Darkness Splintered (DA 6) (36 page)

“I’m sorry,” I whispered eventually. “I tried.”

“I know.” He brushed a stray strand of hair away from my cheek, his touch so warm against my skin. “The blame for this lies not just with you, but all of us who seek the key.”

I sniffed. “The rest of you weren’t at hell’s gate. I
was
.”

“Yes, but the path that led to that place is where the blame can be placed.” His voice was grim. “That road is scattered not just with
our
failure, but the failure of the Raziq to guard the place they desecrated with their conceited slaughter of the priests, and by the failure of your father to fully tell us what his chrání was capable of. And it also lies with those of us forced to take over guard duties and yet who still do not understand all the magic of that place.”

“Was it magic that prevented the Mijai at the gate from interfering?”

“Yes. He was not aware that anything was amiss until the gate opened.”

“But he sensed my presence?”

“Yes, and thought nothing of it because you wore the marks of my tribe and my energy resonated within you. But he had no sense that anything was wrong. Not until I was able to slaughter the sorceress’s Dušan and get into the temple grounds. By then, it was all too late.”

Because I’d failed to do what I’d gone there to do. He could dance around it all he liked, but that was one fact we were never going to escape.

“Will the pits hold her?”

“It would depend on how much knowledge the Aedh passed on to her.”

I shifted so I could look into his eyes. “Meaning what?”

“Meaning the priests have always been able to enter either gate at will. As the Aedh was your father’s chrání, he will have gained some – if not all – of that knowledge.”

“You should have ignored my wishes and killed that bastard when you had the chance,” I muttered. I scrubbed a hand across my eyes, smearing the remaining tears. “So what the
hell
do we do now?”

“Now,” an ominous, all too familiar voice said, “your friend dies.”

I scrambled to my feet, Amaya suddenly in my hands and screaming her fury. Valdis joined in the noise as Azriel rose beside me.

My father’s energy filled the room. How he’d gotten so close without us noticing I had no idea, because technically, he shouldn’t have been able to get
into
this place. Ilianna’s wards were still active, and they should have prevented
any
Aedh other than the now dead Lucian from getting in.

Of course, my father had created those wards, even if Ilianna had rerouted the magic within them. And it would be just like my parent to have created a back door within the original magic for such an eventuality as this.

“One move, Hieu,” Azriel said, voice soft and yet filled with death, “and it will be the last move you ever make.”

Amusement spun around us, thick and sharp. “Save your meaningless threats, Mijai. I have no intention of harming anyone here. Elsewhere, however, it is a different matter entirely.”

My eyes widened. “Don’t you dare touch Mirri —”

“Touch? I assure you I have no intention of
ever
touching another human, even if I
had
the capacity and the form to do so.”

“Then why threaten —”

“Oh, I do not
just
threaten,” he murmured. “I do. And your friend is not human as the word is defined in this world. And she is, unfortunately, no longer a part of this world.”

Someone screamed a denial. I wasn’t sure if it was me or Amaya or both of us. Suddenly she was no longer in my hand, but aiming toward the wash of heat and power that was my father’s presence in this room. Only she did so silently, and in full shadow. She was an unseen and unheard arrow of revenge.

Azriel gripped my arm, as if to hold me in place. He was speaking, I knew he was speaking, but I couldn’t hear the words, neither aloud nor in my mind. All I could see, all I could hear, all I wanted, was death.

And that’s exactly what I got.

Amaya sliced deep into the heart of the energy that was my father. For a moment, nothing happened. There was no immediate response from my father, and no reaction from Amaya.

Then her chuckle filled the silence.

There was nothing nice about that chuckle. Nothing nice at all.

Azriel swore, but the words were distant, meaningless. My mind was still with Amaya, with the destruction she was about to wreak.

He spun, wrapped his arms around me, and transported us out of there. We’d barely reappeared in the street when the entire warehouse – and everything Ilianna, Tao, and I owned – exploded into a million different pieces.

