Embrace, Entice, Emblaze (134 page)

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“How about a compromise?” he offered, his eyes now boring

into me.

I could feel Lincoln’s determination, his power growing, searching me out. He knew where I was; he would be here in moments.

“Fast,” I said.

Phoenix didn’t hesitate. Perhaps he also sensed Lincoln nearing.

“I will help minimize the destruction. I can’t promise to save

everyone, but I
can
prevent the masses from going down with the volcano. I’ll save thousands
if
you come with me.”

Something in the way he said it made me think he was pleased

with me.

I couldn’t think straight.

He’s offering me a deal: if I go with him and help him open the
gates, he’ll save lives in return. But if it works and he brings Lilith
back, would thousands more not die anyway?

Phoenix took a step toward me.

“Don’t,” I warned. He was smart enough to stop.

The stairwell door blasted open and Lincoln launched himself

through it, freezing at the sight of Phoenix in front of him. Three of the most lethal exiles in existence were standing just yards apart.

“Well, aren’t we the perfect triangle?” Phoenix mused.

His words struck a nerve— I’d just been looking at triangles,

drawing them.

Lincoln assessed the scene fast. With Phoenix, Gressil, and

Olivier all present, we had little chance to overcome them, given Phoenix’s power over me.

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“Violet, don’t…don’t…” he said quietly.

I could see Gressil from the corner of my eye. His expression

was wild; he was barely restraining himself and now also sending a deadly stare in Phoenix’s direction. Phoenix would not be able to contain him for long.

“I have offered Violet a compromise: to help preserve the human lives on this island, she will come with me.”

“If I don’t go with you, you can’t make it work anyway!” I

argued, still struggling to comprehend all the angles of this choice.

Phoenix’s eyes narrowed enough for me to know he was losing

his patience. “I can awaken the volcano without you, and if you don’t come with me, I’ll release the Grigori Scripture to Gressil and Olivier to do with as they please.”

Gressil smiled.

A shiver ran down my spine. I knew he would take great pleasure in hunting down and eliminating any human destined to become

Grigori. I remembered how frightened I had been when I first met Phoenix and discovered he was an exile. I couldn’t imagine being faced with someone as violent as Gressil.

“Violet,” Lincoln said calmly. “Look at me.”

But I couldn’t. It was taking all my strength just to hold off the intensity of pain. Being this close to him had never hurt so much.

“I’ll go with you,” Lincoln said to Phoenix.

Phoenix laughed. “Afraid not. It’s her or nothing, but I’ll give you every chance to get her back in one piece…” He paused.

“Though I cannot control her actions. Or yours. I’ve made my

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offer; I have more than enough witnesses to that effect,” he said, turning to Olivier. Then he looked back at Lincoln, something else showing in his expression, before turning to Gressil. “
I
will not be the cause of any long- lasting harm to her.” He turned back to Lincoln, and I was sure something passed between them.

Lincoln nodded.

I dared another glance in Lincoln’s direction. Sweat was drip-

ping from his brow and his face was contorted in what looked like agony. Did he feel it too? No, he’d run all the way here from wherever he’d been; he was just exhausted. Even more reason for me to go— if he had to fight Phoenix now, it would not be good.

“No. No, Violet, listen to me!” Lincoln could tell where my

thoughts were going. “Come over here. You need to come to me.”

He stood still.

It was all up to me. Lincoln needed me to move closer to him

before he could try and defend me, and Phoenix wouldn’t move

closer to me until he knew I would cooperate.

“Please, Violet. This isn’t your responsibility. Please look at me.” Lincoln sounded so tired, but that one glance had already hurt too much. I couldn’t look at him again without crumbling.

He sighed, a sound so sad it felt like a knife in my heart.

“It’s okay. I…I understand. Just listen, then. You, Violet Eden, do not do this.
You
don’t take the easy option and that’s what this is.

You never stop fighting.
We
never stop fighting. We’ll find another way to stop this. Vi, I can’t— ” But he was cut off when once again the door to the stairwell flew open.

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Gray.

“Decision!” Phoenix demanded.

Gray paused, assessing the scene. His eyes settled on me, and I could tell he would not interfere here.

He
led
Lincoln
to
me.

I suddenly realized he was working with Lincoln— I just didn’t

understand what their plan was.

Gray took a step back, hand reaching out casually to the stair-

well door and bracing himself against it.

Sly
.

He was barricading it.

Lincoln was right. I don’t run. Violet Eden doesn’t quit. And she doesn’t dream silly dreams that end like a storybook. I adjusted my grip on my dagger. Time was up. I needed to decide and really, I’d already achieved more than I’d expected. Phoenix was an empath.

He could sense my emotions more than anyone, even Lincoln.

He’d have known for a while that my choice was made and how I

felt about having to make it. And yet, he’d taken my bait, offered a deal, almost as if he’d wanted the same thing all along…

That’s exactly it! He just wants Lilith. He’ll do whatever he has to in
order to bring her back. But he can’t tell the others he isn’t excited by the
idea of mass murder. Going with him is my only option.

