Dark Forsaken (The Devil's Assistant Book 3)

by Smith, HD

  “She wants Sydney. We have to make her believe we have her.”

  Faith lowered her hand when she realized that Cinnamon wasn’t going to shake. “Where’s my new BFF, Claire?” Faith asked in that same perky sorority girl demeanor.

  Sage raised an eyebrow at me.

  “Don’t ask,” I said.

  Faith cocked her head to one side. “It’s obvious that you’ve spoken to her recently. So don’t be shy. Share.”

  “Why does she think that?” Sage asked.

  “Because Cinnamon knows not to let Faith touch her. I’m the only one that could have warned her.” Focusing on Cinnamon, I said, “Cinnamon, tell Faith that I’ve found Sydney and that I need to see her.”

  “Claire has found—”

  “Call her the girl,” I added.

  “The girl,” Cinnamon continued. “She wishes to meet.”

  Faith’s wicked grin widened. “Where and when?”

  “Tell her to meet me at the Wild Hare in an hour.” I said.

  “The Wild Hare Bar and Grill in Underworld,” Cinnamon said. “In an hour.”

  Faith nodded and then turned to leave. One of the druids that had been with her before, but not the one I’d seen in X’s camp, was waiting on the porch. They disappeared the moment she reached him.

  Cinnamon stepped back into the in-between with us. “We need a plan.”

  I checked the time. “Faith will be at the Wild Hare soon. Let’s go. We’ll discuss on the way.”

  Chapter 31

  Sage, Cinnamon, and I were sitting at the bar waiting for Faith to arrive. The ninjas had tossed the office and left the back room a mess. I fixed the door when we arrived, but left the rest for Mace to handle when he returned.

  “She’s late,” Sage announced.

  “Patience, Brother,” Cinnamon said.

  “Should I just ask for her help?” I suggested. “Invite her to the meeting I’ve set up tomorrow afternoon at the Lux?”

  Cinnamon chuckled. “Do you think Faith will come?”

  I shrugged. “Gizelle seems to think that’s where we’ll be. And X won’t bring out Sydney unless he sees Faith or we give him the locket.”

  “Have you tried to open it?” Cinnamon asked.

  “Not yet.”

  Why even— Sage started, but I interrupted him.

  Out loud.

  “Why even ask Faith? The locket seems like a better plan. We can just hand it over and be done. Gizelle’s curse has been broken, Faith has no leverage,” Sage said.

  “But Daddy wants us to kill X,” Cinnamon said in an exaggerated tone that almost made me laugh. “We would have a better chance if Faith was there too.”

  “True,” I said, “but I doubt I can trust her to cooperate. Plus, I can’t kill Jayne’s son until I know he’s a fraud. Sage is right: we’ll trade the locket. I’ll tell her I need another day to get Sydney. She doesn’t know Gizelle’s curse has been broken. She’ll think I’m still under her thumb. We’ll meet X tomorrow as planned, lure him out with the locket, and then spring our trap. Agreed?”

  “Agreed.” Cinnamon and Sage said together.

  “Bravo, Claire,” Faith said in her overly perky voice as she materialized in the Wild Hare with her other druid in tow. “Such an exciting plan. And to think I could have fallen for it.” She laughed in that annoying sorority girl giggle. “I really expected more from you. Too bad Gizelle has removed that pesky curse. I guess I’ll have to screw you over by getting to Sydney first.”

  Cinnamon stepped in front of me, protecting me from my overconfident fellow contender.

  Leaning around Cinnamon, I said, “Unless you plan to trade yourself, X won’t bring the girl out, so good luck trying to beat us to Sydney. We’ve got the locket and the advantage. And you’re a man down,” I said, looking at her only druid companion.

  Her eyes narrowed. “I knew you had that locket. You hid it so well from me at the apartment, but I knew.” Laughing, she stepped back into the arms of her transport. “You won’t win. You know nothing about X. He’ll bring the girl to the meeting. He has to—his time is almost up. He’ll forget it all again, just like before, and I’ll weave a new tale for him to chase.”

  What’s she talking about? Cinnamon asked.

