He couldn’t move.
He wouldn’t move.
“Ian?” She sounded breathless and exhausted, so drained that regret flickered through him.
“Yeah?” Summoning immense effort, he lifted his head from hers.
“What just happened?” Pain edged her voice, and fear. More damn fear.
“I’m not sure.” He managed a deep breath. “You okay?”
“No.” She tightened her grip on him and pressed her face more tightly against his shoulder. She wasn’t rejecting him physically. She was connecting them even more closely.
Yeah, baby. That was what he wanted. He laughed softly, and set his hand on the back of her head, supporting her. “Did I hurt you? Did I go too deep?”
There was a moment’s hesitation. “No, that was okay.”
“Okay? Only okay? Hell, woman, you call that okay?”
There was a ripple of laughter from her. “No, Ian, I can’t call that only okay. If I die in the next minute, I am sure I’ll remember that one.”
He grinned. “That’s better.” He could still smell flesh burning, and he trailed his hands tantalizingly along her back. “You aren’t on fire by any chance, are you?”
Silence.
He pulled back, nudging his shoulder to get her to look up. “Alice?”
She finally pulled her face out of his neck. Her hair was curled against her neck in damp tendrils, and her cheeks were flushed. Her eyes were full of fear, and the corners of her mouth were tight with pain. Possessiveness roared through him, along with a tenderness he wasn’t used to experiencing. He suddenly saw her not as an all-powerful angel who needed to be brought into her powers, but a vulnerable woman who he’d dragged into a battle she hadn’t wanted to participate in. Sudden regret coursed through him, and he grimaced. “Listen, I’m sorry—”
“It’s my arm. Both of them,” she interrupted. “They hurt. I mean, they really, really hurt.”
He went still at her words, and he saw the trepidation in her eyes.
Without another word, he clasped her elbow and tugged lightly to pull it free from his neck. For a moment, she didn’t let go of her death grip on his neck. Her arms were locked tightly around him, keeping them out of sight behind him.
“Alice,” he said softly. “We have to know.” He rubbed his thumb over the inside of her elbow, pressing lightly.
After a moment, she relaxed her arm, her gaze riveted nervously to his. He slowly drew her arm forward, sliding his arm down her triceps and over her skin. Her entire arm was on fire, so hot he could feel the pads of his fingers burn as he touched her. As he got closer to her forearm, the heat became even more intense.
He didn’t look at her skin, didn’t take his gaze off Alice’s as he brought her arm within view. She didn’t look down either. They just stared at each other. There was the sound of crackling and sizzling as he laid his palm over her skin, and he felt the sharp sting of hot iron burning his hand. The scent of burning flesh stung his nose, and Alice sucked in her breath. “What just happened?”
Without a word, he pulled his hand off and inspected his palm. His skin was black and charred, ashes of burned flesh flaking from his hand. Hot, black lines crisscrossed his palm, a pattern that he knew all too well.
Alice touched his hand. “That’s the head of your mace,” she whispered. “How did it get burned on your skin like that?” She met his gaze, her brow furrowed “I thought I was supposed to get the marks?”
“I think you did.” This time, when he clasped her wrist and moved her arm, he did look down. Alice bent her head next to his, her hair soft against his cheek.
On her arm was the partial outline of his mace, just like a sheva should have, reflecting the three and a half stages they had completed. But it wasn’t the thin silver lines of a sheva mark that would have had him leaping up in victory and shouting his pride to the entire world. No, it wasn’t that at all.
Instead of being a smooth, delicate consummation of their bond, the lines were dark, angry burn marks that had charred the skin so badly that they were puckered and raised. The flesh was black and damaged, and smoke rose off her skin. Sparks flickered and sizzled, as if the mark was still on fire. The fact that it had burned its image into his palm suggested that it still was.
It was his brand, yeah, but it didn’t look how it was supposed to.
It didn’t look like a sheva mark.
To him, it looked like the dark, angry brand of a demon.
Holy shit. What had he done?
