Once Dead, Twice Shy - Kim Harrison [68]
What the… My frantic gaze went to Ron, reading in his downcast expression that Kairos was telling the truth. “You son of a dead puppy,” I whispered. “You knew? You’re teaching someone else? Is that why you passed me off to Barnabas?”
Ron winced. He came forward a step, and Nakita pulled me back two. Disgusted, I shook Nakita’s hold off me and stood upright in the new day under my own power. The dark reaper faced the sun and knelt with her sword upon one knee and her head bowed—she looked like she was praying, hair hiding her face as a soft, eerie keening came from her.
“I did it for mankind, Madison,” Ron said persuasively. “You could stop the wrongful deaths if I could get you to align yourself with me. Think of it! A dark timekeeper who believed in choice? There’d be no more scythes, no more lives cut short. Kairos would be bereft of power, leaving only peace behind as you took his place.”
“Why would she align herself with you?!” Kairos exclaimed. “You hid her from the seraphs behind allegations and investigations, denied her existence from those who would have righted things. It was your own actions that forced the truth of her existence from where we’d both hidden it so we could fight over her like dogs over scraps. You whispered false truths into her ear until her choices were the ones you wanted. You passed her instruction off to a reaper, giving him a task you knew he couldn’t manage while you tutored the one fated to replace you, intending to leave Madison bereft of skills in case the truth should come out and she took my place, safely ignorant and at a disadvantage.” Kairos turned to me, disgust in his eyes. “And you let him.”
My head moved back and forth in denial. I hadn’t known. How could I?
I jumped when Nakita was suddenly at my side, the gentle touch of her wings brushing me. Her sword was gone, and I stared at her, seeing her confusion, knowing what she was feeling, since I was feeling it myself: betrayal, dismay, fear.
“At least I didn’t try to kill her,” Ron muttered.
“No, you kept her ignorant.”
“I’m the one who saved her!” Ron shouted back.
“You didn’t save me,” I said, lips barely moving. “I died. Remember?”
The light breeze coming up from the beach lifted my hair to make the purple tips tickle my cheek. I tried to understand. It didn’t make sense. I could not be the rising dark timekeeper. I didn’t believe in fate.
Ron started forward, and I jerked out of my fog. “Stop!” I shouted, gripping my amulet with my other hand outstretched, and he halted, stymied.
“The seraphs fated Madison to take your place?” Nakita said, her voice cracking. “You sent me to kill the one who would be my master? The next who would uphold seraph will?”
Kairos frowned at her. “She wouldn’t be your new master if you would let me destroy her soul. With her gone, I will live forever, able to claim a place at a higher court.” Kairos pulled himself into a proud stance. “I will be immortal. Immortal, Nakita!” he said, his expression becoming fervent as he gestured, almost knocking over his cup. “It would be enough to shift the tides of time to our favor forever. Imagine it!”
“You promised to help me,” Nakita whispered, her voice softer than the wind. Kairos glanced at her in annoyance, but his eyes narrowed as he realized the threat she was. “Give me your amulet,” he said, holding out his hand, and when she didn’t, he strode forward, anger and dominance in his movement.
I stifled a gasp when Nakita shoved me behind her, and my feet scrambled to keep me upright. There was a sharp ping that seemed to make the new sunlight shiver, and when I looked, Nakita’s amulet was in Kairos’s hand and he was striding to the nearby table. He had made her helpless. Crap. Now what?
“I’m still your master, you ignorant angel,” he said as Nakita’s source of power clinked upon the table; then his smile chilled me to the bone. “Now. Madison. About your body.”
Oh, God. He had my body. He could destroy my soul. Ron stood unmoving, not that I expected anything from him.
Nakita