Chapter 16 Not Alone
NOT ALONE
RAE
Was it too much to ask to go one day without seeing a demon or infernal? Whatever they called themselves.
I didn’t expect to come face-to-face with the horrific figure at Grandma’s funeral, but I was more concerned about its attempts to communicate. It spoke to me. That had never happened before—not that I remembered.
Once everyone loaded into their cars after the service, I lingered, watching the cemetery workers lower her casket. The sun sank behind the trees, casting eerie shadows across the graveyard.
Now that I was alone, I struggled to keep the overwhelming grief at bay. I couldn’t even muster the self-preservation to leave before the figure returned.
“Rae!”
I whirled as Zeke called to me, but before I could say anything, strong arms wrapped around me, hauling me into a broad chest. Bay rum and cinnamon flooded my senses.
“Let it out,” Ash whispered against the top of my head.
My body went rigid.
He growled when I stayed frozen, denying myself the comfort I so desperately needed. “I’ve got you. You’re not alone.”
Hearing someone tell me I wasn’t alone when I believed I always would, broke something inside me, and I crumpled, hands gripping the back of his charcoal gray dress shirt. I clung to him for support as my walls collapsed and a raw sound tore free.
He said nothing more, his large hand cradling the back of my head as I soaked his shirt with tears. He kept his other arm looped around my back, squeezing me just enough to let me know he wouldn’t let me fall.
I sensed the others approaching, but I couldn’t speak. I didn’t want them to see me like this.
Ash’s heart raced beneath my ear as we remained locked together until my tears slowed, leaving me tired and raw.
He slid his hand to my cheek and tilted my head up. “You don’t have to hide around me,” he said, stroking his thumb across my cheek, brushing away a stray tear that trickled down.
Before I could question his behavior, Zeke pulled me from Ash’s hold, squeezing me in a tight hug.
“Can’t. Breathe,” I said, pushing on Zeke’s arms.
He jerked back. “Did I hurt you?”
I looked up into his wide, nervous eyes and laughed.
Zeke’s alarmed expression turned frantic as he swung his head from side to side, looking at the others. “Is she okay?” He glanced at me; his navy dress shirt made his blue eyes appear brighter. “Are you okay? You’re laughing.”
His reaction made me laugh so hard tears spilled down my cheeks again.
“Don’t cry,” he said, his expression pained.
I swiped away my tears before putting my hands on his cheeks—the way Cyn had done—to calm him. “Hey,” I said softly. “I’m fine. You make me laugh.”
He eyed me with concern and suspicion. “Are you sure?”
“I am.” I dropped my hands and turned to the guys.
Cyn’s amber eyes caught mine first, turmoil flickering there. Why did my touching Zeke bother him when he knew I had no interest in coming between them?
He dropped his gaze like he couldn’t meet my scrutiny. The muscles in his sculpted jaw flexed, and the neck tattoo peeking above the collar of his maroon dress shirt moved with his hard swallow.
When I looked at Ezra, his icy stare pinned me.
My instincts forced me to step back, but distance didn’t ease the discomfort of being stripped bare beneath his gaze. I couldn’t place why he caused the reaction in me, but it wasn’t the first time he unsettled me.
He stayed silent when I stepped away from him, his intense eyes studying me, almost as if he were waiting for something.
When the silence became too much, I pivoted and faced Ash. There was pain in his expression I couldn’t name. “What are you doing here?”
Before Ash could answer, Cyn snapped, “Ezra wanted to make sure you didn’t run away.”
I looked over my shoulder at Ezra. I couldn’t hide the exasperation in my voice when I asked, “Really?”
Again, he said nothing, and my frustration rose.
“I borrowed my friend Maya’s car. You’re in my home. Did you seriously think I’d steal her car and abandon my house?” I motioned toward the funeral site. Only a mound of dirt and flowers remained beneath the canopy. I whispered, “I came to say goodbye. I can’t believe you’d think…”
When I sniffled, Ash pulled me gently back against him, arms looping over my shoulders.
I didn’t understand the meaning behind his actions, but I’d noticed his attention on me more lately. Nothing like today—he’d never been this touchy.
“We don’t think you’d run,” he whispered, his fingers stroking my upper arms.
“Then why?”
Zeke tugged on my hair. “Figured you’d need someone to talk to.”
I frowned as I took in his sincere expression. “How’d you get here?”
“Bus. Then Uber,” he said with a shrug. “Got here before the ceremony started.”
“Ceremony?”
“Service,” Ezra said, correcting Zeke. “He means the funeral service.”
“Oh,” I mumbled. “Wait. You’ve been here the whole time? Did you see—”
“The delemora?” Ash’s chest rumbled beneath my back as Ezra said the unfamiliar word. “We saw them.”
“What did they want? I’ve never had a demon… uh, infernal, interact with me like that.”
Zeke’s head cocked to the side. “Never? But I thought you…”
“Not like this. It said something, but I can’t remember how to pronounce it.”
Ezra studied me. “They’ve never made contact before?”
“Not one of those things,” I said. Fear crawled my skin as I recalled its broken, blood-stained mouth of serrated teeth. The reek of decay still lingered.
Ash tightened his hold on my shoulders as if sensing my fear rising again.
I pursed my lips. “But now that I think about it, there was this one guy in the shop the day we met who left me a message.”
“A message?” Ezra asked as Zeke said, “Your manager?”