  Fuck if I know, just follow my lead. “Really?” I said. “Sage, looks like you lost the bet. I knew Jayne had no heir. X isn’t her son.”

  Faith’s lip curled up. “Clever, Claire, but I never said he wasn’t the heir.” Grabbing hold of her transportation, Faith winked. “Ta-ta for now, darling. May the best bitch win.” She disappeared.

  I slammed a protection around the place as soon as I felt her leave.

  Do you think she bought it? Sage asked.

  “She bought it, but what did she mean about the locket?” Cinnamon asked. “Sage, you said she was there when Mab showed and then she ran off. Why would she think we had it already? Claire, what was she talking about?”

  I thought back to when she was at the apartment. Perhaps I’d believed her story about X too quickly. “She mentioned the locket, but I had no idea what she meant at the time. I was too focused on the other parts of the story.”

  “Mab was definitely the one that took it,” Sage said.

  “Show us,” I said.

  Sage thought of the last time he’d had the locket and projected that image out. I viewed the scene through his eyes, getting lost in the moment and sucked into it like a dreamscape.

  ~#~

  Fuck, fuck, fuck. I killed my brother. For what, this worthless piece of junk? I tightened my fist around the stupid locket. Cinnamon’s going to kill me. Why did I do it? Why?

  “Stupid—” I muttered, punching the brick wall of the alley where X’s stooge told me to wait. “Stupid—” Again, I pummeled the rough stone, not caring that my hand was getting bloody in the process. “Stupid—” I repeated, hitting the wall harder. What did it matter if I broke every finger? “Fuck. I deserved to die.”

  A whistle sounded on the wind. I straightened up, taking the locket in my other hand, the one I hadn’t just beaten into a bloody mess against the wall. I wanted to get this over with and disappear. Cinnamon couldn’t kill me if she couldn’t find me.

  A smokin’ hot babe in wicked tight leathers approached. Her boobs were a bit small, but she was working it. Fuck, quit thinking about that shit. Just give her the damn thing and go.

  The chick stepped forward, and her eyes widened when I felt a brush of wind behind me. She ran off. I spun around to see what had scared her. Fuck me, it was Aunt Mab. Play it cool, man. She has no right to take you.

  “I’ll take that,” Mab said, glancing at the locket in my hand.

  Fuck, she could have it. I reached forward to drop it into her hand. A hand that held magic I could sense. Odd.

  ~#~

  Sage opened and closed his fist, as if remembering the pain from the alley. He shook it off. “That’s all I remember until the pit.”

  “We’re missing something,” I said.

  “He could sense Mab,” Cinnamon murmured. Then she said to Sage, “Kill Sorrel again and I will end you.”

  “Okay, but what the hell do you suppose Faith meant about the heir? And time running out for X?”

  Cinnamon’s face lost all expression. “No—it can’t be.”

  “What?”

  She shook her head.

  “What?” I asked.

  “He’s the lost son—not Jayne’s sons, which would make him an heir to Fallen, sort of. But it’s impossible.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Impossible? Really? And what do you mean, lost son?”

  “It would be easier to show you.” Cinnamon turned her gaze to me, locking our eyes. In a flash, I saw pictures and books, cave paintings and scholarly reports about a man that walked through time as a blank slate. Unlike Sage’s more immersive experience, some of Cinnamon’s thoughts were concepts or brief snippets of conversations over time. The man rose and fell armies so often that historians
started to take notice. There were fifty-year spans when a tyrant would come to power and then disappear overnight. His legend said that he was the lost heir to a desecrated land, stripped bare and left broken. He was cursed to spend an eternity reliving the same mistakes, rising to power only to remember for a brief moment who and what he was before it all crashed down around him. Drawings of the man came next. I gasped as I saw X’s eyes in more than one depiction.

  I staggered back from the intense onslaught of information when Cinnamon blinked and released me. “Holy shit.”

