Sacrifice (39 page)

Everything faded to a dull hum, everything but the need to reach Royal. I felt little waves of static electricity traveling along my arms. I raised my hands, keeping my eyes closed and my thoughts focused.

In the back of my mind—that part of me still connected to Royal—I felt him smile.

The gesture caught Seth by surprise. “Something’s funny?” he asked.

“I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise.” Royal’s voice was tight with grim satisfaction.

Seth’s eyebrows knitted together briefly, but then he shook the concern off. He hefted the ancient sword high in the air. The point gleamed wickedly in the flickering light of candles. “Goodbye, lover. I’m afraid you’re out of time.”

Seth plunged the dagger down, straight for Royal’s heart.

Chapter 20

It’s a strange feeling, using the dream world to travel from one place to another.

The cave before me seemed to shimmer, then
change.
Like a bubble popping, or a wine glass shattering into a thousand bits—each shard not merely glass, but a piece of reality, separating one from the other. I pushed forward, an effort of will more than body. Part of me was conscious of the dream world. I was moving
through it,
after all, even if it seemed like I was simply walking through a door from one room to another. The dream world was that liminal space between; it took almost no effort to simply step over the threshold—and yet it took every ounce of will-power I had to force open that breach in our world and hold it open as I moved across the city in one step. And then, in less time than it takes to blink, I was through.

I had no time to marvel at my success.

My fist shot out, catching Seth’s wrist a microsecond before the blade pierced Royal’s chest. The Incubus gave a startled growl, releasing Royal reflexively.

The last time I’d travelled this way, I’d been disoriented, weakened to the point of uselessness. But I was stronger now. I twisted Seth’s wrist cruelly. He fought to keep control of the knife. I didn’t have room to wield the sword properly, so I smashed the hilt into Seth’s throat hard and fast.

Seth choked, dropping the weapon. I grabbed Royal and hauled him off the altar.

“Excellent timing,” Royal wheezed, clinging to me with shaking hands.

I scanned the cramped cave looking for a way out. Intricate carvings, like the ones covering the altar, lined the floor. Grooves—the perfect width and depth for a glass marble to traverse—twisted across the cave in strange patterns.

But then I caught sight of something that made my blood freeze in my veins. A shimmering curtain of shadow, swirling in and out of view. Just like—

I glanced up. Overhead, I saw a large, round stone, braced in place by massive, ancient wooden beams. It was all the confirmation I needed. I’d never seen this side of it, but I knew instantly what it was.

The Seal.

Which means, all this time we’d been searching for it, the ancient Temple devoted to Lilith had literally been right under our noses at the mission.

I heard someone chuckle and turned. Ian strode into the cave from the tunnel. “Ironic, isn’t it?”

“Get behind me!” I pushed Royal back, then spun around to face Seth and Ian, holding Hale’s sword up before me like a shield.

Seth glanced at Ian, irritated. “You were supposed to keep her occupied, Archivist. She nearly ruined my ambush.”

“She’s more resourceful than I anticipated.” Ian glanced at me, sizing me up.

“I could have told you that.” Seth rubbed carefully at his throat.

“You.” I glared at Ian, pouring every ounce of rage and hatred into the word.

“You should be thanking me, Lilitu. I’m giving you the keys to this world.” Ian spread his hands, as if making a peace offering.

“You’re a Guardsman.” My eyes slid to Seth, then back to Ian. “How did he recruit you, Ian?”

“You’ve got it backwards, little girl.” Seth crossed his arms, grinning at my confusion.

“You used him. You had him send the Guardsmen into your trap, you made him steal that sword from our armory—”

“You think I need the help of a Son of Adam?” Seth’s sneer of disgust was so genuine I felt my conviction falter.

“But—the sword—? The sacrifice—?”

“Sure. I’ll admit, he was useful. But joining forces? Not my idea.”

I turned to Ian. “What is he saying? This was all your idea?”

Ian opened his mouth to answer, but before he could speak, Royal gripped my shoulder.

“Braedyn.” He was staring across the cavern at the tunnel’s narrow entrance. Idris entered the temple, emerging from the shadows. Her long white hair flowed behind her like a veil.

“No, child,” she said. “The idea was mine.”

