Deidre's Death (#2, Rhyn Eternal) (23 page)

Darkyn’s mate cast a worried look at the
teen demoness, who was shaking. Deidre held no warmth at all for
Darkyn, but she could understand that the girl didn’t belong in
this mess.

“Will you leave her?” Darkyn’s mate asked.
“I have the power of Hell at my back. I can grant you almost
anything in exchange for her life.”

“I will, too,” Deidre spoke up. “Any deal I
make will be sealed by Death’s magic.”

Harmony was quiet for a moment.

“Darkyn made a deal with Gabriel for your
soul, Harmony. Whoever finds you first, Darkyn keeps you,” Darkyn’s
mate added.

The death dealer paled and glanced at
Deidre. Deidre knew that look, the one that said that Harmony was
staring down an eternity of demon mercy. It was the same feeling
that Deidre got every time she let herself think of what happened
when her deal ran out.

“Let the girl go, and I’ll make sure your
soul goes where it should, right beside mine,” Deidre added,
carefully wording the deal.

“Or you can risk an eternity with the Dark
One personally overseeing your day-to-day … activities,” Darkyn’s
mate seconded.

Harmony appeared indecisive.

“The soul of a deity or former deity has
special standing,” Deidre pushed. “Yours will remain right beside
mine.”

Harmony tossed her head towards the death
dealer holding Darkyn’s daughter. She held out a hand to Deidre.
Deidre took it. They shook, and their deal was sealed with the
magic of Gabriel. Darkyn’s mate was looking at her hard. Deidre
focused on the girl.

The death dealer tossed the teen demoness
through a yellow portal, onto the mortal plane rather than into
Hell. Darkyn’s mate gasped.

“She’s alive,” Deidre said quickly, seeing
the woman’s distress.

“If either of you summons your mates, I’ll
kill the other. If you try to alert anyone or escape, I’ll peel
your skin from your bodies and watch you scream,” Harmony warned.
“Got it?”

Deidre nodded. So did Darkyn’s mate.

“Now, we’re going to Hell.”

Deidre swallowed hard. This was definitely
not how she envisioned the end of her week. Worst of all: she’d
miss her first dinner date with Gabriel.

Not even the thought of
losing her soul could rival the sorrow she felt knowing she’d
disappoint him one last time.

Wynn heard the commotion from his place on
the terrace taking afternoon tea. He never expected to see the blue
sky again or the trees around the fortress, let alone sip sweet tea
and nibble on berry scones. He’d been in the middle of deciding
which of his collection of knives he was going to use to kill the
goddess once and for all when the noise started.

It sounded as if half a legion of armed
Immortals was chasing someone through the fortress. Assuming it was
some sort of uncivilized training exercise engineered by the
half-breed in charge of the Council, he was nonetheless stopped
from enjoying his first tea since returning from Hell.

His peace ruined, he rose and strode into
the fortress. The main floor consisted of common areas and wide
halls lined with massive windows. What he saw was exactly how he
pictured it: undisciplined scrambling by about a dozen Immortals in
uniform. He watched them, recalling a time he’d overseen the
training of all Immortal warriors.

Times had definitely changed. He wasn’t
certain how Rhyn’s men managed to drive away the demons last
autumn. If anything, it made Darkyn look bad for not being able to
defeat the disorganized rabble.

Determined to find some peace and quiet,
Wynn ignored the men racing in different directions through the
hallways and went to one of the back stairwells. He climbed halfway
up before he heard what sounded like a sob from behind him. He
turned in time to see someone racing away. He started to resume his
climb then paused.

Unable to explain exactly why, he had the
sense that whomever it was that he saw, he knew.

Wynn trotted down the stairs. He heard two
of the Immortals shouting from down a nearby hall and saw the dark
figure duck into a doorway. Wynn wished of the second time that day
he had a weapon of some sort. He would’ve gutted past-Death earlier
if so.

Silently, he strode down the hallway after
the figure he saw. He pushed the door to a dark room open, using
his senses to key in on where the person was. Though he possessed
nowhere near the level of power he used to, he was still able to
sense the figure cowering in a corner. Unwilling to alarm them and
possibly end up stabbed, he pretended not to know and moved through
the room.

He went to the window opposite the figure
and closed his eyes, then whipped the curtain open. Someone gasped.
Wynn turned and opened his eyes. The figure’s arm was raised to
block the blinding light.

Wynn moved before his victim could. He
snatched the arm and whirled her, arm sliding around the neck of
the mysterious person.

The skin against his jaw was rough. Scarred.
The body went limp. Her breathing was ragged, her frame shaking. He
leaned away to look down and confirm that she wore the dress of a
demoness.

“Selyn,” he said, surprised. “If that’s you,
tell me.”

He waited to see what she
did. The girl tapped his arm then held up three fingers, the sign
she’d made to mean
Wynn.
Darkyn was one finger, his mate two fingers and
Wynn three. Darkyn’s daughter was unable to speak with the damage
done to her head and neck. She was lucky to walk. By the trembling
of her body, she wasn’t going to be on her feet much
longer.

What the fuck was Darkyn’s daughter doing in
the Immortal stronghold?

He released her and turned her to face him.
There were tears on her cheeks. She held up two fingers.

“Deidre,” he said.

