Merciless Saviors by H.E. Edgmon

Author:H.E. Edgmon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

18

THIS IS ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE

The moment the door clicks shut behind us, the Shade’s mask falls away.

I almost don’t take note of it, delighted as I am by the sight of my bedchamber. It appears as though the keepers have done their diligence to keep it as pristine as possible over the millennium. It looks almost exactly as I left it. A massive bed at the center of the room. Huge, windowed doors leading out to a balcony that overlooks the grounds. A fireplace, unlit but not abandoned, as if it’s just been waiting for me to return, to breathe life into it once more. And my altar, a stone table carved with runic equations, covered in relics of a time when I stood before it and practiced my craft. The herbs and tonics have disappeared, no doubt turning to dust with time, but the glass and bones and blades remain.

When I do realize what’s happened, it’s only because the Mountain says, “Enzo, are you all right?”

I turn to look at him and frown, panic puncturing my heart like a thread pulled by a needle.

He’s leaning against the wall next to the door, halfway crouched, head tilted back. His hands grip his thighs, little tremors rippling across the surface of his body. He breathes deep through those too-sharp teeth.

Finally, seeming to catch the air in his lungs and hold on to it, he pushes himself from the wall and turns to us. “Fine, kitten. Just … it’s strange to be home, isn’t it?”

“This is what you wanted,” I remind him, trying—and perhaps failing—to keep the defensive note from coating my tongue. “You always planned to come back here.”

“Of course, yes.” He nods in agreement, at odds with the way he seems to fray at the very edges of himself. “It’s just … I wasn’t expecting it to feel this way.”

I don’t understand. I open my mouth as if to ask for an explanation but close it just as quickly. There is a part of me, dull and aching and as heavy as a rock in my stomach, that suspects I wouldn’t like the answer if I heard it out loud.

One thing is perfectly clear, though. This is Enzo. The Shade, yes, but Enzo just the same. The humanity he found on Earth wasn’t stripped away when he returned to the Ether.

I glance beside me, where Rory stands, face screwed up as they watch him. It’s clear on them, too. They are the ancient god of the land and they are my high school girlfriend.

These are new, old bodies they’re inhabiting, but the souls inside them haven’t changed any since that moment in the Gracie High School parking lot. They are exactly the people they were when I left them there.

So, why do I feel so different? Why is it that Gem Echols is only a memory now?

Could it be because I killed them?

“Things will get easier,” Rory assures him, and perhaps this is the correct thing to say, because Enzo’s face softens when he turns an appreciative look toward them.

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