“I don’t trust them,” another muttered back.
“Quiet,” a third hissed.
She glanced at her demons. They had false smiles plastered on their faces, but she could sense the tension radiating from them. What’s the plan, guys?
Daniel took her hand and nodded at his brothers.
Leaning closer to her, he whispered in her ear. “In ten seconds, teleport us back to the building top.”
Her eyes widened. All of us?
It was tricky, but she could do it. And she could keep her teleportation path hidden from the other angels.
But am I really going to do it?
Behind her, the air tingled. The angels had called their soul-blades to them.
Shit!
Using her magic, she teleported their party.
Wind swept around them for a moment. She gritted her teeth, and spread her awareness over her entire group, keeping them close. Behind her, she could feel the glowing trail of magic, which would lead the others straight to them. Blowing softly, she sent the path scattering like stars.
When they arrived back on the rooftop, she fell to her knees, dropping Daniel’s and the woman’s hands. Mark was beside her in an instant.
“Are you alright?” he asked, his voice worried.
She nodded.
It shouldn’t have been so hard, but she wasn’t fully recovered from whatever she’d been through. She could feel it in her bones. She needed to heal and regain her strength.
“What just happened?” the woman said, backing away.
“It’s okay.” Daniel turned his attention back to her. “We just brought you somewhere safe, so we could talk.”
The woman pulled her daughter closer and took several steps back. “I’m tripping. I’ve ODed somewhere. That’s what’s happening. This isn’t possible.”
“Mom.” Her daughter looked between her mother and them. “I thought we were getting ice cream.”
“None of this is real,” the woman murmured.
Mark held up a reassuring hand. “Listen, we’re here to help. We know what you’ve been doing. We know about what you can do.”
The woman’s eyes widened. “I’m just a druggie. I can’t do anything.”
“You can sense things about other people. If you touch them, you can see pieces of their past and future. You know who they’re meant to be with.” Mark spoke with absolute certainty, but with kindness.
She shook her head and took another step back. “I can’t. Dr. Marshall says I’m imagining it. That my brain isn’t quite right.”
Surcy’s gaze slid from the woman to the edge of the building not far behind her. She's too close to the edge. I hope Mark knows what he’s doing.
“Your doctor was wrong. Everyone is wrong.”
She took another step back, tightening her grip around her daughter. “They’re not. What I do—it’s not possible. It’s all in my head.”
“No,” Mark slid closer to her. “Just because humans can’t explain your abilities doesn’t mean they’re not real. In fact, all of us have unique abilities.”
The woman stared at all of them, moving back. Far too close to the edge of the building. “This isn’t real. I’m insane. I’m useless.”
Surcy tried to uncurl her wings, but her shoulder only gave a painful twing. We can’t let her get closer. We can’t let her jump!
“Then how do you explain us appearing on the top of this building?”
The woman closed her eyes. “None of this is real.”
“Mom?” There were tears in the girl’s eyes. “I’m scared."
“You don’t have to keep living like you have, being tortured by those bastards. The voices filling your mind with doubts and lies. We can help. Please, give us a chance!”
She opened her eyes, fear and hope warring in her gaze. “What am I then?”
Mark dropped his hand. “The Goddess of Love.”
Something darkened her face. “Liar. I’m no goddess. And no one knows less about love than me. This is all just some twisted trip I’m on.”
Daniel opened his mouth.
The woman jumped back and with surprising quickness, flung herself and her daughter over the edge.
A scream tore from Surcy’s lips. She reached for them, seeing nothing but the daughter’s terrified face, but she wasn’t fast enough.
They fell.
For a second, time seemed to stand still, and then, Tristan leapt over the edge of the building and sped after the humans falling to their deaths.
As Surcy stared after them, a horrible realization hit her. Not even a demon could survive that fall.
Chapter Eighteen
T ristan grasped the human and her tiny daughter and wrapped his arms tightly around them. The ground was coming too fast. But he was faster.
From one moment to the next, his body became ice cold. Hard.
When his stone feet struck the ground, they broke the sidewalk beneath him, sending cracks all around his feet. A human in a doorway screamed and raced away.
He uncurled his stone wings from around the two humans. And the older of the two turned to look at him, horror in her eyes.
“That should have ended this episode. Why didn’t it?”
“This is not some drug-induced fantasy.” He stood slowly, still holding them in his arms. “We are here to save you and your child from cruel beings that would destroy your lives. If you don't put your trust in us, you’ll both die.”
The little girl burst out crying, but the mom stared straight through him. “What are you?”
“A gargoyle, among other things.”
After a second, determination made her mouth draw into a thin line. “And why should I trust complete strangers?”
“Because already you are feeling better, away from their cruel magic. Tell me I’m wrong.”
Her eyes widened. Then, very slowly, she nodded.
He felt a wave of relief. The angels would already be searching for her, and they weren’t far away. Their rescue would go easier if the woman and her child were willing. A shadow fell over him. He rolled, taking the humans with him.
