Rage and Ruin (The Harbinger 2)

“Have you met it? Seen it?” I asked, because if she could give me any description, it would help.

Faye shook her head. “No. We don’t even know what it is, but when Bael arrived after you left, I knew someone had been watching us. They knew you’d been here.”

Roth shrugged. “But they didn’t know what you told us. You told them, and you could’ve lied. This is starting to bore me, Faye.”

“Bael knew we were planning to leave. He...knew we had sensed this—this great unrest. An unbalance that none of us have seen before.” She lowered her gaze as her fingers stilled on the napkin. “When Bael came, he told us that we hadn’t made a deal with only the senator, but with it, this thing he called the Harbinger. We didn’t know until then that the Harbinger was what we’d been sensing.”

“You betrayed us because he told you the name of something you knew nothing about?” Roth coughed out a dry laugh. “Bad choice there, witch.”

“We knew enough.” Leaning forward, she kept her voice low. “He showed us what the Harbinger is capable of. One of our coven members who’d been at home had been killed. Bael had pictures.” Her skin puckered around her lips, blanching white. “Paul. Paul was murdered.”

I had no idea who Paul was.

Apparently Roth did and didn’t care. “So?”

Faye drew back, her shoulders leveling. It took a moment for her to speak. “I’d never... I’d never seen anything like that. His eyes were open in the picture, burned out. Empty sockets. He had no tongue, and his ears... It looked like someone had shoved ice picks into him, but he was...he was smiling. The look on his face was peaceful, as if he was happy. How could that be possible? His death was brutal. How could he be smiling?”

Well, that sounded gruesome to be sure.

“Why do you think that’s not something Bael is capable of? I imagine burning out eyeballs isn’t exactly hard, and neither would be convincing someone the whole process felt good while it was being done.” Roth drew his arm off the back of the couch. “Demons may not be able to persuade large groups of humans into doing or feeling things, but one? Easy peasy.”

“We are protected against demon persuasion,” she insisted. “No demon can break that spell.”

Roth looked like he wanted to try, but the method of death didn’t tell us anything about the Harbinger.

The witch focused on Roth once more. “I’m sorry that Layla was put in danger. I am, but we made a deal with the senator, and you all...stepped into this deal and—”

“Ah, yes. The whole Trueborn thing,” Roth cut her off. “You were promised a Trueborn in exchange for your coven’s aid.”

“Parts,” I reminded him. “Parts of a Trueborn.”

“Yes. That is what we were promised. Are still promised,” she added.

My brows lifted as the anger simmered to near boiling point. “You still think they’re going to deliver?”

“Why would they not?” She picked up her glass. “We held up our end of the bargain, and I didn’t hear either of you say you killed anyone other than Aym.”

I could feel Roth start to move, but I was faster as I tipped toward the witch. “I can one hundred percent assure you that they will not be able to hold up their end of the bargain.”

Her dismissive, almost distasteful gaze flickered over me, and I realized that, even though she was mostly human, she didn’t like humans. She didn’t consider herself one of them.

Considering I kept referring to humans as them, maybe I didn’t, either.

“And how would you know that?” she asked, voice snide.

It was wrong. It was flat-out dangerous and probably more than a little stupid, but her being so totally unaware of how close she was to getting punt-kicked into her next life got the best of me.

And I knew what I did next would mean.

I might not have come here wanting to kill a witch, but I was going to do it. The moment I showed her what I was, she was a liability—an irritating one. She’d betrayed us before, and once she knew what I was, she would most definitely use that information to her advantage.

Maybe I’d feel bad about this later. Maybe guilt would fester and rot inside me, because surely there could be a nonviolent way of handling this.

But at the moment...I didn’t care.

I let my grace flow to the surface of my skin. The corners of my vision turned a golden white. “Because I’m the Trueborn that was promised to you.”

Faye choked on her water, her eyes bulging as she jerked back against the booth. The glass slipped from her fingers and cracked off the table and, I guessed with the help of Roth, toppled toward the witch. Water splashed and spilled into her lap, but she didn’t seem to notice as she stared at me.

“Yeah.” I let my admission sink in before I pulled the grace back. Tucking it away was harder than it should’ve been. “Not ever going to happen.”

“Oh my God,” she whispered.

