Faith (Soul Savers Book 7) (42 page)

I narrowed my eyes.
“You sacrifice your own flesh and blood, your daughters and
grandson, for your own benefit.”

The side of his mouth
lifted in a sneer as his eyes flitted to my abdomen. “Isn’t
that what you do, too?”

My nostrils flared, but
I didn’t respond.

“You’re so
predictable.” He scratched his temple with the tip of the knife
before casually pointing it at my face. “You fell for my bait
so easily. I knew you’d be stupid enough to come after Dorian.
Selfish
enough to give up all of humanity to save one boy.”
He grinned when my eyes widened. “Oh, yes, I knew of the life
you carry inside you. That
you
were the one I needed, after
all. The boy was nothing but a decoy. You’ve made this so
easy.”

Tristan growled and
rumbled and made all kinds of noise as he seemed to be trying to
break through the bars.

Lucas glanced Tristan’s
way and rolled his eyes before bringing them back to me. “You
should have come to my side when you had the chance, and none of this
would be happening. You, Seth, your boy …” He twirled
his wrist, swishing the point of the knife in the air as a gesture
toward each of them. “All of you could have been together,
pleasuring yourself with everything you’ve ever wanted. With
me, you could have had it all. And look at you now. Don’t you
wish you would have embraced my offer?”

As he intended, his
words brought my Ang’dora freshly to mind, with its vision of
the mountains and the valley and the lake. And the one tree, half of
it covered in sparkling ice and half of it blooming with golden
leaves. Half of the landscape frozen and dead, like Hell, like Lucas,
who’d been beckoning me with those same empty promises. The
other half warm, soft, and summery, where Mom and Rina proposed love,
life, and goodness.

He snorted, as though
I’d made a profound mistake. But I’d known what I was
doing then, just as I did now.

“
Never
,”
I whispered through clenched teeth. “Never you.”

“Oh, really? Are
you sure about that?” he taunted. “I’ve heard
rumors that Katerina and …
others
… believed
you
to be a better leader for this final battle. That you would do what
was right for the world.” He traced the tip of the knife over
my jawline, and I tensed my muscles, refusing to flinch. “But
they were wrong, weren’t they? You don’t have it in you
to choose the greater good over your own flesh and blood. Because
you’re too much like me.”

I glared up at him,
looking him in the eye again while I let out a humorless chuckle.
“What you don’t get, you unwitting asshole, is there
doesn’t have to be a choice. That’s why
I’m
here
and not anyone else.”

He straightened up,
bemusement and anger flashing in his eyes. Both hands closed over the
hilt of the long knife, and he raised his fists above my chest. A
warm tingling ran across my shoulders and down my back. Without
breaking the lock of our eyes, I proffered a small smile.

“I’m
nothing like you, you arrogant fuck. And do you know why? Do you know
what sets us worlds apart?
You
do everything for greed and
power. For control and everything evil. I do it for my family, yes,
but also for my people, for humanity, and even for your people.
Because I do it for love. I always have and always will. Choose.
LOVE
!”

His eyes tightened and
clouded over with more confusion than ever. But after a moment, they
cleared, and he let out a nefarious laugh. And when the knife plunged
this time, I simply closed my eyes.

God, I trust you.

My
muscles froze, and my heart stopped its frantic pounding—stopped
beating altogether as Alexis shared with her mind what she felt in
her heart before she’d said the words aloud. My fists dropped
to my sides, no longer banging and pulling at the iron bars that
refused to budge. I stared at the girl, at the woman, at
my
woman, bound to the dais in front of Hell’s lake of fire, the
dagger hovering above her heart, held by her own father’s
fists. My jaw slackened with wonder and awe and a whole dynamic of
surprising emotions.

Because everything I
thought I knew about the world, about life, about Heaven and Hell and
everything in between, turned upside down at that very moment.

In my hundreds of years
of roaming the Earth as a Daemoni warrior, I thought I’d
learned all there was to learn. I thought I’d experienced
everything I’d ever need to. And then I realized that there was
more, a different view, a different perspective of life and the
world. A different way of living that I wanted. So I converted to the
Amadis. For years, I experienced more, learned more, until I reached
the point where I truly believed nothing could surprise me, let alone
teach me.

Then came this girl.
This woman.
My
woman. And every time I turned around, she
surprised me. She taught me lessons I’d never realized I needed
to know.

Most of all, she taught
me love.

Only because of her did
I know the joy and pain of love. I knew how to love, what it felt
like to be loved. The love of a soul mate, of a child, of family and
friends.

But one lesson hadn’t
been learned yet.

The one lesson she
taught me now.

The real meaning and
power of love.

Guilt for my past
actions did not equate to love. Constantly trying to right all the
wrongs I’d done in the past had nothing to do with love. Doing
the right things for the wrong reasons was not only irrelevant to
love, but spat in its face. Those were all about me.

Love was this. This
girl. This woman. This beautiful creature displaying love in all its
powerful glory. Showing her faith through her love for not only me,
our children, our family and friends, and our people, but for
everyone—good, evil, and everything between. And showing her
love through her faith.

