Alice dragged her gaze off Warwick and looked at Ian, confusion in those beautiful green eyes. Are you talking to me or Warwick?
Both of you. Something strained inside Ian, something that was fighting to get out. I’ve stayed alive for six hundred years because I’ve avoided women. When I met you, I did my best to block you and prevent you from getting inside me.
She rolled her eyes. I know that, thanks.
The truth would destroy his reputation and dishonor his family, but Ian didn’t care. He needed her to know the truth before it all ended and he lost the chance to tell her. I resisted you, and all other women, because I was afraid, Alice. The ultimate sin by a warrior: to shirk his duty because he was too fearful to do what he needed to do. I was afraid that I wasn’t strong enough to handle a woman. To handle you. The words burned through his mind, the admission that a warrior as great as he was had burned in fear, true, deep fear for so long. I was afraid of what I felt for you.
Really? Hope burned in her eyes, emotions so bright and so beautiful that his chest seemed to expand. As she spoke, she looked down at her arm, and he saw the black line traveling over her skin, filling in his brand. The trust stage. By trusting her with his secret, he’d brought them one step closer to sealing their bond forever. All that was left was his half of the death stage. That was your deepest secret? She looked at him. That’s what it is? That you were afraid?
Yeah. Like a yellow-bellied sapsucker sobbing for his mama at the sight of his own shadow. It’s not a thing for a man to be proud of, but I need you to know who I am, who I was.
She laughed slightly, her gaze meeting his. And now?
And now I know that you’re the one thing that’s worth living for. Fuck fear. I’ll face down anything for a chance to be your guy. You’ve changed my world, Alice. That’s the thing you really need to know.
Tears filled her eyes, and she leapt up. Ignoring Warwick’s shout, she raced across the stone floor and flung her arms around Ian. He buried his face in her hair, drinking in the feel of her body against his, the pure scent of her skin, the strength of her arms as she held onto him. His arms were still trapped in the restraints, and his soul screamed with the need to hold her, to draw her against him and make her his, but hell, having her hugging him was pretty fucking good.
Warwick’s low chuckle broke through the moment. “No, no, no. How can I bring Audrey back to a world that is still wrong? No. I can’t.” He leaned forward. “If one angel of life can bring Audrey back, then so could another. When the time is right, I’ll bring her home. Right now, I want to make things right. Alice will die. You will kill yourself and end the Fitzgerald line, and the Order will be destroyed by gargoyles. Life will begin anew.”
Alice spun around to face Cardiff, her fists clenched by her sides. “Don’t be a fool,” she shouted. “Love is more important than destruction! How could you choose death over love?”
“I’m not choosing anything over love,” Cardiff snapped. “How dare you judge my commitment to Audrey?” His wand flashed, and a green laser hit Alice in the chest.
She gasped and stumbled, and fury roared through Ian. He bellowed his protest as he fought his bonds, straining so fiercely against the metal that blood poured down his wrists. “You don’t get to take her,” he bellowed. Gideon! You awake yet? His teammate didn’t respond. Shit!
Ian yanked at his arm again, and this time he felt a small movement of the steel. It was coming free from the wall! Come on! He jerked again, and felt a tiny bit more movement.
Cardiff laughed, his mount prancing restlessly. “How much does it hurt to see your woman suffering, and to be helpless to protect her?” He shot another blast at Alice, and she went down on her knees, gasping.
“Shit!” Ian fought even harder, and his left wrist moved a tiny bit. Crumbles of stone trickled to the earth. “Alice! Get up! Get away from him!”
“I’m trying.” She dragged herself to her knees, and he saw tears burning in her eyes. Tears of pain and fear.
Cardiff laughed, twirling his wand like a baton. “See? Isn’t it hell to see your woman suffer? Don’t you feel like a failure?”
“Fuck!” At the top of the stairs was Drew, still fighting, but not hard. Ian started to call him, and then hesitated. Was he calling the enemy if he called the kid? But as quickly as he thought it, he dismissed it. Drew was Dante’s son. Blood ran thicker than anything else. Drew. Get your ass down here.
