Immortals After Dark 03 - No Rest for the Wicked

transferred the blade to his right hand to raise it. But that ruined arm hung lifeless.
    “Canna quite make it to your heart, then?”
    Sebastian bared his fangs savagely. “I’ll gut you before you get this.”
    “That equals the life of my mate.”
    “I’ve the same on my mind,” Sebastian bit out.
    “The Valkyrie died?”
    Sebastian shook his head. “Not for long.”
    Bowen must have seen something in his expression. He had the advantage, and yet he offered, “We could share it, vampire. The key works twice.”
    Blood everywhere. Weak. Kaderin had asked something of him. Finally given him a chance to help her... “I need both of those times for her.” Can’t raise my right arm over my heart. My left arm is trapped. But the blade had powers MacRieve likely didn’t know of.
    According to Riora, it never missed.
    The knife he held was nowhere near the Lykae’s whip hand, but Sebastian concentrated on his intention to cut him at the wrist and made the merest motion toward the end, all he could manage with that wasted arm.
    Suddenly, his arm shot up. The blade rose as if of its own accord and flashed reflected firelight as it struck.
    Blood spurted. The Scot’s severed hand dropped. Freed from the whip, Sebastian traced the distance across the pit.
    “I will fucking kill you for this, vampire,” the Lykae bellowed with rage. “I will eat your goddamned heart!”
    Sebastian steeled himself for the jaunt to Riora’s temple. But he couldn’t leave. Leaving made Kaderin’s death real. Stay sane. This key has to work.
    From the now unseen cave: “ Mark me. So help me God, I will hunt you and the Valkyrie over the earth— ”
    Sebastian disappeared to the sound of the Lykae’s roar—not of pain but of loss.

    When Sebastian returned to the temple, Riora greeted him once again with Scribe in tow. “You have won, Sebastian. The first vampire to do so. Congratulations.”
    “This is for her. Always for her.” His body wouldn’t stop shuddering.
    “Then sign the book of winners, and take your prize.”
    When Scribe handed him the book, he actually looked as though he respected Sebastian.
    Kaderin’s dead. Sign the book. Stay sane.
    He saw his Bride’s proud signature on every line above his own, so far back the lettering had changed. Over time, her handwriting had become harder, more angular. Stay sane. He signed his name with his left hand in shaking letters, stamping the page in blood.
    Riora handed him a metallic key. He gripped it so hard it dug into his palm. “Tell me this works.”
    “It works, Sebastian. Though you may end up cursing it.”
    “How can you say that?”
    “You know why Kaderin sought the key?” Riora asked.
    He nodded slowly. “She wants her sisters back.”
    “If you give her the second turn of the key, she will return for her sisters and never see their deaths. She will be spared one thousand years of guilt and nothingness and instead enjoy contentment with her family.”
    “I want this!”
    “Yet in this case, Kaderin will never be driven to journey out of her way to kill you. She will have her sisters”—Riora’s eyes bored into his much as they had that first night—“but you will not have her. ”
    He’d experienced Kaderin’s memories of their deaths, of collecting her sisters from the battlefield. Burying their heads, their bodies, then clawing at her hair and skin.
    If he could save her from that... to spare her a millennium of guilt?
    As a mortal, he’d been a knight with no one to whom to pledge his sword. He’d claimed Kaderin for his own, and that meant protecting all she held dear. He lowered his head. “ She will have her sisters. ” The flames flared as if to punctuate his words.
    “Very well. The key unlocks a door for approximately ten minutes. It allows you to go back and to be in the same time as a previous self.”
    “How will the key know where to open?”
    “In the end, the key is a facilitator,” she explained. “You hold a tool of unspeakable power, Sebastian. Hold it out in your palm, and it will know what you must have and act to that end. But I warn you, if you get stuck in the past when the door closes, one version of you will fade, ceasing to be.”
    He saw Scribe in the background, his pale, waxen face showing his sorrow. He gave Sebastian a nod of encouragement.
    Riora murmured, “Bring her forward, vampire.”
    He gave her a pained bow. “Goddess.”

39
    K aderin made her way through the darkened tunnel.
    She knew