Revelations (Bloodline Series) (21 page)

I
lay there with my arms around him, all the time wanting to rip my own tongue
out for lying to him. I hated it, but I couldn’t tell him now; I couldn’t tell
any of them. I’d kept so much to myself, they would never trust me again. Plus
they would think I was against them for not killing Ballantine. As soon as I
thought his name his voice echoed through my head.

“
Keira,
we can’t carry on like this, we need to talk
,” he said. “
Now
.”

“
No
!”
my inner voice almost screamed at him.

“
Please
.”

“
Not
now
!”

“What’s
wrong?” Eligos asked me. “You’ve gone tense.”

“I’m
fine.”

“Then
try and relax.”

“
Tonight
Keira, 8 P.M., near the woods
,” Ballantine told me.

I
didn’t agree to it. I didn’t respond at all, and he didn’t speak again. I didn’t
want to just walk away from Eligos…I loved being this close to him. I held him
tighter and closed my eyes.

****

It
was almost eight. Eligos and Danny were outside with Olivia and her brothers,
teaching them to fight and giving them all weapons. I didn’t check on the
others…I wasn’t welcome near them anyway. I shouted to them that I was going
for a walk. Eligos looked concerned but agreed to let me go. As soon as I
walked out of the front door I teleported myself to the little woods half a
mile or so away from my house. Ballantine stood waiting for me.

“Before
you try, don’t!” I told him. “You won’t trap me again.”

“I
wasn’t going to.”

“What
do you want?”

“I
want you to join me. I want you with me from this moment on. I want us to do
all this together, to achieve this, to make people happy.”

“You
expect me to just walk away from all my friends, my future husband, my family?”

“I
don’t
expect
anything. I’m
asking
you. Tell them we have spoken,
tell them why this is happening. I assume Lucifer already knows.”

“Yeah.”

“I
don’t want to know what he said. Anyway, your friends may agree with it too,
just like you do.”

“I
didn’t say I—”

“You
did, and you do.”

“So
what? I can’t leave them.”

“Bring
them with you. Keira, you know what I’m doing is right; you feel it in your
heart. I’m not a heartless, brutal killer, I just want people to be able to be
happy. That’s all
you
want... don’t you?”

“Of
course I do.”

“Then
you must help me,” he said, taking hold of my hands.

“What
if they won’t come with me?”

“You
already know the answer to that.”

“I
can’t let you kill them.”

“Keira,
they wouldn’t suffer; I would make it quick and painless. Once their spirits
rise you can all be together again. Nobody loses.”

“What
about Eligos?”

“Keira...he’s
already dead. I wouldn’t be able to save him.”

“I
can’t lose him, I love him.”

“Then
all you can do is convince him to come with you. If not, all
I
can do is
try and tell my people not to kill him. When we win, he will have a choice of
returning to Hell or staying with you.”

“You
would do that for me?” I asked, rather shocked.

“Keira,
I’m not a monster. I know how it feels to love someone as much as you love him.
You have my word.”

“What
would you want me to do?”

“Come
with me, fight by my side, help me win this, then just...live. Happily. Nothing
more, nothing less.”

“When?”

“If
you decide now that you are coming with me, then I would suggest you go and
temporarily say goodbye to your friends. That’s
if
they won’t join us.
Like I said, you
will
see them all again, you have nothing to fear. I
will come for you soon. I’ll give you three days.”

“Three
days, that’s it?”

“Yes
Keira, I’ve waited long enough for you now.”

I
didn’t speak for a moment. I let go of his hand and walked a few feet away from
him. I agreed with everything he was doing…it would be so nice to see people
happy all the time. I knew he was right about the guys too. Okay, so they
wouldn’t have life in them, but they could still be together; we
all
could, and it wasn’t that long ago they were saying that was what they wanted.
I turned to face Ballantine and took a deep breath.

“Okay...I’m
in.”

