“Get him on the phone, now!”
His uncle’s muttered curses were lost to the roaring in Blaze’s ears. His pulse was wild as he paced back and forth, running his hand through his hair. He tugged on it, no doubt making it stand straight on end.
The phone made several garbled noises before Dominic’s thick, Russian accent filled the speaker.“Da?”
“How many were able to make it inside the wards?”
“Twenty-six by my estimation. Easily taken care of, but they were able to make it into the manor.”
Blaze swore.“How? Who was on watch?”
Dominic paused. “They were invisible somehow, cousin. They were only made visible once slain. We were fighting blind.”
His lungs squeezed.
But Sergei said what Blaze was thinking: “A Spellcaster helped them attack.”
Dominic grunted his agreement. Their keen sense of hearing made speaking directly into the phone unnecessary.
“Have any other compounds been attacked?” Blaze asked.
“Not that we know of,” Dominic replied.
The anxiety in his tone was something Blaze recognized. He lowered his voice and asked,“Breanna and Isaac?”
“Safe.”
The word spoken by his cousin was said like a vow. Blaze knew that Dominic had grown to care for the girl and her son. While his family and all the Giborim would demand he keep his distance, Blaze didn’t issue any such sentiments. It was too late for that. And when the time came that Dominic made his intentions toward her public, he would need an ally.
There was no one more understanding than Blaze. His eyes drifted in the direction of Emma’s room as if he could see her through the dozen or so walls separating them.
“Keep her safe,” he said, accent thick with emotion. “We’ll be there first thing tomorrow.”
“Nyet,” Dominic said firmly. No.“Finish the mission. We won’t let them get close again.”
The line disconnected, cutting off Blaze’s reply. He pocketed his phone slowly, still feeling every fiber of his being pulling him back toward Emma. To wrap his arms around her and simply make sure she was safe.
But he resisted, looking to Sergei and his brother.“We need more allies, and we need them now.”
17
Emma
G ertie snored peacefully in the bed next to Emma’s while she stared at the ceiling replaying Axel’s cold distaste for her over and over. It didn’t make sense—Axel had
been kind in his own way, up until she’d returned. She knew people would treat her differently, but she hadn’t expected it from him. It had stung.
Whatever his reasons, Emma decided to pull him aside tomorrow and have it out with him one way or another.
Her eyelids had just begun to feel heavy when she felt hooks under her ribcage, and her back leaving the bed. In a flash, she was on her knees, breathing heavily as she always did when her body was whisked away so violently.
Above her, Asmodeus perched in his ivory throne as the beast he truly was: skin coal black, with veins of glowing reds and oranges like molten lava churned inside him, eyes as red as the blood he spilled just for sport. Smoke curled and puffed from his dragon-like nostrils, dissipating up in the high ceiling. His expression was murderous. Terrifying.
“Time is up,” he rumbled.
The warm stone floor vibrated beneath her hands and knees. His wrath shook the room. Emma climbed to her feet, waiting for the moment she’d been dreading for over a week.
“Tell me what you’ve learned.”
Her stomach sank, and before she could try to keep her lips sealed, the words poured from between them, damning herself, humanity, and the man she’d started to fall for in one fell swoop.
“Their strategy is to wait for your first move and then to use me to kill every prince and general so the Shediem are without orders, then to wipe them out. They have over two hundred compounds harboring humans, Giborim, and Spellcasters, all training and ready to fight. Estimated numbers are thirty thousand globally, but we’ve been recruiting more Spellcasters. Warding off whole regions and evacuating humans is their next step, so that when war starts, there will be enough survivors to carry on the population. They’re scared, but they believe I’ll be able to defeat you all.”
Her tone was monotonous and flat, but her father still snorted in amusement.“Excellent. I’ve needed some good news.”
Emma’s brows drew together. Geryon was standing beside his prince, Levaroth nowhere in sight.
“Trouble in paradise, Dad?” she mocked.
