The Demon-Born Trilogy: (Complete Paranormal Fantasy Series)

by L. C. Hibbett

  Eve moaned again, and her eyelashes fluttered against my palm. I sat up straight, staring at Sam. “Get her some of that water. And a cloth. And food, some of that bread, she’s so thin.”

  “Grace?” Eve’s eyes swam in her face as if she had forgotten how to focus on any one object. She struggled to pull herself into a seated position. I helped her to sit up but didn’t move my arm from around her shoulder. She reached for my cheek with fingers as brittle as twigs. “My Grace?”

  Sam’s touch was soft as he dabbed a wet cloth over Eve’s forehead, dislodging some of the dirt and grime that was embedded in the furrows in her skin. Eve stared at him with a look of bewilderment. He picked up the pitcher and one of the bread rolls and offered them to her. “I’m sorry, they told us to eat these, but there’s no glass. Just the water and food.”

  Eve’s pupils contracted, and her hand shot out, knocking the food and drink from Sam’s hands and across the cell floor. He pulled away, and I raised my palms in surprise. Eve shook as if she was suddenly waking from a dream. She heaved herself onto all fours and crawled to the wall, using the rough brick to drag herself into standing position. “Poison. All of it. They just want you to suffer. To break you, so you’ll reveal your true self.”

  Her words came in ragged bursts. I cringed at the sight of my foster mother struggling to wrap her tongue around each syllable. I reached out to hold her hands as her body trembled from the effort of the remaining upright, but she shook her head fiercely. “Grace, you must leave this place. Samuel, I’ve seen your heart, take her home. Keep her safe.”

  Sam dropped his eyes to the floor and shoved his hands into his pockets. I screwed my eyes closed.

  “Eve, we’re not here to save—” I snapped my mouth shut over the words, and tried to steady my breathing before speaking again. “We didn’t realize you were here. We tried to find you, Gabriel hunted everywhere…”

  Sam squeezed my hand as my words trickled away. He pushed his hair out of his eyes. “We were on a mission, but things went wrong. One of the Shadow Children betrayed us and we ended up outside this city. Deirdre found us, and Peter had us put in the here. They didn’t tell us you were here.”

  A strangled cry escaped from Eve’s lips as Sam stepped to the side and she caught sight of Cat’s slight frame wrapped around Dawn’s sleeping body. Eve wavered for a moment before sliding down against the wall.

  “No.” Her face was a mask of pain, and her moans of agony tore at my heart. “Please, no. Not my girls.” She lifted her chin to stare at the ceiling, and her voice became a scream. “I’ll give you anything you want. I’ll do the test again. I’ll give you all my power this time, but don’t take my girls. Not my girls.”

  I looked to Sam for support, but his eyes were riveted on Eve’s face. An imperceptible shadow clouded his expression, and I ripped at the silver band on my wrist, craving access to my power so I could sense his energy. He turned away before I could interpret his hunched shoulders and downcast stare, leaving me to settle Eve alone.

  I steeled myself and reached for her bony hand, stroking her arm the way she had when I was young and frightened. My throat swelled, making it hard to swallow. “Eve, it’s okay. We’re going to be okay.” I tried not to choke on my well-intentioned lie. “We haven’t been hurt, and we’re going to come up with a plan to get out of here. The others will realize we’re missing soon, and they’ll come looking for us.”

  The others. Panic and bile flooded by mouth and I took a deep breath to stop myself from gagging. I had no idea what had happened to our friends since we left them on Grandfather Mountain. Paranoid suspicion shot through my mind like a poisoned arrow. I twisted my head in Eve’s direction. “Did you find your daughter?”

  My words hit Eve like a slap in the face, and I regretted them immediately. She dropped her gaze to the floor. “No. Peter said… He lied. She’s not here. They would have used her by now if she was. The Circle would use anything to try and unearth the hidden powers.”

  “We saw.” I closed my eyes and tried unsuccessfully to purge the memory of Diamond’s face from my brain. Eve flinched and nodded her head. Sam stared down at Cain and Cat’s unconscious bodies, and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was—we needed to escape. Immediately.