And deep within the heart of that explosion, my sword consumed the energy that was my father, sucking him dry until there was nothing but dust and memory left.

And those remnants she burned.

My father was dead. Gone.

I had my revenge, but I felt no better for it. I just felt… empty.

As empty as Ilianna’s life would be without Mirri…

Oh god,
Mirri
.

I didn’t think, I just reacted. In an instant I was in Aedh form and streaking across the city. The fierce energy that was the Brindle’s protective field reared up in front of me but just as abruptly gave way. I raced unimpeded through the shadowed halls, not changing shape until I neared the chamber where Ilianna, Kiandra, and Zaira had been attempting to free Mirri from my father’s noose. I hit the doors at a run, and with enough force to slam them back against the walls. The crash reverberated through the silent halls and, in the room, three figures spun.

Three, not four.

A sob tore at my throat. I stumbled, tried to catch my balance, and failed. I hit the stone floor hard enough to shred my jeans and skin my knees, but I didn’t care.

My gaze met Ilianna’s. There was nothing there. No anger, no grief. No pain. Nothing other than surprise.

I swallowed hard, and somehow managed to say, “Mirri? Is she —?”

Zaira said, “What the hell —” about the same time as Azriel appeared behind me and said, “Risa, there is no need —”

“Ilianna!” I cut them both off, my voice rising to a near shout as I added, “Is Mirri
okay
?”

She didn’t answer, just stepped to one side. And there, sitting on the floor, looking shocked and a little worse for wear, was Mirri.

She waved a hand as my gaze met hers, but didn’t actually speak. Though there was no sign of the energy collar around her neck, her throat was red-raw and decidedly painful-looking.

But she was alive, even if hurt, and the relief that swept through me was so great that if I hadn’t already been on my knees, I soon would have been. I closed my eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath. At least one thing had gone right. It might not have been the most important thing – at least in terms of what was at stake for both this world and the other – but on a personal level, this was the
only
thing that really mattered. I’d done a lot of things wrong, but at least I hadn’t killed Ilianna’s heart.

Ilianna walked over, knelt in front of me, and wrapped her arms around me. She didn’t say anything, and neither did I. Not for the longest time.

“Tell me,” she said eventually.

I drew in a deep, shuddering breath and pulled away from her embrace. “My father said he’d killed her. I had no reason to believe he lied but —”

“You came here to check anyway.” Ilianna smiled, but there was a fierce light in her eyes. “We didn’t break the collar, but we did beat the bastard at his own game.”

I frowned. “Meaning what?”

“It was you who gave us the idea, actually.” She rose, dusted off her knees, then offered me a hand.

I accepted it, and climbed wearily to my feet. Azriel touched my elbow, not holding me up, but there in case I needed him.

“Or rather,” Ilianna continued, “our discussion about creating personal wards and using the wearer’s life force or aura to power the devices.”

“I’m not seeing the connection.”

Ilianna smiled. “Neither did we, not at first. But once we realized the cord hadn’t tapped into Mirri’s aural shield, it was then a matter of where else could it be getting its energy from.”

“The source was its creator,” Azriel commented.

Ilianna glanced past me and nodded. “Yes. And as Risa had pointed out, I’d learned enough of the magic to subvert her father’s wards to our own use, so it was simply a matter of unpicking the appropriate threads in the collar and rerouting those.”

She made it all sound so easy when it was obvious from the haggard appearance and tired stance of all three women that it had been anything but.

“So when my father tried to kill her —”

“The energy rebounded back to him.”

“Which would explain the fierceness of the explosion,” Azriel commented. “It wasn’t just Amaya.”

“Explosion? What explosion?” Ilianna said.

“The explosion that killed my father and destroyed our home.”

“If losing our home is the price we have to pay to rid the world of that bastard, then good riddance, warehouse.” Her voice was grim. “And the key?”

My gaze went to Kiandra. Even though her expression gave little away, I had no doubt she knew what had happened.