I looked between the two of them. “Not my manager. Just a regular guy—at least, I think he was a human.”
Cyn’s natural scowl deepened. “You think?”
“Well, he didn’t have eyes,” I said. Zeke’s brows shot up. “I mean, it looked like someone carved them out of his face. He had all this shredded skin like raw ground beef.”
Ezra crossed his arms, eyeing me as if I were an idiot. “And you thought he was a regular human?”
“I mean, everything about him looked human, like you do now, except the eyes.” I shrugged. “He purchased items. I figured maybe he was possessed. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d seen someone change in appearance, only to return to normal.”
I realized that was the same thing Cyn had done the night we met, and while he looked like a human now, he was anything but.
“Maybe he was an infernal hiding behind a human form,” I mumbled.
“It’s more likely he was possessed if he was on Earth,” Ash said, finally releasing my shoulders so I could turn to look at him.
“While higher infernals look human, lesser infernals, and those who are more beast than infernal, can’t take on a human form on their own.
They can only possess a host, like a parasite.
That’s why you see grotesque partial transformations.
Only higher infernals are capable of partial transformations that don’t deform us. ”
Ezra stepped forward, and I made an embarrassing sound—half gasp, half squeak—as I backed into Ash.
That’s when I heard it.
Ezra’s low, dark chuckle wrapped around me and made my heart flutter. No one, human or otherwise, had the right to make such a dangerous sound.
Ash’s hands settled on my shoulders, and I flinched.
Get a grip.
Ezra halted and tucked his hands into the pockets of his slacks, speaking as if nothing had happened. “You said there was a message.”
“Oh, yeah. Uh. He left a message with Maya telling me the princes won’t save me. I didn’t think much of it until…” I looked up at Ash and over at Zeke. “Well, until they told me who you are.”
Zeke scratched the back of his head. “Save you from what?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“Well, it’s clearly untrue,” Ash said, crossing his arms.
At my look, he said, “The delemora.”
“And I’m supposed to understand the meaning of that because?”
“They used their power to drive it away,” Cyn said, upper lip curling. “If the council finds out—”
“The council won’t find out because you won’t tell them,” Ash said, narrowing his eyes. “I wasn’t going to let the delemora feed on her.”
I turned to Ash with wide eyes. “Feed?”
“Delemora feed on negative emotions. Grief would sustain them for a long time.”
A tremor of fear passed through me, and I drifted closer to Ash. He slid his arm around my shoulder. “I’m not going to let it hurt you.” He looked up at Ezra. “Oath be damned.”
Cyn threw up his hands, looking between them. “What is wrong with you two? I don’t have to say anything. Cornaith would’ve felt the power you both used.”
It surprised me to learn Ezra helped drive the infernal away. If he thought he needed me to get home, saving me made sense. But it didn’t explain Ash’s conviction to protect me, going against some oath.
I looked up at Ash. “What oath are you talking about?”
“When we became teenagers, we joined the council’s soldiers tasked with defending Elyrdin and Earth from lesser infernals and beasts who disturb the balance in Niemna or threaten Elyrdin’s prosperity.
In doing so, our magic unlocks, and we make an oath to the council that we only use our powers to serve Elyrdin.
” Ash glanced at Cyn. “To use our powers to save a human without council approval directly violates that oath.”
I looked down, whispering, “Then why?”
He squeezed my shoulder, drawing me closer to him, but he didn’t answer my question.
Zeke huffed. “I don’t see the problem. If the delemora killed her, the others might have hurt more humans.
That would upset the stability between our worlds.
We just bypassed the order process to come to Earth.
” He spread his hands, then dropped them to his legs with a smack.
“Besides, I don’t even know if the council knows lesser infernals are pouring into Earth like this. ”
“I thought the same thing,” Cyn said. “We’d already be here to stop them if they knew.”
“Why?”
Cyn looked at me. “Because it’s our job to stop them before they do irreversible damage to humanity’s future.”
I had so many questions.
Why did they protect Earth as well as their realm? What reason did they have for even giving Earth a second thought if they lived elsewhere? And how could a few infernals impact humanity’s future?
Before I could ask any of the questions running through my mind, I shivered, and Ash ran his hand down my arm.
“We need to get out of here,” he said. “You’re cold.”
I frowned. “How do you know that?”
“You’re shivering and your sleeves are thin.”
I hadn’t wanted to wear long sleeves, but I didn’t want to hear Patricia lecture me about my arm tattoo. I’d worried about flashing my thigh tattoo when I sat, but the knee-length dress was the longest I owned.
As the sun dipped below the horizon, the lengthening shadows made the graveyard seem unsafe. For late August, it shouldn’t feel this cold, even without the sun. I wondered if it had to do with the infernals’ influence.
“You guys clean up well,” I said around a yawn as Ash led me toward the car, my gaze moving from one man to the next.
“Ezra said we needed to be respectful,” Cyn said with an eye roll. “Not that he’s put out. He always dresses like that.”
“It doesn’t kill you to wear something else besides combat boots all the time.”
Cyn scoffed.
“It looks good on you,” Zeke said, voice uncharacteristically soft.
Cyn’s gaze snapped to him, and he looked away, cheeks coloring.
My mouth fell open, and I caught Ash’s eye. He shook his head, making me frown.
It wasn’t my business, but if I were right about Zeke, Cyn had nothing to worry about. I guess I understood Ash’s reaction. They needed to figure it out for themselves.