  The sound of footsteps coming closer drew Sam’s stare in my direction, and he bounded across the cell and positioned himself in front of Eve and me. A shield of flesh and bone. I thrust my chin up and stepped to his right, so that we stood shoulder to shoulder, with Eve hidden behind our backs.

  I folded my arms to conceal the tremor in my hands and prepared to face Peter and the Circle. The door creaked open a crack, and a hooded figure slid into the room, locking the door hastily behind itself. The cloak fell back to reveal a youthful face, and I crushed my shoulder against Sam’s. It was him. The guy with the sharp eyes. The potion maker’s friend.

  My dry lips cracked as I spoke his name with sudden certainty. “Jonah.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “Seeker. Finally, you arrive.” Jonah examined me with curious eyes. Up close, he appeared even younger than he had in the photographs on Niamh’s bedside, and I wondered what age he had been when he first arrived in this world. I narrowed my eyes at him, but it was Eve who spoke first.

  “Why have you come again, stranger?” The words scraped over Eve’s dry tongue, but her stare was steady.

  The Demon gave a lopsided grin as he kneeled down on the stone floor and began to trace his fingers through the dust, searching for the grooves between the block work. “I’m afraid we have no time for riddles today, my friend. I have respected your wishes to remain captive until now, but I can no longer indulge your free will. The Circle are preparing to test you again. Now that they have leverage,” Jonah lifted his face and examined Eve and me with deep hazel eyes, “they will break you. There is no time to waste.”

  He spread his fingers wide and began to swipe furiously at the layer of dirt covering the floor. He snapped his fingers at Sam. “Reaper, onto your knees.” Sam’s eyebrows shot into a V, but the stranger either did not care or did not notice. “Count the blocks, Reaper; we need to determine the precise location of the center of the tower. I would rather not have my skull crushed by falling rock when we level this place to the ground.”

  Sam squinted at the top of Jonah’s head for a moment, before dropping to his knees and beginning to count the stone rectangles. I pushed my hair over my shoulders. “You’re Jonah. Niamh’s—Gabriel’s friend.”

  “You don’t need to ask who I am, Seeker. That is your gift.” He sprang up from the floor and pressed his face close enough that I felt his breath on my cheek. “And if you do not begin to embrace your gift soon, Seeker, there will be nothing left for any of us to know.” He turned away from me abruptly and pointed at a jumble of items strewn in the corner of the cell. I recognized my backpack and the clothes I had abandoned in the cave. The small teddy bear I had rescued from the Silent Home was peeking out of the bag. “Pack your belongings. We leave nothing that the Hounds could use to track you.”

  Eve reached out and wrapped her fingers around the Demon’s lean wrist. She nodded at my arm and down at the unconscious bodies on the floor.  “The silver. Can you remove it?”

  Jonah pressed his lips together tightly. “I can. If you can assist me.” His mouth softened. “I know that your body is weary and your heart is sore, but we do not have the luxury of time.”

  “I have never desired luxury.” Eve slipped her other hand gently inside mine. “I will do what must be done.”

  The stranger dipped his head and gave her a solemn glance, heavy with emotion that was beyond my understanding. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back, drawing a deep breath into his lungs. “Seeker, we will remove the binding from you first, then the Reaper, then the sleeping adults, finally the sleeping children. You will present the bindings, while we complete the ceremony to shatter the bond. Can you ke
ep the others calm, when they are woken? There will be no time for explanations—they must trust without questioning.”

  “I think so,” I said. Resting my gaze on Dawn’s peaceful face, I wondered was she in the cell or was her mind soaring far from us.

  Sam jabbed his finger at a spot on the floor and drew a target in the dirt. He wiped his hands on his jeans. “Yeah, why not go with blind trust in a random stranger? Worked out great for us last night.” Jonah smirked in apparent amusement, and Sam stretched himself to his full height. “There you go, Demon. That’s the center of the cell.”

  “I hope you are more accurate than you are charming, Reaper.” The corners of Jonah’s eyes creased as he spoke, but the sound of footsteps in the corridor outside froze his lips into a grim line. I pressed my fist against my mouth and held my breath until the noise passed our cell and faded to nothing.

