Temptation, Chronicles of the Fallen, Book 3 (18 page)

Chapter Sixteen

“Good. Very good,” Kyanna said as Maggie held her hands up, palms out, and concentrated really, really hard. “Now I’m going to have Xander try to push into your space.”

“I’ll do it,” Gideon growled. She tried really hard to ignore him. But just the tenor of his voice spiked hunger and hurt through her system.

And how embarrassing was that? Here she was, presented with the opportunity she’d been praying for since her twenty-first birthday, trying to pay attention to Kyanna, trying to memorize incantations and enchantments, and all she could focus on was the sound of Gideon’s angry voice. And the mind-melting, warm, citrusy scent of him as he paced nearby.

She struggled to remember what Kyanna had told her.

Breathe in.
She drew in a soul-deep breath.
Breathe out.
She released it in a controlled, long exhalation.
Focus on the scents around me. The fresh, crisp air, feel it on my skin. Smell the scent of pine nearby. The scent of lilacs, the freshly cut grass. Listen to the sound of the slow moving river. The soft whoosh of breeze through the trees overhead and the rhythmic rustle of leaves. Listen to the birdsong.

She couldn’t do it. Not with Gideon stomping about, snarling like a rabid animal every time Xander or Kyanna tested her shields.

“No, you won’t,” Kyanna said, her tone brooking no argument.

“Yes, I—”

“I said no, Gideon,” Kyanna snapped, clearly at her patience’s end. Truth be told, Maggie wasn’t too far behind her. “Maggie needs training, not coddling. You won’t push her for fear of hurting her. You keep pulling your punches. I understand why, but in the long run, that’s only going to hurt her. Do you think Stolas and his minions will treat her with kid gloves just because you l—” Gideon growled low in his throat, and Kyanna quickly changed whatever it was she’d been about to say. “Because she’s pregnant?”

“You’re hovering,” Maggie accused, her eyes closed tight against what she was sure was a very intimidating glower.

“Get used to it.” Oh, he was furious now. She’d heard him angry before. But his voice held a new quality. A dangerous softness. One that instantly made the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Had she finally pushed him too far? Wearily, she squinched one eye open and watched him through the fringe of her lashes.

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you or our child, not even by accident,” he promised in that same deadly soft voice.

Xander, of all people, cracked a huge smile. Maggie almost—almost—opened both eyes wide in surprise, catching herself at the last second. Remembering herself, that she was supposed to be concentrating on her shields, she held her pose.

“It’s about time you found something to live for,” Xander remarked.

Now Maggie looked at him, full on, puzzled by that last remark. “What does that mean? You make it sound like he—”

Gideon looked like he wanted to throttle someone. She wasn’t sure which of them he’d like to get his hands on more. Xander, Kyanna or her. Frankly, she didn’t think he’d care either way, as long as someone was bleeding when he was done.

“Gideon?” Frustrated by her inability to focus on the enchantments, she reached over to pick up one of the daggers Gideon had brought outside for combat practice. “What’s he—”

Maggie jolted, sucking a sharp breath in on a hiss as the dagger slipped from her hand. In an instant, everything and everyone around her disappeared. She caught flashes of images, light and sound and smell.

Sulfur filled the air, burning her nostrils. Terrible screams hurt her ears, tearing at her eardrums until they felt like they would bleed. The heat was so intense she staggered back a step, sweat instantly pouring down her body.

She glanced around, spun around taking everything in at once. Rocks and crevices, dry arid land as far as the eye could see. Fire and shadows filled with creatures too horrible to imagine.

“I’ll never submit,” a hoarse woman’s voice cried.

Maggie spun again.
There!
A large, wrought iron cage perched at the top of a spire of stone. All around the cage, creatures writhed and scrabbled. Hideous beings that clawed at the bars and pawed at the trapped woman.

No…not a woman. An angel.

Her wings—missing large patches of feathers, bloody and filthy—were wrapped protectively around her. Her reddish-colored hair hung in a dingy, matted knot at the base of her skull. Robes that had obviously once been pristine white were torn and bloodied, stained with soot.

“There she is,” a raspy voice shouted.
Xander!
What was Xander doing here? Wherever
here
was? Maggie turned to watch the scene unfold.

