So she smiled in the face of her enemy, and retreated. “We shouldn’t be fighting with each other. Not when we have another to worry over.”
Suspicion hung deep in her enemy’s eyes, letting Vine know thatGadreyal didn’t trust her. But then, given that Gadreyal was the first among her kind who’d turned against the Sephirii and tempted them to betray their own brethren into the hands of their enemies, hence why she was now known as an Irin and not a true Seraph anymore, it made sense. Gadreyal knew how quickly betrayal came. And how likely and unlikely the source of it.
Crossing her arms over her ample bosom, she narrowed her gaze at Vine. She would get this bitch back in time. Patiently, and on her own terms. “They’ll be on guard now. Ten times harder to defeat.”
“Aye, but we still have what they want.” She lifted the chain from around her neck that held the medallion they’d both risked their lives to collect. “And another secret I didn’t say a word about.”
Paden Jack’s Seraph medallion. Something Vine had pinched from Cameron while they’d held the chit in their custody. Neither Paden nor his sister knew she possessed it.
Nor did they know what she’d traded out for it—that was going to be a great surprise if Paden Jack attempted to use his enchanted family sword against them.
And with the soul of the Jacks’ ancestor in her possession—the direct link to Michael—she could control them both. Corrupt them much easier now.
Aye, Duel had no idea what was coming for his crew. But she did, and it was about to get fun.
Vine smiled at Gadreyal. “There’s an old wizard we needs see.”
“I don’t follow.”
Laughing, Vine clutched the medallion tighter in her fist. “Of course you don’t. You weren’t born to our world. But there’s history between Duel and the Myrcians. Legends of Tintagel you’ve neverbeen told. I will have him and my bitchtress sister yet for what they’ve done to me. Before our masters are set free from their prison realm, I will take what I want and none shall stop me this time.” Not when she was so close to having everything she’d ever wanted.
Nay, none indeed.
She hadn’t thwarted death itself and defied all enemies to fail now.
Gadreyal and her masters might have thought they had her quelled, but they didn’t know her resolve or the source of her powers.
Nor the bargain she’d made…
Beat to the quarters, dearest. I’m coming for you, and this time, I’ll be dancing onyourgrave.
And she knew the perfect vengeance on them all. One Duel would never see coming, and one not even the mighty Thorn could thwart…
3
Beware the course of faith.
It haunts. It daunts.
Most of all, it betrays…
“Kal?”
Weak and aching, Kalder froze at a voice he’d never thought to hear again.
Nay… it wasn’t possible. It was only more torture wrought by the very bastards who’d been mercilessly tearing at his flesh for so long now that he’d lost all concept of time. All concept of reason. Because of their cruelty, his mother had become pain, and punishment his sole nourishment.
Shaking his head to clear it, he reached out to steady himself.
Someone took his hand.
Startled, he clenched his fist to strike out at them, until his gaze focused on the face of the man in front of him. Only he didn’t see a man there. He saw a boy. A boy who’d once run after him with the kind of soul-deep adoration in his sea blue eyes that only a younger sibling could give.
Kal! Kal! Wait for me! Can I come with you? Please, brother! Please!
And in that single heartbeat, he felt himself mentally breaking at the onslaught of memories he’d done his best to bury and forget. “Muerig?”
His brother tightened his grip on his hand as he nodded.
