“Iona?” he asked. The confusion in his tone was clear. A cool hand wrapped around my elbow, drawing me closer. I knew it was Moira. That she was pulling me to her, hoping that her touch would soothe me as it often did. I was as numb to her as I was to the vision before me. I simply stood there—and I waited.
Assumptions make an ass out of everyone.
Isn’t that what people always say?
It seems that no one thought to mention how much this hurt; how much giving a shit hurt. His silence was hard, but his first word? That was harder.
And I was trying really fucking hard not to assume what the fuck this all meant—because his first words weren’t a correction. They weren’t an apology. They weren’t even addressed to me.
They were for her.
A blade twisting through my chest would have been kinder.
My hands curled into fists at my sides, nails biting into the palms. The world seemed to be at a standstill, waiting for them to say something. No one more so than me.
Because I wouldn’t believe it. I couldn’t. After everything we’d been through...
“Iona, I thought you were dead. I watched you die,” he uttered and then he backed away. His golden hair lit up like the dying sun. His eyes sparkled like gems, but there was a dangerous undercurrent within. That dark power he kept locked up tight was straining. The veins beneath his tanned face turned black as he struggled for control over his emotions.
“I’m sorry—” She reached for him again and he recoiled.
“No, I watched you die,” he repeated. His head shook. He sounded very sure of this.
“I almost did,” she murmured, swallowing hard. I wanted to tear my eyes away because it felt like watching a lover’s quarrel. One that didn’t involve me.
“Clearly.” Rysten’s mask snapped into place, hiding his emotion from all except me. Even with the added touch of glamor to keep his true feelings concealed, the bond allowed me to see and feel through it. Inside, he was hurting.
“Aren’t you happy to see me, Rys?” she asked, a slight whine to her voice that had me closing my eyes and turning away. I didn’t know what I was watching unfold, but I was sure I didn’t want to be a part of it.
“See that you’re alive after thousands of years?” I felt her reaction. The way her heart echoed mine from moments ago. “I looked for you. I mourned for you, and you’ve been doing what all this time? Hiding? Working?”
“It’s not that simple, baby—”
And that was when I started walking.
“Don’t call me that!” he roared. “I’m not your anything anymore. You left me.”
A bundle of fur at my feet made me stop. Bandit pulled on my jeans and I bent at the waist to scoop him up. Water pricked my eyes, but I’d be damned if I let myself cry over this. Rysten already owned a piece of my heart. He didn’t get my tears too.
“I lived because of you,” she snapped. “When my body was broken and bleeding out, I thought of you. He tossed what was left of me into the lake, but I survived because of you.” I clung to Bandit as I walked away. All eyes seemed to be on the arguing couple. All except mine.
I had no desire to see where this was going.
Storming past the makings of another campfire and a snarling enigma in hellhound form, I pushed between the few demons in masks standing at the other side of camp and continued on.
On to where I could no longer hear Rysten’s accusations and that woman’s excuses. On to where the bond wasn’t so sharp between us, and his pain didn’t bleed over into me so acutely that it felt as if she’d betrayed me and not him. On to where the last of the setting sun dipped below the horizon and that jewel-toned skyline went grey.
Focusing on the colorless sky was easier than sorting through the pains in my chest and the ache in my heart. A sharp wind rustled the trees around me. Branches whipped, trees swayed, and an unsettling cold slapped me in the face. I touched my cheek and my fingers came away wet from tears I didn’t even know I’d shed.
I glared at the liquid on my fingers. Tears mixed with sweat and dirt and heartbreak.
“For fuck’s sake,” I cursed, wiping my hand on the tight pants I wore. Bandit nestled closer as I lifted the edge of my shirt to clean my face.
What happened back there looked pretty bad, and I reacted on that, but at least I hadn’t burned her alive. I was a lot of things, a murderer included, but that didn’t mean I had to act like it. Inside me the beast writhed with anger and dark promise. She wanted to punish the blonde for touching Rysten, but the way I saw it—it wasn’t the blonde’s fault. Iona. That was her name.
