Iniquitous: A Dark Paranormal Romance (The Marked Book 3)

by Bianca Scardoni

  “He’s hiding something, Trace. Just like he always is.” My gaze snapped back to my uncle. “Tell me the truth!”

  My uncle’s eyes hardened into stone. “Very well. If it’s the truth you want, then it’s the truth you shall get,” he warned, his tone as cold as a frozen tundra. “You mother was a depraved murderer who slaughtered hundreds of innocent people in cold-blood. She cared nothing for you or your sister and even less of her friends and loved ones—those of us who had sacrificed everything for her!” There was more than just repulsion in his tone; there was detestation and hatred.

  “Her only loyalty in this world was to her unquenchable lust for blood, and to her sire, and opening that casket today would yield the very same result. Something that I’d sooner die for before ever allowing to happen,” he said with deadly conviction in his eyes. “It took over a decade and countless lives lost to hunt her down and put an end to her reign of terror, and when we finally did, the world was a better place because Jaqueline Morningstar was no longer in it.”

  An icy chill entered my body and I shivered at its callous hands.

  “Is that truth enough for you, my dear?” His penetrating eyes stared me down, waiting to see if he’d broken me.

  My throat felt dry and thick with sorrow, but I’d be damned if I let him render me silent. “Yes. Thank you.”

  The corner of his eyes lined as he took in my disparaging expression. “Do not waste your gifts trying to save the unredeemable. She will bite off the very hand you saved her with.” He leaned forward, his elbows resting on the desk. “Let the High Casters do their Job and you do yours.”

  I looked up confused. “Mine?”

  “If you are truly as indestructible and determined to defy the prophecy as you have presented yourself to be, then go forth and do so. Go to the Underworld and find Lucifer. Destroy him in his tomb so that he never threatens you or this world again. That is your true purpose and nothing else.”

  Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. I closed my broken heart to the past and refocused on the here and now. On the future that was coming at me full speed ahead. “How do I do it?”

  He slowly withdrew to his chair, pressing himself against the backrest. “It isn’t just the Realms around Sanuinarium that have weakened. Hades has become just as vulnerable. Now is your chance to get in. If you’re ready to face your destiny as you say, then come to Temple tomorrow and we will ready a conclave of Watchers and Anakim to fight beside you.”

  A dark, visceral fear speared through my insides as I ruminated on my day of reckoning. Just like that, my house of cards had fallen once again, shifting and rearranging themselves as they illuminated the way to my destiny.

  Could I trust the path before me or would I find myself amongst smoke and mirrors once again?

  I looked back at my uncle for answers; for reassurance that I wasn’t in this alone. “How do I know you’re telling me the truth? How do I know you’re really trying to help me this time?”

  “You don’t,” he said curtly and without apology. “You’re just going to have to trust me.”

  Arianna was waiting for us at the Manor when we returned after my meeting with my uncle. I’d stayed silent for most of the drive home and let Trace do the talking so that Gabriel and Dominic could get caught up on what had gone down. I needed a minute to get my thoughts together; to let the reality of what I was going to do sink in. Of course, I’d always known that this was coming, and so it wasn’t a complete shock. I just didn’t realize it was going to be so soon.

  “Any Reapers up for some time travelling?” asked Arianna as we convened inside the den. Despite how we’d left things off last night, she appeared to still be willing to help us.

  “About that.” Trace tucked his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “It looks like we’re not going that way after all.”

  Arianna looked confused. “I don’t follow.”

  “The Order is confident that they can bring the walls back up,” offered Gabriel. “They feel it’s best if Jemma uses this time—the weakness between Realms—to ready herself for her real mission.”

  “Still not following,” she sang with frustration.

  “I’m going to Hell,” I said plainly. “And I don’t mean figuratively.”

  Trace snaked his hand through mine.

  Her lids fluttered as she processed the information. “Then it’s true?” she asked, her eyes thinning with curiosity. “You really are the Daughter of Hades.”