But Xander wasn’t alone. Gideon was there too. And Niklas and Mikhail. And two other demons she’d never seen before, one tall, blond, and knock-out gorgeous. The other had jet black eyes, mocha-colored skin, and a goatee. The latter carried a long, ancient-looking sword with a huge bloodred stone set into the pommel and some kind of runes carved down the length of the blade. They swarmed the cage, beating back the ghouls.

A dark laugh came out of nowhere, seeming to echo through the valley. The remaining creatures melted back in fear. The six demons turned, moving to stand shoulder to shoulder, all preparing to fight as they formed a barrier between the caged angel and the new threat.

“Maggie!” Someone took hold of her shoulders and shook her. “Maggie, are you all right?”

Maggie blinked and sagged into Gideon’s waiting arms. “I’m fine,” she whispered.

“What happened?” Gideon swept an arm beneath her knees, scooping her off her feet.

“No! Put me down. I’m fine,” she insisted.

He ground his teeth. “You have dark smudges beneath your eyes, and you looked as if you were about to pass out again,” he informed her. She struggled in his arms until he put her back on her feet, but he kept a careful arm around her waist.

“I had a vision.”

Xander and Kyanna moved closer.

“You were there, Gideon. And you, Xander. Niklas and Mikhail too. And two others. One who…well, I imagine, looks much like a Norse god.”

“Sebastian,” Kyanna supplied, earning herself a peeved glare from Xander.

“The other one had dark skin, jet black eyes, and a goatee.” She glanced back and forth between Gideon and Xander as she filled in the rest of the details from her vision, being as specific as possible. She didn’t miss the look that passed between Xander and Gideon when she mentioned the sword.

“So Asher was there too,” Gideon observed, stroking his fingers along his chin.

“We’re going to have to call the others,” Xander said.

Gideon nodded. “Do you suppose it’s
the
sword? And if so, how the hell did Asher get his hands on it?”

Xander looked just as troubled as Gideon by this observation. “Who do you suppose the angel in the cage was?”

Maggie shrugged as everyone’s attention turned to her. “I don’t have any clue.”

“It’s time to call it a day,” Gideon decreed at length.

“I’m not done training yet.” Maggie stood firm, ignoring him, waiting for further instruction from Kyanna and Xander.

Gideon all but snapped his teeth at her. He turned to Kyanna, desperation leaking into his voice. “Can’t you tell how tired she is? She’s pushing herself too hard. We’re all pushing her too hard, expecting too much.”

“Stop hovering,” Maggie told him as she tried to focus. “Help or go away.”

“I have been helping,” he shouted.

“No. You’ve been hovering,” Xander corrected.

“And you haven’t?” Gideon shot right back. “What was that earlier? When Maggie read that incantation wrong and Kyanna went flying? What do you call that? I’ve never seen you move so fast in your existence. Not even when that Ralsha Demoness decided she wanted you as her mate.”

“What was that?” Kyanna asked, eyeing Xander. “What Ralsha Demoness?”

“I don’t know what he’s talking about,” Xander said, cringing and shivering like something extremely unpleasant was crawling all over his flesh.

“Mmm-hmm,” Kyanna said with patented disbelief and a
we’ll-discuss-this-later
glare.

“I was simply taking proactive safety countermeasures and offering a bit of constructive criticism,” Xander said, glaring at Gideon.

“‘Proactive safety countermeasures’, my ass,” Gideon complained, getting right up in Xander’s face. “Careful, Xander. You’re starting to sound like the hot air bag you were trying to be a little while ago. If you can’t take a little
constructive criticism
, don’t be so quick to hand it out.”

God, she couldn’t take another second of this. She wouldn’t be a bone of contention between Gideon and his friends. But neither would she live in ignorance because he was afraid she might break a friggin’ nail.

“Damn it, Gideon! Enough!”

He glanced over at Maggie’s furious outburst, clearly ready to argue his point. The words died on his lips as his eyes all but bugged from his head. He, Xander and Kyanna all stared at her in similar shades of shock.

“What?” Frowning, Maggie glanced down.

She stood in the fighting stance Xander had taught her, her hands open at her sides. And hovering above her palms were twin, pulsing balls of white energy. Not exactly plasma balls, but remarkably similar.

Something they most definitely had not taught her.

Maggie screamed. She hopped back, shaking her hands wildly, but the balls would not be dislodged. If anything, they only grew.