*
Alice didn’t have to ask to know that something had gone egregiously wrong. The shock on Ian’s face sent a cold chill right to her core. “Ian? What happened?”
“They’re supposed to be silver marks that blend with your skin. Like tattoos painted by angels.” He gestured to the charred flesh and the burns etched into his own palm. “Not this. I’ve never seen it like this.”
The bile of fear rose in the back of her throat. “What is it?”
“What does it look like to you?”
There was only one thing she could think of, only one time that she’d smelled that exact scent of burning flesh before. “Demons,” she said. “It looks like demons.”
Ian closed his eyes for a brief moment, and she felt his adrenaline surge. “Yeah, that’s what I thought, too.”
“Demons?” She couldn’t keep the squeak of fear out of her voice as she quickly looked around the room. “But how?”
“I think—” Before he could finish his answer, the room filled with a brilliant turquoise glow. Ian swore and immediately unsheathed himself from her body. “Jada’s coming.”
Alice shivered as Ian broke the physical connection between them, and her legs trembled as Ian lowered her to the floor, helping her fix her shorts before he yanked his jeans back over his hips. They were barely dressed when Jada appeared in the room.
She was an ashen-gray mist now. The blue seemed to have faded into the pallid pallor of a gravestone. “You’re ready to go?”
Ian moved in front of Alice, tucking her arm out of sight behind his back. Why was he concealing it from Jada? How bad was it? What had he been about to say? And demons?
Trepidation rushed through Alice, and she folded her arms under her breasts, tears burning in her eyes when her tender, charred skin brushed against her shirt. Gone was the high of that place Ian had taken her to when they’d made love, replaced by a rising terror she couldn’t contain. Why had she finally gotten his marks? And why did they hurt so much? And demons?
“Yeah, we’re ready.” Ian held out his arms to show his cuffs. “These are your assurances we will return?”
Jada nodded. “Exactly seventy-two hours from now, you will be recalled to this room. Chloe will be here waiting for you. You will have ten minutes to save her. If you don’t, you will die.” She smiled at them, a smile of grim reality. “You would have died last time. You know I can do it.”
Alice thought of the young half-angel, and her heart started to ache. “Can I see her?”
“No,” Jada snapped. “You’ve betrayed your kind enough.”
“How do you know she’ll still be alive when we get back?” Ian asked.
Jada met his gaze. “I know. That is all the information you need.”
Alice closed her eyes, filled with regret for the young woman who didn’t belong. An angel who was so barely an angel that she shouldn’t have been subject to the same fate as the Mageaan. “I’ll give the pearl to her,” she said softly. “I’ll offer it to her—”
“It won’t work on her,” Jada snapped.
Alice opened her eyes to study Jada. She’d felt Chloe’s energy. There was goodness there. “She’s not tainted—”
“I won’t take the risk,” Jada said. “When you return, you will give the pearl to me. I will use it. Both conditions must be met, or you die.”
Ian stepped up. “That isn’t what I agreed to—”
“The pearl wasn’t yours to offer,” Jada snapped, her attention
riveted on Alice. “Alice needs to add her agreement. Agree to the deal, or you both die now.”
“I—” Alice hesitated, all too aware of the throbbing pain in her arms, of the demon taint pulsing through her. Now she could afford even less to release the pearl and strip herself of the protection it offered. Was it really worth it just to get to Catherine? Or would she be better off letting herself die one more time and coming back to life again far from this underwater hell?
Except she didn’t know if she could come back again.
She was so close to using up her lives. If she died before she found Catherine… No, she couldn’t take that chance. And there was no way to reach Catherine without the Mageaan’s help. It was too late to start over. Dammit. “I agree,” she said, even as fear bit at her, and regret filled her. “I agree to give you the pearl willingly.” The moment she said the words, a cold chill pricked her, and the tattoos on her wrists flared brighter before fading.
The added terms had been woven into the brands by magic. Now that all three parties had assented, the terms were locked down. It would bind Jada, forcing her to free them both if they fulfilled their requirements, but it would also bind Alice and Ian. She would have to give Jada the pearl. There was no out.
