybe don’t give up on each other.”
“Okay.” A small smile escaped me as I moved to sit on the bed. I reached down and put on one shoe and then the next as Gabby continued to speak.
“Also, here’s a piece of top-secret information while you guys work together. She will never ask for help, trust me. She is headstrong and will go into things without thinking. Dianna thinks she is invincible, so please watch out for that too. She’s hard on herself and thinks she messes up when she doesn’t, which is annoying because I think she’s perfect, but whatever.
Also, never tell her I said that. She has this face she makes where she scrunches her nose when someone tells her something sweet. It's hilarious.
Oh, and watch her if she gets quiet. Usually, that means she is planning something extreme. She likes to lock herself away in her head. She always has.”
“All of this is very valuable information,” I said with a small smile and stood.
“Listen, I’m just trying to make sure my sister returns to me in one
piece.”
“I assure you she will.”
“Good.” She took another bite. “She’s not whatever you or anyone thinks. She’s nice, funny, smart, and kind… well, when she wants to be.”
“Yes, I am… learning.”
“Good.” Another crunch. “Also, don’t tell her we ever had this
conversation.”
“I swear I will not.”
“Thanks. You’re not as terrible as she said.”
I grinned and started to respond, but the words died on my lips when I heard what sounded like a sniffle or soft cry. My head snapped back, my gaze locking on the ceiling. I listened intently and heard the rumble of that annoying vampire’s voice. Drake.
“I apologize, but I must go.” I didn’t wait for her to respond before hanging up the phone and rushing upstairs. If he had hurt her, I would skin him alive.
“Samkiel,” Logan said, snapping me from the memory.
“What?”
“The vans are loaded, and everything is ready. We just need to escort them,” he said, gripping the doorjamb with one hand. Logan looked a bit worse for wear. He looked how I felt. His facial hair had grown thicker, along with the hair on his head. It had been three weeks since the destruction in Silver City. Three weeks since Neverra had been missing.
Three weeks searching for those Dianna had sworn she would come for, leading me back to Zarall.
I nodded, my gaze straying to the bed again before I said, “I will be down in one moment.”
Logan left the room, his footsteps disappearing down the hall. I sighed and stared at the bed. I should have taken her from here, regardless of those stupid minuscule leads and her trust in the ones she assumed were her friends. We could have returned to the guild and spent more time researching my way. I could have kept her safe, kept her sister safe. Guilt threatened to devour me like a raging, flaming beast.
I turned away from the bed and headed out of the room. My feet were at the edge of the door when I caught her scent, the subtle spiciness of cinnamon. Between one breath and the next, I had portalled from one end of the room to the other, my powers more erratic than ever. My hand trembled slightly as I reached out, picking up the gray garment. I gripped it with both hands, lifting it to my nose and inhaling. With her scent came the memories, images flashing through my mind, one by one. Dianna smiling, laughing, and the sound of that god’s awful whimsical music playing as rides creaked in the background.
I lowered the jacket from my face. It was the one I’d given Dianna that day at the festival when she’d gotten cold. It was a gesture I had seen a mortal man do and one she’d laughed at.
As I lowered the jacket, I noticed a tiny white and gray strip poking from one of the pockets. My chest tightened as I pulled the narrow piece of paper out and gazed at the images. Dianna laughed in one, smiled in another, and scowled at me in the last. But the middle one was my favorite.
She gripped my face, turning me toward the camera.
My heart ached. I was so afraid I would never see her laugh or smile again. I had not realized how deeply my feelings for her had grown over the months we spent together. How utterly attached I had become to my fiery temptress. I had not realized it until it was too late, and she had already left, taking a part of me with her. My head spun as thick, blinding rage swept over me, eclipsing the sadness. They did this. They took her happiness away, and they would pay greatly for it.
I slid the pictures into my pocket and strode from the room with the jacket gripped in my fist. Several celestials passed me in the halls as they went about removing every single thing from the Vanderkais estate. I stopped a young female who had several sample bags lined with red tape.
