Hearts of Chaos by Kira Brady

Author:Kira Brady [Brady, Kira]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2014-01-30T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Corbette asked his father’s ghost for help, and the knot of anger in his chest released like the snapping of a rubber band. He hadn’t realized how much resentment he’d carried over from boyhood. He’d told himself for so long that nothing his father did or said could affect him anymore, but calling for Halian in his hour of need showed him for a liar. Would his father come? Could his ghost do anything to save them from the fury of the Lady’s beast?

He waited a long breath, the hope that his father would come a welcome change from the anger that had rusted over his heart.

The Behemoth roared again. The discordant notes of the sound twanged and then melded together into a chorus of bells. The monster charged. As Corbette watched death streak toward him, one last image floated in his mind: Lucia on the balcony with the rain beading on her coral lips and plastering her white gown to her skin. He should have kissed her then, should have licked the water from her lips, warmed the chill autumn from her arms, and twirled her across the veranda while the rain beat out a waltz.

The heat of the Behemoth sizzled the air around them. Lucia moved to step in front of him, but he grabbed the sheet of water out of her hands. As soon as he touched it, it turned back into a cloak. It was almost comical. He tried to pinpoint the moment when everything started to go so wrong as he watched the Lady’s judgment barrel down on him.

He should have forgiven Halian when he had the chance. “Please, Father.” The name tumbled from his lips.

And then in the space between him and death, a Raven appeared. His father, coal black with a rainbow sheen on his feathers like an oil slick. He was man-sized, but much smaller than the great Behemoth. The blue-white fire from the creature outlined the black of the Raven in a blinding silhouette. The Raven hovered in front of Corbette, protecting him. The Behemoth lowered its head and hooked the Raven with its two razor horns. They tore through and out of the Raven’s back, and then took Corbette in the face. He was consumed with fire. Blue, blue, blue, and pain. His eyes burned.

Slowly the pain faded. He lay in the smoking sand, the grit of the desert in his mouth and beneath his palms, but he was alive. His father had saved him. He could smell scorched glass, but he didn’t hear the Behemoth. He didn’t hear anything for a long moment, until a soft, female cry, and then small hands caressed his face. A few drops of water hit his cheek. He turned his head away from the sand to see if the sky was raining, but there was only that eerie blue above and below. No Behemoth. No Raven. No sand or sky.

“Lucia?”

“I’m here.”

But he couldn’t see her face. He was Raven. Sight was his strongest sense, and he was blind.

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