Reaper Unveiled (Deadside Reapers Book 4)

by Debbie Cassidy

  “We had a mishap, my queen,” Mal said smoothly. “Our carriage broke down, but we were close to Asmodeus’s estate and so asked for help.”

  She was silent for a long beat, her expression unreadable. “My carriages are built for sturdiness, and my drakes are the best in the Underealm. There are no mishaps. Make sure the drake master hears of this.”

  Keon smiled, showcasing fangs. “With pleasure.” His voice was like honey, the kind of voice that would lull you to sleep before slitting your throat.

  “And Asmodeus aided you?” she asked Conah, but didn’t wait for a reply. “Asmodeus loves to please.” She ran her tongue across her teeth, and I could have sworn she was thinking about sex. “You’ll stay in the Keep until the night before the wedding. Quarters have been prepared for the Dominus in my private wing.”

  Conah’s shoulders tensed. “We are honored, my queen.”

  She waved us away. “Go, rest. Enjoy your bachelorhood, for the ties of marital bliss will soon be around your throat.”

  She leaned back on her throne and closed her eyes. We’d been dismissed.

  “I can’t read her,” Conah said. “But keeping us close…That could be a bad sign.”

  “But we’re together,” Mal said. “Surely, she’d split us up if she wanted to get to you.”

  Conah ran a hand over his face. “I can’t think about this anymore.”

  He dropped into the nearest seat and sat with his head in his hands. I wanted to stroke his hair and soothe him. It was meant to be a joyous time, a time of celebration not just for him but for the Underealm, but it was like there was a cloud hanging over us all.

  “Go shower, or have a long soak.” I grabbed his hand and tugged. “Do it. You need to relax. Mal and I will be right here, keeping watch.”

  Conah puffed out his cheeks and stood. “You’re right. There’s nothing to be gained by worrying.”

  He shucked off his cloak and strode out of the lounge into one of the bedrooms.

  I turned to Mal. “Do you think she’s guilty?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “She seemed concerned about the carriage breaking down but more because she felt it was a negative reflection on her, and then she went all dreamy over Asmodeus.”

  “They were lovers,” Mal reminded me. “My bloodline, remember.”

  “I don’t know her well enough to read her.”

  “No one can read Lilith except Samael, and he…He hasn’t been himself for the longest of time.”

  “What’s wrong with him?”

  “No one knows for sure. Some say that he’s lost his mind. Others say that he’s catatonic. He hasn’t been seen for decades, and there is a rumor that he’s dead.”

  “Can fallen angels die?”

  Mal shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.” He cupped my shoulders. “Listen, Fee, I know you have a thing about getting answers, but promise me on this occasion you’ll keep your head down and stay invisible. Let’s just get this wedding over with and get home, okay?” He caressed my cheek with the backs of his fingers. “While we’re here, we play the part. We stay platonic.”

  “Because I’m a guy?”

  He licked his lips. “No, because if I’m balls deep in you, then I’m not thinking straight. If I know there’s any possibility of getting balls deep, then I’m not thinking straight, and right now, I need to be vigilant. We all do.”

  Made sense.

  “So low profile?” he urged.

  “I promise.”

  I just hoped I’d be able to keep it.

  I lay in the overly large bed with the overly silky sheets, staring at the ceiling. What time was it? My body clock was fucked. My body wanted to be fucked, and I was half tempted to slip into Mal’s room, climb on top of him, and take what I needed, but he was right. It was best to keep sex off the table while we were here.

  We needed to be vigilant. If only my body would agree to that?

  Could this be the heat? No, it was too soon. I had another two weeks at least before that came on, and by that time I’d be mated to Grayson.

  Hunter would no longer have a hold on me.

  I slipped out of bed, dressed, and wandered over to the balcony. The windows were frosted over with ice, but the glass was warm to the touch. My skin felt feverish and hot. I needed the cool kiss of night air.

