Darkness Arisen

chapter Thirteen



Alice didn't move from the bow of the boat as she watched the sun begin to set across the horizon. They'd been in the dinghy for almost twelve hours now. By morning, they would be almost there. To Warwick's island. To Catherine. With no way to save her. Or kill her, rather.

Amazingly, Jada had been interested enough in their survival to pack food for them, so at least they weren't hungry. Alice had napped, so she wasn't as tired either. But it wasn't enough to decrease the stress building inside her, despite her best efforts to get into the tropical vacation mindset.

Frustration beat through her, and she glanced back at Ian. He was sitting astride the rear seat, his mace held loosely in his hand. The man was on edge, not at all relaxed, as if he expected a sea monster to leap up out of the water and try to eat him. It made her feel safe, but at the same time, seeing him sitting there looking so lethal was a tease, showing her what he could do if he chose. He could help her kill Catherine if he wanted to, but his commitment to some ideal about the Order was making him blind to what mattered. Shouldn't the bond make him want to help her? Shouldn't the fact that half his damn mace was burned into her arm shift his loyalties to her over the Order and a family that was long dead?

But no. It hadn't. He wanted to make love to her. He would die if she rejected him. But trust her enough to help her without full information? Not a chance. Bastard.

I can hear you, sweetheart. I'm not a bastard.

Alice felt her cheeks heat up and she spun away from him, staring back across the water. After hearing him talk about his father, she knew he wasn't a bastard. Ian may have grown up in the shadow of the curse, but he'd had a father who'd loved him, and that was an incredible gift. If he didn't appreciate and honor that gift, then he would be a bastard. She was envious of the way he'd spoken about his father. She'd never had that bond with her mother. As a little girl, she'd tried to impress her, but her mother had been more concerned with angel duties than showering love on a little girl.

Yes, she was an angel of life, but she was a sucky one, and that meant that she could yearn for connection and emotion. She could see it in others. She could scent it as it drifted across her path. She could feel the loss of it, agonize over the absence of it, and envy those who had it. Envy. For an angel? God, what kind of angel was she? How much further would Ian pull her off track if she let him get to her?

Biting back frustration, she took a deep breath, trying to pull her emotions back under control. She focused on the scenery, trying to absorb the beauty of it into her soul. The sun was low in the sky, casting the most magnificent shades of orange, pink, and purple across the water, as if it were lighting up the path the dolphins were supposed to follow. She focused on the sunset, trying to raise her mental shields against him, trying to eliminate his ability to unsettle her.

It's going to be more difficult to block me out since we're blood-bonded. We're locked into each other now.

Alice said nothing, hating how her body and her mind craved him. His deep voice sent waves of comfort and warmth through her, and it made her ache for him. Why could he make her feel like that? If she fell in love with him, she'd become irretrievably broken as an angel. If she fell in love with him, she would try to make the same choice that she'd made before with her mother, saving him out of love, which is why she'd lost the ability to save anyone. She knew it had been taken away from her because she'd proven incapable, and it wouldn't return until she proved herself worthy. As far as she could figure, the only reason she hadn't been fully stripped of her angel status was because she'd been a child when she'd made the decision. And ever since, she'd been gradually falling.

"Shit, Alice. Why didn't you tell me all that?"

Alice spun around, furious that he'd been in her mind. "What is wrong with you? Don't you have any respect for my privacy?"

Ian's eyes glittered. "You were broadcasting. I'd have to be dead not to hear your thoughts."

"I wasn't broadcasting! I was thinking! Privately!"

"You'll have to try harder than that to keep me out." Ian rested the mace across his thigh. "Listen, Alice, I'm sorry I can't help you kill Catherine. Isn't there another way to 'save' her?"

She closed her eyes. "I wish there was."

"You're willing to sacrifice your soul for her?"

"Yes." She didn't hesitate. "Of course."

There was a long silence, then she felt a wash of warmth from Ian. "I respect that," he said. "You're an amazing woman, Alice. Courageous. Committed. I admire you."