  “The one and only,” answered Dominic.

  “And what exactly is it that you intend to do on this mission?”

  “I’m going to vanquish Lucifer, once and for all. It’s the only way to stop what’s coming and the only real chance I have at ever living a normal life.” My gaze instinctually gravitated to Trace. My future. My forever love. “My uncle’s putting a team together as we speak.” Hopefully a team good enough to ensure we got out of there in one piece.

  “Jemma, do you trust your uncle?” she asked me suddenly.

  My eyes boomeranged back at her strange question. “Why are you asking me that?”

  “Because,” she said, her brown eyes thinning. “I’m pretty sure he’s trying to kill you.”

  And there went all the air in the room again.

  “That’s quite a weighty accusation,” said Dominic, crossing his arms over his chest as he narrowed his eyes at her.

  “Why do you think he’s trying to kill me?” I asked, my nails digging into the back of Trace’s hand as a fresh wave of panic scraped its way through my entails.

  “Because, this mission you’re going on,” said Arianna, taking a step to where I stood frozen in place. “It’s a suicide mission. You won’t get out of there alive.”

  “Why not?” I needed her to lay it out for me in black and white.

  “Because it’s not Walmart,” she answered dryly. “We can’t just walk in and out of Hades when we feel like it.”

  “Yes, but she’s a direct Descendant of Lucifer,” reminded Gabriel, refusing to accept that the Order would be setting me up. “Her blood is—”

  “Yeah, her blood is special,” she quickly cut him off. “But she’s still only flesh and bone. Her body won’t survive the environment. None of us can.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked her, my voice small but steady.

  “Hades is a one-way ticket,” she said emphatically. “If you go there, you aren’t ever coming back.”

  35. DRIVEN UNDER

  “I knew it.” I slumped down on the chair to keep myself from spiraling out of control. “I knew I couldn’t trust him.”

  Not only did my uncle make no concerted effort to deny trying to kill me at Taylor’s party, but he just openly tried doing it again. He never had any intention of helping me—none of them did. They just wanted to wipe me away from existence. To lock me away in a tomb with Lucifer for the rest of eternity.

  I should have known better than to trust him. He was evil incarnate.

  Then again, maybe he had the right idea. Maybe sacrificing myself for the greater good of all was the only way to stop the prophecy from running its course. The thought turned my blood into ice.

  “So what now?” I asked, trying not to sound completely hopeless.

  “It’s not hopeless,” answered Arianna. “We can still get the sire blood.”

  “How?”

  She looked over at Trace; my endless beacon of hope.

  “I can get us into Temple, but I’ve never been inside the Necro.” His eyes flashed to me regretfully because he knew I’d know what that meant. If he hadn’t been inside the Necropolis, he couldn’t picture it, and if he couldn’t picture it, he couldn’t port us there.

  “I’ve been there,” said Gabriel as he sauntered over to Trace, his expression haunted. “Just once.”

  “One time is all I need.” He turned back to me, his dimples popping as something crossed his mind. “What about all that stuff your uncle said about her?” he asked cautiously, concern filtering
through his expression.

  I had my doubts before, but now, after learning that my uncle was in fact trying to send me to Hell on a suicide mission…it confirmed what I already knew in my heart.

  “It was all a lie,” I stated boldly. “Just like everything else he said.”

  Trusting my judgement call, Trace nodded and then turned to Gabriel with a sheepish look on his face. “I need to, uh, touch you while you think about the place.”

  Gabriel nodded. “I know how this works.”

  At the same time, they each reached out to grab the other one’s hand and wound up bumping fingers awkwardly. Trace pulled back first and then quickly grabbed a hold of Gabriel’s wrist. Once connected, they closed their eyes so that Trace could lift the memory from Gabriel’s mind and transfer it to his own.

  A fraction of a second later, his piercing blues were back on me, glowing with success. “Done.”

