Soul Weaver (31 page)

If Delphi didn’t believe them, then maybe she could show him the creatures, earn some points tallied in their favor. Fear made her hand tremble, but if she was going to Hell and lose Nathaniel, then she would take Saul and his abominations with her.

She loved Nathaniel, so much, and if her death was the only way to save him… so be it.

“If you won’t listen,” she said to Delphi, “then I’ll have to show you.”

Before Nathaniel could act or Saul react, before Delphi’s lifted hand revealed her fate, she stabbed the air and sliced a portal. She couldn’t look back. If she saw Nathaniel, saw the horror of his realization written on his face, she might not have the strength to leave him.

Focused on the heat, on the fire pits from Saul’s memory, she went to her knees and allowed herself to fall through the glimmering portal as she’d seen Nathaniel do. Cool air evaporated from her lungs as darkness enveloped her. Sulfur plugged her nose and made her eyes burn, but that wasn’t the worst of it.

The skin covering her palms and knees hissed and crackled. The ground burned so hot, she jumped to her feet and cried out as she blistered. The stench of flesh roasting on her bones made her gorge rise.

White light brought her head around in time to see Saul tumble through the portal after her.

“Clever girl.” His teeth flashed in the darkness. “I underestimated you.”

Vicious snarls rang out from below at the sound of his voice. She had the sick feeling wherever they were was very, very high and whatever made those sounds was very, very hungry.

He lunged forward and Chloe dove aside as the portal’s light flickered. She skidded across the scorched ground as a scream rose in her throat, met with the heated air, and dissolved.

Saul lunged a second time and she rolled away, blinking back tears as her forearms burned. The pain blinded her senses until a split-second’s relief cooled her flesh as her body whistled through air and she fell. Their portal closed and took the faint light with it.

Impact stole her breath when she hit the ground. She gasped as Saul straddled her waist. Wind stirred by his wings blew sweltering sand into her eyes as his rough hands cupped her jaw.

“I never considered the side effects your bond with Nathaniel would have.” He studied the shears in her hand. “Whatever he did to bind your souls has enabled you to use his shears. They must recognize that part of him in you, which means they can feed off your soul as well.” His eyes glittered. “That means with your soul in my possession, the shears will obey me. I won’t need my brother’s cooperation.” He cast Chloe a pitying look. “I’m afraid I won’t be needing your body, either.”

Chloe clawed at his hands and writhed, but his weight pinned her to the ground.

Another burst of light shined overhead. Chloe sensed Nathaniel’s arrival but couldn’t see him. He must have followed their trail, his portal opening where hers had.

Delphi… he must have chosen their side. How else could Nathaniel be here without his shears? Hope gave her an adrenaline boost. Gathering her strength to forge a mental connection, Chloe warned him,
“Watch your step. There’s something down here.”

Saul stiffened over her. “I’m sorry it came to this.” She gagged as he pressed a savage kiss to her swollen mouth. Her lips burst from the force and blood ran down her chin. “But Nathaniel would have made the same choices I did to save you.”

The pressure on her jaw increased until her head snapped sideways on a sharp
pop
and everything faded.

“Nathaniel…”

“No. Don’t waste your energy.”
His voice broke.
“Hang on, Chloe.”

“I love you.”
The words were too weak to travel through their bond.
“Always.”

“Chloe? Stay with me. I’m on my way…”

“Too late.”
The last dregs of consciousness faded and blackness enveloped Chloe. She jolted one last time as an inhuman roar filled the cavern. Nathaniel. Her beautiful angel. Not even he could save her this time.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Mindless with fear, a feral roar ripped from Nathaniel’s throat as he caught a familiar shimmer from the corner of his eye. It couldn’t be. If that light was Chloe’s soul, then… He ran full out toward the cliff’s edge and leaped into the yawning void.

A freight train of upward motion slammed into his gut, knocking him backward. Nathaniel grunted as he landed in a sprawl. His head was still spinning when Saul pinned him down one-handed. Saul’s fingers crushed his throat as he slammed Nathaniel’s skull against the ground. Through the bloodred haze covering Nathaniel’s vision, he spotted the brilliant light bathing Saul’s fist.

Saul had wound a soul around his wrist and hand, using it as a glove. Its vibrant sunset colors lit the darkness around them. He clutched the shears through the insulating barrier.

