Reaper Unhinged (Deadside Reapers Book 6) Read online

  “Aren’t you worried someone will recognize you,” Uriel asked him.

  “In this den of uncouth souls? No. To them, I’m just a filthy daemon.”

  And it wasn’t long before we became part of the furniture. Keon had been right. This was the perfect place to blend in and hold a super-secret important meeting.

  I sat between Mal and Azazel with Keon and Uriel opposite. My belly was full of stew and bread, and the ale had gone down nicely too. Stories had been swapped, and pertinent information traded, and we knew what needed to be done.

  It felt like a last supper before we went off to potential death because none of us knew what to expect. Limbo was a mystery, and Mammon’s pickup could involve a number of nasty surprises. Azazel and Mal had come with a troop of soldiers ready to fight if need be. They were stationed a fifteen-minute flight from the rendezvous point, and Limbo was a fifteen-minute flight from this tavern.

  It was almost time for us to part ways, and my heart sank. I wasn’t ready for this moment to end. I wasn’t ready to dive into danger just yet.

  Mal’s hand slipped onto my thigh. He squeezed gently and then drained his tankard of ale. “I hate this. There’s a reason no one goes into Limbo. It’s one of the most dangerous spots in the Underealm.”

  “And the power source is our only hope at saving our worlds,” Keon added. “This affects us all.”

  Azazel’s jaw ticked. “We have no choice. Lilith must be found and rescued.” He looked down at me. “Because once Fee saves our worlds, we’re going to have to be ready for a war.”

  He had faith in me, and that gave me faith in me.

  “We meet back at quarters in forty-eight hours,” Mal said. “No matter what.”

  In other words, if I failed to find the power source, we could face the end together.

  I had no idea how long earth would take to die once the Beyond shut down. No idea how long the demons would survive without their connection to the celestial power the Beyond allowed them, but however long it was, we would experience it together.

  I picked up my tankard and held it up on a toast. “Forty-eight hours.”

  “Forty-eight hours,” the others echoed.

  Mal and Azazel left first, and a hollow sensation bloomed in the pit of my stomach.

  “They’ll be fine,” Keon said. “Both are ruthless on the battlefield.”

  I nodded. “I know. I just…” Missed them already. Worried that I’d never see them again. “Nothing.”

  We left the sweaty, crowded confines of the Den and headed out into the crisp night air.

  I asked the question that had been plaguing me for hours. “What if we don’t succeed? I mean…What if we don’t make it out?”

  Keon gripped my shoulders. “You will make it out. I’ll make sure of it.”

  I believed him. It was his job to keep me alive for Lilith’s sake. Except now…Now I felt he wanted to protect me.

  That was good. Because I was not ready to die.

  Chapter Twelve

  The entrance to Limbo was marked by a towering stone arch etched with symbols I didn’t recognize.

  “This is the gateway. The only way in or out,” Keon said. “But those confined are allowed no exit.”

  “The ancient souls that the Beyond abandoned here?” I looked to Uriel.

  The celestial’s brow pinched. “Why would the Beyond leave any human souls here?” He pursed his lips and stepped closer to the arch to study the symbols. “Enochian. But I can’t…I can’t seem to read them.” He rubbed his eyes and studied the symbols again before shaking his head. “Strange, almost as if they don’t want to be read.”

  “Was the divine about when the circles were disbanded and the souls were recalled?”

  “I don’t know,” Uriel said. “I didn’t even know the divine was gone until recently.”

  Of course, he was a lower circle celestial, not privy to that information. “No worries. Let’s just get this over with. If this power source is here, then there will be some kind of clue or energy signature we may be able to pick up on.”

  I was clutching at straws, and we were technically going in blind with no plan, but it made me feel better to say words that made it seem like we knew what the fuck we were doing.

  I pulled a dagger from my holster and stepped through the arch. Fog closed in around me, damp and cold. The chill seeped through my clothes to kiss my skin. The world here was gray, black, and muted. We were in an open space, and trees were visible through the fog. This was a path of some kind, made of white pebbles.

