Page 100 of Judge of Saints and Sinners

“Come with us. You can see for yourself.”

***

32

Nephesh

The pain was easing now. Whether I’d just gotten used to it or whether I was truly healing was still questionable. Groaning, I rocked back and forth, the pads on my feet sore from the odd position that I remained in while my father moved about in front of me.

“That’s as good as I can do right now,” Father said. “Your magic is too out of control for me to do much else.”

I nodded, my beastly form still fresh in my mind. While my magic was returning, filling my chest, making my flames dance and move under my skin, it refused to give up the new hold it had in my mind. Maybe it was because I was here, in this place again. I couldn’t really blame the creature for remaining nervous, at the forefront of my mind. After all, it wasn’t long ago that I had been chained in here for nearly fifty years.

Maybe it was because my mate was still in danger. Father had said she was safe at the Court, but I knew no soul was safe anywhere. Not without me. The primal part of me raged to see her, to tell her everything that remained between us. Then to protect her. Always.

Far from that ice-wielding witch. Far from the Drude.

I eyed my father’s cool expression as he observed me. Far from him too. There was so much that I’d learned from my time jailed with the Drude. And I couldn’t believe my father hadn’t known about most of it already. And yet, he’d still allowed all of it to happen.

In his eyes, we were nothing to him but ungainly children, unworthy of his knowledge.

I growled a little, remembering the bright, sharp power those ice daggers had brought with every touch. They had been too close to hurting Justine. If she had been injured, it would’ve been my father’s final mistake.

“You can stop growling at me anytime, you know. I get it. You’re pissed and don't want to talk to me.”

I made a point to tug on my wrists. The chains that were so familiar to me made a soft jingling noise against the welded keeper at the ceiling of the cave. “Let me free, and we will talk.”

“I wish I could.”

“Liar.”

Hurt flashed across my father’s darkly handsome human features. “I never wanted to see you like this.”

“Yet you never came by to say anything. You just sent Arafel and Kharon here when you were concerned your monster might be dead.”

His chin dropped, and I could see the way the veins on his neck stood out. He was mad, irritated, or a bit of both. Good. His precious Court might not tell him the truth, but I would.

“I never thought of you like that. I was terrified of finding you because I knew that if you were dead, it was because of what your mother and I had done. Not in creating you, but in stealing from you. Something so important that I wasn’t sure you would ever recover. And then you did. You showed us what it might be like if you were to find your souls again.”

He turned away, his eyes on the tunnel that led to the hidden entrance to these caves. “To watch you go through that pain, without being strong enough to stop you. It was the worst thing I’d ever been through, Nephesh.”

Something in his voice changed, and I couldn’t stop staring at his profile. But before I could say anything or even process what he’d just confessed, Father spoke again. “She’s on her way, and it sounds like she’s tearing Arafel apart. But then, I’d expect nothing less of a Lady of the Underworld.”

“She can’t stay.”

“Because you are afraid for her, or because you are afraid for yourself?”

Arafel’s deep voice echoed through the tunnels, needlessly announcing himself. “Father, we’re coming in.”

Father stood, tugging down the cuff of one sleeve before moving to the other. The picture of elegant danger. When he caught me staring at him, a smirk appeared on his face.

“I’m meeting my new daughter-in-law, aren’t I? I need to make a good impression.”

But I was ignoring him now, my entire body completely focused on the footsteps I was hearing through the very real pounding of my heart as I stared at the tunnel. My pain was forgotten, my entire being so completely devoted to seeing who would be coming down that tunnel…

First there was Arafel, his opal-colored wings nearly blocking out everyone behind him as he led the way into the cavern. My magic slipped free of me, spreading across the floor in slender lines, as if attached to the wick of a long-buried explosive. They lit the path for her, keeping her safe as I heard her come closer and closer.

I couldn’t stand just yet. Whether it was the healing spell that my father had performed or the fact that I was simply too weak, I lay there. Waiting.