Chapter Twenty-Four

Carowyn

I waited. Standing in the frigid air outside the Gothic wrought iron gate—dragon heads roaring upward on the tallest pikes—I watched and waited as shadows lengthened along the empty road. I noted the hundreds of red priests lining the long drive to the mansion, two rows deep on either side. Their gaunt faces, jet black hair, lithe figures, and long-distance stares in stoic silence raised gooseflesh on my skin. Torches lined the drive as well, casting flickering shadows on the priests. Several furies stood at attention at the entrance of the gate, their monstrous forms adding to the eerie silence. As I’d thought, hellhounds—their gray-black fur spiked on their spines, fangs sharp, and red eyes gleaming—snarled and gnashed along the perimeter. At least twenty paced within sight of where I was standing.

Finally, three figures emerged from the mansion. Two tall and one short. Rook and Simian flanked Maddie, holding her hands. The sickening display of care for the girl made me want to throat-punch them both. I gripped the object that spawned this nightmare, which was wrapped carefully in a green scarf, tightly against my chest.

As they drew closer, Simian grinned like the demented maniac he was, but Rook didn’t. I’d seen that look before. When someone passed some transgression against him, intentionally or not, he cemented into a glacial, menacing creature. Like a viper, he coiled with calculating intent, preparing to strike where he thought his venom was most warranted.

I cringed but held my ground, focusing on Maddie. Her eyes, round and dark, widened at the sight of me.

“Hello, Maddie,” I said gently. “Are you all right?”

She nodded as they stopped a few feet inside the gate. “I’m scared.”

“I know, darling,” I replied with tenderness. “We’ll be going home soon.”

“That depends now, doesn’t it?” Simian jeered.

“Fuck off, Simian.”

He tossed his head back with a throaty laugh, revealing his fanged teeth, before whipping his attention to his brother. “She’s so testy, your girl.”

His girl? What the hell was he smoking? Was he daft?

“Shut up, Simian,” he ordered, tugging Maddie forward two steps.

Simian crossed his arms and hissed at me through fanged teeth. Such a bitch.

Then my attention was only for little Maddie, her sweet round face so pale. Rook maneuvered her in front of him, keeping his hands on her shoulders, his clawed fingers holding gently—but firmly.

“Did you bring it?” he asked.

I laid my arm flat, gripping one edge of the torque as it balanced on my arm in the scarf. Unwrapping the folds, I revealed the brass ornament Rook wanted with such dire lust it unnerved me beyond reason. Simian jumped up and down and clapped his hands like a child. I kept my focus on Rook. He reached out a hand and curled his fingers.

“Give it to me.”

I shook my head. “No way. This is a trade.”

Angling his head, he said condescendingly, “You can’t expect me to leave the protection of my wards?”

“And you expect me to step inside without the ability to sift away?”

“You could sift away with the child and the torque.”

“You could have your guards attack me, and I’d be helpless to escape.”

“I promise I will not harm you.” His brow furrowed in a semblance of pain. It was almost convincing. “Have I ever lied to you?” His gaze softened, making my heart hammer with unease.

Had he? When he’d told me I would regret becoming his lover? When he’d told me I would miss him when he was gone? Or that my body would crave him in the lonely dead of night? Or that I’d hate him one day? No. Rook had never lied to me. All had come true. And all had been swept away. He was a nonexistent blip on my radar. I never truly realized it until now. Until I’d made the choice to take a side. Until Xander.

Like Judith, I stepped across the boundary into his lair. But also like the biblical heroine, I didn’t walk into this tent of death unarmed. I thought of her, holding her head high, proud of the risk she took, of the danger she welcomed, all to save the ones she loved. For what else was there, if not love?

I knew. I’d been imprisoned in my cell of isolation for centuries, pretending the world didn’t need me, pretending I didn’t need the world. As long as I could continue on in my dreamlike state, creating weapons for the wars, I could convince myself that this was enough. But then a half-dead hunter was brought into my shop and laid upon my table. My first instinct was to run and hide, to deny Dommiel his request and deny that I had the power to save him. But something, some long-gone thread of light inside me, whispered in the dark, yearning for the light, and coaxed me with soft hands to use my gift for something other than forging a weapon. And so I did. I mended that man’s heart. Then he awoke. And he mended mine.

So here I was, taking a stand. Fighting for an innocent who didn’t deserve a ruthless, bloody end like Abram. So strange. I thought I’d be terrified at this moment of crossing over from solitary indifference to bold aggression against one of my own kind. Hell, who was I kidding? Rook wasn’t one of my kind. Yes, I’d fallen from grace, but I sure as shit could pick myself up again. Rather than feeling trapped by stepping into the arms of a monster, I felt liberated. Having finally found myself. Having finally freed Carowyn.

