Rhyn's Redemption Read online

  Rhyn’s Redemption

  Rhyn Trilogy, Book Three

  By Lizzy Ford

  http://www.GuerrillaWordfare.com/

  Edited by Christine LePorte

  http://www.ChristineLePorte.com/

  Cover art and design by Dafeenah

  http://www.indiedesignz.com/

  Rhyn’s Redemption copyright 2012 by Lizzy Ford

  Amazon Edition

  Cover art and design copyright 2012 by Dafeenah

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  See other titles by Lizzy Ford

  http://www.GuerrillaWordfare.com

  You can follow the GW team on Twitter:

  @LizzyFord2010

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  Twitter hashtags:

  #guerrillawriter, #fantasy, #romance, #paranormalromance, #rhyntrilogy

  Author’s Note

  “Rhyn’s Redemption” – end of the Trilogy, beginning of the Rhyn Eternal Series

  When I started the Rhyn Trilogy, it was with the intention of ending it after three books. I figured I’d detail Katie and Rhyn’s relationship and how they eventually became a couple. However, this past fall, after seeing the overwhelming reader support and feedback for the series to continue beyond the three books, I developed a different plan.

  I now consider the Rhyn Trilogy to be a prequel to the Rhyn Eternal series and more of a history of how all the players got to where they are when the Rhyn Eternal series launches this September. The Rhyn Eternal series will include more books on Katie and Rhyn as they grow into their roles, and books on other popular characters, such as Gabriel, Rhyn’s brothers, Hannah, Rhyn’s daughter, etc., and the ongoing struggle with the Dark One.

  With that in mind, I feel I need to warn my readers: “Rhyn’s Redemption” doesn’t end with all the loose ends tied up. It doesn’t resolve all the issues, win the war with demons and it doesn’t end happily for every character. What it does is bring Katie and Rhyn together – and set the stage for the Rhyn Eternal series, because Rhyn and Katie will need each other for the upcoming books.

  Thank you all for your overwhelming support for Rhyn and Katie! This series is very dear to me, because it’s brought so many wonderful people into Lizzyland, and I will be forever grateful for the friends I’ve made and the readers who keep me going!

  Please feel free to provide feedback in the form of a review where you purchased this copy, or contact me via one of the methods below!

  My website: http://www.guerrillawordfare.com/

  FB page: http://www.facebook.com/LizzyFordBooks/

  Twitter: http://twitter.com/LizzyFord2010/

  Google+: https://plus.google.com/112799803228451607781/posts?hl=en/

  Summer 2012 Amazon Review Challenge

  Want to win a $25 Amazon gift card?

  Want more Rhyn?

  Enter to win a $25 Amazon gift card by simply reviewing KATIE’S HELLION (Book I, Rhyn Trilogy) on Amazon or Amazon UK from July 1, 2012 – September 30, 2012! (Please note: this offer is valid for reviews left on KATIE’S HELLION only!)

  Winners will be posted to my website on a biweekly basis, with the first announcement going up on July 15. My website: http://www.guerrillawordfare.com/

  For every 100 reviews Katie’s Hellion receives on Amazon and Amazon UK, I’ll also release a new novelette in the series!

  If Katie’s Hellion reaches 1,000 reviews on Amazon, I’ll write another book about Katie and Rhyn!

  Katie’s Hellion on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Katies-Hellion-Book-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B005347RCW/

  Katie’s Hellion on Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Katies-Hellion-Book-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B005347RCW/

  Chapter One

  Death was waiting for Gabriel when he dozed off. He’d planned on staying awake and moving so she wouldn’t catch up to them, but even he needed a short nap after three straight days of grueling travel in the underworld.

  He found himself on the Caribbean Sanctuary, in the small chamber with the Oracle book. Sea breeze swept through the small windows of the room, and he took a step towards the lectern on which the open book rested. The pages displayed had a few words written on them rather than the constantly shifting writing that normally scrawled itself across the pages. He felt himself compelled towards the book even as his fight-or-flight instinct reared up.

  You know what they say about the inner ring of Hell, Gabe. Death’s words were written on both pages of the Oracle’s book.

  “Why did you bring me here?” he asked the air around him.

  I can’t talk to you directly, or I am obligated to take you with me, Death’s words appeared in the book.

  “This isn’t the time for your games,” Gabriel said. “I know what happens if you catch us. What I don’t know is why you’d try to talk to me. You know where we are?”

  I’d know if I wanted to. The underworld is mine.

  “As I thought,” he said with a frown. “No matter. I’m taking her out of the underworld.”

  You know I can’t let you.

  “But you’re not here to stop me.”

  If she escapes, it won’t be with your help.

  The words chilled him from the inside out. There was one way he’d leave Katie, and that was if he was dead-dead. Gabriel looked around the small room, irritated with Death.

  “Come out,” he ordered her. “I’ve known you longer than any creature still in existence. This is a dream. You can talk to me here.”

  “There was a time when you feared me then a time when I thought you almost loved me,” Death said, materializing from the shadows. “Is this what happens when your weak human emotions fade? You betray me?”

