The war raged on but it was different now.
More black dragons had appeared and in the midst of them stood a gigantic beast twice their size, with enormous leathery wings and six curved horns that flared back from above its violet blazing eyes.
The Great Destroyer.
A shiver went through her, racing down her spine and arms and making her thighs tingle.
The forces of Heaven and Hell were attacking the dragons and the four Lysander had brought with him to the island were nowhere to be seen. Neither were all the demons. The blackened and charred landscape was the same but the players had changed.
She went to fly across the fields of the fallen to get a closer look.
Sharp pain went through her stomach.
“Don’t move, Baby.” A deep voice curled around her and she realised she was laying on her back, across Veiron’s lap.
She looked up at him and her eyes widened as she saw all the blood on him. He clutched her to him, tears lining his swirling golden eyes, and she went cold.
It was her blood.
The pain came again, fiercer this time, burning her to ashes, and she cried out.
“Baby… don’t leave me.” Veiron pulled her closer, his voice hoarse and his agony tearing at her. “I can’t lose both of you.”
She froze.
Hot tears formed and spilled down her cheeks, scalding her.
Her eyes dropped to her stomach.
She wasn’t holding it as she had thought.
Dante lay cradled in her arms and in Veiron’s. Silent. Unmoving.
Erin screamed.
The vision shattered but she didn’t stop shrieking. The pale blue sky above her swirled into darkness and she kept screaming, unleashing every drop of the fury and agony eating her alive as she saw her little boy dead in her arms over and over again. Wind lashed at the island, driving the rain down so hard that it ravaged the sand, causing a million pockmarks across the normally smooth white surface. Lightning forked across the sky and slammed into the shore, each strike leaving sizzling lava behind.
She kept screaming until she was hoarse and couldn’t breathe, and then she broke down in tears.
The storm turned wild, the lightning striking closer to the camp and the wind howling as it blasted the island with icy cold rain.
Above the din, she heard a soft cry.
She shoved out of Veiron’s arms and stumbled blindly, searching for him.
“Calm down, Sweetheart,” Veiron hollered above the noise of the storm and caught hold of her wrist, drawing her back against him, into the shelter of his embrace.
She couldn’t.
She grabbed Veiron’s arms and dug her black claws into his biceps.
“I need to see Dante,” she said and turned wild eyes on Veiron.
He stilled, the colour draining from his face.
“What did you see?” he whispered, the fear in his eyes an echo of what was running through her. Tears burned her eyes and she fought for breath, wanting to answer him but unable to find her voice. “You saw me die again, didn’t you?”
Erin shook her head, the wet strands of her black hair sticking to her cheeks and getting in her eyes.
“No.” She kept shaking her head, spilling hot tears down her freezing cheeks. “Not this time. This time I will die… and our son with me.”
Veiron snarled. “No. I won’t let that happen. It will never happen, you hear me?”
She wished that she believed him but her heart was falling to pieces inside her, breaking apart at the thought of what the future held for her and their son, and the thought of leaving Veiron alone in this world.
He dragged her against him, pinning her head to his rain-slicked chest with one hand and pressing the other into her lower back.
“I swear to you, Erin, it will never happen. The future is never constant. Remember? The slightest thing can change it.”
She nodded, forcing herself to believe him because if she kept thinking all was lost, then she felt sure it would be. She would make that future she had seen happen.
Amelia hurried across the wet sand to them, shielding Dante with her silvery half-feather half-leather wings. Erin drew in a deep breath to calm herself and the storm began to relent, the rain lightening to a gentle patter and the wind dropping. She took Dante from her sister and rocked him in her arms, staring down at his peaceful sleeping face.
It will never happen, Daughter. I will not allow it. Her father’s voice echoed in her head, suffusing her with warmth and leaving her feeling hazy. He must have felt her pain and heard her fearful thoughts.
Her heart steadied.
