Incendiary (The Premonition Series (Volume 4)) (76 page)

Declan reaches
me, his hand
encircling my neck as he lifts
me off my feet. Wild-ey
ed from lack of oxygen, I stare
into his scowling face.

“Faolan
loved ye! Why co
uld ye na jus obey us?” he asks
me
in a shaming tone
, even though he probably kno
w
s I ca
n’t answer him.
“Ye will be one o’
us
and ye’ll spend da rest o’
yer life making it up ta him…and ye can na…ye fool,
ye can
na make it up ta him
!”

Scratching usel
essly at Declan’s hand, I choke and redden
, doing a painful dan
ce as my legs swi
ng around.
Declan
’s
sneer deepens as he applies
more pressure to
my neck. Rage and anger darken
Declan’s
eyes before mine shift
away from
his to the beautiful green ones just behind him.

The dull gli
nt of a knife’s blade penetrates
through the back of Declan’s neck to emerge in front
of my eyes. With a vicious tug, Reed
cut
s
through the tendons and sinew there. De
clan’s grip immediately slackens and I drop
to the ground while
his head ratchets
forward,
onl
y half
way attached, making
Declan
all-the-way dead.

“Evie,” Reed says
, his eyes wide with concern.
He reaches
out to take me in his arms.

“Reed,” I
gasp
with relief, but before he can touch me, Brennus appears
behind him
.

My eyes flare
wide, panic causing my swollen throat to constrict in agony, while
a soft sound of anguish tumbles
from my lips. R
eed must know
by my expression
,
because he turns
away from me
to plunge
his knife into Brennus’
looming
shoulder.
Brennus winces, but he’
s
still
able to reach out and
tou
ch
his cold, toxic fingert
ips to Reed’s hand as it grips
the knife handle
embedded in him
.

H
orror twists
my heart as
the muscles in Reed’s back
relax. H
is wings slowly lower
in complacency.
Reed stands
docilely in front of Bren
nus,
staring at him
as if he i
s
his love, not me
.

Placing his hand on Reed’s strong
chest, Brennus gi
ve
s
him a gentle push, easily turning Reed
’s
passive body
as he nudges
past him to me.
Pulling the knife from his shoulder with
only a small wince, Brennus says
to Reed, “Stay dere,”
and
my angel
obeys
.

I hear
something grating,
something
like screams
,
except they have
little
s
ound, no real pitch. I
t takes
me a few moments to
realize that I am
making those noise
s. My damaged larynx won’t allow
my crushed spirit to vent its desolation and despair.
Just soft whimpers emerge
from my trembling body, while all of the ramifica
tions of what just occurred tear
my heart in two.

The sorrow
in Brennus’ eyes matches my own, when he reaches out and cups
my
damp
cheek.
A
shudder
of hatred, so deep and brutal
,
racks
my body as I
gaze
at Brennus.
He just delivered to
Reed
what i
s tantamount to
a death sentence. Reed will
die by Brennus’ hand or by another angel
’s
, because the poison ad
ministered
by Brennus’
touch
i
s lethal
, almost as bad as
tasting his
blood...

Brennus’ finger trace
s
the path of my tears.
“
Would ye cry like dat for me
,
mo
chroí
, if he’
d killed me instead?” he ask
s
in agony.

Tears continue
to fall fr
om my eyes, but my mind screams
,
WAS LETHAL…
WAS…
UNTIL RUSSELL SAVED ME…

I hood
my gaze.
“I’ll do anything you
want—
everything
,” I
beg in a raspy voice that oscillates and breaks
.
My eyes drift to Reed who has
the satisfied smile of one
u
nder the hazy thrall of the Gancanagh
.

I will fight for you,
my eyes promise
Reed’s before they shift
back to Brennus’.

I turn
my lips to kiss the palm of Brennus’
hand in submission.
His eyes soften
and he
seems
somewhat comforted by what I just did.
He traces
my lips with his thumb.
“I’ve never known anyone ta
survive me bloo
d,” he utters
meditatively
, while gently stroking my cheek. “Ye’re a marvel, Genevieve.”

“I’ll be your ma
rvel, Brennus. L
et Reed go with Russe
ll. Then, I’m all
yours,” I say with what I hope
i
s a seductive smile.