The youth turned immediately and started fighting his way down the stairs. Coming!
See? A good kid.
Gideon didn’t move from his comatose pose on the floor, but his voice touched Ian’s mind. I’m good now. What’s the plan?
We have to get him to take the curse off Alice. She can’t die.
Keeping our angel of life alive would be a good plan. Gideon’s concurrence was strong and steady. How are we going to get Cardiff to retract it?
Shit. He had no fucking idea! There had to be something he could do! Ian frantically inspected the room, searching for a solution. He noticed the demonic shadows building in the corners. Why had the demons always been there when she died? How were they so connected to her? There had to be an answer in the demons…
Cardiff waved his hands at the specters, pointing them toward Alice. “That’s the one you’ll get,” he said. “Not the other.”
The other? Ian realized that some of the shadows had been circling Catherine, as if they’d sensed her death too. But that made no sense, not if they were there for Alice… Son of a bitch. They weren’t there for Alice, were they? They were there for an angel’s soul, and it didn’t matter which one. Alice was the one they kept getting, because once she died, they’d gotten their claws into her and had a link to her. They were the ones dragging her back toward death, but it didn’t have to be her, did it? Any angel would suffice, and once they got their angel, it would be done.
Son of a bitch. Could it be that easy? Could that be right?
He looked up at Cardiff, needing to confirm his suspicions. “You bastard,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be Alice, does it? You made a deal with the demons that you’ll kill an angel and give them her soul. But it doesn’t have to be her, does it?”
Cardiff’s face was impassive. “Death is death. It’s all the same.”
No, it wasn’t. It wasn’t the same at all. One was a debt that could be satisfied only with Alice’s soul. The other was a contract that wouldn’t end until it was honored, one that would be satisfied with any angel’s soul. Son of a bitch. That was it. Cardiff’s answer had given Ian the solution he needed.
Another flash of light from the wand hit Alice, and this time she screamed. The demons began to circle more closely, creeping down the walls. Despair tore through Ian as he watched his woman fading, as he saw her life ending. He twisted his right arm, but the bolt didn’t move any further. He couldn’t get it! He needed more strength, and he knew what it would take to get it.
There was one emotion that would make him strong enough to break the bonds, and that was how he felt about Alice.
He focused on Gideon and Drew, who was working his way down the stairs. When I give the word, attack him. Drew, you’ve got twenty-one weapons to call. He can’t defend against them all. You hit from the front. Gideon, you come from behind and deliver the final blow while he’s distracted.
Both warriors assented to his plan. What about you? Gideon asked.
Ian focused on Alice as she crumpled to the floor, right beside Catherine. The dark shadows were only a few feet away from her. I’m going to save Alice.
Warwick laughed, a booming, psychotic chortle as he pointed his wand at the two women. He muttered something, a trickle of green sparkles dusted out of the tip of the wand, and then the women’s hands began to move toward each other: the tainted, blackened palm of death, and the beautiful, pristine hand of the woman Ian loved. As their hands moved, Catherine’s head came up, her eyes haunted and deadly, focused on Alice like a predator.
Ian kne
w Alice had no defenses against her sister. The moment she touched Catherine, she would die. Despair coursed through Ian, and he heard that same voice haunting him that had been after him his whole life. You have failed her. She is lost. You have no honor. Die by your own hand, warrior. Die.
And this time, for the first time in his life, Ian didn’t fight the voice of doom.
He embraced it.
He let the despair consume him, like the dark cloud of grief. His soul screamed in agony. The weight of loss overwhelmed him, berating him until he screamed in pain so great that he felt like his soul was being torn apart. He gave himself over to the howl of gaping, raw loneliness and he let the immensity of his failure consume him.
Die, warrior, die! The voice shouted at Ian, and he accepted its command.
It was time for him to die.
“Now!” he shouted to Gideon, then with the strength of one gone mad with grief, he ripped the manacle out of the wall, called forth his mace with a flash of black light, and plunged it straight into his heart.