The angel hit the ground where they had only moments before stood. Her soul-blade was clutched in her hand, and the blonde’s lips were curled in an expression of determination.
“You cannot hurt me, angel.”
She smirked. “But I can hurt the humans.”
His heart thudded frantically in his chest. “If Caine wanted them harmed, he wouldn’t have sent you here to watch them.”
She spun her blade agilely in her hand. “You don’t have a clue what Caine wants us to do, but I will tell you this. Today just became the day these two will die.”
As if to prove it, she rushed toward him. He smacked her with his stone wing and sent her flying back onto the ground. Flapping his wings, he shot into the air, carrying his precious burden. He needed to get them back to Surcy. They needed to see if she had the strength to teleport them home.
When he reached the top of the roof, he saw the shock in Surcy’s beautiful face and the fear in the faces of his brothers. He picked a spot to land, but before he could, Mark shouted.
An angel grabbed his wing. The two humans in his arms screamed as they spun one way. Kicking out, he knocked the massive angel off his wing, but another angel barreled into his back, sending him hurtling toward the ground.
Spinning free of the angel, he stopped their descent just feet from the ground. His senses stretched out as he flew as hard and fast as he could back to the roof. His brothers battled two angels on the rooftop. Surcy stood, frozen.
He landed beside her, his feet crushing the roof beneath his feet. “We need to get them home. To safety. Take them.”
She turned wide eyes onto him. “But all of you—“
“We’ll be fine! Just go!” He didn’t give her another chance to think, he pushed the woman and her child into her arms. “Save them! At all costs!”
And then, he saw the reality hit her. One second s
he and the two crying humans were there, and the next moment they were gone.
Be safe.
A shadow came above him and remained. He looked up. A dozen angels crowded the sky. Moving backwards, he and his brothers came back-to-back. Their opponents lay dead upon the ground for only a moment before disappearing. But there were more.
Too many more.
“Mark, you need to go.” Tristan commanded him.
“Not a chance!” Mark sent him an angry glare.
“If they get the God Finder, all will be lost. You need to go.”
Mark dropped one hand from his regular steel blade and touched the chain at his neck. ”One of you take it.”
“Don’t argue.” Tristan’s gaze moved to the sky. “There isn’t time.”
“Without me you’ll die.”
Tristan couldn’t help the smirk that twisted in his lips. “We’ll die anyway.”
A cold rush moved over them. He turned. In the center of them, Surcy stood. Her eyes looked glazed. Her face pale.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
Fire leapt into her eyes, and she straightened her shoulders. “Saving your asses!”
Reaching out, she placed a hand on his and Mark’s shoulders.
Daniel grabbed her shoulder. “You don’t have enough strength to—“
A wind wrapped around them. From a moment to the next, they were back in their apartment. Surcy sagged in the middle of them, but he caught her before she hit the floor. Her eyes were closed and a streak of red blood trickled from her nose.
Damn it!
“Is she okay?” the little girl asked, her voice shaking.
“She will be,” Mark answered.
Tristan carried her across the apartment to her room and laid her on the bed. This wasn’t the first time Surcy had pushed herself too hard, but she’d been stronger then.
The woman he’d found in the field had been thinner. There was a general air of weakness about her that made him wonder even more where she had been kept the last year and what had happened to her. The familiar muscles in her arms and legs were no longer as pronounced, and her face had a sunken quality.
One day Caine and his followers will pay for what they did to her.
“What now?” Daniel asked
Mark answered without thinking. “We get the goddess to the only place she’ll be safe.”
Chapter Nineteen
C aine stared at the angel kneeling before him who had failed him so badly. His fingers itched to destroy his soul, but with the coming war, he needed every warrior possible on his side.
“Bring me the Fate.”
The angel lifted his dark head, surprise widening his eyes. “Which one?”
Caine cocked his head and raised a hand. The angel went crashing back against the stone wall. He smashed the useless creature against the wall over and over again, relishing the sounds of his bones breaking. He drank in the cries of pain until his eventual silence. Then, he tossed the angel against the floor and stared at him for a long moment. The angel looked like a badly damaged bird. His white feathers littered the floor like snow, and his wings were bent in odd angles.
But what could he expect for asking such a foolish question? For wasting my precious time. There is only one Fate that matters. The one who knows the future. The past and present mean nothing to me.
Unclenching his fingers one at a time, Caine looked to the angel standing guard at his door. The smart fellow had remained standing perfectly still, his gaze locked ahead of him.
“Bring me the Fate.”
“Yes, Judge.” The angel exited through the solid stone doors of the throne room. The doors closed behind him with a satisfying boom that shook the entire room.
Caine remained sitting. The dark powers that floated around him concealed him from the sight of all, but also, just as importantly, hid the nine empty thrones that sat beside him.
Let no man, angel, or demon see their immortal lord. And let none have memories stirred within their minds, of a time when more than just Caine ruled.