Ian swore under his breath, and his arm went around her shoulder, pulling her close. This time, she didn’t resist him. She burrowed under his shoulder, drawing on his strength, hoping that somehow, someway, together they could accomplish that which had started off a daunting task and now had become impossible.
Sometimes, impossible odds were the best ones you could get. At least they were better than none at all.
Jada nodded. “It is done, then.” She slipped her fingers into a crevice on her harness, pulled out the pearl. Alice gasped as Jada handed it to her. “I can tell you’re on the edge, and you need to stay surface-bound long enough to track Cardiff. Keep it, and then you will willingly offer it to me when you return.”
Alice fisted the pearl as if she’d been given the most precious gift ever, and Ian felt her shudder in relief at having it back in her possession.
Jada pulled a thin wand out of the harness covering her breasts. “My guides will take you. It will take you one day to arrive at your destination. One day to return. Which gives you one day to find the wizard and secure his assistance.” She pointed the wand at them. “May the oceans favor you. May the wind carry you swiftly. May the sunlight dawn in your favor.”
There was a flash of light, and then one of the walls dissolved, revealing the murky green of the deep ocean. Like before, the sea did not enter the room, held at bay by some invisible force that Alice now suspected was Cardiff’s magic.
As they watched, four dolphins swam up next to the edge of the water barrier. They were wearing black seaweed harnesses similar to that which crisscrossed Jada’s breasts, and they were attached to an old wooden dinghy that looked like it had been dredged out of a shipwreck on the bottom of the sea.
Despite her trepidation, Alice couldn’t contain her gasp of delight. “We’re getting a ride from dolphins?”
Jada nodded, the faintest of smiles nudging at the corner of her mouth. “Our dolphin friends are the one beauty of our fate. Be kind to them, and they will return the favor.”
Alice looked over at Ian, and he shrugged. “Dolphins it is, then.” He set his hand on Alice’s back as they headed across the room. Just as they passed Jada, he paused. “I’m sorry that fate has handed you this life,” he said. “If you hate it, don’t accept it.”
Jada’s face darkened. “You know nothing of which you speak, warrior.”
“Are you so sure about that?” Ian turned away, but not before Alice saw the look of pain flash across his face. It was gone instantly, but it had been enough. She knew that he was referencing the curse that had doomed his family, and the fact that he was refusing to acknowledge its victory.
Only the will to live had kept his heart beating all these years, reflecting an inner strength that was more than all the great warriors of his lineage had possessed. How could a man like that ever understand the repercussions that faced angels? How could he ever understand her?
As Alice stepped out of the room into the cold chill of the undulating water, she wondered exactly what Ian hadn’t had a chance to tell her about the marks, and whether he could explain the fact his mark was that of a demon.
Perhaps he would give her answers during the day of travel that it would take them to reach the wizard. The calm before the storm.
She climbed into the rickety boat, gripping the algae-slickened rails as Ian settled beside her. He locked one arm around her waist, then grabbed the seat with his other hand. Jada moved closer to watch their exit, and for a split second, Alice thought she saw a flicker of gold in Jada’s turquoise hair. The gold of the angel she’d once been?
Then she nodded at the dolphins, and they exploded forward with a squeal of delight, taking off so quickly that Alice would have fallen over the back of the boat had Ian not grabbed her.
Hold your breath, Ian said. She didn’t give us back our ability to breathe under water.
Alice nodded, peering upward as the dolphins headed toward the surface, toward fresh air, toward freedom, toward Catherine. What would happen if Alice found her? And what would happen if she didn’t?
Ian wrapped his palm around her burning arm, and she knew that Catherine was no longer her only problem.
Chapter Twelve
He’d never been a sunlight guy, and he’d never been the one to notice the wind on his face or the freshness of the air.
But when their algae-covered boat popped out of the ocean and landed with a splash on the surface of the water, Ian felt like he’d just been granted a slice of heaven.
