Gem’s mouth fell open. Closed. Fell open again. “What… what brought this on?”
“The woman Wraith loves is dying. They might only have hours left together. I know you have hundreds of years to live, and I can only give you a fraction of that with me, but watching Wraith and Serena made me realize that I can’t waste our time. Marry me, Gem. Be with me for as long as I have left.”
Her eyes filled with tears, and fear cut him wide open. He knew what she was going to say before she said it.
“I’m sorry, Ky… I can’t. Maybe after the battle and things settle down, we can see, but right now, I think you’re looking at the end and grasping at what you can.”
“Damn you,” he gritted out. “Why do you keep telling me what I’m thinking and how I’m feeling?”
“Because someone has to.” She tore out of the bathroom, leaving him staring at the wall. Outside, he heard a commotion, the sound of weapons being prepared, of battle looming.
Good. He was going to take out his frustrations on a lot of demons, because the one he wanted… didn’t want him.
Twenty-seven
The thing that sucked about Jerusalem was that there were only a handful of Harrowgates. There was one just paces from the Dome of the Rock, a temple that housed the Foundation Stone Byzamoth would use to open the gate, but it would be under the enemy’s control, and the next closest was on the outskirts of the city. Which meant that Wraith, Luc, Tay, E, Reaver, and Ky had to hoof it miles to the Temple Mount.
The city’s atmosphere was bleak. The few people on the streets were silent, heads down as if they expected fire to fall from the sky—which was dark, the clouds roiling and edged in crimson. Lightning streaked to the ground and thunder cracked.
Wraith saw them in the distance. Two armies… one massive, the other massively arrogant. Only The Aegis would think their righteousness would allow them to come out on the victorious end of battle when they were outnumbered twenty to one.
“Let’s do this thing,” Wraith said, and Luc took off like a shot. No one liked a good fight more than a warg.
No one but Wraith.
Reaver pulled Kynan aside and Eidolon grabbed Wraith. “Hold up, bro. Just a sec.” He turned to Tayla and framed her face in his hands so tenderly Wraith had a moment of longing for Serena. “Don’t shift into your Shredder form. I don’t want any military idiot or Aegi mistaking you for the enemy.”
“And you stay back. You don’t fight in this one. You heal. That’s all.” Tayla took E’s face in her hands and brought his mouth close to hers. “I love you.”
Wraith turned away to give them a moment of privacy. He’d always made fun of their sappy relationship, had never understood how E could give so much of himself to Tayla. Now he got it. Got it so well it hurt.
He’d give anything and everything to Serena, if only she’d let him. If only she’d live.
He reached into his coat pocket, but instead of feeling up a weapon, which always soothed him, he fingered the top she’d given him. He’d grabbed it on the way out of the house, a good luck charm he wasn’t going into battle without.
He felt two hands on his back—one belonging to E, and the other to Tayla. She gave him a tentative smile. “Good luck, Wraith.”
With that, she took off.
“Ditto,” E said. “I have faith in you.”
“Sorry, not buying it.” Wraith watched lightning streak across the sky, connecting the clouds in a celestial dot-to-dot. “But I appreciate the sentiment.”
“I mean it. I’ve never given you enough credit. But I’m seeing something in you I’ve never noticed before.” Eidolon spared them both more mushiness by slugging him in the shoulder. “Kick his ass, bro.” He set off after Tayla.
Wraith watched them go, took a deep breath, and moved out. Good thing he had broad shoulders, because the weight of the world… sucked.
Serena breathed deeply as Shade released her arm. She’d passed out right after Josh left, but Shade had done the glowy-arm thing that always made her feel better. He backed away and stood near the door like a sentry, his shrewd, sharp eyes shifting between Val and David, who both sat in chairs near her bed
“You know,” Val said, taking her hand in his. “I really would rather take you home, where you’ll be more comfortable.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know if I could make the plane trip.” She also didn’t want to go anywhere until she knew that the amulet had been retrieved.
And that Josh had survived.
She still wasn’t sure how she felt about him, because his betrayal had been so huge, so… awful. But she understood why he’d set out to seduce her, and how hard it had been not to go through with it when he knew he was dooming his brothers.
She wriggled into a sitting position, and Val fluffed the pillow behind her back. “Shade?”
