Ascension (The Gryphon Series) (9 page)

I ducked my head to peer closer
at the full grown Gryphon beside her. Red veins protruded angrily from sunken gold eyes. His gaunt face rested on his paws as he stared vacantly at the berries. I could count every rib that protruded from his hollow sides.   

“Eagle and lion
.” I shook my head as the sad reality set in. “He’s a carnivore. He starved himself and denied his instincts to adopt their lifestyle.”

Then, as if my words reminded Fate of th
e wicked card she held,
it
happened. One of the pregnant mares pricked her finger on her sewing quill. Blood streamed down her hand and dripped into the dirt below. Gryphon’s head slowly rose from the ground. He sniffed the air once … then a second time … long and slow, as if intoxicated by the aroma. A low growl leaked from his throat. Slit pupils dilated to pools of black.

A chill skittered up my spine
, causing a rash of goosebumps to spread over my arms. “Oh no.”

There are no words for the horror that followed. The pregnant mare was first, but nowhere near the last.
Her panicked screams alerted the stallions. They galloped over, desperate to pry the bloodlust enraged Gryphon from their mares. With a slash of his claws or snap of his beak, he turned each of their heroic attempts into martyrdom. Men, women, even children fell victim to his insatiable hunger. Only when the last body fell did he still. With a spastic jerk he snapped from the crimson flowing haze and gazed at the horror he’d caused. 

I didn’t know if it was our bond or my own reflecting, but I could feel the gnawing ache of his guilt
as if it were my own. He was meant to protect them, and instead became their executioner. The blame was the same as that I bore for Alec … and Sophia. I knew the self-loathing brewing in him as he stared at his bloody paws, because I wrestled with it myself.

A muted whimper
snapped my and the Gryphon’s heads around. There, hunkering in the very spot he’d left her, cowered a terrified Audrina. Tears streamed down her face. Her whole body quaked, yet she pressed her lips firmly together to prevent another squeak from escaping.

Regret sunk his head as h
e cautiously stepped toward her. She visibly tensed, no doubt preparing for the end she feared had come. He stretched his neck out, offering his beak in friendship. Just as the sharp yellow hook brushed her arm, she jerked in a sharp recoil. A choked sob tore from her throat as she frantically crab crawled away from him. Only then did he—and I—see why. Streaked down her arm, right where his beak touched, was a smear of blood … accompanied by a lock of auburn hair.

“
No.
” My eyes filled with tears and I shook my head as if I could somehow will this away.

Avian eyes widened
as Gryphon spun, then reeled back in shock.

They were at the top of the heap
. Possibly even his last two kills. The strawberry roan  sprawled lifeless over the palomino stallion.  

His knees buckled and threatened to
fail him. Devastation clouded his features. His beak opened and shut without a sound leaking out. With a stumbling side-step, he lurched toward his former friend. “What have I … I didn’t mean to … Audri—”

“No!” Behind him
, Audrina rose up on wobbly legs. Emotions swirled across her face until the most powerful of them took hold …
rage
. It sharpened her gaze to deadly steel. Madness staked its claim in her deep enough to burn on for centuries through various planes of existence. “You shall never again speak my name. The girl you knew, the one that
loved you
, died today. You killed her along with everyone else that ever mattered. They were my world and you reduced them to nothing but a pile of meat! For that, I
will
see you suffer!”

Gryphon craned his neck to face her
. His face crumbled in grief.

With one hoof she
pawed at the ground—challenging him. “A beast that could kill those he loved so easily has no soul!” she spat. “But I promise you this, I will sell my own if that’s what if takes to
kill you
.”

He n
odded his head with resolute sadness, as if accepting her reaction as just. “You deserved a life in a palace filled with beauty. A Count for a husband that would dote on your every whim, be it expensive shawls or those berries and cream you adore so much.” He fought through his own anguish to get the words out. More than once, his deep gravel voice broke with emotion. “Because of me all you have now is a heart full of pain … and hate.” He bent his front legs and bowed before her, offering his head that she so desperately wanted on a spike. “Strike true, my sweet Countess, and may you find peace in my death.”

She stared down at her former friend with d
eath radiating from her glare. Yet … she hesitated. A rogue tear streaked over her freckled cheek. I had a sneaking suspicion it was caused by the ache she felt for her childhood friend. The last being left for her to take refuge in…

She physically shook off
her melancholy with an equine flip of her head. Rearing up on powerful legs, she screamed a pained cry at the late day sun, then lowered her head and charged. Three galloping strides in, she abruptly pulled up short. Grass and rock kicked up under her skittering hooves. It wasn’t better judgment that halted her charge, but a wall of ivory feathers.

