Finally, she relaxes and sighs. “Good. You will keep it that way. You will tell no one that you are my son.”
Her words act like a noose around my neck, pulling taut and choking me. This is a puppeteer’s command, and one which will tie my tongue.
“As my queen commands.”
She stands in a fluid motion and walks toward me before circling me. “And what do you make of Seraphina Dawn?”
A loaded question. “I do not make anything of her.”
A soft sigh. “Do you like her?”
Like is such a mundane word and in no way expresses how I feel for Fee. “No. I do not.”
She comes to a halt in front of me and reaches up to caress my cheek. For a moment, her hard gaze softens. For a moment, I see the mother from my past, the one who cradled me and sang me to sleep. The one who’d lift me up and swing me around, her laughter a melody ringing in my ears. My chest throbs with nostalgia.
But the moment is brief. Her hand slips away, taking the warmth with it.
“Seraphina Dawn has been a burr in my side from the moment she entered my life,’ she says. “And now Samael is taken with her. His daughter.” She spits out the word as if it’s a foul thing. “He dares to tell me of his deception and expects me to accept it. No. I finally have my husband back, and I will not share him with anyone, especially not with her.”
Ice trickles though my veins, because I know what she’s about to ask, and I’m powerless to stop her.
“Keon,” she purrs up at me. “I want you to kill her.”
No.
The noose is around my neck, tight and unforgiving.
No, please no.
“Make it look like an accident. Do it in the heat of battle. End her. You will end her.”
The order settles into my mind, into my soul, and I am bound.
I will kill Fee.
I have no choice.
Chapter Forty-Five
Fee
Esmael left and Uri and I decided there was no point going back to camp. By the time we got there, it would be time to fly back, and we’d be exhausted. Instead, we retreated closer to the forest where we were shielded from the cutting breeze and built a small campfire. We sat with our backs to a thick tree trunk to wait for Esmael’s return.
Uri was quiet and reflective, so I gave him space to think with my silence. Long minutes passed.
“I feel different,” Uri said softly.
The knot in my stomach was back. “How different?” I turned my head to look at him. “Talk to me.”
“I feel…whole and…” he ducked his head. “I feel like I may have finally found my purpose.”
I’d given him the beta role with Rising Pack. I’d kept him with me, a part of the pack and the Dominus team, but I finally understood the conflict he must have felt.
“Uri…”
“I know,” he said. “I know you never felt I was any lesser than the others. But losing my role as a Grigori, even though I’d never fully felt at home in it, made me feel even more afloat. You and the guys…you made me feel welcome, a part of the team, but I never felt whole. I always felt as if I was the weak link and now…”
“You’re complete.”
“Yes. I finally know who and what I am. I finally feel I can be the man you deserve.”
I cupped his face and stared deep into his beautiful ember eyes. “There was never any doubt in my heart or mind about that. I love you, Uri. I love you whatever role you choose to embrace.”
His gaze dropped to my mouth. “I love you, Seraphina Dawn.”
He kissed me softly, lips molding to mine in a lingering caress. Heat bloomed low in my belly because if I opened to him, if I parted my mouth and tasted him with my tongue I’d be lost. I’d want him, all of him here and now, and now wasn’t the time.
He pulled back before I could break the kiss and pressed his forehead to my temple. “When this is over…”
“Yes, please.”
He kissed my forehead “Get some rest. I’ll keep watch.”
I snuggled up to him, listening to the steady beat of his heart and the even rise and fall of his breath.
It was a companionable silence, and with the soft crackle and pop of the fire, and Uri’s solid form to brace me, my eyes drifted closed.
I was in darkness that reeked and clawed at my throat, and water sloshed around my boots. There was a door up ahead, blue and rusty in the light from my lantern. I pressed my hand to it.
Not my hand.
A male hand
His hand.
Cain.
I came to with a start when Uri shifted suddenly, and the dream slipped into the deep, dark recesses of my mind, leaving my heart pounding way too hard.
What had that been? The dream… What was it?
“Esmael’s back,” Uri said, his tone tight.
The sky was gray with predawn light, and there was a speck high in the sky, getting larger as it hurtled toward us.
Esmael.
We stepped into the clearing as he landed neatly and shook his powerful head, dislodging sparkling dewdrops. Steam rose off his mammoth form, and his wings flexed, spraying more dew.
“What happened?” Uri asked.
Esmael bowed his head. “I was unsuccessful in my efforts. They will not fight, not for an absent general.”
Uri’s body seemed to swell—larger, broader. “No. No this will not do.”
There was only one thing for it. “You need to go with him, Uri. You need to speak to them.”
“I can’t leave you,” Uri said.
“You can. I’ll be fine. This is more important. Fuck. I should have made you go with Esmael the first time. I…I should have pushed, but…I was scared.”
“Scared?”
“That I’d lose you.” I shook my head. “You’re different, and what if the changes haven’t stopped. What if, while you’re away, you forget me.”
He cupped my face. “Fee, you’re in my heart, in every fiber of my being. I may forget myself, but I will never forget you.”
