TRUE (A Fire Born Novel Book 3) Read online

  The voice laughed. "He used to love you, when magical coercion was in play. The spell is lifted. He is a Demon God once again. As he was born to be."

  "No!" I shook the voice away, the thoughts and memories, but fire and heat burned down my arms, over my shoulders, and puddled to rest in the wells of my palms, egging me on. My eyes opened onto the gloom overhead and the black wings circling the arena. The crows screeched above.

  Max stared across the pitch, charcoal robes skimming the ground, shoulders broad, hands restless at his sides, and from my distance, his eyes weren't black, but grey. Still grey. You know they're still grey. You saw in the castle.

  "Layla ..."

  The sound of Max's voice speaking to me for the first time in days, since we'd last spoken at my house when Benny had been taken, almost suffocated me. I closed my eyes again, refusing to look at him, trying to block him out. He lured me here, put my family in danger. Why was he talking to me now? I'd screamed for him in the Infirmary, and he never answered. Only said, "I," when I'd marched through the Fomore gates in a trance. As Teine. Not even as myself. Teine had spoken then, overriding my thoughts, and when I'd tried to say something later, wanted to, after he killed Ryan, he never answered then either. There'd been no answer!

  "I wanted to answer you, Lay." His breathlessness and sweetness, washed by a deep roughness—almost a confused tone as if he wasn't sure it was me he was talking to—flooded my brain. "I thought I was dreaming."

  "He's only tricking you. Nothing more than a trick," Teine said. "Trying to throw you off. He said it was over. Told you to leave before he hurt you. He kissed someone else."

  Gripping my hands into fists until they ached, I knew she was right. I'd seen Max with Ana. I wanted out of this place. I wanted Benny out. Justice out.

  A single horn blasted through the chaos, and a deafening roar swelled through the crowd. The Battle had officially begun.

  Without another thought, without glancing in Max's direction, I closed my eyes and fire ripped down the field like a canon blast. Blackened streaks of char marked its wake as I glared up under heavy lidded eyes.

  "Layla!" Max deflected the blaze with a single swipe of his arm, the wind extinguishing it in the center of the field. "What are you doing?" His forehead scrunched.

  The ground rumbled under my feet. My thoughts flew to the day I'd seen him in the Fomore castle. I stood stone still, heat tearing through my limbs, making me tremble with an unbridled rage. Images of him with black eyes, laden in charcoal robes, the same robes he wore standing before me, planning an attack on the Otherworld with Sam. The ground split, fissures extending down the track. Plumes of smoke rose from the fiery crevices, inundating the air, flames snaking upward.

  "Layla!" Max jumped to the side to avoid being swallowed into the lava pit below. "You don't understand what you saw—let me explain."

  My thoughts reeled to him wrapped in Ana's arms, kissing her. Pink lips, golden hair. The one memory I'd kept trying to block out since the day I'd seen it, the one I'd prayed wasn't true until I knew it had to be. A wave of flames erupted through the stadium like a triggered atom bomb. Spectators screamed, scrambling from their seats to avoid the fire. Teine laughed in my head.

  Max raised his arms and a torrential rain flooded the blaze, dousing it into nothing more than steam. "Will you listen to me?" His yell rattled. "You're going to kill someone!" He heaved a deep breath and glared across the expanse. "I ... I ... okay, yes—I kissed Ana. Yes, you saw me talking to Sam about attacking the Otherworld, but it's not why you think."

  The ground opened at his feet.

  "Layla!" He scrambled back, and thunder clapped overhead, lightning struck across the sky. He seemed desperate to get my attention. "Stop! Let me explain!"

  Another memory played in my head—Teine's this time. Ana in Max's bed. Feathers crawled down my arms. Red jaded my sight. The voices laughed in my thoughts. A tongue of fire licked up through one of the crevices at Max's feet. A water spout rose to meet it, one neutralizing the other, and Max sprinted forward, wielding wind and rain alongside him like a shield. Before I could even blink, in an incredibly quick space of time, he had me pinned to the cold, damp ground. The dagger, still in my grip, fell from my hand, and his legs straddled my hips, hands securing my wrists above my head in the slushy snow.

  The crowd went wild.