  My heart thumped painfully, and Sam pushed me toward the center of the floor. “Please. Unbind her so she can escape if they come before we’re ready.”

  Jonah grabbed my wrist between his two hands, and Eve began to chant. Her voice rose and fell, the tempo increasing with each repetition of the spell until Jonah joined with her and their voices melted together in an overwhelming crescendo of power and light. Their magic surged over me like a river bursting its banks in a summer storm, and I groaned as my energy tore free of the binding and coursed through my veins.

  “Reaper, now you.” Jonah pushed me out of the center point of the room, barely catching his breath before he began again. I gnawed at the corner of my lip as I watched Eve’s sunken eyes focus on shattering the bonds holding Sam’s power captive. As soon as he was finished, Jonah called for the others, and Sam and I lifted them into the circle to have their bonds broken and the sleep charm removed.

  One by one, they woke and stared in confusion around the cell. For the longest moment, Cat remained crouched on the floor, staring at Eve with wide eyes. She blinked and twisted her face in my direction. I pressed my lips together and nodded. Cat burst across the room and threw her arms around Eve’s thin shoulders, sobbing and laughing in the same breath. Sam slipped his fingers between mine and squeezed my hand.

  Cain paced the floor and wrapped his fist around the bars on the narrow window near the ceiling. His stare flicked over Jonah’s face. “I’m going to assume we have no time for a recap—do we have an escape plan?”

  Sam and I looked to Jonah, and he beckoned us into the center of the room, gently nudging Eve and Cat to one side. They broke apart, and Dawn slithered between them and wound her arms around Eve’s waist. I forced myself to focus on Jonah, blinking away the tears burning the corners of my eyes.

  “You need to get us out of here.” Jonah shoved me against Sam’s chest so that both of us were standing within the circle marked in the dirt.

  Sam drew his eyebrows together. “What?”

  “Reaper and Seeker, you need to get us out of here,” Jonah repeated.

  I squinted at him. “Can we slip out of here? I thought the city was in some sort of vacuum, or pocket. Gabriel said—”

  Jonah silenced me with a flick of his wrist. “Yes, yes, the entire city and the surrounding lands are entirely sealed. It’s impossible to escape. These cells are protected by the most impenetrable charms this world has ever known. But we have two things in our favor. One, we have one of the gifted pairs, and two, the man who built the city left a secret chink in each cell.”

  “You knew the man who built the city for the Circle?” I stared at Jonah.

  “Yes. Now, I need you to embrace each other.” Jonah’s face was grim as he grabbed Sam’s hands and placed them around my waist. He frowned. “Closer. Skin against skin. I can feel how unrefined your powers are; you need every benefit you can get if this is going to work.”

  My cheeks blushed as I stared at Sam’s chest, still bare from our aborted dip in the bathing pool. I pushed the cloak over my shoulders and pressed my stomach against his. A volcano of nervous energy bubbled inside my gut, and I breathed deeply to try and control the urge to burst into a fit of giggles. The sound of a door opening somewhere along the corridor hit me like a bucket of icy water. I stared at Jonah. “What now?”

  Cain and Cat ran to the door and leaned their weight against it. Eve’s eyes widened as the sound of footfall came closer. Jonah dug his fingers into my shoulders. “Seeker, the old woman who was sitting with me in the theater, can you draw her into your mind?”

  I nodded and brought her face into my mind's eye. Jonah turned to Sam. “Reaper, I need you to feel the Seeker’s energy. Let it flow through you, gather her connection to the old woman into your mind.”

  My breath caught in my throat as I felt Sam creeping inside me, his energy sliding over my skin like strong fingers. I reached out for him with my Seeking power, offering him the old lady. Jonah hissed in our ears. “Now! Hold her between you, but don’t draw her here. Push your power out through the ceiling above your heads. Bring us to her.”

  My eyes flew open, and I saw my panic reflected in Sam’s eyes. The footsteps halted outside the cell door, and a key rattled in the lock. Sam glared at Jonah. “We can’t, that’s not possible. I’m a Reaper. I bring things to me; I can’t bring us to them.”