Because they belonged
together, love and faith.

All this time we’d
been fighting each other, her following her heart and me following my
soul. Her believing in love and me in faith. And neither of us was
wrong. Neither of us was right. We’d needed to bring those two
powers together.

And my girl, my woman,
my wife, was doing it.

Her voice rose with her
conviction as she glared at Lucas. “I do it for
love
. I
always have and always will choose LOVE!”

Her words, her
commitment, the strength of her meaning flooded over me like a bucket
of warm water. I soaked it in, understanding for the first time ever
the extent of her feelings. Experiencing for the first time in my
long life what she did—an unselfish love that surpassed the
easy kind and expanded to the hard stuff. Love for those who were
difficult to love, who refused love, who pushed it away, who thought
they were above it. For those who so many would think didn’t
deserve it—like me … like our enemies. The kind of love
we were meant to have for all other souls. The kind of love we were
given by the One who created love in the first place.

Love and faith—an
invincible combination.

Her love flowed into
mine to give us strength. My faith streamed in with hers to give us
power. And that was everything we needed.

The skin on my
shoulders and down my spine prickled and tingled, and I recognized
the sensation. My wings exploded from my back. A roar tore out of my
chest.

I would be what she
needed. Always.

Rather
than pain stabbing into my chest, my back and shoulder blades tingled
again, and at the same time the blade should have plunged into my
heart, the crunching sound of metal and a terrifying roar filled the
air. My eyes popped open to find Lucas’s hands paused with the
tip of the knife pressing into my leather vest and his eyes darting
wildly. A large, dark streak came at us, and in a blur of motion,
Lucas disappeared and the stone dais I lay on collapsed like a house
of cards. My freshly grown wings burst free, each purple and black
feather hard and sharp as a double-edged sword. They cut through the
magical bindings holding me, and I sprang from the broken platform.

Tristan paused long
enough to check on me as his own new wings spread wide, and then he
flew after Lucas. Swiping the edges of my wings across the iron, I
cut through the bars between my son and me, and sprang inside for
him. I’d planned to slip my arms under his shoulders and knees
and lift him up like I’d done so many times before, when he was
little. But one look at him, and I knew I couldn’t do that.
Like I’d had to do with Tristan, I circled my arms under his,
clasped my hands together over his chest, and launched myself upward
into the darkness.

“
I lost him
,”
Tristan said as he soared up next to me. “
Let’s just
get to the Earthly realm.
”

Hold on. I need you
to light up.

A flame suddenly
appeared in his outstretched hand, lighting our way, and I led him
upward, hoping to find the faeries. At least a dozen cells like the
ones that had held us were perched at the top of narrow pillars that
rose hundreds of feet above the lake of fire. I flew by each one,
using my wings to cut through the iron, and Tristan followed, pushing
the bars out of the faeries’ way. Flying bodies with colorful,
butterfly-like wings suddenly surrounded us.

“We’ll free
the others,” Stacey said, and she, Debbie, and Baby Cakes flew
off into the darkness.

My focus centered on
saving my son in my arms and the babies in my belly before something
worse happened, and Satan was the one who was freed. “Let’s
get out of here.”

I shot upward with
Tristan, Bree, and many other faeries behind me. Half a dozen Demons
swarmed in on us.

“Go, Lex!”
Tristan yelled at me.

“We can take care
of these,” Bree confirmed.

With a glance over my
shoulder, I saw that the faeries could indeed. Unlike when they were
attacked and picked off one-by-one, now they severely outnumbered the
Demons. Holding tightly to Dorian, I jetted upward, swerving around
the evil winged spirits that tried to block me. I couldn’t
fight with my son in my arms, but if a Demon came close enough, they
received a swipe of my wings that sent their heads plummeting back to
Hell, where they belonged.

Fighting continued
behind me. Lucas’s mind signature came back into range as he
attacked Tristan, who blocked his way to me. I opened my mind to
Tristan, sharing Lucas’s thoughts while I continued toward the
surface. But then evil slithered into my head.

“
Where are you
going, Alexis?
” Satan asked, his voice clear and smooth …
sexy and alluring. “
This is where you belong. Here, with
me.
”

I paused, hesitating,
drawn to his glamour. Nightmarish visions flashed in my mind—Mom’s
death, the Normans I killed, the children on the train—and
their screams filled my ears.

“
You knew you
belonged here before
,” he taunted.
“
Nothing
has changed.
”

I gave my head a shake.
No, I was wrong then, and you’re wrong now. Forgiveness has
been granted.

“Go, Alexis!”
Tristan bellowed again from below me. He must have heard Satan in my
mind. Lucas laughed. He must have, too. But I suddenly worried about
Tristan … about leaving him in Hell again.

You need me
, I
said to him.

“
I’ll be
fine. My faith—and my love—are where they belong.
”

Although my stomach
knotted, I continued upward, leaving him behind once again as I
accelerated. I held Dorian’s large body close against me as we
flew through the fiery tunnel, toward the pit and the surface of the
Earth. With a shaky heart, I shot us up and out.

And into chaos.