Indebted (The Premonition, #3)

by Amy A. Bartol

“I have someone I want you to meet. His name is Wook and he is a Virtue angel, like Phaedrus, who has lived near the Naxi for several centuries. He has studied the Tibetan monks and the Naxi mystics and has seen some of their abilities. Perhaps, he can instruct you to hone your human capabilities.

I exhale a breath that I didn’t know I was holding as his words register with me. I know I won’t be able to completely relax until they are both safely with us.

“You are going to tear them apart, are you?” Zephyr asks with skepticism. “No! I’m going to light ‘em up,” Buns retorts, “after I get Brownie and Russell out of wherever they are. I can find them. I have contacts. Reaper contacts!”

“Undines have a natural defense against Ifrits—it makes sense,” Reed replies with equal grimness.

He’s wrong. I’m learning that “myth” doesn’t mean what I thought it did. It really means, “based on truth” and the truth is terrifying.

“I don’t possess magic. I cannot protect you from the Ifrits. I’m not made to withstand them.” He says it like he is admitting to the worst crime imaginable.

“You can’t kill her, not if you want to save Russell,” Reed says in my ear. “That’s Safira. She’s one of the Undine who has come to help us defeat the Ifrit. “She just tried to kill me,” I retort, glaring at the beautiful creature who sneers back at me with equal loathing.

“Dat gun is enchanted, Genevieve,” Brennus says in an easy tone, like he’s amused by my reaction to him still standing. “Ye don’t tink I would come in here and be banjaxed by me own arsenal. Dat is na me style atall.”

“Safira is an old…acquaintance of moin,” Brennus says, indicating the barrier cutting me off from all of the angels. “I told her ta take yer advice when da time came—freeze da aingeals in a block of ice ‘til we have gone. She wants ta save dem from ye.

“If ye make me bite ye now, ye will die and become one of us, a Gancanagh. Ye will stop evolving, stop growing in power. I do na want dat. I want ye ta be as powerful as ye will be. But, I can na hold ye—ye are wily. If I do na turn ye and make ye me sclábhaí, me slave, ye could jus run off. I’m willing ta change ye ta keep ye. Ye are moin and I want ye. But, I want da goddess more.”

“Would you like ta see da rest of da house den?” Brennus asks, grinning. “I would,” I respond, using the affirmative that the Gancanagh seem to always use. I think it’s their way of never saying “yes” to anything.

“It wants ye to know dat it will protect ye, dat ye don’t have ta be afraid,” Lachlan replies, his voice sounding thick with emotion. “It wants ye to know dat it will fight for ye. Dat it chooses ye, too.”

“I keep wondering why anyone would pick a mission like this one. To be born the only half-breed with a soul.” When I look at Reed he says, “Oh, yeah, she chose this. Although this is an honor, it’s more like a suicide mission and one that not many souls would volunteer for because there are so many ways to lose yourself—lose your soul to Sheol, it’s the probable outcome.

“How is it possible to steal a soul mate? Have you asked yourself that? It’s impossible, and yet, she loves me with a fierceness I’ve never—could never fathom existed.

“So you’re saying, you might have to help that demon hold on to her?” I ask. “Let’s pray we can figure out an alternative to that—but if it comes to that, then yes, that is what I will do. There is evil that you have not seen yet. Things that make the Ifrits look benign,”

This is temporary. Everything changes, whether you will it to or not. What you feel now will eventually fade and you will cease to remember it, until you need the information that you learned from it to survive, then it will be there for you.

“It is love that can sustain the ache of two hearts parted. It is love that will make it rain upon the cheek of the downhearted.”

“I don’t enjoy you, and you seem to be a complete failure, so what does that tell you?” I ask him calmly, mirroring his demeanor.

“Need teaches the plan. He will try to cultivate an ally within.” “She warms da heart, does she na?” Declan says, like a proud papa.

Brennus smiles encouragingly. “Ye have ta keep looking ahead—keep anticipating da future moves. Staying ahead of yer enemy is how ye win.”

I’m just afraid that I will lose Reed and Russell forever if I get caught in the middle of it. Maybe that’s a good thing, my mind whispers to me. Maybe they are better off without you. Tears blind me, so I close my eyes and let them leak from beneath my lashes.

It’s the quote from Shakespeare: Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love…I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Reed loves me…he still loves me, my mind whispers like a prayer.

And then, the worst thing happens: my soul speaks to him, pleading with him to stay with me—to love me—to never let go of me. In an instant, the connection to Russell ends as he opens his eyes. The pain that I see in them is brutal. It is beyond anything I have ever seen in them as we stare at each other across the small space.

“I would be here without any of that. I’m here because every time she smiles, it’s like Paradise opening up to shine upon me. I’m here because of the way she loves me with no reservations. She doesn’t hold anything back, but gives it all to me as if there was no one else like me in the universe. She has no idea that she alone is the unique being,”

“Ohhh, you thought I’m one of ‘them,’” she says. “Well, I am and I’m not. I’m not a Faerie, so that makes me…more the caliber of a vampire because I was human once, not Faerie. You’ve seen what they think of vampires,” she says, rolling her eyes. “But, since I’m Finn’s vampire, they treat me like a pet…but not really an equal.”

“I don’t know which is more difficult: going on alone to an unknown destination, or having to remain behind to watch the one you love leave. Those of us who have had to remain behind, we know that it’s a cut that never heals…it just continues to bleed—to burn inside of you.”

It was suggested to me that if I hadn’t been overbearing with you, then you would have come back to us instead of going into the church alone,”

“I like the way that you tell me things, like we’re equals—partners. I like that you include me in the strategy meetings and don’t try to shut me out, like I’m not strong enough to handle what’s happening,” I reply. “We are partners. Ye’re me queen,” Brennus replies.

“He will never be able to hold on to you, Seraph,” Altair replies almost reverently, extending his hand to me again. “The other Seraphim will fight for you when they see you—you may well be the one—” Altair is interrupted when Casimir emits a low, terrifying growl.

sometimes it’s impossible to make your heart believe what your head knows to be true,”

“Losin’ you is like the death of the sun And I’m crawlin’ all alone in the dark. If I can’t say a word, not any, not one, Then how do I hold onto your heart?”