Four
tanned and toned chests glistened with their own inner light as the Council’s shirtless henchmen stood firm and arched their wings up high behind them.

The Countess fumbled over her feet
. A shocked gasp sneaking past her gaping lips. “A … angels?”

“
Not quite.” Out from behind the shirtless entourage strode the Grand Councilwoman. Youth had done nothing to relax her pinched features. Yet, she was brazen enough to show a risqué peek of ankle from beneath the bottom hem of her ebony gown. “However, we do answer to the same side, and that side has special plans for this one.” She gave a curt nod in the direction of the splayed out Gryphon. “Therefore, I can’t allow you to harm him.”

“If your cause is a noble one you must know what he’s done
!” The Countess’s almond shaped eyes darted from one crony to the next, scanning for a weak spot to break through. “The crimes that he must answer for!”

“Indeed
, I do.” The Grand Councilwoman sauntered over to Gryphon’s side. He hadn’t moved, but his alert gaze was fixed on the new arrivals. If the gore splashed across his beak gave her pause, she didn’t show it. She placed her hand under his beak and tilted his head up in one direction then the other to inspect him. “You are what is known as a Protector of the Divine—a title that will mean a great deal more once your training begins. All you need to know is that each Divinity Guard, such as yourself, is sent to live among mortals for a spell. After all, it’s not merely divine
artifacts
you will protect, but also the most divine object of all … the mortal spirit. You were meant to familiarize yourself with them and to interact, which you did beautifully. However, that is not the lone point of this exercise. You also were to face your greatest temptation.” She released his beak and wiped the blood smear that remained on her palm on her feathered skirt. “Gryphons have only one natural born enemy. One animal whose blood can awaken the beast within him …”

“
Horses,
” I rasped, as bile rose in my throat. “That’s why they aren’t allowed on The Spirit Plane.” 

“
You sent me here to tempt me?” the Gryphon growled. The hair along his spine rose.

“Tempt you?”
She chewed on her lower lip before answering, as if trying the word on for size. “Indeed. However, we needed to go deeper than that. You had to long for it. Every fiber of your being had to ache for their blood until you gave in to your desires. Only then could you understand how a spirit can be corrupted and the forgiveness that must be granted for that inevitable weakness.” 

The Gryphon
sprang up on his hind legs. His massive head thrashed from side to side as he bellowed his anguish to the heavens in a ground shuddering roar that echoed around me in a haunting melody of raw truth.

The Grand Councilwoman soothed her makeshift
feather bun before folding her hands behind her back. “In time you will understand our ways and appreciate our methods, I assure you.” To her henchmen she added, “Subdue him.”

They closed in
, their glowing wings curling in around Gryphon as he lashed out with swipes, snaps and even lunges toward the sky. Despite his attempts, he was no match for their impenetrable wings. They inched closer until he was completely encapsulated in their unbreachable cocoon.

The Countess’s hand grasped the Councilwoman’s bony wrist. For a moment
, her venomous rage faltered and the pitiful girl beneath broke through. “My family … I … I have no one. We were the last of our kind. Please, take me with you?”

The Councilwoman placed her palm on the Countess’s che
ek in a maternal gesture that seemed an awkward fit on her. “He will be a great warrior. Take solace in knowing you helped to elevate him to his destiny. I’m sorry, my dear.”

Lightning struck, illuminating the grieving centaur.
Her arms rose to shield her face. When the glow faded, she was alone.

As
Audrina crumbled to the ground and poured her tears into the earth, I let the discus slip from my fingers. It fell to the carpet with a soft thump.

I sat down hard on the edge of my bed
, my fists clenching the comforter in a white knuckled grasp. I couldn’t focus … couldn’t wrap my brain around what I had just witnessed. Only one thought managed to blast its way through the tumultuous upheaval that swirled in my mind. Its message resonating with a powerful insistence that refused to be ignored …

Who have I been fighting for?

Chapter
10

Down to my bones, I yearned for a few hours of hard sleep. I knew I needed to process …
everything
, but currently lacked the mental capabilities to do so. Instead, I hid the discus in my nightstand and retreated to the sanctuary of my bed. The oppressive silence of our misery shrouded house enveloped me. For about sixty seconds. Then my closet door burst open and a mysterious cloaked figure came bolting out. Because crap like that is to be expected when you’re the Chosen One—exhaustion be damned.

Grinding my teeth to the point of pain
, I sprang up off the bed. My mind wandered to the Louisville Slugger Grams kept beside her bed. I didn’t
need
a weapon like that to take out some random bonehead demon, but the idea of using one seemed therapeutic.

“
Either you don’t know whose house this is or you’re just a special kind of stupid.” My finger nails dug into my palms as I clenched my hands into tight fists. “Either way, I say we see if you can wear your ass for a hat to set an example to others.”

