Page 101 of Into the Abyss
Gulping, I realized two things. Yes, Caimdid indeed seek to help, but he might also be a little bit… no, hewasfull-blown crazy.
And I believed this crazy was precisely whatthe horsemen wouldloathe. Things were about to getinteresting in the land of the fae.
“You know—” He offered his elbow to me and anew emotion wafted from him—comradery. I accepted his arm withouthesitation. “—back in my golden days, when I wasmuchmoreof a bore, I was a bit of an empath myself. I lost the ability whenI fell, but I’ve felt twinges of it again since returning to Earth.It’s how I knew you were different from the other jinn.”
“Of course,” I murmured as it all made alittle more sense. He wasn’t keeping his emotions suppressed fromme; his ability was deflecting mine as the jinn’s did.
“My ability wasn’t as strong as yours, I cansense that from you, but I would get impressions from the otherangels. However, I think my empath readings are more to do with theraven in me than an actual empath ability.”
“Why do you think that?”
“All animals sense things beyond whatmortals and immortals do. Their instincts are better than ours inso many ways. But my empath ability was strong enough that I feltfor other creatures when the rest of the fallen stopped caring atall,” he murmured.
My breath caught when I realized Caim wassomething akin to the lone Faulted amid the fallen angels. For me,it was lonely enough being Faulted, but at least I had six otherslike me, even if I’d been torn between them and my parents.
Life must have been incredibly lonely forCaim in Hell. It must still be lonely living with a group whodidn’t fully trust him and might never do so.
I vowed that, if we survived this, he wouldhave a friend in me who would trust him and understand him a littlebetter. But first, we had to return to the Abyss. I’d only beenback here for a few minutes, but that was hundreds of seconds inwhich Magnus was left alone.
Panic shredded my chest, and when I spokeagain, my voice trembled. “When we return, if you grab me and flyas fast as you can, we should be able to avoid any jinn who mightbe waiting to pounce on us.”
“And the horsemen?”
“I’m hoping Pride and Lust are too arrogantto climb to where I was, and Sloth is too lazy.”
“That would make sense,” he said with achuckle. “I’ll take you to Magnus if I can.”
“Yes,” I breathed.
“And then I’m going to ruin the lives ofsome horsemen and one woman, of course.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but hecontinued speaking before I could.
“Nothing too crazy, my dear, I promise. Whenyou’re ready to vamoose from the Abyss with your Chosen, I’ll beprepared to go with you, but you must let an angel havesomefun.”
His grin leaned toward the side of madness,but who was I to deny an angel their fun?
CHAPTER 42
Magnus
After climbing through the rubble and slipping out ahole I found in the side of the ruins, I moved toward the front ofthe building in time to watch Amalia vanish from beside Absenthees.I hoped she never returned, but I had no doubt she would. She’dgone to bring back help, and she would come back with theothers.
And when she did return, Ihadto benear her, because the jinn were already settling in to wait for hernear the monolith.
I stopped to erase the few footprints I leftbehind as I moved. Earlier, I’d seen some of the jinn break awayfrom the others and head toward a pathway I was sure would leadthem to me. When they arrived, they couldn’t know I was headingtoward them instead of away. I could have cloaked the prints with asmall illusion, but it was more important to focus my energy onhealing and keeping myself cloaked.
Besides, I hadn’t left a print since I’dmoved past the area closest to the collapse, where the sand anddirt of the ruined building was fresh and thick. Further away fromthe collapse, the ground was the color of sand, but as solid as arock.
From around a corner of a boulder, four jinnemerged and started toward me. Ducking back, I gripped the top of athree-foot section of wall and boosted myself over it without asound. Though I’d cloaked myself and moved out of their way, Istill crouched down when they neared.
My horns had finally returned to normal, butnow they slid forward again as my body pulsed with the need tokill. Amalia’s kind or not, I’d had enough of these fuckingassholes. However, I remained where I was; to kill them now wouldlet those below know I’d survived the collapse and was coming forthem.
My fingers clawed into my palms as the jinnstrode passed me with an arrogance that infuriated me. It was thekind of arrogance I’d always exhibited—a “you can’t touchme”approach to life I no longer felt because I could so easilybe destroyed now.
Before Amalia, I’d never cared if I died andwould have done so with a smile and a big fuck you to whoeverkilled me as I took them down with me. I’d been willing to give mylife for my king, the cause of destroying Lucifer, and to keepEarth as intact as possible. Nothing had scared me before becausethere’d been nothing I cared about losing.
I had so much now. I would still die forthis cause—we’d all die if we didn’t fight the craetons—but Iwouldn’t go into anything with the same arrogant indifference I’dpossessed before. If I died, then so would Amalia. And if I losther….