  I unlatched the window and stepped out onto the balcony. Cold air slapped at my face, trickled through my hair, and tightened my nipples. I leaned against the rail and looked out at the gardens that stretched as far as the wall that contained the Keep.

  Frozen silver paths snaked through the grounds beneath black arches and around fountains that spewed hot water. Domed areas containing miniature green gardens were dotted here and there, and far below, wandering along a path, was a lone figure with huge inky wings. I blinked and stared. Not one set of wings but two. They flared and flapped and then folded. He paused outside a dome and looked up, and I could have sworn he was looking right at me. But how could that be? He was so far away, and I was hidden in shadow. I was imagining things.

  But then the figure turned away from the dome, spread its wings, and rose up into the air. Wait…what? It was headed this way. It was headed right for me.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  I staggered backward, turned, and ran toward my room.

  “Wait!” The voice rising over the beat of wings was a command my body followed instinctively.

  Pulse fluttering like a trapped moth in my throat, heart pounding erratically, I turned to face the figure. He was huge, a head taller than Azazel, which was saying something. His skin was tawny, eyes like mercury, and a face like an Adonis. Long dark locks framed that face, spilling over powerful shoulders to lay on taut pecs encased in a metallic tunic. Four wings rose up behind him like an epic shield. He snapped them closed, and they vanished.

  “Who are you?” he asked. “Your face…It’s familiar.”

  Oh, fuck. My face? How could my face be familiar to anyone here? “I’m Felton.”

  “Felton? A strange name for a female,” he said.

  Mother of Bakewell slices. He could see me. My hand went to the amulet to make sure it was still there, tucked under my shirt. Yep, still there. How was this possible?

  “Who are you?” he asked.

  He frowned, taking a step closer. His presence was a beacon of hope and security, a calm, an assurance that brought tears to my eyes and made me want to go down on my knees and worship him, and I knew instinctively and primally who he was.

  “Samael?”

  He touched my cheek lightly with his fingers, and heat spiraled out from the contact. “You have her face, and yet you are not her. What trickery is this?”

  He sounded confused.

  “I don’t know what you mean?”

  He gripped my chin and tilted my face up to his. “Her mouth, her eyes.” He smiled. “My nose and my brows.” He cupped my cheek. “Daughter. I have waited for you for an eternity.”

  My breath hitched. “I’m…I’m not your daughter.”

  “You are my blood, child. You are my daughter.” His brows pinched together. “I don’t have much time. Who knows how long this moment of clarity will last.” He gripped my shoulders. “You must not let Lilith see you. You must not let him rise. You must never set him free no matter the lure, no matter the threat, or all the sacrifices that came before will have been for nothing.”

  “Who? Who are you talking about?”

  But his gaze was misting over, and his mouth curved in a soft smile. “Do you hear it?” he asked. “The screams have a beauty about them, don’t they?”

  He stepped away from me and launched himself into the air. The beat of wings filled the night, and then there was nothing but silence.

  “Mal, Mal, wake up.”

  I shook him until his eyes opened. He looked up at me blearily, and a lazy smile lifted his mouth before reality slapped him in the face, and he sat up, alert and awake.

  “What happe
ned? Fee, you’re shaking.” He pulled me into bed with him and tucked me against his side. “Did you have a nightmare?”

  “No. I just saw Samael, and he saw me. Me, the real me, and he called me his daughter and said some other stuff.” I relayed the conversation the best I could. “Mal, what if he tells Lilith. I can’t stay here. I can’t.”

  He hugged me to him. “Calm down, let’s think this through. Are you sure it was Samael?”

  “Huge guy, four sets of wings, eyes like mercury, and a face like a god.”

  “Yeah, that’s him. Shit. Okay. He was lucid for a moment. He saw you, he gave you a warning, and then he slipped into delirium again.”

  “Yes. He said something about the screams and how beautiful they were.”