“Fun as
the asshat experiment sounds,” strong hands, the pale luminescent shade of a fresh water pearl, rose to draw back the hood of the intruder’s crimson cloak, “we don’t really have time fer that right now, lovey.”

I sucked in a shocked gasp that lodged
itself in my throat. “
Ca—Caleb
?”

His mouth tugged back in a half-grin that made
the divot of a dimple appear. “In the flesh.”

So many times I’d dream
t of seeing him again. In my mind, I had played and replayed what sweet whisperings of love, longing, fate and future I would utter. Yet, when my mouth opened what tumbled out was, “
Have you been in the closet this whole time?
”

“No
.” Laughter trilled through his tone. “Actually … I’ve been in the Spirit Plane.”

“
Spirit Plane?”

“Aye. That’s where I’ve been since the day we cast out my demon.” He took a tentative step forward. Emerald eyes searched my face for … something. Acceptance? Encouragement?
A sign that I still understood the English language—?

“Cast out
your demon,” I mimicked, my voice sounding oddly vacant even to me.

“A simple incantation allowed me
passage.” For a moment, his head jerked back toward the closet as if checking to see if anyone was emerging behind him. “We don’t have much time. I can’t risk ‘em catchin’ me here.”

“M
e here.”

“Okay
.” Caleb crossed the invisible barrier that had held him back and placed his arm around my shoulders. I breathed his scent in deeply as he led me over to the bed. “This would be a monumentally bad time fer ya tah go into shock. Let’s have a seat and hope we can snap ya out of it right quick.”

He eased me down on the edge of the bed
. The box spring squeaked under his weight as he settled beside me and clasped my hand in both of his. With the tip of his finger, he traced my veins. His touch—soft, seductive satin—felt so familiar … so
right
.  Fantasy and fact melded together in a twisted, unfathomable combination as I stared at our intertwined hands.

“Ev
ery minute of every day I’ve thought of nothing but …” My breathy declaration trailed off. A shiver danced down my spine. I shook my hand free to catch the hem of his cloak sleeve. “I’ve … I’ve seen this cloak before, disappearing into my closet.” My head snapped up as the truth to this riddle could be found scribbled somewhere across his handsome face. “
You’re
the one that’s been leaving me the scrolls.”

A storm of anxious need churned his emerald eyes a deep sea green.
“I had tah help ya any way I could. It killed me tah think somethin’ might happen to ya. Time moves differently there. It’s easier tah bend and manipulate. I was able tah hop around and play a small part in guidin’ ya. All it took was an enchanted charm stuffed un’er ya’r mattress tah allow ya tah read the Gaelic print.” A hint of a smile returned to his delectable lips. “It’s amazin’ what ya can find in the Spirit Plane when ya poke ya’r nose where it doesn’t belong.”

My mouth hung open as I tried to recall the first scroll I’d received.
“It was … before we even met. Right after I was called. You’ve … you’ve been with me the whole time?”

Hair fell across his forehead as he cast his gaze to the floor and nodded.

A flood of tears filled my eyes and streaked down my cheeks as my trembling hand covered my mouth. “Caleb …
you pushed me to let you go
.”

His
knuckle whispered over my cheek as he brushed away a tear. “I had tah let ya know I understood why you were doin’ it. When I said I’d love ya fore’er, Celeste, I meant it. Even if it doesn’t look like I thought it would right now.”  

Words, with their strict rules and paltry definitions, couldn’t begin to articulate what I was feeling. Instead
, I cradled his beautiful face in my hands and allowed myself a taste of the salty-sweet heaven of his lips. Something deep within me whimpered at the blissful agony of his long awaited touch.

His
hand slid over my waist, to the small of my back. With a gentle tug, he pulled my body to his. What started sweet and timid quickly built in passionate intensity. His other hand freed the tie from my hair and weaved into the fallen strands. I wanted to dive in and lose myself in this moment more than I’d ever wanted anything. Unfortunately, with a pained groan, Caleb pulled back.

“
Ya have no idea how much I want this …” His forehead pressed to mine as he fought to steady his breathing. 

“Oh, I think I do
,” I murmured, hooking the tips of my fingers around the back of his neck to pull him to me.

He dotted a quick kiss to my lower lip then forced distance
between us by scooting to the foot of the bed. “Ya don’t un’erstand, lovey. We don’t have much time. Tha’s what I came tah tell ya. Af’er I dropped that scroll on ya’r pillow …”

“
And turned that song on to haunt me with your memory.” I raised my eyebrows, daring him to deny it.

“As if I would do something so
contrite.” His argument may have held more weight if he had managed to keep his guilty smirk at bay. “Point is, I didn’t intend tah take the risk of comin’ back so quick. But, when I returned tah the Spirit Plane there was a mess a trouble goin’ down.”