Chapter Nineteen
Alice screamed as Ian plunged the head of his mace into his chest. The moment the weapon made contact, fire raged through her. His entire being seemed to fill her, bursting through her like a hurricane knocking her off her feet. Strength surged through her, and she lunged to her feet, her weakened body suddenly reverberating with intense power. “Ian!” She lunged for him, her entire soul aching for him as he sagged in his bonds.
As she reached him, a young warrior leapt off the stairs with a battle cry as he unleashed a relentless arsenal of weapons at Cardiff, throwing them so fast that they were a blur as they flashed past her head.
Cardiff whirled Deathbringer around, shooting streaks of magic at the weapons, knocking them down as fast as they came, but then more came, until the room was a volley of green lights and weapons.
Not that it mattered any more who won, not with Ian’s life bleeding out of his chest. Her throat raw, tears blurring her vision, Alice reached Ian. When she touched him, the most intense feeling of rightness filled her. Ian seemed to expand through her spirit, her soul, and her world. “Ian!” She caught him as he sagged in his bonds, his freed arm hanging limply by his side. “You killed yourself!” Guilt ripped at her. He’d finally succumbed to his worst nightmare because she’d been almost dead. “This is wrong! Please don’t give up! We can—”
“It’s perfection.” He raised his head, his eyes glazed. “By killing myself, I saved you. There is no greater honor than that. I offer my life for you freely.”
Tears streamed down her face, her heart breaking into more pieces than she could ever have imagined. “But—”
“Cardiff made a deal with the demons for angel magic. It won’t end until he meets his end of the deal.” His voice was laced with pain. “So I offered myself.”
“You did it on purpose?” She stared at him, not understanding. “But you’re not an angel.”
“No, but my sheva is. My soul will count, because you’re a part of me.” He tried to grab her arm, but he was too weak. “I gave my life for yours. The final stage is done. We’re connected forever.”
She looked down. Her heart stilled and then seemed to blossom when she saw that the brand was complete. Every line of his weapon was carved on her skin. He was a part of her, and she was a part of him. Merged together. Forever. “Oh, Ian,” she breathed in awe. “It’s done—” As she watched, the angry black began to fade. The lines became thinner, and the color fainter. “Oh, no! It’s disappearing!”
“No.” His eyes were bloodshot now, barely open as he fought to watch her arm. “It’s turning into what it should have been all along.”
“What do you mean?” But then she saw what he meant. As she watched, the lines turned into beautiful, elegant silver marks. No longer was their connection blackened by demons. It was simply them, simply the beauty of what should be between them.
The demons had released their claim on her. Now their bond was pure and magical, everything it was supposed to be. Intense rightness filled her. “I’m yours,” she whispered. “Forever.”
“Forever,” he agreed, brushing his fingers over her cheek in a gesture so tender that it made her soul ache with longing. “You’re a part of me. Which means I fulfill the contract—” He gasped suddenly, and Alice saw black shadows winding around his ankle. The demons that had come to take her were taking him instead. “No! Stop!” She shouted and batted at them, but they just kept coming. “Ian!”
His fingers drifted off her cheek. “I love you, sweetheart. You’ll always be my angel.” Then his eyes closed, and his body relaxed. The dark shadows swirled over his body, and she felt them taking his soul. “No, no, no!” She screamed, frantically trying to remember how she’d saved Gideon. She called the white light, but it didn’t come. Nothing came. Because he wasn’t Order anymore. She couldn’t save him. “No!”
He’d relinquished his legacy for her. He’d given up his chance to restore honor to his family name. He’d taken the road considered least honorable. Everything that mattered to him, he’d given it all up for her.
And she’d lost him. Dear God, he was gone.
*
A weapon whizzed by Alice’s head, and she numbly looked up as the young warrior continued to pummel Warwick. A dagger nicked the wizard’s shoulder, and another grazed past his horse’s chest. There were too many for him to fend off. He glanced down at Ian, and then threw his arms in the air in victory. “It is done!” he crowed in delight.