“Take this and load it into the van with the rest of the evidence,” I said, thrusting the jacket at her.
She nodded and placed it inside a plastic bag before disappearing down the stairs. I took the steps two at a time, voices filling the main floor, heads bowing as I passed. The front doors remained open, celestials passing through to place various items into the vans out front.
I came around the banister, moving fully into the main room. Logan stood with his arms folded across his chest, two celestial guards flanking him. More guards surrounded the vampires, watching them closely.
“Everything you own is mine now—every property, home, item, relic, and bank account. Mine,” I said. Drake looked at me before glancing at Ethan and his wife, Naomi. Ethan loved Naomi so dearly he’d doomed the world for her. “You own nothing any longer. You will own nothing in the future, assuming you have one once your trial is done.”
The rage that had risen within me upstairs bubbled in my blood as I prowled closer to Drake. “Was it worth it? Do you sleep well knowing what you destroyed?” I asked, my eyes boring into Drake’s as I stood over him.
The sweater, slacks, and scuffed shoes he wore were not the overpriced items he usually sported. The once flamboyant, gleeful prince seemed a shell of the man who had flirted, laughed, and joked with my Dianna. No, he seemed almost broken. His eyes, bloodshot and empty, stared at me.
Ethan cut in, interjecting as I continued to stare at Drake. “I did what I had to for the one I love. For my family. I would think you’d understand?”
“She hid you and your family from Kaden, and in return, you took hers!” I bellowed, the lights in the room flickering in response. “You let him take Gabriella. You stood by and allowed him to murder the last living
member of her family, and you think I would understand that? Do you really think you can justify what you have done? I hope you enjoyed your short time together because, by my power, none of you will see the other again.”
I saw Drake’s head drop from the corner of my eye as Ethan inhaled sharply. The wife, the short, dark-haired woman at his side, gripped his arm tighter. “That was not part of the plan, I assure you. Kaden wanted to lure Dianna out. That was it. He has always wanted Dianna, and he always will.
He is willing to do drastic things to get her back. I’m sure you understand that, too.”
My jaw clenched. He did not know the lengths I would risk to get Dianna back. I needed her. I needed her happy and whole and with me.
“You will all be taken to the Council of Hadrameil to stand trial. You and Drake have committed treason. Not only did you kidnap Gabriella, but you also took a member of The Hand, a crime punishable by death. All of that, and we haven’t even touched on accomplices to murder. You will be lucky if I do not send you all to Oblivion by the time this is done.” I glanced at Ethan, then at Drake. “Have I made myself clear?”
Ethan looked at his wife and reached up, squeezing the hand she had tightened on his shoulder. The matching marks on their fingers caught my eye before he turned back toward me. “We are very aware of the consequences, but I cannot say I regret it. I love my wife, and I knew the risks. We did not feel there was another way—”
“There was!” I snapped, my resolve slipping. Several lights burst, raining shards of glass onto the floor. I felt the room condense a thousand or more atoms vibrating with a power I barely had control over these last few weeks. Charged. That’s the word Logan used. Everything around me felt charged. I felt Logan move next to me. A slight shift as if he was on guard, protecting not them but me. Thunder cracked on the horizon before I reined in my temper. “We spent how many weeks in your home? You could have told me, told her. I could have helped you, all of you, and yet you did nothing. You’ve damned your family not saved them. Had you told us, maybe the outcome would have been different.”
“He is not what you think he is.”
I scoffed, my fingers grazing the bridge of my nose, my headache growing. “Besides an arrogant megalomaniac. I know what he is.” Drake and Ethan looked at me as if I were a fool. “He is one of the Kings of
Yejedin. It does not matter. I have fought kings, beasts, and gods and won.
You all knew that, yet you expect me to feel sorry that you aligned yourself with a psychopath? Pity is not what I feel for you.”