  “He warned you to stay away from Lilith, which means he wants to protect you. I have no idea why or who he was talking about, but I think we can safely assume he doesn’t want you to be harmed.”

  “But who was this guy he was telling me not to wake.”

  “I don’t know.” Mal sounded worried. “But it’s another thing we’ll have to look into once the wedding is over. In the meantime, stay off your balcony.” He frowned. “What were you doing out there anyway?”

  I ducked my head. “I couldn’t sleep. I was…hot.”

  He went still beside me. “Hot?”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Yeah, hot.” The words came out husky.

  Mal groaned. “Fee…”

  I pulled away from him. “I know, I’m sorry. I should—”

  I was on my back, and he was on top of me, hips between my thighs. “A little taste won’t hurt.”

  His lips brushed the hollow of my neck, down over my collarbone, and over to my breasts. He pressed his parted mouth over my nipple, breathing onto my cotton tee. My nipple ached with how hard it was begging for the moisture of his mouth and the rasp of his tongue.

  “What do you say, Fee?” He nipped me.

  I sucked in a gasp. “Please, fuck me, Mal.”

  He gripped the waistband of my shorts and yanked them down, kicking them off my ankles. He forced my knees up so I was open for him, wet and ready. I raised my hips, moaning in anticipation, the need thrumming beneath my skin, tightening my muscles, and quickening my breath.

  “Mal…”

  He rubbed the head of his cock up and down along my slit, over my clit again and again until I was whimpering and rolling my hips for more, and then he tore off my tee and clamped his mouth over my nipple, sucking hard, so pleasure shot down to my core, flooding me with heat. I cried out, and he clamped a hand over my mouth before thrusting into me all the way. He fucked me like that, hand over my mouth, cock pummeling me balls deep until my body was one huge firework, and I was sobbing into his hand with release.

  We lay tangled together for ages afterward, neither of us willing to move and shatter this moment. But I had to go back to my own bed. I couldn’t sleep here with him. Still, my limbs were getting heavy, and my eyelids were drooping. I woke to butterfly kisses over my face, and then I was floating as Mal carried me to my room. He tucked me into bed and kissed my forehead.

  “Dream of me, Fee.” And just as I drifted off again, I could have sworn I heard him say, “I love you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Azazel

  It’s calm in the tower. No noise, nothing but the whistle of the wind and the brush of snowflakes against stone and glass. I wonder why I would ever want to leave this sanctuary. I consider rejecting my duty, of turning my back on the Dominus and claiming retirement. Goodness knows I’ve fought for long enough.

  But they are dreams. Lilith will never let me go. I belong to her. She’s seen to that by denying me a lover, a wife, a soulmate. She’s seen to that by forcing me to lock away my heart.

  Keon may be her official Blade, but I’m her real weapon. The son who would not die. The son who rises from ashes. The son who is truly immortal. But immortality has a price.

  Loneliness.

  And weapons are forged in fire.

  So many memories have faded, but there are some that remain, like the clawing hunger and desperate cold of my trial to manhood. The blood of all the daemons still taints my hands. So many dead to appease my queen…my mother. Although I had to earn the right to call her that.

  I look out of the window, across the region of Heresat, and wonder for a moment what it would be like to stay here. This is Leviathan’s refuge when he decides to leave the sea of time and take form. This is his anchor in this world, in this time, and I can be a part of it.

  I sigh.

  There was joy in that prospect once, but now there is only turmoil. I turn to the painting propped on an easel. Seraphina Dawn looks back at me, her eyes crinkled with laughter, her hair flowing behind her. I stare at the many canvases littering the room. Seraphina’s face flushed with ecstasy, the curve of her arm, the dip in her waist.

  My hands are covered in paint, my chest streaked with it, and yet no matter how many canvases I cover, no matter what I intend to create, Seraphina rises out of them all.

  I can’t block her out. I can’t stop feeling. I can’t.