  “Stay on the path,” Uri said. “I think the path is safe.”

  Made sense. The fog was thinnest here, but it hovered thickly on either side of us as if eager for us to come closer so it could smother us.

  “What if the power source isn’t on the path?” Keon asked.

  He had a point, but my gut told me to stick to the pebbled track. “There has to be some clue.”

  Whispers filled the air, and then the hairs on my arms stood to attention. We weren’t alone.

  “Who’s there?” Uri demanded.

  One of them, a lilting female voice said.

  Here? a male voice replied.

  Again.

  It’s been a while.

  Too long, the woman said.

  Then maybe we should play our song?

  Foreboding bloomed in my stomach just as the haunting notes of a melody rose up in the air. The foreboding morphed into panic, then terror as primal instinct blared a warning.

  Keon stared at me, shaking his head. His mouth moved, forming words I couldn’t hear.

  “Don’t listen!” I cried out.

  He covered his ears, and behind him, so did Uri. The tune was muted now, barely there.

  I jerked my head in a let’s-move gesture. Keon nodded, but Uri was a few paces behind him, expression dazed. His hands slowly slipped from his ears.

  “Uriel. Don’t—”

  He dove off the path and into the fog.

  “No!” I made to run after him, but Keon grabbed me around the waist, pulling me to his chest.

  He yanked my wrist, forcing me to unplug one ear. “It’s stopped. Although I don’t think it was for us anyway.”

  “They wanted him.”

  “Yes.”

  “We have to go after him.”

  “No.”

  Had I heard him right? “What?”

  “We came here for the power source. We have to stay on mission.” He grabbed my hand and tugged me away from the edge of the trail.

  “No.” I twisted my hand out of his grip. “We don’t leave a man behind.”

  “We don’t have time to go chasing after him and whatever has him,” Keon said. “In case you’ve forgotten, we’re on the clock. Tick. Fucking tock.”

  He was right, of course. We had to put the greater good first. I had to focus on the mission.

  You’d let your friend die? Tut, tut.

  I shook my head slightly. That voice…

  “We leave now,” Keon said.

  I couldn’t let my friend die. “And if I’d been taken, what then?”

  Keon’s jaw ticked.

  “You’d have taken the time to come after me, wouldn’t you?” I took a step away from him and toward the edge of the path. “You’d have tried to save me.”

  “Fee, don’t do this.” Keon bared his fangs and advanced on me.

  I turned and ran into the fog.

  “Uri? Uri, where are you?” I ran through the fog, boots crunching on stuff I couldn’t see.

  “Fee!” Keon was hot on my heels. “Damn you, woman.”

  Crap, if he caught me, he’d drag me back to the path. This was my only shot at finding Uriel and getting him out. I wouldn’t lose him. I couldn’t.

  “Uriel!”

  A strange silence descended on me, pressing down on me, its weight a palpable force pushing me to my knees.

  “What?” My voice was a gasp. I couldn’t breathe. “Keon…” The word was
a vise trying to squeeze the life out of me. I was going to die. “Please, God…”

  The pressure eased suddenly, and air rushed into my lungs. I fell forward, hands braced on the earth, gasping in lungsful of sweet air. Oh, God. I… Fuck. Wait…What the hell?

  The fog was gone, leaving me in a clearing by a river. Slender trees stood proudly around me, the canopy of dark, lush leaves reaching for a night sky dappled with stars.

  “You shouldn’t be here,” a male voice said.

  I scrambled up, dagger at the ready, to find a man dressed in rags sitting on a fallen log by the tree line. In his hands was a pipe…A flute or some kind of musical instrument.

  Wait a second… “You played the music?”

  “Come closer, child,” he said.

  “Not likely.”

  “Now, is that any way to speak to someone who just saved your life?”

  He’d stopped the vise?