  “Great,” said Arianna as she tucked her hair behind her ears. “Now find her casket and port her back here.”

  Her morbid words twisted my stomach into a knot, but I forced myself to ignore it. “I’m coming with you,” I said as I stood up and reclaimed my place beside him. He needed backup in case something went wrong and since Gabriel and Dominic’s mere presence in the building would tip off the spelled alarms, that only left me.

  Gabriel slipped off his leather jacket, revealing a military-style shoulder holster. He pulled it off from around his head and then tossed it over to me. “Just in case.”

  “Nice.” My lips peeled into a smile as I examined the thick leather straps and then slipped my arms through them. The harness floated around me, but the second I adjusted the straps and tightened it to my body, it fit like a second skin. “I seriously need one of these,” I said as I opened the pockets and inspected the throwing knives and other useful weaponry.

  “It’s yours,” said Gabriel with a small smile.

  “Ready?” asked Trace, slinking his arms around my waist and pulling me into his warmth.

  Could you ever really be ready for what I was about to do? “Nope.”

  But we were doing this anyway and with that thought, we were gone.

  The cold air bit out at me as Trace and I materialized inside the Sacred Necropolis. The deep underground cavern loomed nearly a hundred feet over us as thick stalactites dripped from the ceiling like icicles. With my arms still looped safely around Trace’s back, I took in the haunting sight and gasped. And endless sea of gilded coffins sliced through the trenches like veins inside a body. I couldn’t believe that my mother had been in here all this time, possibly just a few feet away from where I stood, rotting away with the other corpses.

  “How are we supposed to find her in here?” I asked as I stepped back from Trace, my feet solid against the packed earth. “There must be hundreds of coffins in here.”

  Trace’s brows furrowed as he scanned the open space and then walked up to one of the caskets resting nearby. “They’re all numbered,” he said, reading a string of numbers off the front. “No names.”

  “Great.” Not that it would’ve helped. We didn’t have enough time to go through each and every coffin in search of my mother’s name. “We’re never going to find her. This is a complete waste of time.” I was a little too eager to abandon the search and get the hell out of there.

  “Maybe not,” said Trace, walking up to me. “Maybe you can track her.”

  I gave him a what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about look. I wasn’t in the mood for his groundless optimism. Not today. Not while we were in here looking for a needle in an underground cemetery. “Get real, Trace. There’s hundreds of coffins in here. Maybe thousands. She could be in any of them.”

  “Yeah, but you Invoked, right?” His dimples pressed in as he smiled at me. “And technically, she’s a Rev.”

  Hmm, he had a point. “But I’m not—” I paused to think of the right word “—sensing anything.” It only happened once or twice before and I wasn’t even sure how I did it. It just sort of happened and then suddenly I knew I was among Revs. It was all very fluke-ish.

  “Close your eyes.”

  I looked at him strangely.

  “Just trust me.”

  I closed my eyes.

  “Clear your mind and focus on my voice. Only my voice.”

  Shifting my weight, I did as he said.

  “Can you hear your heart beating?” he asked me.

  I shook my head that I didn’t.

  He picked up my hand and placed it against my chest. “You feel that?”

  I nodded as my heart gently thumped against my hand.

  “Listen to it,” he said, and I did as I was told.

  At first I didn’t hear anything but the sound of dripping water cascading from the ceiling, but as I continued to force my focus inward, I suddenly became aware of the soft droning of my heart. It was faint at first, because I wasn’t scared anymore, but it steadily got louder until I felt as though it were beating in my ears.

  “Walk,” he said, but I hesitated, afraid I might unwittingly walk into a coffin. “I’m right here,” he assured me. “Just keep listening to the sound of your heart beating. You’ll know where to go.”

