But not yet.
Torture seared his insides, hollowing him.
“Give me, now!” Khuket pried his teeth apart and thrust the Key into the sky. Lightning crackled and streaked the night. Thunder rolled, further whipping the blizzard into a maelstrom.
Khuket’s tongue invaded his mouth, a foreign, rancid piece of flesh that hit the back of his throat and nearly made him gag. He denied the automatic response and—
Focus on the pain. Pain is honest, real, and the one constant in his life. Cold on the outside. Glacial in the inside. A million pricks pierced his body. Avery shuddered, his control slipping fast.
Hold on. Just a little longer. Lightning dissected the storm, struck the obelisk, leaped to the Ankh. Sparks flew from both and Khuket cried out.
Everything he kept imprisoned—the bottled savagery— rushed out of him and into the Goddess of Chaos. The bands binding him loosened. He was free, yet now wasn’t the time to flee. She wanted him. The goddess would get what she wanted.
He locked his arms around Khuket. She would not get away. Life or death, to move was to lose, and this ended now. Between their bodies, the amulet flared and synchronized with the Key. Light pulsed from both in an escalating aurora and impaled the night sky. A sonic boom shook the building. Windows shattered. Screeching car alarms competed with the screams of people.
Khuket pulled away, allowing Avery to glimpse at the cracked sky. No, not a crack; a football field length split the heavens. Snow veered away from the opening as a barrage of meteors slipped free.
His brain latched onto the word meteor because what else could the round flaming objects plummeting from the sky possibly be?
Khuket’s cackle echoed through the night, the city, but especially through him. Avery gripped her head and brought her mouth back to his. He fisted the crystal dangling from her neck. One goddess had to die, the other set free.
Energy scorched his palm. He held on, snatched the necklace free from Khuket as he opened his mouth wide, and rammed his fury down her throat. Thirty-two years worth of rage poured out of him and into her. She swallowed the toxic stew down, greedy for every drop. As he fed her, Avery applied increasing pressure on the crystal. A crack sounded between their bodies. A spear of light pierced the fissure.
Stabbed him.
Stabbed Khuket.
Additional power roiled through him, now from three distinct sources, Khuket, Nu, and his Ink. The last two added to what he fed her. Khuket recoiled, thrashed, suddenly desperate to be free. She tried to tear away, but there would be no escape from Avery’s death grip. Her body softened into a putty-like substance. The essence trapped inside the crystal penetrated her darkness again, and again until she doubled for a porcupine.
Through his heart, a lance of pure light jutted from his chest. He expected pain, not the bliss which dropped him to his knees and left him gasping in wonder.
Avery glanced at Roman and Reign who were doing their own versions of blissed-out gyrations on the rooftop. EJ—also pierced through the chest—was still a statue while incandescent light bathed Ember. The glow nearly fried Avery’s retinas. He looked away only after the child inhaled a sharp breath.
Lightning flashed again, illuminating the fractured sky. He spotted Emeline racing toward him. She swept around him to the Ankh laying a few feet away. She snatched it up and snapped it in two, three, five pieces. The wind and swirling snow ceased, leaving an unnatural stillness.
Khuket’s now formless body shuddered as it pooled on the rooftop. The lumpy shape resembled an inky blob sporting two eyes yards apart, no discernable mouth, nose, hair, or body. The crystal was embedded in the surface, the light dwindling.
Avery seized it.
The Orb wouldn’t come. With all of his strength, he hauled it toward him. The sticky substance that was once Khuket followed. His body recognized it, wanted it.
He did not.
He fought. His muscles clamped down on his bones and resisted the urge to merge with the chaos leeching from Khuket. The crystal shattered, freeing the remains of Nu. A concussion wave swept over the roof. The woman in red dashed in front of EJ, but the wave knocked her into his body. Avery didn’t have a chance to shout a warning before they both tumbled into the nearest vortex and it winked closed.
His mind reeled.
He’d accused EJ of being unable to cut the umbilical cord when it was Avery who couldn’t wield the scissors. Now in the midst of a crisis, he had no choice. Concern for EJ would have to wait.
