Rhyn's Redemption Read online

  “Up, above the tree line,” Toby said, stretching towards the next one.

  The branch obliged him and passed him upwards to another, which stretched him as far up as it could reach. Then dropped him. Toby yelped as he fell. Another branch caught him and lifted him upwards again.

  Finally, he broke through the thatch of branches and leaves blocking most of the sun. The day was darkening. In the distance, he saw the massive fortress that was Death’s, and he saw the Lake of Souls he’d seen in angel memories. He saw birds but couldn’t see through the jungle to where Katie might be. The branch holding him swayed in a heavy wind that smelled of rain. Toby clutched it and twisted in the branch’s grip, until he could see the dark storm clouds moving slowly across the sky.

  “Toby?” Ully sounded disoriented.

  “Down, tree,” Toby ordered.

  The tree dropped, caught, and dropped him again, catching him half a second before he hit the ground. He landed on his back at Ully’s feet. The scientist knelt beside him, one hand on his head.

  “Not sure I like this place,” Ully said.

  “It’s not bad. You ok?”

  “I think so.”

  “I’m not sure why the trees attached you.” Toby stood and dusted himself off then hauled Ully up by his arm.

  “Bad luck maybe.”

  “I’m searching the angel memories to see why. Maybe they don’t like Immortals. In a couple of years, I won’t have so many problems searching the memories. It’ll be instantaneous, like that!” he said and snapped his fingers.

  Ully flinched. “Don’t worry about it, Toby.”

  “No, I need to know why. It might mean Mama is in more danger than I thought.”

  “Really, it’s fine Toby.”

  “Though I think if trees didn’t like humans, Mama would be dead, and if they didn’t like Immortals, Gabe couldn’t stay here either,” Toby reasoned. “That leaves demons. Maybe trees don’t like demons.”

  “What’re you saying?”

  Toby grinned. “Maybe you’re so ugly, they thought you were a demon!”

  “That’s not funny, Toby.” Ully’s face was graver than Toby had seen it, and his wiry body was tense.

  “Just joking, Ully.”

  “Let’s walk.”

  Toby shook his head and started forward again, wondering when Ully had lost his sense of humor. He led them in the direction where he sensed Katie, until night and clouds rendered the jungle too dark. Ully stopped when the first drops of rain fell, and Toby retreated as the Immortal seated himself on a fallen tree.

  “It’s just rain, Ully. I know where we’re going,” Toby said. “I don’t think we should stop.”

  “I’m so fucking hungry, I could eat an angel,” Ully snapped.

  Toby looked him over again. Ully was frowning. Even in Hell, the scientist had maintained his cheerful visage. Toby sat near him, at the base of a tree whose branches moved closer to cover him from rain. The trees left Ully in the rain.

  Toby leaned back, wishing he knew how to start a fire like Rhyn. He closed his eyes to search the angel memories for information about the underworldly trees. Uneasily, he found the memories he sought. They confirmed what he’d already figured out: trees didn’t like demons.

  Ully cursed as he moved to seek cover from the downpour. Safe beneath his jungle roof, Toby watched him. The brave, cheerful Ully that sat with him in Hell seemed lost in the underworld, and Toby began to suspect there was another reason their jailer, Jared, had freed them.

  Unable to sleep without knowing the truth, Toby huddled beneath the jungle leaves and stretched his senses until he found Katie. He couldn’t put her in more danger, if there was something wrong with Ully. She was close enough for him to find when he needed to. If he kept some distance between him and Katie, he could figure out what was wrong with Ully without endangering her more.

  Chapter Ten

  Andre continued without any sign of slowing, until Katie stopped. Her head spun and she felt sick again. She was too tired to continue. The phantom appeared before her, pointing. She shook her head and slumped against a tree.

  “You may have endless energy as a dead man, but I don’t,” she told him. “I need a break, Andre.”

