Sacred Betrayal: Immortal Brotherhood (Edge Book 3)

  “They’re both still alive.”

  “Who?” Reveca asked.

  Shade nodded to the ground. “This fight,” he said. “Looked like it ended in a cease fire.”

  Reveca lifted her brow, wondering who charged Talon. That surely took a lot of guts. He was lethal as a mortal and in all that time as an immortal, with his enhancements, she’d never seen him lose a fight.

  Shade didn’t bother to lead the topic of conversation on. “What I gotta talk about—it’s about Gwinn.”

  Reveca looked up at him, worry in her gaze.

  “Memories are coming back,” Shade said.

  “She handling it?”

  Shade looked away, took his glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose before he spoke. “I’m not.”

  “What?”

  “She was there. With Newberry. She killed him. Twice.”

  Reveca let the shock come to her expression.

  “Yeah, that’s the missing piece we were looking for.”

  Reveca reached for his arm, squeezed it to comfort him.

  “She still doesn’t remember before that. How she got there, her relationship with GranDee. But she knows Holden took her to GranDee’s, told her to run, and she did. GranDee told her to hide, and she did.”

  Tears welled up in Reveca’s eyes, feeling the grief, and knowing why Shade was having a hard time with this. None of them feared the end of life, in any form, but a swift death was seen as graceful, one that in most cases they all delivered when they had to. They thought Gwinn had one; knowing otherwise just made it harder.

  “She’s blaming herself.”

  “You tell her not to.”

  “Yeah.” Shade sucked in a breath. “She thinks you’re going to blame her as much as she blames herself. When all that other—” Reveca nodded, telling him she was aware that she had been locked away with Talon for a bit. Gwinn couldn’t come to her with this. “Yeah, well I told her it was fine. That I’d tell you and you wouldn’t be mad. Told her you just needed space right now.”

  “You were on point. We’re going to fix it. You know we will.”

  “Right. Anyway, she’s practicing her craft and such, keeping busy. But if you cross her path and she’s odd, that’s why.”

  “Shade, you keep taking care of that, okay? I need you to do that. I have to handle some other business. If she sees me, her guilt will block more memories.”

  “Right.” He looked Reveca over nice and slow. “You okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Sure?”

  “It’s going to be fine.”

  “It doesn’t feel fine. That’s not him. Hell, half of us were scared he was hexed or some shit.”

  “Vexed not hexed. It’s between us, and we’ll handle it.”

  “You need anything you tell me,” Shade said, putting his glasses on once more.

  She nodded. “I need you to take care of Gwinn. I need her to have someone she can go to as she moves through the transition.”

  Shade glanced at her again. He knew something was up and Reveca wasn’t letting them all in on it. “King is pretty good at helping her with her stuff.”

  Reveca gave him a weak smile, then reached to pat his chest before she walked away.

  On her way to the lot she did her best to repair her gardens, at the very least put the bricks back in place.

  When she got to the lot, Talon was in bay one working on a bike. All conversation around him stopped, everyone present was waiting to see how he and Reveca would react to each other. It was just a look, one hard one that had too much emotion.

  When she reached her bike she saw King and Cashton coming from the Boneyard. Neither one of them had much of an expression on their faces, so it was hard to tell where they were with each other. But there was no doubt, Cashton was back in full form days before he should be.

  King stopped at his bay, and as he stared at Reveca she felt wave after wave after wave of energy soaring into her. It wasn’t his orgasmic rush—it was raw power. It was pure exaltation. It was him protecting her, giving her what she needed to protect herself.

  She breathed in, straightened her shoulders, and felt the return of the strength that worry and emotion had stripped from her.

  King nodded once in her direction, almost smiled, then went back to work on his bike.

  Cashton came right to Reveca, but before he had a chance to mount his bike Thrash emerged between where Reveca and Cashton were parked.

  “S’up?” he asked nice and casual.

