Chapter 12
Eleni
The entire flight back to the Shadow Realms, I struggled with the growing distress that was trying to swallow me whole.
I felt hollow, but also as if a foreign entity was trying to take over my body.
I understood that it was the darkness I had kept locked away from so long trying to assert its presence—not to say its dominance.
The best way to describe it was like when a drop of ink fell into clean water, and it quickly spread, tainting everything, and turning the water murky.
Lyall’s gaze weighed heavily on me as he continuously checked on me.
His concern and solicitude should have warmed my heart, but it angered me.
I hated the resentment festering within me for him getting trapped.
I warned him that something could happen to him, but he’d been too damn arrogant to even contemplate that possibility.
And Paulus is no better…
A little voice at the back of my head whispered for me to kill Lyall…
to kill them both. They deserved it. Their combined failures now left me but a shadow of myself, my soul literally fractured, and pure evil trying to take over what was left.
Something akin to sexual pleasure—or at least a form of arousal—swelled within me at the prospect of all the ways I could make both males suffer.
My nipples hardened just thinking about how that insane power had flown through me. The screams of the cultists as I reduced them to charred husks was almost orgasmic.
The malicious smile that began stretching my lips froze, and I shuddered upon realizing how much I truly wanted to hurt the two people who meant the most to me.
What the hell kind of monster had I become?
That hatred and resentment were irrational.
In their own way, both men loved me. There was no question in my mind that they never wanted me to get hurt, and least of all to find myself in this current predicament.
Paulus was wrong. Over the years, he repeated countless times that I was strong enough to face anything, including my darkness.
And although I resisted its lure until tonight, I had truly believed that I would be able to control it if I ever set it free.
But now, I knew beyond any doubt that I was weak.
It was only a matter of time before I lost myself to this monster.
A searing anger surged within me as soon as that thought entered my mind.
Years of training had taught me not to yield to the voice of doubt and defeat.
And yet, here I was ready to lay down my weapons and let myself be trampled by the first true challenge I had ever faced.
I was better than this. I didn’t know if I could win this battle, but I’d be damned if I gave up without a fight.
I glanced at Lyall. I couldn’t read his emotion in his beast form, not that I needed to.
He loved me. Even now, he was desperately looking for a solution to my predicament.
Despite how things went haywire in the Sanctuary, I trusted him to do everything in his power to keep me safe.
Missions rarely went off without a hitch.
This one might have been of epic proportions, but he still helped get me out of there alive—hollow though I now was. I would keep my faith in him.
In my distress, I didn’t pay much attention to the breathtaking landscape of the Nephilim Valley.
We flew a short distance away from Lyall’s mansion and landed on a different terrace, its size just as massive as the one in my man’s home.
It truly felt as if I had walked into Ancient Rome, with the massive columns, beautiful statues, and sheer drapes framing the tall arched doors leading into what could easily have passed for a palace carved into the mountain face.
As I dismounted, a delicate figure stepped onto the terrace to greet us.
Just like Morrech, the female appeared to be a Cambion.
She peered at us with oversized golden eyes, their vertical pupils dilating slightly as she observed my companion shifting back into his normal form.
Her face was a bit too long, her mouth too wide with nearly non-existent lips.
Despite her unusual features, she possessed a haunting beauty.
She looked frail and quite skinny in her long black dress, which fell to her ankles.
Surprisingly, despite the darkness lurking inside me, I instinctively felt a strong urge to protect her.
She timidly brushed aside her straight black hair, which fell in a silky curtain all the way down to her knees.
It complemented her pale grayish-purple skin.
Although she remained at a safe distance from us, she took a few steps closer, her movements incredibly graceful like a ballerina.
In fact, she almost looked like she was gliding over the floor rather than actually walking over it.
“Welcome, Lord Lyall. Welcome, Miss. Master and Mistress are aware of your presence. They’re coming,” she said in the sweetest and most enchanting voice.
“Thank you, Myress,” Lyall said in an almost paternal fashion that took me aback.
“I bring refreshments,” she said before turning around and leaving, not giving us a chance to respond.
