Rhyn's Redemption Page 8

  Chapter Seven

  “Rhyn, what if this is the only time we ever have together?”

  Rhyn shook his head, uncertain how he’d ended up on the dream beach when he’d just walked through the portal from the castle in the Alps to Death’s underworld. He faced his dead mate. Her blue eyes were large, and she looked tired.

  “It won’t be,” he said. “I’m coming to get you.”

  Instead of looking cheered at his words, she looked unconvinced.

  “You’re welcome,” he said, bristling.

  “I’d be happy to see you,” Katie replied. “But, Rhyn, what if you can’t save me? What if this is all we have?”

  “Why do you say that? It can’t be. It won’t be.”

  “Let’s pretend like it is, just for now.”

  “I don’t want to pretend.” He searched her features with his gaze, not understanding her strange insistence that she was really dead. She was troubled. This much he could see, though he couldn’t tell why.

  “Do you ever wonder what would’ve happened, if we’d both been able to live?” she asked.

  “No.”

  “You don’t think about where we’d live or how we’d fit in with the other Immortals?”

  “I don’t like this game,” he said.

  “I don’t think both of us will make it out of the underworld. It makes me think about all the things I wish I’d done before I died. I wanted to backpack through Europe and go on a cruise somewhere warm. I wanted to make love with you on the beach under the full moon. Without worrying about demons or Kris or anything.”

  “Katie.” Rhyn took her hands tentatively, growing more confident when she didn’t disappear. “I will get you out, and you can do those things. We can do those things together. I swear it.”

  “I hope so, Rhyn.” She hugged him hard.

  Rhyn wrapped his arms around her, marveling at how real her body felt in the dream. Her hair tickled his face, and he rested his chin on her head. They held each other for a long moment. His thoughts grew dark as he thought about what it would take to save her. He’d have to risk the wrath of Death.

  “Rhyn, will you promise me something?” she asked, propping her chin on his chest to look up at him. “Will you promise to protect Hannah, Toby and everyone else, even if it means losing me?”

  “No.” His grip tightened instinctively around her.

  “You’re a good man, Rhyn. You’ve done so much to help me and your brothers. You must do this one last thing for me.”

  “It won’t come to that,” he said hoarsely. “I’d destroy everything to get you back.”

  “I know you would, and I’m asking you not to. I’m asking you to protect what’s left of good in the world.”

  Her words fell heavily, as if she knew she was already doomed to her fate in the underworld. Rhyn said nothing for a long moment.

  “I chose to sacrifice my life so that you’d have the chance to do this, Rhyn. Don’t make my choice a bad one,” she told him.

  “It was a bad one,” he said with a snort.

  “Sometimes all we have are shitty choices,” Katie said. “Promise me!”

  “If it’ll shut you up, fine.”

  “Thank you.” She took his hand. They walked towards the beach that had formed his prison for three days in the real world. She faced him. “I want to kiss you one last time, but I’m not ready for you to disappear again.”

  Heat surged through his body, but he hesitated. She really believed this was the last time they’d be together.

  “Is this place even real?” he asked.

  “Does it matter?”

  Rhyn smiled faintly, admiring the woman before him. She was foolishly stubborn and lippy – and he loved that about her. She was the first creature ever to see beyond his half-demon curse. She’d stayed strong in Hell, through confrontations with demons and Immortals alike, through his own failures. She hadn’t just survived; she’d found some part of him to believe in.

  The idea of caring for her overwhelmed him again. He’d never had a reason to try to control his power or to focus on anything other than surviving. That a simple little mortal could show him just how little his Immortal and demon powers really meant humbled him. If he found his way, it would be because of her.

  Her distress and sorrow were, buried but he still saw them. She was trying to be brave, asking him for one last moment of comfort before what she thought was the end. He owed her that, and so much more.

  “No, it doesn’t,” he said softly. He reached out to her. His hands trailed down her soft cheek and tangled in her wayward curls. With his index finger, he drew a line from her chin, down her neck, between her breasts and rested his hand on her belly, where the hatchling grew.