God, I was such a twit. “I know. Please go. Get us the help we need.”
Uri nodded and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “I love you, Fee, I’ll see you soon.”
“It will be easier if you ride,” Esmael said.
Uri climbed onto Esmael’s back, and I locked gazes with him and blew him a kiss just before he and Esmael made for the skies.
Be safe, Uri.
Be a fucking general.
* * *
I entered the cavern to find Samael and Azazel barking orders to the troops.
Mal caught sight of me and broke away from the guards he was speaking to then wove his way toward me.
I looked up at him. “What’s going on?”
“Our scouts reported back that Mammon has sent emissaries out already. He’s mobilizing, spreading the word of his conquest. He’ll demand their allegiance and if they sign, they are bound to aid him against any attack we make.”
“Aren’t they bound to aid Lilith right now?”
“Yes, and they did, by providing us with troops, but since Lilith no longer has control of the Keep, the contract is void. Those troops, what’s left of them, will belong to Mammon, and we’ll have no chance of getting back control.”
“So, the contract is all about who controls the Keep?”
“The Keep sits on a nexus,” Mal said. “It has power of its own, and whoever claims it controls that power and the fertility of the regions connected to it. Crops, cattle, you name it.”
Fuck. “So, what do we do?”
“I’m assuming we don’t have a Seraphim army?” he said.
“Not yet.” I quickly filled him in on what had happened.
“Wow.” Mal said. “Uri…shit. Let’s hope he can rally them, but we don’t have time to wait. We need to move now, and we need to use what we have.”
“You have a plan?”
He gave me a wicked grin. “Don’t I always?”
* * *
I loved the way she put things.
“Yes,” Conah said. “Mal’s idea.” He looked almost put out about that.
I guess, being the information guy, he probably expected to come up with that idea.
We were huddled together as Mal relayed the plan he’d come up with. “I did some grunt work a few decades ago which involved the sewer access.”
Conah snorted. “You mean the punishment for your illicit liaison with a visiting ambassador’s wife?”
Mal ignored him and carried on. “Anyway, the system is vast, running beneath the whole of the Keep, and there are several access points into the Keep proper. Now, most of them are locked but there was one that was left open, an entrance the service staff used to get in and out of the Keep when they were up to no good.”
“Of course, you’d know about that,” Conah drawled.
Mal shot him a shut-it look. “There’s an access point into the sewers at the Swan and Boar tavern, close to the Keep. It’s where the staff would come out.”
Conah shook his head. “A huge breach. Just imagine if Mammon had known about this. Or our enemies. We could have been under attack from within and been none the wiser.
“Fuck. He has a point,” Hunter said. “You should have said something.”
Mal bristled. “Hindsight is a bitch, but it’s just as well I didn’t report it, or we’d have no way in now.”
“He has a point,” Cora said.
“Besides,” Mal turned to Conah. “It was the blue jackets who used the route, and we know how loyal and closed-lipped they are.”
“So closed-lipped that they told you?” Conah retorted.
“Enough!” Azazel snapped. “We have a way in, and we’ll use it. We move now. It’s early morning, and the troops will be exhausted from the battle. Mammon won’t expect us to move during daylight. We take the backstreets. We move one troop at a time and gather at the Swan and Boar. Samael has picked out the troops. Five troops of five demons and us. We go in fast and we work in stealth mode. We find Mammon and we kill him. Simple. Lilith will remain here with troops to guard her and—”
“No.” Lilith joined us. “I will see Mammon fall with my own eyes.”
Samael came up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Together, we will claim back the Keep.”
Lilith’s gaze slid my way, top lip curling slightly. “No need for the Seraphim.”
There was a smugness to her tone that made my hand itch to slap her. I couldn’t believe I’d felt sorry for her at one point, that I’d even entertained that we might reach some kind of tentative truce one day.
Azazel slid his arm around my waist and tucked me to his side, as if reminding his mother who I was and what I meant to him.
“The Seraphim may still come through,” Azazel said. “Uriel is one of them.” He looked down at me fondly. “He is also one of us, and he won’t let us down.”
Lilith’s expression smoothed out. “We’ll see.”
As we gathered our weapons and headed out into the early morning light, I couldn’t ignore the chill of foreboding that tickled my spine.
Would we be enough?
Uri…Where are you?
Chapter Forty-Six
Uri
We materialize over snow-capped mountains. The air is thin and so cold it leaves frost on my lashes.
My celestial form is resistant to extreme temperature, but I feel the bite of winter here, and I’m grateful for the furs loaned to me by Azazel.
“Not far now,” Esmael says.
We’ve travelled miles in a blink, I sense that much, and below us is a mountainous region filled with deadly cliffs and sharp edges.
Esmael begins to lose altitude. We drop toward the peaks before we’re flying just above them. Snow and ice lashes at my face, making it impossible to see, and the next thing I know, we’re flying into a crevice in the mountain. The chill air lessens, and the snow is gone. Esmael continues to drop, and then we soar into a lush green clearing where the air is warm and winter is far behind.
