Rhyn's Redemption Page 6

“You don’t see him?” she tried one last time.

  “No.”

  The specter pointed back towards the lake. Katie slowed and watched Gabriel continue onward. She’d liked Andre above any of the Council members, but his insistence that she go in the direction opposite of which she was headed puzzled her. If he was dead-dead, what creature wanted her to go elsewhere and why? If he wasn’t dead-dead, why didn’t he speak to her?

  “Gabe, where do Immortals go when they die?” she asked.

  “Same place as mortals.”

  “Then what’s the difference between mortals and Immortals?”

  “Mortals can be killed by anyone. Immortals can only be killed by other Immortals or demons. It’s part of the Immortal Code.”

  “How many rules are in the Immortal Code?”

  “More than I can count.”

  “Hundreds? Thousands?” she prodded.

  “More.”

  “Then how do you know if you’re breaking them?”

  “Immortals have an eternity to learn the rules,” he pointed out.

  “Do demons have Immortal Codes?”

  “Why do you ask?” he asked and turned suddenly.

  “Just curious.”

  Gabe studied her then allowed a small smile to cross his features. It was a hollow smile, and she wondered if Death was on his mind again.

  “Yes, they do,” he said and turned to begin walking away. “There are ten.”

  “And the Immortals have thousands,” she said. She swiped at a branch that snaked in front of her. “Do demons have to pretend to respect a human’s free will like Immortals do?”

  “No. Mortals are like … candy to demons. Demons don’t need them, but they taste good.”

  Katie almost laughed at the oddity of his words. He didn’t seem to be joking, but she couldn’t see his face to tell one way or another.

  “And some rules are too old even for the Ancients to know,” she repeated his words from earlier.

  “That’s correct.”

  They subsided into silence, and the gravity of her situation hedged in on her again. She liked talking to Gabe. He took her mind off her own issues and the creepy forest. And the phantom keeping pace with them. Katie looked over at Andre again. The phantom seemed content, neither interfering nor trying to communicate with her.

  “So … is it possible for a dead-dead Immortal to come back to life?” she asked.

  Andre shook his head even before Gabriel spoke.

  “Not that I know of,” the assassin said. “Though I guess if Death doesn’t find their soul like she can’t find yours, they can just … linger.”

  “That’d be interesting. But you said she does know where we are.”

  Gabe’s step faltered, and he tripped for the first time since he’d led them into the forest. Katie’s gaze went from Andre to the death-dealer.

  “I wonder what she’s planning,” Gabe said.

  “If she’d tell anyone, it’d be you.”

  “She’d never give me the time of the day. She barely even makes time for Darkyn.”

  “Why would she? Darkyn isn’t a deity, right?”

  “He is not, but he is a warrior worthy of her attention in battle. The Immortals always say, at least they understand Darkyn. No one can predict Death. No one even sees her, unless they die-dead.”

  “It must be a lonely existence for her,” she said, puzzled as to why he’d speak more highly of Darkyn than he had of Death.

  “Loneliness is not something a deity can feel. Only humans and Immortals.”

  “I’m sure she felt something for you, Gabriel. A woman doesn’t take a man to her bed for thousands of years and not feel something for him.”

  “Interesting idea.”

  Katie frowned. In the course of a day, Gabe had gone from emotional to unaffected when discussing Death. He was distracted, and she felt like she was talking to someone completely different. Blaming herself for taking his mind off of their survival, she fell silent and followed him.

  Briars and branches caught her pant legs, and she found herself slowing to push more and more of the jungle’s flora out of the way. Gabe, too, began to struggle with the bramble, and she noticed the jungle no longer laid their path before him. Instead of clearing away to allow them passage, it stayed where it was, obstructing them.

  “Gabe, are you sure this is the right way?” she asked finally, tired of wrestling with branches.

  “I’m more likely to know than you, mortal.” There was frustration in his voice as well, and he was sweating hard ahead of her.

  “Where are we going anyway?”

