Wicked Bite (Night Rebel #2)(53)

“For a while,” Ian agreed. “She was taught to fear this half of herself, but what was learned can be unlearned. Besides,” his voice deepened, “the cage is only an illusion. You’re always there, aren’t you? When she frees you, she’s really only freeing herself.”

A sigh hissed through my lips. If he knew that, why did she not know it, too? Even still, I debated ignoring his counsel, but with each brush of his hands, her power grew. Soon, she would break free unless I stayed away from him.

Did I want to do that? My jaw tightened.

No. I did not. Sorcerer.

“Very well,” I said, and let her rise.





Chapter 30


I snapped forward as if I’d been slingshot back into control. For a moment, I could only stare at Ian. His hands were still in my hair and he was standing so close I could feel the heat from his body, elevated from the stress of fighting for his life in Yonah’s dangerous spell.

“You talked her out of it,” I finally said in disbelief.

Ian’s mouth curled in a knowing smile. “No. I talked you out of it.”

I realized with a jolt that he was probably right. I’d experienced decades of extreme trauma by the time Tenoch saved me, and he’d been adamant that I keep my other half locked away because it was too dangerous. Anything Tenoch feared, I feared, too, so I’d spent my life shunning that part of myself. It wasn’t such a stretch to imagine that my past trauma combined with incessant self-alienation resulted in a partial other identity, which was really me trying to continually disassociate from the parts of me that my beloved sire had feared.

If so, I had a lot of therapy in my future. But first . . .

“Does the spell work?” I asked, trying to stuff down my rage over how Yonah could have killed him with it. That rage was like rolling out the welcome mat for my other half . . . or the part of me I felt more comfortable calling my other half even though it really wasn’t? Gods, this was confusing.

If Ian sensed any of my inner battle, he didn’t comment. All he did was take my hand while also holding out his other arm. The horn flew over to wrap itself around his bicep as if it were a giant slap bracelet from the nineteen eighties.

“Let’s find out,” he said.

The spell embedded in his body led us out of the drawing room and all the way down to the basement level of the house. We were only a few doors away from the room we’d stayed in when Ian stopped and opened another door. Yonah, Ereshki, and Katsana were inside, and from their expressions, only Yonah wasn’t surprised to see us. He merely gave Ian a sardonic look.

“That took much less time than I expected.”

Ian ignored the slur to his supposed sexual stamina. “This proves what I warned you about,” he said. “This spell traced Dagon’s power right back to Ereshki. What’s to stop him from using one just like it to find her and the others he’s seeking?”

“It also proves Ereshki is telling the truth,” Yonah countered. “She doesn’t remember Ariel or any of her former crimes despite being one of the souls Dagon hoarded inside himself, which she must be or she wouldn’t have specks of Dagon’s power in her for the spell to trace now.”

I hated that I agreed with the demon. I might not be capable of believing Ereshki after what she’d done to me, but spells didn’t lie. The question was, where did that leave me and the many, many other people who had only me left to speak for them? Should this Ereshki pay for the crimes of her former self? Or did having all memory of that Ereshki ripped from her mind make the woman standing before me technically innocent?

I was still wrestling with that when Ian said, “It also proves Ariel’s version of events, so we’ll take Ereshki and go now,” with such deadly silkiness, it was clear he wasn’t suffering from a crisis of conscience.

Ereshki burst into tears. Hearing it tugged at a place in my heart I’d thought was long dead when it came to her. Even Yonah gave her a sympathetic look. Then he stared at Ian.

“Unaccept—”

He never finished the word. The floor heaved, then a huge crack appeared that the sea immediately filled. Water was up to my knees before I could even react.

Silver! If I didn’t get him out of here, he’d drown! I dashed out of the room, then ducked because Yonah flew over me with Ereshki clasped in his arms. That’s right; she was human again so she was susceptible to drowning, too.

I flew down the hall, ignoring Ian’s shout to stop. By the time I reached our room, the water was already higher than the doorknob. I kicked it open right as a tremendous quaking caused multiple cracks to appear in the ceiling. Silver flew out as if he’d been fired from a canon. Now, the only dry space left was around my head. I clutched him to that while fighting to fly above the water line. More horrible crashing sounds above had me glancing worriedly at the ceiling. Whatever catastrophe had happened—an earthquake, maybe?—it sounded like the roof would cave in any moment.

“Ian!” I shouted, not seeing him in the hallway with its rapidly rising water and ominously increasing roof debris.

I thought I heard his voice farther ahead, but I couldn’t be sure. The water was now so high, I could no longer fly, and walking through it while holding Silver’s nose above the water would take too long. More collapsing sounds proved that. We only had seconds before this entire hallway crashed in on itself.