The archangel walked up to them, shades on. “How the hell did a demon abduct the Oracle’s granddaughter?”
As Aethan explained what occurred, Týr ground his molars and stalked off, terror torqueing his mind. He had to find Kira—he just had to. He doubled back, sparks escaping from his clenched fingers and his body. The others took a cautious step away. Except for Nik. “Those fucking demons who took her created a damn distraction with the horde,” Týr gritted out. “I have no time to dissect this shit to death. Give me a portal directly to where she could be. I will get her back.”
Michael popped up his shades and rubbed his eyes, the fractured irises streaking like lightning in the dark. “It’s not that simple. Not only will your Gaian swords become useless in the Dark Realm but Gaia has made it clear that she prefers none of you return there—”
“Don’t give a rat’s ass—”
“Careful.” The word was soft, the tone a warning.
“Are you opening a portal or not?” Týr gave a shit whose laws he broke or fucking toes he stepped on.
Michael cut him an even stare. “You do realize with no clue where Kira is, I could open a portal to anywhere in the Dark Realm? Even this”—he nodded to the spot on the asphalt through which those fuckers had taken her—“means little. That gateway is no more.”
“Then I will find a way to her, even if it means scouring the entire fucking Dark Realm.” Týr dematerialized.
“Dammit!” Michael’s curse rang out. “Someone stay with him!”
* * *
“Kira?” Her name came from a distance. She blinked and found herself seated on a warm stone bench beneath some white trees. Riley hunkered in front of her, green eyes dark with worry. “It’s going to be okay.”
Reality jarred her back like a gunshot.I’m in the Dark Realm.
Nausea churned her stomach, aided by the faint stink of gun smoke. It was all around her, coating her skin, her mouth, her lungs.
“I know it’s a shock.” He exhaled roughly and sat down beside her. “I waited too long because I tried to get you used to me first, to trust me, so I could tell you the truth. But you weren’t answering my texts—”
“Oh, so it’s my fault?” She started to pant, her lungs constricting as if a huge fist were squeezing her chest.
“Breathe, Kira. Slow, deep breaths…” Riley rubbed her back. She inhaled another deep lungful of weak, sulfuric air. Someone pressed a glass into her hand. She gulped down the tepid water.
“You’re safe here with me, I promise you.”
The tingling in her fingers spiked like electrical buzzes as she lowered the tumbler. Safe? She stared blankly at the pathway edged with tiny crimson flowers and maroon shrubs. She’d fallen into a nightmare.
“She’s going to need a guard.” Nicor sent Riley a look Kira couldn’t decipher and really didn’t care about right then. “Andyoucan’t be it,” he added.
A tic worked Riley’s jaw as he glanced at her. “Let me explain all this so you’re not in the dark, okay? First, your sire? He also happens to be mine.”
“What?”Her jaw nearly hit the ground. “No.” She started to shake her head, her gaze darting all over his striking face. Searching…
They looked nothing alike, not their hair, their skin color, nothing. Fine, they were both tall, and his hair was brown—er, bronze, whatever—while hers was a colorless mess. She ought to know since she changed the shade often enough. Yet something about him had drawn her in from the first time they met, a sense of familiarity.
“Same father, different mothers.”
Kira barely heard him when another thought, the more frightening one she’d pushed away moments ago raced back into her mind. If he was a demon, then that meant…
Nooo!She jumped up, gripping her hair with both hands, tugging and tugging at the strands, but it did little to lock out Riley’s words ricocheting inside her skull.This can’t be happening.But deep down, the truth scraped at her, though. The daughter of a demon. A demoness…
In one blow, she’d lost her entire past and gained not only a brother but also a dark, demon heritage.
Oh, God.Týr!
Pain like shards of glass splintered her heart. Once he learned the truth, he would never touch her again, let alone accept her. There’d be no welcoming smiles, no teasing kisses or passionate looks. There would only be hatred in his stare because she knew just how much he loathed demons.
Whatever happiness she’d had with him were gone, destroyed by a twist of fate—a heart-wrenching nightmare of inconceivable magnitude that she’d never expected.
An agonized cry broke free. She fell to her knees on the dusty pathway and hunched over, wrapping her arms around her hurting stomach. In convulsive jerks, her body tried to throw up all her agony, but she only dry-heaved.