Khuket’s fetid ichor clung to his arms and hands, seeking a way inside him.
Receive it. Nu commanded, her form once more coalescing lights in the sky.
“I can’t. Won’t.”
You can. You will.
To take in Khuket’s darkness. Devour her chaos…he would lose himself, lose all that he loved, whom he loved, and become the thing he hated. Trapped in that hell, alone in that void. “No.” Roared from him.
Arms, soft yet strong circled his chest. The scent of desert roses surrounded him as breasts pillowed against his back. He wasn’t alone. Love filled him and he was so damn thankful because the infusion of Emeline’s devotion buoyed him.
Khuket’s remains seeped into his pores, beneath his skin, into his soul, yet instead of drowning, he floated above the churning chaos. A part, yet free. Still, he wanted Emeline to go.
“Run, Eme.”
“Let me help.”
“Leave now.”
“Not without you.” Cheek pressed to his back, her breath fanned his skin, his Ink.
“Please, I can’t control this.”
You were created for this purpose. This is your destiny. To be the God of Chaos. You can. You. WILL. Nu commanded again.
“No,” he growled and fought harder. His breath hitched. His heart sputtered. His body couldn’t take the strain. One by one, the rest of his organs shut down.
Then you doom this world to wallow in the chaos only you can contain. With that, she returned to Ember and left Avery to his battle.
“You can control this. You already are.” Emeline said. Her lips moved, fluttering over his extra sensitive shoulder. The Ink responded with a sultry ripple, then darkness swamped him. The last thing he heard was Emeline’s cry.
Dead…then awake. Avery lurched up. His heart, the cadence was off, wrong. His breath rasped worse than sandpaper polishing stone, and his skin twice as heavy as before. “Shit. Know a bad idea when I see one.” He groaned.
Emeline shivered next to him. His coat draped him and they were still on the roof.
“How long was I out?”
“A-about ten minutes.”
“Where’s EJ?” Maybe he had imagined what he saw.
“He f-fell into the v-vortex. Both s-shut down right after his p-passage.” Snow had collected in her hair.
He was alive and they would find him. “Roman and Reign?” He bit back a groan and hauled himself into a seated position.
Her arms were wrapped tight around her torso. “They took Ember into the house along with the Key and the Soul Catcher. Thane and Quin are here too.”
He shoved the coat off and helped her into it. She huddled inside, trembling. “You need this more than I do.” But she didn’t try to return it.
On shaky knees, Avery climbed to his feet and helped Emeline to hers.
“Avery,” she paused, stared at his chest.
He looked down. Hieroglyphics covered every inch from his neck down. The sight sickened him. Had to sicken her. He waited for her revulsion.
Emeline sneezed twice and pulled something from his coat pocket. Eyebrows quirked, she unfolded and examined the cream-colored scrap of lace. Her hazel eyes widened with speculation. “Umm, why do you have my panties in your pocket?”
Hell! He shrugged. “A souvenir. Something to remember you.”
A grin spread over her beautiful face and she chuckled, a throaty sound that made his heart rev. “You stole my panties? You perv!”
Perv? For her, h
ell yeah.
Her eyes took on a dangerous glint. “You steal anybody else’s panties?”
“Nope. Only yours,” he whispered and tugged her closer.
Her gaze smoldered as the snow swirled around them. Then she sobered. “I meant what I said.”
“…You said a lot of things.” But one particular phrase he wanted to hear again.
“I love you.” She brushed the snow off his shoulders, touched him when she shouldn’t, and wrapped her arms around him.
The world lifted from his shoulders. “I know.” He choked. “Just wanted to hear it again.” He kissed her frosty lips. “I am yours, forever if you’ll have me. And more if God will allow. Though now I’m not quite sure which god that pertains to.”
Her brows quirked. “Forever is a long time.”
He gripped her nape and gave a gentle squeeze. Forehead to forehead, he looked into her eyes. “Forever isn’t long enough when I’m with you.”
A smile tugged the corners of her lips. Hope swirled in her eyes. “So you forgive me?”