  A different kind of sorrow filled him, one he recognized as regret. If he failed, he’d never see the little girl Katie carried. Their hatchling would be as stubborn as her mother, and he could almost imagine huge eyes as blue and clear as Katie’s peering out at him from a sweet, curly-headed demon child’s face. He wished he’d told Katie how terrified – but thrilled – he’d been when she told him about the hatchling. He wished he knew one fucking thing about raising a child or being a mate. Every one of his brothers could’ve managed these things, but his nature left him better apt at destroying than nurturing.

  At least he could kill anything that came near his mate and child, if he had the chance. He’d been reluctant to accept any role with the Immortals, fearing his own broken nature was too weak.

  “I’m sorry, Katie,” he said.

  “You have nothing to be sorry about.”

  “I didn’t protect you. You shouldn’t have had to make the choice you did.”

  She took his hand, squeezed it and then wrapped her arms around him. “I don’t regret it, Rhyn. You’ve had the deck stacked against you. The least I could do was give you a second chance.”

  “You’re the only one who would.”

  “The Immortals need you. They’re too fucking stupid to know it, but Kris can’t manage Hannah let alone the Council,” she added. “You have so much to give, Rhyn. You just have to believe you can.”

  “I’d trade everything for you.”

  “But you won’t, because you promised me,” she reminded him. “Besides, you have to show up Kris and the rest of them.” A peaceful quiet settled over them until she spoke again. “Do you like the name Hazel?”

  He shrugged.

  “If we would’ve lived through this, I’d name our baby Hazel.”

  “When we get through this,” he corrected her.

  “If we get through this, we get to spend our lives together. I don’t know anything about you, Rhyn,” Katie said. “What the hell happened to you to make you as you are?”

  “I’ve always been broken.”

  “I don’t mean broken. I mean, how are you not a traitor like Sasha or a cold jerk like Kris? How did you spend so long in Hell and still try to follow parts of the Code? How did you and Gabriel become friends?”

  “Gabriel is more of a brother to me than my own brothers. I don’t know why I am the way I am. I don’t even know much of the Immortal Code, just the few key parts Andre used to lecture me about. Loyalty to my brothers, my mate, the Immortals, humanity. Respect for Death and her domain. Other variations of those.”

  “Then start from the beginning. Tell me your story.”

  Rhyn hesitated, unable to shake the disturbing sense that Katie’s interest came from her resolve that this was the last time they’d see each other.

  “I was born, wandered the Immortal world for the first few years. I met Gabe, and he took me to Andre, who raised me for a few years, before my brothers decided I was better off in Hell,” he summarized. “That’s it.”

  “There’s more to you than that.”

  “If you say so.”

  “Gabe has been your guardian angel,” she added. “I’m happy he found you.”

  “Me, too.”

  “I think he’s in trouble, Rhyn.
”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Something’s not right. I guess he can take better care of himself than Toby,” she said. “Have you found Toby yet?”

  “I have an idea where he is.”

  “You have to protect him, Rhyn. He’s too young to get himself out of things.”

  Rhyn glanced from the rolling teal waves to his mate. Her words about Gabe were troubling, and he couldn’t determine if she was purposely vague or really didn’t know. Her pretty face was puzzled, and he frowned. She was beyond tired. Whatever was happening to her in the underworld, it wasn’t good. Anger filled him. As much as he wanted to stay in the dream world in case it really was the last time he saw her, he couldn’t help her while stuck in the dream.

  He closed his eyes, trying to wake himself up. He was losing time to find her. When he opened his eyes, he was still on the beach.

  “I gotta get outta here,” he said.

  “Why?” she asked.

  “I have to find you.”

  “I’m right here.”

  “No, the real you. I have to find you before it’s too late,” he said impatiently.

  “What if – “

  “We have forever to talk things out,” he said. “But I don’t have forever to find you.” Rhyn trotted away from the beach as he spoke. Katie scrambled after him.