Is there a way to stop Lysia from awakening? She sent that question back to him through their link. Normally, she spoke aloud to him, upholding a promise she had made to Veiron so he would always know when the Devil was communicating with her, but she kept their conversation to herself this time, wary of everyone watching her.
Deliver the Great Destroyer to me. I will send her to sleep as I did with Liora. I will seal her back in her chamber.
Erin wasn’t sure whether to believe him. Part of her said that he would kill Lysia, and that would kill Nevar because he harboured feelings for her. Erin couldn’t bring herself to cause him pain when he had already suffered so much and she didn’t want to see Lysia dead, but she was too shaken by what she had witnessed in her vision to think clearly right now.
She stared down at Dante where he lay in her arms, unharmed and safe, and kept seeing him as he had been in her nightmare, covered in both of their blood, unmoving and cold. Dead.
She trembled and clutched him closer, icy claws sinking into her heart and squeezing it tightly in her chest.
She shut out her father’s tempting words, afraid she would succumb to them, or worse, would do the deed herself in order to protect her son.
Veiron wrapped his arms around her and she nestled against him, breathing slowly as she fought her fear.
“I won’t let it happen,” she whispered to Dante and Veiron, swearing on her heart that she would do everything in her power to keep her family safe.
She lifted her head, her heart steadying and her fear fading as she pulled herself together. She was stronger than this. Veiron was right and a vision was just one version of the future, one possible outcome. The smallest thing could change it.
“I will do whatever it takes to protect my son and my husband.”
She slid her gaze towards Lysia and Nevar pulled the black-haired woman closer to him. Erin knew why. All the fires of Hell burned in her eyes and shadows fluttered from her shoulder blades and twined around her arms and around Dante too.
“I’m sorry,” Erin said to Nevar. “I want to help, but I won’t let anything happen to my family.”
Veiron shifted behind her and she could feel him growing, transforming into his demonic state, a sign he was in her corner and willing to fight anyone who went against her decision. His black clawed hands curled protectively around her and Dante. Resolve flowed through her, obliterating her fear, and she slid her fiery golden gaze back to Lysia.
“I want you off this island or I will do the one thing guaranteed to stop you from awakening.”
Everyone stared at her in disbelief and she cradled her boy closer to her breast.
“I will hand you over to my father.”
CHAPTER 19
Nevar stepped out of the swirling vortex and onto the black courtyard of Asmodeus’s fortress, his curved black blade held in one hand and Lysia’s hand clutched in the other. He scanned the paved area and then the towering building ahead of him, his senses sharpening as he checked every crevice and crack, and then scoured the area surrounding the fortress. No enemies present. He tugged on Lysia’s hand and she emerged from the portal and looked around at the grim landscape surrounding them.
It was hardly the tropical paradise of the island they had just left, but it was going to be their home for now.
Asmodeus’s once imposing fortress stood mostly i
n ruin now, but he and Liora had made progress on repairing the damage that had been done to it when the Devil had sent a dragon after them. It stood proudly on a spire of rock hundreds of feet above a wide bowl-like plain. Asmodeus had used the plain to supply him with the rock needed to build his fortress, turning it into a quarry and ending up with the land around the fortress courtyard carved away to what it was now—a valley.
Nevar looked down at Lysia’s bare feet and materialised a pair of black sandals for her, so she would be more comfortable walking on the harsher terrain of Hell. She dropped her gaze to her feet as they appeared and then lifted her eyes back to his, a solemn edge to them, before she cast them away again. He gently squeezed her hand, offering her comfort and hoping it would alleviate some of her hurt. It wasn’t her fault that they had been forced to leave the island.
His master stepped out of another portal with Liora, his black beach shorts disappearing as he strode towards Nevar, replaced by the slats of worn gold-edged black armour that protected his hips and his greaves and boots, the only pieces of armour that the angel owned now. His two hellhounds bounded through the portal before it closed and snarled and jostled with each other as they trotted up to Asmodeus.