Victory because he’d caused an amazing man to kill himself?
“You bastard!” She lurched to her feet, anger blazing through her. She’d never felt so much fury, never allowed such intense emotions to flow though her. “You don’t get it! You didn’t dishonor him! Ian just made the most powerful choice a warrior can make! You didn’t ruin him. He died with glory and honor because he took back what you stole from him, his ability to love!” She was screaming at him now, tears streaming down her face.
Warwick glanced at her. “What are you raving about, woman?” In the split second he took his attention off the battle to focus on Alice, a spear plunged into his shoulder.
He shouted, whirling back to face his young attacker, but Alice grabbed his horse’s bridle, yanking the massive animal back toward her with surprising ease, as if the horse himself was on her side and not the wizard’s. “You failed! Don’t you get it? You failed to destroy him! He defeated you!”
The wizard yanked the horse’s reins free of her grasp, and she saw pink foam frothing at the animal’s mouth. Blood? He was hurting his horse too? “You bastard!” She called out Ian’s mace, and it appeared in her hand. “How dare you!”
Cardiff laughed. “You think you can kill me with that?” He held his arms out to his sides in a defenseless position. “Just try! If you kill me, it will destroy you even more! Try!”
Alice raised the mace to strike, her arms shaking with fury as he waited for her to strike him down in cold blood. She hesitated, the weapon heavy in her hands. How could she do that? How could she take a life? How could she become like him?
She could make herself do it. She knew she could break the rules. She was already damned. But at the same time, did she really want to become the person with even more blood on her hands? Tears filled her eyes, and she lowered the mace. “I am an angel, not a monster,” she said, claiming her birthright with pride for the first time in her life. “I will not be that person. You will find your death by hands other than mine.”
“Like mine!” With a shout of triumph, Gideon sprang up from the floor behind Warwick, and slammed his axe into the side of the wizard’s neck. It went clean through, severing the life from him instantly.
Cardiff tumbled off his mount, but before he hit the ground, his body shimmered once and then vanished from sight, his cloak dropping to his horse’s saddle. It stayed there for a minute, then the animal stepped sideways and the cloak slid silently off the leather and landed in a soft heap on the
ground beside his massive hoof.
Beside him, Catherine moaned, and she slumped on the wood as the stains on her body faded.
Alice cried with relief as Catherine looked up, her eyes blue again. “Alice?” she croaked.
“Cat!” Alice dropped to her knees beside Catherine and hugged her. The wizard’s death had broken the spell he’d cast that had been dragging Cat toward that horrific fate. “You’re okay.”
Cat hugged her fiercely, her body trembling. “For now, Ally. Just for now.” She pulled back and met her gaze. “It won’t end.”
Alice brushed the hair out of her sister’s eyes. “I know. We’ll figure something out. But we have time now.”
“Not much, Ally. Not much.” The women hugged again, both of them treasuring this moment, all too aware that Catherine’s battle was far from over.
The sounds of fighting on the roof stopped, and there were shouts of triumph from the warriors still up there. In their tower room, Drew let out a whoop of victory, but Gideon just looked at Alice, his face grim. “Ian?”
Grief surged through Alice. Grief, and the most powerful love she’d ever experienced. “He killed himself for me.”
Gideon looked past her, and hope sparked in his face. “His body hasn’t vanished yet. He still has a chance.”
Alice’s heart jumped, and she whirled around to look at Ian. “What?”
“Calydon bodies vanish at death. The older they are, the quicker they disappear. Ian’s should be gone by now.” He sprinted across the room and knelt beside Ian as boots began to thud down the stairs. With a few slashes of his axe, he broke the manacles that had been trapping Ian and caught him as he slid to the ground.
Alice squeezed in beside him, and put her hand on Ian’s chest. His body was empty. His spirit was gone. “He’s not there.”
“No!” Gideon swore, grabbing Ian’s shoulders. “Quinn Masters died for two minutes, and then came back to life. Ian! Come on! Don’t give up!”
Darkness Arisen Page 29