Alice scrunched her eyes shut, fighting off the swell of warmth at his kind words. "I'm not," she said. "I'm just not. Don't tell me lies."

"Okay," he agreed. "I just have one question."

She looked over at him. "What is it?"

"Do angels of life protect everyone, or are they assigned to certain people?"

"They get assignments."

He mulled that over for a moment. "Have you ever gotten an assignment?"

"No." She turned away. "No, I haven't."

"Are you sure?"

She looked back at him. "Of course I am."

"Because..." He turned his mace to reflect the sunset. "Ry seems to think that you're part of the angel trinity protecting the Order. If you are our angel of life, then maybe you're the reason that we're so hard to kill. Maybe you've been doing your job all along. Did you ever think of that?"

She stared at him in disbelief. "That's impossible. I would know. I would have sensed you all."

"Are you so sure?" He set the mace down. "Here's the thing, Alice. All Calydons are immortal and damned difficult to kill. But for some reason, the Order of the Blade members are tougher than any of the rest of them. We survive battles that no one should survive. We recover from wounds that no Calydon should heal. Hell, Quinn Masters actually died a few months ago and then revived. It's inexplicable what he did." He leaned forward, his gaze intense. "I thought it was because we're badasses, but now I'm wondering if we're actually protected." He pointed the end of the mace in her direction. "By you."

She gaped at him. "What on earth makes you think that it's me?"

He grinned. "Because we're a bunch of f*cked-up bastards, and it would take a pretty f*cked-up angel to handle us. You fit the bill."

She stared at him. "You're calling me f*cked-up? Are you serious?"

"I mean it as a compliment," he said.

Tears filled her eyes and she turned away, throwing up her mental shields as hard as she could. She felt Ian's grunt of pain, and she knew she'd shut him out. F*cked-up was not what she needed to be. How could he call her that? But though she denied it, she knew it was true, and she understood that he'd intended it as a compliment. But he was a warrior, not an angel, and the standards were different. She couldn't afford to be f*cked-up, as he'd so eloquently put it. And there was only one way she could possibly save herself, and that was to make sure Catherine died. Yes, killing Catherine might doom her forever, or it might be the key that would save them both. It was dangerous, but it was a risk she had to take. She had no other options, and regardless of what happened to her, she had a debt to pay off.

If Ian wouldn't help her, there was only one man she knew of who was powerful enough to kill Catherine: Flynn Shapiro, her former best friend and the man who was currently on a mission to murder her.

Flynn would kill her at first chance. But if she could get him to use that energy against Catherine at the same time so that he killed them both... She nodded. It could work. Risky, but her only chance.

She was going to have to let him find her. Back at the beach, Ian's teammate Vaughn had told her that Flynn had infected her with his blood, and he could find her that way. How far would it work?

She gritted her teeth and looked back at Ian. His mace was sitting on his lap, ready to defend or attack at a moment's notice. For a moment, she hesitated as fear rippled through her, then she thought of Ian's words while they were making love, that she was afraid to be who she was, to tap into her power.

Dammit. She wasn't afraid. Well, she was, but she wouldn't let everything around her be destroyed just because she was terrified. Ian was right. She had to be stronger. She had to be braver. She had to stop running away from all of it.

Taking a deep breath, Alice narrowed her eyes and focused on the mace. For a moment, nothing happened. Then suddenly it shot off Ian's lap and into her palm. As Ian looked at her in surprise, she fisted the handle and raked the blade across her palm. Blood spewed out, and she flung her arm into the air, spraying the droplets into the mist before he could stop her. The wind caught some of them, and others fell into the ocean.

The trail had been set.

She could only hope that Flynn found her at the right time. Not too early. Not too late. Or else all was lost.

Ian grabbed her wrist, his eyes blazing. "What did you just do?"

She met his gaze. "I asked for the help you wouldn't give me."

* * *

Flynn Shapiro.

She'd called Flynn Shapiro.