  “If he’s really the lost son,” Cinnamon said, “his claim is somewhat legitimate. According to folklore, after Jayne was exiled, and before the realm was destroyed completely, there was a three-month span where another claimed power. Most versions of the story ignore this detail, assuming it is some alternate ending to the mythical fourth realm. Of course, we now know the fourth realm is real and that makes this lost son theory even more interesting. I’d always assumed it was complete drivel and that the fourth realm was no more real than the lost city of Atlantis, which meant all the speculations about this man were just random facts that were nothing more than a fool’s attempt at linking unrelated events.”

  “But you know all these things. You were studying the myth?”

  Cinnamon waved her hand back and forth as if that were irrelevant as she continued. “Some speculate the attempt to rule the fourth realm was only his latest conquest and there had been thousands before it. Others say it was his first. His legend is so odd that most think it’s a myth describing many different mythical men over time, not just one. He’s even said to have stolen time once or twice.”

  “Time? Faith said he was an Ancient, but how would he steal time?” I asked.

  “It’s all very complicated in the lore. Other stories say he is the king of time and that his body and power were split thrice. One to the wind, one to the sea, and one to the earth.” I started to ask another question when Cinnamon added, “It’s actually where the phrase ‘time flies’ comes from, I think. If you believe in the legend of a man who walks the earth with no end, has wings, breathes fire, and sees through all mirrors…or was it mirrored walls? I can’t remember. It’s all too fantastical to believe really.”

  “Too fantastical,” I challenged. “This coming from the Easter Bunny.”

  “Oh, Claire, you know what I mean. It’s too metaphorical.”

  “Again, Easter Bunny.”

  She rolled her eyes. “A man split into three. One walks the earth, one flies and controls time, and the last sees through every mirror? It’s just implausible.”

  She held up her hand to stop me. I just mouthed “Easter Bunny.” Thinking over her story, I asked, “You think this is what Faith meant? The lost son?”

  Cinnamon shrugged. “I don’t know what else she could mean if he’s the heir. But it’s just so unlikely.”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “Come on, Claire, what man could be split into three and live? Next, you’ll tell me you’ve met him.”

  “Well—” I stopped myself before I could mention Tarik, the winged dragon that breathed fire and controlled time, or Callum, the spirit of the Silver Sea, who somehow had the power to destroy Keeper’s mirrors and who’s mirrored prisons numbered in the thousands. And now X, a man that walked through many lives not knowing who or what he was—if Faith was to be believed. “Okay, you’re most likely right, but how is none of this tied to Jayne’s prophecies?”

  Omar’s prophecy book that I had stuffed away in my old apartment hadn’t mentioned anything about this man. I scanned back through the prophecies in my head, but none of them were relevant.

  “Claire, I told you. The stories about him have barely a thread of resemblance. And almost none of them tie his myth to the fourth realm. I only know of it because one of my professors wrote his doctoral thesis on the unlikelihood that this man ever existed. He pulled every source that had anything to do with a man of great power who rose and fell as if he’d never lived. Some were so minor they were nothing more than mere mentions on the dying lips of battlefield soldiers. My professor tied them together and then tore them apart. He spent one hundred and ten years of his life doing nothing but researching what he called the greatest myth.”

  “Let me think,” I said, remembering Faith’s rant. She implied that she manipulated him and would do it again once his memories were reset. “Is it possible Faith’s ability somehow triggered his memory early?” Maybe part of her story was true. She could have seen more than she said. Maybe she had a plan to manipulate him once his memories were gone. “I think part of his past has been awakened. He knows enough to want the rest of his history back. He thinks Faith can reawaken the rest.”

  Cinnamon considered this. “If she somehow made him remember early and he is an Ancient, it has to be a partial set. He could be fixated on the locket because it’s the first memory he has? Maybe?”

  “It’s possible,” I agreed. “Faith may not have been the only thing to affect his cycle. The fourth realm reawakened during the same time, which could have affected him as well.”

  “There are a few accounts of people witnessing the final hours of his life, where he rants of great loss before disappearing,” Cinnamon said. “Of course, these are very few, as anyone claiming these events would have been institutionalized or killed for heresy.”

  “What if Faith doesn’t show at the meeting?” Sage asked. “I think we can convince X the locket will unlock the remainder of his memories and trade it for Sydney.”

