As soon as I opened the front door of the farmhouse, I could see the fire blazing at the waterside. The sound of voices rang through the air, and I found myself dragging my feet through the orchard. As I trudged down the slope, a spark of life tickled the base of my skull and every hair on my body stood to attention. The tall, broad-shouldered figure detached itself from the shadow of the largest tree.
I put my hands on my hips. “Is creeping around under trees what you do every Esbat?”
“Nah.” Sam’s mouth quirked up at one side, and he dug his hands into his jean pockets. “I’m not brave enough to make it a hobby. Last time I celebrated Esbat, a stunner of a brunette came up and attacked me. It was terrifying. She’d already physically assaulted me on the training field, and I’ve got to tell you, the way she got up close and personal with me under the tree that night—some people could have considered it indecent.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Indecent?”
Sam stepped closer so that his body was only an inch from mine, but he didn’t take his hands out of his pockets. A shiver of anticipation ran up my spine as he leaned into me. “I’m pretty certain she wanted to kiss me.”
“Oh, yeah?” I chewed on the corner of my lip, unable to stop my gaze wandering down to his mouth. “And what about you? Did you want to kiss her?”
Sam’s lips were so close that his breath tickled my neck. In the moonlight, his eyes were deeper than the fjord below us. “I couldn’t tell you what I wanted to do to her.”
A swarm of butterflies filled my stomach as Sam’s lips connected with mine. One half of me wanted to burst into nervous laughter, but the other half wanted him to push me against the tree trunk and kiss me like tonight might be out last chance to hold each other. When it came, his touch was softer and sweeter than anything I had imagined. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back until the sound of children running between the trees distracted us.
Sam broke away from the kiss before I did, his hands still tucked firmly inside his pockets. I tried not to focus on the heavy feeling of confused disappointment in the pit of my stomach. Dawn and Ozzie came hollering through the orchard with Valerie and Zach hot on their heels. Sam grinned at me as Ozzie flipped over a tree trunk, narrowly missing my head. He stuck one of his elbows out, and I linked my arm through it as we walked down the slope toward the bonfire.
Halfway down the hill, Sam pulled at my arm and nodded his head toward a fallen tree. “Sit here for a while?”
I gave him a puzzled look as I sat down beside him. “Okay . . .”
“I just want to watch everyone for a minute. Take it all in before tomorrow. Does that make any sense?” Sam glanced at me out of the corner of his eye.
I squeezed my hands between my knees and nodded. It made perfect sense.
“What are they doing?” I asked, squinting at Lucas and Brandon who were contorting themselves in random positions beside the water.
Sam grinned. “Their dancing. Lucas is teaching Brandon how to do hip-hop.”
The sound of music drifted up the slope and Sam’s dimples deepened as Brandon and Lucas dragged Eve and Emmanuel over to dance with them. Dawn and the other kids started getting everyone else up to dance, and I smiled at the sight of Gabriel trying to twirl Jasmine under his arm. I bumped Sam’s shoulder. “Those two seem to be getting pretty close.”
He lifted one eyebrow. “Megan and Pierre?”
I scanned the crowd to locate Megan and the red haired Angel. “I was talking about Jasmine and Gabe. Where are Megan and Pierre?”
“Beside the High Guardian and the other Angelic High Councilors.” Sam pointed his finger to the left of the bonfire. “You can see the moonlight bouncing off Megan’s head. That’s why Lydia and Frank are all over each other. The glare from Megan’s bald scalp is blinding them.”
I jabbed Sam’s ribs with my elbow. “Shut up, mean-arse. I happen to think Megan looks gorgeous with a crew cut.”
Sam shook his head. “Brandon and Lucas, Jasmine and Gabriel, Megan and Angel boy, Eve and Emmanuel—we used only have to compete with Cat and Cain for the award of most adorable couple ever, and now there’s competition every which way you look. I call bullshit. There’s no way all of these fake assholes have actual feelings for each other.”
“What are you talking about? Firstly, Lydia and Frank—clearly the original couple, secondly, Lucas and Brandon are adorable. Assholes is a ridiculously harsh—”
Sam planted a kiss firmly on my lips, extinguishing my indignant shrieking. He pulled back and smiled down at me. “You know you’re an idiot, right?”
