Inferno Read Online Free PDF Page B

eerie, iridescent green. Dressed in ancient battle armor, he commanded attention and respect … even from her.
    “You summoned me?”
    Sraosha blinked slowly before he answered. “It is time.”
    Those were the three words she’d been dreading most. Her final order. “We can’t kill him. Not yet.”
    Sraosha arched a commanding brow that questioned her sanity for daring to contradict him. “What is your excuse today?”
    “The senior Malachai still lives. If I kill Nick, Adarian will have no weakness whatsoever, and no reason to hold back, since nothing other than Nick can weaken him. And we both know I can’t defeat Adarian on my own.” She had the scars to prove it. “So unless you’re harboring a weapon I know nothing about, or are willing to give me a hand in the fight, we have no choice except to wait for Nick to fulfill his destiny and kill his father.”
    “And then he will have his father’s strength and powers in addition to the ones he already has. You think you can defeat him then?”
    No. She’d be even more ineffectual against him than she’d been against his predecessors.
    But death wasn’t her only option. “He’s not beyond redemption.” Unlike his father and the others, Nick had a heart that felt and understood real love. Personal sacrifice.
    Loyalty.
    No Malachai before had even known those terms existed.
    Sraosha sneered. “You’re letting your feelings blind you. Just as you did before.”
    It was true. She’d had a perfect chance to slaughter Adarian when he’d first escaped the Nether Realm, and rather than take the shot, she’d felt too sorry for him to kill him. Even now, she could see his wretched state. His master, Noir, had tortured him well. Weak and battered, Adarian had barely been able to stand on his own, and she’d refused to kill in cold blood.
    Like the warrior her father had trained her to be, she’d given him the chance to recover before they battled.
    Her vital mistake.
    Had she taken him out when he’d emerged, her brothers would still be here.…
    Alive and whole. And she would be at home with her family, in her own time period. Not stuck in this purgatory.
    “I’ve learned well and I won’t make that mistake again.”
    Sraosha scoffed. “No? From where I stand that’s exactly what you’re doing. You think I can’t feel the love you hold for a demon ?” He spat that last word at her.
    Ashamed, Nekoda looked away. “I have not forgotten my duties.” How could she? She’d forsaken her real given name and taken on her sacred title so that she would never again be tempted by her emotions. Nekodas were marked servants who had no family ties to distract them. They lived for no purpose other than to serve the higher order and keep the balance of power intact. Unlike the Chthonians who had the ability to kill gods and were charged with overseeing them, nekodas weren’t born to their positions.
    They were chosen.
    And unlike the Chthonians, they had very strict rules they had to follow, and beings they had to answer to.
    She wasn’t allowed to second-guess her guide, and yet, Sraosha was wrong about Nick. She could feel it with every part of herself. Nick wasn’t their enemy.
    Not yet anyway.
    Sraosha stepped forward to tower over her. An act of supreme intimidation that might have worked on her had she been human or born of lesser stock. “Are you refusing to kill him, Belam?”
    She faced him without flinching or cowering. “I’m refusing to unleash the senior Malachai onto this world, especially when we don’t know if he’ll ever father another child. Nick is the only one who can weaken him. And the only other being capable of killing Adarian at full strength is imprisoned in a place we can’t free him from. Not without starting a whole ’nother fire that neither of us is ready to ignite.”
    Sraosha sucked his breath in sharply between his teeth. The expression on his face said that he was barely one second away from striking her. “Fine