I dropped the scarf and balanced the shining torque in my palms, torchlight flickering on the surface. Though not entirely dark, the sky was an eerie blue-gray. Power hummed within the cold metal, vibrating into my skin.

Rook stared covetously and took a sudden step forward, now only about five feet separating us. I didn’t smile as I watched his gaze shift from the torque to me then back to the torque.

One thing I’d learned in my time with Rook was his tells, and when he planned nefarious deeds for those around him. I’d sensed it the night of the masquerade when he demanded I make the torque. It triggered me again when he killed Hannah. And now, I was sure of it. I knew exactly what he planned to do with the torque all along. While forging the torque, I’d recalled the conversation I’d had with Xander that day at the beech tree. I’d practically told him the answer when I’d warned him to keep Maddie’s power a secret. Rather ridiculous I didn’t come to the right conclusion sooner.

I held out the torque in one hand. He moved forward, shuffling Maddie with him, and then reached out a hand to clasp the other side of the collar. I refused to release it, locking eyes with him. He smiled down at the object, sensing the vibration of power trembling through it. That would have to be enough.

“Give me the girl.” I held out my free hand. “Give me your hand, Maddie.”

She did. I tugged her closer and released the torque. Simian giggled like a girl again.

“Now you have what you want,” I said, pushing Maddie backward toward the gate.

When Rook’s sinister gaze lifted from the torque to me, a grin creasing his face, I pushed her faster. In three large steps, he gripped me by the hair and fastened the torque around my neck.

“There now, sweetheart,” he whispered, his black eyes sweeping down to my lips. “This is where my crown belongs. Now, you’re mine. And you”—his fingers lingered on my skin next to the torque—“will make me as many crowns as I tell you to.”

When I imagined this moment, I pictured myself trembling with fear. And yes, I was shaking with absolute terror. Even so, hysterical laughter bubbled up my throat. Rook frowned. Not exactly the reaction he was expecting.

I released Maddie’s hand. “Go, Maddie. Run.”

“No,” she cried. “Not without you.”

This, I hadn’t expected. I glanced behind me and gave her a sharp look. She seemed to catch on and started for the gate. I needed her to leave before Rook realized what I’d done. I put a hand on Rook’s shoulder and tried for docile. “Let’s go inside, shall we?”

The fact that he’d let her go told me he had no idea she was half seraph. I glanced quickly toward the road as I faced him. Maddie was running into the woods beyond the road. Heaven knew where she’d end up. But she had a better chance of living anywhere outside these gates. Rook started to turn, but then froze and pulled away from me.

“Wait.”

I stopped. He’d given me a command. I had to obey to keep up this pretense.

“Come here, Simian.”

A chill skittered up my spine.

“Give her a command, brother.”

Rook watched with unnerving scrutiny.

“On your knees and kiss my feet, demoness.”

I dropped to my knees and kissed his filthy fucking shoes, the snow seeping through my jeans and making me shiver. Simian cackled like a maniacal witch. “Good girl.” He patted my head like I was a dog.

Then Rook nudged his brother aside to tower over me. He lifted my chin and stared into my eyes. I kept my expression as placid as possible, but then his burning eyes glinted with swift fury.

“Get the girl!” he snapped to the priests at his side.

“No!” I screamed, lurching to my feet.

I took two steps before a hand wrenched me back by the hair. I fell into the vise-like arms of Rook, who clamped my back to his chest, my arms immobile at my sides. Then he whispered in my ear, rage vibrating in his voice.

“In my mind, I ordered you to drop your top and suck my dick. But you didn’t obey. You didn’t even hear my command, did you? You know why?” He squeezed like a boa constrictor. I gasped in pain. “Because you didn’t put my essence in that torque.”

I watched with horror as two priests dragged back a kicking and screaming Maddie. “No,” I whispered.

He jerked me around, his claws digging into my arms as he shook me. “Whose essence is in this thing? I can feel the power.”

I shook my head on a laugh. He hauled back his arm and backhanded me so hard against my cheek, I spun down into the snow, my vision blackening for several seconds. Then he kicked me in the stomach. I lost my breath.

“Bone!” cried out little Maddie as they dragged her closer.

“Hold her down, Simian,” Rook bellowed with fiery rage. “We’re going to show her what happens to slaves who don’t mind their masters.”

Simian was suddenly behind me, hauling me to my feet. I’d barely caught my breath from his kick to the stomach.

“Bring her here.” Rook summoned the priests who were dragging Maddie back.

“Oh, God, no.”

Not Abram again. Not again. I couldn’t bear it.