She'd called in the man who'd murdered her two months ago.

Two hours later, Ian was still reeling from Alice's confession. The dark clouds of the curse had begun to close in as he was haunted by the memories of Flynn's poisoned disc slicing across her belly. He couldn't escape the images of Alice writhing in his arms as the toxin killed her, and how he'd been unable to help her.

Restlessly, he shifted in the boat, his brow beginning to sweat as he recalled that horrific moment when Alice's soul had left her body, stripped away by the demons. How he'd stood there with her in his arms, utterly helpless to save her after Flynn had killed her.

F*ck. Ian pressed his forehead into his palm, trying to block the memories, but they were too strong and too vivid. He could feel all the anguish of that moment when he'd called out his weapons to use them on himself. How he'd been a fraction of a millisecond from killing himself. It was the closest the curse had ever come to taking him. And now, the mere realization that Flynn was on Alice's trail again was almost enough to send him back there.

Alice looked back at him, and her brow was furrowed. "Are you okay?"

"Fine." Swearing, he clenched his fists. There was only one solution. He had to keep her alive. He had to keep her alive. But shit, he had to find Cardiff first. How could he focus on both? What if Alice wanted to go off after Catherine, and he needed to track down Cardiff? How could he let her walk away unprotected? Shit!

"I did what I had to do," she said.

"No. You didn't." He glared at her. "There are other options besides inviting an assassin after you. You have no control over how that will play out. What were you thinking?"

Defiance flared in her eyes. "I told you! I owe Catherine, and you wouldn't help—"

"There are other solutions," he snapped. "There always are."

"There's no other option. Catherine has to die!"

"Why?" He grabbed her arm. "Tell me why!"

"Because—" Alice hesitated. "I can't betray her. It's her secret. But trust me, she needs to die."

Ian closed his eyes at her request. Trust her? Trust her that some angel he'd never met should be killed in cold blood? "How do I trust that request?" he asked. "It goes against everything that defines who I am."

"Killing her goes against everything that defines who I am as well," Alice said. "That's why you should trust me. If I am willing to do it, there must be a reason."

Ian met her gaze and reached out with his mind, brushing against hers. She stiffened and raised her shields against him. "You want me to trust you when you won't let me in?"

"You have loyalty to the Order. I'm loyal to Catherine. How is that different?"

He ran his hand through his hair. "My loyalty didn't compel me to invite an assassin to find me. That's the difference."

She pressed her lips together, and he suddenly saw the pinched skin around her mouth, and the tightness around her eyes. He realized she was terrified of Flynn coming after her. Shit. What had she done? "Alice, I will do what I can to help you. But you need to trust me. If you see Flynn, tell me. I can't help you if I don't know what's going on."

For a long moment, Alice said nothing, then she gave a slight nod. "I feel like I'm so out of my depth," she admitted.

He grinned, relieved that she was connecting with him again. "Yeah, well, you got me, so don't sweat it. I'm a good weapon to have—"

The boat suddenly stopped.

They both turned around as the dolphins shed their harnesses and dove out of sight. There was a slap of their tails on the surface, and then they were gone, leaving the dinghy drifting in the vast sea.

Alice frowned and looked around. "We must be at Warwick's."

They were surrounded by ocean on all sides. Blue sky. Green ocean. Nothing else. "Do you see it?"

"No." Alice leaned over the edge of the boat and touched the water. "But Jada said it was hidden to all except those who know."

"So, we must know, then, right?" Ian closed his eyes and opened his preternatural senses. He breathed in the fullness of the air. He tasted salt in the wind...and soil. He smelled grass and flowers. He could hear the sounds of tiny claws skittering along dead leaves and the sound of leaves rippling in the wind. "We're here," he said. He opened his senses further, using the powers and skills his father had taught him so many years ago in the woods, to see with his mind and not with his eyes. He sensed the life force around them. Plants, animals, and the pulsing call of the earth itself. Tangled in the midst was the cold, dank energy of black magic, coating his pores like a heavy syrup of death and danger.