He looked at her.
“Josh—Wraith—said you and Eidolon were dying. But you weren’t poisoned, right?”
Shade shook his head. “Long story. He didn’t even know about it until after the attack on Philae. He’d decided not to go through with the plan to seduce you. That’s when we told him that we were dying, too.”
God, he’d backed off his plan even earlier than she’d thought.
“What difference does it make?” David asked. “He’s a demon.”
“He saved me from Byzamoth.”
“So he could have you for himself, you idiot! You actually believe this… this creature?”
“David!” Val’s hand tightened on Serena’s almost painfully, though he didn’t seem to realize it. “That’s enough.”
Shame colored David’s face.
Serena coughed… and couldn’t stop. Immediately, Shade was at her side, his hand wrapped around her wrist, fingers to her pulse, tattoo glowing. In seconds, her lungs cleared, opened up so she could breathe better. Josh had said he was a paramedic, and no doubt, he was a good one. Attentive, efficient, and possessing an arrogant confidence that was justified. He knew what he was doing and he did it well. She’d bet he did everything well.
“You have a… mate, right?” she asked, and his incredibly long lashes flew up in surprise.
“Yes.”
“Did she know what you were when you met?”
He grunted. “Not until she caught me in bed with a vampire and a Trillah demon.”
Her jaw dropped. “And she still wanted you?”
“She wanted to kill me. Tell you what,” he said, giving her a sleepy, seductive grin that reminded her so much of Josh, “I’ll tell you the whole sordid story after Wraith defeats Byzamoth.”
She knew there were no guarantees that Wraith would survive the battle, but she appreciated Shade’s efforts to calm her. He moved back to the doorway, and she tapped Val’s hand to get his attention. He’d fixed his gaze out the window at the approaching dawn and had gone someplace far away.
“Val?” Her voice cracked as she spoke, and she couldn’t believe the effort it took just to say his name.
“What is it?”
Nerves fluttered in her belly. “Who all knew about my mission in Egypt?”
David spoke up. “Everyone in the Sigil.”
“But who knew about the specifics? Where I was staying, where I was going to be at what times… things like that.”
Val’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”
She palmed the mattress to keep her hands from shaking. What if Josh was right about Val? “Because Byzamoth was always one step ahead of me. He knew things he shouldn’t know.”
David stiffened. “What are you saying? How dare you accuse my father of betraying you.”
“I’m not accusing Val of anything. But someone was tipping off the fallen angel and trying to get me killed. He couldn’t have known I was stopping by the Regent’s house, and there’s definitely no way he could have known what train I took from Aswan. Josh changed the reservations.”
“Well, there’s your answer,” David shot back. “And let’s call him by his real name, shall we? Since he pretty much stole Josh’s identity like he stole everything else.”
She slid a glance at Shade, who still watched in silence, but the way his chiseled jaw rolled gave her the impression that he was grinding his teeth.
“It wasn’t him,” she insisted. It wouldn’t have made sense for Josh to have been tipping off the competition.
David made a sound of disgust. “It’s so much easier for you to accuse us than to believe your demon lover could possibly have betrayed you, never mind the fact that it’s all he’s done since he met you.”
“You feeling a little guilty, human? Because she didn’t accuse you.” Shade looked at Serena and shrugged. “Just pointing that out.”
And he was right. “Val, tell me. Who all knew about the Regent’s house and the train?”
Val didn’t say anything, but she knew the answer. He’d known… and so had David.
David shoved to his feet with such force that his chair tipped over. “I’m not going to sit here and listen to this. Come on, Dad. We don’t need this.”
Shade blocked the door. “You don’t have to sit, but you will stay.”
“I’m trained to kill your kind.”
Shade cracked his knuckles.
Wisely, David backed off, but his stung pride put him on the hot side of pissed. “This is your fault, Serena.” He stalked to the end of the bed and nailed her to the wall with a hateful glare. “Yours and your whore of a mother’s.”
“Enough!” Val shouted, coming to his feet. “You’re out of line.”
“Really, Dad? Really? Because I’m thinking that your affair with Patrice was out of line.”
Serena’s mouth dropped open. Val’s snapped shut. Silence was an uncomfortable fourth party in the room until Shade drawled, “Now things are getting interesting.”