Page 100 of Fated In Forever
We rushed from the war room, but when we reached the main corridor, I realized this wasn't Ravok at all.
The creature moving down the hallway toward us was massive—nine, maybe ten feet of pure nightmare made flesh. Shadows dripped from his form like liquid darkness, pooling on the stone floor and writhing with a life of their own. Every inch of his body was splashed with fresh blood. Curved horns jutted from its skull, and amber eyes burned with an inner fire.
Malachi had returned.
But not the Malachi I remembered, or even the one from Evie's descriptions. This creature was older, more primal—Orcus, a demon lord in his true form, magnificent and terrifying in equal measure.
Knightsguard swarmed him like locusts, their weapons drawn, but they might as well have been children throwing pebbles at a lion. Bullets bounced off his hide without leaving so much as a scratch. Someone had managed to drive a sword between his shoulder blades, but he didn't seem to notice the hilt, still sticking out of his back.
“Holy fucking shit,” I whispered.
“Malachi!” Nikolai stepped forward as Sabine hissed,what are you doing, brother?
“Stop, you have no enemies here.” He stepped out, his hands raised.
The demon's head turned toward us, and for a moment I thought he might acknowledge our presence. But his gaze swept over us like we were invisible—or inconsequential—focusing instead on something only he could sense. The phantom pull of a dying bond, perhaps, because he lifted his head and sniffed.
Then turned toward the grand staircase, moving with surprising grace despite his size. The first step cracked under his weight. The second one crumbled entirely.
“Malachi, wait!” Riordan shouted, running after him. “Evie is dying. The bond…it's killing her.”
If Malachi heard him, he gave no sign. He took the stairs three at a time, each heavy footfall sending hairline fractures through the ancient stone. Behind him, the shadows that bled from his form left scorch marks along the walls, and the reek of brimstone grew so strong, my eyes watered.
“What happens if he gets close to her?” I asked, but evenas the words left my mouth, I knew my query was pointless. None of us knew what would happen next, and nothing was going to stop that creature from reaching his destination.
Not us, not the guards, not every bullet, sword and knife.
Sabine appeared at my elbow, her dark eyes wide with something that might have been admiration. “Well,” she clapped her hands together, watching Malachi disappear around the curve of the staircase, leaving broken stone and shadows in his wake, “that’s something you don’t see every day. When you said he had horns, I didn’t expectthose.”
The rumbling continued overhead, cracks spiderwebbed across the ceiling and I raced for the steps. There was no way I wanted him alone with Evie.
Riordan's jaw was tight as we took the steps two at a time, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. “He has to heal her,” he muttered beneath his breath. “Because if he can’t…”
Don’t say it. I thought.I don’t know what happens next, but you and I are damn well going to be in that room with him when it does.
Above us, the sounds of cracking stone and wood continued, growing louder as we gained on Malachi, cresting the stairs in time to see him duck through her doorway, following whatever thread connected him to the female he'd crossed realms to save.
49
EVANGELINE
Iwas drowning.
Smothering, beneath a soft, unending quiet, in the dark space between life and death, where the world felt muffled and distant. My body was cold, my consciousness floating somewhere outside of myself, tethered only by the thinnest of resolve and two whispered words.
Hang on, Riordan had commanded, and I was trying.
Really trying, but God, it washard.
So hard not to give into the beckoning darkness, demanding I let go, give into the pain washing through my body in unrelenting waves, give in to the thought that I’d end up as one of those beautiful, glowing souls and be able to see Malachi one last time.
Without him, I was an unraveling thread.
Without our connection, I was a tapestry coming undone.
After Blake had said his goodbyes, gruff and stoic on the outside and completely falling apart inside, there had been nothing but quiet. That’s when I began to drift, as if he and Rohr were the anchors pinning me to this realm, and without them, like an unmanned ship…I drifted straight toward Malachi’s.
Then the world ruptured.
