Forged of Shadows ms-2 Read online

  “Not with you around to save me from myself.”

  She untucked enough to peer up at him. “This won’t be easy, you know. I won’t be easy.” When she bit her lip uncertainly, he caught a quick scent of sweet cherries, as if the wild wind had blown in an early spring.

  He pressed his lips to her brow and closed his eyes for a moment. “Then I’ll be the center of your storm.”

  He stood, lifting her to her feet with him. They turned to face the ruined street and the salvage warehouse with its windows cracked and ichor smears, the talyan standing in ragged ranks.

  She slipped her hand through the crook of his elbow and leaned close, the torque pressed against the reven that curled over her breast. He smiled down at her, his heart light—and his soul too—as if they wanted to spiral in on the woman beside him, now that they’d finally found their place. “Welcome home.”

  EPILOGUE

  “How convenient the league keeps a warehouse full of architectural salvage.” Jilly tweaked her teshuva to heft the heavy stained-glass window into the gaping hole left by the “unexplained gas-line-leak explosion.” The city inspector had eagerly latched onto that excuse, which Liam had offered without a single betraying blink. The only other explanation for such devastation would be an all-out war of some sort.

  And who would believe a war existed between evil incarnate and . . . well, not good guys, but repentant demons? Plus, Liam had promised to pay for the street, although Jilly wondered if they’d have to sell the last of the aging fleet to pay for it.

  “Convenient? Hardly.” Sera held up her end with equal ease despite the impatient April wind that pushed at the bright patchwork of glass. “The league just has a tendency to need replacement pieces.” Then she winced and cast a sidelong glance at the talya fitting the shims at the base of the window. “Oh, Jonah, damn it. I’m sorry. I might be sharing half my soul with Archer, but I shouldn’t let him take my discretion too.”

  Jonah, his arm stump held tight against his body, didn’t acknowledge her apology. “We should have abandoned this place, like we left our hotel last time we lost to the djinn- man. We can’t let the league’s mission be revealed.”

  From the doorway across the room, Liam said, “The league’s mission remains. But it’s past time to make a few changes, which includes standing up to the fight.” Jilly’s breath caught at the sight of him, tall and focused as ever, yet with a conviction now that drew her irresistibly. Good thing she was holding a window or she might just embarrass them both. He crossed to her side with a smile, as if he knew her thoughts. “Corvus and his djinni won’t find us so alone next time.”

  Jonah rammed the shims under the frame, all crooked, and walked away.

  Archer, who had arrived with Liam, stood to block him until Liam gave a small shake of his head. The blond talya shouldered past Archer into the hall, the crack of his boots on the linoleum louder than any demon worth its repenting would ever allow.

  Sera winced. “So who got the discretion? Nobody here obviously. He’s still hurting.”

  “The teshuva healed the wound,” Archer said.

  Jilly shook her head. “But he is still alone.”

  In silence, Liam adjusted the shims while Archer fixed the window in place.

  They stood back to survey their work. The plaster was broken in raw chunks and the metal fins of the window frame stuck out, but the spring sun blazed in riotous color across the floor.

  “Pretty,” Sera announced at the same time Archer said, “Last one.” They leaned into each other with matching smiles.

  Liam gathered Jilly even closer. “You got Dory settled in with the others?”

  “That’s why I couldn’t come to bed. I know we’re back on the hunt tonight, but I saw Jonah couldn’t handle the window by himself, and . . .” She leaned her head against his chest, taking comfort in the steady thud of his heart. “And there were just so many. I don’t know how Nanette will cope, even if she says she has other angelic possessed willing to work with Lau- lau’s dowsing technique.”

  He smoothed his hand over her hair, then lifted her chin to meet her gaze. “Maybe they can extract all the solvo, but there’s no guarantee all the pieces of her lost soul will find her again.”

  “And no promise the soul can take up residence in the body—I know. Nanette explained.”

  He brushed a tear from her cheek with the edge of his thumb. “Still, there’s a chance, so there’s hope.”

  “That’s what the mated-talyan bond gives us,” Sera said, her tone pensive.

  “A piece of our soul back?” Archer asked. “Since apparently discretion is nontransferable.”

  But Jilly understood. It was all she’d ever wanted to give the kids she’d worked with, all she’d wanted for herself. “A chance at hope.” She traced one finger down the lead solder in the stained glass, the dull metal holding such beauty together.

  “Is that what Corvus learned from us?” Liam mused. “Where there’s love, there is hope?”

  Archer snorted. “What does evil hope for?” When Sera frowned thoughtfully and took a breath to answer, he ran the tip of one finger over her lip. “Never mind. I’m sure we’ll find out. Later.”

  Sera nipped at him, then sighed. “Still so much we can’t answer.”

  “Together,” Liam said simply, “we will.”

  Jilly pulled her hand back from the window when her thumbnail dented the soft lead, gray as the demon realm. The tenebraeternum wouldn’t be so easily mastered. But if anyone could do it . . . She gave her man, her mate, a brash smile and pulled him down for a kiss. “Evil doesn’t stand a chance.”

  GLOSSARY OF TERMS FROM THE @1 ARCHIVES

  ascendant: The rise of a demon within a possessed human; refers to the initial incident of possession and subsequent risings.

  birnenston: Also known as brimstone. A sulfuric compound leached from some demonic emanations interacting with the human realm.

  desolator numinis : “Soul cleaver”; a demonic weapon.

  djinni: djinn (pl.) Upper echelon of demonkind; fallen angels who are content to stay fallen.

  djinn-man: A human possessed by a djinni.

  ether: The elemental energy of spiritual and demonic emanations.

  feralis: ferales (pl.) Lesser demonic emanation encased in a physical shell of mutated human-realm material. Physically strong but not so impressive in the brains department.

  ichor: A physical by-product of demonic emanations not compatible with the human realm.

  league: Isolated clusters of possessed fighters assigned to high-density human population areas with the mission of reducing demonic activity.

  legion-tenebrae: Blanket term for lesser demonic emanations, including malice, ferales, and salambes. Also tenebrae.

  malice: Incorporeal lesser emanation from the demon realm, typically small and animalistic in shape with protohuman intelligence.

  mated-talyan bond: The synergistic combination of male and female possessed powers.

  reven : The permanent visible epidermal mark left by an ascended demon.

  salambe: Highly emanating demonic form from the same subspecies as malice.

  solvo: A chemical version of the desolator numinis; produces opiatelike effects in humans while splitting off the soul.

  talya: talyan (pl.) 1. Sacrificial lamb, a young man, Aramaic. 2. A human, typically male, possessed by a repentant demon.

  tenebrae: Blanket term for lesser demonic emanations, including malice, ferales, and salambes. Also legion-tenebrae .

  tenebraeternum: The demon realm, separated from the human realm by the Veil.

  teshuva: A repentant demon seeking to return to a state of grace.

  Veil: An etheric barrier between the human and demon realms composed of captured souls.

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