The brands in his arms began to burn, and he instinctively reached out for Alice, drawing her closer against him while he called out his mace with a crack and a flash of black light.

"Where is it?" Alice asked.

"Can't you feel it?" Keeping his eyes closed, he turned in a slow circle, using his preternatural senses like a radar, sending it out into the air. So much space and air over the water to the north and the west. He turned again to the east. More open space. He turned again, facing due south, and sent out a wave of energy.

It vanished, absorbed by whatever was in front of them.

He opened his eyes, but saw only ocean.

Alice was leaning forward, her gaze riveted in the same spot his was. She was holding out her palm, the one with the gray mark. "I can feel him," she said. "I can sense his magic."

Ian leaned over the edge of the boat and peered into the water. Just ocean. No sand. "Where is it?" It was here somewhere. He knew it was. But where?

Alice went down on her knees and stuck her hand in the water. It came away wet. She frowned. "I could swear it was right here."

"Me, too."

He crouched beside her and shoved his mace into the water. It sliced through easily, and he could see the blade beneath the surface of the water. "Just ocean."

For a moment, the two of them sat there, staring at the island that wasn't there. "Cardiff believes in angels," Alice finally said.

"So?"

"So, angels can't be proven. We don't look special or wear halos or float down from heaven." She chewed her lip. "You have to take us on faith."

Ian looked back across the expanse of water. "Faith." Faith wasn't a word he'd believed in. He believed in making things happen, in fighting relentlessly to discover the right solution. Faith was for people who didn't take action. He looked over at her. "Do you have faith?"

"Not really," she said, and there was no mistaking the regret in her voice. "And I should." Slowly, she rose to her feet. "Faith is the most powerful tool any of us can have," she said. "As powerful as angels are, there's nothing we can do for those who don't believe in us and allow us to help."

He raised his brows. "So, maybe that's why you can't save anyone. Because the people you want to save don't believe in you."

She looked over at him. "My mother was an angel. Of course she believed in me."

"So maybe you're the one without faith. You don't believe in yourself."

Her mouth tightened, and she inclined her head. "Entirely possible." She turned back toward the water again. "Cardiff has faith," she whispered. "Faith is what it's all about." She took a deep breath, and before Ian could stop her, she stepped up onto the edge of the boat.

"Hey." Ian eased toward her, his heart starting to race. "What are you doing?"

"I'm taking a leap of faith." And then she jumped.

Ian lunged for her, but his hands closed around empty air. He stopped in surprise, realizing that she had literally disappeared. Not into the water. She'd just vanished. Into Cardiff's hidden kingdom?

It didn't matter where she was. Alice was unprotected, and he was going after her. Without a second thought or a moment of hesitation, Ian threw himself off the edge of the boat and into the air, his mace ready.

* * *

Alice startled, jumping to the side when Ian burst out of the mist and landed beside her, his boots thumping on the damp earth. When she saw it was him, she relaxed...slightly. He was better than an insane, murderous wizard, but he'd made it pretty clear he wasn't the shiny-cheeked answer to her dreams.

Ian let out his breath in a low whistle. "Holy shit," he said as he looked around.

"I know. It's incredible." They were deep in a jungle, with massive trees towering so high they blocked out the sun. The vegetation was thick and green, with vines and moss dangling from branches. Bushes with leaves two feet wide surrounded them, and the squeaks and chirps of animals were a tremendous cacophony of noise. But the most incredible things were the flowers that towered above them. Pink, blue, yellow... every color imaginable, in every shape possible. They twisted around tree trunks, dangled from branches, squeezed out between leaves, and popped up from the dirt. The fragrance was astonishing, the deeply rich scents of flowers so vibrant that she wanted to close her eyes and simply breathe.

It was a sanctuary, an oasis in the middle of a vast ocean. A place of beauty and nature, so unlike what she would have expected from a wizard steeped in black magic and death. "It's beautiful." She started to walk toward a bush of violet flowers, but Ian grabbed her arm and yanked her back.

