Echo Fort (Sins of the Zodiac, #2)

by Caroline Peckham

I prepared for an attack as he pushed me into the shadow of the stone archway, his hand slamming to the wall beside my head and his face all too close to mine. But it wasn’t the harsh eyes of Kaiser Brimtheon I found staring into my soul, it was the copper warmth of Harlon’s.

But we were so much more than a kiss. We were each other’s safe place to land when a storm rolled in and tossed us from the unforgiving sky.

Kaiser Brimtheon closed in on me with a look of cold malice in his obsidian eyes, sending a rampant tremor through the centre of my being. “Follow me again and I will slit your throat, silka la vin.”

“I saw you down there, running away like a scurrying rat,”

“You may think yourself untouchable because of the soul-tie, but I will protect my own before I will ever protect you.”

“But I know what I saw. A Never Keep Reaper with his mouth on a conscript, breaking the sacred vows and sharing whispered words with his dirty little secret. What would the other Reapers do to him if they knew of his sins?”

“You’re under my control. You’re my puppet on unbreakable strings, Everest Arcadia, and I will make you do whatever I need to to fulfil my duty to Pyros. You think your Reaper boyfriend can save you?”

“Why do you wear the name of The Matriarch when you are nothing but an unwanted orphan left in the street by his true parents?”

“Perhaps you are more trouble than you’re worth, Raincarver,” Kaiser snapped, the bite to his tone sending a tremor through me. “Void or not.”

“Will the scary Fae snap my neck while I’m bound in his chains?” I scoffed. “You pathetic mama-eskar.” Motherfucker

I could smell oak and cinders on his skin, the scent like a toxin veiled with sugar.

“You lay your mouth upon a Reaper of the stars despite what you’ve seen of them. One thing I did not think you were was a fool, but here I stand corrected,”

“They were all acolytes once. He will become another number in their ranks and whatever rebellious little thoughts he might share with you now will be the last thing you cling to when he no longer answers your summons. He’s a prophet of the stars, you fool, and there is no higher purpose to them but the heavens themselves. Cut your losses before the Reapers cut them for you.”

I may have been permitted to train in the use of ether for battle, but I was not gifted all the knowledge they had to offer, nor would I ever be unless I chose to follow the path of the Sages and submit myself to the darkness in hopes of being selected for their ranks.

My eyes fluttered closed and for the briefest moment I could see them there, standing beyond The Veil, grinning at me like the she-devils they were, throwing insults my way because I was wasting time on tears for them when there was blood to be shed.

“Ether is more than just the root of the land’s power,”

“It is the current which sweeps us all along in its path. We may access the bounty of its river through rite and sacrifice but we cannot control its flow.”

The stars might whisper our names and lend us their magic, but never forget it is only on loan. They take it back when death comes calling.”

“But all bargains with ether are final,”

“There is something stirring beneath the Close Place. A leash to a wolf as it were.” “You speak of ether as if it were som...

“It is no creature and holds no consciousness beyond the wants and needs of all that ...

“The point is the leash. The whip. The collar. The muzzle. The cage. The ways of old are stunted and I cannot tell what binds them. But the dark whispers your name, Vesper Crossborn. And it wants you to come for it.”

“Death is a petty, pointless thing far too often,” Moya countered. “But if you are so willing to run to it, then do me one favour and make it matter.”

“Run fast, fly swift and remember what I told you. When the darkness calls your name again, I would suggest you listen.”

The lights and towers of the city I had spied upon my escape from the cavern - which had been my only home for hundreds of years - had long since faded beyond sight, but I didn’t dare slow.

Because I was free at last. And I would die free one way or another.

My memory snagged on the man who had cut his way free of my cavern, the reek of blood clinging to him as he had fled.

His name came to me in a whisper spoken inside my mind, placed there by the stars themselves. Goddrick.

A blur of blue in my periphery marked the flying form of Calcifiend whipping past my head and landing on Ransom before sinking his fangs into my brother’s hand.

Scorpio was quiet, but a chill ran up the back of my neck that made me feel like the stars were displeased. Were they unquieted by this soul-tie? Surely they had to know I didn’t want this heinous curse on me? That I would commit any sin to release myself from it.

It swung open to reveal the Fury standing beyond it, staring blandly at me in nothing but a low-riding pair of trousers, revealing the firm muscles of his broad chest and the scar that ran from shoulder to hip bone. The one that I’d placed there.

“These are not marks of training. Who placed these on you?” he asked, so low I nearly didn’t catch it.

“Answer me.” His fingers moved to grip my chin, his eyes flashing red as his possession curled around my tongue.

“The Nightfire will burn deeper than you imagine if you resist this. But if you give it what it asks of you – what I ask of you – then this will be over all the sooner. So, silka la vin, will you resist it and spend hours in my company tonight, or will you be a smart girl and play along?”

“You will share your fears with me. You will allow my Fury to feast on the darkest nightmares your soul possesses, and you will re-live them with me here and now until I am sated.”

Horns curled up from his head as he partially shifted then he reached out, taking both of my hands and laying them flat against the firm plane of his chest where his heart drummed to a slow and intoxicating beat.

That mysterious power I possessed rose like an ocean, stirring in offering and I drowned myself in its strength, somehow pulling it forward and directing it right at my enemy.

glimpsed a flash of snarling teeth and the echo of a bloodcurdling scream. I was thrown into a well of terror that was fuelled by death. Ice. Teeth. Screams. Blood. Kaiser worked to force me out as his fear clouded my thoughts, and I tried to see more, reaching for those snippets of memory that were being passed from my mind to his, wanting to hurt him as he had hurt me. The snarling of dogs. The scream of a child. A mental barrier slammed

His hand was hooked around my bare knees while his other fisted in the material at my back. He was staring down at me, his lips a hair’s breadth from mine and his eyes ablaze with something I never would have thought he could feel. Pure, wild terror.

“I had forgotten how it felt…” he rasped, a crease forming on his brow. “How is it possible to forget such fear? Such pain? Such loss?”

“Do not leave,” he growled, the command weakened by the quiet desperation lacing those words. “Without you, I will return to that vacant place, that hellish nothing.”

As it turned out, even monsters had demons. I just had to unleash them and maybe they would devour him for me.

“You’re lucky you’re cute, dragon thing.” I stroked my finger over his forehead, and he let out a trilling purr in his sleep.

I thought of Kaiser and how he had caused this injury of mine. This scarred hand that weakened me.

A swish of a blood-red tail disappeared up the stairway and I glared after it in confusion.

Kaiser’s hound. The Fury had been here. But why?

-he will not rest until he finds who is responsible for unleashing his prized creature.”

“The Fury,” he said darkly, hatred coating his words. “The one you seek to kill. Every night, I come down here and keep watch outside your quarters, hidden in the shadows. But every night…he comes here too.”

“He could have struck at you if that was what he planned, but instead he sits and waits and watches with the same patience I do. Tell me, Ever, what would Kaiser Brimtheon gain from watching over his enemy?”

“But I told him of the Reapers’ dealings. What they had been doing here. Of the monster they have trapped beneath the Keep.” “And what did he say?” I asked, my pulse thudding erratically. “He knew nothing of it. He had me swear allegiance to him, so I made a vow of secrecy not to breathe a word of this to the other Reapers. I’m helping him, Ever.