Betrayed (Raven Daughter Book 2)

by A. D. Trosper

  “Unlike my mother, I didn’t want children with just anyone.” Anger and sadness crept into his eyes. “I had the someone once, but she chose to end the child before it could be born. Not because she didn’t want children, but because she didn’t want to have mine.”

  My heart jumped and I sat up. “Nadia!”

  “Is fine.” Caius shifted to sit next to me. “I wasn’t sure what role she played in all of this.”

  “Without her, I wouldn’t still be pregnant.” The relief was intense. I didn’t want to be responsible for her death. “She told the bastard she would do it to keep them from taking me somewhere else. Instead of whatever tea would have ended the pregnancy, she gave me regular tea and tried to help me.”

  “Then I am glad I left her alive.”

  “I’m glad you got there when you did. I might have been able to kill Elijah, but I doubt I could have taken on the other two, not with that damn root screwing with my system.”

  “Your rudimentary Finding Stone helped, as well as having the forethought to call for Nyx.” Caius sighed. “I would have found you, just not as quickly and likely not in time. Those two decisions made all the difference.”

  “The stone worked? I wasn’t sure it would.” I smiled, glad that even drunk I’d been able to make some decisions that helped.

  “The blood linked the stone to you, but because it wasn’t quite a proper Finding Stone, the portal didn’t bring me to the exact spot it did you. It got me close though.” He smiled.

  I took a deep breath, trying to wrap my mind around how everything had turned out so well in the end. “So, you’re really okay with me being pregnant?”

  “I’m more than okay with it.” Leaning down, his lips touched mine. Gently at first, then it deepened into something that expressed everything we hadn’t said, the emotions we hadn’t shown. Our hands began to explore each other in an almost desperate way as if to make sure the other was truly there.

  Caius’s touch heated me through and I couldn’t get enough of it, couldn’t get close enough. The emotional rollercoaster I’d been on created a need that couldn’t be satisfied with just kisses. He was quick to shed his clothes and quench the burning desire raging through me. The same desire I saw in his eyes and felt in his touch. The heat of his skin, the feel of him against me, and the words he whispered in my ear combined to create my little piece of the Heavens within the upper levels of the Hells. When the climax finally came, we collapsed together with me in his arms.

  As much as I enjoyed it, needed it, the lovemaking sapped what little energy I’d had upon waking. I drifted to sleep with the breeze from the window washing over our heated skin. For the first time since I found out I was pregnant, I slept a true sleep. One free of even the nightmares that had plagued me.

  ***

  “It’s an interesting thing to let someone hold in their hands the beat of your heart and the breath in your lungs. It’s a weakness. One worth defending.” ~Caius

  Chapter 37

  Like the room I’d awakened in, the rest of Hades’s palace was all columns and light and air. It looked like it belonged in ancient Greece. The outside walls were solid and fortified, but the center was open to a massive courtyard filled with fountains and plants I couldn’t even begin to identify. Massive white columns bordered the courtyard, creating rooms and halls that were completely open to the little oasis.

  I sat curled up against Caius in the plush cushions on a bench tucked into a small alcove behind the columns of the courtyard. The deep shade offered relief from the hot sun that bathed the plants and fountains in its light. Bethany and Malik occupied the second bench while Lilly, James, and Aaron took up the third. Rowen, Chelsea, and Ryan occupied the fourth. A low table in the center of the arrangement held glasses full of a cool, sweet juice that was incredibly refreshing.

  A full belly and plenty of rest had restored me to full health. The moment I’d stepped from my room, I’d been accosted by Rowen and my friends, each reassuring themselves I was indeed alive and okay. It had taken Caius extracting me from them and hiding us away in the alcove to get them to relax and explore the palace. It was surprisingly nice here. I almost regretted that we would soon have to leave this safe haven and forge ahead.

  Hades had told Caius the Lost continued unabated. Although, thankfully, it sounded like the numbers hadn’t increased. It was still too many to contemplate without a feeling of horror.