  I pick up the painting, intent on throwing it out of the window, but am unable to do so. Instead, I touch her cheek with my fingertips and run my thumb over her bottom lip.

  “Who is it, son?”

  Father’s voice is in my head and all around me. I feel the tear in the fabric of this universe as he steps through.

  “Who torments your soul?”

  The air snaps and fizzes, and then Father is standing by the window beside me. The salty aroma of the sea hits me, soothing my turbulent mind. I allow him to take the easel and study her face.

  “Eve…”

  “No. Not Eve.”

  “Oh. Yes. Of course. She’s the last?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then you must keep her alive.”

  “I know.”

  “But why paint her…Unless…Oh, my son. No. Not this one. Does Lilith know you’ve given your heart to another.”

  “No.”

  “Then you must keep it that way. Especially considering who this is.”

  “I know.”

  “Shut it off, Azazel. Just as I taught you.”

  “I can’t. Not for her.”

  He turns me to face him, and I look up into a face that’s so similar to mine it's uncanny, except where my hair is silver his is a rich auburn, and whereas my eyes are pale, his are mahogany laced with amber. “You have my strength, Azazel. Your mind and heart are yours to command.”

  “Yes, but not my soul.”

  He sucks in a breath. “She is your soulmate.” He sucks in his bottom lip in thought. “Yes. I remember this dream. I remember. She is meant to be. You are meant to be, but the rest…The rest is ever-changing. This spot in time is uncertain.”

  “You’ve seen her?”

  “I see so much in the sea of time, most of which makes no sense until I live it, and even then, destiny is mutable, dependent on many factors, some of which are outside our control. But this…she is a thread in your destiny. You cannot walk away.”

  “I have no choice.”

  He rests the canvas against the wall. “A soul bond cannot be ignored. You may choose not to bind, but it will eat away at you, it will draw you to her, it will consume you.” He stands tall. “I let Lilith take you because my love for her made me weak. I envied her adoration of Samael and believed if she had a piece of me with her at all times, she would be forever tied to me. I believed you would bring her back to me. I let her have you, my only progeny. I watched as she honed you until you were her personal blade, and I allowed her to use you, to control you, and I knew I’d done you a disservice for my own selfish needs.” He touches my cheek. “It’s time for me to make amends. It’s time to set you free.”

  My heart beats against my ribs with possibility. “How? If I claim my soulmate, then Lilith will discover who Fee is, and she will kill her. I am no match for Keon a
nd Lilith’s army of blades. I am no match for Lilith.”

  “Then tell her about the curse.”

  “You know there’s no way to do so. You know Eve’s curse is binding.”

  “Nothing is completely binding,” Leviathan says. “There is a loophole. There has always been a loophole.”

  “What?”

  “I didn’t speak of it because the curse gave you a reason to distance yourself from Lilith. The guilt of lying to her, of not completing her mission, forced you to find yourself, away from her side. It gave you a purpose that was your own. It gave you time to grow.”

  “You knew how I could break the curse, and you didn’t tell me?”

  “I made the choice to let you be free.”

  I want to be angry. I want to rage, but for what? He’s right. The curse forced me to walk away from Lilith. It gave me the strength to become my own demon. To live outside of her orbit. I always thought of the curse as a binding thing, but in reality, it set me free.

  It allowed me to find Fee. My soulmate.

  “How do I do it? How do I circumvent the curse and tell Lilith the truth?”

  Because the truth is the only thing that will save Fee’s life.

  Leviathan smiles, and his eyes light up, and within them, I see eons of life pass in a blink, and the ancient nature of my sire slams into me, leaving me breathless.

  “Neither the living nor the dead can speak the truth to Lilith,” Leviathan says. “Eve’s curse pertains to the natural order. So, you must find a being who defies that. Neither born, living, nor dead. Do that, and you will have your answer.”

  A creature that defies natural order…The answer hits me like a lightning bolt.

  Fuck.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Fee