Rhyn's Redemption (2 page)

“You saw something I almost missed,” she added. “Maybe I was more interested in detailing your human weakness than in understanding what your instincts told you. Deities don’t need instincts.  We simply
know.
  But even I cannot know all.”

“You’re not pursuing us, because I was right about something,” he said. “What was I right about? We’ve spent millennia arguing. Not once have you uttered those words.”

“I didn’t utter them now,” she pointed out. “Let’s just say, I may have misjudged more than your affection for me.”

“Rhyn.”

“Perhaps. Though I will say, I haven’t yet made my final determination.  He has a test he must pass. I didn’t expect him to get so far, and he may not pass at all.  In any case, I have a much larger problem.  I interfered when I shouldn’t have,” she said. “And now, it might be too late to make things right.”

“You did take an unusual interest in Rhyn,” Gabe said. “His soul should’ve been just one more jewel for your collection, considering how many souls you deal with and relationships you break a part.”  
Including ours.
These words he kept to himself.

“It was not Rhyn that drew my attention, Gabriel. It was your interest in him.”

“You’re blaming me.” He looked away, at the blue sky visible through the window.

“I interfered.  You have until he passes or fails the final trial.”

Gabriel cursed under his breath.  He had no way of knowing what kind of test a deity like Death could create, but it wasn’t likely to be good.  While he had full faith in Rhyn, he also knew better than to trust the petite woman in white standing in his dream.

“If he fails, we’re dead-dead,” he guessed. “If he passes …”

“We’ll see.”

“You can’t check the Oracle?” He motioned to the book.

“I cannot.  My Sight has been stunted, no doubt as punishment for my tampering in Fate’s court.”

“I know I’m doomed.  What about Katie?”

Death shrugged with a knowing smile that told him more than if she spoke. Gabriel gazed out the window of the small room, thinking.

“How long do I have?” he asked at last.

“Until the seventh day after she drowned herself, assuming Darkyn doesn’t catch you first.”

“Four days left.  I take it you won’t come to my rescue if he does.”

Another smile.

“Why seven days?” he asked.

“There are some rules older than time. I’ve broken several already, but this one is entirely out of my ability to influence.”

From their years together, he knew the cryptic response was the best he’d get. Gabriel’s gaze swept around the room again, and he looked out at the blue sky.  He’d never again visit this room or see the mortal world.  This much he knew the moment he chose to help Rhyn and Katie over his promise to Death. The dream sky wasn’t even real, and he missed it already.

“It’s too late for either of us to turn back,” Death said.

“I wasn’t considering it.  I’ll keep her alive until Rhyn passes his test.” Gabriel approached her until he towered over her. Memories of their nights together made him sensitive to the warmth of her skin, the tension between them. “This will all be worth it to hear you say you were wrong about something, and I was right.”

“You may not get that chance, even if I was wrong,” she said. “Watch yourself, Gabriel.”

The resignation in her tone sounded like a farewell.  Gabe studied her, uncertain what could stop Death from doing anything she pleased.  She was not only letting him go when she shouldn’t, but she was telling him just how much time he had to get Katie out of the underworld.  Gabriel knew something was wrong if Death was turning her back on the duty of collecting souls, a duty she normally took such joy in.  She’d been unwilling to do that for
him
when their relationship had been at its peak.

“Send me back,” he said.

Gabriel snapped awake. It was still dark, and the moons of the underworld hadn’t moved far across the sky.  He sat, uneasy with the dream exchange with Death.  A small fire burned between him and Katie, whose pale features and shadowed eyes were showing the effects of both her pregnancy and the toll the underworld took on mortals.

“You need to sleep,” he told her.

“I was guarding you while you dozed.”

He snorted.

“I don’t feel so hot, Gabe.”

“I know.  Just a few more days.  Get some rest.”

“This place is creepy.  I don’t think I can sleep with bugs the size of my hand just waiting for me to fall asleep so they can crawl all over me.”

“If you’re asleep, you won’t feel them,” he said.