“Mother.” Ian turned to Idris, opening his arms. She walked into his embrace, then planted a dry kiss on his cheek.

“
Mother?!
” My voice rang through the cave. I gawked at the two of them, suddenly picking out the tiny features they shared in common.

Seth gave Idris an arch smile. “Welcome to the party. I was starting to worry that you’d miss the big night.”

“A night I’ve been preparing for my entire adult life? No.” Idris beamed serenely at Seth. “Your Priestess is honored to be here, Grandson of Lilith.”

Seth shrugged, amused. “If we’re standing on formalities, it’s Son of Eadryth, Daughter of Lilith. Or you could just call me Seth.”

Idris glanced at me, then turned to Ian. “Is this the young Lilitu you told me about?”

“Yes.” Ian gave me a considering look, then sighed. “She still believes she’s protecting this world from her own kind.”

Idris shook her head, giving me a sad smile. “Oh, dear. How I wish we could spare the time to show you the truth. But we cannot allow you to interfere with our great work. Please stand aside, child. I truly do not want to harm you.”

My eyes cut to Seth, and I saw dark amusement brewing in his eyes. “Ian,” I turned to the archivist in desperation. “Why are you doing this? You’ve seen what the Lilitu are capable of!”

Ian met my desperate gaze. He was unapologetic. “They have been cast out of their home, made to watch from afar as the Sons of Adam have plundered their world—”

“But
you’re
a Son of Adam.”

Ian ignored my interruption. “How can we blame them for attacking us? It is a war we began.”

“You don’t honestly believe that?” I stared at Ian, stricken.

“It is the truth,” Idris said simply. “I have devoted my life to researching the history of Lilith and her children. For years, I published books and articles on my findings, assuming her story was simply a myth—a subversive, feminist, alternate history that the women who came before us developed as a way of coping with the crimes against our gender. But then I was contacted by a Lilitu, and everything changed.” Idris beamed at me, her face alight with inner peace. “You cannot imagine the feelings that swept through me, discovering that this myth was based in real power. Suddenly, I realized
why
I was put on this earth.”

I felt my mouth go dry. “To reawaken Lilith.”

“Yes.” Idris smiled. “Lilith, the bringer of storms, the first mother nature, she is the fierce protector this world needs. She will save what remains from the ravaging hands of humanity.” Idris spread her hands wide, as though suggesting the conclusion was obvious. “The era of the Sons of Adam is coming to an end. It is time for Lilith and her Daughters to begin their work.”

I shook my head, too numb to speak.

“I know, it’s a lot to take in.” Seth bent, retrieving the ancient blade from where he’d dropped it just minutes ago. “Now, if you don’t mind, we’re on a tight schedule.” His eyes shifted to Royal.

Adrenaline surged into my system. I dropped into a fighting stance, holding the sword before me tightly. “Forget it, Seth. You can’t have Royal.”

Seth sighed, giving voice to his frustration. “You really are becoming the bane of my existence,” he muttered, half under his breath. “It’d be so much easier if I could just kill you.”

I stared at him, unsure if I’d heard him correctly.

But at that moment, a finger of sunlight speared through the center of the Seal—a finger of light so thin and precise, suddenly I knew it could only penetrate this darkness once a year, when the sun was in perfect alignment with the stone overhead. That was why they’d destroyed the mission’s roof. They needed the sun to pierce this darkness for the ritual. And that’s why it had to happen on the summer solstice.

Seth’s eyes fastened onto the spear of light, then shifted to Ian. “It’s too bad. I would have liked you to see Lilith’s return.” Seth grabbed Ian by the scruff of his shirt and threw him down onto the altar. The blade flashed as he swung it around, catching the beam of light. With as little remorse as a butcher slaughtering a pig, Seth slit Ian’s throat. Ian thrashed, a bubbling gurgle spilling out of his throat along with a wash of bright red blood.

“No—!” Idris’s breathless cry echoed through the chamber.

“God—!” Royal recoiled. I turned to him, ripping my eyes away from the gruesome sight.

“Ian!” The sounds of Idris’s grief filled the cave. Even after all she’d done—and all Ian had done—Idris’s raw agony wrenched at my heart. In response, my nose stung with a hot prickle of grief. I forced myself to turn back and look, afraid of keeping my back to Seth.

