Iniquity (The Premonition, #5)(82)

“I need you, Xavier. I’m dead if you don’t help me.”

His face stiffens as he attempts to rein in his emotions. “Tell me what’s happened.”

“I know about that night—the night I was suppose to meet you at the bridge. I never made it there.”

“You have the boatswain.” He inhales as if he can take his first deep breath in a long time.

“I do,” I say in Angel. I know I’m not supposed to tell him, but I have to in order to make him understand.

“You remember Simone? You remember us?” he asks in Angel. His handsome face is hopeful.

I close my clone’s eyes in concentration, breaking off a small fragment of her. I open her eyes again as I thrust the glowing shard of my energy into him. It pierces his heart like a dagger, disappearing inside his chest. He glows brighter for a moment. His face is one of shock until the memory plays out to the end. The light dissipates from him and he sags a little, unharmed, but trying to make sense of all he saw in my memory. When he looks at me again, the hopeless ache that was in his eyes is gone and reckless joy replaces it.

“You told me you made a deal for us, but you couldn’t tell me anything else.” He would hold me in his arms now if he could. His hands open, and then close tight. “I will destroy your inescapable and Byzantyne. Your soldier will ascend, and then it’s you and me together for eternity.

“Reed is my aspire.” My voice is as haunting as my clone body.

“Only until he ascends. Once that happens, his binding mark will strip from your skin and you’ll be released from your obligations to him. You’ll be his champion no more. You can choose your love.”

“I’m in love with him, Xavier.”

“You love me.”

“I do love you—”

“It’s always been us, Evie, even when you were tied to your soul mate. No one knows you like I know you.”

“I remember, but I’m different now. I’m not the being with whom you fell in love.”

“I know exactly who you are! I’ve protected you in this lifetime, too, until your contract with Byzantyne made it impossible for me to remain. I love you. I will finish this for you, and when I do, Reed will ascend. He’ll vanish from your life. All that will be left is us.”

I ache inside my real body, the one that is with Reed. “Until then, you have to respect that he’s my aspire,” I say through my clone.

He doesn’t like what he sees—my sorrow. “Where are you?” he asks again.

“I’m on my way to gather my army.”

He frowns. “Your army is where we were—in the mountain.”

“No, that’s your army, Xavier. My army is the Gancanagh and any other being who would follow me.”

“The Gancanagh are evil!”

“This is about redemption.”

“Whose redemption?”

“Theirs—mine. They deserve a chance to change and we need them to fight for us.”

“And you would give them redemption?”

“I would, but it’s not up to me.”

“No, it’s not. Only Heaven can decide their fate.”

“These are the flames by which they will burn then—or not. If they must die, then let this prove them worthy of forgiveness.”

He paces in front of me. “The gates of Sheol are open, Evie.”

“I am aware of that.” He stops to look at me, surprised by my calm, in-control demeanor. “You have to return to Tau and convince my father to meet us with his army in Crestwood. We have to join our forces in order to defeat the Fallen.”

“You’re asking divine angels to fight alongside undead demons? They will never agree to such an arrangement.”

“Then you have to make them agree. You have to lead them.”

“Your father—”

“He’ll listen to you if you explain it to him. Tell Tau that Emil is waiting for me there. The more time that passes, the more humans Emil will corrupt to fight for him. He hides just behind the gates. He has a plan to draw us in. He will attack us with an army of fallen. The boatswain wasn’t meant to open the gates of Sheol, it was meant to close them. And when that happens the sound of its music will separate Emil’s soul from his angelic body, just like it almost did to me the moment we used it before. Once Emil’s soul has divided from his body, we have to use the weapon Heaven has hidden for us in order to destroy his soul. His soul has to be annihilated or the contract is not fulfilled.”

“Tau said that Phaedrus is working with your soul mate to secure such a weapon—”

“We’ll find it. I promise.”

“The thought of you at the mercy of the Gancanagh is more than I can take, Evie.”

“I won’t be at their mercy, Xavier. They’ll be at mine.”

“How do I get in contact with you?” he asks.

“I’ll contact you. Convince my father, Xavier. My life depends upon it. I will see you in Crestwood.” I let go of my clone and she evaporates into the air.




I return to myself, waking up from my clone. Opening my eyes, I look through the windshield of Xavier’s car. Red neon light blinks the word “Opa” on and off from a sign, turning my skin rosy, and then pale. I straighten in the passenger seat of the SUV. Soft Greek music plays from somewhere out on the street. I glance over to the driver’s side of the parked car. Reed is there, watching me. He squeezes my hand clasped in his. “Hey,” I murmur, trying to smile but finding it too difficult to manage right now. “Brennus is here—in Detroit—not far from where we are now.”