“That’s not the point, Gabe.”

As much as he respected the tough little human, he found that she was driving him crazy. He’d spent his life relatively alone, crossing between the underworld and human world as needed.  Death had been far from co-dependent, and he’d had free rein.  Until two days ago, when he crossed into the underworld with Katie slung across his shoulder.  He’d forgotten what it was to have someone completely dependent on him. He didn’t feel up to the task, not when failure meant breaking the man he viewed as his brother.

“I’m never doing this again,” he said.

“You’ve told me that twice.  It’s not like I want to be here, either.”

“Sleep, Katie,” he said in a kinder voice. “I’m going to scout around for a bit.”

“Do you think we’ll make it out of here?”

“I hope you do.  I have no faith I will.”

“I’m sorry for snapping at you about the bugs, Gabe.  I’m just exhausted.”

“I’m normally much more patient.” Gabe looked her over then offered what smile he could muster. “Too much on my mind.”

“You’re afraid, too,” she said, studying him. “Gabe, if we don’t make it for some reason, I want you to know how much I appreciate everything you’ve done.”

“I did it for a man I see as my brother.”

“You keep saying that,” she said and rolled her eyes. “But I think you kinda like me, too.”

“You’re growing on me,” he allowed. “Much like fungus.”

Katie chuckled, and he was almost relieved at the sight of her smile.  Her features had grown paler and gaunter under his watch.  He feared the underworld would sink her spirit, too.  One of them had to have some sort of hope they’d make it out alive.

“Please, Katie, try to get some rest.  We’ve barely had any down time since arriving, and you need it,” he said again. “I’ve gotta make sure nothing has found us yet.”

“You need rest, too, Gabe.”

“I’ll rest when you’re safe.”

Another small smile crossed her face, and she sat down.  Gabe left her, knowing even if she did sleep, it wouldn’t be long.  Death may have ignored their presence in her domain for three days, but something had made her reach out to him now.  He knew they’d have problems at some point and only hoped he could get Katie out of the underworld, before his own fate was sealed.

Rhyn approached the boundaries of his newest prison – the one meant to keep everyone else on the Caribbean Sanctuary safe from the magic he couldn’t control. The ocean’s calming rhythm and flavorful breeze made the beach more bearable. Tents had sprung up two nights before, and the two people who could keep his powers from spinning out of control remained at the center of the beach. He was far enough away from the Sanctuary’s fortress not to cause a threat to those there, so long as the two people buffering him stayed close.

He raised his head to the sky then held out his arm across what he’d figured out was the boundary of his buffers’ influence. Magic jolted through him like electricity, flinging him onto his back. His power spun through him, but it was nothing compared to what he would feel without the two buffers.

“Again?” a youth’s voice asked.

Rhyn lay still and folded his hands beneath his head, staring at the sky. He heard the angel, Toby, drop beside him, the glow of his Nintendo 3DS bright in the night. As one of Rhyn’s buffers, Toby was as trapped on the beach as he was.

“It’s gotta hurt,” Toby said.

Nothing hurts anymore,
Rhyn thought.

“Kris wants to assign Hannah as my new mom,” the angel continued. “I don’t want her as my mom.”

“Why do you give a shit?” Rhyn asked.

“I want Katie.”

Rhyn’s jaw clenched, and he fought the raw feeling inside him, the one that betrayed him every time he tried to convince himself he’d survived worse. For the first time in his life, he’d thought he found his calling: protecting people as defenseless as his mate, Katie.  And then, she’d died, and any purpose his life had died with her.  Now, he just wanted to die-dead.

“Auntie Hannah says she’d be my mom for all time, so I wouldn’t have to have any other moms.” The angel sounded troubled. “Rhyn, can I stay with you?”

“No.”

“I know, I know, Kris says I’m an angel and angels are supposed to protect humans and you’re anything but human but I still want to stay with you. Please, Rhyn?”

“No.”

