Immortal Awakening: Immortal Heart (2 page)

Samira nodded and squeezed Marie gently. “Just a bit bruised.”

Marie looked to Bain and Izzy. “Can’t one of you heal her?”

Izzy smiled and stepped forward. With a light blue glow to her eyes and hands, she cupped Samira’s face and began chanting the spell of the Circe. Soon the faint bruises on Samira’s face disappeared, and the marks that marred the skin beneath her clothes began to heal, the pain ebbing with each word Izzy spoke.

Samira’s eyes locked with Izzy’s as the spell ended and her eyes returned to normal. “Now that makes it hard for me to say, ‘No, I can’t help you’. And not because I don’t want to—it’s because there is no way to get to him.”

“That’s not entirely true,” Cree said as he, Lothar, and Kale entered the room. “You’ve been there.”

Samira’s shoulders slumped. “Yes, but I no longer wield the magic that led Kadar and I to the Underworld. Makyle stripped me of it before he deposited me into the Human realm. I cannot get you there.”

Cree studied her intently before his gaze moved to Izzy. “But you likely can, Isabelle.”

Samira looked to Izzy. She was powerful, Samira could see that, but what made the Immortal Warriors’ leader think she could breach the Underworld?

Izzy’s head tilted. “Enough of his blood flows through me, and I know at least some of my magic is his. It’s worth a try.”

Bain cocked a brow. “Is it?”

“Of
course
it is,” Izzy stated with exasperation.

Bain shook his head. “Not until we know everything, sweetheart.” He then set his gaze on Samira. “I think you should tell us what you know.”

Samira sighed. “Fine, but it’s not pleasant, and I guarantee once you all know what’s happening, none of you will want any of your family venturing to the depths of hell he’s in.”

With her hands in her lap and a cup of coffee in front of her, Samira began to tell the warriors and their mates what she had experienced over the past few days.

“It started with flashes and dreams of the Underworld. Makyle hanging from barbed straps, being beaten. Honestly, I didn’t think much of it, initially.” She grimaced as she continued. “I thought perhaps it was my subconscious playing out its own fantasy. I’ve never hidden my hatred of the Immortal Ruler.” Her gaze drifted to Izzy, then to all those sitting around, listening to her story. She knew the fiery, human/Fae hybrid was the one to watch. Makyle was something altogether different to her; he was important.

Izzy shook her head. Her eyes narrowed and locked with Samira’s molten-gold gaze. “I’ve heard about you. I know parts of your story. What I can’t understand is how you could hate the man who saved your life.”

Samira scoffed. “There is much you will never understand. You haven’t known the life of a slave. You’ve never been abused because of your magic. He didn’t save me—he refused me my peace.”

“From what you’ve told us so far, the Underworld doesn’t sound all that peaceful.”

“It would have been a vacation compared to the life I’d lived. And I don’t have to explain myself to any of you.”

“If you want our help, you do,” Izzy countered, anger flashing in her deep blue eyes as she rose from her seat to lean towards Samira.

“Iz…” Uriah and Marie both warned.

“Sit down and let her finish,” Cree added sternly, his lips thinning as his cool gaze bore into her.

Looking to Cree, Izzy calmed and slowly returned to her seat flashing an apologetic smile in Cree’s direction. He suppressed a smile and returned his cool even stare to their guest. As soon as Izzy’s gaze bounced back to Samira her blood instantly boiled. Samira looked dispassionate about the situation, like the torture of someone  she‘d known for so long meant nothing. What was wrong with this bitch? How could she see the Human World as worse than the Underworld Makyle was now suffering in?

Samira focused on Cree as she continued, “It wasn’t until I could hear Makyle in my dreams and began waking with the scars of his torture that I realized something was very wrong. We are linked, and I need it severed. That’s why I called Uriah. I don’t know what I can tell you that will help you save him.”

Cree sat back in his seat and studied the woman before him. She was definitely linked to Makyle, and it was a blood link. They had shared blood, even if it had been centuries apart. He felt the corner of his mouth lift as he saw the kiss Makyle had laid upon her and her subsequent bite that left his blood on her tongue.

“You’re smirking, Cree,” Kale noted. His gaze shifted between the leader and Samira.

“Indeed—I’ve seen how the link was formed.”

Samira arched a brow. “Oh?”

“You should have pushed him away instead of biting him.”

Samira blushed slightly as all eyes fell on her.

“Oh shit—when he kissed you,” Marie said with brightness in her tone.

Samira crossed her arms over her chest and slumped back into the plush velvet of the settee in Rowan’s former office.

“Well, he deserved it, and again, his actions are directly affecting me. So, are you going to help me or not?”

“We’ll help you, but the only way I know how starts with us getting Makyle here,” Cree stated as he stood. “For now, perhaps Izzy can help you come up with a protection spell from the physical manifestation of Makyle’s situation, but the mental link needs to remain open.”

“What are you thinking?” Lothar asked as he read Cree’s emotions. He was feeling hopeful and maybe a little smug.

“I have a plan to free Makyle, but we need to take some precautions.”

“For Makiah,” Uriah added. “Part of Makiah’s freedom was based off of us letting Makyle go. A rescue mission may jeopardize that.”

All eyes seemed to land on the child in Uriah’s arms. Marie looked stricken.

“Nothing is going to happen to him,” Izzy stated firmly.

“Not a fucking thing,” Kale added vehemently. “I’ll burn them to the ground if they try to touch a hair on his precious, little head.”

Izzy grinned at Kale. “I’ll join you.”

“You all are fucking nuts,” Samira muttered.

****

Holly smiled as she and Lothar entered the Hole. Marie sat with Uriah while Makiah slept in his swing.

“What’s up, guys?” Lothar asked as he sat in a chair and pulled Holly into his lap.