“Gressil, you may stay if you desire. Olivier, I need your presence,” Phoenix ordered, smiling as he felt me make my decision.

I turned to Lincoln. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, as I sheathed my dagger and held my arms wide.

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They both moved, but Phoenix had me in his clutches before

Lincoln had barely taken a step.

I closed my eyes and didn’t fight. When his face nestled in my

hair and his voice murmured softly into my ear, “Sleep,” I knew I could resist it, but instead, I forced back the impulse and allowed myself to fall into slumber.

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chapter
thirty- one

“It was like something lurking in the darkness within him…

There it remained in the darkness, the great pain, tearing him at
times, and then being silent.”

D. H. LaWreNCe

Phoenix

I double- check the locks again before falling into the heavyset armchair on the far side of the room. Locks can’t stop them physically, but not one of them would risk breaking my door.

Having her so close is…distracting.

Almost everything is working out as I’d planned, yet still I feel the gnawing in my chest. It never lets up, but when she is around…

It’s worse than having a cursed conscience.

I try not to watch her, but it’s impossible. My eyes have barely strayed from her since I swept her into my arms.

I wonder if she knows her markings swirl while she dreams. I

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grind my jaw. I hate myself for this, but it’s not easy— not when I could just reach out and touch her. She’s luminous, even in the dark— like a light shines from within her. A light that is burning me alive.

“Christ,” I mumble to myself.

Thinking back to the first time I laid eyes on her at Hades on her seventeenth birthday, I still wonder: Why her? Why me? I’ve been around for a long time— there were many women before her. I’m a creature of lust and have always taken what I wanted— the guilty, the innocent, the coveted, those with promise, and those without.

All of them lured so easily by the otherworldliness they could never understand. They found me impossible to resist. Even when I

treated them poorly, then abandoned them, they still came to me.

I can’t explain why everything changed the second I saw her,

only that it did. And I can never go back.

She floated through her surroundings that night, unaware of the attention she drew to herself. Lincoln was with her, watching carefully as she drank too much. I could tell just by the look on his face that he loved her. I could feel it too— and was surprised how much it irritated me, that he leaked so much pure adoration and devotion to her. Perhaps that’s why my interest in her stirred. Perhaps.

Now…she’s ruined me.

I should have killed her that night, saved myself the heartache from knowing what it was like to hold her in my arms and feel that forbidden hope. Did I truly believe she could have found love with me? That perhaps redemption was not unreachable?

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Fool!

I planned just to have fun, entertain myself for a spell and then do away with her. I should’ve known I was in trouble when I found myself unwittingly smiling, unable to take my eyes away. The

clincher had been when Lincoln ran from her advances.

He could be such a pansy.

But taking her in my arms, knowing a Grigori made of a Power

lurked nearby was madness, even for an exile. Powers are territorial. If ever there were a Grigori to avoid, it would be them, almost impossible to beat for most exiles.

The moment I touched her, my suspicions of her power were

blown out of the water. Raw power.

I should have dropped her and run, but by then it was too late.

Decision made. I was going to have her.

I laugh bitterly as I watch her sleep.

I think of all that has happened since finding her. Barely a blink in my existence, but everything has changed. Partly my fault, but partly hers too, and I refuse to punish myself when I can focus all my energy on retribution. We love the ones we hate.

And I hate her with all my heart.

I never believed anything could be worse than being cast out of the angel realm…but being cast from her life has been agony. Now, my hatred makes me do things I never thought I’d be willing to do, whatever my potential.

I hear another fight break out down the hall and try to ignore

the sounds of flesh ripping at flesh. I don’t care. If I didn’t need 359

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exiles, I’d kill them all myself just for the therapy. But I’ve lost my patience with too many lately, serving them up to the Grigori on platters. My forces are already thinning and some of the exiles are becoming suspicious.

Competent exiles are few and far between, and unfortunately,

the most proficient are also the most ruthless. Gressil has been one of the best, but having him so close…I have barely been able to make it through the days without killing him. Olivier isn’t

much easier.

A loud crash, like glass smashing. More fighting. At least right now, they won’t expect me to step in. They think I’m in here

beating her…or worse. Ironic then that I’m too damn terrified

even to wake her up.

I jump to my feet when she rolls over, then remind myself she is under my illusion. She can’t wake without me knowing.

An exile’s deathly scream comes from the hall. I smile. It sounds like Justin. It is only a matter of time before his heart is torn apart.

Judgment will not go well for him. Then again, it won’t fare well for any of us. Especially me. Especially now. But suffering consequences is something I am used to, a result of never belonging in any one place, never holding any true value despite my power.

Well, that is about to change.

Despite my efforts, I have been neither angel nor human enough.

But I will rule as an exile.

I give in, stand up, and move closer to her.

“I never knew,” I whisper, unable to stop myself.

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She can’t hear me. It is bad enough I can hear myself. Admissions of guilt are not my thing, and now I’ve opened myself up to that one particular memory, the hardest one to push from my mind.

My skin burns even now, remembering how every touch she