  He canted his head and smiled. He had a pleasant face, a trustworthy face, but his eyes were dark pools of sorrow, and his shoulders slumped as if he was carrying the problems of the world on them.

  His brows flicked up slightly. “Well? Gratitude is a humble emotion.”

  “Thank you for saving me, but you took my friend.”

  He sighed. “No, child, that wasn’t me, and this?” He held up the flute. “Isn’t mine. I found it here. The spirits love mischief, and it seems they’ve taken a liking to your friend. They enjoy new playthings.”

  “He’s not a plaything, and I want him back.”

  He studied me for a long beat. “Why are you here?”

  “Why are you here?”

  He let out a bark of laughter, then pressed his lips together as if shocked by his reaction. “I asked first.”

  Maybe if I played nice, he’d help me. “Fine, if you must know, the Beyond is dying, and I need a power source. Rumor has it there’s one here.”

  “Here?” He looked amused. “In this place filled with the ancient dead?”

  “So I’ve been told, and I’m running out of time.”

  “Yet you came after your friend?”

  What? “Yes, of course. I can’t just abandon him?”

  “Even if it means the world might perish.”

  “Oh God, you sound like Keon.”

  “Your daemon companion.”

  “You’ve been watching us.”

  “Maybe. But answer me this, is he not right? Are the souls of the many not more important than one soul?”

  “It doesn’t work that way for me. Every soul matters. Every soul has worth. I won’t sacrifice one to save another. I refuse to do it.”

  His dark eyes lit up with excitement. “And what if you have no choice?”

  “There is always a choice.” What the heck? Why was I having this conversation with this…whoever he was. “Who are you?”

  He sighed. “No one. But.” He held up a finger. “I can help you. The power source you seek is due east.” He pointed left. “Follow the river, and you shall find it.”

  Oh, thank God.

  “And your friend was taken due west.” He pointed right. “The spirits move fast, but if you hurry, you might catch him. However, I cannot say if he will be intact when you do. The ancients like taking souls apart, especially celestial ones. But I should warn you that time works differently here. Sometimes it moves forward, and sometimes it stumbles back upon itself. Sometimes a day can seem like a month, and at others, an hour is a minute. Right now, we are in accelerated time.”

  Oh fuck. If Keon were here, we could have split up, so one of us went after the power and the other after Uriel, but now it was up to me. I needed to make a choice, and I needed to decide fast.

  The man on the log watched me from beneath his lashes while fiddling with the flute in his hands.

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It was my fault Uriel was here. He was my responsibility. I had to try and save him first.

  “If my friend Keon comes this way, please tell him which direction the power source is in.”

  I turned and headed west.

  The forest grew thicker around me as I jogged, calling Uri’s name. He had to be close by. The fucking spirits were going to pay when I got hold of them. Had Keon made it into the clearing? Had he gone after the power source?

  Shit, what was I doing? This was insane, but it felt right. It was the right thing to do. I had to try.

  I caught sight of movement up ahead. “Uriel?”

  I broke into a sprint, weaving through the trees in an attempt to catch up to whoever was up ahead, and then the ground dipped, and I careened out of the tree line into a clearing. A river wound away from me, and a log sat on its side to my left.

  What the actual fuck?

  This was the same clearing I’d started in. Panic flared in my chest, and then the crunch of boots had me falling into a defensive stance. Keon appeared behind the log and skidded to a halt at the sight of me.

  He held up his hands. “Fee, stop. We have to go after the power source.”

  My head felt suddenly fuzzy. “What took you so long?”

  “What?” He looked confused. “I was right behind you.”

  “No, you weren’t. I was here, and I met a man, and he…he…Fuck. This place is fucking with us.”

  “Let’s get back to the path.” Keon beckoned me.

  I looked east, upriver, the direction that the man had told me the power was. He’d also told me Uriel had been taken west, and all that had done was spit me back out here. But maybe that was this place playing tricks. Maybe his information was correct.

