Phoenix’s mouth drops open in shock. “You did this to her?” And then her eyes widen as understanding dawns. She gasps low. “You didn’t. Tell me you didn’t.” Her voice comes out low and horrified.
Vlad just shrugs casually and runs his hands over Sabra’s hair like she’s a pet. She turns her face toward his touch as if she’s an animal seeking approval from her owner.
Oh fuck. Even I get it now. He made Phoenix’s best friend into his blood slave.
“When?” Phoenix demands with her voice breaking. “How long ago did you do this to her?”
“Since right before the two of you ran away together at nineteen, and you brought this wonderful opportunity to us.” He shoots a villainous smile at me.
Then he looks down at Sabra, who’s all but hanging on his arm adoringly. “Of course, she turned around and came immediately back when I called out to her. She can do nothing else but worship me and serve my every whim without question. As did her mother before her and hers before her.”
“You son of a bitch!” Phoenix screams at him with raw emotion. She runs at the invisible wall again. I grab her around the waist to hold her back from hurting herself against the barrier.
“I had no idea when you brought the boy back to us ten years ago just how deeply he was connected to the ultimate power I’ve sought for so long.” Vlad’s twisted smile comes back to focus on me. “We could have saved ourselves all this time and trouble, lad, if you’d just told me who your father actually was.”
“My father’s dead to me, you dickwad. And he’s long gone from this realm anyway. So fuck off.” I shoot runes at the floor beneath us to try to break whatever circle spell Sabra’s laid down. But they disappear as soon as they touch the marble surface.
Vlad laughs loudly and claps his hands together. “That’s what makes all this so delightful. And to think, if you’d just done as I commanded and produced the offspring I asked for, none of this might have been necessary. But now we’re here, and I do so love to be present for a family reunion.”
What the actual fuck is he talking about?
I look around the circle more carefully. Only now do I realize that it’s not just Phoenix, Ammit, and I who are caught in this magical trap.
John Paul holds out his arms and smiles a familiarly sinister smile directly at me.
Then his body and features begin to morph.
In moments, the creature from my nightmares is suddenly standing in front of me. He’s handsome in a terrible way as black wings grow and then flare out ten feet wide on both sides of his powerful back.
“Son,” growls a deep voice I know all too well. “It’s been too long since we’ve spoken.”
What in the ACTUAL FUCK is happening?
Phoenix’s professor has beenmy fatherall along?
TWENTY-FOUR
LAYDEN
“No!”My voice comes out strangled as I stagger away from my father. “We sent you back to the realm of the angels!”
Phoenix runs to my side immediately. She doesn’t hesitate or question. She just positions herself between me and him as if she’s done it a thousand times before. The sight of her standing ready to fight my battles makes something in my chest crack open.
My father laughs in my face. The sound echoes off the glass walls of the atrium, multiplying until it seems to come from everywhere at once. “Which I must thank you for, actually. The angelic hosts were not happy to see my thieving face. They did not welcome me back with open arms.”
He takes a step closer to the invisible barrier of the circle between us. I can feel Phoenix tense beside me. Her hand finds mine almost unconsciously, our fingers lacing together.
“But I pretended repentance,” my father continues, his smile widening. “I ate of their manna and drank of their heavenly ambrosia, refilling my angelic powers to their fullest. They hadnever been so strong since I was first spawned many ages ago. I pretended atonement and I planned, oh how I planned.”
My stomach sinks with every word. Phoenix’s grip tightens on my hand. I squeeze back, trying to let her know I’m here. I’m with her. Whatever comes next, we face it together.
“It was easy to jump back to this world using the same well of realms I came through the first time,” my father says. “They thought the wells had been sealed off. But our research together during your PhD studies have been correct all along, Phoenix darling.”
Phoenix flinches at the endearment. I step slightly in front of her before I can think about it. The movement is protective. Instinctive.
She notices. Her eyes flick to me, and something softens in her expression for just a moment before her face hardens again. “What do you mean?” she asks.
“Somethinghaschanged since all the spirits were first ejected from this plane two thousand years ago.” My father’s gaze locks onto Phoenix with an intensity that makes my skin crawl. “You.You, Phoenix, got yourself incarnated into this world. You put a crack in the spiritual barrier erected during the Great Exodus.”
