Including the gods they fought for.
For centuries, their war had torn the worlds apart and laid waste to countless lives. Led to utter destruction.
And had ended only after a mutual act of supreme betrayal had caused the two main leaders of the dominant armies to be put down, and the last Malachai to be cursed and enslaved by the six Source gods who had created them all.
To be the last of his kind.
Forever alone. No friend. No family. Always betrayed and bereft. Unable to trust anyone.
Even himself.
Doomed to an eternal cycle of living a cold, brutal life without happiness or friendship of any kind that would ultimately end when his own son came of age and ruthlessly slaughtered him to take his place and begin the reign of terror all over again.
That was his legacy.
Hatred. Murder. Pain.
Conceived in violence to do violence and to die violently.
For no other reason than the gods were shits, and because the original firstborn Malachai had had the grave misfortune of being born to their queen of destruction who’d had the audacity to fall in love with her own Sephirii warrior.
Misery takes pity on none. She serves her dishes up without regard to a person’s life or their accomplishments.
Now, this latest Malachai warlord had found a way to cast off his chains of bondage and escape the hell they’d banished him to, and Adarian was taking his chance for freedom. More than that, he was furious over their latest attempt to overthrow him with a child he’d been duped into fathering.
And this was the result. The gates were open and he was coming for the world to take it back as his own, starting with the sacrifice of that child he’d fathered.
Vengeance is mine.…
Be careful what you do, for with every action taken there is a corresponding overreaction. It was easy to cast out the devil you feared. But the true monster wasn’t the one you saw …
It was the devil unknown. For that beast who came next was oft far worse than the one you originally threw down. And the one to fear the most was the one who came up quietly while you were distracted fighting the monster you thought you knew.
Fear that beast unseen. The one who snuck from the total darkness within. Unheard and unknown until it struck with fatal accuracy.
Kalder’s mind whirled as he remembered his father’s prophetic words.
They’re coming for me, boy. And one day, they’ll come for you … watch your throat and your bullocks. For they’ll strike where you’re weakest, and at the thing you’re paying the least attention to.
And still the turgid waters rose up, boiling in their anger, seeking to overturn the Sea Witch and drown them all. They pounded against the sides in a primal rhythm, demanding the lives of everyone onboard.
Over and over.
The war was no longer coming. It’d arrived and this was ground zero.
Mara cried out as the ship began to splinter apart. The boards under their feet were giving way.
“Divide yourself from the ship! Pull out before they destroy you!”
He barely heard Devyl’s orders for his wife to remove her nerve endings from the ship’s structure before they ripped her asunder. All Kalder could do was stare in disbelief at what was coming for them out of the dark depths below. Paralyzed in shock by an attack from the past that he’d thought was gone, stirred up by the wrath of a monster that had been released by treachery. These were creatures that shouldn’t exist anymore. They were supposed to have been banned after his father’s reign.
The Dread Waters are no more.
Kalder had rounded them all up and destroyed them. Unlike his father, he hadn’t wanted them as part of his army.
Yet here they were. Back like some invincible nightmare phantom that wouldn’t be denied. How had they resurfaced after all these centuries?
Hatred is never ending.
Fear always endures.
Dread will out. There’s nowhere to hide that it won’t find you.
He should have known that an enemy so insidious could never be truly defeated. Only held at bay for a bit.
“The ship’s coming apart!” That cry went up in unison from the crew.
“Drop the dinghies! Abandon ship!”
It wouldn’t do any good. The swell of the waves would overturn the tiny lifeboats in a heartbeat and drag them all to the bottom of the ocean, where they wouldn’t stand a chance against the riptides that would trap them. Again, that was why his father had gone undefeated during his entire reign. Why no army or navy could touch their people.
Not until the Myrcians had destroyed themselves with infighting.
More orders followed all around him, but Kalder barely heard them. Mostly because he knew what the Deadmen did. This far out at sea, there was no help for them. They were alone. If the ship went down, they would be stranded without food or shelter. And while Deadmen couldn’t die, there were plenty of things worse than death.
Having been tortured in hell more than once, he could testify to that.
I can’t leave them here to suffer.
To be lost at sea …
He wasn’t his mother. He didn’t glory in the pain and suffering of others. Not even in that of his enemies. Never mind what would happen to those he considered his real and true family.
“Chthamalus!” Kalder watched as the Dread Waters rose ever higher and pounded harder and harder against the sides of the ship, stripping more planks from the hull and sending them to the sea below.
The demon appeared by his side in his warrior form. “My lord?”
“Can you open a portal back to Wyñeria?”
He actually turned green with the thought of it. “Why? I just came from that place.… You don’t want to go there. Trust me. It’s not the home you once knew.”
“We have no choice.” It was the only place where the crew would have any semblance of dry land this far out.
His eyes bugged even more. “My prince…”
The ship whined and lurched as more of the hull fractured and came free. Lightning flashed in the dark skies above. Howling screams echoed around them.
And that was just the crew.
They wouldn’t have much longer. Any second and they were done for.