Brennus stiffens
.
“More conditions?” he asks
with a calculated
r
ise of his dark eyebrow
.

“You love to bargain, Bren
nus. You live for it,” I reply
, trying to slow the beat of my heart that I’m sure he can hear.
“Take me with you—
lea
ve him.” I cast my ga
ze on Reed. “I see now that he’
s weak. You beat him—
let the angels kill him.”

“Naw, you
ain’t goin’ no
where with him,” Russell growls
, grasping my upper arm and yanking me out of Brennus’ hands.

Brennus’
demeanor turns deadly. He begi
n
s
pulling ene
rgy to him immediately; I
feel it traveling through me.
“Ye kil
led Faolan
,” Brennus snarls
at Russell.
“Do na tink for on
e
moment dat I’
ll let ye live.”

“Naw, you
killed him. It was your
blood that
I pushed into him, not mine,” Russell
spi
t
s
back
, whi
le the energy in the air shifts
to Russell, too.
A clone sh
o
ot
s
forth from Russell, fleeing in the directio
n of the castle. Brennus watches it streak away, and he kno
w
s what it means. Other angels will
come now.

“He’s
na very bright, is he,
mo chroí
?
Is dat why ye threw him aside for da
aingeal
?” he asks
as his brows draw together. “Ye do realize, da o
ther, dat I’m now in control of a lethal Power angel? He’ll kill for me at my slightest whim.”

“He’d expect me to ki
ll him,” Russell retorts
, pushing me away from him.

I collapse
on the ground and when I
try to get up, I bump
into an inv
isible wall that Russell creates
to keep me from
going with
Brennus.
I beat on the transparent
barrier, my heart pounding in my chest b
ecause I have to go
; it’s the only way to save Reed.

“Her
e is yer chance ta kill h
im den,” Brennus says
with a scowl, before he turns to Reed and says
softly, “
A
ingeal
, kill da o
ther…”

Reed’s
wings pin back as he ru
n
s full-out at Russell, but
the wall of energy surrounding both Russell and me knocks him back
. Growling low, Reed prowls forward and cases the energy,
testing it for weakness by brutally throwing his shoulder against it. The fierce
and cunning scowl on his face i
s sca
rier than his snarl because Reed has
never looked at us like that
before
—
l
ike he’ll eviscerate us if he can
just reach us.

Shouts and commotion co
me from just beyond the path, up near t
he door to my garden room. The
beautiful
voices of angels calling into the night elicit
desperation in
me. I beg
i
n to struggle against Russell’s magic, throwing myself against it to find a weakness
, too
.

“Russell, they’re coming! You have to let me g
o! I have to go
with Brennus
,” I plead
,
feeling
Russell
pushing more
e
nergy into his spell to keep me back
.

“I ca
n’t let you do it,” Russell says
grimly
.

Brennus wind
s
his arm back and thro
w
s
fire at Russell
’s wall
,
only to have it deflect
in a shower of sparks
.

Russell sneers
,
“I told you
a long time ago
that you
should’ve been worried ‘
bout what I was becomin’
, but now it
’s too late. Your
men are dead
and you’
re
next.”

“Dat is na qu
ite right, is it?” Brennus asks
. “Ye
r weakness
jus le
d yer friend ta
a slaughter.
She jus might kill ye before I do,
”
he says
, nodding his head at me. “
Her
aingeal
is as good as dead, all because
of ye.”

“Russell! PLEASE
!
LET ME GO
!” I beg
hysterically
, with m
y eyes on Reed who watches
Russell like he’s
prey.

“I CAN’T!
”
Russell shouts
back at me in a tone somewhere between rage and despair.

Brennus, seeing the need for retreat
when the angel
voices gro
w closer
, pulls
a compact from inside his disheveled suit coa
t. Flipping the portal open,
he turns to Reed and orders
, “Enter da
portal and wait for me
.”

Reed immediately shape-shifts by
ex
pl
oding into a swarm of honeybees.
He disappears
into the portal in a moment.

“NO!” I scream as my mind pulses
with the most horrendous torture scenarios that await Reed at the other end of that portal.
Brennus
hesitates
when I
beat
against
the
invisible cage sur
rounding me.
“
WAIT! BRENNUS, WAIT!” I scream
desperately. “I will come to you. I promise, I will.”