  The memory of the Hades I met on the trail to the second clue made me shiver. He’d terrified me then. I hadn’t seen him since waking and wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to. I took a sip of my drink before finally broaching the subject of our stay in the Hells. “Why Hades?”

  Caius answered, “He’s the only one I know that is not only powerful enough to remove that much poison and save your life, but also the only one I trusted enough to turn to.”

  “What did he do?” I still hadn’t managed to untangle the strange and confusing memories of what happened after Caius killed Elijah. “All I remember is the pain and him telling me to live.”

  “He gave you a single drop of his blood to burn the poison from your body.” Caius’s face grew grim. “The pure blood of gods isn’t meant for those with even a small amount of mortal blood. It could have easily killed you then and there, but it was a last-ditch effort. You were dying anyway; there was nothing left to lose at that point. When he asked me for permission to attempt it, I agreed.” His gaze searched mine. “I did try to ask you first. Unfortunately, you were beyond understanding even where you were, much less the possible consequences. I had no choice other than make the decision for you.”

  “I’m glad you did. Since I was trying not to die, I would have been upset if you hadn’t done everything possible.” I shuddered at the memory of burning. “If I never hear the name of that damn root again, it will be too soon.”

  “I think if none of us hears it again, it will be too soon,” Bethany said.

  James and Aaron nodded in agreement. Considering that it would kill them too, I would have been surprised if they hadn’t agreed.

  “I don’t know what it did to me, but I’ve never felt so horrible or so…off. Not even the silver did that to me.” My mind cringed away from the memory.

  “In what way?” James asked. “We never saw you.”

  “It can only be found in the Between,” Caius explained. “It makes angels drunk, and it affected your angel side in that way. Elijah didn’t take into account your Morrigan heritage. The experience would have been like being drunk and overdosing on the mortal’s crystal meth at the same time.”

  “Meth?” As a reaper, I’d collected the souls of those who’d gone down that path. I knew exactly what that could do to a person. “Are you sure…?” I couldn’t finish the question.

  Lilly seemed to understand what I’d left unasked. “Although the physical reaction was much the same, the drug was not. It would have killed you without Hades’s intervention, but his intervention did heal you. All of you, even the baby.”

  “Alemona and Bes came as well,” Caius said. “They kept the treatment from disrupting the pregnancy.”

  Great, first Hades, and now an Egyptian goddess and a Roman god. Frankly, the gods made me nervous. I glanced around the courtyard, a little worried Hades would show up. I mean, yeah, it was his house and all, but despite what he’d done for me, he still scared me. Maybe it was because he was more powerful than Nyx. Or because he had a way of seeing into my soul that I found disturbing.

  Malik gave me a reassuring grin. “Don’t worry, Hades isn’t here right now.”

  I shrugged as if it didn’t matter to me either way even though I knew he would see through it. He was as observant as his older brother.

  Rowen cleared his throat. “Speaking of the baby.”

  I groaned. I might as well have told Caius in front of everyone while we were still at the fairies home. “I thought keeping it secret for as long as possible was safest.”

  “Jo,” Rowen paused as
if considering his words. “We have all made it clear that we are with you no matter what. I can’t speak for the demonborn among us, but none of the reapers here would walk away from you, pregnant or not.”

  Ryan nodded. “We didn’t traipse around the Between trying to find you just so we could walk away because things get hard.”

  “If we were going to do that, we would have left after what happened in the canyon,” Chelsea said and took a long drink from her glass. “Besides, you are right. A lot of people are going to flip their lids when it becomes apparent you are carrying a child. That baby is going to need a whole lot of protection.”

  Malik snorted. “That baby has a whole lot of protection. There isn’t a demonborn in this house that wouldn’t give their life to keep it safe.” He raised his glass. “To a healthy, well-protected, smaller version of Jo and Caius. May the gods have mercy on us all.”

