Ruined (The Eternal Balance #1)(85)

Jax stared at his brother, saying nothing. Mistake or not, it was the only choice. The world would never be ready for either clan to regain dominance. With a final nod, Chase turned and bolted into the darkness. He was gone. It was over.

For now.

With the immediate threat gone, Heckle bent to retrieve my ruined body. Laying me on the ground in front of the rock, he stepped aside and Jax was there in an instant. I couldn’t feel his fingers as he brushed the hair from my eyes, and there was no sensation as he ran his palm over my forehead and across my eyes to close the lids. I could still hear, though. And that was worse than the pain I’d suffered as the knife pierced my skin.

“Good-bye. I’m sorry. It was my fault. It’s all shit. Empty f*cking words that don’t mean a thing,” he whispered. “My life was always dark. From the moment I opened my eyes, all that surrounded me was black. And then there was you. The single brightest thing in this world. In my world. Now you’re gone. You’re gone and all I can see is black. If this is what Chase saw, I can understand—”

“What’s happened here changes nothing,” Heckle said, pulling Jax to his feet. “We made a deal.”

Jax was on his feet and in Heckle’s face. “It changes everything.” He jabbed a finger at my body. “She’s dead. Your terms mean nothing now.”

“Stand down, Tainted, and be calm.” Heckle knelt beside me. He whispered words too low to hear and placed a hand on either side of my head. There was a ringing noise and a rush of icy wind. Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe—which was insane since I was technically dead. A single word echoed. Rise. And everything went dark for a minute.

When my eyes opened, I was staring up into a sea of stormy gray. I didn’t need his ability to see emotions. It was all there on his face. Love. Shock. Hope. Awe. That, and more. The silver strand was back, wrapped and pulsing like a heartbeat around Jax, and connected to me. “Sammy? How—”

“She made a deal with me, too,” Heckle said as Jax helped me up.

The macabre stain running down the front of my shirt was a chilling reminder of what had happened. I gently pulled away from Jax and took a deep breath. There was a sense of freedom now that hadn’t been there before. My temporary death had done it. It’d broken the link between Chase and me. But even though that link was gone, there was still something there. Something different. This was bright and hopeful. Beautiful.

Jax threw his arms around me. The warmth from his body sent a shiver of contentment through me—until he was almost squeezing tightly enough to cut off all the air. “I thought I’d lost you.”

“I’m not that easy to get rid of,” I said, returning the embrace. As I sat there, cradled in his arms, the feeling grew stronger. More intense. I pulled away, searching his face, and the silver strand pulsated. “Do you see it?”

“See what?”

It was beautiful. Shining and warm and radiating. It was more pronounced than it had been right after the kiss. An almost-electric buzz that sent tingles up and down my spine. “I think—I don’t understand how, but I think we’re linked.”

He watched me for a moment, face paling. The look of horror made my breath catch. “No. It’s not possible. I didn’t—”

I shook my head. It wasn’t possible. Couldn’t be. Yet there was something there. It was unmistakable. “I know, but I’m telling you. There’s something there.”

“You two are linked,” Heckle confirmed, standing over us.

“It happened when Jax kissed me, didn’t it? I—I felt it. That didn’t happen when Chase linked us though.”

“There are different kinds of links. Ones created out of violence and necessity and ones created out of love. They each have their boons and faults. They each feel different.”

“Love?” I said. “Is that even possible from a demon?”

“Yes,” Jax said. He looked up at Heckle. “Demons can love, but I’m pretty sure they can’t bring the dead back. I don’t know a lot, but I know that. You—what are you?”

“As I told you both, I am a keeper of balance. For lack of a better term, I am balance. I’m not good or evil. I simply am. It is my job—mine and several others, that is—to ensure that the world keeps an even balance of good and evil.” He smiled. “I made a deal with both of you. I gave you the opportunity to make a choice. One would have kept the balance, and the other would have upset it. You both chose to sacrifice something in order to maintain it. You passed the test.”

I’d sacrificed my life to take away Chase’s unfair advantage and Jax sacrificed Azirak’s powers—and a peaceful existence—to keep the world free from the demon’s clan.

Heckle sank onto the large rock. “As I told Sam earlier, it was me to whom God came after your ancestor Cain slaughtered his brother, Abel. It was me who cursed his family.”

“You started all this? You—” Jax started forward, but Heckle held out his hand and Jax froze in place.

“This is not a fight you want, Tainted. Trust me.”

He lowered his hand and Jax could move again. But instead of lunging forward, he stayed by my side.

“Cain brought violence to the world. What was peaceful and perfect, he stole when he murdered me.”