Chapter 24

Summoned

Keira

I
returned home both anxious and upset. I had to do what I believed in my heart
was right…even my dad had said to me that I had to follow my heart that it
wouldn’t lead me astray. When I walked into the hallway Eligos came to greet
me. My stomach sank when I looked at him. I knew I was going to be away from
him for a long time, and I honestly cannot begin to describe how it felt.

“Are
you okay, my love?” he asked as he wrapped his arms around my waist.

“Yeah.
Have you finished teaching the guys?”

“Yes,
they’re all a little tired now. So I was thinking we could spend some time on our
own. Vetis and Hecate will stay here, and they have Danny too. So they will be
well looked after.”

“I’d
love to.”

“Is
there anywhere you would like to go?”

“Somewhere
quiet, with nobody around to interrupt us.”

“Hmm.
You want me all to yourself, do you?” he smirked.

“Yes
I do!”

We
told the others we were leaving, and he teleported us to a beach…very small,
very secluded. I looked around; it was one of those little beaches you would
need a boat to reach, inaccessible by land. Steep cliff faces rose all around
us.

“Wow,
this is beautiful,” I told him.

“I
thought you’d like it, and it’s a nice change from going to the middle of a
field.”

We
sat on the golden sand for a while looking out at the ocean. He then lay on his
side, resting his head on his hand, and pulled me back to lie next to him. We
spent ages talking about anything and everything. We laughed, played around,
kissed, and cuddled. Then suddenly his eyes went wide, and he stood up quickly.

“I
almost forgot,” he smiled. “I have something for you. Hold out your hand.”

I
did as I was told, and a few seconds later a sword appeared. I stood up,
gripping the handle tightly. It was a thing of beauty; lightweight but very
sharp, with what looked like eagles looking up towards the handle, a gold chain
entwined around it. The blade was jagged and so highly polished that I could
see my reflection perfectly. At the end of the handle was a single, bright red
ruby.

“Wow,
this is amazing,” I said in awe.

“I
had it made especially for you. It’s a soul destroyer.”

“It’s
gorgeous.”

“Whenever
you want it just hold out your hand and will it to come to you, then simple as
that, it will! When you’ve finished tell it so and it will disappear.”

A
moment later the sword vanished.

“Thank
you so much…I love it.” I smiled as I wrapped my arms around the back of his
neck.

“Only
the best is good enough for my beautiful girl.”

I
leaned forward and kissed him.

We
returned to the house just after six. Everyone was in the chill out room
watching a movie. Only Vetis, Elizabeth, Hecate, and Danny acknowledged us. We
made ourselves something to eat and headed upstairs. We still wanted to be
alone together, me especially. I wanted to spend as much time as possible with
him before I had to leave him. Every time I thought about it, I felt sick.

“You
know Keira, when we’re married, I’m going to take some time off. I’m going to
take you to see some of the other realms, kinda like a honeymoon.”

“Really?”
I smiled.

“Yes,
some of them...God, they are beautiful. Others are really...weird, but cool.”

“I’ll
look forward to it.”

“Then,
when we get home again, I’ll spend every day for the rest of forever doing
everything I can to make you happy.”

“You
already do. All you have to do is keep being you.”

“You’ll
have a choice; you can decide to have a new place built for us to live, or you
can tell Lilith you want to move in with me.”

“What
do you want to do?” I asked.

“I’m
not fussy. I love my castle, but I would be happy to move to another because it
would be built for you. You’re the princess, after all.”

“I
love your place…can we just stay there?”

“Gladly.”

I
went downstairs to get us both a drink and bumped straight into Tyler.

“Sorry,”
he said coldly.

“How
long are you going to be like this with me?”

“Until
I can look at you and not want to kill you.”

“Do
it!”

“Shut
up Keira.”

“No
really, do it. It would hurt less than this, having everyone ignoring me,
turning against me. I did what I had to…they would have killed you. Was I
supposed to just stand there and let that happen?”