His chest tightened. “How could I not when you look at me like that?” He kissed her. Nothing in the world could have stopped him. “I probably shouldn’t have told you that,” he murmured when they came up for air.
“You’re probably right.” She sneezed again.
“Come on, let’s get you warm.” They headed toward the stairs and the roof exit.
“I’m sorry about your brother, Avery. Ridley did something to him, to all of the women in the Order.”
Dread settled in his bones causing his Ink to swarm over his skin.
Emeline squeezed his hand. “We’re going to find him,” she said. “And whatever is wrong...”
“...we’ll fix it. ’Cause no one fucks with my family.”
EPILOGUE
Detective Gerald McCabe shuffled into the medical examiner’s office at the request of the director, Arthur Mead. An unlit cigarette perched from the corner of McCabe’s mouth, ready for the second he exited the building. Though he would never let anyone know his weakness, he hated the antiseptic stench of this place, and always had the urge to gag.
“Where is he?” He asked an assistant.
“Exam room four.”
McCabe walked down the hallway and peered into the window. Doctor Mead was at the sink washing his hands. A draped body lay on the table behind him. McCabe stuffed his cigarette in the breast pocket of his shirt then entered the room. “Hey, Doc. You called. I came. This had better be good. It’s twenty degrees out there and today was my day off.”
The doctor glanced at McCabe and grimaced. “I didn’t call you for the pleasure of your company.”
“So what do you want?” McCabe folded his arms across his chest.
“Don’t give me attitude when you instructed me to call you with anything unusual.”
McCabe remembered the conversation they had in the summer after the disappearance of Daniel Nicolis’s body from the morgue. “Yeah, and?” The scorn on the doctor’s face amused McCabe, but he didn’t come here to be entertained. “Anytime today, Doc.”
“You were at the warehouse fire in The Bronx four days ago?”
McCabe nodded, though his guard immediately came up. There were a lot of strange things at that warehouse the department and Mayor’s office were keeping under wraps. Stuff he couldn’t talk about. “Yeah, so.”
The doctor pointed at the covered body and picked up a nearby clipboard. “I just got to the victim yesterday. A 92-year-old African American male deceased at the scene. Suspected smoke inhalation. Name, Wilbur Gamble.”
“Yeah.” He’d better get to the point fast or he was out of here. McCabe had eyed the exit twice already. The doctor pulled back the sheet.
McCabe flinched and stepped away before he caught himself. He’d seen plenty of bodies in every condition, but he’d never seen this. “Was it the fire that did this to him?”
“No matter how intense, a fire doesn’t leave a body a desiccated husk. The man—body— is mummified, has been for at least fifty years. I pulled the picture on his driver’s license. It was taken three years ago.” He handed the photo to McCabe.
From the photo, the man didn’t appear recently exhumed. He looked like any old guy you’d curse doing forty miles per hour in the left lane. “Are you sure it’s him?” He pointed to the mummy.
“DNA matches the blood samples taken during his last hospital stay,” Doctor Mead said.
“So what you’re saying is—”
“I deal in facts, Detective. Fact: Wilbur Gamble died at the scene of the warehouse fire four days ago. Fact: this body—however old it is—was Wilbur Gamble. Now, go do your job.” Doctor Mead covered the body and left the room.
His job? Between the pits discovered at the warehouse and Mr. Wilbur Gamble, McCabe’s job description had just changed.
***
Roman and Stella sat on one loveseat, opposite Reign and Alexis in the great room at RockGate. Quin and Thane stood at various points around the room while Hector served petit fours and coffee to Stella and Alexis. He offered Emeline some but she couldn’t eat. The morgue refused to release Grand’s body and they wouldn’t say why. Roman had his lawyers probing into the delay and assured her, her grandfather would have the funeral he wanted.
Emeline wasn’t reassured. Her gut knotted. She was worried, but then so was everyone else in the room. Three members of the family were missing: Brayden, Tyrone, and EJ. Brayden and Tyrone somewhere in Egypt purposely avoiding contact. EJ and Ridley had yet to be found. Quin continued to search, but hadn’t discovered a trace of either.