Asmodeus’s long, glinting claws ground against the bones beneath his hands, the only sign that he was unnerved. “My hybrid army is smaller than I’d anticipated. We’re killing more than we’re creating.”
A sickness churned in her gut even as a triumphant spark of hope flared to life in her chest. It was disgusting, what he was doing. And worse still that he was killing innocent children and babies. But if they weren’t developing powers, then perhaps he’d give up on the endeavor altogether.“I’ve done as you asked, now let me see my mother.”
The prince’s head cocked to the side, eyes still burning with fury.“I suppose. Geryon, go and fetch Nadia for me.”
His servant disappeared, and several moments passed while Emma and her father stared at each other. There were no words to offer to the silence stretching between them. Nothing that she wanted to say could be said.
A woman’s mutterings began to drift down the hall and through the open doors. Emma straightened, recognizing her mother’s voice. But it sounded different. Grating. Coarse.
Geryon’s audible clacking nearly drowned out her mother’s shuffling, but when he came into view, pushing a frail woman ahead of him, Emma cried out.
The bruised woman’s hair was matted. Dried and fresh blood pasted the dirty strands against her scalp. Emma’s mother mumbled incoherently, her hands twisting together over and over.
“What’s wrong with her?” Emma exclaimed.
At the sound of her voice, her mother stilled. Her wide, wild eyes no longer searched the room, unseeing. They focused on her, but recognition didn’t register immediately.
Emma’s blood roared in her ears as she spun back toward the monster on his throne.“What did you do?” she screamed.
Asmodeus waved away her fury as if swatting away an insect. “She’s fine. Daddy issues have her receding into the recesses of her mind every time she is confronted with pain. I medicate her to keep her from hurting herself, but it makes it difficult for her to focus.”
Emma didn’t know whether to throw up or set the room on fire. Her legs reacted before the rest of her could, sending her sprinting through the room toward her mother.“Mom!”
Her mother’s eyes filled with fear as she dropped to the floor, hands covering her head.“No, stop! You’re not real!” she wailed.
Emma’s heart tripped in her chest and her breath left in a whoosh. But she faltered for only a moment. She dropped to her knees, skidding the remaining distance to her mother’s shaking, weeping form. She placed her hands gently on her mother’s arm and back.“Mom, it’s me,” she choked.
Her mother cried harder.“No, no, no.”
Emma felt her chest crack open as she too began to cry. She buried her face into her mother’s side, trying to keep the unwashed stench from making her stomach revolt. Her sobs grew, swelling with the sense of anguish at what her mother had become in such a short time. Though it was likely that months had passed in Sheol.
Through ragged breaths, Emma tried over and over to soothe her mother, until at last her bony frame no longer shook and her cries fell to sniffles.
“I miss you so much, Mom. Sergei misses you too,” she whispered.
Her mother froze. Then, slowly, she turned over, looking up at Emma as if just noticing her. Lips cracked and bleeding, cheek bruised and swollen, she finally began to understand that this was real.
“Emma?”
She smiled so wide her cheeks hu
rt.“Yeah, Mom. It’s me.”
Laura Duvall searched Emma’s face, then scanned her body as best she could from the floor.“Have you come back for me?”
Those six words broke her. Emma’s head fell forward as sorrow crashed into her harder and faster than she could bear.
She couldn’t answer. Her tears spilled over, and Laura’s bottom lip quivered.
Then she placed a hand on Emma’s cheek, forcing her daughter to meet her gaze.“It’s okay, sweetie. It’s okay.”
It wasn’t okay. Nothing was okay. But before Emma could voice that, Geryon jerked her mother to her feet and began carrying her away again.
“No!” Emma reached for her mother. She couldn’t let them take her. She was being tortured. She was dying.“NO! Let me take her home! She’s dying!” Her voice cracked on a wail.
She hadn’t heard her father speak, but the mark that bound her to him pulled her away from her mother, who fought against Geryon to get to her.
A woman appeared around the corner, cheeks glistening with tears, and with a small round belly that made Emma stop dead.