Ethan spoke, but I did not hear what he said. I did not care for any more excuses. My eyes shut, and I rubbed a hand over my forehead. The headaches were returning. I hadn’t slept since it happened, since she left, and neither had Logan.
“You know we have a name in our world for what you are,” I said, speaking over Ethan, my eyes opening. “There is no translation in your language, but it means the lowest of men. You are cowards. Traitors. I’ve met skinless grizzly beasts who fight harder than you two have. You’re even less than the shit rodents leave behind. You claim to love and care for her, yet you let him have and take the one person she loved.” I paused, trying to rein in the thundering in my chest and the clouds growing outside. I took a breath, shaking my head as I studied them. “You have taken someone from me with your actions—someone very precious to me. And now you have helped a lunatic corrupt her already damaged heart, shattering it into a million pieces. They are pieces I will pick up and fix, but what you have done is unforgivable. I plan to make you suffer for that transgression. Death would be a kindness, and you deserve none.”
I turned toward Logan, disgust eating away at me. “Get them out of my sight. I want separate cars and prison cells for them. They will not speak to one another until the trial, and they will be lucky if I even let them eat.”
Drake nodded and glanced at his brother as Logan’s celestials moved toward them. The guards took out cuffs and securely locked them around the three vampire’s wrists. Ethan and his wife were compliant until the celestials pulled them apart.
“You can’t do this!” Ethan shouted as they took Naomi from the room.
The guards escorted Drake out next, his head hung low. Ethan continued to shout. “Please, Samkiel! I just got her back. Just let me rot in a cell with her. I don’t care what happens afterward. Please!”
I did not respond as Logan nodded toward the celestial standing beside Ethan.
“Look, I know how you feel. I get it. I know you love her. Kaden knows it too. Why do you think he did what he did?” Ethan said, his voice filled with desperation.
I narrowed my eyes at him. Every word he spoke just added fuel to my rage.
“He will keep her away from you if it’s the last thing he does. You’re too strong together, too powerful for what he has planned, what they have planned. If she’d stayed with you, it would have messed up everything. You two were never supposed to meet,” Ethan said, struggling against the grip of the celestials.
The blistering rage that threatened to consume me went cold at his words.
“What?” I raised my hand. The two guards stopped just inside the door.
“What do you know?”
“We knew we couldn’t fight him, couldn’t kill him, but you two together? The two of you are enough to shatter worlds, and he and everyone else know it. You are a threat to him and to others, and so is she. Why do you think we pushed so hard while you two were here? Even Camilla tried.
Regardless of us being bound to Kaden, we had to try,” Ethan said.
Had to try. Had to see.
The words played over in my head. Similar to the ones Roccurem had spoken in his realm.
“I’ll tell you nothing more unless you promise I can at least stay with my wife while you have us.” Ethan’s demand shook me from my thoughts.
Energy burst from me, shattering the remaining lights in the mansion. I clenched my fists, cloaking the entire house in darkness. The guards let go as I hefted Ethan off his feet. I held him high, his arrogant demeanor long gone. He was no longer a king but a broken man. I wondered what Kaden had done or said to make even Ethan cower into himself.
“Deals are done. There are no more. I will make no more bargains, no more alliances. You will tell me what you know—”
My skin prickled, and my words stopped, the hairs rising on the back of my neck. The world went still with fear. I heard the wings of several birds flutter into the sky and the retreating footsteps of small and large animals moving swiftly away from the area. Then I felt it.
Her.
My heart thudded rapidly against my chest, the sound competing with the noise of weapons firing outside. A savage howl ripped through the night air, followed by ear-splitting screams. Celestials yelled orders to one another, and light flashed every time a trigger was pulled. I dropped Ethan
to his feet, not bothering to see if he would run or follow. I rounded the corner, taking the stone steps three at a time. Logan raised his ablaze weapon, turning from side to side, instructing his men to stay in line. They were yanked into the thick forest one by one, followed by any vampire not detained in one of the vans.
Drake’s hands pressed against the window of the van. He stared through the glass at the darkened forest, fear lurking in the depths of his eyes.