“We need a favor,” Uriah said, looking at Holly.

Holly arched her golden brows at him. “What do you need?”

“A safe place for Marie and Makiah. I was thinking maybe you could talk to Evan and see if they could stay with him while we sort out this Makyle business.”

Lothar nodded. “It’s smart; there is probably no place safer in this situation.”

“I’m positive Evan and the coven will welcome them.” Holly focused on Marie. “How do you feel about staying with a large coven of awesome vampires?”

Marie sucked in a deep breath. “I’m… not sure. I mean, I’m getting on board, but it’s all new and a bit overwhelming. My brain is working on grasping it all.”

“What about Kat?” Lothar offered. “Perhaps Kat can go as well.”

Uriah considered it and looked to Marie, who shrugged and smiled. Uriah pressed his palm to the side of her neck while his thumb caressed her cheek. “It would solve two concerns.”

“All right, I’ll call Evan. Go pack, and talk to Kale and Kat.”

****

Makyle hung from the rock wall of the eighth level of the Underworld. His wrist had scabbed and reopened more times than he could count. He cracked open one eye and squinted against the glare of light from the fire a group of rather appalling ogres sat around.

“We should just eat him,” one suggested.

“It’s not the rules of his punishment,” another grumbled.

“We don’t have to live by rules.”

“Ah, but you
do
,” a voice added from the dark depths of the cave that now housed Makyle and the ogres. Makyle tried to lift his head in Josiah’s direction, but he could hardly move. He had more broken bones than he cared to count, his left eye hadn’t opened in days, and his arms were basically numb.

“Josiah, so nice of you to come visit me… However, I am afraid I am in no shape to entertain.” Makyle coughed out the last of his smartass comment and struggled to remain conscious.

Josiah stepped from the shadows, the glow of the fire giving his sandy-colored hair a warm hue, while the flames reflected in his emerald eyes. “Save your energy, Makyle. I need no words from you right now; just rest.”

Makyle recognized the sadness in his brother’s features. While he would have done everything the same, he regretted the loss of trust and connection he’d had with his brothers.

They had been fair in their punishment… a few months in purgatory, moving though all the levels of the Underworld. They could have simply destroyed him and left him to rot. Or they could have
tried
.

Makyle felt a moment of relief as the space around him cooled and his vision blackened. Nothingness. He was surrounded by pure blissful oblivion.

When the throbbing returned, he opened his eyes to see Josiah standing before him on the black soil of the Phlegethon. This time, as he hung suspended above the shimmering obsidian sand, he found himself on a crucifix. It was such a cliché. Yet, here he was, stretched over the unforgiving wood while the dark sand waited only a few feet below. His gaze drifted past his brother to the river of fire. He had been moved up a level.

“You moved me early,” he choked out.

“Indeed. They would have eaten you. Death isn’t your punishment.”

Makyle smirked. “Death would be too kind, brother.”

Josiah shook his head. “Do you believe you deserve the easy way out? Our world is built on rules.”

“
Fuck
the rules,” Makyle ground out.

“No, Makyle; without them, our worlds fall apart. Without them, we fall as the Gods before us fell.”

Makyle shook his head. None of them would ever understand. They couldn’t. They didn’t know what love was. What it meant to fight for something because you felt an emotion that told you it was the right thing to do, that it was worth the consequences. “I hope that one day, something or someone will shake your resolve, make you question what you think you know.”

“That’s not our role. Do you really not understand?”

“I understand more than you know. I understand that my heart beats and fills when I look at the child you would have sacrificed. I know that when I think of Isabelle, I swell with pride. And when I see the faces of the Immortal Warriors, I know there is more to life than what we’ve been told. And I know that I want all that they have.”

“Then you are no longer fit to rule,” Josiah stated solemnly.

Makyle chuckled. “I think we established that the moment I resisted the majority rule on Makiah.”

Josiah shook his head. “We’ll see how you feel when you reach the castle once more.”

Makyle sighed. The call of a banshee rent the air as his brother disappeared into the shadows. Even without their magic, banshees never lost the call of hunger and the instinct to hunt. Makyle waited for the silhouette of the wraith like creature to appear from the very shadows Josiah had used to abandon him to his purgatory.

Kat stood with her back to Kale as she gazed out their window to the gardens below.

“Kitten?” Kale called to her softly. He knew her so well he swore he felt her despair. “It’s gonna be okay.”

She nodded. “I know, because you, Izzy, and Bain will make it so. While I sit on the sidelines.”

Kale felt his shoulders fall. He had been so protective of her. The moment he got her back, he swore nothing would ever touch her again, and in doing so, he had broken part of her spirit. “I’m sorry, but I’m not the bad guy. I just want you safe.”

Kat nodded and turned to the stunning, black-haired, baby-faced warrior. “I love you, Kale, but I’m not a withering flower. I can help.”

He rose from the bed and made his way to her. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he pulled her flush to him. “I know you’re no withering flower. Still, I love you too much to risk you. No matter what the plan is… there will be a trip to the Underworld, and I can’t have you there.”

“And I can’t bear to watch you leave me behind. I let you protect me from Darion; I stayed here while you all went to rescue Marie and Holly; and I was worried sick. This is
my
family, too.” She smiled up at him and cupped his cheeks. “We’re better together. If you go, I go.”

Kale sighed; he had such a hard time arguing with her when she looked at him with such love and stubbornness in her beautiful eyes.

“We’ll see what the plan is. I may not be the best to go with them, anyhow.”

She tilted her head and arched a brow. “You think it’s more a job for Izzy and Uriah?”

Kale nodded. “More like Izzy, Lothar, and Holly. Which means Bain will definitely be going as well.”

“What about Cree? Think he’ll want to be part of the rescue?”