As the chirping dolphins gallivanted merrily across the sea, dragging the little dinghy behind them, Ian raised his face to the sun. It was warm, healing, and seemed to seep right into his cells.
“Oh, wow.” Beside him, Alice flopped back on the wooden seat, throwing her arms over her head and arching her back, exposing herself to the sky. “Returning to the surface after being underwater feels as amazing as coming back to life after being dead.” She took a deep breath, her breasts straining against the blue fabric, her flat belly peeking out from under the hem of the shirt as she stretched. “Can you feel the heat of the sun? Unbelievable. It never gets old, does it?”
Ian tore his gaze off her limber body and did a careful inventory of their surroundings. As far as he could see, there was only ocean. Nothing else. Not an island. Not a beach. Not a single piece of land. The only living creatures other than their escorts were a few seagulls circling above. Their rough calls to each other were the only sounds beside the splash of the water against the hull of the boat and the happy squealing of the dolphins.
He sensed no threats. Not at the moment, at least. He let out his breath and looked back down at Alice, who had closed her eyes, as if she were drinking the sun into her very pores. “You look like you’re relaxing on a tropical beach.”
She grinned and flipped her damp hair back from her face. “I feel like I am.” She held up the pearl. “I have a respite for now, and it feels good.” She pressed it to her lips, and then carefully zipped it back into the front pocket of her shorts.
Ian looked around again, uncomfortable with how relaxed she looked. “Now isn’t the time to relax. We’re on our way to deal with a black magic wizard who was one of the most deadly Order members in existence a thousand years ago. The shit’s about to come down.”
“I know what he is. He killed me, remember?” She stretched her arms above her head. “The thing is, Ian, life is too short. Not only is it brief, but it’s full of so many hard things that there’s never a time to breathe or recover. So, when you get a moment like this, you have to drink it into your soul to sustain yourself when all that’s around you is darkness.” She sighed. “I was so stressed down there that I forgot about slowing down and appreciating each moment that I have. This momen
t is a blessing, and I need to notice it.”
Ian looked down at her again, astounded by the expression of serenity on her face. He didn’t understand how she could turn it off like that. He knew how tormented she’d been beneath the ocean. Worried about Catherine. Almost dying. Guilty over not being able to help Chloe. Upset about the brands. And it was all gone. Completely vanished. “Where did it go?”
“Where did what go?”
“Your stress.”
She laughed softly. “Oh, don’t worry. It’s still there. I’m just taking a minute to regroup, so I don’t crash and burn before I need to.”
“By basking in the sun?” Yeah, it felt good, but there was too much to do, too much at stake. He shifted restlessly, needing to do something.
Alice turned her head to look at him. Her dark eyelashes were shading her eyes, looking decadent and innocent at the same time. “Is there anything we can do right now about all this we’re trying to accomplish?”
He thought for a few minutes before answering. “No, not really. We’re kind of stuck in the boat for the moment.”
“Right. So, this is our breather. A gift from the heavens to recharge.” She patted the bench beside her. “Join me. Look at the clouds.”
“Look at the clouds?” he repeated, unable to keep his disapproval sheathed. “I need to be alert. We could come to Cardiff’s at any moment.”
“Jada said twenty-four hours.” Alice closed her eyes again. “And aren’t your senses so overly developed that you could kill a flea with exact precision without even looking where you’re throwing your mace? And couldn’t you hear a butterfly approach from five miles away?”
He grunted. “Yeah.”
“So, you’re fine.” She patted the bench again. “No one is going to sneak up on us in this ocean with you around. Take a load off, warrior. Recover. This might be your only chance.”
Ian hesitated, but she looked so damned appealing the way she was stretched out on the bench. One knee was bent, showing too much of her thigh, and her wet hair was a disheveled mass of auburn highlights under the bright sun. If he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine the scent of sunscreen and piña coladas, and the feel of a beach, of soft sand beneath his bare feet. “Damn, woman, you’re making me soft.”
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