  “Death’s palace.”

  “Are you serious?” she demanded. “Why? Won’t she – “

  “She has a portal in her palace. It’s the only way out.”

  “But I thought -”

  “It should be this way. Unless Death is fucking with me.”

  Or you’re lost. The familiar voice – Death’s voice – made Katie stop. She watched Gabe hack down another slithering branch. The Andre phantom stood nearby. He pointed in a different direction once more.

  “Maybe it’s that way?” Katie asked, pointing in the same direction.

  Gabe cast an irritated look over his shoulder but looked where she indicated. He lowered the sword he was using to hack through the brush and started in that direction. Katie watched as the forest cleared a path for him, the way it had before.

  “I’m starting to worry about you, Gabe,” she said. “I thought you knew your way around here.”

  “It’s Death,” he said. “She can do whatever she wants in her domain.” He breezed past her.

  Katie drew a deep breath before following. Gabe was more than distracted. Something was wrong, but she had no idea of knowing what. At least he’d told her their destination.

  She followed quietly for the rest of the day. The phantom and the strange exchange with Gabe troubled her. She didn’t know her way around the Immortal underworld; she could only hope they were headed in the right direction again. Straight to Death. If what Gabe said was true, he was taking her to the only way out of the underworld. And yet, she feared what that would mean. Was she supposed to reason with Death? Plead for her life? Sneak into Death’s palace, when Death already knew where they were and where they went?

  Fatigue kept most of the thoughts from gaining traction, and they melted away like much of her dreams did. Gabe stopped at sunset, as darkness settled into the jungle. Katie watched him set up a small fire.

  “Aren’t you going to scout around first like you do every night?” she asked. “Or are we safe?”

  His movements paused then continued. “We’re safe.”

  The Andre phantom stood behind Gabriel, pointing again for her to leave.

  “You’re certain?” she asked.

  “I know the Immortal world better than you, mortal.”

  “You didn’t sense the demons earlier. I had to tell you.”

  Gabriel glanced at her and straightened. He handed her more food and water cubes then motioned for her to seat herself by the fire.

  “You need rest,” he said. “I’ll be back.”

  Katie rolled her eyes at the gummy cubes before popping several into her mouth. The Andre phantom settled on the opposite side of the fire from her, mirroring her cross-legged position.

  “You gonna say anything?” she challenged.

  It didn’t, though it did motion to her belt. She looked down at the knife Gabriel had given her. Uncertain, she offered it to the phantom, who shook its head. He motioned to the knife then looked around them.

  “You think I’m in danger?” she asked.

  It nodded.

  “Andre, are you really dead? Or a ghost?”

  A faint smile, the first sign of human emotion, crossed its face. It pointed to her other hand – the one holding food cubes - then to the trees.

  “Oh, no. Gabe said not to,” she said, frowning.

  “Gabe said not to what?” the death-dealer
asked as he stepped back into the small camp.

  “Nothing.”

  “Who were you talking to?”

  “Andre.”

  The assassin shook his head and crouched near her, warming his hands by the fire.

  “Gabe, how much farther do we have?” she asked again with a sigh.

  “Not far. I saw the palace when I climbed a tree. Maybe a day or so.”

  “I really miss Rhyn right now,” she murmured. “He’d have a way of keeping my mind off of things. I think the demon side of him makes him a better Immortal than people like Kris.”

  “Demons are superior to Immortals,” Gabe agreed. “Maybe the half-breed’s demon blood hasn’t weakened him as much as it could.”

  Katie looked at him, expecting him to be joking. He didn’t seem to be. She finally allowed herself to admit something about the man helping to save her life: He was acting really strange. Katie stretched out by the fire, exhausted. Gabe leaned across her to grab the bag with his weapons’ polishing supplies. A necklace with two emeralds – identical to the one he’d given her to wear – dangled above her.

  “I thought you only had one of those,” she said and pointed to his neck as he straightened.

  He froze again and looked at her hard then shrugged.