A grin tugged at the corner of my lips. “You were being overly harsh.”
Sam widened his eyes and squeezed my knee with his left hand. “I was one hundred percent joking, you crazy woman.”
“Except about us being the most adorable couple?” I asked.
Sam’s dimples split his cheeks in two, and I felt a giddy rush of happiness. He wrapped his arm around me and maneuvered my body so that I was sitting between his legs and leaning back against his chest. He rested his chin in the crook of my neck, and I closed my eyes and focused on the rhythm of his heartbeat.
We watched the Esbat celebrations for a few minutes before Sam broke the silence. His words were so quiet that at first, I didn’t hear them. “What?”
I swiveled around to look at him, hooking my legs over his thighs so that we were facing each other. Sam closed his eyes for a second and inhaled deeply. “I said, I’m sorry about what happened. With the Elders. And . . . Julius.”
My fingers reached for the nape of his neck. “Sam, you don’t need to apologize for that—”
“Yeah, I do, Grace.” Sam screwed his eyes shut and dug his fist into his forehead. “I fucked up. I froze. I let him have the same power over me that he always had. I was so sure I had become something better than what he made me, but I’m not.”
I grabbed hold of Sam’s hands, dragged them away from his face, and pressed them against my side. Sam’s eyes met mine as his fingers brushed my waist. I gave him a hard stare. “Stop. You hear me? Stop that talk, right now. That man is—he’s not a man, he’s a monster. And he scarred you, Sam.”
Sam’s jerked his face out of my hands, but I drew him back with a kiss on his lips. “He did scar you, Sam. Inside and out. But those scars are not ugly. They are not his. You own them because you survived. Everything he did to you—you rose above it. And you’re beautiful and kind and noble. And a million things I can’t even begin to describe. Your scars and your past are part of you, but it doesn’t define you. That monster can’t control you, Sam. He’s not in here.” I rested my palm against his chest, and my voice dropped lower. “I’ve been inside you when our magic connected. He’s not in there.”
“You’re in there.” Sam’s voice was hoarse as he pulled me against him, his eyes begging me for permission as his hand slid down to the hem of my dress and rested on my thigh. “Even when you’re not with me, I can feel you inside my heart, Grace. You’re part of me.”
And he was part of me. Two halves of one whole—the most perfect agony.
I closed my mind against the prophecy and stared into Sam’s eyes. I slid off his lap and took him by the hand. His lips parted as he followed me to the deserted barn. I pushed him down onto the deep pile of hay and kneeled over him with one hand on each of his shoulders. I leaned in and kissed him deeply, leading his hand over my thighs and onto the curve of my buttocks.
His pupils dilated as my chest brushed his body, and he dug his fingers into my flesh, losing himself for a moment before he struggled into a seated position and caught my hands. His breath was labored. “Wait, Grace, are you sure?”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and drank him in. “Sam, you are the only thing in this entire world that I’m sure of.”
Sam’s restraint gave way under the weight of my kiss, and he dragged me down onto his body, trailing his lips over my skin. I closed my eyes and released my magic, leaving it f
ree to mingle with his. Body, mind, and spirit moving as one. My back arched and I felt a sudden exhilaration.
Whatever happened tomorrow, nobody could take this from us. We had lived. Maybe we had never danced on cars, but I had a feeling this was better. So much better.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Grace
The rains came during the night. Huge, heavy black clouds broke over the valley and transformed the embers of the bonfire into a river of ashy gray sludge. My boots sank into the wet grass as we gathered in front of the farmhouse and the pouring rain matched the bleakness of my mood—even the heavens were crying for us.
“I can’t believe we’re really doing this.” Brandon shook his head as he tightened his weapons belt around his waist. “I nearly had a panic attack when I looked out the window this morning. Aza, Emmanuel, and the High Guardian must have opened a thousand slips during the night to get all these people here.”
I stared around at the vast crowd of people gathered on the hillside and nodded. “It’s surreal. It’s like a proper army.”