OhmiGod! OhmiGod!

“Put them out! Put them out!” she cried, waving her arms frantically. One glowing orb broke free, slamming into a bush near the river. The bush erupted in blue flames, and another orb quickly reformed to take its place in her hand.

Gideon flew across the distance between them. He grabbed her wrists and slapped her hands together. “Breathe! Calm down.”

The energy balls flashed and sizzled out.

“It’s okay,” he murmured against her hair as he dragged her into his arms, squeezing her tight. His heart thudded beneath her ear, keeping time with her own. “You’re okay. They’re out. Shhh. Shhh. You’re okay.”

He sounded as if he wasn’t sure whom he was trying to convince. Her, or himself? Honestly, after that startling development, she didn’t care. Maggie melted into him. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she buried her face in the soft fabric of his T-shirt and greedily sucked in the scent of him. She gratefully absorbed the protective warmth surrounding her.

What was that? What just happened?

“Is she okay?” Kyanna asked.

Gideon snarled. “What the hell do you think? She damned near set herself on fire. What the hell was that anyway?”

Slowly, Maggie eased back in Gideon’s arms, though he wouldn’t let her go completely. That was fine by her. Her legs were still shaking.

“I’ve never been able to do that before,” she told the group, her voice little more than a whisper. “What was that?”

“I have no idea,” Kyanna said, her eyes wide with wonder, her tone shocked.

“Angelfire,” Xander rasped.

“Angelfire?” Gideon repeated, turning slightly to face Xander. He looked more than a little green around the gills. “Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure. I’ve only seen it once before. During the Great Fall. And it had been aimed at you, right before Mikhail deflected it.”

A look of shock swept over Gideon’s face, one that was quickly replaced by dawning understanding. And horror. Gideon’s face lost all color before turning a sickly shade of gray. “After the Fall, Mikhail disappeared for decades,” Gideon whispered, as if speaking to himself. He had to clear his throat before he could speak. “Mikhail didn’t get the scars on his face from Ralsha venom, did he?”

Xander held his gaze, but remained grim and silent.

Gideon swore.

Confused, glancing between the two towering demons, Maggie demanded, “What?”

“Your father can call forth Angelfire, Maggie,” Xander said when Gideon looked incapable of speech. “And now, apparently, so can you.”

“Angelfire.” She whispered the foreign-sounding word, testing it on her tongue. “What exactly is it?”

“A select few demons, Xander included, can summon Hellfire,” Gideon said, finding his voice at last. “Or, at least, Xander used to be able to. It’s basically a superheated compound that will destroy anything.
Anything
.” Gideon grimaced then, as if remembering something particularly unpleasant. His focus shot to Xander. “Mortikaï can summon Hellfire. He melted the Amulet of the Gods.”

Maggie recalled the book shoved beneath Gideon’s bed, and his fixation on the amulet. Was that what he’d been hoping to find? Had he been hoping to use it to break his curse?

Xander’s brow furrowed, but before he could reply, Kyanna piped in, beating Maggie to the punch. “Yes, well, that’s all very interesting. But what about Angelfire? I’ve never heard of it.”

“That’s because it’s even more of an anomaly than Hellfire,” Xander said, coming to stand behind Kyanna. He slipped his arms around her waist, drawing her back against his chest. “Angelfire works much the same as Hellfire. It’s capable of destroying anything.”

Maggie shook her head. She rested her fists against Gideon’s chest, afraid to open them and lay them flat lest she accidently destroy him. “But I’ve never been able to do this before. Why now?”

Kyanna peered over her shoulder at Xander. “Do you think it has anything to do with the pregnancy?”

“Possibly. Could be she’s channeling the babe’s powers. Could be she just unlocked another of her own powers.” Xander smirked. “Could be Gideon just pissed her off more than anyone else ever has.”

Maggie shuddered, imagining a two-year-old capable of tossing about energy balls—
Angelfire
, she corrected—whenever he had a temper tantrum. Gideon smoothed a hand down her back, murmuring against her hair. As if sensing the direction of her thoughts, he leaned back, nudging her until she looked at him.

“We’ll figure this out, Maggie. Together.”

The look in his eye promised something far deeper, something she prayed she wasn’t just imagining due to wishful thinking.