  Max's sweaty brow glistened above me, framing his clear grey, perfectly untainted eyes. "Will you stop trying to kill me, please?" Fire blazed around us, burning through the stands. People continued to scream and cheer in the mayhem. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry you're here. I’m sorry for all of it."

  My breathing flew into overdrive as he gazed down at me, the strength of his arms holding me tight, his body pressing against mine, his warmth fueling an unwanted desire inside of me. I swallowed hard and kneed him in the crotch. He rolled off of me onto his side, howling, holding his groin. The crowd jeered and booed as I pushed to my feet, circling him.

  "You lied to me!"

  "I didn't lie!" He groaned.

  "I saw you!" The ground quaked, molten lava spewing upward from the open fissures.

  Max put his arm out, gaze roving the shaking earth. "So, you're trying to kill me now?"

  "You lured me here! Told me it was over! To get away from you or you'd hurt me!" The fissures widened, and he scrambled to the side and popped to his feet. "You said you'd come back for me. That you would bring Benny back." I screamed it. "I remember, and you lied!"

  "I didn't lie, I just ... had to convince you I was crazy. Let me explain." Max supported his weight on his knees, leaning over, breath heaving. "Just ... keep your voice down." He eyed the stands. "Please."

  "Screw you. Where's Benny?" I gritted my teeth.

  "She's okay."

  "Where. Is. She?"

  He glanced toward the stands again, dragging his hands through his hair—a gesture that stabbed me. "She's not here, Layla. I got her out a few days ago. The day I left you in the Otherworld's Infirmary. Benny's safe."

  "What?" My eyes narrowed.

  In a blinding blur he grabbed me, spun me around, and pinned my arms behind my back, his mouth brushing my cheek just above my ear. "Please don't fight for two seconds and listen," he whispered. The crowd cheered louder.

  I yanked against him, the ground rumbling, plumes of dust and dirt billowing into the air. He put more pressure on my wrists, his heart hammering against my back.

  "Hold still and stop trying to kill me for two seconds. Please." His breath brushed across my face, sending unwanted shivers down my neck. "I need to make it look like I've got control, or you're dead. Okay?"

  I didn't move.

  "We need to fight side by side or we'll never make it out of here."

  "Why should I believe you?"

  "Is there anyone else here who can help you right now?"

  I glanced at the stands, the hundreds of angry people. No Justice. "Say whatever you have to say."

  "You are in danger. And I am trying to save your life in more ways than one. Will you listen?"

  I gave a stiff nod, eyes trained toward the crowd, the crows still cawing and screaming overhead.

  "Since the night I left you in the Infirmary, everything has been a front. Everything I've done was a show to get me right here standing in front of you again. I had to play the game—I had to make the Fomore believe I was one of them." He spoke in a rapid whisper. "I was well aware your visions may still be intact—that you may be able to see me making a total ass of myself, and that I was hurting you by kissing Ana, but I had to go this route. I had no choice. I'm sorry. But the Otherworld is being threatened, you are being threatened, and the Morrigan is running the show. She's in your head, linked to you. Probably hears every word I'm saying right now. I planned to kill her, separate her from you, free you, she knows that, too, and now she's keeping you alive. Now I can't hurt her without hurting you."

  I froze against him. "What?"

  "That's what the Morrigan meant wh
en she said I could kill you if I wanted to, but it wouldn't harm her. She wanted me to kill you," he said, as if talking to himself. "You'd never come back, and I'd be trapped with her forever, without you."

  "What are you talking about?"

  The crowd began to murmur.

  "Kick me."

  "What?" I turned my head to see him.

  "Kick me or act like you're struggling or something. We can't just stand still ... the crowd—" His voice lowered.

  My heel connected with his knee and he let out an, 'oof.' The crowd booed, and I couldn't help but smile.

  "Ow. Seriously? That hurt like hell."

  "Good. Talk."

  "I guess … shit, Layla, that hurt. I guess when you came here, before you entered the gates ... Lay, you died. And the Morrigan brought you back to life. She's the reason you're standing here."

  Some of the fight drained out of me at those words, the complete terror of what they meant, and the fact that Max knew the truth. "I know."

  "You know?" His hands loosened on my wrists.

