Chapter 29

CHAPTER29

She looks just as she did from my memory, not as she must have been in the Shadow Realm. Long, straight black hair that falls like glossy silk across her shoulders. Olive skin, so cool beneath my touch. The sharp features of her proud and intimidating beauty are just the same as centuries ago. I take her hand and raise it to my lips, laying a kiss to the network of silent veins beneath her skin.

“How?” I ask. There are a thousand questions vying for attention in my mind, but it’s the only one I can get out. “How is she here?”

“Your demon, of course,” Aloros says, rounding the altar to stop on the other side so he can observe my tear-streaked face. “It caused quite the stir within House Esagila when he showed up carrying a soul into the Realm of Light, as one might imagine.”

My gaze bounces between my sister and Aloros, questions heavy in my expression.

“He… what?”

Aloros gives me a pitying look. “A wretched picture he made, still soaking wet from swimming through the Bay of Souls to retrieve Aglaope of Anthemoessa. He was a steaming mess. His demon blood smoldered beneath his skin here in our realm.” Aloros crinkles his nose. “It would have been distasteful, if it were not such a fascinating turn of events. If he did not need to fulfill his purpose in the Shadow Realm, he surely would have been offered ascension to the Realm of Light for such an act of selfless love.”

My mouth gapes like a drowning fish. I look over the body of my sister like I’m seeing her for the very first time. But really, it’s not her I think I’m seeing anew. I turn my gaze back up to Aloros with something that feels like desperate confusion in my skin.

“Why? Why would he bring her here?”

Aloros looks at me with a faint smile and a softness in his eyes, the first true moment of empathy I’ve seen from him. “He explained all that happened with the werewolf, that your transformation had started but was not complete. He was determined to free you before the Shadow Realm could finish the process and asked for us to offer safe haven and protection if you chose to remain in our realm. But he did not want you to be alone here if you wished to stay. He said there was little you would want more than for Aglaope of Anthemoessa to be restored. And the witch, Ediye. She is granted passage to House Esagila at will.”

My heart is erupting from my chest in furious beats. My head swirls as though my brain is scouring my skull.

“In exchange for what?” I ask, squinting up at him through my pain.

“Ashen of House Urbigu agreed to take up the position of Master of War, offered by his Council. And now he will use his new power and access to take control of the Shadow Realm. He will destroy Eshkar and the Witch Reaper Imogen, and then will instill a new order and fight alongside us to end the tyranny that seeks to undo the three realms.”

I press my fingers to my temples and try to squeeze the pain from my head. “Tyranny?..”

Aloros looks down at my sister for a long moment before turning his serious expression back to me. “We forget our purpose. The Shadow Realm, to deliver merciful justice. The Realm of Light, to deliver rightful salvation. The Living Realm, to challenge the soul and offer the hope of another path. Some of us succumb to whispers of what we could take from one another. And all the while the Nephilim ready to take from us all. Unless we unite. Unless we fight back. A war is coming, and it is not the one you think.”

I stare at Aloros for a long moment as I process every word. It feels like the veil of the universe is being pulled from my eyes, but I can’t make sense of anything I see. Confusion ignites the hurt that still lives within me, those memories of betrayal that stack up like blocks to keep me submerged in a hurt that never ends. “So you need to unite the realms to fight the… Nephilim… and you think the Reaper will keep his word to you? That he won’t betray you when he takes control of the Shadow Realm?.. ”

Aloros laughs. “Yes, vampire. I believe he will keep his word, but not because of me. He is unique among his kind. And he is… motivated.”

I look down at my trembling hands and try to make sense of this madness. I don’t think I’ve ever felt more upside down in my life. Aglaope, lying before me as beautiful and serene as I remember her from centuries ago… The Reaper, who brought her here and then struck an impossible deal with his enemy… And an angel who’s now laughing at my naïveté, his razor sharp plumage scraping across the floor as he rounds the altar to stop at my side.