  Everyone laughed as they raised their glasses as well. I took another drink to cover the emotions that welled up in me. How silly it seemed that I had worried so much about the reapers and demonborn who stood with me. Then again, given what Elijah had tried to do, it wasn’t completely faulty thinking.

  The same odd sense I’d felt when Caius woke flowed around me. The air almost resonated with power. I realized that I hadn’t stopped feeling it in the first place, just grown used to it. This was many times that. Caius stood, “It appears Hades has returned.”

  “Is that why things feel strange all of the sudden?” I asked as the hairs stood up on my arms.

  Malik dropped a kiss on Bethany’s forehead then got to his feet. “In the Hells, our power tends to radiate out from us. A way of knowing another’s strength without having to test it.”

  I swallowed as I watched them leave. How could they move with such confidence in the shadow of Hades’s power? And when had Malik and Bethany become physically affectionate? When we had a moment of privacy, I would have to ask her just how far things had gone between the two of them.

  In the meantime, I was still trying to piece together everything that had happened after Elijah drugged me. “Nyx is how he found me, right? I didn’t dream that?”

  “You didn’t dream it,” Lilly said as she scooched around and stretched her legs over James’s lap and leaned against Aaron. The friendship between James and Lilly had only gotten closer over the weeks. When Aaron showed up, Lilly had formed the same bond with him. It was bizarre and amusing to see my reaper friends become so close to the demonborn. Aaron draped his arm around Lilly as she continued, “Nyx showed up just as Caius was about to leave the rest of us behind. He was a bit pissed.”

  “A bit pissed?” Bethany shot Lilly an incredulous look. “That’s a bit of an understatement don’t you think?” Bethany turned back to me. “The two Fallen that remained behind are dead. Once we realized you were gone, we spent the rest of the night searching for you. By late morning, Caius started questioning everyone. The first Fallen refused to answer anything.”

  Lilly rolled her eyes. “Which was an idiot thing to do.”

  “Anyway, Caius killed him,” Bethany said. “The flock of ravens that showed up and started dive bombing him and shrieking sent him into overdrive.”

  “Why?” I didn’t understand why a flock of ravens would change anything.

  “The only reason the ravens act like that is when one of their own is in danger,” Rowen said.

  “That was when Caius went after the other Fallen,” Aaron took up the thread, looking like it made him nervous just remembering. “It took most of the day to get that one to confess Elijah had shackled you and taken you through the portal against your will.”

  “Caius killed her for not telling him sooner,” James said.

  “Got what she deserved.” Lilly scowled.

  James played with a thread on the lower leg of Lilly’s pants. “I’ve never seen Caius like that. His rage was ice cold and absolutely terrifying. The only one who dared get within reach of him, or talk to him, was Malik, and even he couldn’t calm Caius. Then his knuckles started to bleed, a reflected injury. I was honestly scared to death of him.”

  Lilly sat up so she could pat his shoulder. “Everyone was scared to death of him at that point.”

  The thought sent a chill through me. Even with everything we’d been through, even with Bryson, I hadn’t seen Caius like that. I was rather glad I had missed it. Wanting to know it all, I asked, “Then what happened?”

  Bethany sighed. “Caius headed straight for the portal.”

  “We all knew it was doubtful it would put him through anywhere near wherever they had taken you, but no one dared to bring that up.” Lilly let her hand fall from James’s shoulder and leaned against Aaron again. “Surprisingly, it brought us fairly close to Nadia’s, although we didn’t know at the time that was where we were heading and it didn’t get us close enough. Once he was on the mortal side, he shifted and started following the bond. He got more reflected injuries and picked up speed.

  “When one entire side of Caius’s tongue began to bleed, he started flying north so fast the rest of us had trouble keeping up with him. Even Malik was falling behind.” Bethany lifted her thick fall of red curls and fanned the back of her neck. “He was rather single-minded.”

  “And then Nyx came,” I said, finally feeling connected to the story.