Headlights spotlighted sections of the forest, but an unnatural stillness had consumed it. Not a single living thing remained in the surrounding trees. Only the heartbeats of my celestials echoed here. Every living creature in a fifty-mile radius had fled for their lives.
I stopped beside Logan. “Werewolves?”
Logan shook his head, keeping his eyes on the forest’s edge. “Not werewolves. Only one wolf.”
I shook my head. The scent I caught was not of a beast. “Not a wolf. An
Ig’Morruthen.”
“She’s here,” Logan whispered.
I heard footsteps behind me.
“Where’s my wife?” Ethan asked.
His answer came a second later. Dianna emerged from the darkness, her crimson gaze sweeping over the celestials and holding on me. I felt Ethan shift behind me, and her eyes flickered to him, her expression twisting. I knew two things with absolute certainty. First, when she came out to fight, she wore her hair back from her face as she did now, her long ponytail swinging behind her. Second, this cruel creature wasn’t my Dianna.
Years of war had steeled my stomach to gruesome atrocities, but seeing her so casually holding the head of Ethan’s wife in her palm had my gut twisting.
Everyone stopped and held their breath. My body pulsed, the power inside me rushing to the surface. It wasn’t in lust, but in fear of her, my body preparing to act, to protect. Power swirled around her, her magic so much more than when we first met. It bent and coiled, encasing her entire being, the strength of it multilayered and rich. I felt my power coalesce in my hands, light bursting to life on my palms. I snuffed it out almost immediately, but I could tell by the grin that tugged at the corner of her mouth that she had caught it.
She was different. We all sensed it. Even the forest acted as if it wanted to retreat. Her energy rubbed against mine, almost abrasive. Logan shifted next to me as if he were willing his own power to calm down and not react because this was Dianna. She wasn’t dangerous. She wasn’t deadly or a threat to us. I knew it in my soul. She was Dianna. My Dianna.
Dianna cleared the edge of the forest, moving with the easy grace of a predator. She was on the hunt, the vampires her prey. She tossed the fleshy mass from one hand to the other, and I heard Ethan’s knees crash to the ground beside me.
“Was this all my sister was worth?” she asked, her gaze flicking between Ethan and Drake where he still sat in the van. “A pound of flesh?”
She stopped, holding the severed head on one palm. The skin cracked, red embers showing through the fractures before it burst into flames. It burned, true death taking what had once been Ethan’s wife. Dianna leaned forward, blowing the ashes from her palm. The act was as cruel and sadistic as I had ever seen.
Ethan’s cry of anguish cut through the pounding of my heart. Feet shuffled as the vampires attempted to flee.
“You don’t listen.” Dianna wiped her hands together and turned toward me. “I told you to stay out of it.”
She took another step, and the celestials closest to her took one back.
“And you know how I respond to threats.”
“Well, like I said.” She stopped, her eyes scanning me from head to toe.
A smile tipped up the corner of her mouth, a single fang making its appearance. “It was a warning.”
My body reacted almost violently as she stopped near me. Her power, how she smelled of blood, the scent radiating from her told me one horrid truth. She had been feeding gluttonously. Every cell screamed danger even as my soul whispered what a lie it was. My heart skipped a beat, and I’m sure they all heard, but I couldn’t help it. No matter what, Dianna stole the very breath from my lungs without even trying. I was a fool to have denied what I had felt for her. A complete and utter fool. I could never lie about that again, nor did I plan on it, and right now, regardless of the bloodshed, one simple truth rang true. I missed her so godsdamn much.
“Where have you been?” Not the question I had originally wanted to ask, but my concern and worry for her bubbled up, overriding the rational part of my brain.
“Sorry, I took a few days off. I had a funeral to deal with.” She shrugged, and my heart sank, a cold realization hitting me like a tidal wave.
“You found Gabriella.”
She lifted a single finger as if it was nonconsequential. “Actually, Camilla did.”