“Check the castle,” Asmodeus said to them in the demon tongue and they wagged their long whip-like tails, their tongues lolling over their sharp black teeth and their red eyes alert, and raced off towards the building.
“I’m sorry you had to leave your friends,” Lysia said and Asmodeus shook his head at the same time as Nevar did, wanting to reassure her that it was fine. “You cannot hand me over to the Devil.”
Nevar drew her closer to him and she looked across her shoulder at him, a solemn edge to her expression that tugged at his heart and told him to offer her comfort. “We would never do such a thing.”
He wanted to say something better, something that would erase the fear from her beautiful hazel eyes and reassure her that there was no way he was letting either the Devil or Heaven get their hands on her. He would find a way to ensure she was safe from being triggered into becoming the Great Destroyer.
He only wished that Erin had told them details about what she had witnessed in her vision before asking them to leave. He needed to know whether she had seen Lysia and more about the battle, but he hadn’t had the heart to press her when she had been so distraught and disturbed by the vision. A vision she had seen for his sake.
He clenched the grip of his black blade and ground his teeth, hating himself for what she had gone through for his sake. He should have stood with Veiron and told her he wouldn’t allow her to risk seeing something scarring in her vision. He should have protected her.
He hadn’t been thinking straight though. He hadn’t even tried to imagine what she might see and she had seen the worst scenario possible. He couldn’t begin to grasp how much it had shaken her and hurt her to witness her son dying and knowing she was soon to follow him.
The need to go back and apologise to her, or somehow find a way to get a message to her, made him restless. He needed her to know that he was sorry and that he would do all in his power to change the future she had witnessed. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her and her family either.
He would fix all his mistakes somehow.
“The Devil cannot send you back to sleep and Erin knows it. That is why she asked you to leave. She did it to protect you from him,” Asmodeus said and Nevar nodded in agreement, dragging himself away from his heavy thoughts.
He had seen Erin communicating telepathically with the Devil enough times to know when it was happening now. Her father had no doubt tried to tempt her into handing over Lysia as a way of protecting Dante. Erin had done the only thing she could to stop herself from succumbing to that offer or hurting people she cared about. She had made them leave her island.
He wasn’t angry with her. He had been on the verge of suggesting they part company at the time she had voiced her decision. He would never place her and her family at risk, not when he knew how much they meant to her. If he could protect her by taking Lysia away and finding another way of seeing the future so he could know how to stop her from awakening, then he would do it no matter what the cost was to him.
His only choice now was to go to Heaven and see the pool there.
He couldn’t ask the Devil to see the future for them. Not now that he knew the bastard wanted Lysia.
Lysia stared at her feet, her pain beating through the mark on his chest that linked them. He squeezed her hand but she didn’t respond this time. He sighed, shifted closer to her and sent his black blade away.
Nevar lifted his free hand to her cheek and swept the backs of his fingers across it. “Erin wasn’t angry with you and she didn’t only want to protect her son and her family. She wanted to protect you too. She is your friend now. Everyone on the island is your friend now. You are part of the group, another misfit, and I am sure they are trying to think of a way to help you at the same time as trying to stop whatever Erin saw from happening.”
Lysia slowly raised her hazel eyes up to meet his. “But I hurt her.”
“Not you. If anyone hurt her, it was me, because I went along with her when I should have stopped her from risking seeing such a terrible thing.” Nevar opened his hand and cupped her cheek, resting his fingers along her jaw and holding her head up so she kept her eyes on his. “I promise you, Lysia, we will find a way through this and then we can all be together again.”
Her eyes brightened at the same time as her pain faded, and he was glad that she had taken some comfort from his words. She had only been on the island for a few days, but he knew everyone there had come to mean a lot to her in that short time.
