Pretty Dark Sacrifice (24 page)

“And you started seeing him after you drowned?” Reese asked. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t know how. Would you have known how to tell me something like this?”

Reese shook her head. “I guess not. So what does this have to do with Aaron?”

“Long story short? He’s trapped in the Underworld by Adam’s first wife, Lilith. She wants this box I found in exchange for Aaron.”

“A box that, when opened, will unleash the rest of Lilith’s horde into the human realm and rip the veil to pieces.” Azrael flexed his jaw, wings fluttering in agitation. “Lilith will no longer be trapped in the Underworld. You are being foolish and selfish. You would risk the lives of your friends, your family, their families, for the life of one boy?”

“I have until the eclipse to bring it to her or damn him for eternity.” Quinn didn’t know what the Underworld looked like, but she imagined it was a terrible place. She pictured Aaron alone and in pain, and her heart shattered all over again.

At the thought of his face, pain crackled through her body like a million volts of electricity running under her skin. “He’s here,” Quinn whispered. Although she couldn’t see him, the magnetic draw of his essence pulled her to him. She sensed his urgency pushing across from the Underworld.

“Don’t. You do not know what is contacting you.” Azrael took two giant steps toward her, intent on keeping her from Aaron. Quinn raised a hand, palm out, and directed all her focus at Azrael. “You will let me do this. Azrael, Sentinel of Arcadia, I bind you to my command and order you to hold your position.”

“You do not know what you are doing.” Azrael growled.

“I know exactly what I’m doing.” She didn’t need to think about it anymore. Accessing her power was as easy as breathing. Wish, and it will be.

Before Azrael could say another word, Quinn commanded him to be silent then slammed a barrier between them so he couldn’t follow her. He paced like a caged animal, repelled by the wall she put between them. Satisfied he wouldn’t be able to interfere, she dropped to her knees and projected her essence out of her body and into the astral plane, the seam where the fabric of the Underworld and her realm joined.

Time slowed, and then stopped. Reese and Marcus stood like carved statues, concern and fear etched on their faces as the world bleached of color. Hues of gray and black replaced the white walls of Marcus’s living room, and then Quinn stood between her realm and another, darker world.

Shadows bathed the astral plane, and the air smelled of a strange mix of sulfur and grass. A thousand fingers pinched at her heart. Gray smoke writhed in the corners, creeping closer, but Quinn held firm.

“Aaron,” she called to him. His essence was close; its familiar scent wrapped around her like a warm blanket. Breathing in, she savored the sweet, earthy smell, like a warm summer night.

Light rippled before her, and the shadows parted like a curtain. Aaron stumbled through, his bare chest heaving with exertion, and Quinn’s breath caught in her throat. Although their physical bodies remained anchored in other realms, here in the seam, on the astral plane, their essences appeared just as they would in the real world, as flesh and bone on a blank canvass. But this Aaron was more than just flesh and bone. Golden wings unfurled from his shoulders, each feather flickering like a flame from a candle. Quinn’s jaw dropped, and she gasped. An angel! He was an angel! How the hell did that happen?

“Quinn? Thank God.” Aaron spread his wings wide, fluttering them the way Azrael did when he was agitated. “Are you okay?” Only Aaron would be more concerned about her than he was for himself.

Quinn nodded. The awe of seeing him in his new form tied her tongue in a knot. Even Azrael paled in comparison, and she wondered what his feathers would feel like against her fingers. Would they be warm to the touch? She took a tentative step forward. Aaron moved to meet her, stopping just shy of touching. Heat radiated from his skin. Being close to him was like standing in the sun on a warm spring day, and she wanted to soak it all up before winter came to steal it away.

Aaron brushed back a matted strand of black hair, not meeting her gaze. Blood seeped from a gash above his eye, streaked his torso, dripped from an open wound on his side and down his left thigh. It was then she realized he was completely naked. Blood rushed to her cheeks, and she snapped her eyes back to his face. How long had she been staring?