“You’re with Camilla?” I nearly recoiled.
“Aw, don’t look so hurt, lover. Or should I say ex-lover? I’m not with her. She is only alive because she proved herself useful, and I slaughtered her entire coven, so I guess we’re kind of even for now. Besides, she did a nice little spell that told me I had to wait so you all would come out of hiding.” She glanced at the still kneeling Ethan and then at Drake locked in the van. “I mean, I know a pussy when I see one.”
Dianna wasn’t stalling. She was calculating her odds and making a plan on how to get through me to them.
“Where is Neverra?” Logan’s voice broke, his tone pleading and his question hanging in the air.
Her eyes jerked toward Logan as if his voice alone was an insult. Her head tilted slightly, venom filling her smile. All traces of the woman who had joked and laughed with me were gone. “I don’t know. Maybe check the morgue.” She paused and smiled cruelly. “But I guess that wouldn’t help either since you all burst into a thousand particles of light when you die.”
I caught Logan glancing at the mark of Dhihsin on his finger. He knew that if she were truly dead, the mark tying them together would be gone, too. I could see that he clung to that hope.
“You know, this was smart,” Dianna said, her eyes cutting back to mine.
As our gazes clashed, something small and brief flashed beneath the glowing red embers of her irises, but just as quickly, anger replaced it. Her lips pulled back in a silent snarl, revealing the sharp elongated canines.
“Getting to them before I could. Do you plan to save everyone involved in
her death?”
“No. I’m here to save you.”
“Me? That’s so sweet, but you’re a thousand years too late on that one,” she said, regret flashing in her eyes.
“They will pay for what they did, Dianna. They will face justice for—”
“Justice?” A sick laugh escaped her as she clicked her teeth. “Oh, you really are noble. We both know there is no justice in our world. Blood must
be paid with blood.”
“No.”
“There it is again. Your favorite word.” Her face turned to granite. “You really are a knight in shining armor, are you not? Or at least you pretend to be. So kind to help those who maim and slaughter. But then, I guess you can relate since you maim and slaughter. Just like your father and every king and monarch before him. Isn’t that how empires work?”
“Don’t.” The word was clipped, short, and had enough power behind it, Logan stepped forward. She knew what could hurt me and was using the knowledge as a weapon against me.
“Did I hit a nerve?” Dianna’s smile widened a fraction. “How about another? The great and powerful king, except you’re not. You’re not powerful. I know what scares you, makes you weak, makes you hurt. They don’t call you World Ender for the fun of it. So, what? You believe in fairness now?” She scoffed before placing her hands on her hips, her bloody fingers tapping restlessly. “Fine. I can be fair, too. For protecting her, for giving her a home, I will grant you a boon. Leave. Take Logan and your
men and leave.”
“Dianna.”
“Just go home. Go back to your castles and towers of silver. Go home and let the monsters handle their business.”
My heart sank because I knew what I had feared was coming. I knew it with every cell in my body. I did not have the words to describe the ache I felt. What was about to happen would change everything for her, for us, and for them.
“Dianna. I can’t. There has to be order in any realm. There has to be.”
“Since when?” She threw the words at me, lacing them with venom.
“You were gone a thousand years. Go another.”
“You know I can’t. There has to be a line. You know that, and you know that’s me. Otherwise, there would be nothing but utter chaos. Slaughtering them isn’t justice or getting even. It’s eradication and vengeance. Once that vengeance is done, you’ll have nothing. You only make more enemies that way, not less. Trust me. I know you are hurting.”
A small smile danced across her features before her brows drew together. I knew that look. It was one of many I had memorized, and I knew what she was thinking.
“Don’t mistake my words.” I took a small step toward her, the dirt beneath my boot crunching. “I want to help you. You don’t have to be
alone. You don’t have to go through this tremendous grief and loss alone.
This, killing them, isn’t the way to heal any of it, and once all that anger and grief wears off, you’ll be left with nothing but an empty void. Trust me.
Please.”