  “I have to do this. If you have to stop me … it won’t change how I felt about you.”

  “You could’ve ruled the underworld at my side, Gabriel.”

  “What we are – were – is of no concern now,” he said slowly. The words were harder to say than he expected. He’d gone from Death’s favorite – and the only death-dealer serving voluntarily – to just another of her assassins obligated to serve her, after he traded his soul for his best friend’s life. Death had done her best over the years to force his human emotions out of him. But she was right. He had loved her for so long, until he realized even he was a pawn in her games.

  “Very well, Gabriel,” she said. “Then I must warn you. If I find either of you, I am obligated by rules much older than the Immortal Code to do what I must.”

  “I understand. Is that all you came to tell me?”

  “No. I came to tell you that you saw something I didn’t.”

  He said nothing, aware the creature before him wasn’t capable of communicating a truth in a way most others could understand. Death was from a time before time. He would never understand what she saw when she looked out over humanity and saw its Past, Present, Future, and the soul of each human that ever lived. The size of her vision rendered her unique interpretations puzzling, even to him.

  “You saw something I almost missed,” she added. “Maybe I was more interested in detailing your human weakness than in understanding what your instincts told you. Deities don’t need instincts. We simply know. But even I cannot know all.”

  “You’re not pursuing us, because I was rig
ht about something,” he said. “What was I right about? We’ve spent millennia arguing. Not once have you uttered those words.”

  “I didn’t utter them now,” she pointed out. “Let’s just say, I may have misjudged more than your affection for me.”

  “Rhyn.”

  “Perhaps. Though I will say, I haven’t yet made my final determination. He has a test he must pass. I didn’t expect him to get so far, and he may not pass at all. In any case, I have a much larger problem. I interfered when I shouldn’t have,” she said. “And now, it might be too late to make things right.”

  “You did take an unusual interest in Rhyn,” Gabe said. “His soul should’ve been just one more jewel for your collection, considering how many souls you deal with and relationships you break a part.” Including ours. These words he kept to himself.

  “It was not Rhyn that drew my attention, Gabriel. It was your interest in him.”

  “You’re blaming me.” He looked away, at the blue sky visible through the window.

  “I interfered. You have until he passes or fails the final trial.”

  Gabriel cursed under his breath. He had no way of knowing what kind of test a deity like Death could create, but it wasn’t likely to be good. While he had full faith in Rhyn, he also knew better than to trust the petite woman in white standing in his dream.

  “If he fails, we’re dead-dead,” he guessed. “If he passes …”

  “We’ll see.”

  “You can’t check the Oracle?” He motioned to the book.

  “I cannot. My Sight has been stunted, no doubt as punishment for my tampering in Fate’s court.”

  “I know I’m doomed. What about Katie?”

  Death shrugged with a knowing smile that told him more than if she spoke. Gabriel gazed out the window of the small room, thinking.

  “How long do I have?” he asked at last.

  “Until the seventh day after she drowned herself, assuming Darkyn doesn’t catch you first.”

  “Four days left. I take it you won’t come to my rescue if he does.”

  Another smile.

  “Why seven days?” he asked.

  “There are some rules older than time. I’ve broken several already, but this one is entirely out of my ability to influence.”

  From their years together, he knew the cryptic response was the best he’d get. Gabriel’s gaze swept around the room again, and he looked out at the blue sky. He’d never again visit this room or see the mortal world. This much he knew the moment he chose to help Rhyn and Katie over his promise to Death. The dream sky wasn’t even real, and he missed it already.

  “It’s too late for either of us to turn back,” Death said.

  “I wasn’t considering it. I’ll keep her alive until Rhyn passes his test.” Gabriel approached her until he towered over her. Memories of their nights together made him sensitive to the warmth of her skin, the tension between them. “This will all be worth it to hear you say you were wrong about something, and I was right.”

  “You may not get that chance, even if I was wrong,” she said. “Watch yourself, Gabriel.”

  The resignation in her tone sounded like a farewell. Gabe studied her, uncertain what could stop Death from doing anything she pleased. She was not only letting him go when she shouldn’t, but she was telling him just how much time he had to get Katie out of the underworld. Gabriel knew something was wrong if Death was turning her back on the duty of collecting souls, a duty she normally took such joy in. She’d been unwilling to do that for him when their relationship had been at its peak.

  “Send me back,” he said.

  Gabriel snapped awake. It was still dark, and the moons of the underworld hadn’t moved far across the sky. He sat, uneasy with the dream exchange with Death. A small fire burned between him and Katie, whose pale features and shadowed eyes were showing the effects of both her pregnancy and the toll the underworld took on mortals.

  “You need to sleep,” he told her.

  “I was guarding you while you dozed.”

  He snorted.

  “I don’t feel so hot, Gabe.”

  “I know. Just a few more days. Get some rest.”

  “This place is creepy. I don’t think I can sleep with bugs the size of my hand just waiting for me to fall asleep so they can crawl all over me.”

  “If you’re asleep, you won’t feel them,” he said.

  “That’s not the point, Gabe.”