We land lightly in the grassy clearing that seems to stretch for miles, while on either side we’re surrounded by a wall of mountain, icy and snow covered.
How is this possible?
I’m about to ask when the clearing erupts in flashes of light and Seraphim of all shapes and sizes materialize around us. Some are large and dark like Esmael, others are smaller, dappled gray and black, or silver. Some have batlike wings, others have feathered ones, but my heart recognizes them all.
These are my keepers and all eyes are on me.
Whispers break out, gathering heat and volume, until the clearing is a cacophony of sound. I slip from Esmael’s back and stride forward, allowing them to surround me.
“Uriel.”
“It’s him.”
“Unmarred.”
“Untainted.”
“He left us…”
“Abandoned us…”
So many voices and so many thoughts. I raise my hands. “Silence.”
The command comes from within, a boom that echoes outward from my soul and swells in the clearing.
The keepers obey instinctively.
I am their lord. I am their general.
They remember. They remember because they see me. They feel me.
“No.” A silver Seraphim with inky-black wings steps forward. Her cobalt eyes fix on me with anger. “You left us to rot. You promised salvation then you didn’t return.”
I recognize her. “Lisandra.”
She shivers as I say her name. “Lisandra is dead. She died centuries ago when you left.”
“I was lost. My memories buried. I would not have willingly abandoned you.”
“I told you this,” Esmael says. “I saw this in his mind. He did not abandon us. He was taken from us by a divine who threw us aside.”
More murmurs skitter throughout the gathering. Their dissent, their ambiguous emotions waft over me.
How can I convince them to help me? How can I quell their anger?
With the truth of my heart. “For the longest time I’ve felt lost and alone, even though I was surrounded by celestials. They made me into a Grigori and gave me a new purpose, but I never felt whole. I always felt as if there was something missing and I searched for it in the human world, over and over, never finding it until now. Now, in your midst, I finally feel I’m home. I am yours, and you are mine, and we are one.”
The mantra trips off my tongue as if I’d uttered it only yesterday.
The silence around me deepens and a small, dappled Seraphim steps forward.
Vargus, deadly with a spear and fast as lightning. He looks up at me with deep brown eyes. “I am yours, and you are mine, and we are one,” he repeats.
Joy blooms inside my chest.
“I am yours, and you are mine, and we are one.” Another Seraphim repeats, then another and another until the clearing is filled with the echo of the keeper oath.
The joy in my chest is now a steady heat stealing my breath.
Vargus gasps. “Uriel, what is that?”
I look down to see an orange glow spreading across my abdomen, brighter and brighter, and suddenly, I know what it is.
Suddenly, everything makes sense.
This was the gift the divine gave me, and it will right the wrong that was done to the keepers.
I close my eyes and let the light fill the clearing.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Fee
The trek through Imperium was a silent, dismal one. Mammon’s troops had decimated the beautiful city. Most of the buildings were damaged in some way—smashed windows, doors off hinges, smoke-filled and charred. Demon bodies littered the ground. They’d spared no one that got in their path. As we huddled in the shadows between two buildings, looking onto the main market square, I pulled my gaze away from the smaller bodies, the children who’d been trampled in the chaos.
“Don’t look, babe,” Cora said. “Fucking don’t look.”
My heart ached, and my soul burned with the need for justice.
“Fee,” Azazel squeezed my hand. “Your eyes.”
The righteous blaze. Shit.
“Rein it in,” Samael ordered
Cora cupped my face. “Breathe.”
I took deep breaths to calm myself, and the burn in my chest retreated. I’d explained about the new power I’d somehow accessed while in the pit. Samael’s righteous blaze would need some managing. My body wasn’t strong enough to utilize it without serious consequences. Heck, it would probably kill me.
“That’s it,” Cora said. “You’re good. Eyes all back to normal.”
Thank god. I focused on the market square, keeping my attention off the ground and the bodies. The Tavern we needed was directly opposite us. The coast was clear, but we couldn’t take any chances. We skirted the square, building-hopping and staying in the shadows cast by awnings or those gathered between the battered buildings. There wasn’t a soul about. The citizens had gone into hiding.
Mammon had struck a mighty blow, and it would take much diligence to gain the trust of these people.
His greed made him rash and foolish, and although the Keep was a nexus, a seat of power was only as strong as those who supported it, and now… Now he would have to fight for the people’s love.
After long, tense minutes we finally made it into the tavern. Broken tables and chairs were scattered across the scuffed wooden floor. Pools of ale and blood sat side by side as if comparing consistency.
The air reeked of death, an acrid scent that bit at the back of my nose.
Hunter and Grayson watched the entrance while Mal, Keon and Azazel split up to scout the place. There were back in minutes.
“It’s clear,” Azazel said.
“And the access to the sewers?” Samael asked Mal.
“The basement,” Mal said. “Clear too. Once the others get here we can leave.”
Reaper Unleashed: Deadside Reapers: Book 7 Page 24