She wasn’t the one bonded to me. She probably had no idea.
It was on Rysten to set her straight, and while he’d been pretty shocked to see her—reasonably so from what I heard—that didn’t excuse him. That didn’t place the blame on her.
The beast didn’t really fault that logic, but she was far more forgiving towards him if the other she-demon was dead. Something about that snapped me from my own stupor and made me roll my eyes. How very...beast-like of her.
Our bond connected us in ways I wished to escape at this moment. I could feel his emotions spike. Betrayal was prominent. Guilt. I couldn’t figure where the emotions came from or why, only that they were there and for some reason, they had hit a staggering frequency despite the greater distance.
Their argument must be cresting just as my head was clearing and the rising bloodlust cooling.
Bandit curled around me tighter and he bared his teeth at the outer forest, but nothing was there. Just dirt and trees and grey. Turning from the far-off horizon still very much out of our reach, I looked back towards the direction of camp.
I sighed. “We should probably get back,” I told Bandit. His ears twitched, but other than that he didn’t respond. Not that I really expected him to.
As I started walking the strangest feeling crept up on me. Almost...no, that can’t be right. I brushed my hands over my arms and against the goosebumps that were rising on my skin beneath my flannel. Then the hairs on my neck stood on end.
It was silent. Far too silent.
My footsteps slowed to a crawl as I approached the tree line. On the other side would be the clearing where the Horsemen, Moira, Jax, the four steeds, and the many masked demons should be.
Why was it that I felt eyes on me then?
I stared straight ahead as the wind whispered across the forest floor.
A twig snapped.
I spun around, but it was the wrong move. A hand clamped over my mouth. I panicked.
Reacting on nothing but instinct and adrenaline, I brought my foot back and down on the foot of my would-be subduer. They held strong, though, and the scent of flowers washed over me.
“Listen carefully because I won’t repeat myself,” a female voice whispered in my ear. Deep and husky. The scent of blood and lilies settled around me. “You’re in great danger here. My master is watching both of us.” A chill skittered down my back, leaving me cold. Sin was nearly as tall as I and her slender fingers as calloused as the Horsemen’s. The rough pads pressed against the column of my throat as if in warning. “I am trying to help you, but my hands are tied in how much I can do. Your path is set. All that’s left is for you to follow it.”
The second her hand dropped from my mouth I whirled on her. Mercury eyes watched me with a carefully crafted sort of stillness that wasn’t natural. This woman was every bit the predator my beast was, except one of these was born out of nature and the other...I could only guess.
I tampered down the rising anger by reminding myself who I was talking to. Sin wasn’t one to fuck around when she wanted something. She didn’t understand shit like boundaries. Hell, she stripped my telepathy with a twirl of her fingers. That alone should give the beast pause, though it didn’t. It was good the beast wasn’t the one in charge here, or Sin might already be burning.
The corner of her lips curved up in a crude sort of smile.
“You’re a s
mart girl. So was your mother.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Sin? The path is set? What fucking path?” I threw my head back and closed my eyes, pressing the palm of my hand to my forehead. I took a deep breath and said, “Is it even possible for you to speak plainly? I’m getting tired of the games here.”
Her lips twisted into a grimace. “We all are. This world is dying, and we’re being forced to leave it in the hands of a child. If I could speak plainly and tell you exactly what to do, I would—but there are things in motion you don’t know or understand yet.”
I shook my head and my hand fell away. “Why are you here, Sin? You seem to only come when I’m either going to die or already dying. Since I am currently neither, your sudden appearance makes me think those demons in the woods might change that.” I raised my eyes to the treetops looking for any sign of eyes watching, but we were alone. As alone as one could possibly be in a forest filled with monsters.
“They are not who they appear.” She looked over my shoulder as if seeing something faraway. “They’ve been…changed by time and desperation.”