  “Fee?” Keon approached warily.

  “I’m not going to bolt, okay. But we’re not going back to the path. We go this way. The power source is this way.”

  Keon pressed his lips together and nodded. “And Uriel?”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat. I’d tried to get to him, but this place was a bitch, and if the man was right, then hours could have passed already. We couldn’t waste more time.

  “We’ll get him out. Once we find the power source and deliver it, we’ll come back for him.”

  With a final look west, I headed upriver toward what I hoped was our salvation.

  Please be safe, Uriel. Please hold on.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The river either went on forever or time was fucking with us. I wasn’t sure which. There weren’t many landmarks to go on. Everything looked the fucking same here, and the gloom and shadows didn’t help. The stars might be bright above us, but their light didn’t seem to make it down here.

  Keon walked beside me in silence. He had a fluid way of moving, as if he could launch himself into a run, or leap or pounce at any moment. I got the impression that the clothes he was wearing were an encumbrance, and I was totally distracting myself from the fact that he was pissed at me. I was damned if I’d apologize for going after Uriel, though.

  He needed to understand that where I came from, we didn’t walk away from the people we cared about.

  “I’d have done the same for you.” I glanced across at him to catch the slight flinch to his features. “I would have gone after you too.”

  “You’re an idiot,” he snapped. “You could have been hurt. Killed.”

  “And Lilith would have been affected. I know, I get it, but I had to try.”

  He was silent for a long beat. “You could have been hurt…” His tone had dropped, and there was a slight edge of uncertainty to it as if he was testing out the words and examining their meaning, and it hit me that he’d been worried about me. Just me, and not what my demise would do to his queen. For some reason, that made me feel warm.

  “Keon?”

  “Don’t. I can’t like you, Fee. It will make everything more difficult.”

  I grasped his hand and pulled him to a halt.

  He blinked down at me with his beautiful cat eyes and sighed. “Now I have the urge to kill a rodent and offer it to you,” he said with a flash of annoyance. “Why you?”


  He was talking about his courtship, about the fact that pheromones made him want me, and a week or so ago I’d been horrified by it all. I’d been horrified by him and his strange ways, but now…Now those same strange ways were graceful and beautiful and compelling. He’d just calmly told me it would be difficult to kill me, and I was focusing not on the killing part but the part where it would be difficult.

  There was no denying that I was beginning to care about this complex man.

  “Why you?” he asked again. Softer, this time.

  I gave him a small smile. “Why not?”

  He frowned, and then his eyes narrowed. “If you think you can take advantage of my primal instincts and convince me not to kill you, then you’re mistaken.”

  I shrugged and let go of his hand. “I know.” I began to walk again. “Keep up.”

  He sighed. “I can understand Lilith’s conflict over you now.”

  “Oh?”

  “She won’t enjoy ordering your death once she finds a way to nullify Eve’s curse. She believes you worthy of her son.” He flashed a look my way and then fixed his attention on the ground ahead.

  But he was her son too, long-lived like Azazel, except Azazel had no idea he had a half-brother who was still alive.

  “Will you tell Azazel who you are to him?”

  Keon’s lip curled. “And have him pity me?”

  “He wouldn’t do that.”

  Music drifted toward us, the same lilting melody that had taken Uriel. “Can you hear it?”

  Keon nodded. “This way!”

  We fell into a sprint, veering away from the river and into the forest. The music got louder and louder until it was all we could hear, and then we broke into a large clearing with a log cabin in the center of it, and on the porch sat the man in rags from earlier.

  The music stopped.

  Seriously? “You… What is going on?”

  “Your friend?” He looked to his left, and I followed his gaze to find Uriel strapped to a tree. By the looks of it, he was unconscious.

  I took a step toward him, and mist bubbled out from behind him. It swirled into fog and rushed toward me, cutting off my path to him. For a moment, it was impossible to see anything because the fog was everywhere, reducing visibility.