“Sorry,” he stammered, his face turning a deep shade of cranberry as he realized. A tip of a golden wing rushed to cover his exposed skin. “Give me a second to, um, dress.” With nothing but a wish, jeans wrapped around his legs and fastened around his waist. “There’s so much I need to tell you, I don’t know where to start.” Rubbing the back of his neck with a hand, Aaron glanced over his shoulder, brow furrowing. “I didn’t think I would ever see you again.” He blinked, but not before she recognized the tears threatening to fall.

“That wasn’t you at the river.” There was no need to explain—Aaron’s thoughts flowed into her own, their bond stronger than ever. “It was a trick?”

Aaron nodded.

“How could I have been so blind?” Now that the true Aaron stood in front of her, she could sense it. The difference in his essence and the one she’d met in the seam just hours before was like the difference between ice cream and frozen yogurt.

“Don’t blame yourself. She’s a master at manipulation.”

She cupped his cheek, examining the long scratch running from his ear to his chin. Sweat dripped from his thin body, and scratches covered his arms, highlighting the long scars that twined from his wrist to his elbow. A dark red ring circled his throat as if he’d been strangled, and his hair hung in matted strands around his dirt-streaked face, making him look older.

“And torture?”

Aaron shivered and looked away again, brow wrinkling into two faint worry lines. Hiding wasn’t an option anymore. On the astral plane, their connection exposed his emotions to her. Tears slid down her cheeks. His thoughts were open to her and hers to him, as if they were one being, and she caught glimpses of chains and demons and a dark-haired woman with silver eyes.

“Lilith.” Aaron shook his head and rubbed a thumb to his temple, banishing the vision from both their minds. His uncertainty beat against her essence like a thousand wings. She wanted to press him further but sensed he wanted to forget for a moment and feel safe in her arms, and she needed to respect his wishes as he would respect hers.

“Aaron, I’m so sorry, for everything.” The words tumbled from her like heavy boulders rolling off the side of a cliff, a load she’d been carrying for a long time. But even voicing her apology didn’t change the guilt that etched itself on her heart. She ran the back of her hand down his cheek and across his lips, drinking in the truth of what she’d done to him. A fate worse than death. Guilt and shame stabbed her heart. Aaron should have been the chosen one, not her. Courageous, loyal, selfless—everything she wasn’t. “If it hadn’t been for me, you … ” Quinn began, but Aaron shook his head and pressed a finger against her lips.

“Let’s forget all of that. We’re here now, together.” Though his words whispered of forgiveness, she sensed the sting of her betrayal buried not so deep within his essence. Trust was a fragile thing, and she had wounded him deeply.

“I’m not completely blameless for what happened, Quinn.” Aaron looked away.

“What do you mean?” Her heart contracted as the truth started to bleed from his essence into hers.

“I know now why I came back, why I didn’t die in the car accident, why my suicide was futile. Meeting you wasn’t chance.”

Quinn felt Aaron push a memory into her mind, and she saw the reality, all of it, as if she had witnessed it herself. Her hands flew to her mouth, and she backed away. No, it couldn’t be true. Aaron wasn’t just a boy. He had been a Sentinel. Not any Sentinel—hers.

“Everything that’s happened to you, the demon attacks, the nightmares, it’s all my fault. Or at least half mine, Kaemon’s half.” Aaron reached for her, but she swatted him away.

“You knew? All this time, you knew what I was, and you didn’t say anything?”

“No. It’s more complicated than that.”

“How can it get any more complicated than you masquerading as a human and lying to me for months?”

“I didn’t know what I was, Quinn, just as you didn’t know what you were. You have to believe me.”

“Believe you? You abandoned me. Left me unprotected. You left me at the mercy of those things.”

“Look, I know you’re angry and confused. I was too, at first, but in Kaemon’s defense, Azrael tricked him. He used Kaemon’s love for you, his wish to become human, to lure him into a trap, to get close to you. Kaemon’s essence was supposed to die along with mine, but something went wrong. Together, we survived.”