  “But I’ve promised to bring Faith,” I said.

  Cinnamon laughed. “Worst case, I can play Faith. I’ve known many like her.”

  I furrowed my brow.

  Cinnamon snapped her fingers and transformed from a six-foot-two blonde supermodel into a five-foot-seven Faith doppelganger.

  “Oh my god,” Sage exclaimed. “How are you doing that?”

  In a pitch perfect rendition of Faith’s voice, she said, “Claire’s power has its perks, Brother.”

  She looked and sounded just like Faith. I’d barely mastered changing my clothes. Cinnamon could completely become another person. It looked real, but almost too real, like high-definition TV.

  Sage snapped his fingers, but he didn’t change into anyone else. Scowling, he looked at Cinnamon.

  Cinnamon returned to her true form. “Don’t look at me, Brother. You’re the one that should have studied more in school.”

  “We don’t have the locket,” he reminded her.

  “We don’t need it,” Cinnamon said.

  “I don’t know. X is going to expect Faith to have it. We’ve bluffed Faith into thinking we have it and intend to use it to trade for Sydney, which will hopefully draw her out, but—” I trailed off, not really wanting to tell them about walking through time, but I had no choice, especially if Cinnamon could pretend to be anyone.

  Eying her, I asked, “Can you make yourself look like anyone?”

  “Perhaps. Why? Who did you have in mind?”

  “Mab.”

  “Mab!” Cinnamon yelled. “Absolutely not.”

  “Why not? We can use the disguise to get the real locket,” I suggested.

  “How?” Sage asked. “Mab already has it.”

  “No, she doesn’t,” I said. “Faith came to the apartment because she knew something you overlooked.”

  “What?” Sage asked.

  “Mab wasn’t in the alley with you. Cinnamon noticed, too, after your vision.”

  Cinnamon sighed. “It’s impossible.”

  “What is, Sister?” Sage asked.

  “I sensed myself, but I wasn’t in that alley. I may not have all my memories of my time with X, but there’s no way he would have convinced me to pretend to be her.”

  “Well,” I said, “here’s where it gets complicated.”

  They both stared at me as if I were crazy.

  “Time isn’t always our biggest obstacle. You just need the right opportunity. We
know when Sage gave the locket to Mab. And we know Cinnamon sensed herself, so we’ll just go get it now. I mean, it would probably create a paradox if we didn’t, but maybe I’m wrong.”

  “You’re talking about time travel?” Cinnamon asked.

  I considered how to answer that. “Yes,” I said simply.

  “Interesting,” Cinnamon said, which meant she was probably figuring out a hundred ways she could use that ability. “But if I get caught pretending to me Mab, she could have me killed.”

  “At any time,” Sage added. “Without retribution.”

  “Then we won’t get caught,” I said.

  Cinnamon didn’t look convinced. “Explain to me how we’ll intentionally step through time.”

  “It’s the same as slipping the line, but you just sort of go sideways,” I said.

  Cinnamon lowered her brows in thought, then closed her eyes and disappeared. She reappeared a minute later. She crossed her arms over her chest, looking down her nose at me. “Is there some reason you neglected to give us this information in your previous summary?”

  Cinnamon in academic mode was a little scary. Not Easter Hare scary, but close.

  “I don’t know, maybe so you wouldn’t do something stupid and blink us out of existence?” In a pleading tone, I said, “Please don’t do anything stupid and blink us out of existence.”

  Clearly offended, she said, “I have studied with the greatest masters. I know more about the ramifications of time than you could ever imagine. Honestly, had I known you possessed this gift, I would have been frightened for the entire planet.”

  Was she kidding me? “Really? You of all people are going to lecture me on planet safety?”

  “Could you two just kiss and make up?” Sage drawled. “Before Claire loses it?”

  I looked down to see what he meant. The vines on my arms were visible. I hadn’t even noticed when they formed. I took a few deep breaths and they began to recede. I blinked, bringing up my second sight. A small trickle of energy was flowing back toward Sage, which must have been how he first noticed. Closing my eyes, I stepped outside my body. The power at my core was contained, methodically spinning and reversing as I’d trained it to.