Octavian's Undoing (Sons of Judgment) (23 page)

Gideon snorted. “Dude, bros before—”

“I wouldn’t,” Magnus warned when Octavian leveled his brother with a look that promised a slow and torturous death if he continued. Gideon wisely snapped his mouth shut.

“You can sit,” Riley interrupted. “Just stay back.”

“I don’t believe this,” Magnus muttered. “The girl is a hundred pounds soaking wet. I say we—”

“That isn’t your choice to make,” Liam interjected sharply, settling a gentle hand on Kyaerin’s lower back and guiding her across the room to a chair.

The brothers followed, the only one not giving Riley a furious scowl was Reggie. He appeared pensive as he sat.

Riley turned her attention to Octavian. “What are you? What was that stuff about killing me? What do you want? Where were you taking me?”

Octavian raised a hand to stop her rapid fire of questions. “One at a time.”

She didn’t even have to think about it. “What are you?”

His gaze shot to his father, hesitation visible in the tension of his shoulders.

“It’s up to you,” Liam said evenly. “You’re the one that will have to live with the consequences.”

Octavian turned back to Riley, regret shining in his eyes. “If I tell you, you can’t un-know this, Riley. It
will
put you in danger.”

“Are you drug dealers?” she ventured. “Human traffickers? Slave traders? Is that why you hired me?” Her hands tightened around the chair back.

Octavian shook his head. “My parents hired you because you found us.”

Riley stared, not quite grasping what he was telling her. “Come again?”

“We’re shielded from the human world,” Kyaerin said. “Humans don’t usually locate us.”

“Because you’re not human.” As soon as the words were out, she could have smacked herself in the forehead. Of course they weren’t human. Hadn’t he proven that by materializing in front of her in a black cloud? Humans didn’t do that, unless they were Houdini.

“No,” Octavian answered.

“And you can’t tell me what you are.”

“I could, but it’s not safe.”

“Well, tell her something!” Gideon moaned, dropping his forehead onto the table. “I may be immortal, but even I don’t want to sit through this for another century.”

“It’s safer if you don’t know, Riley,” Kyaerin said gently.

“What’s so safe about it?” Gideon raised his head. “She already knows something’s up. You might as well roast the rest of the pig.”

“You’re scaring and confusing her,” Octavian snapped.

Gideon leapt to his feet. “You’re the one going around and around in circles. Just tell her who you are and let her handle the rest.”

“It’s not that simple,” Octavian shot back. “Knowing will put her life at risk.”

Gideon waved an arm at Riley. “You
marked
her, Octavian. Her life is already at risk. The safest thing for her now is to know the truth so she can at least protect herself.”

Octavian didn’t seem to have anything to say to that.

“I’m with Gideon,” Reggie said, speaking for the first time since everything happened. “Knowing could save her life.”

“I say we let Mom make her forget,” Magnus chimed in, picking at his nails with a toothpick he’d snatched off the table. “It worked before.”

Riley opened her mouth to ask when the hell that happened, but Kyaerin spoke, cutting her off. “What do you think, Liam?” She touched her husband’s arm. “You’ve been so quiet.”

Liam sighed, shaking his head. “What can I say? I honestly don’t see an out here. The Summit already knows about her. It’s only a matter of time before they send the Guardians to cleanse her and when they do and they see her marked…” He ground his fingertips into his forehead. “We’ll have to go to war. There’s nothing else for it. Octavian won’t let them near her and I won’t let them near my family…”

Kyaerin wrapped her arms around him and drew him close. She kissed his cheek, murmuring something Riley couldn’t hear.

“I think the votes have it,” Gideon said. “Just tell her. No matter what happens, she’ll have us to keep her safe.”

Reggie nodded. Magnus said nothing, but remained fascinated by his nails.

“Gideon’s right,” Kyaerin said at last. “She’s one of us now and we protect each other.”

“Not to say I’m not touched, but can someone tell me what the hell is going on?” Riley cut in.

Octavian took a deep breath. “We’re Selkies.”

Riley waited for him to continue, but he seemed to be waiting for her to say something. “Oh,” she said, nodding slowly. “Okay.”

Uncertain, his gaze flittered over to his family before turning to her again. “Do you know what that means?”

She cleared her throat. “No, sorry.”

“Perhaps I should tell it?” Kyaerin said. “It
is
my fault we are in this mess.”

“Kyaerin—”

She waved Liam’s protest away. “It’s true. If I hadn’t attempted nobility over… anyway. Not important now, I suppose.”

Liam took her hand and squeezed it gently. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“What happened?” Riley pressed, quickly beginning to realize just how ADD this family really was. They just ran off with things if you didn’t rein them in.

Kyaerin sniffled slightly, wiggling higher in her seat as she faced Riley with the posture of someone prepared to give a testimony to a crime. “I don’t know how well you know your myth and legends, but some think we’re seals who can remove our pelts and become human. Others think we’re walruses or some other sea born creature. They are right on the basis that we are sea born, but otherwise…”

“So what are you really?” Riley prodded when the other woman trailed off.

Kyaerin’s brow pulled together in deep contemplation. “We’re Merpeople for lack of better words, I suppose. We have the power to remove our tails and wander the human world.”