  “Yeah, she appeared in the air right in front of Caius and forced him to land so she could talk with him. I think it’s the first time Nyx has been to the mortal world in thousands of years.” Bethany shook her head as if she couldn’t believe Nyx had gone there even though she’d seen it. “Anyway, the two of them disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. Later, the rest of us were brought here.”

  The last moments in Nadia’s house were crystal clear to me. Elijah was dead and I hadn’t been the one to kill him. I mentioned that part and then added, “Honestly, I’m still not sure how I feel about that. I wanted to rip Elijah to shreds.”

  “Caius couldn’t let you do that any more than he could let you stab yourself. Killing someone with nothing but hatred in your heart is as much murder as doing it because you’re a serial killer.” Rowen said. “Defense of yourself, or others, that’s one thing. There are even allowances for crimes of blind passion. But you weren’t blinded. From what Caius said, you were quite focused.”

  “How is it any different for Caius? It was murder for him too.” I frowned.

  Lilly gave me a crooked grin as she stood. “He’s half-Archdemon, Jo. Murder is kind of his thing. He’s also immune to the pits.” Flipping her long blonde hair over her shoulder, she motioned at us. “You might as well get up. If Hades is back, then it will be time to leave soon.”

  ***

  “I couldn’t even begin to express how I felt about Jo carrying my child.” ~Caius

  Chapter 38

  A couple of hours later, Caius and I returned to the room we were staying in so could I put my armor on. As I reached for the first piece, I felt a small flutter inside me. My eyes grew wide as both hands went to my belly.

  Caius pushed away from the wall he leaned against, worry flashing in his golden eyes. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing is wrong.” A smile broke across my face. “I felt the baby move.”

  Marveling at the miracle I’d just experienced, I gazed down at my body. Caius was beside me in an instant, his hand resting over mine. “You are certain?”

  Nodding, I looked up at him, tears pooling in my eyes. I hated being weepy, but feeling the baby move made it worth it.

  Caius brushed the tears away when they fell and kissed me so gently it almost seemed like he was worried I might break. When he finally stepped back, I reluctantly returned to donning my armor. As much as I would have loved to remain in that room waiting to see if I would feel it again and sharing it with Caius, it wasn’t possible.

  I slowly tugged on each piece, my entire concentration turned inward, hoping it would move again. Unfortunately, the baby seemed disinclined to grant me that. Disappo
inted, I pulled on the last piece and waited for it to adjust to me.

  Once I finished, Caius and I met everyone else in the center garden. Hades led the way through several halls and descended a long flight of wide, curving stairs. I lingered near the back of the group with Bethany and James. This close to Hades, the power emanating from him was almost overwhelming. He stood head and shoulders taller than Caius and Malik, his long black hair loose and falling to his waist.

  When we finally reached the bottom of the stairs, an immense room supported by unadorned pillars spread out before us. A massive doorway, outlined in an elaborately carved arch, took up the wall at the other end of the room. There was something in it. Almost like I was looking at the surface of utterly still water.

  Hades crossed to it. The demonborn followed while I and the rest of the reapers hesitated. A glance at my friends and Rowen showed them to be just as confused as I was. Hades arched a perfect brow and beckoned us forward. “This is my personal portal; I can open it to any location I wish. It has remained unused for many millennia. Once, it moved armies. Now, it will take you to the second key.”

  He turned and touched his finger to the arch. Glowing blue light crawled up it, filling in the grooves of the runes carved into it. The center of the doorway rippled as if someone had dropped something in the very center of it. Hades stepped back and the first of the demonborn began to pass through it.

  As I edged closer to the portal, Hades drew me aside. The bottomless pools of his black eyes regarded me for a long moment. I shifted uncomfortably. I should say something. It was hard to think, I kept feeling like I was going to fall into his eyes. Gratitude, that should be expressed. And I was grateful. “Thank you, for healing me.”

  “It inconvenienced me not at all, little one.” He frowned slightly. “In fact, I dare say it was far more rigorous an ordeal for you. As appreciative as I am for your gratitude, that is not why I wished to speak with you.”