Chapter 59

59

Jericho

Swirling the drink in my hand, I sat in my office chair, waiting for Remy to come through the door. Every muscle in my body burned with the urge to throttle him to death, after having witnessed the kiss between him and Farryn at the edge of the woods. Fortunately for him, her body language told me she wasn’t interested, otherwise he’d have been dead the moment his lips touched hers.

The night was still early.

After a quiet knock, he stepped inside my office, hair disheveled, shirt cocked to the side. The red rims of his eyes spoke of little sleep and something else.

“What happened to you?” I asked.

“I’ve been thoroughly Evied.” He snorted and slumped into the chair across from me, running his hand through the hair sticking up at ridiculous angles from his head. “You don’t mind that she and I …”

“No.” I hadn’t wanted anything to do with Evie in a long time. Particularly not since Farryn had arrived. Initially, I’d chalked it up to lack of interest in sex. Thankfully, Farryn proved that wrong. “I called you into my office to ask about a missing girl. Do you know what happened to the kitchenmaid, Danielle?”

The way he shifted uncomfortably in his chair sent up a red flag. With confetti and a bullhorn. “Uhhh. Yeah, so, she and I … you know.”

Something told me that wasn’t the reason for his sudden distress, though. “I’m not interested in your tryst with yet another young girl. I want to know what happened to her.”

Clearing his throat, he shifted again. “Danielle didn’t like me hanging around Evie. Wouldn’t surprise me if she ran off somewhere.”

“Because women just fall at your feet.” The bitter bite in my tone wasn’t nearly as acidic as the rage pulsing through me.

“Well, your words. Not mine.” He snorted another laugh and ran his trembling hands over the fabric of the armchair. Clearly nervous. His sickly pallor seemed to turn more ashen by the minute.

“What drugs are you on?”

He stilled and frowned back at me, only solidifying my suspicions. “What? No. I don’t need that shit.”

I wasn’t convinced, but the longer I pretended to care that he looked like hell, the longer it would take to get to the root of my anger: That fucking kiss. “So, you’re saying you had absolutely nothing to do with Danielle’s disappearance.”

“Look, I told you. My soul-stealing days are over. I’m a love ‘em and leave ‘em kind of guy now.”

“How romantic.” I quietly ground my teeth together, wanting nothing more than to knock the smug look right off his face. “So, the kiss in the woods … that was nothing.”

If it were possible, his face turned whiter than before, and he shifted yet again, clearing his throat. “Yeah. It was … nothing. Just a joke.”

Doing my best to reel in the anger, I pushed up from my desk. “I’m going to let you in on a little secret, Remy. One I’ve not told anyone.”

“Oh, yeah?” He chuckled nervously, as I rounded the desk, dragging my knuckles over the surface of it.

I came to a stop alongside his chair and leaned back against the desk. “All of my memories have returned to me.”

“Well, hey, that’s coo--”

Before he could finish, I shot forward and grabbed him by the throat. Remy coughed and gasped, as I lifted him from the chair and into the air, holding him above me by his neck. His feet dangled, fingers clawing at mine.

“She is mine,” I growled, squeezing hard enough that the color of his face turned from white to an unhealthy shade of red. “If you go near her again, I will sever your head from your shoulders and let my dogs feed on your carcass, are we clear?”

Still kicking his legs, he rasped, “Yes.”

I let go, and his body fell to the floor like a pile of wet clothes. Rounding back to my chair, I adjusted my cuffs, as he wheezed for breath, struggling to climb back onto his own chair. “I need you to do something for me.”

“What?” he managed to say between gasps.

“It seems Farryn recognized a certain phrase, spoken by someone at the church she attended. Dominus vigilans.”

“Pentacrux?” He rubbed his neck, frowning.

“It would seem. It’s a Catholic church, from the sounds of it. Nothing but a front, I’m guessing.” Tasking him with looking into it meant keeping him away from Farryn. Something I was all too happy to accommodate. “Do this for me, and I’ll forget that you touched what’s mine.”

“Of course. I’ll do it.”

“Good. And one other thing. You’re to report back to me. Directly.”

* * *

As I walked down the dark corridor of the undercroft, a strange feeling swept over me. It tingled the back of my neck, and I paused to turn, feeling as if something shadowed me.

Ignoring it, I kept on toward the room where I’d left Farryn. The moment my hand hit the knob, that strange feeling returned again.

Pushing the door open, I found Evie lying naked on her side, sprawled across the bed where Farryn had lain not even an hour before.

“Hello, handsome,” she said, lifting her knee to expose her sex.

“Where is she?” I growled, scanning over the room.

“Forget her--”

I cut off her words when my hand hit her throat. “Where. Is. She?”

Evie choked and gagged, clawing at me, just as Remy had moments ago.

“I want you out of this cathedral tonight, or by the demons in hell, I will send what’s left of your stinking, rotted soul to the blackest pits of Ex Ni—”

That tingling sensation hit the back of my neck again, and I snapped my attention toward the door. A feeling of dread sank to the pit of my stomach.

Abandoning Evie, I raced out the door, down the corridor to the window, and barreled through it. Air sliced at my face as I fell toward the rocks below. My wings unfurled, tearing through my shirt, which fell in shreds below me. In the distance, I saw Remy, nosediving toward the black depths of the sea below him. Farryn lay draped across his arms, and chasing after them was a flock of ravens, but he was too fast. Staying well ahead of them.

I pushed speed to my wings and cut through the air like a bullet toward him.

“Remy!” I called out.

The two of them hit the water.

The birds veered off back toward the air.

I breached the watery surface, holding my breath as I torpedoed toward them. The water below spun like a vortex, the center of which opened up to a deep, black abyss. Remy dove deeper, straight for it. A gasp escaped me, bubbling past my lips, as I watched him slip into the blackness with Farryn.

I reached out my hand.

The water abruptly stilled, closing the vortex before I could reach them.

And just like that, she was gone.