“The key is lost,” she said, immediately confirming my thoughts. “The second gate is open.”

“Yes.”

“Oh,
fuck
,” Ilianna said.

“Yeah,” I said. “That, and a whole lot more.”

“The sorceress?” Kiandra asked.

“Gone.” I hesitated. “Maybe.”

She nodded, her expression stoic. But I had a strange feeling that nothing I’d said had surprised her. That the loss of the second key and the opening of its gate were events she’d long known would happen.

“There is still hope left,” she said softly. “At least there is as long as you and the last key remain in play.”

“If the safety of the world depends on my actions,” I said bitterly, “then heaven help the fucking world.”

She blinked; then her gaze refocused. I suddenly realized she’d been seeing into the future.

“To use a worn-out cliché, the fate of the world hangs in the balance. You must not give up, Risa, no matter what it costs or however much you might want to.”

I wouldn’t.

I couldn’t.

Hell on Earth might be one step closer, but there was no way I was about to bring
my
child into a world overrun by hell’s spawn.

Somehow, I’d find a way to stop the Raziq and secure the third key.

We’ll find, not
you’ll
find,
Azriel corrected, voice stern.
Whatever we do from now on, we do it together.

I twined my fingers through his but felt no safer for the comfort of his touch.

Because I knew, just as he knew, just as Kiandra undoubtedly knew, that even together we might not be strong enough to win the last, and perhaps the most important, battle of all.

The battle for life.

       
Darkness Falls

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Darkness Falls
, the thrilling conclusion to Keri Arthur’s fantastic Dark Angels series…

The Raziq were coming.

The energy of their approach was very distant, but it blasted heat and thunder across my senses and sent them reeling. But even worse was the sheer and utter depth of the rage that accompanied that distant wave. I’d known they’d be angry that we’d deceived them, but this… this was murderous.

Up until now, the Raziq had used minor demons to kidnap me whenever they’d wanted to talk to me – although
their
version of talk generally involved some kind of torture. This time, however, there would be no talking. There would be only death and destruction.

And they would take out everyone – and everything – around us in the process.

It was a horrendous prospect given we were still at the Brindle, a place that not only held aeons of witch knowledge, but was also home to at least two dozen witches.

“We cannot stay here.” The familiar masculine tones broke through the fear holding me captive.

My gaze met Azriel’s. In addition to being my guardian, he was my lover, the father of my child, and the being I was now linked to forever, in both life
and
afterlife. When I died, I would become what he was – a Mijai, a reaper warrior tasked with protecting the gates to heaven and hell, and hunting down those demons who broke through hell’s gate to cause havoc here on Earth.

Of course, reapers weren’t actually flesh beings – although they could certainly attain that form whenever they wished – but rather beings made of energy who lived on the gray fields, the area that divided Earth from heaven and hell. While I
was
part werewolf and therefore flesh, I was also part Aedh, who were the energy beings who’d once lived on the fields like the reapers and who were the traditional guardians of the gates. My father had been one of the Raziq – a group of rebel Aedh who were responsible for not only the destruction of the Aedh, but for the creation of the three keys to the gates – and he was also the reason they were currently lost.

Or rather, only one key was still lost. I’d found the first two, but both had been stolen from under my nose by the dark sorceress who’d subsequently opened two of hell’s gates.

Things hadn’t quite gone according to plan for her when she’d opened the second one, however, because she’d been captured by demons and dragged into the pits of hell. I was keeping everything crossed that that’s
exactly
where she’d remain, but given the way luck had been treating us of late, it was an even-money bet she wouldn’t.

“Risa,” Azriel said when I didn’t immediately answer him. “We
must
not stay here.”

“I know.”

But where were we going to go that was safe from the wrath of the Raziq?

I closed my eyes briefly and tried to control the panic surging through me. And yet that approaching wave of anger filled every recess of my mind, making thought, let alone calm, near impossible. If they got hold of me… My skin crawled.