“The demon says that you have become part Seer. Yet, it seems you have chosen blindness. Let me help you witness what you have missed,” Aloros says as he lays a hand on my forehead. In the sudden warmth of his touch, I am transported.

Time seems to unravel in the filaments of light that possess my vision. Every conversation, every whispered admission between the demon and me seems to unspool and dance around me. They are distilled until they are as clear and powerful as poison.

You know only a fraction of what you think you know, vampire.

I love you, my vampire. No matter how you change, or what you lose, or what you gain.

I have faith in you.

I blink and I see Ashen in the Shadow Realm, lying naked on a black stone altar in a cavernous room lit only by torches, just like my last vision of him that I tried to push away. He opens his eyes and blinks twice as though confused, then jolts upright, cursing with some kind of urgency. He’s about to get off the altar when Ember steps out of the shadows and tosses him a black silk robe. She’s flanked by three other reapers with their swords drawn.

“Hello, dear brother.”

He says nothing, only watches her with suspicion as he pushes his arms though the long sleeves of the robe.

“Seems like your vampire is in a bit of a pickle. Semyon Abdulov has taken her.”

Ashen draws in a sharp breath and surges forward off the altar. “I have to get her out-“

“Let me tell you exactly what you will do next,” Ember says with a menacing smile as the others press in closer to Ashen. “And you will do everything I say, or I will make Leucosia suffer, and I will start by forcing her to watch as you die an everlasting death.”

I hear that crackling sound, louder than ever before. It splits my mind apart as the vision changes.

Now I see Ashen standing at the edge of the Bay of Souls. Black water laps across shimmering onyx stones toward his bare toes. His naked chest rises and falls with deep, heavy breaths as he looks out upon the water. The waves move unnaturally, as though something menacing swims just below the oily surface.

Every muscle seems to tense as Ashen takes his first step into the sea. It looks like the mere touch of the waves sends a shock of pain through his body. His brows draw together. His hands fold into tight fists. His jaw looks ready to crack his teeth. Despite the obvious discomfort, Ashen keeps his gaze fused to a set of small islands in the distance and takes another step, then another. Each one seems worse than the last. By the fifth, he looks ready to drop to his knees and succumb to whatever torment laps at his body. But still he keeps his eyes trained to the islands. He presses on and coasts forward into the water, starting to swim. A terrible sound of anguish passes through his gritted teeth as he surges on. With each stroke and kick, Ashen suffers in an invisible torture. He suffers.

I see him next in the broken van at the bottom of the hill. I hear his heart beating. I know its normal cadence and this pace is too fast. His breath spills visible clouds into the cold air. He’s rolling up the sleeve of his shirt.

“Ana nurika nami azziz. Ana elleti tiparika azziz,” he whispers, and a hidden tattoo burns to life into his flesh.

To the brilliant light I call. To the shining light I call.

A few labored breaths later, a star appears outside the window of the van, no bigger than a pinprick but brighter than the sun. It expands and consumes the empty air, filling it with a hum of power encased in glowing filaments of light. It grows to an orb and Ashen shields his eyes as it bursts and sparks of color rain down on the snow.

Aloros steps forward from the glittering debris.

“You summoned, demon?”

Ashen breathes heavily. His movement is slow when he turns his head to watch as the angel opens the warped door with a powerful jerk of his hand. Aloros takes a long moment to survey Ashen’s injuries with his shimmering green eyes.

“The vampire,” Ashen says. His voice is weak and slow. “We were ambushed. My sister pursues her. She means to bring Leucosia back to the Shadow Realm.”

Ashen points in the direction of the passenger window and the angel straightens to look over the crushed roof of the van.

“Do you have a portal nearby?” Ashen asks.

“Yes.”

“Bring her to your realm and let her choose where she wishes to go from there,” Ashen says.

“And your sister?”

Ashen’s expression turns venomous. “Kill her. It might be the only chance we get.”

Aloros looks down the length of Ashen’s body as the Reaper tries to suppress a rumbling cough. “What of you? You swore your allegiance to House Esagila.”

