Reaper Undone

Wait, but he’d used the rune, right? Then… “Keon, are you saying…Are you Lilith’s—”

“Yes.” His cat eyes gleamed in the gray light of almost sunrise. “Lilith is my mother. I remember now. She made me forget, and now she’s gone.”

Gone? “What do you mean she’s gone?”

“We were attacked by darkites en route. Mammon’s minions. Too many for us to fight off. She knew that if she tried to run, I’d be killed, and she’d be captured anyway, so she gave me the rune to save her son, Azazel.” His lip curled. “She broke her vow to save his life.”

Oh, fuck. Oh, shit. “If Lilith’s been captured, we need to do something. Now.”

He looked away. “I’m sure Lilith would be touched, but it’s not you the Underealm needs, it’s Azazel.”

And then it hit me. His sole objective was to keep Lilith alive; protecting me and saving Azazel was all part and parcel of that.

“Azazel is her son,” he continued. “They’ll follow him. They’ll rally behind him.”

My chest tightened. “I’m coming too.”

He glared at me. “No. You’ll stay here, where the chances of you being killed are minimal. I won’t risk my queen’s life. I’ve sent a phoenix to Minuel, Lilith’s advisor. He’ll stall until Azazel and Malachi can get there.”

“And you?”

He fixed his yellow gaze on me. “I stay here and follow my queen’s order to protect you and train the cadets. We’ll be needing them sooner than expected.”

“Your mother, Keon. She’s your mother.”

“No. She gave up that right when she chose to wipe my memories. She chose to turn me into her Blade, but she also saved my life by doing so. Samael would have killed me if he’d discovered I was hers. She raised me, even though she did not love me. And for that, I will be forever indebted to her.”

“Keon…I don’t know what to say.”

He looked over my shoulder, his expression blank. “We need to tell the others about Lilith.”

Keon and I found Mal and Grayson in the kitchen with Cora. She’d made pancakes, the choc chip kind I loved. The rest of the house was silent and dark; only the fairy lights lit up the gloom. Dean had retired to bed as had the other Loup.

I filled Mal in about Lilith’s capture, CliffsNotes version, leaving out the whole Keon-is-Lilith’s-son part. That was Keon’s story to tell.

“I can be there by sunset if I go now,” Mal said. “Conah will be able to help. His knowledge of the Underealm and all its geography is second to none. The Dominus is a walking encyclopedia.” He looked over at Azazel, still asleep on the sofa. “Fuck, I’m not sure he’s strong enough to make the trip yet.”

Mal wanted to leave right away, but he didn’t want to leave Azazel to fly alone.

“I can bring him,” Cora said. “If you can arrange a drake back for me afterward. Getting into the Underealm isn’t the hard part. It’s getting out that messed with my mojo.”

“Are you sure?” Mal asked.

“Of course.”

He exhaled in relief and then pulled me into the kitchen. “I’ll be back in a few days once I’ve dispatched scouts and spies to search for Lilith.” His gaze flicked to Uriel on the sofa. “Have you got this?”

He was referring to the Dread and their agenda. I nodded. “I got it. I’ll hold the fort here. Just find Lilith.”

He pressed a hard kiss to my mouth. “I love you.”

I watched him leave with my heart in turmoil. How the fuck was everything falling apart so quickly?

“We’re with you,” Grayson said. “Whatever you need, you have your pack.”

I leaned into him, breathing him in. “Thank you.”

A soft groan drew my attention across the room. At first, I thought it was Azazel, but he was still sound asleep. My gaze jumped to the other sofa, to Uriel. His eyes were open, and he was looking right at me with a dazed expression.

“Uriel?” I broke away from Grayson and crossed the room. “Hey.”

The celestial’s back was almost healed, but the welts where his wings had been were angry, red, puckered scars.

I touched his shoulder lightly. “Uriel, can you hear me?”

He focused his amber eyes on me. “Seraphina.” His gaze sharpened, and then he sat up quickly, groaning and clutching his head. “The symbol. Did you mark me?”

“Yes. You’re safe…”

His shoulders sagged.

“Uriel, what happened to you?”

He raised his head, his expression grim. “I found out the truth about the Beyond.”