  Seconds ago Thrash was where he usually was, a few feet from Talon.

  “What are you? His voice now? Have to keep tabs on me?”

  “Like I fucking deserve that,” Thrash said.

  Reveca looked down at her bike then up at him. “You don’t. Me and Cash are going for a ride.”

  Thrash nodded at Cash. “Little early, dude. You were still spacey this morning. How you riding that bike off this property and not being Casper and shit?”

  “Spell,” Reveca said, not allowing Cashton to lie to the boys. When this was all said and done, they’d know he really didn’t have a choice in the matter.

  “Why did you spell him so he could ride with you, Vec?” Thrash asked, crossing his arms.

  “Because he won’t look at me the way you are right now. Because I have gardens I need to tend. Because I need space to handle my business.”

  Thrash looked right at Cashton. “You look at me right now and tell me you can handle this.”

  “Aye. I got it. Won’t leave her side,” Cashton said with a deep reverence that clearly stated he meant business.

  Thrash nodded, then looked at Reveca. “See you in bit, right. We got that thing tonight.”

  Reveca didn’t answer. Instead, she glared in Talon’s direction. She didn’t like this game, him using the boys as his voice. If he wanted to know where she was going he should damn well ask her himself.

  She roared her bike to life and pulled away without one backward glance.

  The ride to GranDee’s was electrifying. They never went under ninety, and the power of her bike, the rush, it was what she needed, wanted.

  They parked the bikes in the shade near the river, far from the lawmen’s yellow taped boundaries.

  “Should we put a gone fishing sign on them?” Cashton asked, only half joking.

  Reveca cracked a smile as she walked away from hers and went to the garden.

  “Whatcha harvesting?”

  Reveca didn’t answer him. “Bloody hell, you’ve made me an accessory to all this, at least let me know what I’m walking into.”

  Reveca looked up at him. “Even if I get King free, he’s not going to go.”

  Cashton clenched his jaw. “I don’t think that was Windsome’s point.” He let his stare shift all over her. “You placing a spell on him.”

  “It’s the only way.”

  “How is that a way? I don’t see how you even have the power to use one on him. He’s not like any other immortal.”

  No, he wasn’t. But Reveca had plans. And she also knew how to get a man to drift into a deep sleep. The spell was called ‘lay me down.’ It was how she managed to get Talon to rest every two hundred years so she could renew his immorality. It was the reason he never realized she was doing so.

  For the rest of this plot, she was going to have to reach out for some help on that matter, but first she had to barter.

  She and Cashton were in the fishing boat. He had rowed for a while, and she was laying back letting the sun bathe her, watching the trees glide by, hearing the sound of nature flow by her. Cashton let her enjoy the silence until he couldn’t stand it anymore.

  “She said set him free, not let him go,” Cashton said gruffly.

  “Same difference.”

  “Not when it comes to witches,” Cashton countered. His hard stare dared her to argue.

  Reveca nearly smiled. “He has people, Cashton, ones that need him.”

  “What does he need?”

&
nbsp; “Not the time.”

  “Because of Talon.”

  “Because of a million things. Him leaving is not going to fix me and Talon.”

  “It’s surely not going to fix you,” Cashton said with another row.

  Reveca stared at him as the world, nature, moved all around him. They were slowly gliding toward her Edge.

  “You know why souls divide, Cashton? Why there are soul mates, twin flames?”

  His stare told her he did.

  “You divide to learn, to conquer.”

  “You come together for the same,” he countered.

  “You’re impossible to argue with.” She looked up at the sky and breathed in. “The one that lets go…is the one who loves the most.”

  Cashton stopped rowing, looked right at her. “I remember,” he said. “I remember everything Windsome said, it’s crystal clear. She said the warrior has returned. She told me your story, Reveca.” He nodded forward. “About this Edge. About who let go that day and why.”