  The phantom shook his head in silent objection. Katie ignored him and cradled her forehead in her hands. She ate another food cube and sighed. When she looked up, Andre was gone. Since they’d left the demon-Gabriel, Andre had disappeared twice before, but not for long. She rested her head against the tree behind her and waited.

  The moons appeared through the branches in the jungle, almost alone in the dark sky except for a wisp of clouds floating beneath them. She watched the clouds pass. More came, quickly blocking the moons and stealing most of the light from the jungle. Katie sat up and blinked until her eyes adjusted to the new level of darkness. The sky took on an eerie silver glow, like it did in Maryland the night before a hard snow.

  Andre didn’t return. Katie waited longer, until the chill of the night dried the sweat that’d covered her since they began running earlier.

  “Andre?” she whispered into the darkness.

  He didn’t appear. Unease filled her, and she wondered if the phantom would leave her there alone, even knowing she was helpless without it. Katie ate a water cube and rose, starting off in the direction Andre had been headed. She walked for half an hour, until rain began to trickle through the jungle overhead. Andre didn’t reappear.

  He’d left her there. She cursed herself for insisting on resting and paused, looking up at the cloudy sky visible through the overhead canopy.

  The rain was cold, and she was alone without as much as a jacket. Katie shivered and tried to quell the panic within her. She wore the same clothes she’d been wearing several days ago, when she walked into the ocean. Before that, she didn’t think it was possible for her life to get worse. Then she’s come here.

  Pain streaked through her, the kind of pain with no physical source. Katie began to cry, unable to see an end to her ordeal that would mean she – or her baby – lived. She hugged her stomach and sobbed for the loss of Rhyn, her own life, their child’s.

  Life isn’t supposed to hurt this much, she thought and sank to the ground. Her thoughts went to Rhyn then Hannah then the past few weeks as she sought to figure out where she’d gone wrong. She was alone and soon, she and her baby would be dead.

  A strange sound pierced her sorrow. She ignored it, not wanting to exert the effort needed to leave the dark place where she’d fallen.

  The sound came again, the cry of someone who was hurt. Katie wiped her eyes. She was drenched with rain and curled against the large root of a tree. The birds of the jungle made screaming sounds, but this was different. This was human.

  “Hello?” she said. “Is someone there?”

  “Please help me!” came the faint response.

  Katie started in the direction of the woman’s voice. She stumbled over fallen, slick wood and brambles she couldn’t see. Whatever magic that had cleared a path for her was gone. She struggled through the jungle before calling out,

  “Can you hear me? I can’t see much. You’ll have to say something, so I can find you.”

  “I’m here. You sound close.”

  Katie angled herself towards the voice once again. The woman was close. She continued and then stopped suddenly, nearly tripping over the small form in her path. She looked at the woman closely in the limited light to make sure it wasn’t a demon or some other kind of underworldly creature out to eat her. The woman looked human enough. Her features were hard to make out in the dark, but she at least had two arms and two legs.

  “What’s wrong?” Katie asked and knelt beside her as much out of exhaustion as curiosity.

  “I tripped in the rain. I think my foot is stuck in a root.”

  “Are you from here?”

  “I don’t think so. I’m from Maine.”

  Katie hesitated before shuffling forward on her knees. She carefully touched the wo
man’s leg then patted it as she followed it down to the thick roots wrapped around her ankles. Unable to see exactly how she was stuck, Katie used her cold fingers to fumble around the root and the woman’s sneakers.

  “It’s really jammed in there,” she said at last.

  “I slipped. Couldn’t see anything in this rain,” the woman said. “I think I could cut it away. I’ve tried taking off my shoe and maneuvering my foot every which way.”

  “I can try to saw through it,” Katie said and pulled out the knife Gabriel had given her. She paused. “Can I ask you something first?”

  “Sure.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m not sure. I was at home when someone broke in. I heard someone screaming then something hot went straight through me. Everything went black, and I woke up here,” the woman explained.

  “So you died.”

  Silence.