“Please, Rook. I’ll do anything you ask. Anything. I promise.” My voice trembled.

I refused to put their essence in the torque because I knew the damn thing would be around my throat and I’d be under their command before I took two steps. My only chance was to have those few moments to give Maddie a running start. But still, it wasn’t enough. I’d thought if I could do this, I could at least keep more of Cooper’s people from dying, more humans from wasting their lives for my mistakes. And yet, here I was, about to watch this beautiful child be torn apart by monsters. Because of me. It was too much to bear. The guilt scored a gash in what was left of my heart.

Rook stalked toward me and gripped my jaw in his hand. “Oh, yes, Bone. You will do anything and everything I want. For the rest of your immortal life. But right now, I’m going to teach you a lesson.”

“I’ll fight you if you kill her,” I growled, fuming. “You think it was hard to get me to forge one weapon for you? And you want hundreds of these, don’t you? I’ll not make a fucking one if you hurt her. I’ll let you beat me to death before I obey one single command.”

He froze, his black eyes considering as he glanced at the girl held between two priests, her tiny arms slanted uncomfortably high for her little body. My heart ached.

Rook turned with eerie slowness back to me, finally realizing I was telling the truth.

“Something happened to you with that hunter, didn’t it? You really are one of those creatures, aren’t you?”

Those creatures? I scoffed.

“Yes. I am.”

He grinned for the first time since I’d stepped onto the compound. “Then this will be even more enjoyable.” He reached for his buckle. “Take off your top and on your knees, Bone.”

Horrified, I glanced at Maddie. “In front of her?” I whispered. Never mind the hundreds of freaky priests watching with their cold black eyes.

“In front of her.”

This had nothing to do with sex, and I knew it. This was about control and humiliation, Rook’s favorite form of punishment. I needed time to save Maddie. So be it.

“Close your eyes, Maddie. And do not open them.”

She closed her eyes with a nod and a frightened whimper.

Simian let my arms go, but he moved directly to my right to get a good view as I unbuttoned my shirt, his creepy eyes watching my hands.

“So whose essence is in that thing anyway?” he whispered close as if we were intimates. White-hot anger flared in my chest.

As I unbuttoned the last one, I lifted my hands as if to remove my shirt and pivoted to him. Then I jerked the torque off my neck and shoved it on Simian’s, holding his nape and pressing down over the torque. There was a reason I used bronze in the making of it. It was the element that had always received my seraph song the best. It listened to me better than any other, almost as if the metal loved me.

“Mine,” I grinned.

With a sudden summons of my seraph magic, I wailed out a long note, sending the powerful vibration straight into the weapon. It harmonized with the magic singing in the air, obeying my will. This time, I called it not to create, but to destroy. Simian’s face blackened, his eyes bulged, his mouth gaped as he screamed. Then I sang a higher note, the old words dancing in my mind, and Simian’s head exploded into charred pieces of ember and ash, his body crumbling to the ground, the torque rolling onto the snow.

I spun toward Rook, who already had Maddie in his grasp, his claws at her throat. He couldn’t speak, his shocked expression on his twin brother. The body of his twin brother. “Where did you send him?” Rage and disbelief simmered in his icy voice.

“Erebus. Where else?”

“How could you?” he demanded, death and destruction in each syllable before his quiet promise, “I’m going to make you hurt so very much, Bone.” I shivered at his black vow. “The pain will be long. So, so long, sweetheart.”

Yes, I’d once wielded the ancient words to expel demons to hell. Just like my hunter. Demons always knew them. They just never used them on their own kind. But I wasn’t one of their kind anymore. I had nothing in common with this creature in front of me.

“My name is Carowyn,” I corrected.

Straightening taller, he seemed to gather his strength as the priests circled closer, being cautious because they didn’t understand my magic. Good for them. Because I wasn’t done yet. I could expel them with my touch and my voice. I didn’t need a blade or a bullet like the angels and the hunters. My voice was my weapon. And my salvation.

He laughed, darkness resonating in the air. “You’ll never make it out alive.”

Hellhounds snarled and snapped, creeping closer. I watched my inevitable end drawing closer. Of all the ways I thought I might be expelled to hell, I never thought it would be like this. Judith flickered in my mind. Her regal demeanor, her triumphant smile in Klimt’s painting as she caressed the evil general’s decapitated head. I smiled at Rook.

“As long as I take you with me, I’ll be fine with that.”

When I saw the shifting flash in his eyes, his tell that he was about to slit Maddie’s throat, I tensed to lunge. But then a horrific roar shrieked from the darkening sky. We all looked up as one at a sight I’d never before seen in all my immortal life.

“No. Fucking. Way.”