I rocked back on my heels and wiped my thumb across my bottom lip.
“Great. So, they are trying to kill us,” I said. My voice was oddly steady for the panic I should be feeling. There was once a time that one full demon would make me scared, but that time was no more. I’d killed men, dozens of men, in the name of destroying evil and avenging my familiars. I’d lit them up without a thought and watched their corpses burn until only black ash remained, all without a single grimace.
The masked demons, while problematic, were not my biggest concern.
“Who isn’t?” Sin scoffed, looking to the treetops above us.
“That’s the real question,” I murmured, more to myself than anything. Sin cocked an eyebrow in my direction and I sighed. “What changed them?”
Sin didn’t react, but that in and of itself was a reaction. Her unfettered response was too cool. Too...practiced. The way her eyes didn’t avoid me but also didn’t drill into my soul. She never shifted or otherwise fidgeted when we met. Sin was far too confident for that sort of thing. That didn’t mean she didn’t have tells, though.
“Magic.” Her eyes flashed, the only warning I’d get about straying too close to questions she can’t answer. Her half-answers wouldn’t work forever.
“Who changed them?” I rephrased.
That cruel smile—the one that danced on the edge of chaos—sat on her lips again.
“I can’t tell you.”
“Can’t or won’t?” I pushed. The silver of her eyes darkened a fraction.
“Both,” she answered with the slightest growl to the word. I narrowed my gaze, flicking my eyes between her and the tree line.
“Do they have a master?” I asked so quietly I almost wondered if she didn’t hear it.
But then came her response, and it wasn’t even a sound. Just a silent word on her lips. “Yes.”
I nodded slowly, taking that in.
“You know,” I said, “your master may prevent you from saying a lot. The rune of silence you placed on me prevents me from doing the same. I can’t say anything to the Horsemen. I can’t talk to Moira. This whole thing would be a lot easier if I could speak with someone, though. Maybe they could help me—”
“No.” Her tone was sharp. Short. She didn’t leave room for arguing.
“I understand very little about this world and now I’m having to rely solely on you to handle whichever of Lucifer’s enemies is after me.” I’d been playing this game with her for a little while now, but my patience was running thin after what went down in New Orleans. Now after trekking through Hell, my temper was even thinner. “I know that your hands are tied, but you’re giving me breadcrumbs here. One of these times someone is going to be one step ahead of you and it’s going to be me that dies because of it.”
The silver of her eyes seemed to transform and glow as she watched me, jaw tight and body stiff. She didn’t like that I was pushing back, but I didn’t have a lot of fucks to give at this point.
“Devil-damnit, Sin,” I whispered a curse. “You owe me after all the shit I went through.”
Sin continued to watch me as I let out a sigh and moved to step around her. Cool fingers touched my forearm.
“She is going to invite you to the Garden tonight. Go with her. You and your mates will be in great danger, but you will find the answers you seek.” Her words were punctuated with strain and inundated with weariness. She was struggling with something. If only I knew what.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“Don’t thank me just yet.”
I glanced sideways, but her eyelids were shuttered, keeping the hidden truths in her eyes concealed. “I don’t understand everything you’ve done or why. At times it has infuriated me because I wish that this were simple. My life will never be simple again, though, and I have to learn to live with that.” I paused, sucking in a deep breath. “I’m going to choose to overlook what happened in New Orleans. Without you I have very few allies. That doesn’t mean I trust you. It means that I trust you had a damn good reason for what you did to me and mine.” Her eyes opened, zeroing in on me. “I trust that you meant what you said that night, that you want to see me on the throne. Which is why I’m not going to let the beast do what it really wants to you. This time. Next time, I make no promises. Your master clearly holds a lot of power here, and I need to find out who they are, with or without you.”
“You’re threatening me?” she chuckled, not sounding even the slightest bit scared.
