River
“He must be weakened, Kobal,” Magnus said. “And you are the only one with the ability to drain a soul to the point where they are completely incapacitated.”
“Can’t we… ahh…” Hawk trailed off as he flicked a guilty glance at me.
“Destroy him?” I finished when Hawk wouldn’t.
“We can neither create nor destroy a soul,” Magnus replied. “But Kobal can feed deeper and longer from them than any of the rest of us. This wraith will be of no use to anyone after Kobal is done with him.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat and stepped away from the wall. Kobal’s gaze slid from my father to me and back again. I sensed his hesitation. This man had never been a father to me, but I wouldn’t be standing here if it wasn’t for him, and Kobal knew it.
“Kobal, he must be incapacitated,” Magnus pressed.
“Go on,” I said quietly to Kobal. “He has to be stopped.”
“Are you so different than me if you allow this?” my father asked me.
“She is far different than you!” Kobal snarled at him.
There was almost a sadness in my father’s gaze as he studied me. “You look so much like my mother,” he murmured.
I was taken aback by his words as I tried to grasp everything that was happening. He’d probably said that to gain sympathy from me, but I couldn’t stop the ache spreading in my chest. I’d had a whole family out there that I hadn’t known.
Grandparents, I’d had grandparents. Well, of course I’d had grandparents; he hadn’t been spontaneously born onto the earth, but I’d never really thought of them before. My mother’s parents had passed before I was born; she’d had no siblings. I think a part of me had assumed it had been the same on my father’s side too.
“Is your mother… is my grandmother here too?” I croaked out.
Was that actually compassion in my father’s gaze? “No, my mother never would have been sent here. She deserved and earned better.”
For some reason, those words made it impossible for me to hold his gaze. He’d done something horrible to end up here, and he was helping Lucifer, but the love in his eyes for his mother had been unmistakable. It had been fleeting, but so raw, so human. I stared at my battered boots as I inhaled one tremulous breath then another.
Finally, I felt strong enough to look at him again. “What is your name?”
He looked surprised by my question. “Your mother never told you?”
“No.”
“My name is Rio.” My heart plummeted into my feet at his response. “It’s Spanish for…”
“River,” I said the word with my father.
A smug smile curved his mouth once more. Kobal took an abrupt step toward me. He stopped when I shivered and backed away from them.
“My mother named me for you,” I murmured.
“Probably because you are very much like me,” he replied.
“The fuck she is!” Kobal roared.
Kobal’s denial didn’t matter though. I knew that wasn’t the reason my mother had named me for my father. No, she’d had an entirely different reason behind the choosing of my name. Kobal’s hand constricted on my father’s neck, causing him to squirm and twitch within his hold once more.
“Do whatever has to be done,” I said and forced my wooden feet to turn away from them. I walked back toward the entrance of the broken seal. I knew this had to be done, but it didn’t mean I had to watch it. My legs wobbled as I walked. Corson moved to help me, but I waved him away.
“I need some space,” I told him.
He hesitated for a minute before stepping away from me. He remained where he was in the center of the floor while I made my way toward the doorway. Leaning against the wall, I stared across the ruined seals spreading out before me in a long tunnel of death as I contemplated my father’s words.
From the second I’d been born, my mother had been looking for a way to distance herself from me, a reminder to keep herself from loving me. She’d discovered a way to do that when she’d named me. Every time she said my name, every time she thought it, she was reminded of the man who had left her behind with his child.
She had not named me after my father as a way to hold onto a man she’d loved; I doubted she’d ever loved anyone. He’d most likely been a fling for her too, one who had left her knocked up and alone, and she’d resented him for it. Perhaps she hated him as much as she did me.
When I’d been younger, I’d tried so hard to win her approval and earn her love before finally giving up. Now I realized I’d never had a shot of succeeding. I never should have had to try and earn it to begin with. I had no idea why the realization she’d always been determined to hate me rattled me so much, but I found myself grappling to keep myself together as I stared across the blood-soaked carnage before me.
I’d sworn, after she’d sold me to the government, she’d never be able to do anything to hurt me again. I hated that I was wrong. I hated that I now realized, no matter how far I distanced myself from her, she would always have the ability to slice me deep.
An echoing scream pierced the air behind me at the same time I thought I heard the ringing clash of steel coming from the beginning of the seals. I tried not to think about who Kobal was feeding from as my father’s cries drowned out all other noise.
The higher the scream went, the warmer the air around me became. The wraith’s strength was draining. My father’s strength was draining, and I was becoming stronger once more.
“Don’t feel bad for him,” I whispered before a shadow fell over me.
My head shot up, and I took a step back as my eyes latched onto the creature flying across the top of the ceiling. Panic curdled within me when I spotted the gnarled black wings stretched out at its sides. I stumbled back and collided with the wall when it turned its head to look down at me. I barely had time to assimilate what it was before I saw another one soaring in behind it, followed by another.
Turning, I sprinted for the intact seal and the others. “Angels!” I shouted and pointed to the ceiling.
Kobal’s head shot toward me, and his hand tightened around the throat of the emaciated and twisted wraith within his grasp. I couldn’t recognize anything about the creature he held now, as my father’s visage had vanished to be replaced with his wraith form once more. Its jaw had extended until it was nearly two feet long, and its mouth revealed nothing but gaping emptiness within it. The once blue eyes had sunken into its black and twisted face until they’d stopped being visible. It resembled what many imagined the Grim Reaper would look like.
Before I could make it two more steps, something crashed into my side. Arms wrapped around me as I tumbled across the ground. A scream rose in my throat and strangled there when Corson’s citrine eyes filled my vision from his position on top of me. I only had a second of relief before he was plucked off me and lifted high into the air.