Incendiary (The Premonition Series (Volume 4)) (95 page)

“I recall
,” Brennus replies
, while
tracing a path over my
jaw
with his thumb
.

“It’
s also Russell
’s weakness,” I explain
, feeling my heart pumping harder
. “We’re the same in that way.”

“
’
Tis true,” Brennus agrees
with a small frown when he pulls
his lips away from my neck.

“You
were wrong to think
that he would come with me—
that he’d d
o anything for me,” my voice wa
vers
when his eyes bore into mine
. To distract myself from my
fear, I allow
my fingers to travel up his neck to to
uch his cheek gently. “He wanted
to save me, just like he saved me in the caves…”

Brennus’ pupil
s
darken
, widening when his
eye
brows narrow
.
“He tried to kill ye
!”
Brennus’ voice i
s black with hatred.

“
He’
s only in
tere
sted in my soul. If I die, he’
ll
see me again,
” I reply
.
My touch is light
on his skin and his eyes seem to soften involuntarily.
“But
Anya
is an angel
,
if she
dies…
” I shrug, “
his
aspire
doesn’t possess a soul
or the will to resist you
…” I trail
off.
I feel sick. Even as I’ve
just saved Anya from being killed outright, I may have just submitted her to a
far
worse fate.

“Ye say dat she’s da o
ther’s
aspire
?” Brennus smiles
wickedly, glancing at Anya who has
been watching us
like
a cornered rabbit
.
“Ahh, I remember ye,”
Brennus murmurs to Anya, “
ye’
re da reason we had such problems in Poland. Ye threatened ta kill me queen.
”

U
sing my fingers, I turn
Brennus
’
cheek, making him
look at me again.
“If you touch her,” I caution
, “Russell
will have no reason to come to us
.”

“
’
Tis
na true,” Brennus says
, st
r
oking my cheek lovingly. “Dere is always revenge. He’ll ache wi’ a need ta kill me, should I turn his
aingeal
and his soul mate.”

“T
rue,” I reply
, dropping my eyes from his, “i
f you want to wait for him to make his move. Russell isn’t stupid. If we were already turned, he’d take
his time, plotting his revenge—
making sure he found just the right opportunity to kill you. But if you want him
to come
now…” I let my words die.

“Ye’ve taught dis tro
ugh, have ye now?” Brennus asks
me rhetorically, his lips brushing my f
orehead. “Finn would be proud o’
ye, were he here.” Bren
nus’ lips move
to kiss each of my eyelids tenderly.

“Where is Finn?
” I whisper
to him, closing my eyes tighter.

“
He is securing our next ho
me. He’
s determ
i
ned ta help ye,
mo chroí
,” Brennus says in an intimate tone
,
tracing his finger over my l
ower lip until my eyes flutter open and I look
into his light green ones. “
He believes
dat we need ta
be gentle wi’ ye—
coax ye into loving us
again. He tinks
dat if I mak
e
s
ye feel safe, dat ye’ll
lay yer body down next ta mine and never leave me.”

A tear slips
over my cheek.
Brenn
us catches
it, crushing it between his fingertips
. His voice turns
cold and brittle
as he says
,
“
Finn
is wrong
.
’
Ti
s strength
dat ye respect
, so whah I could na
achieve wi’ love, I’
ll get trough fear. I will keep
ye
dis time
. Y
e
’
r
e
moin
.”

“Wh
at are you going to do?” I ask
with a catch in my voice.

“
’
Tis na whah I’m going ta do, but
whah ye’ll do,” Brennus replies
with cold calculation in his eyes. “Ye have ta make a choice now.”

“What
choice?
” I ask
, feeling a chill creep over my body.

“Ye knew dat I would
na
share ye—
dat
da very tought o’
another touching ye provokes me ta
da brink o’ madness,” he says
,
while his hands clamp
my upp
er arms. “So ye may choose—
do I end yer
aingeal
or do ye?”

“What?”
Dizziness mak
e
s
my hands crush the lov
ely lapels of his jacket as I ho
ld on to them for support.

“Tink it over
, Genevieve. Should ye make me kill him, I will do it slowly…torturously. He’ll live for days knowing dat ye cou
ld’ve ended his pain so quickly—
if ye
had
only loved him eno
ugh ta do it,” Brennus whispers
in my ear
, his
voice casting its shadow over my heart and blackening it.