“You.” Nathaniel summoned the depths of his strength. He surged up, caught Saul around the throat, and crushed his windpipe. When that wasn’t enough, he shook his brother until Saul’s eyes refused to focus. “What have you done?”

“Given you…,” Saul panted, “a taste of my personal Hell.”

“Chloe.”
Nathaniel tested the bond with Chloe he knew was gone. Hoping he was wrong. No response, though he winced against the flare of light as the soul responded.

For a second, his grip around Saul’s throat went slack, allowing Saul to wheeze out a laugh. “Tell me, brother, are you thinking of precious little Bran now?” He panted. “Or have you finally gotten a taste of what this cursed eternity has been to me?”

Oh yes, Nathaniel knew now what his brother had endured. An instant flickered past where Nathaniel wondered if this was the moment that would break him. Would he turn from all hope of salvation as his brother had done? Or would he embrace the justice he had been created to deliver? The sharpness of Saul’s teeth set Nathaniel’s on edge. Justice. Yes. It was all that was left to him now.

“You killed her.” His voice broke. He didn’t care, not about his brother, not about his punishment, not about Delphi, not about anything. Nothing mattered without Chloe.

Saul lifted his glowing hand. He gave it a shake as if her soul were a bangle to be settled on his wrist. The shears caught the shine of her soul and glinted dully.

Nathaniel’s spine bowed as his lips parted and his agony was given voice. She was lost. And Saul… he would pay. Some vital hope fragmented, shattered his mind while muscle took over.

His fingers tightened around Saul’s throat until his knuckles popped. Lifting him by the neck, Nathaniel slammed him onto the blistering ground. Rolling to his knees, he palmed Saul’s face and crushed down until his fingernails filled with skin and sand, smashing Saul’s skull against the jagged rocks until he heard a crack and warmth coated his fingers.

It wasn’t enough. Nothing would ever be enough again.

Grabbing Saul’s hand, Nathaniel unwound the severed spirit until he held the root of Chloe’s soul in his hand. Then he reclaimed his shears and faced his brother. Nathaniel’s chest ached with the guilt of how badly he had failed Chloe.

His gaze snagged on the soul bag at his brother’s hip, and he knew what he would do.

Snapping the ties with a firm yank, he freed the bag and ripped the mouth open wide. With his empty hand, he tossed it to the ground beside them.

Stale air swirled as the vicious portal opened, searching for anything not grounded in flesh to consume. Nathaniel’s hold on Chloe tightened as he ripped open the front of Saul’s shirt and snatched the pendant from around his brother’s neck. He was about to give the portal a snack.

Saul’s eyes widened. He scratched and clawed at Nathaniel as his skin dissolved. His mouth became a whirl of black glitter shaped on a soundless scream. He became as insubstantial as the air the bag inhaled in greedy gulps.

He writhed as suction from the portal found purchase and breathed him in.

Saul would burn for eternity. If Nathaniel joined him in the end, so be it.

There was no life for him after Chloe. Her death had hollowed him out, left him as soulless as the husks of mortals whose souls he had harvested. What did it matter how Delphi punished him? Nothing was worse than knowing he had failed Chloe.

Back on his feet, Nathaniel made for the cliff’s edge, where he’d first seen the glimmer of light. Shining in his hand, Chloe’s soul illuminated a shallow ledge and he jumped down to the rocky outcropping.

At his feet, a bloody jumble of charred and broken limbs jutted from the rocky ground. As he lifted Chloe’s remains into his arms, her soul withdrew as if confused by his discovery.

Tears burned Nathaniel’s eyes, but the heat evaporated them before they could fall. Each stroke of his thumb down Chloe’s cheek drove home the fact that he would never again hear her laughter or feel her touch, never see her smile or taste the full curve of her lips.

Nothing Delphi did to him now could be called anything short of mercy.

The axis of his world had tilted when he met Chloe, bent toward her as a flower in search of sun. Without her, his existence slipped back into darkness. Death, his centuries-old companion, made a welcoming bed and asked Nathaniel to lie in it.

Nathaniel jerked as hard fingers squeezed his shoulder.

Delphi sounded pleased. “Balance has been restored.”