  Reveca felt her lip tremble. Everyone saw and felt that day differently than she did, and it broke her heart to think she was mad at King all this time for something he didn’t do. “It’s my turn, Cashton. I have to let go now. I have to let him fight.”

  “I’m not going to kill him,” Cashton said. “Not because he’s an Escort, and not because my girl had a deal with him for a hot second.”

  Reveca lifted her brow. Either he and King had had a good talk when he laid this spell on Cashton, or Cashton had put the same pieces together as Reveca had.

  “I know you won’t.”

  Confusion was in his eyes.

  “This God Revelin.” Reveca looked at the nature around her again. “Do you realize that out of the seven, he’s the largest? He may not have the favor the other sovereigns have with our Creator, but he is the largest. Exaltation. It’s everywhere…nature sings it, little victories, the bird flying, the fish swimming, the flower blooming, it’s everywhere. He’s massive, Cashton. I felt his power, and if all the stories my people say are true of that day, if King did fight with me, he and I in our prime on soil that was blessed, full of energy, and could not put a dent in him…that means you’re gonna need all the help you can get. You’re going to have to fight back to back with King and his armies…I have to let him go.”

  “Not now. This isn’t happening now, Reveca. I know that I’m not due to rise, not yet. I would have felt it.”

  “No, but all great things take time. King’s people need him…you said now. You said Windsome said to free him before this moon.”

  “His boundaries. I think you’re seeing it wrong.”

  “If I am the fates will stop me. I won’t make this barter, or somewhere somehow something will stop this. Until such time, I’m preparing to—”

  “Grieve.”

  Reveca sucked in a deep breath. “In all of time there never was a time for us.”

  “You can’t think like that, Reveca.”

  “Mr. Zen over there.”

  “Yeah, well, if I had thought like that I would still be in the Veil, doing shite that I had no business doing. I’m not going to argue this with you because I know that one way or the other, tomorrow or a hundred years from now, it will be all good. Letting go and giving up are two different things. Tread carefully.”

  She nodded once then closed her eyes, taking in the sun.

  Not long after that they were at the Edge. They had to move vessels. There was no way their boat would hold the souls she had to take to Crass.

  Erio had one waiting. He was at the helm, while others tied the fishing boat Cashton had to the larger one and guided Reveca and Cashton on board.

  The Edge wasn’t easing her as she thought it would. From the instant she entered she felt her most hated adversary.

  Cashton kept moving his hand over his wrist, over that hidden brand, anger all over his face, all Zen gone. At every other glance in his direction, Reveca was sure she was seeing him through new eyes, seeing a fierceness that was always lurking. She was sure she was seeing the God slayer that King had called out.

  All at once Cashton stood from his lean on the side of the boat, pulled his shoulders back.

  Seconds later Zale appeared.

  Almost immediately Zale fell into a relax stance, one that would make you think he had been there all the while. His appraising stare was pinned on Cashton.

  “Get off my fucking boat,” Reveca said.

  Cashton stepped forward, making it clear that was going to happen one way or another.

  Zale raised his hands, even smiled. “Bygones and all that. I led you astray and you hit me, a good hit, too, for a dead man, even now.”

  “That’s why no one wants to work with you, Zale,” Reveca said. “You’re a dirty son of a bitch.”

  “Because no one works with me, I have to go about my way of doing things,” Zale said, moving his stare to Reveca. “Windsome. That was brilliant. I’ll give you that.”

  Reveca only glared.

  “You understand she’s over it, right? That she’s just as eager as Saige for this Rapture.”

  “We all have our dreams.”

  “You’re going to let her play you?” He glanced to Cashton. “Use you?”

  Cashton smirked. A lethal look that Reveca had never seen before today was present and getting fiercer by the moment.

  “No one is playing me.”

  “Then tell me where she said my sister was so I can go in the opposite direction.”

  “In the pages.”

  “Fuck, Reveca, come on.”

  “You don’t care about Evanthe. You want the mortal. You want his funds. You want to reconcile and build your empire.”