  The lock grated as it turned. Cain and Cat’s faces were white as they crushed their back against the door. Eve pulled Dawn and Ozzie behind her skinny back. Jonah smashed me against Sam’s chest with enough pressure to bruise my ribs. “You are not just the Reaper and the Seeker—you are a pair. Powers that fit together to form one whole.” Voices raised outside the door as Cain and Cat struggled to hold it closed. Jonah screamed in our ears. “Connect your powers. She can find her, you can move us through space to be with her. Move us!”

  I threw my arms around Sam’s neck and dragged his lips against mine, drinking in every ounce of his energy, feeding him mine. Sam inhaled deeply and drew me into his arms, grabbing me behind the knees so that my legs were wrapped around his waist. The room around us began to spin, and I shot a net of energy out to gather the others to us. Dawn reached down and snatched our belongings from the ground.

  The last thing I saw before the world spun out of focus, was Peter and Fergus bursting through the door. Fergus was screaming in fury and rage, but Peter’s smile stretched from ear to ear.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “Bastards!” Cat slammed the earthenware cup down on the scrubbed wooden table, and the dark brown liquid sloshed over the side and trickled over her fingers. She stared at her hands as the soup scalded her skin, too disturbed by what we had told her about the Circle testing Valerie and Diamond to care.

  Eve leaned over and wiped Cat’s fingers with the damp cloth the old woman, Anna, offered her. “Cat, please don’t use that word. It has been used as a weapon against people like us for far too long.”

  “The knife has turned, Eve. I’ll use it against them if I want.” Cat’s face flushed, but she didn’t repeat the word. She exhaled and rested her head in her hands, craning her neck to see into the other room where Dawn and Ozzie were staring wide-eyed at the endless rows of potions and charms. “She couldn’t have been much older than Dawn. We knew the Spirit Eaters were bad, but that’s monstrous.”

  “Thirteen.” The old woman set a plate of coarse unbuttered bread in the center of the table. “Diamond was thirteen, but small for age—like most of the children in the city. Starvation is one of the Circle’s most basic tools for attempting to break the spirit. Please, eat. You will need your strength to escape the city.” Her smile as she gestured to the food did little to disguise the pain in her eyes. I took a bite of the hard bread and chewed. Sam and Cain did the same.

  Eve reached out her hand and placed it against Anna’s wrinkled skin. “You suffer. I didn’t know the girl was anything to you. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t try to heal my pain, friend.” The old woman closed her hand gently over Eve’s. “Thank you for your kindness, but my grief is all I hav
e left to remind me of Diamond’s brief life. Leave me with it, please.”

  Sam met my eye, and we both looked away. My throat closed around the food, and I took a gulp of soup from my cup. Eve released the woman’s hand. “I understand.” She flexed her arms and stretched them over her head. “I must thank you for the healing tincture. You are very skilled.”

  Anna dipped her head with a small smile. “I have had many years to study the art.”

  “And you were a master healer before this imprisonment began.” Jonah swallowed the final gulp of liquid from his cup and stood up, gesturing for the old woman to take his seat. “There is nobody on this earth with greater potion making ability than Anna.”

  The old woman’s papery skin blushed in response to Jonah’s words of praise, but she shook her head. “You are too kind, as always, my boy. I wish that I had more than potions to offer. If I could have helped the girls to see beyond the lies the Circle sold them… Unfortunately, there are only certain ills that a potion can heal—”

  “How long have you been here?” We all twisted around to look at Ozzie in surprise as he cut across Anna. Dawn stood behind him, a shadow of pure light.

  “Since the beginning.” Anna’s voice showed no trace of irritation at Ozzie’s suspicious tone.

  I twisted my bread crust between my fingers and thumb. “You’re not Demon-Born, did you come here as a follower of the Circle?”

  “No, my child. I came to this place as a mother.” I looked away before Anna did.

  Jonah began to pace the small, windowless room. “Like me, Anna is tied to this city and the Circle, but she has never approved of their actions. I hadn’t seen her for a long time, but it was she who called to me after my library was destroyed.” His forehead creased. “I knew I was getting close to the truth when they tried to ruin my work, but I didn’t know for certain that my suspicions were correct until I followed Anna’s call to the City.”