My desperate fingers pull
Brennus cl
oser to me as words spill
fro
m me
without f
orethought. “If I could fix you—
cure
you, Brennus,
would you let Reed go?” I ask
him
pleadingly
.

Brennus’ hands cover
mine, easing them off o
f him. He ho
ld
s
them in each of h
is while a sinister smile graces
his beau
tiful mouth. “Cure me?” he asks
in an amused tone. “Dere is
nuting
ailing me, Genevieve. I’m a god—
whahever I want, I take.”

“But, what if I could give you back all that you
’ve
lost—
g
ive you your wings back—
make you
a
live again?
” I press
on, ignoring the coldness of his stare.

I don’t see the slap that knocks
me
to the floor, but when I look up, Brennus i
s crouched in front of me with his face inches from mine.
“
Never make me any more promises ye can na keep,
” he state
s
with cold fury.

“But, what if I can?
” I croak
, ho
lding my hand to
my cheek.

“N
ever speak o
f dat again,” he says
softly, “o
r ye’ll spend da next tousand years in whahever dark hole I decide ta confine ye ta.”
He looks around warily at the fellas in
t
he room to see if any one of them heard what I said. Several fellas closest to us look stunned.

In the next second, Brennus has
pulled m
e to my fe
et. “Now,” he says
, “
’
t
is time ta cut
all
da strings dat bind ye ta da
aingeal
one-by-one.”
My eyes fly
to his face, see
ing his eyebrow arch.
“I’ve had many, many conversations wi’ yer
aingeal
dese past days.
’
Twas hard to keep from killing him when he gave me dis.”

Reaching
into his pocket, Brennus pulls
out a
folded
scrap of paper that i
s worn an
d frayed around its edges. He ho
ld
s it up for me, but he does
n’t need to open it for me t
o kn
ow exactly what it contains. It’
s
a piece of the note I had once lef
t Reed, telling him that I love
him
with a verse from Shakespeare
.

“When he’
s gone
,
’
twil
l be only
me dat ye see,” Brennus promises as he drops
the note back into his pocket.
“Bring me her
aingeal
.”

My eyes swiftly move
around the r
oom, up to the gallery tier
just below the rosette windows, looking for Reed.
The legions of sil
very-clad Gancanagh, who
thickly line
the whimsical walls of the kirk
,
part
.
Reed
emerges
from the apse
, walking like
a man would who has
been trapped in the desert for days without water. If I thought that I was prepared t
o
see him
, I was mistaken. It
seem
s
that m
y
heart
, which
I thought to be
entirely broken
,
can
still
be torn further.

As Reed stumbles forward, nausea chokes
me, making it easier to hold myself in check and not run to him.
Everywhere my eyes touch on his bare chest he i
s covered with puncture marks and trails of seeping blood. His once proud wings lay
broken and limp
against his sho
ulders; bare
, featherless
patches mar
their elegant, charcoal lines.
Deep bruises
,
in various stages of healing
,
discolor
his face and arms.

Reed’s
green eyes don’t meet mine, but stare
with longing at Brennus
while he approaches
us, waiting for his master
to
notice him. The thrall i
s a noose around his neck, strangl
ing him and his pain
i
s mine.
When Reed reaches us, he goes
down on one knee in front of Brennus, bowing his head in supplication.

Brennus smiles
at me nefariously,
saying, “Ye see,
mo chroí
,
yer
lover is already dead…he jus refuses ta admit it.”

Brennus reaches down and touches
Reed’s cheek, infusing his pained, feverous eyes with a dope
y, contented pallor, making them
dull and lack-luster.
It’s taking
everything
that
I am to refrain from att
acking Brennus. Dark rage burns
within me, well beyond anythi
ng I’ve ever experienced. I begi
n struggling to gather energy to me, searching for it in the crack
s
and crevices between wood,
bricks and mortar. It’s flowing
in an intricate dance just bey
ond the sphere of magic that is entrapping and shrouding
m
e
.

“Stand
,
a
ingeal
,” Brennus orders
arrogantly
. “See whom I brought for ye.”

Reed s
tands
i
mmediately, and his eyes shift
to mine.
“Evie,” Reed says
, his voice i
s low and dull,
a ghostly shadow of its former self.