“No, I’m warning you that this is your last chance before the beast overrides my forgiveness.” She paused, tilting her head to the side. “I’d like us to be true allies. Friends, even, when this is all over. Friends don’t stab each other in the back to meet their own needs. Remember that.”
Her hand dropped away from my arm, and I didn’t need to look to know that she was already gone.
Sin came to deliver a warning and I gave her one instead.
Perhaps if we both listened to each other we’d all make it out of this alive.
*Allistair*
Where the fuck had she gone?
I’d been scanning the clearing while Iona and Rysten were at each other’s neck, hashing out the details of a history I’d rather forget. While everyone was watching them, I had been watching her. The shock on her face. The flush that crept up her neck and over her cheeks. The bitter tang of betrayal when Rysten made the mistake of letting Iona kiss him and not correcting her. She was like an open book when I could read her body and emotions, and Rysten had hurt her greatly.
But then something happened.
Her eyes went cold and she disappeared, along with any trace of the bond. If I hadn’t watched it with my own eyes, I might have thought it was one of the fuckers in a mask toying with us, but that sort of power...no, none of them could have done it. She glamored herself so efficiently that I, nor any of the other Horsemen, could not find her.
“Where is she?” I telepathically shot towards Moira. Her familiar seemed none too troubled in the slightest and was more concerned with analyzing Rysten’s every move than helping us find Ruby.
“She needs space,” came the chilled reply. It was the same she’d given the last five times and I was losing my patience, but no matter which of us asked, she was unwilling to comply. Her loyalty was to Ruby, and Ruby alone.
“She could be in danger,” I thought, changing tactics. The corner of her dark green lips curved up in a cruel sort of smile.
“I pity the idiot that tries her right now.”
I clenched my teeth and turned away. She wasn’t wrong, and that made this all the more dangerous. The last thing we needed was an all-out fight with Iona’s faction before reaching Inferna, which is what it very well could turn into if they were here for her and noticed she was gone. Except fucking Moira was stonewalling me and the damn raccoon had gone with Ruby, which left me with no way to find her un
til she decided to show herself.
Stretching my fingers to keep from curling them into fists, I headed towards the edge of the forest, opposite from Rysten and Iona. If she was looking to get away from them, it made more sense for her to go that way.
“You’re threatening me?” came the hushed chuckle of amusement I knew all too well. I peered out into the trees as I glamored myself to blend in with them.
“No, I’m warning you that this is your last chance before the beast overrides my forgiveness,” a second voice said. I squinted my eyes. “I’d like us to be true allies. Friends, even, when this is all over. Friends don’t stab each other in the back to meet their own needs. Remember that.”
A shadow appeared where I now knew Ruby to be standing. The faint outline of two women and a raccoon. Sin’s fingers slipped from Ruby’s forearm as she took a step away. In the blink of an eye the white-haired woman was gone and Ruby stood alone.
While my eyes roved over her for signs of distress, my mind was more occupied with what exactly those two were doing with each other. Sin had only met Ruby once in passing…or had she?
I wanted to believe that my little succubus wasn’t keeping secrets from us, but the hard edge to her expression as she stared toward the clearing didn’t leave me so certain. Half my instincts told me I should go to her now and try to pull the truth from her lips, but the other half told me to wait. Watch. Ruby was loyal to those she considered hers, even if she didn’t say everything. Devil knows there are things that we’ve been reluctant to tell her. After all she’s given up for us and for this, the last thing anyone wanted was to bring her more pain. In doing so, though…she may have sought out other answers from people with less reservations. Like Sin.
Torn by indecision, I hesitated as a banshee’s screech split the air. Ruby’s eyes flashed obsidian and then back to blue as she pulled her shoulders back and walked towards the clearing. Walked, not ran. Which meant either Moira wasn’t in trouble, or Ruby trusted her to handle it on her own. I doubled back, instantly assessing the scene before me, just as Ruby did.
Brimstone Nightmares (Queen of the Damned Book 4) Page 7