Grayson, Cora, Keon, and I gathered in the lounge, making sure not to wake Azazel. Keon sat cross-legged on the floor between the sofas, Cora parked her butt on the single-seater, and Grayson and I took the two-seater. Uriel had our full attention, as if this were some fucked- up bed time story.

“The Dread were telling the truth,” Uriel said. “I managed to access the archives, and I found references of a celestial army called the Dread who were created a millennium ago by the divine and then discarded. I dug deeper to try and discover why the divine would do such a thing, and that’s when I found out the truth.” His throat bobbed. “There is no divine. Not any longer. The force that powered the Beyond, that forged creation, left after the Dread won their battle. It wasn’t the divine that cut off the Dread, it was the Dominion and the Powers that made that decision. I always wondered about the shift in hierarchy, but never questioned why the Dominion and Powers took control of the first sphere. They collectively call themselves the Righteous. The seraphim numbers were depleted after we lost them to the Underealm.”

“Lost?” Grayson asked.

“They were tainted by their time in the demonic realm watching over the circles of hell. Lost to us.”

He had no idea that Lilith had hunted down the creatures and had them killed, but that was a separate story.

I needed to know about the Beyond. “Why did the Righteous lock the Dread out?”

Uriel sat forward, his expression intense. “To reduce the drain on the Beyond’s resources. When the divine left, it took its energy with it. The Beyond began to die, and the Righteous scrambled for a way to extend our world’s life.” He looked pained. “They found it.”

I studied his face, twisted in despair.

“What? What do they do?”

“They realized there was a powerful source of energy in their grasp. Human souls.”

I stared at him, not sure I’d heard him right. I mean, he couldn’t have just said—

“Human souls?” Cora sat back and pressed her palms to her thighs.

She looked like she was making connections, working stuff out, but I didn’t get it.

“Uriel, I don’t understand…”

“The souls you reap aren’t reborn,” Uriel said. “They’re burned up, used to power the Beyond, like millions of batteries. In the days of the divine, souls would become one with the force and gain paradise, or be allowed rebirth. But now the Beyond is using a large percentage of souls to power our realm.”

“Fuck,” Grayson said. “And outlier souls?”

Uri looked confused. “Not the concern of the Beyond. Outlier souls have their own journey.”

I could tell Grayson wanted to press for more information, but we needed to stay on track.

I covered Uri’s hand with mine. “They caught you snooping, and they hurt you. It’s my fault. If I hadn’t asked you to look into the Dread’s claims, then—”

“No, don’t say that. I’m glad I know the truth. I managed to hide your comm before they came for me. I’m a lower celestial. I’m nothing to them. They could have ended my existence, but they wanted to know why I was searching, who I was working for. Lower celestials aren’t created to ask questions and go against the status quo. They wanted to know who else knew the truth about the Dread and the human souls. I didn’t let them see your face in my mind. I blocked you out, because if they’d seen you, they’d have believed you knew the truth no matter what I said.”

“Is that why you didn’t answer my call?”

“The cell they had me in cut me off. Your summoning spell overrode the wards and pulled me here.”

“But not soon enough.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “They took your wings.”

His expression hardened. “But I’m alive. I’m alive to tell you the truth because there is more.” He made a derisive sound. “It’s shocking how available the information was to anyone who thought to search for it. The Righteous have such a hold over the celestials and enforce the hierarchy so rigorously that no celestial ever steps out of line.”

But he had. For me. What made him different?

“The voralexes you’re linked to are part of it,” he continued, “and Deadside is the hub.”

“What do you mean?”

“The souls in Deadside are the purest, the brightest, and the most powerful. Deadside is one large battery, and the siphon is the voralex. It takes power from the souls and connects to its reaper to create a circuit of energy. The Deadside voralex is also the main source of power for the other voralexes in Necro City.”

I balked. “You mean we’re feeding off human souls?”

“And being fed off too,” Uriel said. “It’s a network of energy for the Beyond to draw from. Dominus souls are beacons for the Beyond. It’s why the scythes choose you. It’s all about the power. The treaty with the Underealm, the access to Dominus, everything is about power. You get access to celestial energy, but the Beyond gets access to your soul.”

My pulse fluttered as the implications of what he was telling us registered.

“Human souls reproduce,” he explained. “The number isn’t finite, and the Powers have made calculations to ensure humanity continues to thrive, but every so often, the power dips, and they need a boost.”