Willing to plead with Delphi, Nathaniel caught that cool hand in his. “Please, spare her. She is an innocent in all of this. I beg of you, summon Gavriel. Let her soul return home.”

“My brother can no more enter Hell than I can Heaven.” He pulled away. “This mortal’s soul is blighted. It cannot journey to Aeristitia.”

Silken warmth surrounded Nathaniel as Chloe’s aura engulfed him, covered his face and neck with ghostly kisses of assurance before she abandoned him and strained toward Delphi.

“What is it, child?” He allowed her light to fill his hand. A strangled snarl rose in Nathaniel’s throat, earning him a sharp glance from Delphi. “Silence, Weaver. Let her soul impart its message.”

Delphi plucked the root of Chloe’s soul from Nathaniel’s hand as if picking a flower.

It guided him toward the ledge, then shrank against him, muting her light.

“I see.” His lips set in a grim line.

On numb legs, Nathaniel lumbered to Delphi’s side with Chloe’s body in his arms.

In the valley below, thousands of opalescent creatures growled and snapped at one another. Nude and filthy, their human shapes belied their animalistic manners. Wild red eyes, sharp with hunger, lit the pitch-darkness surrounding them. Still more scrabbled across the ground as they exited what looked to be a doorway carved from obsidian stone.

“There must be thousands of them.” Delphi peered into the darkness. “Saul must have worked centuries to create this number.” He frowned when he noticed the arch and the milling bodies beyond it. “More hide inside that cavern.” His expression turned pensive. “Resurrection is a divine talent, which means Aeristitia has a traitor in her midst.” Glancing toward Nathaniel, he said, “And for no one to have reported the absences in their soul pits, he must have had allies among the harvesters as well.”

“I couldn’t tell you if he did.” And he no longer cared.

“We must leave this place.” Delphi gave the creatures one last glance. “Now, before they catch wind of us. They’re vampiric, sustaining themselves on the souls of the living or eating the flesh of their own.” He further shielded Chloe with his hand. “She’s fresh. They’ll scent her first.” He grasped Nathaniel’s shoulder and black mists swirled around their ankles and swallowed them down a different kind of portal.

When he could see again, they stood between pillars of white marble with scowling seraphs to either side.

Delphi motioned Arestes forward. “I need you to take care of this.” He gestured toward Chloe’s body.

The seraph inclined his head with a somber expression. “I will ensure her remains are properly tended.” He opened his arms, expecting Nathaniel to pass her over.

Though Nathaniel was aware he held only a shell and that he should give her into another’s care willingly, he couldn’t let Chloe go. His fingers tangled in her hair as he cradled her broken body to his chest.

Across the way, Chloe’s essence flickered in Delphi’s hand. Urgent in its attempt to draw his attention, it was as if she wanted to reassure him she was still her, still with him, just different.

Another time he would have laughed as a woman born of flesh comforted a man born of the spirit, assuring him the soul lived on even after the body died. With less resistance, he surrendered her body to Arestes. Her soul had no use for its broken casing now.

Delphi stroked the fluttering spirit with featherlight strokes. “My thanks to you, little one.” His attention shifted from her to Nathaniel. “You defied me, tampered with the fate of a mortal, which is expressly forbidden. I should have reclaimed your shears and left you stranded beyond the wall to wander through Hell until those creatures devoured you.”

The fistful of light Delphi held struggled against him. He frowned at it. “Quiet down or you’ll wear yourself out.” Then he addressed Nathaniel. “Despite your
second
lapse in judgment, I find myself in the unusual situation of being indebted to your mortal and having a fair idea of what she’ll ask for as her due.”

Nathaniel’s focus riveted on Delphi’s hand out of fear his fingers would open.

Perhaps sensing how little of Nathaniel’s attention he held, Delphi passed over Chloe’s soul gingerly. “She has saved you, Weaver. Remember that, and honor her for it.”

Chloe’s love had shattered him, healed him, remade him into a better man than he had been the day he met her. She thought he had saved her life, but she was wrong. She had saved his.

Accepting her soul with sweat-slick palms, Nathaniel tried not to tighten his grip, but the urge to hold on as tight as he could to his beautiful Chloe was too much and he failed. Mistlike warmth crept through his fingers to twine around his torso. Exerting the minutest pressure, Chloe gave the best hug she was capable of giving. It was the best he’d ever gotten.