  “Sorry. I mean, it sounds like you died,” Katie said quickly. “But what do I know? It’s my first time here, too. What’s your name?”

  “Deidre.”

  “I’m Katie. If I go through your shoe or something, just yell,” she said and began sawing at the root.

  “You think we’re dead,” Deidre said in a quiet voice.

  “If we aren’t, we will be soon. I don’t think I’ll make it out of here.”

  “Me neither, I guess. I don’t know how. Didn’t know dying was like this.”

  Katie’s throat tightened, and the knife slipped. She drew a shaky breath and glanced around for Andre again. The damned phantom had lured her away from Gabriel and left her to her fate. She was a fool.

  Anger filled her, and she began to saw in earnest, unwilling to let another innocent person die in the darkness of the underworld.

  “Maybe we can find a way out,” she said. “I know I want to go home. I must make it home.”

  “I have no family living. I have nothing to go home to,” Deidre said. “Do you?”

  “Sorta,” Katie replied. “It’s a long story. I have a mate waiting for me, if he hasn’t gone off and killed himself.” Her knife slipped again, this time slicing her hand. “Dammit!”

  “We need more light,” Deidre said.

  “Maybe the storm will clear up.”

  Deidre shifted with a grunt. Katie sat back on her haunches, not sure what to do when she couldn’t see what she was trying to cut. Deidre was shaking as hard as Katie was, and Katie crept closer for body heat.

  “I’ll stay with you until we can see well enough to cut you free,” she said.

  “If you were going somewhere, you can go. I might be dead anyway,” Deidre said with a sigh.

  Something within Katie snapped at the despair in Deidre’s voice. It was the type of helpless self-pity she’d felt since entering the Immortal’s world. Katie glared at the jungle around them.

  “No. I’m staying here. We’ll cut you free. I’m sick of this shit.”

  “Pardon?”

  “I’m done playing the victim here. I’ve lost everything because I listened to stupid Immortals who thought they knew more than me,” Katie nearly shouted in frustration. “If Death wants me, she can come get me, but I’m not leaving you here to deal with what I’ve dealt with the past few weeks!”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “By morning, we’ll probably be surrounded by shapeshifting demons and assassins out to get us. I’m tired of playing this game. I’m not going to be helpless anymore.” Katie stood and threw her head back. “Fuck you, Death! I’m not afraid of you like everyone else is! I bet you get off on fucking with us little people, don’t you?” Her head felt ready to explode with anger, and adrenaline warmed her from the inside out.

  Deidre was quiet for a moment. Then she chuckled. “Rough turn, eh?”

  “I don’t know what’s worse: running from the one thing that should help us or facing the guy I know wants to do bad things to us,” Katie snapped. “You can’t trust the good guys, because they’ll use you for science experiments, and the bad guys put you in Hell.”

  “I guess we just have to do the best we can,” Deidre said.

  “There’s a difference between free will and having the deck stacked against you. Humans need someone to protect them from these reckless Immortals, not to mention the demons.”

  “Sounds like a lot of responsibility.”

  “Rhyn could do it. He’s my … I guess was my mate,” Katie said, melancholy descending over her with the rain. “All he needed was someone to believe in him and make him realize he was worth saving. And, well, probably Gabe and a few allies, instead of the assholes he’s surrounded by.”

  “If he can’t deal with that kind of adversity, how could he deal with something greater, like protecting us little humans?” Deidre asked.

  Katie glanced towards her, surprised by the question from someone who barely seemed able to cope with the fact she was probably dead.

  “He never had a reason to try,” she replied.

  “And he does now?”

  “Yes,” Katie said. “He does.”

  “Sounds complicated.”

  “Sometimes all we have are bad choices, and we still have to choose,” Katie whispered. “Sorry for going off. I’m frustrated.”

  “I got that from the rant,” Deidre said with a tinkling chuckle.

  “Enough about me,” Katie said. She sat heavily, inching towards the other woman for warmth. “We’ve got some time before morning. What’s your story?”