  “Whose souls are on that one?” she asked.

  “My family’s.”

  “Interesting. Can I have it?”

  Gabriel gave her a harried look, one that said his patience was at an end. He withdrew a dagger and sliced it free of his neck then tossed it to her. She caught it. He rifled through his bag and prepared a dagger to sharpen.

  “You’re not going to threaten me about losing this one?” she asked after a pause.

  “Don’t lose it,” he said.

  She studied him, not understanding why the necklace with his family’s souls was worth killing her for one day and not a concern the next. The one he’d given her was tucked safely against her skin.

  “I think you should get some sleep,” he added. “We might have to fight our way into the palace tomorrow.”

  Katie almost protested his abrupt dismissal then rolled so her back was to the fire. Something was really off about Gabe. She fingered the gems on the new necklace. Although they were the same shape, they were lighter, like comparing plastic beads to glass ones. The leather-like necklace itself contained the stiffness of something new, rather than the well-worn suppleness of the one around her neck.

  It felt fake. Her sense of danger grew more heightened at the thought that something had happened between the time Gabe originally gave her his necklace and now.

  Ully. She recalled how a demon in Kris’s castle had taken on Ully’s appearance, down to his goofy grin. The guise had been almost perfect, except for Ully’s hands, which had been bony with sharpened nails rather than Ully’s human hands. She was about to roll over and check Gabriel’s hands when she recalled he always wore gloves.

  “Gabe?” she said.

  He sighed in frustration.

  “Do you think my son will have Rhyn’s powers?”

  “He might have some of them. I don’t know what your human blood will do, dilute or enhance his abilities.”

  She squeezed her eyes closed at his response. The real Gabriel had been the one to tell her that the child she carried was a girl.

  “I guess we have to wait and see,” she forced herself to say and added silently, I hope you’re safe, Gabriel, wherever you are.

  Part of her desperately tried to make excuses for Gabe. Maybe he was fatigued or Death had done something to him. She debated what to do. She knew where Gabe was allegedly taking her, but she couldn’t outrun or fight a demon or an assassin or anything else chasing her through the underworld. She’d need help.

  She squinted into the jungle, trying to see Andre again. This time, he wasn’t there.

  Chapter Six

  Rhyn grunted and rolled onto his stomach. The stone floor beneath him was cool but not cool enough to soothe the hot fury of his magic. The effects of whatever Toby had injected into him were almost gone.

  “My plan didn’t exactly work,” Kiki’s tone was frustrated.

  “What happened?” Rhyn squinted towards the sound of his brother’s voice, struggling to balance the sensations within him. Kiki was chained to the wall while Rhyn was sprawled on the floor of the small room.

  “Ully’s dart worked a little too well. You went down like an elephant.”

  “Where are we?”

  “The dungeon.”

  Light filtered in from somewhere, and Rhyn tried to make sense of his surroundings.

  “How long was I out?” he asked.

  Kiki didn’t have a chance to answer before the wooden door to their prison creaked open. Rhyn’s head spun as he was hauled up and dragged into a well-lit hallway. Light and shadows wreaked havoc on his sense of place and time until he hit the cool stone floor again.

  “Still no control,” Darkyn said, his voice seeming to come from everywhere. “At least try, half-breed. You made it to the castle by nightfall. I’d planned for some sort of onslaught, not to find you slung over the shoulder of your brother – the wrong brother, though I guess that’s the most I can expect out of a half-breed.”

  A tingle of alarm went through Rhyn, but his head was too heavy for him to process it. Instead, he focused hard on containing the power within him. When he felt he wouldn’t explode, he looked around. Darkyn had claimed Kris’s library and stood near a pane of windows overlooking the snowy Alps. The morning light was too bright for his eyes, and he turned to face shelves of antique books.

  Toby. The angel needed him. Rhyn focused hard on the demon lord then on putting one foot, then the other, beneath his shaking body. He rose despite his whirling equilibrium.