“Haddie!”
Her sapphire blue eyes met Emma’s, and she shook her head in warning as Geryon tossed Emma’s now-unconscious mother into her friend’s arms. She lifted her with ease, letting Laura’s head slump against her shoulder.
“Haddie,” Emma said again.
All the fight left her body—Haddie was pregnant. Emma had failed her. She’d failed her mother.
She’d failed.
The mark drew her back like she was a fish at the end of the line, reeling her to him. When Haddie disappeared with Emma’s mother, she stopped fighting the pull and let it slam her back onto her knees.
Asmodeus rose from his throne and stepped toward her. Every step shook the castle floor. Every step sent fire licking through her veins, but she couldn’t move. There was no one to save her. There had been no one to save her mother or Haddie.
I failed. The words in her mind drew another choked sob from her.
A black claw hooked beneath her chin and forced her eyes up to his.
“Do you see now, daughter? You may have some free will, but I own everyone you love. I can and will destroy everyone you care for. The Giborim is next.”
A flash of silver directed her attention to his other hand, where a small blade sat.A dagger to her, but just a small toothpick in his massive palm.
He held it out to her.“Take the blade and plunge it into his heart.”
18
Adrianna
A drianna chewed her food slowly, not tasting any of it. Across the table, her handsome, broody captor took another long swallow from his goblet.
“You’re quiet this eve,” he remarked. She shrugged, forcing her heart rate to remain even. “It was a tiring day. A sad day.” After she’d watched the handful of Spellcasters she’d been working with kill a dozen or so small children when they failed the tests that were meant to show what their power was, it had been difficult to concentrate.
His goblet paused at his full, pink lips.“Sad?” He spoke the word without an ounce of comprehension.
“Yes, sad,” she snapped. With a sigh, she forced her tone to remain even.“I’m sick of watching babies die. I’m sick of helping enslaved women give birth to their fifth or sixth child since they’ve been in captivity. I can’t get the sound of all the crying out of my head!”Without meaning to, her voice had risen again, ending on a shout that made Tlahaz’s dark brows rise.
He set his cup down with a barely audible clack, but it still sounded like thunder to her ears. “How did you imagine a supernatural war to look, Adrianna?” he asked calmly.“There will be far more death and tears before we’ve claimed the Earth.”
Adrianna hung her head. He’d never see her side of things. Though he cared for her and she begrudgingly cared for him, he was still a Shediem who craved bloodshed. “It’s wrong,” she said softly.
Tlahaz’s lips tilted to one side as he rested his chin on his clasped hands. His gaze was almost sympathetic, though Adrianna didn’t fool herself into thinking he was capable of sympathy.“Perhaps take a day to rest. You’ve been working a lot and I know you’re not accustomed to our way of life just yet.”
Her ire flared. Standing up so fast that her chair fell back with a deafening crash, she said,“I will never be used to killing. I’m not like you.”
He leapt for her.
Too slow. Her magic shot out from her, wrapping around her general, immobilizing him. She was stronger now. More powerful, she could feel it. Athena stirred in her chest, but Adrianna quickly quieted her familiar before marching out of the room. She didn’t run; she knew her magic would hold Tlahaz for as long as she needed.
Taking the stairs two at a time, she raced toward the one who’d assigned her this miserable position.
Nakosh lounged in his throne, head hanging back as he stared up at the ceiling. His skin was paler—almost translucent. The host of shadows that splayed across his lean body rolled over him as though trying to consume him.
“I’ve been expecting you, Adrianna,” he said to the ceiling. His tone was deadened.
“The prophecy says I have to bind the ultimate darkness. It didn’t say when.” She lifted her palms, throwing as much power as she could at the wicked king of darkness.
The room was filled with blinding light and her ears with the roaring rush of blood.
For a moment, she thought it was working. Then a blast of inky black shot out—a wall of impenetrable shadows.
Adrianna panted, lowering her hands. A laugh echoed through the room, from behind the barrier of darkness.
