Rhyn's Redemption (Book III, Rhyn Trilogy)

Chapter Six

Rhyn grunted and rolled onto his stomach.  The stone floor beneath him was cool but not cool enough to soothe the hot fury of his magic.  The effects of whatever Toby had injected into him were almost gone.

“My plan didn’t exactly work,” Kiki’s tone was frustrated.

“What happened?” Rhyn squinted towards the sound of his brother’s voice, struggling to balance the sensations within him. Kiki was chained to the wall while Rhyn was sprawled on the floor of the small room.

“Ully’s dart worked a little too well. You went down like an elephant.”

“Where are we?”

“The dungeon.”

Light filtered in from somewhere, and Rhyn tried to make sense of his surroundings.

“How long was I out?” he asked.

Kiki didn’t have a chance to answer before the wooden door to their prison creaked open.  Rhyn’s head spun as he was hauled up and dragged into a well-lit hallway.  Light and shadows wreaked havoc on his sense of place and time until he hit the cool stone floor again.

“Still no control,” Darkyn said, his voice seeming to come from everywhere. “At least try, half-breed. You made it to the castle by nightfall. I’d planned for some sort of onslaught, not to find you slung over the shoulder of your brother – the wrong brother, though I guess that’s the most I can expect out of a half-breed.”

A tingle of alarm went through Rhyn, but his head was too heavy for him to process it.  Instead, he focused hard on containing the power within him.  When he felt he wouldn’t explode, he looked around.  Darkyn had claimed Kris’s library and stood near a pane of windows overlooking the snowy Alps. The morning light was too bright for his eyes, and he turned to face shelves of antique books.

Toby.  The angel needed him. Rhyn focused hard on the demon lord then on putting one foot, then the other, beneath his shaking body. He rose despite his whirling equilibrium.

“So I made it,” he said. “You have to let Toby go.”

“I said I’d let him live, not let him go.”

“Fucking Kiki.” Rhyn grabbed the arm where his brother had shot him. It throbbed still. “What do you want, Darkyn?”

“I happened to overhear your little talk with Death in the sacred chamber.”

Rhyn eyed him.

“I know you spent most of your life in the same place I did, Hell. Which makes me think you don’t know that what she promised you cannot be.”

“She swore it.”

“And you trust her?” the demon-lord challenged.

Rhyn said nothing, aware the creature before him couldn’t be trusted anymore than Death.

“If Death frees a mortal from the underworld, she violates a code even older than she is. I don’t know what the consequences will be,” Darkyn explained. “But I know her well enough to know she won’t make a deal that breaks bad for her.”

“What are you saying?”

“She set you up.  She bought herself the time she needed. She won’t need to break the Immortal Codes and return your mate to you, because in the next three days, you’ll be out of her hair.”

“She’s counting on you to wipe me out,” Rhyn said, his stomach sinking.  He’d suspected Death’s promise was made too easily, but it had seemed too clear to be anything but what she’d said. Yet Darkyn’s words made too much sense.  Gabe had told Rhyn enough about Death’s double-talk for him to know the deity always seemed to shape things to benefit her.