Riley’s eyes widened, shooting to Octavian. “You’re a mermaid?”

“Man,” he corrected with a slight tilt in his lips. “Mer
man.
”

Fantastic. Like that day couldn’t get any trippier. How the hell did she get herself into this madness and where was the train heading out of the
Twilight Zone
because she was so ready to board?

“Let me get this straight.” She cleared her throat. “You’re part… fish?”

Why couldn’t she see it? She glanced at the six pairs of eyes watching her, studying them, trying to picture them in mermaid tails and shell bras. It just wasn’t working. It was too weird. Also as a child,
The Little Mermaid
was her least favorite
Disney
movie because it scared the living hell out of her. But there weren’t such things as mermaids and talking fish, so it had never been a concern. People were people and fish were fish. Yet there she was, in a diner that apparently couldn’t be found by humans, surrounded by… creatures that claimed to be mutated sushi.

Awesome.

“It’s a bit hard to believe,” Kyaerin said sheepishly.

A bit? Lady, you broke the scale on the insane-o-matic.

“Okay, let’s say I believe you’re…” Man, she couldn’t even say it. “
Different
… special?” she finished lamely. “What’s all this marking business and who’s the Summit and why do they want me dead?”

“Eons ago, a war broke out between Heaven and Hell, a war that would determine who would reign over Earth. Thousands of angels, demons and even humans died in a gruesome bloodbath that spanned centuries. Sides were taken and those who took no sides were slaughtered or forced. All Veil Creatures had to swear an allegiance to the side of their choosing. We,” Kyaerin paused to glance at her sons. “Picked what we thought was the lesser of two evils.”

“You sided with the Demons,” Riley murmured, drawn by the story.

Magnus scoffed. “I wish.”

Riley’s eyebrows lifted. “You sided with the Angels?”

Kyaerin offered her a dim smile. “We thought as you did. They were Angels, defenders of all things good and righteous. They would be fair and merciful.”

“We were rounded up and branded like animals,” Octavian took up where his mother left off. “We were told that we should be grateful for the honor bestowed upon us and the mercy being shown to creatures that had no souls and were born from the filth of the earth. We became slaves to man, bound by our oath to guard the very things that would destroy us should we ever be discovered.”

“Can’t you get out of your… oath?” she said, finally understanding why Octavian always sounded so bitter and cold toward Angels.

“One does not ever go against the Summit,” Octavian said. “We are bound to them until the day the world ends and all things become ash.”

Riley exhaled. “That’s a really long time.” She moistened her lips. “So what do they want with me?”

Kyaerin glanced at Octavian before responding quietly, “I think we should finish the rest of this story so you can better understand that one…”

Riley turned to Octavian, waiting.

Octavian inhaled. “We became Casters to the holy calling. The Sons of Judgment.”

“Is that a supernatural boy band?” she asked, only partially joking.

Reggie snorted a laugh, but said nothing.

“We cast judgment on those without souls,” Octavian explained.

Riley tried to understand this, and failed. “I don’t get it.”

“When a human commits a sin or sells their soul,” Octavian began slowly. “They become monsters we call inanimis. For a human, their soul is the only thing that keeps them earthbound, what makes them human. A human that has no soul relinquishes their right to Heaven and remains here to terrorize and turn others."

“
Stipendium Peccati Mors Est,
” Gideon said languidly. “The reward of sin is death.”

“Soooo, you’re like soul hunters?” she guessed, trying to follow along.

“We are the… liberators of souls,” Kyaerin said, picking her words carefully.

“That’s a fancy term for underground assassins,” Gideon chimed in. “We hunt down the monsters those people become and kill them.”

“Kill?” Riley gasped. “You kill people?”

“Not people,” Kyaerin said quickly. “We kill monsters.”

“So when the person is… liberated?” she ventured carefully. “You send their soul so it can go to Heaven, right?

The six exchanged glances.

It was Octavian that broke the silence. “We send them to Hell, Riley.”

Forgetting that she was using the chair as a weapon, Riley sat, or rather, dropped into it. She didn’t even notice when Octavian edged a few steps closer and took the chair opposite her, a safe five feet between them.

“I know I should totally be freaked out, but all I can think about is that there’s a Hell…” She looked up into his face, swallowed hard. “There’s a Hell and you prisoners to… Angels?”

If she hadn’t seen him poof into the room like some dark knight, she would have been freaked all over again at the prospect of crushing on a Kool Aid drinking cult member. But it was hard to dispute the facts when she’d seen it with her own eyes.

“We are slaves to the Divine,” Octavian said. “We judge the Forsaken.”

“All shall be judged,” she whispered to herself, remembering the plaque on the door. “God, you guys are serious! I thought that was some bullshit saying, but it’s for real.” She scrubbed a hand over her face. “This is seriously happening. I’m sitting here talking about souls and Hell with you.” She peered at him from between her fingers. “This wouldn’t happen to be a dream, would it?”

He slowly shook his head, a sad little smile on his face. “Sorry.”

Riley groaned, dropping her face back into her hands. “Of course not. This is not usually how my dreams of you turn out… and I can’t believe I just said that in front of your parents. Just kill me already…” Her head came up sharply. “I don’t mean that literally.”