An even darker shadow appeared behind it before the king strolled through like it hadn’t just blocked her magic from even touching him.
Though darkness still crowded around his body, writhing and twisting anxiously, a striking smile split his beautiful face. He stopped just in front of her trembling body.
“You can’t bind me here, I’m already bound,” he explained, a hint of sadness tingeing his silky voice. “Besides”—his smile grew—“the prophecy says you need to bind the ultimate darkness. Should the Shediem-Slayer slay me and another rises in my place, they will become the ultimate darkness.”
Adrianna’s breathing slowed, but her heart continued to hammer away.
Leaning close like he was about to share a secret, he said, “Better pay our prisoner a visit while your lover is sitting still, eh?”
She gaped. Sputtering, she managed, “He’s not my—we’re not—”
Nakosh chuckled.“That was very convincing, well done. Now run along before it’s too late.”
Obeying, she started from the room.
He called after her,“And take a few days off. Wouldn’t want you doing anything reckless.”
She paused, turning. His gaze was glacial, a dark power radiating from him, and suddenly Adrianna fully understood why he was the king of Sheol.
“Make no mistake, my dear: here in my realm, I could easily steal your breath from your lungs and watch you flounder until your weak little heart gave out.”
Unshed tears burned her eyes while her nails bit into her palms from clenching her fists so tightly.
“I understand,” she answered.
“No keeper again? How do you keep getting out without him noticing?” Levaroth asked weakly. He tried to smile but every muscle in his body spasmed randomly, turning his expression to one of pain.
“Last time, I made sure he was going to be gone for a long time before I snuck out. The wards and locks that are meant to keep me in are actually quite pitiful. This time, I just bound him with my magic. It won’t last much longer, actually, because I just tried it on your king too.” She shrugged despite the choked laugh that came from Levaroth.
“Never trust a Spellcaster. I found that out the hard way.”
She wanted to ask what he meant, but decided against it due to time constraints.“We made some progress last time, but I’ll try to break the mar
ks this time. You ready?”
“Yes,” Levaroth answered roughly.“It already feels broken. I haven’t been able to project myself to her in…I’m not sure how long it’s been.”
Adrianna nodded. She rubbed her palms together, and a pale pink light spread between them. She placed her hands on his chest where she thought his heart was. His skin was burning hot. Feverish. No doubt his body was riddled with infection. She shook away the urge to heal him, instead focusing her magic into him, hoping to cool the fever at least.
He jerked, and Adrianna felt the thread that was tied to him move along until she felt Emma’s presence. She was in pain. So much pain.
Adrianna gasped.“She’s hurt.”
Levaroth nodded. “It’s emotional pain. I can sense the difference.”
She tried to push that tidbit from the forefront of her mind—her friend was in pain and there was no way she could help her.“I’m going to try to find her father’s mark.”
Levaroth didn’t answer. She could feel his pain too, and it was nearly overwhelming. If she wasn’t careful, she’d drown in their collective agony.
Adrianna spread her awareness into her friend, sensing the strong, foreign Shediem presence recoil from her magic.
“I found it!” she cried, her voice sounding strange and garbled in her ears.
Adrianna’s body trembled violently. It cost her so much to be like this, sending her awareness into one person and then into another who was impossibly far away. The gaping hole between them felt infinite.
“What are you?”she whispered to Emma.“You’re so far away.”
Like a serpent she slithered toward the beast trapped inside Emma’s body. It was ancient and powerful.Terrifying. Inhuman.
Adrianna shrieked, and warmth trickled from her nostril. She tasted the coppery tang of blood on her lips.
Shit.
“What’s happening?” Levaroth growled, his words slurred.
“Oh, god, what is it?” she cried.
“Keep going!” he urged, the guttural sound of his pain making Adrianna want to break away.
But she couldn’t. The creature lashed out at her and she coiled around it. Every bit of Shediem energy that didn’t belong to her friend, she gathered to herself.
The Throne of Broken Bones (Weapon of Fire and Ash Book 3) Page 16