Dianna paused. It was a slight one, but it ignited the ember of hope I carried within my chest, hope that she was still in there.
“I trusted you once. When we were on Novas, I trusted you when you said that Kaden wouldn’t harm her. You said she was a tether, so I listened. I stayed and waited with you, and I…” Her eyes closed tightly as if willing some deep part of her closed. She took a deep breath, and her eyes snapped open the next second. “There is no version of this where anyone involved stays alive, but you know that already. You know that I’m going after Kaden.”
I nodded. “I also know what you have to do for the strength you need to do so. What you must consume and how long it’s been since you last partook. I know what that will do to you. What it’s already done.”
She smiled again, the crimson of her eyes flaring a shade brighter. “Yes, because you know your enemies, right? The treacherous Ig’Morruthens.
They are the one thing the gods feared. The one thing designed to hurt them.”
“There can be another way. I know it. I’ll help you as you helped me.”
“Okay.” She shrugged a single shoulder, the curve of her lip lifting.
“Kill them.”
“What?”
“You want to help? Help. Kill them. Right now. Start with Ethan. Make sure Drake sees and then kill every member of his coven. Save him for last, so he knows how it feels to lose everyone.”
“Dianna.”
“Do it.” She lifted her hand toward them, waving it. “You want to help?
Help me.”
I didn’t speak.
“That’s what I thought.” She took a step forward, her voice barely a whisper. “Because when it comes down to it, there will always be a line, just like you said. You on one side, me on the other.”
“It doesn’t have to be.”
“Doesn’t it? Doesn’t this remind you of the first time we met? When I snuck into the guild. Did you know I wasn’t even supposed to be at that
meeting? I was supposed to look for the book with Alistair and Tobias while you all attended downstairs. But I couldn’t help it. I wanted to protect her so badly that I strapped a dagger to my thigh and went in. As soon as I stepped foot in that building, I was overwhelmed. I didn’t even have to look for you.
I could feel you through the walls.”
She closed her eyes, swaying slightly on her feet as if tasting the air between us. I clenched my hands, trying to stop their trembling as her eyes snapped open, their depths a swirling blood-red mass that centered my very world.
“You are pure, blinding energy. You make my entire being tingle. Do you feel it too? Do you feel me?”
I cocked my head, staring at her. Come to think of it, I didn’t, and she knew it. The pull I felt toward her led into the forest.
“You’re distracting me.”
Her lips spread into a slow smile. “You know me so well.”
The trees behind her shook, and her form in front of me vanished in a swirl of green magic. A mighty scaled head rose above the trees, several horns jutting back, protecting the massive skull. Its jaws gaped wide, an orange glow blooming deep in its throat. I had a second to react, a second to decide who to save, and a second to succeed. A roar of flame shot from its mouth, decimating everything in its path.
I grabbed Logan and portalled, reappearing several miles deeper in the forest. The explosion erupted behind us. Heat licked at my skin, flames engulfing the jacket I wore. I stood and tossed it off. The mansion burned, a smoke plume reaching for the sky. The deep glow of flames peeked through the canopy of trees. Coughing sounded from the other celestials. I had used just a portion of the incantation my father had taught me eons ago to force them away from the mansion.
“Get the others out of here,” I ordered.
I started back toward the burning mansion. The forest around it screamed as the trees broke and burned.
“You’re insane.” Logan grabbed my arm. “I can’t leave you.”
“I will be fine, Logan.”
“You saw her? Do you feel that heat? It’s hotter than before. She’s stronger, Samkiel, and I can’t lose you, too.” I knew he was coming from a place of fear and lack of sleep, the logical part of his brain in survival mode.
“Have you forgotten that I am truly immortal and also fireproof? Her flames do not harm me. You are in danger, not me.”
Logan looked at me and then glanced at the mansion, a glint sparking in his eyes. “Do you remember Shangulion?”
My brows furrowed before realization clicked in. “Yes.”
“I have a plan.”
OceanofPDF.com