My heart lurched in a panicked stutter beat. “What kind of trouble?”

Caleb’s gaze fixated on my hand resting on the mattress. He instinctively reached for it, as if the distance between us tormented him. “I think The Council took ya’r sis and mine into custody.”

My pulse pounded in my temples,
drowning out coherent thought with its incessant thump. “And the Council Master? Where did he stand in all this?”

Ebony brows drew sharply together. “The Council Master?
He seemed tah be the only bloke tryin’ tah prevent it.”

Before I could
process that information or react in any way, a brilliant flash brightened my room to high noon on a cloudless day. It faded to reveal the Grand Councilwoman and two of her flunkies.

“
Clever boy, using old magicks to sneak off,” the Councilwoman snapped in place of a greeting. “Rest assured that
won’t
happen again. Seize him!”

The guards wasted no time obeying their barked orders.
Using more force than necessary, they snatched Caleb off the bed, slammed him against the wall, and shackled his hands behind his back.

“Let him go!
He’s done nothing wrong,” I demanded as I leapt to my feet, my nostrils flaring with each agitated breath. “You’re supposed to be
protecting
him!”

Folding her arms over her chest, the Councilwoman tipped her head back to allow a better angle for her to peer down her nose at me. “I
am
protecting him, my dear. It seems he’s been sneaking off for rendezvouses with a Conduit that is now considered rogue. If he were to leak any of the demonic intel he possesses to you, it could be lethal. Not only for him, but to all of mankind.”

I took
one threatening step forward before better judgment rooted me where I stood. “That’s a load of crap and you know it. I’ve risked
everything
for my calling and now you’re going to doubt me for failing to listen to a group of people that have
lied
to me from the very beginning? I tell you what, the Gryphon can root around in my head whenever the mood hits him. Why don’t you ask
him
what kind of person I am?”

She chewed on the inside of her cheek as if fighting off a victorious grin.
“The Gryphon has been imprisoned for his refusal to cut off your powers. Congratulations, girl, you made the Protector of the Divine an outlaw.”

Cold sweat dripped down my back between my shoulder blades. I was painfully aware that the tips of my toes rested at the very edge of a precipice that, if I dared lean into, would swirl me into a downward spiral of violent rage that there would be no coming back from. With every ounce of willpower I possessed, I clung to the last thread of self-control that was holding me back.

“Remove him.” The Councilwoman
barked with a flippant flick of her wrist.

The guards
roughly seized Caleb’s upper arms and began the inner glow that would transport them all out of here.

“Celeste!
” Caleb’s voice rose with desperation. “I showed ya the past so ya would realize it’s not the Council ya’r fightin’ for, but all the innocents that get caught in the midst of this battle.
Remember that!
I lov—”

I lunged forward to grab him
, but caught only air. Caleb and his captors were gone.  

“The new solita
ry suite waiting for him will ensure he cannot attempt this again.” If the Councilwoman noticed the seething steam radiating off of me, she made a point to ignore it. Instead, she soothed a hand along her tight bun of feathers to confirm none had dared slip from place. “Now, we have a much more pressing matter at hand. It has come to the attention of The Council that you are in possession of an artifact not meant for you. We demand that you hand it over at once. I assume you know to what I am referring?”

Heat
prickled up my spine to the top of my head. “Oh, I know
exactly
what you are referring to. But, I don’t do demands.”

“You have no idea
of the power that item possesses or the harm it could cause!” A hot flush reddened her pinched face.

Despite my rage
, I forced a casual tone of indifference. “Sometimes the most amazing discoveries are made by tinkering with things ya ought not be.”

T
he Grand Councilwoman took a brazen step forward, smack dab into the center of my personal space. “You think you have this all figured out.” Her face twisted in a mask of pure hate. “But, hear this, you insufferable child. From this point on you will get
no
aid from the Council. Before we will ever consider your pleas to return to our fold you
will
deliver the discus. Plus, you will make a public apology for your insolence
and
take a blood oath that you will adhere to our rules from that point on. This matter is
not
up for negotiation or debate.”

With s
low and deliberate steps, I closed the remaining distance between us. Fear sparked in her avian eyes as my hot breath assaulted her face.

“
Before this is over,” I whispered softly, “you and I will have a confrontation. Count on that. Now get out of my house before I decide that moment needs to be
now
.”

Her gaze scanned my face
, trying to decipher if I was bluffing. I hitched up one eyebrow in response.

Thin lips pressed together in a
pinched white line. “You have
no idea
who you are dealing with.” Her parting words hung in the air as she disappeared in a shower of twinkling white lights.