I stared at her receding back before glancing at my man.
“She’s a Cambion like Morrech,” he said gently, confirming my suspicions.
“Are all Cambions servants in the Shadow Realms?” I asked, intrigued.
He shook his head. “Not all. It all depends on the breed of the demonic parent and the genetic lottery. Finding work in a powerful house is safer for those who do not look human enough or who do not have strong enough offensive powers. Defenseless beings are often savagely bullied on either side of the Veil.”
I nodded slowly and opened my mouth to respond.
However, the air rippled near us, and then an Angel of Death appeared next to a stunning woman.
She looked human, but subcutaneous bone ridges hinted at some form of demonic DNA.
At a glance, she appeared to be around my age, in her early thirties.
Her gray eyes peered at me with great wisdom.
She had a gothic style to her, with a very pale skin, and obsidian hair to the middle of her back.
Despite the burning curiosity she inspired in me, the Reaper by her side reclaimed my attention. He was both magnificent and terrifying.
To say I was intimidated would be the mother of all understatements.
Worse still, it suddenly struck me that he might decide that I was too broken to be mended.
In that case, would he simply reap me? With the darkness that I’d finally released, and which was currently trying to overtake me, would what remain of my soul be so tainted that I would be cast down in one of the circles of Hell?
“Brother, it is good to see you again,” the Reaper said in a warm tone as he approached Lyall.
Brother?! So she’s the human necromancer he referred to?!
To my shock, the Reaper embraced Lyall, who reciprocated the gesture. The beautiful woman also hugged him in a sisterly fashion. Then they all turned to look at me.
“Eleni, please meet my brother Pharos and his mate Kali,” Lyall said, slipping a possessive arm around my waist. “Pharos, Kali, please meet my mate, Eleni.”
I gave them a timid smile, feeling suddenly overwhelmed and self-conscious.
For some dumb reason, I assumed his brother would be another doppelganger.
Considering that he’d already told me about his brother Ranael—who was a Demon Wolf—it had been stupid of me not to realize he likely had other siblings of completely different breeds.
“Hello, Eleni,” Pharos said in the warm tone that immediately put me at ease. “It is an honor to meet you. Lyall has waited a long time to finally find his soulmate. It is unfortunate that we should make your acquaintance under such circumstances.”
“Soulmate?” I replied, surprised.
“Yes, you are soulmates,” Kali replied matter-of-factly.
“You can see it?” I blurted out.
They smiled and nodded simultaneously. I shifted uneasily on my feet before licking my lips nervously.
“Can you also see my darkness, then?”
To my shock, they nodded with the same gentle expression, absent of any disdain, disgust, or disapproval.
I hugged my waist, anger and despair wanting to engulf me again.
“I guess that doesn’t make me the best girlfriend for him. Right?” I asked with self-derision.
Kali frowned while Pharos gave me a gently chastising look.
“Darkness isn’t evil, Eleni,” he said softly.
“But my thoughts are,” I countered, confused as to why I was trying to alienate the very people whose help I desperately needed.
He waved a dismissive hand. “Feral and violent instincts don’t define you. One’s lack of control does,” he explained before gesturing at Lyall. “My brother has great darkness in him. And yet, you still fell in love with him and see his inner beauty.”
“Because he has a beautiful light in him as well,” I retorted a bit too defensively, feeling instantly protective that he should be in any way criticized, even though that wasn’t what Pharos was doing.
“As do you,” Kali replied before her mate could.
“As I used to,” I said bitterly, my hand closing over the medallion around my neck.
“A Honghadda witch trapped part of her soul in this amulet,” Lyall said, jumping straight into the main reason for our presence here. “Can either of you help?”
The almost pleading edge in his voice broke my heart, even more so when both Kali and Pharos gave him and then me an apologetic look.
“Too much of Eleni’s soul has been transferred,” Pharos explained. “If only a quarter of her soul had been funneled into the Amulet, it would have returned back to her on its own as soon as the ritual had been interrupted. Now, it requires a very specific type of intervention.”