“No, that can’t be … ” Quinn turned away, but Aaron put a hand on her shoulder.

“Azrael’s been manipulating us both, Quinn. In your heart, you know it. That sword he carries? The blue one? It belonged to Kaemon. That night in the river, he drew it across my throat. He’s the reason I’m trapped in the Underworld.”

All of Azrael’s actions replayed over and over in her mind. His reluctance to believe Aaron was alive, his aversion to direct questions about her purpose, it all made sense, but he also trained her, protected her. How could that all be a lie?

“You can’t trust him.” Aaron’s expression darkened as he revealed each manipulative deed Azrael had committed, including Aaron’s death.

Breaking away, Quinn shook her head, unable to process everything. Kaemon’s betrayal, Azrael’s lies—it seemed to her the angels weren’t any better than the demons. At least with demons, she knew what to expect. Evil was their nature. What was the excuse for the servants of The Light?

“I don’t know what Azrael’s excuse is, but I can explain Kaemon’s. His essence was drawn to yours the way he was drawn to Eve that night in the garden. You saw for yourself the spark between them. When he was assigned to you, and you wrapped your tiny hand around his finger, he recognized her essence in you, and he thought maybe this was the plan all along, that The Light gave him a chance he could never have with Eve. His desire to be with you condemned him, but it saved me, twice. I can’t believe that was coincidence either. Kaemon did it because he fell in love with Eve, with you. Now I understand why I did too, and Azrael used that love to trick Kaemon. We are meant to be. We’re stronger together. I know you feel it. You have to trust me.”

Quinn covered her ears and shook her head. She did feel it, the undeniable pull to him.
When the tears of Eve have turned to blood and her sins have turned to flesh, the key will fall. For love is bound by the power of the Trinity.
She was the Trinity, the Eol Ananael, the essence of Eve, the perfect balance of human, angel, and demon, just as Eve was the moment she’d eaten the apple.

Memories of herself as Eve standing at the portal as Kaemon closed it to seal her away from Eden flashed before her. Eve loved the fierce warrior angel even then, and if he had asked her to run away with him and leave Adam forever, she would have, but duty came before love. They made their choices and moved on, but neither of them forgot the other.

Aaron nodded. “I know, it’s confusing, but the one thing I’m certain about is how I feel about you.”

Quinn stared at her feet.

“Look at me.” He cupped her cheek, and she felt him open up to her as she stared into his eyes. “Quinn, I’m not Kaemon. I’m still Aaron. What I feel for you goes beyond time and space. It is eternal. This is not Kaemon’s choice; it is mine, Aaron’s. Everything I’ve done, I’ve chosen. And I would do it again, even knowing the outcome.”

Maybe he was right. The past didn’t matter. Eve, Kaemon, they didn’t exist anymore, not fully. They could make their own decisions as Quinn and Aaron. Destiny was nothing more than a choice. If she wanted, she could turn her back and walk away from it all, or she could decide to follow her heart. The choice was hers and hers alone. But after everything she’d put him through, could he really forgive her?

“Forgiveness isn’t the same as forgetting, Quinn. It’s not possible to erase the past, but that doesn’t mean we have to live in it. We’ve all made mistakes.” Aaron smiled and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. She reached up, and her hand found his. Pressing his palm to her cheek, she let the tears flow freely.

She’d pushed everyone away for so long that she didn’t know how to trust anyone else. For the first time, she realized she didn’t just want Aaron, she needed him, not to rescue her or love her, but as someone she could share her life with. They were stronger together. All the reassurance she needed was her own heart, beating in time with his. This was Aaron, the boy who saved her more times than she could count. He would not abandon her, and she could never desert him either. The past was unchangeable, but the future was yet unwritten, and this time she would do whatever it took to keep him safe.

“When did you get to be so wise?” she asked.

“Finding out you’re part angel ages a person.” Aaron moved closer until his soul pressed against hers.