  “Rhyn, wait!”

  “Katie, I can’t. I’m running out of time.”

  “Be careful, Rhyn.” Her soft, forlorn words sounded like a farewell.

  “This is killing me,” he muttered. He strode to her, wrapped his arms around her, and kissed her. She yielded more easily in the dream than she ever had in real life. Her soft, warm lips welcomed him hungrily, and he lost himself in her sweet musk, warm skin and honeyed taste. He didn’t want to leave; he wanted to spend the rest of his life making love to her on the beach. He wanted to feel his skin pressed against hers and for her to run her fingers through his hair before scraping her nails down his back. He wanted to take her every way he could imagine, until they lay spent and panting on the beach, until nothing but their entwined bodies and souls remained of their world.

  If he stayed, he’d lose her forever.

  Struggling against the demands of his roaring blood, Rhyn closed his eyes, sought his magic and willed himself awake.

  The phantom Andre was squatting beside her when Katie awoke. She jerked, surprised at how close he was. He was real enough for her to feel his body heat, even if he was invisible to everyone but her and moved without a sound. The fact that Gabe was sleeping a short distance away didn’t seem to faze the ghost. Instead, it pointed to something it had written in the dirt beside her.

  Demon.

  Katie pushed herself up. She raised an eyebrow at the word. Andre pointed to the death-dealer.

  “You think Gabriel is a demon?” Katie whispered.

  Andre nodded. She frowned.

  “Or are you a demon?” she challenged.

  The specter shook its head and rose, moving away without disturbing the flora on the jungle floor.

  “Because I should trust a creepy ghost that looks like someone I once knew over the Immortal who rescued me from Death.”

  Gabriel snapped awake at her words. Andre didn’t bother to disappear, as if no longer worried the Immortal might see him. The death-dealer looked lost for a moment then rose and strapped on his weapons. Katie ate her food and water cubes, waiting for Gabriel. She fingered the second necklace he’d given her, not convinced Andre was wrong. The beads felt like plastic, and something about Gabe had changed.

  This Gabriel really did look like the Gabriel she knew. She looked hard at his hands before he pulled on his black gloves. The shapeshifter demon that took on Ully’s form hadn’t fully been able to disguise its arms and hands.

  Gabriel’s hands looked like they were his.

  “Gabe, what happens in three days?” she asked.

  “We’ll find out when the time comes.”

  “What happens if I feed the trees?”

  “Come again?”

  “Can I feed them?”

  “I don’t give a shit.” He turned his back to her to start walking, and she was grateful he didn’t see her reaction.

  Andre took up his position flanking her, and she shot him a look. She couldn’t imagine why a demon would want to pose as Gabriel – and insist on guiding her through the underworld. Her limited experience with demons was that they all wanted to kill her or drag her to Hell or to Darkyn. This one had taken over Gabriel’s mission.

  Then again, she didn’t know what Gabe’s destination had been. Katie looked behind her, wondering what she was missing. Her eyes went to the slithering tree branches overhead. She couldn’t survive on her own in the underworld. That much had been made clear to her by Gabe. And escaping a demon on her own didn’t seem like a smart option.

  She counted the food and water cubes she had remaining. A few of each remained, long enough to get her through the day, but not long enough for more than one day.

  “Gabe, I need more of these,” she called, holding up a food cube.

  The death-dealer faced her then pulled a satchel over his head. He handed it to her. She took it and opened it. There were two small pouches of cubes and nothing else.

  “C’mon,” Gabriel said and started off into the jungle.

  Katie followed, her eyes on Andre. The phantom motioned for her to follow him instead and waved her towards the direction she recognized as leading back to the lake. She slowed her step and pointed at Gabriel with a questioning look.

  Andre’s eyes fell to her body. Katie pointed to the dagger, and Andre shook his head. She indicated the satchel next. He nodded. She frowned and pulled out the contents: food and water cubes, holding them up for him. The phantom pointed to the pouch with the food cubes.

  Don’t feed the trees, Gabriel had told her when they set out.

