“The offspring, of course,” Father says as if I’m a fool not to have come to this obvious conclusion.
My stomach roils at his words. And immediately, I think back to the time I was not careful enough to pull out and accidentally gushed inside Ksenia. We plane-jumped almost at that exactmoment, I try to calm myself. So it should be fine. And I would have scented if a kit had been implanted, right? Although it might have been too soon to tell.
I wrack my brain. Although it felt like I’d lived a lifetime in the week I’d spent with her, that particular moment had only been. . . twodaysago. How soon was I able to scent Hannah’s pregnancy?
“Your brother’s offspring, I’ll remind you,” my father cuts into my racing thoughts, “is in imminent danger.” He points to the window.
I spin back around to look in the window again. Whatever Layton has been drawing on the floor looks almost complete. It’s some sort of large, elaborate circle with lines crisscrossing inside. He stands up, and rune fire springs from his fingertips to light several candles on stands around the circle. My brothers fight against their chains, but whatever magic Layden has used to keep them pinned is working.
If my father weren’t here, I would have burst in already.
But this is too important to do wrong. And if Layden has some power that bested Romulus’s runes and Abaddon’s might, what can I alone do?
So I turn to my father and ask through gritted teeth, “What do you suggest?”
I hate the way he grins in satisfaction, as if he’s been waiting for me to ask this very question. He’s a manipulator to the end.
“You are the only one who can plane jump. A blade may not take your brother to the deathly plane. . .” he leans in, grin widening, “butyoucan. Transport him there and leave him. Finally, you can be of some worth.”
All the breath leaves my chest at what my father suggests.
But I nod because there’s no more time.
“I will enter and provide a distraction,” he says, and I see delight enter his eyes as he steps in front of me.
Then there’s no more time. Quickly I drop into shadow as he leaps straight through the glass into the room.
“Your father returns!” he proclaims loudly as all heads in the room swing in his direction.
THIRTY-FOUR
KHARON
I slipthrough the shattered window behind him. I move quickly out of the way as Layden’s eyes widen in what looks like terror, and he starts firing runes at our Father. He’s immediately knocked several steps backward when Father lifts his hands to return his own rune fire.
In shadow, I move around the room behind Layden. It would be easy for me to lay hands on him and take him away, locked in rune battle as he is with our Father. But now that I am close to my little brother who I already betrayed once. . .
I look at my other brothers, chained to chairs not far away. They yank and jerk at their chains so that their muscles bulge. Though the chairs and chains rattle, they do not burst apart. The furniture must have some additional magic because the wood would be nothing to my brother’s strength. That’s when I note that around each of the chairs are additional, smaller circles.
“Finish it,” my father calls, which makes Layden swing around, looking behind him. He looks right past me. But seeing him so close, I know I cannot do what my Father demands. I’vespent two centuries grieving the last time I did not stand up for Layden.
So instead, I run towards Abaddon. I smudge the circle around his chair with my foot, and immediately, he bursts free of his bonds. I rush to do the same for Remus, who has begun cackling in delight at the chaos.
“You fool!” my father screams.
Together, as brothers, we all advance on my father. Remus on one side of Layden, Abaddon—after quickly flying Hannah to the other end of the room for safety—at the other. I stay in shadow, for not even my father can see me in this form. I scamper around the back of him.
I watch the surprise in Layden’s eyes as he looks to each side to find his brothers there.
Father stays facing my brothers, firing rune after rune. Abaddon lifts off the floor. Like me, he is weak in rune-magic, only able to call enough to provide a basic shield. But that does not stop him from flying toward our father with two hell-metal chains as our brothers continue exchanging rune fire.
Father lands a hit that Remus isn’t able to block, and he’s blasted off his feet into the wall, making a crater in the stone from the impact.
Abaddon attacks from above, hurling the chains around Father’s neck so they wrap around several times, dragging him down to the ground. On his back, Father lifts a hand and hits Abaddon directly in the chest with a bright blast of white-blue runes. Abaddon explodes backward.
I grab the chains still wrapped around my father’s neck with several arms and run towards the large circle Layden created.
Father gasps and grabs the chains strangling him as I drag him across the floor. He reaches a hand out, blasting runes outwards. He can’t see me, but I’m large, and eventually, a blast hits me in the leg, flinging me forward and knocking me out ofshadow as I tumble end over end, landing face-first right outside the circle.