“It is a proper army,” Sam said. He fiddled with the fastening on the protective jacket that Aza had given me to wear, tugging it closed firmly around my torso. “Angels, Shadow Children, Demons—”
“And Humans,” Lucas interjected, squeezing Brandon’s shoulder with his hand.
Sam grinned. “And Humans—it’s a pretty badass army.”
I tried to absorb some of the boys’ enthusiasm, but my heart was beating so fast that it was all I could do to stay standing. Aza’s voice rang out across the valley, causing thousands of faces to turn in her direction and distracting me from the anxiety building in my chest. She raised both her hands in the air, calling for silence. High Guardian Adam handed her a megaphone, and she stepped forward to address the crowd.
“Children,” Aza hollered. A few of the older faces turned to look at each other with raised eyebrows, and I felt my lips twitch. Even the oldest of the fighters were barely toddlers in Aza’s eyes. She raised her voice louder and glared at a small knot of Angels who were talking amongst themselves. “Everyone knows what their position should be—let’s not turn into a gaggle of geese in the final hour.”
High Guardian Adam suppressed an amused grin as he stepped up beside the Demon. Aza handed him the megaphone. “All right. Everyone who has been assigned to enter the battlefield last, I need you over here.” He gestured to the other side of the farmhouse, and hundreds of black warriors moved in that direction. “Thank you. Those of you who are in the second wave, you should be clear which Elder you are targeting.”
Adam began to reel off the Guardian’s names and the names of the people whose team had been assigned with locating and securing the Elder until Eve could get to them and remove the Elders life spark. Adam’s eyes pierced the crowd and landed on Brandon, Lucas, Frank, and Lydia. “You four, you should already be with Eve and Lizzie at the portal site.”
He tipped his head toward the clearing where Lizzie and Eve were standing alone, and our friends separated from us and made their way across the grass. Aza pinched her lips together tightly. “Good. Now everyone is where they should be we can reveal the location—”
Sam’s voice cut through Aza’s words. “I want to be on the team that targets Elder Julius.”
Lizzie and Aza exchanged a look with High Guardian Adam and Emmanuel. Emmanuel took a step forward. “Samuel, I understand your desire to be on the front line, but we feel that it makes more sense, tactically speaking, for those with the Lost Powers to remain hidden until we have defeated all of the Elders.”
“Eve possess a Lost Power. The most vital one—she’s the bloody Spark—and you’re letting her go through unprotected. You’re using her as bait, for God’s sake. Why am I any different?” Sam’s eyes flashed as he glared at the Master.
Emmanuel’s forehead creased. “Sam, we did not make the decision to use Eve to draw out the Elders lightly, but we have to do what we believe will give us the best chance at success. If anyone else appeared, Mathas might not send all of the Elder’s to retrieve them. Eve is the only person I believe to be a great enough threat to the Veil for Mathas and the Elders to attack with their full force. We will only get one chance at this, Samuel. We have to place people where we feel the need is greatest.”
“That’s why you have to let me be on the team that targets Julius.” Sam’s hands were clenched in frustration. “You don’t know him, Emmanuel. None of you do. He’s not like the other Elders. He’s twisted and devious—he will slither out of your grasp before Eve has a chance to touch him. I know how his mind works. If anyone has a hope of holding him still long enough for Eve to do her work, it’s me.”
Emmanuel glanced at Aza, and she lifted one shoulder. “The boy has a point. This is his war too.”
Lizzie and Eve nodded, and Emmanuel exhaled before turning back to Sam. “So it shall be. Samuel, you will join the team—”
“And me,” I said. Emmanuel raised his eyebrows and sighed. I held my palms out. “I’m sorry, but there’s no point in arguing with me, Master Emmanuel. Sam and I need to be together so that we can evacuate everyone if needs be. I have to go wherever he does.”
The Master’s lips curled ever so slightly at the corners. “Indeed, Miss Grace. Thank you for that.” He ran his amber gaze over the rest of the remaining fighters. “Is there anyone else who wishes to express concerns or are we free to proceed?”
