P.C. Cast - Burned

“That is impossible.” Rephaim sounded almost as upset as she felt. “My father cannot return to the Otherworld. The realm has been eternally forbidden to him.”

“Well, obviously he figured out a way to get around being forbidden.”

“A way to get around having been eternally banished by the Goddess of Night herself? How could that be accomplished?”

“Nyx kicked him out of the Otherworld?” Stevie Rae said.

“It was my father’s choice. He was once Nyx’s Warrior. Their Oath Bond was broken when he fell.”

“Ohmygood ness , Kalona used to be on Nyx’s side?” Without consciously knowing she was doing so, Stevie Rae moved closer to Rephaim.

“Yes. He guarded her against Darkness.” Rephaim stared out at the night.

“What happened? Why did he fall?”

“Father never speaks of it. I know whatever it was filled him with an anger that burned for centuries.”

“And that’s how you were created. From that anger.”

His gaze found her again. “Yes.”

“Does it fill you, too? That anger and darkness?” she couldn’t stop herself from asking.

“Wouldn’t you know if it did? Just as I know your pain? Is that not how this Imprint between us works?”

“Well, it’s complicated. See, you’ve been kinda forced into the role of my consort since I’m the vampyre here and all. And it’s easier for a consort to sense things about their vampyre than the other way around. What I get from you is—”

“My power,” he broke in. She didn’t think he sounded mad, just tired and almost hopeless. “You get my immortal strength.”

“Holy crap! That’s why I healed so dang fast.”

“Yes, and why I don’t.”

Stevie Rae blinked in surprise. “Well, shoot. You must feel awful—you look pretty bad.”

He made a noise that was somewhere between a laugh and a snort. “And you look healthy and whole again.”

“I am healthy, but I won’t be really whole until I figure out how to help Zoey. She’s my best friend, Rephaim. She can’t die.”

“He is my father. He can’t die, either.”

They stared at one another, both struggling to make sense of this thing between them that drew them together even as hurt and pain and anger swirled around them, defining and separating their worlds.

“How about this: we get you something to eat. I fix that wing again, which won’t be fun for either of us, and then we try to figure out what’s going on with Zoey and your daddy. You should know some-thin’, though. I can’t feel your emotions like you can feel mine, but I can tell if you’re lyin’ to me. I am also pretty sure I could find you, no matter where you are. So if you lie to me and set up Zoey, I give you my word that I will come against you with all the power of my element and your blood.”

“I will not lie to you,” he said.

“Good. Let’s go inside the museum and find the kitchen.”

Stevie Rae left the rooftop balcony, and the Raven Mocker followed her as if tethered to the High Priestess by an invisible but unbreakable chain.

“You could have anything in this world you desired with that power,” Rephaim said between bites of the huge sandwich she’d fixed him from the stuff that hadn’t already gone bad in the industrial refrigerators of the museum’s restaurant.

“Nah, not really. I mean, sure, I can make one tired, overworked, and kinda dorky night security guard let us into the museum and then forget we ever existed; but I can’t, like, rule the world or anything crazy like that.”

“It is an excellent power to wield.”

“No, it’s a responsibility I didn’t ask for and really don’t want. See, I don’t want to be able to make humans do whatever the heck I want them to do. It’s just not right—not if I’m on Nyx’s side.”

“Because your Goddess does not believe in giving her subjects the objects of their desire?”

Stevie Rae stared at him for a while, twirling a curl around and around her finger before answering, thinking that he might be messin’ with her, but the red gaze that met hers was completely serious. So she took a deep breath, and explained, “Not because of that, but because Nyx believes in giving everyone free choice, and when I mess with a human’s mind and implant stuff that he has no control over, I’m takin’ away his free choice. That’s just not right.”

“Do you really believe everyone in the world should have free choice?”

“I do. That’s why I’m here today, talkin’ to you. Zoey gave that back to me. Then in a kinda pay-it-forward thing, I gave that same gift to you.”

“You let me live hoping that I would choose my own path and not that of my father.”

Stevie Rae was surprised that he had said it so freely; but she didn’t question what had prompted his honesty, she just went with it. “Yeah. I told you that when I closed the tunnel behind you and let you go instead of turning you in to my friends. You’re in charge of your life now. You’re not beholden to your daddy or anyone else.” She paused for a second and then said the rest in a big rush. “And you’ve already started down a different path by saving me on that rooftop.”

“An unpaid life debt is a dangerous thing to carry. It was only logical that I repaid the debt that was between us.”

“Yeah, I get that, but what about tonight?”

“Tonight?”

“You sent me your strength and called me to you. If you have that kind of power, why didn’t you just break our Imprint instead? That would have ended your pain, too.”

He stopped eating, and his scarlet gaze locked with hers. “Don’t make me into something I’m not. I have spent centuries in darkness. I lived with evil as my bedfellow. I am tied to my father. He is filled with an anger that might very well burn up this world, and if he returns, I am destined to be at his side. See me as I am, Stevie Rae. I am a nightmare creature given life through anger and rape. I walk among the living, but I’m ever separate, ever different. Not immortal, not man, and not beast.”

Stevie Rae let his words sink into her veins. She knew he was being completely, nakedly honest with her. But there was more to him than this machine of anger and evil he’d been created to be. She knew it because she’d been witness to it.

“Well, Rephaim, how ’bout you just consider that you might be right.”

She saw the understanding register in his blood-colored eyes. “Which means I might also be wrong?”

She shrugged. “I’m just sayin’.”

Without speaking, he shook his head and went back to eating. She smiled and continued to make herself a turkey sandwich. “So,” she said, slapping mustard on white bread. “What’s your theory about why your daddy’s soul’s turned up missing?”

His gaze locked with hers, and the one word he uttered made her blood run cold.

“Neferet.”

“Dallas told me Neferet dumped Kalona’s spiritless body on the High Council.”

“Who is Dallas?” Rephaim asked.

“Just a guy I know. So it looks like Neferet turned in Kalona even though they’re supposed to be together and all.”

“Neferet seduces my father and pretends to be his mate, but the only thing she really cares for is herself. Where he is filled with anger, she is filled with hatred. Hatred is a more dangerous ally.”

“So you’re sure Neferet would betray Kalona to save herself?” Stevie Rae asked.

“I am certain Neferet would betray anyone to save herself.”

“What does she gain by turning in Kalona, especially if he’s all soulless and stuff?”