  “There’s not much to me,” Deidre said. “I was born and raised in the same place. I lived a sheltered life. Never left. That’s about it.”

  “There’s more to you than that. There’s more to everyone than where they grew up,” Katie urged.

  Deidre hesitated. “I don’t remember my parents. Sometimes I don’t think I ever had any. No siblings, no friends. I was … different. Always different. Scared most people away. Probably a good thing, because I’ve always had a rather ornery streak.”

  “You sound like Rhyn.”

  “Your mate?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Hmmm. Anyway, I took over the this huge corporation at a young age. I kept too busy to get out much. Not that I had much of a role. I just did the crappy job while watching everyone else make mistakes. When you inherit a job like that, you don’t have as much say in the way things go as you’d like,” Deidre said with some distaste. “You see, I’m a dull person.”

  “You don’t sound dull,” Katie replied, suspecting Deidre was the daughter of some billionaire with a corporation spanning the world. “You sound … wanting. You never wondered what other people did, since you were always working?”

  “Sometimes.”

  “Never wanted to try to make friends or anything?”

  “Never cared for people too much. I was happy alone,” Deidre said.

  “Assume this is the last day of your life, since it might really be for both of us. What one thing would you have done if you knew it was your last day?” Katie asked. She settled next to the trapped woman, trying hard to keep her mind off how cold she was. She was grateful for company, even if Deidre seemed as lost as she was.

  “I would’ve told him I loved him.”

  “So there was someone!”

  “Long ago, yes. I drove him away. We were from … different sides of the tracks. I had everything, he had nothing,” Deidre said. “I wouldn’t give it all up, and he wanted no part of the soulless corporation I manage. I made him leave me.”

  “Sounds rough,” Katie said. Deidre sounded accepting of her decision, but Katie couldn’t help wondering how long it had taken her to come to peace with sacrificing love for the demands of her job.

  “What about you? What would you have done if you knew it was the last day?”

  “Exactly what I did,” Katie said. “Though in hindsight, it doesn’t seem like anything is really ever enough. I could’ve said so much more than I did or maybe, just did something in addition
.”

  “At least you have the peace of knowing you did something.”

  “Yeah, I do. And no regrets about what I did, though the few days I’ve spent here make me wonder if there was an easier way.”

  “If we knew all of life’s secrets, we might be bored,” Deidre said. “Since I’m here, I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t take a chance on him.”

  “Everyone should find that person that makes them feel alive and have a chance with him,” Katie said and rested her head against a wet branch. “I wish I’d been more willing to take that chance, too. Might’ve had more time with him before ending up here.”

  “He deserved better than me.”

  “Everyone deserves a chance at happiness, Deidre. Even rich girls running empires.”

  Deidre said nothing. Rain fell steadily, until Katie’s skin was too numbed to feel it. She heard Deidre’s breathing grow deeper as the woman fell asleep. Aware there could be demons or other creatures in the dark, Katie roused herself to keep watch, as Gabriel had kept watch over her.

  Her thoughts returned to Rhyn, and she recalled how he’d fought the last day they’d been on the Sanctuary. She’d never seen anything like it, a combination of power, agility and fire. He’d been willing to kill his only friend on her behalf, and the memory was both gratifying and sorrowful. He’d done it for her. He’d do it for others. It was who he was, if he gave himself the chance to realize it. The man who spent lifetimes in Hell out of a sense of family loyalty would be just as loyal to any he was charged to protect.

  The night was long and cold. Deidre slept, and Katie drifted between a fitful doze and her thoughts. Dawn crept across the jungle, peering first from the tangled branches overhead then inching through the trees. As soon as she could see well enough, Katie crawled to Deidre’s feet. The woman continued to sleep, and Katie looked her over. She looked like any other college student in cargo pants and a light sweater. Deidre’s long, flaxen hair was in a messy braid, and her skin was pale.