A soul appeared in the center of the room for judgment, nothing more than a shaking wisp of light. In an instant, he determined that the human would add nothing to his army and with a flick of his wrist, he sent the man screaming into the demon-realm.
More wispy souls flooded the room. Their minds touched his, pouring their being into him for evaluation. It took only seconds to decide, and only seconds to send them to their rightful place.
A new soul entered the room. Only, it wasn’t a wisp. It was a woman. A stunning creature cloaked in white light. Eagerly, he leaned forward.
And what do I have here?
Reaching for her, he pried her secrets opened with careless fingers and plucked the parts of her that intrigued him. This woman was strong. Capable. But… his excitement dimmed. She could not be taught to obey. This he knew as surely as he knew that he wished he could keep her for his own. For his army.
With an angry flick of his wrist, he sent her to the demon-realm. The sound of her terrified scream hung in the air long after she was gone.
The massive doors to the throne room opened and the guard dragged the Fate into the room. She fought like a wild animal. But then, she always did. Wordlessly, the angel shoved her onto her knees.
Her hair had once been auburn but after many years without a bath, it lay tangled about her shoulders, dirtied to an off-putting brown. Her pale skin was smudged with more dirt, but when she looked at him, her green eyes still oozed contempt.
Will I never break her spirit?
“As always, your prophecy has come to pass. An angel and her three demon lovers have begun the first steps of the coming war. They have stolen a goddess from my protection.”
“You mean from your imprisonment,” she spat at him.
A smile curled Caine’s mouth. This was one of those rare times he wished the woman could see him. He wanted her to know how much her useless bravado amused him.
“Tell me what to do. How can I kill the angel and her demons?”
Stubbornly, she raised her chin.
He grasped at the wisps of souls that had been building up in the air above him and pulled them into the center of the room between him and the woman.
“Must we play this game every time?”
Her mouth pulled into a thin line.
He grasped the souls and dragged them to hover above the Soul Destroyer. “What have we here? A teacher. A sick child. A mother. A young father. And an elderly grandmother. All these innocent lives… it would be such a shame to destroy their eternity, all because of your stubbornness.”
When she didn’t speak, he slid the souls lower.
The humans felt their pending destruction like knives through their bodies. Their terrified wails filled the air. Their pain had an instant effect on the stubborn woman. “Stop.”
He raised a brow. “You’ll answer my question.”
Quickly, she nodded.
He tossed the souls into the demon-realm and stood. Licking his lips, he waited, His entire body a ball of tension.
The Fate stood. Her small frame made smaller by the massive angel standing guard over her. “I hate you,” she whispered.
“Do it,” he growled, impatiently.
She closed her eyes, her hands balling into fists. She glared at Caine a moment longer before her head shot back. Her eyes opened and pure golden light poured from them. Every muscle in her body held rigid as her mouth moved, speaking words he couldn’t hear.
He trembled. This was power. True power.
And as much as he hated allowing others such a thing, he gloried in the feel of her magic rolling over him in waves, like the rays of sunlight on a summer day.
A second later, she crumpled to the ground and hurled. He waited, annoyed, as she continued to dry heave onto his palace floor. When at last, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and pulled her knees up to her chin, he sat back down.
“What was the answer?”
<
br /> The hatred in her eyes warmed his heart. “If you kill the angel and her demons, you will never gain the powers of The Immortal Ten.”
He bit his tongue until he tasted blood. Fuck this insufferable Fate and her inability to lie!
“Take her from my sight.”
The angel grasped her by the hair and dragged her from the room, while she shouted, swore, and threatened him. A waste of words from a prisoner.
Cain moved on. “Elias.”
The angel on the floor shifted and curl his broken wings around his body. His raspy breaths came in short and fast. “Yes, my lord.”
“Let the angels know. The traitors are not to be killed. But they must be stopped.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Soon they will learn that death would be a kindness compared to what I have planned for them.
Chapter Twenty
M ark drove with Tristan in the seat beside him. In the back, the woman sat silently, with her child’s head resting in her lap. The little girl slept, her tiny snores filling the car. Her face was still sticky from the ice cream she’d eaten earlier. It would’ve been easier to teleport, but Surcy needed to regain her strength, and they couldn’t risk waiting.
“I still don’t understand where you’re taking me,” the woman said, stroking her daughter’s tangled hair.
Mark stared out at the road, trying to decide how much to say. And how to say it. “There is only one place that Caine can’t reach. We’re taking you there.”
“And this… Caine. He’s the one who wants me dead?”
He nodded. “Caine is The Judge. The man responsible for deciding where each soul goes when it dies. But he wasn’t meant to have that kind of power. He’s abusing it in every way possible. The only way to restore the world back to a time of fairness is to find the gods and goddesses who are meant to make the decision.”
She frowned. “And you think I’m one of these goddesses?”
“We know you are.” Mark’s hands tightened on the steering wheel.
Her brows wrinkled. “I just… I can’t believe that a woman who’s never been loved by anyone is a Goddess of Love. Whatever the hell that is.”
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