“Pretty much.” I rested my elbows on the table and plopped my chin into my hands. “You didn’t just betray Roth, the Crown Prince of Hell. You also betrayed me, and because of that, someone very important to me was gravely injured. Because of that, I had to—” I cut myself off, knowing that what had happened with Misha would’ve happened with or without the coven’s interference. “You screwed up. Big time.”

“You’re afraid of her.” Roth’s voice was soft.

“Terrified,” the witch admitted.

Probably made me a bad Trueborn, but the corners of my lips curved up.

Faye’s gaze darted to the side, and then her lips parted as if she was about to speak.

“Don’t even think it,” Roth warned.

I glanced at him, brows raised.

“She was about to cast a spell,” Roth replied. “Weren’t you? Probably something lame that she thinks will paralyze us or make us squawk like chickens. What she’s forgetting is that her spells won’t work on me, and they sure as Hell won’t work on a being rocking angel blood.”

Her lips thinned as her chest rose and fell. A long moment passed. “There are over twenty witches in here, each of them powerful in their own right. Spells aren’t our only weapons.”

“Is that a threat?” Roth queried.

“If it is, you’re out of your damn mind,” I said. “Maybe you are. So, here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to release Bambi and Roth from the deal he made with you.”

“What?” Faye gasped, her wide-eyed gaze swinging toward him. “We made a deal to save Layla’s life. If you go back on the deal, your barter demon will pay the price.”

“He’s not asking to be released from the deal,” I said, and I didn’t have to look at Roth to know he was smiling. “I’m telling you. You’re going to offer Bambi back to him. It will be your choice, so thank you for that. The deal will be null.”

“Those are technicalities,” she sputtered, color flooding her cheeks once more. “He’s asked you to do this.”

“But I’m not the one asking you to be released from the deal.” Smugness dripped from Roth’s voice. “And you know that’s the only thing that matters.”

Faye began to tremble with anger or fear or possibly both. “And if I refuse? You’ll kill me? You’ll kill everyone in here? Because that’s what will happen. If you attack me, they will defend me.” She dipped her chin, and a blast of hot air flipped a napkin over and stirred the tendrils of hair around my face. “I will defend myself.”

“Did you just do that? Cause a breeze to roll over the table?” I widened my eyes. “Scary. That was so very scary, I’m actually quaking in my shoes over here.”

Roth snorted.

“And when did I say I’d allow you to live after you gave up Bambi?” I continued, my chin still resting in my hands. “That’s pretty presumptuous of you.”

Faye inhaled sharply.

“After all, you want me dead. You actually need me dead to make use of all my glorious parts, which I doubt will be used for the betterment of anyone but you or your coven,” I told her. “How in the world could you ever think you would walk away from this alive?”

“That’s a damn good question,” Roth said. “And you should listen to her and make this easy. Release Bambi and null the deal. You know what to say. ‘I end this deal bartered by the demon Cayman and release this familiar.’ That’s all. Say it.”

“I...” Faye shook her head and then shuddered. Her hand floated to her arm, to where Bambi rested. She was going to release the familiar even though it was too—

She raised her hands.

The table between us slammed into Roth and me, pinning us into the booth. Pain lanced across my stomach as Roth cursed.

Okay. That was definitely not a breeze.

I worked my fingers between the table and my stomach as Faye rose from the booth, her black hair lifting from her face as her fingers splayed out. Her skin flushed and her dark eyes flashed a cinnamon brown. My gaze dropped. Yep. Her sensible black heels were several inches off the floor.

She was levitating.

I wished I could levitate.

“That’s the best you got?” Roth laughed, and I really wished he’d shut up, because the table was now digging into my palms and it was starting to hurt. “You need to do better.”

“I haven’t even begun to show you what I can do.” Faye’s voice was thick like mud.

“And neither have you seen what I’m capable of.” Roth placed his hands palms down on the table.

The scent of sulphur hit the air and the table shattered into dust within a nanosecond. Everything that had been on the table—the glass, the tea candle, the napkins—was gone. Even the journal Faye had had.

Okay. Now that was really cool.

As I shot to my feet, the witch’s rage pulsed like a shock wave, rippling through the restaurant, and my grace answered, sparking to my skin.