  “So I made it,” he said. “You have to let Toby go.”

  “I said I’d let him live, not let him go.”

  “Fucking Kiki.” Rhyn grabbed the arm where his brother had shot him. It throbbed still. “What do you want, Darkyn?”

  “I happened to overhear your little talk with Death in the sacred chamber.”

  Rhyn eyed him.

  “I know you spent most of your life in the same place I did, Hell. Which makes me think you don’t know that what she promised you cannot be.”

  “She swore it.”

  “And you trust her?” the demon-lord challenged.

  Rhyn said nothing, aware the creature before him couldn’t be trusted anymore than Death.

  “If Death frees a mortal from the underworld, she violates a code even older than she is. I don’t know what the consequences will be,” Darkyn explained. “But I know her well enough to know she won’t make a deal that breaks bad for her.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “She set you up. She bought herself the time she needed. She won’t need to break the Immortal Codes and return your mate to you, because in the next three days, you’ll be out of her hair.”

  “She’s counting on you to wipe me out,” Rhyn said, his stomach sinking. He’d suspected Death’s promise was made too easily, but it had seemed too clear to be anything but what she’d said. Yet Darkyn’s words made too much sense. Gabe had told Rhyn enough about Death’s double-talk for him to know the deity always seemed to shape things to benefit her.

  “I imagine she has a few options. Kris isn’t your biggest fan, either. You have fewer allies than I, half-breed.”

  “All I want is Katie back,” Rhyn said.

  “Go get her.”

  “As if it’s that easy.”

  “Why isn’t it? You’ve been to Hell. You can go to the underworld. You can find Death and force her to give you what you want,” Darkyn said. “You have the power.”

  “Power I can’t control.”

  “You’re on your feet right now and the walls are still standing.”

  Rhyn glanced around, not noticing his head had cleared and his magic was contained until Darkyn pointed it out. Anger at Death – n
ot power – made his blood boil.

  “You are half-demon. Death can only contain your Immortal powers in her domain, just like I can only contain your demon powers in Hell.”

  “What do you gain by having me go to the underworld?” Rhyn asked, ignoring the bait.

  “How much do you want your mate back?” Darkyn countered. “There’s only one way to do it. You can stay here as my prisoner until Death gets what she wants and one of us kills you. Or, you can find her and make her give you back your mate. Only Death knows where Katie’s soul is. Make a choice.”

  “Obviously, I’ll find my mate.”

  “Good. Then go.”

  “Just like that?” Rhyn asked skeptically.

  “Just like that.”

  “I’m taking Kiki.”

  “I won’t stop you.”

  Rhyn couldn’t help feeling as if Darkyn was playing him as Death had. Yet Darkyn asked for nothing in exchange for freeing him.

  Save Toby. The words were faint but firm in the same tone Katie had taken with him in the dreamland. Rhyn ignored them, instead fixating on how to track Death in the underworld. He stumbled with his first step but was soon running hard through the castle, his mind on finding Death to regain Katie. He found himself outside the door where Kiki was being kept prisoner. For the first time since leaving Darkyn, Rhyn realized no one had tried to stop him yet. No demons stood in front of Kiki’s door and Darkyn hadn’t ordered the castle after him.

  Darkyn was serious about letting them go. Wrenching open the door, Rhyn strode into the chamber. Kiki sprang up from his seat in the corner.

  “Toby’s in Hell. You need to go save him,” Rhyn ordered.

  “I can’t travel to Hell, Rhyn.”

  “I’ll drop you off.”

  “Gods, Rhyn, take a minute to think before you act. What’s gotten into you anyway? We have some time to think about this,” Kiki said, peering at him closely.

  “I’m going to find Death and take Katie back.”

  Kiki started to chuckle and then frowned. “You can’t be serious.”

  “I am.”

  “Let’s talk to Kris. I can’t just go to Hell without a plan, and maybe he can – “

  “No, Kiki. I’m doing this on my own. You want me to drop you off in Hell or not?”