"Stop."

The urgency in his voice made her freeze. "What is it?"

"Give me a sec." He looked around, and she felt his energy rippling through the air. After a moment, he looked at the ground she'd been walking toward. He hurled his mace at the earth, and the moment the blade made contact with the ground, there was an explosion. The earth vanished, replaced by a bottomless pit seething with black and purple smoke.

"Oh, wow." Alice started to retreat, but Ian forced her to stop again as he recalled his mace from the pit.

He jammed his mace into the earth behind them, and the same thing happened. It simply crumbled beneath his weapon, revealing another gaping hole bubbling with noxious mist. Ian swore under his breath, and recalled his mace as it plummeted down the bottomless hole. "The beauty is a trap," he said. "A distraction."

A trap. The most beautiful things she'd ever seen were simply a facade for death and destruction. The realization was almost devastating, as if she'd finally opened her heart enough to trust the good, the beauty, and it was all a lie. Was how she felt about Ian a lie as well?

"Stay here." Ian hurled his mace all around them. Hole after hole after hole opened up, until the only solid earth was the four-foot piece of ground they were standing on. Everything beautiful was gone. Had it ever been there, or was it all simply an illusion?

"Don't throw it at our feet," she said as he looked around, ostensibly for another spot to test. Not that there was anything left. He'd opened up the entire area around them, so they were perched on what felt like the head of a pin, standing precariously in the middle of bottomless chasms of torment and death.

Not her first choice of places to be, she had to admit.

"It wouldn't make a difference if I hit the earth we're standing on. We're on solid ground. The dolphins knew where to deliver us." He looked around. "The question is, how do we get out of here?"

He slung his arm around her shoulder and hauled her against him, as if to ensure that she didn't accidentally step off the ledge and free-fall to a gnarly conclusion. There was nowhere else to go given their tiny sanctuary, but she had to admit that being tucked up against his strong body felt like the right place to be. She could feel his calmness, and it soothed her nerves, giving her the ability not to panic. Ian gave her security and stability, and it felt amazing. But were her feelings no more real than the beauty that had welcomed them? Was Ian just one mace strike from disintegrating into a poisonous death for her?

Probably, he said. You gotta watch out for the guys who carry weapons. We're an unpredictable bunch.

Alice stiffened at the brush of warmth in her mind that seemed to cascade through her, igniting her body the same way he always did. Do you really have so little sense of privacy?

I've spent half a millennium running around the earth with a bunch of sweaty guys who wind up naked, almost dead, and bleeding several times a week. Privacy isn't going to keep us alive, babe. I don't believe in it.

Well, I do!

He tightened his grip on her and looked down at her. His eyes were blazing with adrenaline and heat. Well, I don't. And before she could stop him, he bent his head and kissed her. Not a simple kiss designed to ease her terror at their predicament, like a nice guy would offer her.

It was a statement of ownership from a soldier in the middle of a battle, a man whose testosterone was raging, who was in the mindset to dominate, outsmart, and survive. And of course, it plunged straight into her soul, awakening everything that made her a woman. She didn't care that they were balanced precariously on the tip of the earth. She forgot that there were noxious fumes and a bottomless pit surrounding them. She lost sight of the betrayal of the beautiful flowers being so deadly. All that mattered to her was the feel of his mouth on hers, the heat from his body consuming her, the untamed power in his arms as they crushed her against him. She melted into the kiss, accepting all that he thrust at her, loving every bruising kiss he gave her.

As she kissed him back, the tension and fear that had been dogging her melted away, replaced by the sensation of being cradled in a basin of warmth, safety, and unstoppable desire. The world became about the two of them, and the magic they could create with their kisses. She wanted more. She wanted all of him. She wanted him to make love to her like he'd done before, only this time, she wanted it to be about them, not about him trying to make his brand appear on her arm or break through her barriers.