  As much as he respected the tough little human, he found that she was driving him crazy. He’d spent his life relatively alone, crossing between the underworld and human world as needed. Death had been far from co-dependent, and he’d had free rein. Until two days ago, when he crossed into the underworld with Katie slung across his shoulder. He’d forgotten what it was to have someone completely dependent on him. He didn’t feel up to the task, not when failure meant breaking the man he viewed as his brother.

  “I’m never doing this again,” he said.

  “You’ve told me that twice. It’s not like I want to be here, either.”

  “Sleep, Katie,” he said in a kinder voice. “I’m going to scout around for a bit.”

  “Do you think we’ll make it out of here?”

  “I hope you do. I have no faith I will.”

  “I’m sorry for snapping at you about the bugs, Gabe. I’m just exhausted.”

  “I’m normally much more patient.” Gabe looked her over then offered what smile he could muster. “Too much on my mind.”

  “You’re afraid, too,” she said, studying him. “Gabe, if we don’t make it for some reason, I want you to know how much I appreciate everything you’ve done.”

  “I did it for a man I see as my brother.”

  “You keep saying that,” she said and rolled her eyes. “But I think you kinda like me, too.”

  “You’re growing on me,” he allowed. “Much like fungus.”

  Katie chuckled, and he was almost relieved at the sight of her smile. Her features had grown paler and gaunter under his watch. He feared the underworld would sink her spirit, too. One of them had to have some sort of hope they’d make it out alive.

  “Please, Katie, try to get some rest. We’ve barely had any down time since arriving, and you need it,” he said again. “I’ve gotta make sure nothing has found us yet.”

  “You need rest, too, Gabe.”

  “I’ll rest when you’re safe.”

  Another small smile crossed her face, and she sat down. Gabe left her, knowing even if she did sleep, it wouldn’t be long. Death may have ignored their presence in her domain for three days, but something had made her reach out to him now. He knew they’d have problems at some point and only hoped he could get Katie out of the underworld, before his own fate was sealed.

  Rhyn approached the boundaries of his newest prison – the one meant to keep everyone else on the Caribbean Sanctuary safe from the magic he couldn’t control. The ocean’s calming rhythm and flavorful breeze made the beach more bearable. Tents had sprung up two nights before, and the two people who could keep his powers from spinning out of control remained at the center of the beach. He was far enough away from the Sanctuary’s fortress not to cause a threat to those there, so long as the two people buffering him stayed close.

  He raised his head to the sky then held out his arm across what he’d figured out was the boundary of his buffers’ influence. Magic jolted through him like electricity, flinging him onto his back. His power spun through him, but it was nothing compared to what he would feel without the two buffers.

  “Again?” a youth’s voice asked.

  Rhyn lay still and folded his hands beneath his head, staring at the sky. He heard the angel, Toby, drop beside him, the glow of his Nintendo 3DS bright in the night. As one of Rhyn’s buffers, Toby was as trapped on the beach as he was.

  “It’s gotta hurt,” Toby said.

  Nothing hurts anymore, Rhyn thought.

  “Kris wants to assign Hannah as my new mom,” the angel
continued. “I don’t want her as my mom.”

  “Why do you give a shit?” Rhyn asked.

  “I want Katie.”

  Rhyn’s jaw clenched, and he fought the raw feeling inside him, the one that betrayed him every time he tried to convince himself he’d survived worse. For the first time in his life, he’d thought he found his calling: protecting people as defenseless as his mate, Katie. And then, she’d died, and any purpose his life had died with her. Now, he just wanted to die-dead.

  “Auntie Hannah says she’d be my mom for all time, so I wouldn’t have to have any other moms.” The angel sounded troubled. “Rhyn, can I stay with you?”

  “No.”

  “I know, I know, Kris says I’m an angel and angels are supposed to protect humans and you’re anything but human but I still want to stay with you. Please, Rhyn?”

  “No.”

  Toby sighed loudly and turned off the glowing 3DS. Instead of leaving like Rhyn wished he would, the angel lay down beside him.

  “How long are we staying on the beach?” Toby asked.

  “Until Kris figures out how to send me back to Hell,” Rhyn said, suspecting this was what his brother intended to do. He couldn’t be trusted free. As hard as he tried, he had no control over his power without the buffers. Kris and his mate, Hannah – Rhyn’s other buffer – weren’t about to live the rest of Immortality on the beach with him.

  “You could kidnap us both and take us wherever you want to go,” Toby offered. “Then you’d be stable and you could leave the beach.”

  “Right, because I have somewhere to go.”

  “You can go see Death and ask her for Katie back.”

  “It doesn’t work that way for mortals.”

  “If you hadn’t un-bonded her, it’d work.”

  “Look, you little shit, why don’t you –“

  “Gods, Rhyn, don’t talk to him like that,” the eldest surviving brother of the seven brothers, Kris, snapped as he approached. “Did you ask him, Toby?”

  “He said no, like you said,” Toby said, disappointment heavy in his voice.

  Rhyn ground his teeth, fury bubbling within him. He wanted them all gone, so he could spend the remainder of his long life laying here alone, waiting for Death or one of her assassins.