She nodded and started breathing hard and
fast, panicking. Her eyes were dark, her pixie-cut messy.

“Whatever your father did, don’t involve
me,” he said. “Gods, he’ll fucking slaughter me for talking to
you.”

Selyn shook her head. She was upset but
didn’t know how to tell him why. She held up two fingers again.

Frustrated and concerned his
self-preservation was at stake, Wynn summoned a portal to take the
girl back.

Selyn tried to bolt. Wynn caught her,
puzzled. She was shaking her head again, staring at the portal with
huge eyes. The growl of a demoness was almost a whimper.

He closed the portal. At a loss as to what
to do next, he was about to summon Darkyn when the room shook. Wynn
went still. He’d felt the earth crack open once before. It happened
the first time Darkyn invaded the mortal world from Hell. The demon
lord tore the plane between the two.

Wynn took Selyn’s arm. He led her to the
window. She looked out and squeezed his arm in excitement. Wynn was
far less thrilled by what they saw.

Darkyn was standing beside a molten tear in
the earth, flanked by seven demons that stood one and a half times
the size of Gabriel, the largest man Wynn knew.

“Darkyn’s here with his back-up squad.
You’re clearly upset about something. I don’t see Deidre,” Wynn
said, thinking fast. “Should I assume something happened to
her?”

Selyn nodded vigorously.

Rhyn and several other Immortals spilled out
of the fortress.

“I think we need to get down there,” Wynn
said.

Selyn started away, tugging at him to
follow.

“Wait, Selyn. The Immortals won’t hesitate
to hurt you.”

Her eyes watered again. She’d been raped and
killed by an Immortal. She knew what danger she was in. Wynn
doubted she knew that the Immortal who did it was his son. She
wouldn’t be anywhere near him if she did.

“If you don’t want to go through the portal”
- She shook her head - “then we’ll have to go through the back
passages.”

She waited.

Wynn almost sighed. Whatever happened, it
could break bad. Darkyn didn’t tear the fabric between worlds for a
simple hello.

“Stay with me no matter what, okay?” he
instructed her.

She nodded. Gods help the
girl, she trusted
him
of all people.

Gabriel.

Rhyn’s summons came at a bad time. Gabriel
finished collecting the souls from the bowl then straightened,
motioning to Landon. Andre had tipped them off about another,
smaller warehouse. This one was the size of a small apartment,
stacked ceiling to floor with bodies. Ten demons guarded this one,
two of which he’d slaughtered before leaving his dealers to handle
the rest to search for souls.

“Rhyn’s calling. Can you handle this?” he
asked Landon.

Landon nodded.

“I’ll take these to the lake. Stay
available.” Gabriel summoned a portal and emerged at the lake.

He froze. He could
feel
that something
happened. It was a new kind of sense, one he’d never experienced
before. Something was broken and for once, it wasn’t Death’s
domain. Another sense grew stronger. It was familiar. He last
experienced it …

…
Monday night, when
Deidre had gone to Hell. He didn’t understand it at the time. It
was less an instinct and more of an absence of something. A warmth
at the edge of his mind.

Gabriel.

He started towards the fortress at a trot,
struggling to decipher the instincts of a deity. Something broken
and something missing. His pace quickened, and he left the forest
and trotted to the Immortals’ stronghold. His attention shifted
from his thoughts to the scene before him, and he slowed.

Rhyn and Andre stood near Darkyn between two
lines, one of Immortals and the opposite of demons larger than any
Gabriel had ever seen. Both demon lord and half-demon were
bristling with power, the Dark One’s growl audible long before
Gabriel reached them. He paused near the crack in the ground.

He saw it once before, when he was
seventeen. When Darkyn’s demons had wiped out his village, a tiny
stopover on their journey to enslave the mortal realm.

“Gabriel.” Only Andre would manage to sound
calm standing before two creatures with enough power to turn him to
dust.

“What’s going on?” Gabriel asked, hands on
the hilts of his weapons.

He wasn’t expecting anyone but Andre to
answer. The two demons were locked in a silent staring contest.
When he was close enough, Darkyn addressed him.

“My mate. Now,” the Dark One snarled. His
eyes were cold and sharp. With the tear between worlds, he was able
to use more of the power normally restricted to Hell. Dark power
surged around him.

“Where’s your Deidre?” Rhyn asked Gabriel,
his gaze never leaving Darkyn.

Gabriel summoned her with enough power that
she wasn’t able to ignore him, even if she was upset.

No response.

He waited another moment, unleashing his
senses.

He should be able to find his mate no matter
where she was – but couldn’t.

Something missing.

If he couldn’t find her, she was in one of
two places: Hell or the underworld.

“What the fuck happened?” he asked, focusing
on Andre.

“You fucking tell me.” The Dark One faced
him.

Gabriel didn’t react, instead motioning to
Andre to do something about Rhyn, who was ready to explode. The
half-demon had the impact of a nuclear bomb with absolutely no
control. He summoned Landon and gave his second-in-command an
urgent message.

Find my mate.

“I want my mate,” Darkyn repeated.

“Harder to hang onto than you thought?”
Gabriel couldn’t help baiting the enraged demon. He didn’t think
he’d ever be able to rationalize that both Deidres had gone to
Darkyn instead of trusting him without resentment.