“Look—”

“No,
you
look…I’ve done nothing wrong. You’re living under my roof, eating my
food, using my electricity, and you think you can still do that and treat me
like shit at the same time? Like I don’t feel bad enough, like it didn’t hurt
enough; now you all want to punish me too. How can you do this to me? I never
thought
you
would be like this with me.”

“Keira,
I love you, you know I do. But I just can’t bring myself to be friendly with
you. Not after what I saw.”

“I
did it for
you
, so you didn’t have to.”

“I
know, but it doesn’t stop how I feel.”

“Screw
you then; in fact, screw all of you.”

He
didn’t respond, he just walked out of the room.

I
took a deep breath, then made my way back up to Eligos. I’d gotten half way up
the stairs when Lily shouted to me.

“Keira.”

“Oh,
you’re talking to me now, are you?”

“I
wasn’t upset with you, I just didn’t know what to say to you. I thought when
you were ready to talk you would come to me.”

“Really;
I thought you were joining them and turning against me.”

“No,
not at all. I know what it must have taken for you to do what you did. I saw you
were unable to fight at first. It took some strength to fight back, that was
evident.”

“Have
they said anything about me?”

“Not
really…none of them are speaking much; Jake’s only said a few sentences to
me
since it happened.”

“Well,
that’s more than he’s spoken to me.”

“They’ll
snap out of it; they’re just in pain.”

“I
know, but so am I.”

“I
know hun, I know.”

“I’m
going back upstairs.”

“Okay,”
she sighed.

I
told Eligos about the conversations; he just sighed and shook his head, then tried
to comfort me as best he could. Neither of us left the room for the rest of the
evening.

The
following morning when we woke we decided not to get up straight away, and
fooled around for an hour or so instead. We only dragged ourselves out of bed
when Hecate knocked on our door and told us Lucifer was annoyed about something
and wanted us to go to Hell as soon as possible. We didn’t rush; we went
downstairs, had breakfast, I got ignored by the guys again, and then we left.
What was the point of staying in the house anyway?

When
we arrived at the palace Lucifer glared at me, and my stomach sank. Was it me
he was annoyed with? Lilith stood beside him, a look of grave concern on her
face.

“Eligos,
you are to stay here with Lilith. Keira, come with me!” he ordered.

I
followed him down the hallway and into a large conference room. He slammed the
door shut behind him.

Chapter 25

Nervous

Lilith’s
Story

Lucifer
slammed the door behind them so forcefully it caused the whole room to shake. I
was already worried, but now if my heart was beating it would have been doing
well over a hundred beats a minute.

“Lilith,
what’s going on? Why does he look so annoyed?” Eligos asked me.

“I
think you should sit down,” I said, motioning to the nearby chair.

“No,
please, just tell me what’s going on.”

“You’re
not going to like it, and you probably won’t believe it, but this is the
truth... Keira has been meeting with Ballantine—in secret.”

“Rubbish;
how can—?”

“Eligos,
it’s true,” I assured him. “I wouldn’t have believed it myself if I hadn’t seen
it with my own eyes.”

I
watched him for a moment. He looked hurt, betrayed, and disbelieving. I knew
what I was saying was hurting him greatly; it was hurting me too. But he had to
know…he had to be put into the picture.

“We
think she may be working with him,” I continued.

“I
don’t believe that! She loves all of us, why would she do that?”

“We
honestly don’t know. Maybe Ballantine has manipulated her, lulled her into a
false sense of security...I just don’t know.”

“Keira
isn’t easily fooled, Lilith. She can read people; there’s no way he could...
she wouldn’t let it happen. This is just a misunderstanding.”

“Eligos—”

“No!”
he snapped, pacing up and down. “She loves us…she loves
me
! She’s going
to be my wife...she wouldn’t do this.”

“When
Lucifer found out he was in shock, to say the least. He had people follow her
to listen to their conversations. Trust me, my friend, she is turning against
us. She sympathizes with Ballantine, I’m sure of it.”