“Khuket said you were stronger than I,” Roman said to Reign and received a nod.
“I heard her words, though doubted they held any truth,” Reign said. “We are the same, Roman, more so now than previously. I do not believe our mother would give more power to one son over the other.”
“Then how did you move so easily when I was nearly stone? How do you manifest a sword when I had to be given one,” Roman gritted. The tension in the room kicked up several notches.
Reign shrugged. “I have spent two thousand years trapped with the gods while you were here amongst humans. You deny what we are. I have accepted it.”
Roman leaned back in his chair, expression thoughtful as the tension eased. He gave a single nod. “You’re right. …Can you teach me?”
A smile twitched Reign’s mouth. “Yes, brother, I will teach you.”
“We have to find EJ.” A crack raced up the fireplace wall and the chandelier danced with Avery’s words. Hieroglyphics crawled up his neck and over his furious face. No longer random, his Ink had chosen the ancient language as its new design. Not helpful since the shapes changed when anyone tried to read the damn thing. Emeline suspected Avery’s riotous emotions played a part. Until he learned to control his emerging powers, no one would be safe.
When he paused beside her, she took his hand, shoved him into a nearby chair, and sat on his lap. His granite features softened and green returned to his eyes. The fury ebbed as he held her tightly against him.
“Thanks,” he murmured and tilted her chin for a kiss.
“I’m searching—” Quin.
“—we need a starting point—” Thane.
“—Ridley Cross doesn’t exist. Not in any known database—” Quin.
“—we can’t forget Brayden and Tyrone. Someone has to go to Egypt—” Hector.
“—they don’t want to be found—” Thane.
“—we will find them—” Roman.
“—still don’t know what fell out of the sky. Plenty of witnesses saw meteors, and there are impact sites, but no fragments were found,” Quin said.
“Then there’s Ember. She seems fine, doesn’t remember anything, but I can’t get over a goddess living inside of her,” Stella said.
“We should be grateful she doesn’t remember,” Avery’s words rumbled through Emeline’s side. “I still can’t believe EJ kidnapped her.” He sighed.
“EJ didn’t do this. Khuket did. Ridley did,” Emeline said.
“I’ve lost my brother,” Avery whispered, anguish in every word.
Emeline cupped his face. “No. EJ is out there and once you learn how to free the women at the Order, he will be freed too.” She kissed him hard, trying to instill the belief into his cells until someone cleared their throat.
“How goes it at the Order?” Alexis asked.
“Mrs. Kelly has taken over. She’s hired staff to take care of the women. Many of them are retired members, some parents even. They’re trustworthy. The injured ones…” Emeline flashed back to what she had unwittingly done to the women. Guilt clogged her throat and tears blurred her eyes. Avery banded his arm around her and she fed off his strength.
A few hard blinks cleared the images from her brain and she continued. “The ones I injured are recovering even though they’re still zombies. We suspect that’s why EJ hasn’t contacted anyone yet. He may still be zombified, for lack of a better word. Also, Mrs. Kelly is not pleased about the removal of the Ankh Key from the Order’s possession. She wants them back.”
“No,” Roman said. “Avery, Reign and I agreed the Anu’Ra were safer in our vault. The Order has been breached; we can’t take the chance of it happening again.”
“Luckily, Khuket only found one of the Soul Catchers. We need to locate the rest,” Avery said and received a round of agreements. “We’re heading over there after we leave. I’ll explain the situation to her again.” Emeline sighed. Avery was the key to returning the women and EJ to their former selves, he just had to look within and find it.
“What about Alamut?” Thane’s question detonated in the room.
Both Roman and Reign’s eyes glowed. The first white, the last blue. Alamut had caused so much pain, the rift between the men, especially the twins. “We are still searching every abandoned building in the city,” Roman growled.
“And I have my own methods of locating the beast. He will not evade our hunt for long.” Reign added.
Time to lighten the subject for a bit. “Congratulations on the wedding, Roman and Stella,” Emeline said.
The couple smiled and said, “Thank you.”
Evermore (Descendants of Ra: Book 3) Page 35
