Kobal
I saw the minute understanding came over River, saw the shock sliding across her face, but more than that, I could see the betrayal burning in her beautiful violet eyes as she turned toward me.
I’d tried to keep her protected from the knowledge of the possibility of immortality for her. I didn’t want her to choose death and a possible severing of her connection with the Earth and its life forces because of me. She shouldn’t have the knowledge that she could become immortal also resting on her already burdened shoulders.
Now, I realized I may have made a huge mistake by keeping it from her, if the look on her face was any indication. I’d been looking to protect her; instead, I’d sliced her deeply.
My claws extended to cut into my palms as I fisted my hands, causing blood to well forth. I wanted to tear Magnus apart for inadvertently revealing this to her, but ultimately, this was not his fault. It was mine. I realized now, there had never been any keeping this secret, and even if Magnus hadn’t said anything, she and Hawk would have asked why Hawk could withstand Hell when none of the others could.
“Why?” River asked me in a flat voice.
“Because I felt it was better you didn’t know.”
She blinked at my blunt response. Her face remained void of emotion, but turmoil rolled off her in waves. She was my Chosen; I was supposed to protect her and do everything I could to make her happy, yet I was the one who had caused her this unhappiness.
We were intertwined with each other. However, she was not a demon, at least not a full one. She felt the intensity of our bond, and she’d repeatedly marked me as hers, but she could walk away, leave me and this relationship. She’d done so before. It may break her heart, but losing her would drive me mad.
“I did not want you to have the choice,” I said.
Confusion filled her eyes. Then a look of abject misery descended over her and her chin rose. “I see.”
“That’s not… I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.” I couldn’t think of the words to explain why I’d kept this from her. I wasn’t one for words and emotions; I was one for action. This was treacherous territory for me, but so much rode on my ability to handle it well. I was fucked. “You’re not entirely human, River. This is not an option for you.”
Fury glistened in her eyes. “No, it’s not.”
Hawk’s lips pressed together as he glanced between the two of us before taking a step away from her. The others had retreated to safe distances, but they all looked nervously toward the door in the back of the room. Keeping to the wall, Hawk made his way toward where they had gathered at the end of the table.
“It’s not what you think,” I said from between clenched teeth.
“Nothing ever is,” she replied flippantly.
“No, it’s not,” Magnus said as he watched River. “You are Lucifer’s offspring after all, his daughter. None of us fully know what you are capable of now, never mind what you could be capable of as a full demon.”
“I don’t need your help,” I growled at him.
He looked pointedly between me and River. “You just might.”
“My father gave about as much care for me as he would a bug beneath his shoe,” River said to Magnus. “But he was not Lucifer.”
“If Lucifer created your line, then you are his offspring.”
I thought River might hit him with a ball of fire as her eyes noticeably darkened, her shoulders hunched, and flames sputtered around her fingertips. She shot a loathing glare my way when I moved to stand in-between them, causing Magnus to laugh.
“Oh, Kobal, what a steaming pile of shit you’ve stepped into on this one,” Magnus said. “If Lucifer knows of her existence, he will come for her, and he will do whatever he can to take her.”
“He knows we’ve found her, and if he tries to take her from me, he also knows I will tear him apart limb from limb,” I vowed.
“Judging by the look on her face right now, she may choose daddy dearest over you.”
I glanced at River who stared at me as if she were trying to figure out how to get as far from me as possible.
Mine. No matter how angry or hurt she was right now, that would never change.
She stared at me for a minute more before dismissively turning away from me. My teeth ground together as I resisted the impulse to grab her, to make her understand.
“Why haven’t you been above, with the others?” River demanded of Magnus. “If you can create things like we saw in that carnival, why aren’t you helping to fight Lucifer? Are you on his side?”
Magnus snorted and folded his arms over his chest. “I have no loyalty to or any care for Lucifer. I’d far prefer to see him dead and his head on a spit than anything else.”
“Then why did you retreat from the war?” Corson demanded.
“I have my reasons,” Magnus replied blandly.
“You don’t want him to win this,” River said.
“Of course not. I’m not so foolish as to think he’ll stop with enslaving the humans. He’ll come for the demons once he has the weaker race licking his boot heels. Hell may have twisted him into the thing he has become now, but he’s always believed demons beneath him. If he succeeds in taking over Earth, he’ll turn on every one of us next. Some of our brethren are too stupid to see that though. All they see is the power and the possibilities he offers them.”
“Then you should fight,” Bale said. “You may have had your reasons for retreating here, but none of those reasons will matter anymore when your pretty head is on a platter.”
Magnus laughed. “We finally agree on one thing, Bale, it is a very pretty head, and I’d like to keep it where it is. I’ve always had faith my king could keep Lucifer at bay without me for a while.”
“Coward,” Corson hissed.
“Perhaps, or perhaps I realized centuries ago that the best way for me to help was to better learn my power. You three are aware my parents were slaughtered when I was two, before they could teach me what it is I’m fully capable of. I am the last of the illusion demons. There was no one to teach me what I should learn, and constantly fighting Lucifer and his followers was not helping me to focus, to grow, to understand everything I can do. It has taken me centuries, but I have a better grasp on all I am capable of now and I am far better at using my abilities.”
“Why didn’t you say that when you abruptly pulled out from the war?” I demanded, not trusting anything he had to say.
“Do you think I could risk Lucifer or any of his spies learning what I was doing here? We keep some of our secrets from him, but just as many of them are revealed. I am only lucky none of his flunkies has had a vision about the world I created, but then what would a vision reveal to them? A carnival where I tortured souls is all they would see. They could not know the reality I’ve woven here. They would not see how my powers have grown and how I have learned from them. No, it was better that everyone believed I was a coward who was unwilling to choose a side than take the risk of someone finding out what I was trying to do.”
The trickle of water sliding down the wall was the only sound in the silence following his admission. For hundreds of years, I’d believed Magnimus to be a weakling, believed the man I’d once counted as one of my strongest allies, shared more than a few drinks and plans with, had proven to be nothing more than a disappointment.
“I could have decided to kill you for leaving the way you did,” I finally said.
Magnus’s head tilted to the side as he studied me. “I was never a traitor. I simply became someone who refrained from fighting. I trusted you would allow me to choose that path for myself. However, I also knew that if Lucifer ever came at me, you would not protect me. It was a risk I was willing to take to become a stronger fighter for our side, to one day be able to make a true difference in battle and not just create things that briefly distracted others.”
“You should have come to the surface when the gateway was torn open. We could have used your help,” Bale said.
“I was not ready then,” Magnus replied.
“Are you now?” I demanded.
Magnus looked to River. “Ready or not, I think we no longer have a choice in the matter. The time has come. Our chance to defeat him is here.”
“She is not a chance. She is my Chosen.”
“I intend to end this, somehow,” River said. “I was told that I might not be able to enter Hell. I have. I won’t back down until Lucifer is dead and my brothers and everyone else is safe. No matter what it takes.”
“You may have been able to enter Hell, but you are still mortal,” I reminded her.
Her chin lifted haughtily up. “That was your choice, and this is mine.”
“River—”
“So help me, Kobal, I will blast you back into that carnival if you say this isn’t my choice. It is mine.”
Magnus’s laughter echoed through the chamber before it abruptly cut off when I sent him a quelling look.
“I like her,” he said to Bale and Corson.
The hounds on my arm shifted restlessly, seeking to do whatever they could to keep River protected as fire came to life on the tips of my fingers and licked over my skin. Magnus, Bale, Hawk, and Corson edged further away, but River continued to face me head-on, refusing to back down.