The Dread.
These were the Dread, and this would be my power source. I reached into the abyss, sinking my hands into the glorious light, and squeezed. Screams tore the air, high-pitched and soul-wrenching.
No.
What was I doing? I needed to stop. Stop it right now.
Heat travelled up my arms, and into my chest, potent and powerful, making my heart pound too hard and my muscles expand.
No. This wasn’t me. It wasn’t me!
And then another voice joined mine in my head. “Hello, sister.”
Ice filled my non-existent veins.
Cain!
“I warned you not to invade my mind,” he said coolly. “I spared you once, but I won’t make that mistake again. I’m coming for you.”
Oh shit. I was in his head, and I needed to get out.
The screams of the Dread rose around me, desperate and in pain, and then Cain sank his arms deep into the light and began to feed.
“Fee, wake up!” Mal shook me gently.
I starfished, smacking him in the cheek. “Babe, sorry.”
He rubbed his face. “It’s fine. You’re fine now.”
“I had a dream.”
“No shit. You were moaning and thrashing. You mumbled the word Dread.”
My heart was still hammering as I sat up and pulled the covers to my chest, clutching them like a security blanket.
“I was in Cain’s head and…I think… I think he devoured the Dread.”
Mal looked at me in confusion. “What?”
Shit, it was all getting fuzzy now, but the memory of his voice was clear as a bell. “He knew I was in his head. He knew, and he said he was coming for me.”
Mal hugged me and rested his chin on my head. “If he comes for you, that fucker will have to get through me, Az, Samael, and a whole fucking demon army, so fuck him.”
The knot in my chest eased a little. “Mal…He was feeding on Dread…What does that even mean?”
“I don’t know,” Mal said. “But whatever he’s up to, we’ll figure it out, and we’ll stop him. I’ll send a phoenix to Necro first thing in the morning. Uri will pick it up when he checks in.”
“You asked Uri to check in to the quarters?”
“Yeah, just in case.”
Okay, it was going to be fine. Everything was going to be fine. Right now, I needed to focus on Lilith and the trip to the pit. Cain would have to wait. I’d find him afterward.
But there was a little voice in the back of my mind that whispered… Unless he finds you first.
Breakfast at the Keep was taken in a grand room with high-backed chairs with velvet cushioned seats. Chandeliers hung overhead, and the floor was like polished obsidian. Candelabras hugged the walls, giving the place an old-world air, despite the evidence of technology.
Way too many plates, hosting way too many breakfast options, covered one end of the table built to hold twenty. We’d commandeered one end and Azazel sat at the head with me on his right and Mal opposite me.
Samael hadn’t joined us. In fact, we hadn’t seen him for two days.
I took a bite of my eggs, lightly salted, fluffy, and delicious. “Is Samael okay?”
Azazel sipped his coffee. “He’s been doing the rounds of Imperium., showing his face to the troops. It builds morale to see him. There have been so many rumours about his fate over the decades, and this puts those to rest and gives the people hope that we will prevail against Mammon.”
The truth of our predicament was out of the bag. They knew Lilith had been taken and that Mammon was behind the attacks on Imperium. But seeing Samael, their lord, the most powerful original fallen, would stem any panic and rally the troops.
“I wish Keon was here.”
Mal gave me a sharp look across the table and my neck heated, but I locked gazes with him, willing the warmth to subside.
“So that we can find the map and get on with saving Lilith.”
Mal sucked in his cheeks as if to say, yeah right.
God, he was a dick sometimes. I knew the score when it came to Keon, but that didn’t mean I could switch off my feelings for the daemon. It didn’t mean I could turn off the attraction. This wasn’t easy for me, but I was going to do it, because it was for the best.
I arched my brow. “I just want to get this trip over with so we can all breathe.”
The side of my face grew warm, and I turned to find Azazel studying me intensely.
“What?” I gave him an innocent, wide-eyed look.
“Why do I feel like you’re hiding something from me?” Azazel asked.
His silver eyes raked over me, as if he could extract the hidden information with a pointed look.
Heat rushed over my skin and I knew I was blushing.
“Fee?” Azazel’s expression softened with concern.
Mal puffed out his cheeks.