When nobody responded, Emmanuel dipped his head respectfully and handed the Megaphone back to Aza. She blasted her voice into the air. “Right! Angels, keep your eyes on High Guardian Adam and watch for his signals. Demons and Shadow Children, you answer to me. Lizzie will orchestrate the battle from the higher ground on the clifftop while the rest of us try to keep the battle on the lower ground in front of Shadow Hall. Don’t let them push you toward the high ground. Stay together. And keep your eyes on your commander. Understood?”
The crowd murmured in response, and Aza held the megaphone to her lips again. “Today, we fight to avenge the past and protect our future. Every one of you who has lost a loved one to the Elder’s deceit and lies, this is your day. Every man and woman who has a child who deserves a world free from tyranny and filth, this is your day. Are you ready to cease your day?”
I crushed my hands over my ears as the crowd roared in response. Emotion swept through the air with the ferocity of a hurricane and took my breath away. Sam wound his fingers through mine and stared down at me with concern in his eyes. I gave him a grim smile and squeezed his hand.
Aza thrust her arm upwards and, instantly, the army fell into silence. Lizzie twisted the air beneath her fingers and spun it to open a portal. The wind that howled through the opening coated my lips with the familiar tang of sea air. I breathed deeply, swallowing the wave of melancholy that threatened to suffocate me. Going home and going to war, how had such conflicting concepts become one?
Eve’s stare probed the rows of bodies, and I raised myself on my tip-toes so that she could see my face clearly. She glanced from Cat’s drawn face to Dawn’s fierce grimace and finally let her gaze rest on me. I opened my mouth to call out to her, but before I could speak, she was gone. Disappearing through the portal like a sacrificial lamb. I bit down hard on the skin beside my thumb and mumbled into my hand. “I don’t understand why we have to use Shadow Hall as the battle ground.”
Sam pulled my thumb gently from my teeth and wrapped his finger around my raw skin. “That’s because you hid in your bedroom last night before the Esbat celebration instead of coming down for the debriefing with Aza and Emmanuel.”
“Sorry, Sam. I’ll try to be less disturbed the next time two people sacrifice their lives to save mine.” I pulled my thumb free and turned my back to Sam.
Sam wrapped his arms around my waist softly and pulled me against his warm body. I didn’t resist. My magic had been aching for him since the moment I peeled myself away from his body in the barn the night before. His breath tickled my neck as he
spoke, both of our stares still fixed on the portal. “Aza’s team have been watching Shadow Hall since we reported we felt a presence in the manor the night we retrieved the scroll. Turns out we were both right. There was both an Angel and a Demon-Born presence in the house. And you were right with your explanation.”
I twisted my head to look into his face. “Deirdre?”
Sam nodded. “Yep. Aza’s people have been watching the place ever since.”
“And they think she’s still working with the Elders? After everything she’s seen?” I squinted at Sam, incredulous.
He shook his head. “No. They haven’t seen any sign of her trying to contact anyone. They think she’s just hiding. She hasn’t even left the manor to buy food. She’s surviving on the remains of the larder and what she can tend in the gardens.”
“I see.” I felt a prickle of unease at the thought of Aza’s Demons watching a pregnant mother struggle to feed herself.
Sam peered down into my face as if he was reading my mind. “Aza’s people couldn’t reach out to her, Grace. If they made contact with her, it would have put her in danger and us too. They have evidence that Peter knows she’s there. He’s still watching her.”
My heart pounded in my chest as I focused on Lizzie standing beside the portal. Her body was stiff as she leaned forward to follow Eve’s slow march across the gardens of the house. I chewed on the inside of my cheek. “Peter’s watching Deirdre, so that means he could be watching Eve right now? That’s how the Elders will now how to attack. That’s how—”
“Wave two, go!” Lizzie roared into the crowd, her hands blazing with Spirit Light as she direct us through the portal. Adrenalin pumped through my veins as I fell into formation behind Sam, one hand gripping a Spirit Blade, the other wrapped around the handle of my whip.
My chest pounded as we burst through the portal and onto the familiar cliff top. Around us, the battle had already begun to unfold as Angels, Halflings, and Demons alike surround Elders and fought off their Hounds. The Atlantic winds licked my face like a faithful pet. We were home. And we were at war.
The Demon-Born Trilogy: (Complete Paranormal Fantasy Series) Page 65