“I am not long for this land. I will keep my word when I return to the Shadow Realm.”

Aloros looks at Ashen for a long moment and then gives a solemn nod. His wings unfurl.

With a single snap of motion he propels himself into the sky and my mind back into the Realm of Light.

I fall forward, panting as I press my forehead to the cold marble floor. I squeeze my eyes shut and try to swallow the painful knot that grips my throat.

Everything Ashen said was true.

My awful words come back to me. You’re good at telling me everything you didn’t do.

He never told me everything he did.

Deals with angels.

Saving my sister.

Protecting me.

He sacrificed his choices so I would have mine.

I could have given him my blood to heal him in the van, but instead I left him to die. I thought the worst of him. I believed he betrayed me. Again. Because he’s the villain in every immortal’s story. Especially mine.

This demon, who lives surrounded by regret and anger and sorrow, who shouldn’t even be able to feel the way he feels about me. But he does.

He told me he loved me and I said it wasn’t enough.

And still he used his last moments to save me.

My body shudders with emotion. My fists fold so tight my fingers could snap.

“You have suffered long enough in the bitter darkness,” Aloros says, his voice suddenly so warm and kind as his hand lays on my back. “Perhaps you should open your eyes.”

I blink and struggle to lift my gaze from the floor. I see the angel kneeling next to me, pointing behind us with his long, graceful fingers.

My arms are weak when I push myself up. I feel broken inside, like I’m made of shattered clockwork as I turn to follow the line of his finger.

“All right, vampire?”

Some kind of sound escapes from my mouth that I’ve never made before. I clamp my hand across my lips. It’s as though the despair has fled my body like a malevolent spirit pushed out by the light.

Ashen stands by the open door, clutching his network of broken ribs. The agony of being in the Realm of Light is written all over his face. Smoke billows from his shoulders, almost obscuring Eryx who stands just behind him.

I rise to my feet.

For all the times he’s asked me that question, this is the first time that I shake my head. “No,” I manage in a whisper. “I’m not.”

Ashen’s gaze lingers on my face and follows the tears that streak down my cheeks. “I suppose I’m not surprised,” he says as his eyes continue down my body, right to my toes, then back up again. “You clearly fought a fitted sheet and lost.”

A laugh that’s as much as a cry bursts from my chest. In an instant I’m running.

Ashen grunts as I crash into him a little harder than intended, but he wraps his arms around me nonetheless and holds on tight. His hand laces into my hair and clutches my face to his burning, beating heart.

“My Lu,” he whispers as he buries his face in the crook of my neck. “I thought I would never again hold you in my arms.”

My grip tightens across Ashen’s back. He takes a deep breath of relief and I never want to let go, even though it burns to hold his body to mine. It feels like fire has come alive beneath his skin. My shoulders shake as everything I’ve been trying to hold in comes crashing down on them like a heavy wave. But for the first time in a long time, I’m not drowning. I’m lifted from this sea by Ashen’s embrace.

I pull away and keep my eyes on Ashen’s as I run my hands up his arms and over his shoulders and up to his face, drawing his lips down to mine. The kiss is like a fever quenched by cool water. Ashen’s tongue runs across the seam of my lips and I open for him, kissing him deeply, hoping I can take his pain away. His hands flow in a slow procession down my neck and across my shoulders, resting their heat on my spine. When the kiss slows and we break away he still holds on, as though I’m keeping him tethered to the world in the midst of a dream.

“How are you here?” I whisper.

“Ediye fixed me up enough for the journey. She and the others continued on to Valentina’s stronghold. I had to know you were safe. I had to see it for myself.” Ashen pulls away and lays his hand on my face, brushing tears away from my skin. His own eyes shine in the light that surrounds us. “I will always come for you. No matter how long it takes me or who stands in my way. No matter the realm. I love you, my Lu.”

Ashen’s lips meet mine once more, and I know it in every touch. It is no illusion. This love is truth. It might shine as bright as copper in the sun, but it tastes like mint and ink.