Toby sighed loudly and turned off the glowing 3DS. Instead of leaving like Rhyn wished he would, the angel lay down beside him.

“How long are we staying on the beach?” Toby asked.

“Until Kris figures out how to send me back to Hell,” Rhyn said, suspecting this was what his brother intended to do.  He couldn’t be trusted free. As hard as he tried, he had no control over his power without the buffers. Kris and his mate, Hannah – Rhyn’s other buffer – weren’t about to live the rest of Immortality on the beach with him.

“You could kidnap us both and take us wherever you want to go,” Toby offered. “Then you’d be stable and you could leave the beach.”

“Right, because I have somewhere to go.”

“You can go see Death and ask her for Katie back.”

“It doesn’t work that way for mortals.”

“If you hadn’t un-bonded her, it’d work.”

“Look, you little shit, why don’t you –“

“Gods, Rhyn, don’t talk to him like that,” the eldest surviving brother of the seven brothers, Kris, snapped as he approached. “Did you ask him, Toby?”

“He said no, like you said,” Toby said, disappointment heavy in his voice.

Rhyn ground his teeth, fury bubbling within him. He wanted them all gone, so he could spend the remainder of his long life laying here alone, waiting for Death or one of her assassins.

“Go back to the tents,” Kris instructed the young angel.

Toby went without another word, and Rhyn drew a deep breath to settle his emotions.

“You haven’t been sleeping,” Kris said and squatted beside him.

Rhyn glanced at him, taking in the arm in a sling.  Kris was healing from an attacker Rhyn had saved him from, the day Katie killed herself. Rhyn had lost his mate the same day he earned some small piece of respect from his brother.

“Is your offer still on the table?” Kris asked.

“What offer?”

“The one where you become the Council’s assassin.”

“You seem to forget I can’t go anywhere without your mate and the damn angel,” Rhyn said in irritation.

“Where I want you to go, I don’t care if anyone survives,” Kris said. “I have an idea. The two of them can walk you through the shadow world and you can jump through the portal.”

“You don’t intend for me to return.”

“It would be a noble death for a good cause, if it came to that.”

“What is it?” Rhyn asked.

“I want my castle back,” Kris said. “Scouts are reporting it’s overrun with demons and Darkyn has adopted it as his terra headquarters for his trips here from Hell. Go in and wipe out the demons.”

Rhyn’s thoughts drifted to the castle. He felt the urge to destroy it, not save it. After all, it was where he and Katie spent the few good moments they’d had, where he’d found something worth living for. And where everything had gone wrong.

“I can wipe out everything,” he mused.

“I’d be happy with the demons gone,” Kris said. “I want the castle. It was our father’s.”

“When do I leave?”

“In the morning. Pre-dawn.”

“Alrighty.”

Kris rose but didn’t leave. “Rhyn, if you come back, we can try to find some way for you to live as normal a life as possible,” he said slowly. “I’m converting a room at this Sanctuary into a lab, for when we find Ully.”

“We both know this is a suicide mission.”

Kris was silent for a long moment. Then he said, “I’ll tell Toby to leave you alone so you can get some sleep tonight.”

Rhyn listened to his brother pad away in the soft sand.  He’d spent thousands of years in Hell wishing to be dead-dead.  Tomorrow, he’d have his chance.

The ocean’s cold breeze swept over him, and his thoughts turned from his dead mate to his best friend, Gabriel, who had tried to kill him then disappeared. He’d lost them both, the only good parts of his life. He’d left Hell only to fuck up his life worse than before.

His eyes closed. He hadn’t been able to sleep in two days but fell fast into a deep, peaceful slumber. Katie awaited him in his dreams, looking as she had the day he lost her.  They stood in the spot where he’d fought his friend, Gabriel, and the demon lord, Darkyn.  She wore a sweater that made her light eyes glow. Her hair whipped in the wind chilling his body.

When his eldest brother died, he’d felt pain and anger, but he’d never felt the crippling ache he did standing on the rocks near the ocean staring at Katie.