  Katie dumped a few of the cubes into her hand with another look at Andre. She drew a deep breath and tossed the cubes after Gabriel. She stopped walking as the cubes hit the ground behind him.

  Nothing happened.

  She sighed, wondering why she was paying attention to a dead-dead Immortal in the first place. Maybe Gabriel was right. Maybe the underworld was having some effect on her. She’d been fatigued since arriving, but she’d explained it away with the fact she’d had little sleep and an unexpected pregnancy.

  She reached the place where the food cubes had landed, bending to pick them up in case she needed them later. The cubes were gone. Swiping at lively bushes, she inched forward, searching for the cubes.

  The ground beneath her rumbled suddenly, and she straightened, balancing herself against a tree. Gabriel stopped ahead of her and Andre motioned her quickly away from the spot.

  “What is that?” she asked as the tremors grew stronger.

  “I don’t know. I don’t sense any magic,” the death-dealer said with a frown. “Do you?”

  “No. Nothing.”

  Andre’s motioning grew frantic, and Katie looked down. A small crack had begun to form where the food cubes fell. The crack grew fast, flying down the trail towards Gabriel. The sound of the earth tearing grew louder. The trees on either side of her expanded, quickly doubling and then quadrupling in size. Afraid of being crushed between them, Katie darted off the trail towards Andre, who ran ahead of her. She heard Gabriel shout something that was lost in the roar of the ground splitting apart.

  Andre ran hard for a creature that was already dead. Katie chased him, terrified of looking back when the awful sounds seemed so close. Only when the ground stopped trembling did Andre stop. Katie doubled over, breathless.

  “What the … hell just … happened?” she gasped and turned.

  The two trees whose girth had been small enough for her wrap her arms around had expanded in width and height, reaching towards the gray sky of the underworld. Katie craned her neck, unable to see the tops of the trees. Their trunks had grown outward from the trail un
til they were as wide as a football field. Their massive roots ruptured the ground that had been the trail, creating a ravine she could see even from their safe distance.

  “Don’t feed the trees.” She repeated Gabriel’s warning, stunned. She shuddered and glanced at the phantom. “Where is he?”

  Andre shrugged. Katie heard nothing outside of the rasping trees. Gabriel was gone. Andre motioned her to follow him, and she drew a few more heavy breaths before following.

  “We’re going towards the lake,” she said.

  He nodded.

  “Are you getting us out of here?”

  He shrugged again.

  “Do you have a plan?”

  Andre shook his head.

  “Wait, so I just ditched my guide to follow you and you don’t know where you’re going?” Katie demanded. “Was that supposed to be a rescue?”

  The phantom ignored her and continued to walk.

  “Rhyn’s rescues look like well-planned military campaigns compared to this,” she muttered. Her thoughts went to him and her latest dream. He claimed to be coming for her. She didn’t think she’d ever leave the underworld, especially now that she didn’t have Gabriel.

  Katie looked over her shoulder again towards the massive trees. She didn’t know what happened with Gabriel, but she hoped he was safe, wherever he was. Her fate, she was certain, was sealed.

  Chapter Eight

  Rhyn awoke from the island dreamscape in the shadow world. He rose, uncertain what happened but recalling his urgency. He crossed through the glowing black portal into the one place he’d hoped never to see again: Hell. Unwilling to get stuck in the cell where he’d spent many lifetimes, he chose to open the portal into the office of the Council’s betrayer, Sasha. The office was as he remembered it, down to the black flames in the hearth.

  His half-demon blood would render him cloaked among the demons, as it had in the castle. Rhyn shuddered, recalling just how bad Hell could be.

  The room even smelled like Sasha. Rhyn cursed his dead half-brother silently and left, traveling the black stone halls of the fortress in Hell where he’d spent most of his life. He reached the door before the block of cells where Sasha had collected his favorite creatures in Hell to create his own twisted, private zoo. They’d referred to the sick Immortal as the zookeeper, a creature as deserving of a cell as any.