Page 145 of Fated In Forever
“Together,” I said to Blake and Riordan, “we have to do this together.”
71
MALACHI
Ilanded on the familiar black sands beneath a dark sky in my transformed body, in a half crouch, which wasn’t too bad for being sucked without warning through a doorway to hell.
I turned and clawed at the still-moving portal with talons and teeth, trying to pry the shadowy opening apart, to get back to Vicious, to kill my Maker.
“Fuck.” The word tore up my throat more like a roar, echoing off the far-off valley, coming back to remind me of my failure. My time was up. After a few days of feeling sunlight on my skin, of breathing Evangeline’s sweet scent—my reprieve was over.
And I’d left her alone.
I lunged toward the narrowing opening, my claws scraping stone as I searched for any trace of a pathway back. Nothing. The air held no shimmer of otherworldly energy, no whisper of escape.
“Open,” I growled, my voice raw with desperation. “I’ll swear another oath, just give me more time. Just long enough to kill my Maker, long enough to make sure she’s safe.” I was babbling, blood running down my forearms, my fingers ripped wide open.
“Anything,” I begged the silence. “I will give you anything for more time.” But my pleas were useless. Theportal was sealed, and I was trapped while Evie faced a monster whose cruelty exceeded all other.
I stopped beating my fists, braced my forehead against the now-closed opening. I’d already promised this place everything, and I had nothing left to give. Nothing left to trade for a ticket back home, and I cursed everything.
Ravok, fate, this fucking place.
Then I noticed them—the soft, phosphorescent glow drifting closer through the shadows. Lost souls, dozens of them, their forms wavering like candle flames in a breeze. They approached with what almost seemed like... recognition? They pulsed brighter as they drew near, and I might have been projecting, but…
They were glad I was back.
The realization stopped my frantic clawing at the walls. These souls, these fragments of the dead—they remembered.Me. Sabine's words echoed in my mind:Souls retain their memories, their desires. They remember who wronged them.
Her words had made no sense at the time, but suddenly, I understood.
If the souls remembered, if they carried their pain with them into death, then Ravok's victims would be here. All of them. Every thrall he had created, every innocent he had fed upon, every life he had snuffed out in his centuries of existence—they would all be here, waiting in the shadows of the Underworld.
I closed my eyes and reached out with my mind, extending my consciousness into the vast network of souls that populated this realm. The sensation was overwhelming—millions upon millions of spirits, each carrying their own story of betrayal. But I focused, searching for a specific signature, a particular brand of death.
Victims of Ravok,I sent my thoughts rippling through theechoing darkness.Those who died by his hand, those who suffered under him—come to me.
The response was staggering. They rose from the shadows like a tide of starlight, hundreds, then thousands, then tens of thousands, their combined light turning the dark sky into a galaxy of stars.
A horde of dancing light surrounded me, and I sensed their collective fury like a physical force. These souls had been trapped in the Underworld while Ravok remained free. They wanted justice. They wanted revenge.
And I would give them what they deserved.
I couldn’t go back through the portal, but…
“I don’t know if you can come back, once you go through,” I explained. “This could be a violent ending, not a peaceful one. If you don’t want that…” I glanced over my shoulder, across the flat plain to where the river flowed, “If you wish for a gentler crossing, wait, and I will take you across the river, where you can find peace.”
Not one of them left, in fact, they began moving faster, more erratically.
“Ravok is on the other side of this doorway,” I lay my hand on the still portal. “He is going to end the world as we know it, and kill the female—the mate—I love. I can’t ever go back, but if you can…if you can, please help her. Her name is Evangeline and she is the bravest, fiercest person I have ever known. She was here, once, a long time ago.”
They swirled faster, like fireflies were caught in the wind, crowding around the portal until I had to squint my eyes against the glow.
I poured every ounce of my magic into the dormant doorway, forcing my will upon it, not to open for me, but for them.
The first soul broke through, its form blazing like a starbefore vanishing. Then another, and another, until they streamed through in an unbroken river of light.
And somewhere, deep underground, Ravok was about to face the sins of his past—all of them, from the looks of things.