Idris rushed forward toward her dying son, but Seth planted a hand on her chest stopping her. For a moment, Idris could only stare at Ian, now lying still on the altar. Then she turned wide eyes to Seth. She looked shaken to the core. “Why?! We have done nothing but help you—”

“Indeed.” Seth gestured to the altar. Ian’s blood, still flowing freely from the wound on his neck, seeped into the carvings. Bright red lines flowed down from the altar and across the floor, tracing out those ancient patterns with more speed than I would have thought possible. Seth regarded the spreading pattern with satisfaction. “You have both served very well.”

I watched with sick fascination as fingers of blood—flooding different paths in the pattern—began meeting up. One after another, the carved ruts of the pattern filled with Ian’s blood, until only one last stretch remained empty. My eyes followed two lines of blood, edging toward one another until they connected.

The pattern was complete.

The ground beneath our feet
surged.

“Holy crap, is that an earthquake?” Royal grabbed my arm, panicking. “We have to get out of here! Braedyn? Braedyn?!”

He tugged on my arm, but I couldn’t respond.

The quake wasn’t limited to our physical reality. A violent upheaval shot across the dream world, buffeting against my mind with the force of a category five hurricane. I flung out my free hand, trying to brace myself against the cavern wall. But—struggling against the storm in my mind—I couldn’t see clearly. I felt Royal’s arms fastening around me.

“Braedyn? Are you okay?”

“I—I don’t know.” My voice sounded tinny in my ears, distant and small. It sent a wave of goose bumps prickling over the skin of my arms.

I felt Royal’s hands tighten around me. “Okay. I’ve got you.”

After what seemed like an eternity, the storm in my mind died down. I blinked to clear my vision.

Seth had a hand braced against the far wall. I saw him straighten, presumably recovering from the same spiritual upheaval I’d just experienced. Then he looked up and met my eyes. The air around Seth shimmered, folding back like some kind of trans-dimensional origami.

“Done and done,” he whispered. “It’s starting.”

And then Seth stepped through the dream world. In less than a second, he was gone.

Chapter 21

Idris knelt beside the altar, laying her hands across Ian’s lifeless body. She bowed her head. Her tears glimmered in the last thin thread of sunlight. And then the sun continued its journey overhead, plunging the Temple back into a murky dimness lit only by candlelight.

“I—I don’t understand.” Idris’s voice was so low I almost couldn’t make out what she’d said.

“He played you.” I glared at Idris, but she didn’t lift her eyes from Ian’s face. “They all played you. Lilitu are not the victims. They’re the predators, and you just woke up their queen.”

“But—” Idris finally looked up, pain and confusion twisting her features into a mask of agony. “Lilith was created from the same earth as Adam. She is as much entitled to this world as he is.”

“Did a Lilitu tell you that?” I shook my head at Idris’s look of dim comprehension. “All the research you’ve done, and you glossed right over the part about how God kicked Lilith out?”

“Because she refused to submit to Adam.” Idris straightened, regaining some of her confidence.

“No. Because she refused to be a part of
building
this world,” I snapped. “Together, she and Adam were supposed to begin the human race. She shirked her one great responsibility; what makes you think she deserves any part of this world?”

Idris shook her head, but I could see defiance settling behind her eyes. “If not for Adam’s arrogance, she would have—”

“We have
no way
of knowing what she would have done. All we know is what she did.” I shook my head. “Why are we even arguing about this? Seth just killed your son! Doesn’t that make you angry?!”

I saw the raw emotions playing across Idris’s face. But then she turned back to Ian, stroking his cheek tenderly. “He has made the ultimate sacrifice,” she whispered. “Because of him, we have ushered in a new era of peace.”

“Peace?” I stared at Idris, truly dumbfounded. “You’ve just experienced firsthand the kind of peace the Lilitu will bring to this world!”

Idris’s shoulders tensed, but she did not answer.

I took a step toward her, then swayed on my feet, still unsteady. “You can’t honestly still believe you were right about all of this?”

Idris looked up, her eyes clear and calm once more. “I stand by my life’s work.”

“But—?”

Royal squeezed my arm gently. “She just watched her son die because of her own deluded mistakes; she’ll believe whatever she needs to believe,” he whispered. “You’re not going to change her mind. Come on, let’s get out of here.”