“We should separate,” Asmodeus said and Nevar caught the momentary flicker of concern in his golden gaze before he masked it and it hit him like a punch in the gut as he realised the source of it. “My master can command me to bring Lysia to him. I am not sure whether he would employ such a tactic, but it is better not to risk it.”
Nevar had wanted to remain here with Asmodeus and Liora. They were both powerful enough to protect Lysia should the Devil send forces to take her, or should Heaven risk sending their angels into Hell. He hadn’t considered that Asmodeus himself could be used as a weapon against her.
“Agreed.” Nevar knew the Devil well enough to know that he would employ such a tactic and that it would hurt Asmodeus.
He had heard the tales of Amelia’s awakening and how Heaven had forced Apollyon to turn on Marcus and kill her. It had scarred Apollyon and still pained him to this day, the guilt of what he had done weighing heavily on his heart.
Nevar hated Asmodeus at times, but he didn’t wish that sort of pain upon him, not anymore.
He would have to find somewhere else in Hell to hide with Lysia until he was strong enough to head to Heaven.
There were a few places he had frequented during his times in Hell when he had been stalking Asmodeus and searching for his fortress. One of them was a cave deep in the wasteland, far from all the villages of the demons and the Hell’s angels, where no one ventured.
“Send a message if you need me.” Asmodeus placed his hand on Nevar’s shoulder and squeezed it.
Nevar mirrored him, clutching Asmodeus’s opposite shoulder. “I will, and you call if you need me or… can you get word to Erin to apologise for what happened and ask her to offer us any information she might have on the future she saw? I don’t want to hurt her by asking, but it might help us.”
Liora stepped forwards, twisting her chestnut hair up into a knot at the back of her head. “I’ll go. Asmodeus can open a portal for me and I’ll ask Erin about the vision.”
Asmodeus’s black eyebrows dipped low above his golden eyes and he curled his arm protectively around Liora’s waist, pressing his fingers into her bare skin. “I want you to take Remus with you. He can protect you and he can communicate with Romulus. Tell him when you want to return.”
She smiled up at Asmodeus and ran her right ha
nd over his bare chest. “I won’t be long. I’ll be back before you know it. You don’t have to fret about me.”
His expression soured. “Who says I am worried?”
Liora tiptoed and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I do.”
His master shrugged that off but Nevar knew she was right and the male was concerned about parting from Liora. Nevar could understand why, but Liora was a powerful witch, far more so than her cousin Serenity. She would be able to protect herself while she was away from Asmodeus.
Nevar’s gaze drifted to Lysia where she stood beside him still clutching his hand and he supposed that he would act the same way as Asmodeus if she were leaving him, even for a short time. She was powerful enough to take care of herself, but he wanted to be the one to do that for her. He wanted to take care of her and protect her, so she didn’t have to use her powers.
“I will message you when Liora returns.” Asmodeus cast his hand out and a swirling black portal appeared a short distance from it, the ribbons of smoke spinning outwards until the vortex was large enough to accommodate Liora and the hellhound.
Nevar nodded and called his own portal. He formed an image of the place he wanted to go in his head, an outcrop of rocks high on a hill above an immense plain of black basalt streaked with lava rivers in the wasteland, and stepped into the vortex with Lysia in tow.
His gaze scanned the cragged landscape of the hill as he emerged from the portal, the black pebbles crunching beneath his boots as he called his armour to him. The violet-edged black greaves formed over his boots and his loincloth replaced his shorts. The pointed strips of his hip armour covered it and then his breastplate and back plate formed over his upper chest, each moulded to mimic the muscles beneath. Finally, his vambraces appeared around his forearms.
He kept his wings hidden, unwilling to allow them out when he was unsure whether any demons had moved into the vicinity since he had last been there. It had been many long months since he had set foot in this area, since before he had awakened Lysia. He had spent days, possibly weeks in this place plotting Asmodeus’s downfall and how to use his weakness against him.
Her Avenging Angel (Her Angel Romance Series Book 7) Page 19