She wanted Ian to make love to her, Alice Shaw, simply because she was the woman who touched his heart.

Hell, Alice. Ian wrenched his mouth off hers, breaking the kiss. We can't do this right now.

She almost cried out in protest as he deprived her of the kiss, and she had to struggle to resist the need to beg for more. Ian was right. Of course he was right. This wasn't the time or place for anything like this. What was wrong with her? Had she completely lost her mind?

No, you haven't. Ian caught her under the chin and raised her face so she met his gaze. I heard your thoughts when we were kissing, and I want you to know that there is nothing I would like more than to make long, slow, leisurely love to you for no other reason than that you are the woman who brings light into my life.

Alice's throat tightened. "Stop it," she said. "Don't say things that you don't mean—"

"Oh, I mean it." He cut her off with a kiss, a long, tender kiss that made tears sting her eyes. When we get out of here, that is exactly what I am going to do to you. He pulled back so she could see the promise in his eyes. "Because I want it even more than you do. Got it?"

Alice nodded, her throat too tight to answer. No one had ever said anything like that to her, making her feel like she was special simply because of who she was.

He grinned. "Hell, woman, you're a lot of things that make me crazy, but special? You're in a category that no one else can touch." He squeezed her once, then turned away to scan their surroundings, keeping her anchored against him. "I have to admit, the thought of making love to you is a damned good incentive for getting us out of here alive. I'd hate to die and miss it."

She almost laughed at his comment. "That is such a guy statement, not wanting to die because you might miss out on some great sex."

He rubbed his hand seductively over her lower back, even as he continued to evaluate their surroundings. "It was great sex, wasn't it?"

She felt her cheeks heat up. "Yes," she admitted.

"And just think, I got better than that to show you." He winked at her. "Now you don't want to die either, do you?"

"I don't want to die for other reasons."

"Yeah, but the sex is a good one."

She poked his side. "You're such a dork."

"But a hot one." His eyes narrowed as he zeroed in on the trees nearest them, and she saw the moment he stopped being a playful lover and stepped fully into his role as a warrior.

With a happy sigh that was so incongruous to the situation they were in, Alice wrapped her arms around Ian's waist and peered past him at their surroundings. So weird that she felt safe and content right now, given everything that was going on, but she did. At least, she felt secure enough to be able to think rationally and not be overwhelmed. The power of a good kiss and a hard male body could not be underestimated. She pointed out at the trees. "The trees must be on solid ground, right?" There had to be something around them that wouldn't disintegrate from Ian's mace.

"Maybe." Ian hurled his mace at a tree, and it instantly exploded into a raging inferno so hot that she felt like her skin was on fire. Ian swore and pulled her behind him, his body blocking the heat. As they watched, the other trees caught fire in a weirdly surreal domino effect, until they were in the middle of a towering firestorm of orange and purple flames. "So, the answer to your question about the trees being on solid ground seems sort of irrelevant now," he observed. "Given that they all just blew up."

"Yes, I would agree." Alice tensed as the flames leapt across the gap to the patch of earth they stood on, landing on her bare foot. She jumped at the pain, and Ian stomped out sparks as they flickered at their feet. Fire raged all around them, and toxic fumes poured out of the earth below them. There was nowhere to go, and the smoke from both sources was getting thicker and thicker. Alice coughed as her lungs started to burn, and Ian pulled her shirt up so it covered her mouth and nose.

"What now?" she asked, shouting over the roar of the flames.

He swore. "Do you trust me?"

She stared at him. What kind of question was that to be asking right now? All she wanted was for him to maybe pound his chest and let out a Tarzan yell before he grabbed her around the waist and carried her to safety. "I thought we already established that I don't!"

"Do you want to change your mind?"

"I—" Alice coughed as the toxic smog coated her lungs. Above her, thick smoke raged, blocking out the canopy of trees and flowers that had seemed so welcoming. Below her, chasms of death. Was there really a choice? Was there anyone to trust other than the man who would kill himself if anything happened to her? She let out her breath. "Yeah, okay. I can be willing to negotiate."

