Invision Page 18

  "Nae, I won't having none of it, now. Stop your fussing, Vawn! I mean it!"

  Rhibyn bared her jagged gray, bony fangs.

  "Really?" Kaziel laughed in a mocking tone. "You think to be scaring me with that patheticness o'yours? What? You going to wash your clothes at the creek, now, and cry 'bout it, too?"

  "You're such a bleeding arse!"

  "I come by it honestly, I do."

  Rhibyn pointed at Jaden. "He'll be the one what turns you in. Mark me words on that. He's a low-lying, worthless piece-o-work what can't be trusted no further than what you can toss him, and you can't even pick his giant arse up."

  "Be that as it may, I was sent here to protect him, and you know I will."

  "Och, Duw! You were ever half-soaked, boyo! From your first breath to your last. Never be changing your ways."

  "Most likely not. Now will you be helping or are we to keep talking?"

  She spoke in fast, furious, demonic Welsh that questioned Jaden's parentage, as well as Kaziel's, and all his sense, both common and otherwise.

  Finally, Rhibyn calmed. "Of course, I'll be helping you. What kind of monster do you be thinking I am? But swear you'll be getting me out of here, too."

  Kaziel scowled. "How is it you're here, even?"

  "Was captured and traded."

  Tilting his head, Kaziel looked at Jaden. "Can I be taking him from here? Would that be allowed?"

  "Why do you keep calling her a him?"

  He looked at Jaden as if he were the daft one. "What are you? Blind? Rhibyn's a man."

  Jaden swept a skeptical glance over the lush curves of her body. While he'd never seen her naked ... "You sure about that?"

  Rhibyn rolled her eyes?

  Kaziel bit back a laugh. "Aye, indeed. He was cursed into that body after he broke the heart of a woman, and she killed herself for him. Now he's forever damned to walk the earth in her very image, and cry out for the souls of those about to die to warn others that they will lose what they hold dearest."

  "Oh, that's harsh."

  Rhibyn ground his teeth. "You've no idea. It weren't even me fault. She preyed upon me until I was near mad with her attentions. The lass was unhinged." Gesturing at himself, he sighed. "And this was her final vengeance upon me. To make sure I'd never have another woman. Ever. I'd have rather she turned me to a goat, to be honest." He turned to Kaziel. "And one smart word from you, man, and you'll be getting it kicked from a woman, you hear me?"

  He held his hands up in surrender. But his eyes twinkled with unspoken humor.

  "So I take it then that the Robin is short for Robert?"

  "Rhyvawn Ddu," they said in unison.

  Jaden felt the urge to say bless you. But he refrained from saying more as he led them toward the room where Aeron should be found. "You know, Kaziel ... for someone who couldn't talk, you sure found your tongue."

  Kaziel returned to his wolf form.

  "He's only silent around those he doesn't know or trust."

  "Apparently." Jaden didn't miss the way Rhibyn kept one hand buried in Kaziel's white fur as if afraid the Cwn Annwn would leave him.

  They stopped as Jaden passed a door, and heard the sound of Noir's voice coming from inside the dungeon room.

  "How can I be weakening? We know who the Malachai is. I sent my siphon. How can I be weaker?"

  "It must be something Cam did to protect him. She's been soft toward their bloodline since the day we demanded the life of Kissare for his sacrilege."

  Noir snorted. "Longer than that. She's wanted our deaths since the hour of birth. But for Braith, we'd have never survived the other three gods, and well you know it. They'd have wiped us out centuries ago."

  Someone stumbled and hit the ground.

  "Kadar!"

  Jaden froze as Azura used Noir's oldest name. It had to be bad for her to make that slip.

  And for Noir to allow her to get away with it. No one was allowed to call him Kadar. To call the dark ones by name gave you power over them. It allowed you to bind them.

  Most importantly, it allowed you to banish them. Hence why Noir and Azura were currently imprisoned in the Azmodea--a Nether Realm that existed between dimensions. Forever held out of time and place by Xev's blood.

  There had been a time when this plane had been readily accessible by regular portals. But that was long ago. Before war and punishments.

  "I need you to summon Thorn," Noir groaned.

  "He won't feed you. You know that."

  "Yes, he will. Or we will war. More to the point, I will war against his child. And that he won't tolerate. Tell him, he has one hour before I open my gates on Cadegan."

  Jaden's mind spun over what Noir revealed. Noir, like Nick, was weakened. Drained.

  Could it be from the same source?

  A Malachai would strengthen Noir. Not weaken him. He always got a huge boost whenever a new Malachai rose to power. Those raw, untapped powers added to his.

  Nothing should be able to drain them both. Simultaneously. It made no logical sense. There was no such creature or device that would do that.

  No sooner had that thought gone through his head than a phantom wind whistled down the hallway with enough force that it slammed him into the wall and pinned him there.

  Kaziel and Rhibyn were slammed and held across from him. That was Azura leaving this area to carry out her orders.

  And it allowed him a chance to see Noir's condition firsthand.

  Pale and shaking, the ancient god was on his back, flat on the ground. Jaden had never seen him like this. Not even in battle.

  Azura was right to be terrified. This was abnormal. The things that could do this to a god of their magnitude were few and far between.

  The Malachai was one of them and he wasn't here. Nor would Nick know how to do that without being shown.

  Jared would be the other, and he wasn't here, either. The two of them had specific weapons that they wielded with their powers that could lay low the primals. But those had either been destroyed or were well hidden in the world of man so long ago that no one had seen them in centuries.

  Provided they still existed.

  And Jaden ought to know as he'd been searching for them as a way to gain his freedom. They were some of the few things he'd give a demon anything for. Break any rule to possess.

  But so far ...

  Demons were a worthless lot.

  "What are you staring at?"

  The doors slammed shut in his face, and Jaden and his companions were instantly freed from whatever was holding them immobile.

  Thankfully, Azura was preoccupied and didn't consider them enough of a threat to think them behind this. That, alone, saved their lives.

  Jaden straightened his clothes with a tug as he met Kaziel's gaze. "This is bad. If Grim and Laguerre have found a way to kill Noir..."

  They could unravel the fabric of the universe. Kaziel sent that thought to Jaden.

  Jaden nodded. In anyone's hands that kind of power was scary in and of itself. But what truly terrified him was the fact that those two creatures were stupid enough to actually do it, and not care about the consequences.

  That's what War and Death were. Indiscriminate killers, without regard to the past, present, or future. They cared for nothing and no one. Respected nothing and no one. They could not be reasoned with.

  And while Death was inevitable for everyone, War was not. It could be stopped and extinguished.

  Both could be thwarted, avoided, and delayed.

  That was what they had to do. Avoid and delay them and put Laguerre down as soon as possible.

  Preferably before she got her hands on Nick.

  Or Nick's son, whoever he was.

  Determined, Jaden picked up their pace as he rushed to find Aeron.

  True to his prediction and gut instinct, they found Aeron in the holding cells. And as expected, he wasn't alone.

  Kaziel started for him, but Jaden caught him.

  "You go in there and you'll get him killed."