Kalder braced himself against the railing and held tight against the bucking ship. He ducked as a mast came free and swung wide, narrowly missing his head. “I won’t run, Tally. It’s not in me to do so. Ever. You say me brothers want me. Fine, then. I’ll take the fight to them, and if I have to dig me own grave, I’ll make sure to plant the shovel up their arses before I go. Now open that portal and make sure Muerig goes with us through it.”
In the midst of scrambling to see Mara and the crew safe, Devyl caught sight of Chthamalus by Kalder’s side. The furious glower on his face would have terrified a lesser man. But as noted, Kalder backed down from no one.
Not even Devyl Bane.
“What’s that doing here?”
The fact that Devyl was familiar with Tally’s breed surprised him more than his captain’s anger. “You know his species?”
The captain gave him a droll stare. “Aye. I’ve pulled the gills off a large number of them.”
Chthamalus shrank away with a squeak at the thought of being maimed in such a manner.
Unwilling to see him harmed, Kalder put himself between them. “This one is counted among me family, Captain. More so than those I share blood with.”
“Du?” Mara’s voice was even weaker.
The captain turned as pale as Cameron’s Necrodemian hair, and for the first time ever, Kalder saw fear in the captain’s eyes as he glanced down at the woman in his arms. There was no missing the love in Devyl’s heart for her. She and his sister were the one true weakness he had. The only thing that could defeat their invincible leader. And that right there was what Kalder would sell his soul to have.
A woman whose destiny was forged with his. A partner who would fight by his side through all of he
ll itself.
That one kind hand that touched him with comfort when he needed it, and gave him strength when he was weak. Someone who would mourn for him when he was dead and gone.
Devyl grabbed him by the shirtfront in one meaty fist and jerked him forward. “Save the crew, Mr. Dupree. Do whatever you must! I will trust you.”
Knowing that those words weren’t spoken lightly, Kalder inclined his head to him, then turned to Chthamalus. “Open the portal.”
Reluctance flared in the demon’s eyes before he nodded. “Aye, my prince. Your doom is my command.”
And it seemed to be his ever quest. At least that was what everyone had always said of him. Self-destructive from the moment he’d taken his first breath to his last.
Kalder felt the primordial surge in the aether the moment Chthamalus opened the portal to the deep ocean floor where their home lay. It was forbidden for any of them to bring outsiders in. Their father used to gut anyone who dared such.
And your mother gutted you for less.
Or perhaps more, given that his failure to arrive on time had resulted in Muerig’s brutal death. Kalder tried never to think of that day, when he’d made the mistake of going home to seek solace over what he’d caused to happen.
Instead, his mother had buried a dagger in his heart. Literally.
I hope you go to hell and rot for all you’ve done.
Those words still rang in his ears. But then what had he really expected? He’d never had any memories of her tender embrace. Why had he believed for even a single delusional moment that she might welcome him home?
Because I’m an idiot.
No doubt, today he’d be an even bigger one.
As the portal opened, the ship began taking on water. Kalder started to lead the way into his homeland for the others, but Bane stopped him.
“I’ll go through first … with your brother in tow to clear the way and make sure it’s safe on arrival for everyone.”
Having just joined them on deck, Muerig widened his eyes at that comment. He was also confused to find them all scrambling about to evacuate. “Beg pardon? Where are we going?” He glanced out at the dark seas that were attacking them. “There’s no land out there! No safe place to go!”
Bane glanced to Kalder before he answered Muerig’s question. “Wyñeria.”
Muerig’s jaw dropped. “It still stands?”
The captain ignored the shocked question. His features grim, he clapped Kalder on the shoulder. “Make sure everyone clears the ship, Mr. Dupree.”
“I will.”
Bane grabbed Muerig and began the departures, with Muerig protesting every step of the way into the darkness.
The rest of the crew proved to be easy until Cameron planted herself firmly in front of him and refused to follow after the others, into the portal. “I’ll wait until you go. You need someone at your back, watching for treachery.”
Kalder arched a brow at her stubbornness. And her loyalty as he began to rethink his ideas about having someone who would be by his side.
Of course, that wouldn’t last long. Especially given where they were headed. Experience had taught him better. Friends today made for enemies tomorrow.
He only prayed that she wouldn’t learn to hate him, too. He couldn’t stand the thought of seeing hatred in her eyes.
For that matter, he couldn’t stand the thought of what would most likely be waiting for him on the other side of that greenish-blue light.
“Cameron … should I be a different man where we’re heading, I want you to remember me as you’ve known me, and not as they see me.”
“I don’t understand.”
He glanced past her shoulder toward the sea beasts that were quickly tearing their ship apart. “I know. Just remember that we don’t always get to be who we want to be. Sometimes others force us to act against our natures. And survival is the harshest master of all. It’s easy to praise a man in good times and condemn him in the bad ones. But never should we be judged for the totality of our lives during that erratic pendulum swing. For fate is a fickle bitch who slaps us on one cheek, while she caresses us on the other. Rather it’s who we are most of the time, when no one’s around to force our hands. That’s the man I want you to remember when you think of me. For that is the truth of who I really am. And that’s the memory of the man I want you to hold to in your heart.”