He grinned, a grim smile that made her heart leap just a little bit. He didn't look as worried as she felt. Did he really have a plan for this? "Time for a ride." He held out his arms. "Climb on."

Alice gritted her teeth as she leapt up on him. His strong arms pulled her legs around his hips, and she locked her arms around his neck. "Make sure you don't let go," he said.

She tightened her grip and tucked her head against the curve of his neck. "What are you going to do?"

"Jump."

"Jump?" She couldn't keep the squeak of fear out of her voice. "Jump where?"

"Through the flames. I can smell soil on the other side." He backed up two steps to the edge of their mound of turf, enfolding her in his iron grip. "I can make it."

The flames were a good thirty yards away, and she had no idea how thick they were. How long could he stay airborne? And would the earth disintegrate when they landed? "Um, Ian? I don't think this is a good idea—"

"Let's go!" His body flexed beneath hers, and she felt power coil through him.

And then he leapt, straight into the fire.

* * *

The flames were hot, scorching Ian's skin, tearing at his flesh. He kept Alice cradled to him as they crashed through burning branches that whipped at his face. Swearing, he turned his body in the air so that his shoulders took the brunt of the impact, blocking the flaming whips from Alice's flesh.

He began to lose altitude, falling back down toward the ground, but they weren't through the flames yet. He needed more air time! He lunged for one of the burning branches. His palm was instantly fried as he grabbed it. He swung off it, flinging them further though the flames. "Come on!" he bellowed as he grabbed another one, and another, his skin melting from the heat as he swung them forward through the branches.

His muscles were screaming with pain as more branches lashed at him, tearing at his flesh, and still he went on. He couldn't let Alice fall. He couldn't let her down. He had to make it. Again and again, he grabbed for branches, hurling himself to the next one while Alice clung to him.

His hand slipped off a branch and he lunged for another one, but his fingers slid off that one as well. He knew that his hands were too burned to work. That he'd destroyed them. "No!" he yelled as he grabbed one more branch and flung them forward with every last bit of his strength.

They careened through the air, and suddenly the flames were gone. Fresh cool air gifted their lungs, and he cradled Alice as they plunged to the earth. He took the impact when they landed, using his body to protect her as they rolled across the bumpy earth.

Finally, they came to a stop, and Ian released her with a groan of pain. He struggled to his feet, shouting in pain as he called out his mace and the handle slammed into his palm. But he didn't relax, spinning around to assess their situation, needing to assure himself that they were safe before he went down.

They were in a pasture, filled with grass that seemed to undulate on its own and flowers that sparkled with mist that they shouldn't have. But he sensed no threats. No dangers. It was safe, for a moment at least.

He dropped to his knees, releasing the mace, fighting for consciousness as the pain raged through him. Never had he felt such agony. It was tearing at him, not just his hands, but through every cell of his body.

"Ian!" Alice knelt before him, her cool hands like a gift of salvation on his skin. "Are you okay?"

Ian lifted his head and was shocked to see Alice was untouched. Her skin was unmarred, and even her clothes were pristine. He blinked, certain he'd seen wrong, but when he looked again, she was the same. Her green eyes were focused on his, full of fear and worry. "You're okay?" he rasped out.

"Yes, I'm fine." Her face grew darker with worry. "But you're not."

"No." His stomach began to contort with pain and he went down on the ground, fighting to stay conscious. "What's going on?"

Alice rolled him onto his back, her hands moving over his skin. "Oh, God, Ian. This is bad."

"You know what it is? Black magic?" But it didn't feel like black magic. It felt like he was dying from the inside out.

"No," she said. "It's Catherine. That was her trap. That's why it didn't hurt me. Her power doesn't work against me. We cancel each other out."

"Catherine?" He struggled to open his eyes, but his vision was streaked with patches of red and black. "What the hell is she? An angel of death?"

"Yes," Alice said. "And she just targeted you."