Eleventh Grave in Moonlight (Charley Davidson #11)(96)

After more than a dozen souls crossed through me, all from the same time period, the 1400s, I waited. Three more beings were inside the dimension. The demon assassin. The god Mae’eldeesahn. And my husband.

The smoke filled the room, lit occasionally by quick flashes of lightning. The entire apartment spun slowly, churning like a supercell.

And then Reyes walked out of it, the billowing smoke falling from his wide shoulders and settling at his feet.

I jumped up, elated, and started toward him. But I skidded to a halt just as quickly, stopped short when I recognized something amiss.

Smoke and lightning curled around him as though it were alive. Like an animal. Like a lover. If he shifted, it shifted. It flowed and ebbed at his will, the lightning crackling over his skin.

He wasn’t in the storm. He was the storm. The tempest. The squall. He was his own element.

I stood astounded as he walked toward me, eating the ground in three determined steps.

I stumbled back, caught myself, then whispered, “Reyes?”

He narrowed his eyes on me. As though curious. As though he had no idea who I was.

I reached up to touch his face and got a whole lot of wall for my effort.

He shoved me against it so hard I bounced back a little. Then he ran his gaze down the length of my body, his hand at my throat. Then my jaw. Wrapping his fingers around it, he talked to me, his voice low and husky. “Elle-Ryn-Ahleethia.”

Why would he use my celestial name?

He seemed … surprised. Astonished to find me there. Then he gave me another once-over. His gaze filled with both lust and contempt.

And then I remembered. Kuur had told me Rey’Azikeen had only contempt for the humans his Brother loved so much. And I was human. At least a grain-sized portion of me.

I studied him as he studied me. Something came out of that dimension. It looked like my husband. Smelled like him. Felt like him. But the being standing in a pool of billowing black smoke was not the man I married. He was a feral version of him. A beast.

This truly was Rey’azikeen. I was meeting him at last.

And then I realized the truth. I may have just made the biggest mistake of my entire existence. I may have unleashed hell on earth.