  Trusting him, I carefully turned to my right and took a small step. My body hummed from his proximity as my heart continued to beat steadily in my ears. I took a few more steps and the sound became fainter. Stopping, I turned on my heel and backtracked the other way. The sound picked up again. The further I walked, the louder my heart sounded until it was a deafening scream in my ears. Instinctively, I stopped in my tracks, knowing that she was here. I turned to the left and set my hand down on a hard surface.

  Opening my eyes, my gaze settled on the gilded wood beneath my hand. “I think this is it.”

  Trace was right beside me. He unlatched the side locks and pulled open the coffin.

  A young man in his late-twenties lay motionless before us, and my heart sank.

  “It didn’t work.”

  “Yes, it did,” he said and then ticked his chin to the small piece of wood protruding from his chest. “You definitely tracked a Rev.”

  “Just not the right Rev.” I was thankful just the same because had I completely messed that up, we would have come face to face with a decomposing body or skeleton. And, oh my God, I so did not need to see that.

  “It felt so strong. I was sure it was her,” I said, sort of to myself.

  Trace closed the lid and then turned to his right. There was another coffin right behind us, parallel to the one I’d stopped beside. Without saying anything, he stalked over to it, unlatched the lock, and then yanked it open.

  My eyes nearly fell out of my head as I took in the unaged woman damned to eternal rest before me. She looked just like Tessa with the same dark hair and raised alabaster cheekbones, and I knew it was her.

  Jaqueline Morningstar…

  My mother.

  36. THE TIES THAT BIND

  “Is it her?” asked Trace before bothering to turn around and notice my horrified expression.

  He’d never met my mother before so he didn’t exactly know what she was supposed to look like. Then again, neither had I, though I’d seen pictures of her before. Even if she wasn’t a near replica of my sister, the image of her face had already been burned into my mind since childhood. I’d know her anywhere.

  “It’s her.”

  “I didn’t expect her to be so young.”

  I was thinking the same thing. She couldn’t have been much older than Tessa which meant she had to have been in her early twenties when she Turned.

  “Are you okay…with all this?”

  “With seeing my long-lost mother laying lifeless in a coffin? No,” I said and steeled myself. “But I’ll get over it.”

  Eventually.

  He kissed the top of my forehead and then looked down at me, regret swirling deep in his sapphire eyes. “I hate to make this any worse, but I’m going to have to take her out of there.”

  “I kn
ow. Just do what you have to do,” I said, my eyes never straying from my mother’s lifeless body.

  He caressed my cheek gently and then turned back to the gilded casket. Reaching inside, he slipped one arm under her neck and one under the fold of her knees and then lifted her out of the box and into his arms.

  Stepping back, I watched. I watched and nothing more. I refused to feel anything about it. I remained calm and detached and focused on what we were here to do. I had to. It was the only way I could make it through to the end of this with my mind still in once piece.

  Without meeting Trace’s eyes, I stepped around to his back and wrapped my arms around his lower waist. I didn’t want to see my mother’s body in his arms. I didn’t want to see any of it.

  I squeezed my eyes shut and swallowed down the grief.

  Trace ported us back to the Manor where Dominic, Gabriel and Arianna were all waiting for us in the den. Their chatter fell silent and captivated faces stared back at us as we re-appeared in the middle of the room with my mother’s body in Trace’s arms. A clap of thunder rattled the house as the room slowly solidified around us. The looming storm from earlier had finally touched down just in time to welcome us home.

  Hugging my arms for warmth, I stepped away from Trace and hurried to the fireplace where Dominic was standing with his arm over the mantel and a drink in his hand. I needed the heat of the fire to warm my body; the nearness of his body to calm my chaotic soul. Unconsciously, I shifted and swayed closer to him until my arm was touching his.

  His gaze dropped to our touching body parts, and then back to my face, but I couldn’t meet his eyes. He didn’t say anything and then his gaze returned to Trace as he and Gabriel carefully laid my mother down on the sofa.

  “She...” Gabriel shook his head, awestruck by what he was seeing. “She looks just like Tessa.”