  I nodded, not wanting to voice it again. "If I die, I'm gone forever. I think. I'll never come back again. My soul is mended, but—"

  "Mine isn't."

  "No."

  Max let me go, and screams rang out. His arm wrapped around my throat, loosely, and he pulled me back him, shoving us both on all fours in the snow.

  I elbowed him in the stomach, evening the score. "I am so getting you back for this if we get out of here alive."

  "We aren't six years old anymore, Layla. You don't have to hit me every time you get mad. You are Layla, right?"

  The crowd settled again as we scuffled on the ground.

  "Yes! And if you don't want me to hit you, then stop exerting your too-heavy body weight on top of me." I pushed at him.

  "Jesus, just stop it and let me tell you what I know."

  "Hurry up."

  The ground rumbled, smoke accumulating across the pitch as the fires grew, and people scrambled in the stands.

  "The Morrigan. This whole thing, her bringing you back, cursing us, the angels ... all she wants is for me to rule at her side in the Afterworld. She wants control of the Realms, the Lesser Gods, and us. She needs me in order to rule, and she needs you to keep me in check. But if you're gone then ... I'll have no reason to fight anymore."

  "Oh, god."

  "I would never hurt you on purpose, Layla." He rubbed his thumb over the Oghams writhing on my wrist. "I'm trying to break the curse, free you, free us from all this mess. We were both deceived. Both lied to and hidden. Your father knew all along that I would become Prince of the Fomore." He glanced toward the stands, and the crows careened downward, distracting the crowd as they swooped and squawked overhead.

  "He took me away from my father because he knew what I would have been forced to do if he hadn't. Elethan would have used me to destroy you. Like a weapon. Just like he's trying to use me now. Your father protected both of us. I haven't forgotten that."

  The ground steadied without my intention, and Max popped to his feet, dragging me up with him.

  "Elethan thought he could control me with the Fomore crest. Like he controls everyone around him, but it didn't work as well as he wanted. Some of the poison got into my system, though. I feel it, eating at me, clouding my thoughts. The Oghams have been able to ward off most of the toxins, and I've managed to stay in control, mostly. Only the King doesn't know that."

  Sporadic fires still burned everywhere, the smoke making the pitch and crowd appear distorted and hazy.

  "But Justice showed up in the castle a little while ago and gave me away. There was never a Tear, Layla. We weren't Torn. I stopped it from happening, or my Oghams did, or both, I don't know—but I don't give a damn about any magical coercion. That means nothing to me." He released a breath. "I could never hurt you. I was going to try to forcibly remove the Morrigan's presence from your body, and it wouldn't have been pretty, and I would've scared the hell out of you in the process. I'm sorry, but I had to try. The Morrigan is messing with your mind—you know that, don't you? Destroying you little by little, and now she's keeping you alive somehow. You have to fight her, be free of her. You have the power to. You're stronger than she is."

  My head dropped back, posture slackening, defeat weighing me down. "A split soul cannot rest."

  Max's eyes narrowed. He was covered in soot and sweat. Blood seeped from a gash over his right eye. I wanted to clear it away, to heal it, but I didn't dare raise my hand to his head, very aware that smoke and fire or not, some of the crowd might still be able to see us clearly.

  "Agrona told me that a split soul couldn't rest. I didn't understand what she meant, but ... I mean how could it possibly be true?" I gazed up at him. "Teine and MacCoinnich. They were us, or we're them. I saw the graves, Max." I shuddered, my words starting to spill out too fast. I willed the crows to continue causing a distraction.

  "Our graves from forever ago." Tears stung my eyes. "We, or they, were buried together. With angels' wings around them, protecting them." It was so sad, so terribly sad. All they'd wanted was to be together. "I saw us when we were little, in the city of Mag Mell. When it fell. I remembered the day I met you. The first time we met." The tears grew. "They were promised to each other. Teine and MacCoinnich. Engaged to be married. And she killed them—everyone."

  Max's shoulders relaxed. "I know. Greater Gods. The Greater Gods. We're them, or at least a shade of who they were, risen from the dead." He let out an unsteady breath. "I've seen most of it, too."

  "This is crazy."

  He smirked a little, motioning toward the fires and snaking fissures tearing the ground apart. "It is. I always knew you were powerful."

