Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
“I think I did.” I laid my hand over his. “I still would’ve done it, been with you, if I’d known the full ramifications. I’m okay with it. I am.”
He turned his hand upside down, lacing our fingers, and pulled our hands to his lap. They were hidden from the others. Damien had been waiting, he cleared his throat. “Like I was saying before, there’s a war going on above, and Sachiel is a big contender for one side.” He faltered, his head bowing slightly. “Uh…this is hard to say because this was what I was supposed to encourage. Shay, I told you before that you should bond with Kellan because then you’d be too powerful for your father to take on. That isn’t true.”
I knew where this was going.
He said further, “Sachiel wants you to bond with Kellan, because he intends to take your powers. Both of yours.”
I felt Kellan’s anger mounting and snuck a peek at him, but he wasn’t showing anything. His face was unreadable. His eyes gave nothing away, and he even held my hand in a gentle and loving way, but I felt his demon stirring away. My messenger side was awakening as well, and she wasn’t pleased.
“The truth is that neither of you is a match for Sachiel, and he knows that. I was supposed to get close to you, Shay, and get you to bond with Kellan. That was the first part of my job.”
A knot formed in my stomach. “And the second?”
“I’m supposed to deliver both of you to him.”
“You know how to call him?”
Damien nodded. “The messengers aren’t watching like they had been before. He was surprised at how you guys were able to fend him off, and how Shay killed the other messengers. He thought you guys had bonded and to be honest, so did I.”
“You told him where to watch for us?”
Damien glanced to Kellan. “Yeah. That was me. I came to get you guys and take you back there. That’s why I showed up when I did.”
I said, “And that’s why you didn’t want to help us rescue Vespar and Giuseppa?”
He lifted a shoulder, turning away for a moment. “I worried about what he would say, if it were reported to him that I helped save two demons. That was part of the reason. The other part was because they’re both demons.” He sneered, saying the last word. “It is beneath our kind to help them.”
The ground began rumbling.
Aumae and Damien both started, but I knew the cause. I was holding his hand. Both caught on when Kellan and I didn’t move.
“Oh.” Damien frowned. “I’m sorry for my part.”
“Why?”
“Why?” He echoed my question.
“Why did you do it? You were born to a human family. That means you have family still, Damien, and I’m not talking about me or our father.”
He glanced away, his jaw clenching.
“Oh dear.” Aumae spoke for the first time, her quiet words splicing through the tense room. She shifted in her seat. The corner of her mouth turned down. “Are they still alive?”
Damien jerked his head up and down. “My mother is, and so are my little sister and brother.”
He had siblings. That rocked me. “From a different father?”
He nodded again, his voice growing hoarse. “I’m sorry, Shay.”
He had a family. I did not. I tried shrugging. It didn’t matter. I had Kellan now, but my shrug fell flat. It did matter. It stung. Damien had a true family. A mother he could go back to and hug. Two siblings that would wind their tiny arms around him. I murmured, “I bet their father loves you like his.”
“He does.” Damien breathed out. “Yes. They think I was kidnapped, which I was in a way. Sachiel took me in and taught me about my messenger lineage.”
“What happens when you deliver us to him?”
Everyone turned to Kellan, hearing his question.
Damien’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “I’m free. I can go back to my family and live out my life like a normal person.”
“But you know that’s a lie, don’t you?”
Kellan’s question hung in the room as he stared at my half-brother. It wasn’t a challenge, just the truth how Kellan saw it. A second later, Damien nodded and sighed. His hands fell to the chair in front of him and curled tight around it. “I know.”
“He’ll never let you go back, if your family is even still alive.”
“I know.”
“And you’ve finally realized that now, and that’s why you’re coming clean to us.” Kellan rose from his chair. “You want our help.”
With each statement Kellan said, Damien’s gaze fell to the table, then to the floor. He looked back up now, shame brimming bright in his eyes. “Yes.”
Kellan narrowed his eyes, “That’s what I thought.”
The last two days passed too quickly. Damien explained there were only two ways to kill a messenger, and none of us would be free until Sachiel was killed. One way was to use a biblical weapon, which we had none, and Damien didn’t know where to find one.