“You’re scaring me, Mr. Dupree.”
Honestly, he scared himself more. And they were out of time. Kissing her lips, he forced her through the portal. Then he turned toward the creatures who’d been sent after him.
The Dread Waters preyed on fear and used that power to build and swell until they swallowed their victims whole. No one could escape their clutches. For that was always the thing about dread, it only grew in size. The more you feared, the more power you gave the beast.
There was only one way to defeat this nightmare.
Face-to-face confrontation. In the light of day, they were never as insurmountable as they seemed. Never as tough as they let you think they were.
Rather, they were made up of shadows of fluff. Bluster and taunts. Bullies who relied on the willingness of others to believe their perpetrated lies to give them strength.
Hold them up to the light and they fled like the cowards they were.
“Fuck what you think of me!” Kalder shouted at the darkness that tried to drag him down. “If you want to fight, then I’ll see you in me brother’s palace. At the foot of his throne.”
He swept a taunting sneer at the lot of them as they continued to tear the ship out from under his feet. “You might want to take a moment to seek reinforcements, me bitches. ’Cause it’s going to get bloody and I’m going to fight you with everything I am.”
And with that, he jumped into the midst of the troubled waters that had been sent to end him.
9
“He’s going to kill you, you know.”
Vine froze at that deep, resonate voice that sent shivers over her. It was so rich and masculine that the sound of it alone was practically enough to make a woman climax. Never mind what the sight of the man who held it could do to one’s senses.
Aye, he was gorgeous. Perfect. Delectable in every way. From the top of that long, wavy dark hair to the tips of those black leather boots.
Even more so than her ex-husband, and Duel was the epitome of masculinity.
But then he wasn’t a god.
Jaden, however, was. Or at least he had been once upon a time ago. Before he’d fallen from grace by his own volition, and became enslaved to the Dark Ones.
Now he was nothing more than a servant. Like her.
Only there was nothing subservient about this magnificent beast. He still walked with the deadly lope of a predator. With the full knowledge of a creature well aware of the powers he commanded, and his original place in the universe.
Of the damage he could wreak and the lives he could take.
Al-Baraka. The broker who bartered between demons and the darker powers. He held the ultimate power over life and death. There was nothing he couldn’t do. No realm he couldn’t venture to, or soul he couldn’t claim.
Yet for all that, he was a houseboy nowadays, really.
But an incredibly sexy one. Tall and muscular with eerie mismatched eyes that beguiled and reviled simultaneously. One a vibrant deep green and the other a dark, earthy brown. Haunting in their contrasting shades, and set in a face of utter male perfection.
She paused in the dismal corridor of Noir’s palace, where the screams of the damned echoed as a constant reminder of why she didn’t want to fail in her mission. “What are you talking about?”
“Noir … or Kadar, rather. I really hate that mundane name Azura gave him. Never thought it quite fitting for such a treacherous bastard. He’s not going to let you live through this, you know. Once he’s done with you, he’s done with you. He’ll toss you aside like the garbage you are.”
“And I should trust you … why?”
> “You shouldn’t. At all. I’ve betrayed everyone around me. Have no love of you, whatsoever. But there’s no one I hate more than my evil brother and sister. So you can trust in that hatred that will allow me to help you by screwing them.”
“That makes no sense.”
He smiled coldly. “It makes all the sense in our nonsensical universe. Trust me.” Then he stepped closer to her. “The Malachai is the one creature who can destroy Kadar. Yes?”
“It’s what I’ve been told.”
Jaden paused as one of the screams crescendoed. He flinched at the same time she cringed from the horrendous sound of pain.
“That comes from Rezar’s son, the demigod Seth. Imagine what they’d do to you if they held you in his place.”
Those words sent a chill down her spine. “They torture their own nephew?”
“That surprises you? I’m their brother. They’ve never shown me any mercy, at any time. Why do you think Braith is in hiding? And she’s their beloved missing piece they need to overpower the Malachai. She, alone, can bring him down or bring him to heel. Yet she knows better than to show her face around them. So she keeps herself hidden from them and their schemes.”
That Vine hadn’t known.
He leaned forward so that he could whisper in her ear. “Why do you think I brought you back from the void, Vine?”
She shrugged. “You had no choice.”
“I always have choices. Even while held in bondage. Never mistake that. They only control me because I let them.” He smiled coldly in her face before he spoke again. “Nay, my dearest harpy. I want my freedom. We have one shot at Kadar. If we strike together, we can bring the beast down. The only question you have to answer is if you want to live out your life again, or do you want to spend eternity in a dark, vacuumless void, or worse, like Seth in screaming agony while they rip out your entrails and have sex to the sounds of your screams?”
* * *
Cameron pulled up short in the glistening throne room that shone so brightly it made her eyes water. What the bleeding blue devil was this underwater amazement? How was it even possible? It made no sense whatsoever!
And she wasn’t the only one to be taken aback by its unexpected splendor. Every member of the Deadmen stood in stunned silence as they took in the glittering underwater palace that shouldn’t be physically possible.
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