  The smoke cleared, and a stilling silence pressed in. We were standing at center stage for what was about to turn into a lynch mob.

  "Well ... this is unexpected," a familiar voice boomed. One I'd heard in my nightmares.

  I eyed the stands.

  "I am disappointed in you, Son. I believe I said you had a choice. You kill the girl, or I kill the girl. Either way she dies."

  I stiffened beside Max.

  "So much promise," the King said. "So much ... hope."

  Max's hands opened at his sides, and wind tore across the grounds, picking the smoldering fires up and scattering them everywhere, spreading flames outward. "I told you before," he shouted. "I'm not one of you. Never will be. You didn't want to believe it."

  Elethan glanced to his left and gave a slow nod. My gaze followed to a section of seats a few rows up. Sam stood and picked his way through the crowd downward toward the pitch.

  "I was really hoping you two would finish each other off," he said. "Makes my job easier—but, I forgot ..." Sam grinned. "You're in love. Not even the charms of the Leanaan Sidhe could persuade you?" He sneered at Max. "I thought for sure I'd walked in on something this morning."

  I couldn't breathe, and I wanted to step away from Max. Far, far away from him. Regardless of what we'd been through, where we'd come from, if he had slept with Ana, nothing would ever make our relationship okay again.

  "To deny a Vampyre Fae," Sam said. "Well, that must be love. If you denied her. I don't know. Max, did you?" He smiled toward me and his gargoyle wings spread wide, lifting him over the barbed wire fencing with deadly grace. His taloned feet hit the snow-covered earth a few yards in front of us, crunching into the ice.

  Max grinned, shocking me, and slid one of the swords out of the leather straps across his back. "I knew I couldn't trust you, you sorry son of a bitch."

  I stepped away from Max. The heat I'd managed to shut down, the voices I'd been able to close off screamed back at me.

  Sam shrugged, arms crossed over his broad chest. "Never told you you should. I tried to count on you, though. Even believed you could pull it off at one point, but you'll never be strong enough to do what needs to be done. Not where it counts. The Morrigan has to go," he said. "She's killing me, all of your angels are sick, and unfortu
nately for you, that means we have to kill Layla. Sorry. I didn't want this. Really, I didn't, but I don't have a choice. I can't stay like this." He gestured toward his body, and suddenly it was ravaged. As badly as Ryan's had been. "I was next in line to command the angels. Never told you that. Didn't think it mattered, but ... when I took Ryan's place ..." He held his arms out to the sides. "I also took on his ailments. Part of the curse. The Morrigan knew, of course. Probably should have kept my mouth shut when we met with her. Seems she sped up the process quite a bit."

  My hand went to my mouth, and Max let out a deep groan. He met with the Morrigan?

  "She told us hurting Layla wouldn't hurt her," Max said. "Or did you miss that part?"

  Sam shook his head. "I heard her, but who's to say she wasn't lying? I'd prefer to stay on the safe side of things, assuring I've covered all the bases. It's always the best plan."

  "Killing Layla isn't covering any base. It's killing someone who's innocent in all of this."

  "I think," Sam shrugged. "After feeling this—what Ryan was feeling—he did want you to kill him," he said, as if he hadn't heard Max at all. "He goaded you into it. You and Justice. I have no doubt anymore." Sam's lacerated arms fell back to his sides.

  "Sam—" Max's tone was thoughtful, concerned. Maybe he hadn't trusted Sam, but he'd wanted to. I heard it in the tone of his voice. Max cared about him.

  "Have to save myself." Sam shrugged. "We all do—me and my friends." He turned, glancing over his shoulder, and all the angels from the REBELLION club landed behind his back in a semi-circle, spears and swords in hand. They were the true lynch mob, not the crazed 'fans.'

  "The curse will go on and on until she's dead," Sam continued, gesturing toward me. "That's the cruel twist I didn't understand. You can't break it. No one can break an Accursed Art's Curse except the one who cast it. The Morrigan won't break it. She has to die for it to end. I can't give you all the time Ryan did." He glanced back at the angels again. "They don't have any time left to give. I didn't want to do this—didn't think I'd have to. I don't want to hurt you, Max. Only her." Sam glanced toward me again.