“What
did they hear?”

“I
don’t know everything, Lucifer hasn’t told me. He knew how upset I was already,
and I don’t think he wanted to make it worse for me. No doubt he will tell me
eventually.”

“He
needs to tell you…he needs to tell
me
!”

“I’m
sure he will, but first he needs to talk with Keira.”

I’d
never seen anyone look so upset, so heartbroken. I knew how much he loved my
daughter, and I knew what it would do to him if she was turning away from us
all. I didn’t know how to comfort him.

“Lilith,
you need to do something to get us in there; let us talk to her too,” he pleaded.

“I
can’t overrule him, you know that. He wanted to speak with her alone…there is
nothing I can do. I wish there was.”

“Then
I’ll go in.”

“No!”
I shouted, grabbing his arm. “You can’t! Think about this for a moment—”

“The
woman I love is in there. I want to be with her.”

“Please,
please just calm down and wait. Be patient. Please, don’t cross him. You are
highly thought of, you know this, and you are a close personal friend to both
of us, but that won’t save you. He is too annoyed.”

“If
he hurts her—”

“He
isn’t going to attack her, Eligos, he is
talking
to her.”

He
took a deep breath and nodded; relief washed over me.

“How
long has this been going on?”

“We
don’t know. We have known about it for a couple of weeks, but it has probably
been going on longer.”

“How
did you find out?”

“Purely
by accident. I was in the room with the viewing pool. I had a few spare minutes
and thought I would see how everyone was doing. I decided to use the pool
rather than keep asking you to come here,” I explained. “When I asked it to
show me Keira, I saw her with him. I couldn’t believe my eyes. At first I
thought he planned to attack her, but when I watched him sit next to her and
talk with her, I knew something was wrong. I called for Lucifer, and he watched
in silence. At first we thought she may have been trying to reason with him—”

“Maybe
she is.”

“I
watched her closely after that at Lucifer’s request. She met with him several
times, even after Salem had been wiped out, and not once did she attack
properly. All those people had just been killed, her friends’ parents included,
and she did nothing.”

“What?”
he gasped, a look of sheer horror, shock, and confusion spreading across his
face.

“She
didn’t seem to care. She even let him close to her—”

“What
do you mean,
close
?”

“He
took her hand, and she didn’t push him away.”

“Are
you...are you saying...? No...no...!”

“I’m
not implying that there is anything romantic going on Eligos, please don’t
think that. If there is one thing in the world I am completely certain of, it’s
that Keira loves you with all her heart and soul. She always has and always
will.”

“Yeah?
Well, if that were true she wouldn’t be doing this, would she?” he shot.

I
didn’t know what to say to him; the way he was feeling, I didn’t think it would
matter what I said. The only person now who would be able to calm him and
reassure him was Keira.

We
both fell silent, waiting anxiously for what seemed like forever. We couldn’t
hear them…there were no raised voices or banging around, which made me feel a
lot calmer. Maybe there were good reasons for why she had met Ballantine, and
maybe Lucifer understood them. I was hoping they were just chatting now and
that she would walk out beside him with a smile on her face.

The
silence was then suddenly broken.

Chapter 26

Traitor

Lilith’s
Story

We
heard a loud smash, like several windows exploding all at the same time,
quickly followed by the sounds of screams and shouts from outside. Eligos and I
ran into the room where Lucifer and Keira had been. The windows were missing,
and what was left of the curtains was blowing inward with the breeze from
outside.

“What
the hell?” Eligos shouted, running over to the windows. He froze, a look of
horror appearing on his face.

I
ran over and looked outside, my stomach sinking. Keira was picking herself up
off the ground and dusting what I assumed were shards of glass off her
shoulder. Lucifer stood a few feet away from her. The guards and people close
by were backing away quickly, all of them clearly frightened. We teleported
ourselves outside.

“Stay
out of this!” Lucifer ordered as soon as he saw us, his eyes blazing red.