  His look was incredulous. “That what Windsome told you?”

  “That’s me knowing you all my life. I know how you think.”

  “This is my mess to clean up, Reveca. I do want the mortal. Yes. He fucked me over. I will find him. But I’m the only one that can deal with this shit on both sides. You, the fucking Queen of Death and you won’t even go in the Veil.”

  “Where the fuck do you think I’m going now?”

  “To pay a debt. One Saige put on you.”

  “You caused enough shit. Stirring up drama better left alone.”

  “What? Talon get jealous? Or is he just pissed because he figured out your coven wants to take you and me out—all the outcasts. They want it to be pure for their Rapture.”

  “Get off,” Reveca said with a lifted brow.

  “You listen to me,” Zale said, stepping forward. “This drug is out of control. Mortals are able to become us for a moment. The immortals taking it, my ex Rouges, they’re stronger than you’re giving them credit for, strong enough to make your MC bow. They are getting the power to make this drug from the depths of darkness. I will go there and stop it—you won’t.”

  “I’m dealing with it.”

  “No, you’re not. And when you figure out that you can’t I’m going to make you crawl, bow to me, beg me to go into this hell and end it. You’ll regret listening to anyone in this coven but me.”

  “Get off my fucking boat,” Reveca said. As she slowly prowled closer, her followers, the ghostly images that lived in the Edge moved closer, too, but they were not nearly as fierce looking as Cashton.

  Zale didn’t move. “Give me the souls. I’ll take them to the docks for Crass, put a little note on it for you. You stay clear of this.”

  “Fuck off.” And with that she nodded her head and sent a blow at him, a blow that made him lose his foothold on the Edge. He vanished in an instant.

  So much for fates, Reveca thought to herself. Windsome had said one of them from the coven who could reach the depths would ease their worries. She had to be speaking of Zale, and if this prediction were true the rest must be set to come to pass as well.

  Reveca was going to have to free King…let him go.

  She stared forward at the waters that would lead her to Crass and did her best to push a
ll her emotions somewhere deep inside. Right now she needed to be fierce. She had to protect her own, no matter the cost.

  “Creator give me strength,” she whispered.

  Cashton put his arm around her, pulled her close, and they both sailed toward the unknown hell that was waiting.

  These next few days would be the hardest war she’d ever fought. Nothing could be harder than saying goodbye twice. She was sure of it.

  Episode Eleven

  Chapter One

  Night had come, and it was an eerie one. The wind was still…all of nature was hushed. The air was thick; not hot, not cold, just thick. The dead, they lurked on the banks, out of sight, hiding, not trusting what the Queen of the Edge and those with her were doing. Not understanding why there were caged, compressed, dark, haunting souls on board her vessel. All the same, they found awe for her, how aware she was, how focused, the glow of her skin, and the power waving off her—it was hypnotic to them.

  As the boat moved through the dark waters that would lead her to the docks of Crass’s own hellhole, Reveca stared at those crates of souls. Each soul had birthed darkness in the mortal world. They’d taunted the living and tested dark powers that were better left alone. Each, with the exception of one, were laid down by her boys, her dark guardians, ones who would be furious with her when she returned.

  Reveca rarely asked for strife and never welcomed it with open arms, but when it came her way, she used it. Her fighting with Talon, breaking down parts of their relationship, gave her reason, in the minds of most, to do irrational things. Such as face this beast, to disappear for a night, and not tell them of her plots and plans surrounding this meeting.

  Her boys would never know the risk of this—her walking into Crass’s lair with nothing to offer and prepared to demand the impossible. They’d never know she was willing to make any bargain that had to be made to free King, to save him. And none of it had anything to do with her relationship with Talon. It had to do her with her past—it had to do with everyone’s future. It had to do with a faith and love that had tested her, over and over again.

  Fates—she trusted them. She trusted the unknown guiding hand that is said to belong to the Creator of all.