I had two options. I could deny or I could confess. Mal had cautioned me not to tell Azazel about my feelings for Keon, and if Azazel hadn’t asked directly if I was holding something back, then I’d have been able to keep my mouth shut, but this… Denying there was anything hidden, felt too much like lying to my soulmate.
That, I couldn’t do.
I turned in my seat, and Mal made a sound of protest.
Azazel frowned. “What is it?”
“It’s nothing,” Mal spoke for me.
I could feel his attention on me, searing and willing me to keep my mouth shut.
I couldn’t do that. “I have feelings for Keon.”
Azazel went still as stone, and my heart hammered against my ribcage. “I kissed him in Limbo to save him, but…I enjoyed the kiss. I mean…I wanted to kiss him, and then back at quarters we had a moment. We’ve grown close and I see a side of him others don’t, but I know what he did to you. I know he’s a puppet for Lilith and that if she asks him to, he will kill me, so I’m not going there.”
The words tumbled out in a rush and then I was done. It was my turn to study his expression, to watch for the tell-tale sign of anger, disappointment, something.
His jaw ticked, and his eyes darkened like the beginning of a storm, the only outward signs he was pissed.
“Babe?” I winced and touched his arm.
He didn’t pull away, but his hand balled into a fist.
“Azazel, talk to me.”
“He touched you?”
“Yes.”
“He kissed you.” His expression was flat giving nothing away.
“Yes, but I was willing."
His jaw flexed and he closed his eyes.
“Azazel?”
He locked gazes with me. “I love you, Fee, and I want you to be happy, but there are certain things I will not compromise on. Keon is one of them.”
He was calm. Too calm. The eye of a raging storm calm, and the tiny sliver of hope in the deep recesses of my heart that had hoped his reaction would be different, died.
“I won’t go there. I promise.”
He reached out to touch my cheek and his exhalation took the tension gripping his body with it. “For you, Fee, I can forgive Keon’s crimes against me. He was merely a Blade after all, but I would never forgive myself if your heart was broken, and Keon will break it if Lilith asks him to. He’ll have no choice.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I know.”
“Good. He leaned across to kiss me lightly on the forehead before turning his attention to Mal. “Next time, don’t ask my soulmate to keep shit from me.”
Mal held up his hands. “How was I to know you’d take it so well.”
Azazel’s smile was a jagged thing. “Who said I’ve taken it well?” He pushed back his seat and stalked from the room.
I looked across the table at Mal. “Um, what just happened?”
Mal’s mouth parted in revelation and then he shoved back his chair. “Keon got back late last night.”
What? “But I asked you earlier?”
“No, you said you wished he was here, like at breakfast with us.”
“That wasn’t what I meant, and you know it.”
“Yeah,” Mal admitted. “But—"
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
He gave me a look that said, seriously?
“Okay, so he’s back.” I crossed my arms. “Good.”
Mal raised both brows as if waiting for the penny to drop, and it did. Oh fuck.
Azazel was going after Keon.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Azazel
He’s touched her, laid his blood-stained hands on her, even though he knows… He knows what he is and what he’s capable of. My rage is a tornado in my chest and although I could calm it, I could tame, it I need to use it. Channel it. Because I can’t let this slide.
I won’t
I need to show him, to impress on him, how off limits my soulmate is.
He won’t take her from me. Not like he took the others, because Fee isn’t someone I can mourn and get over. Fee is my heart, and although I’m willing to share her with select others, I’m not willing to share her with him, because he has the real potential to tear that heart in two.
He needs to understand that Fee is not to be touched.
I find him in the training room, his go to place when he’s here. He’s locked in a sequence of moves that ground and center him. I know this Kata. He taught me how to do it. I recall the chiding, the praise, the laughter, the shared meals after training, and the coveted pats on the back. For a moment I falter, but then I recall how he turned against me and killed every woman I’ve ever loved. He did it coldly, dispassionately, and he never batted an eye.
I can’t let that be Fee’s fate.
He stops and looks at me with cat’s eyes that burn with derision, and my rage surges up to choke me.
“Stay away from Fee.” My words fall like hail stones, cold and cutting.
His doesn’t even flinch. He simply tips his head to the side. “You don’t get to give me orders, pup.”
Pup? I hate that nickname, given to me centuries ago when he was the mentor and I was the student.