Marked For Death: A Dark Urban Fantasy Novel Becca Blake (fiction novels to read .txt) 📖

and I’d spend the rest of my life on the run. They would hunt me until I was dead.

“Well, I don’t want to see that happen to you.”

“They didn’t kill Maki,” I pointed out.

“That’s only because they thought they could use him. I wouldn’t count on them doing the same for you.”

“How am I supposed to stay an Arbiter after what I saw?” I asked. “Even if I wanted to go back, Jacob saw me use dark magic tonight. If I go back with you and he tells someone, they’ll kill me anyway.”

At that, he was silent. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees.

“It doesn’t matter how much good we do or how many demons we hunt down,” I said. “If the Council really is serving these powerful demons and killing people for them, then I don’t want any part of it.”

“It’s more complicated than that.”

“So you keep saying.”

“Everything we do is for—”

“Don’t you dare say the greater good.”

“We’re talking about preserving human civilization here, Ry. That means making tough choices.”

“So, why the secrecy?” I asked. “If this is so important, why doesn’t everyone know?”

“Not everyone would approve,” Orion said, nodding pointedly at me. “This compromise is hard for people to accept, but it’s the cost we have to pay to keep humanity safe.”

“I don’t see how anyone could accept working for these… demon lords.”

He took a long drink. “What all have you learned about the demon lords?”

“Not a lot. I didn’t even know they existed until today.”

“Guess I’ll start at the beginning, then. When early magic users first dabbled in alchemy and dark magic, they opened a portal to the infernal plane. The demon lords came through and brought their armies with them. The people who fought in that war were the first Arbiters.”

“They lost?” I asked.

Orion nodded. “They didn’t stand a chance. The demon lords were too powerful, so, the first Arbiters threw themselves at their feet and begged for mercy. They offered to bring them souls in exchange for ending their assault on humanity. The demon lords accepted that offer and made a deal.”

“But if there was some huge demonic war, how is it a secret now?” I asked. “I mean, why doesn’t anyone know that history? There has to be some record of all this somewhere.”

“There was,” he said. “Aside from some records the early Arbiters kept, the Library of Alexandria held all of our knowledge about the old world. After it burned down, the stories turned into legends that were eventually forgotten, and the Arbiters helped keep it that way.”

“Why?”

Orion shrugged. “I guess they didn’t want anyone to get any ideas about trying to fight a losing battle.”

“So, what, we’re just supposed to work for demons forever?”

“It’s better than the alternative. They’re powerful enough that they could destroy everything.”

“We haven’t tried to fight back for thousands of years. How can you possibly know we would lose?” I asked. “The world is different now.”

“Is it worth the risk?” He set his empty bottle aside. “I get that you want to save everyone, but we can’t.”

We learned at the academy to prioritize stopping the threat over saving a life, if we were put in a position where we had to choose. A demon might kill dozens more people if we let it get away, and if we did, those losses were on our hands. Back then, that idea always made sense to me.

That was before I went out in the field and saw for myself the human cost of letting someone die on my watch.

Now, we were talking about generations of letting people die, on a scale impossible to imagine, throughout human history. How could anyone make that choice?

“Even an asshole like Maki recognized how wrong this is,” I said.

“Maki doesn’t care about what’s right or wrong. That was just a power grab for him.”

“He said he left because he learned the truth about the Council.”

“I don’t know what to believe,” Orion said, his voice unusually quiet. “He was a decent man once. But he just disappeared without a word shortly after Carolyn died. He may have had good intentions when he left, but he’s not that person anymore. The Jay Maki I knew is gone.”

I picked at the label on my bottle. “It sounds like you were close.”

“When Jay left, it crushed me. And Owen had just lost Carolyn. I don’t think we would have made it through those losses without each other.”

“You loved my dad,” I said as the realization dawned on me. “Really loved him.”

“I did.”

“Did he…” I started, though I wasn’t sure how to finish the question.

“Love me back?” Orion offered a pained smile. “He did.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.

“We thought you might be angry with us, or think we were betraying your mother’s memory. We wanted to tell you, but we hadn’t worked up the courage yet.” He considered that for a while before adding, “well, that’s not entirely true. Owen was ready to tell you forever ago. I was the one who was scared.”

Staring out at the dark, empty parking lot, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t figured it out sooner. It was a puzzle piece I didn’t realize I’d been missing.

I had known—or at least, I had assumed—that my father had never been with another woman after my mom died. He never seemed to have the time. But even though Orion had all but moved in with us, it had never crossed my mind that another man might be in the picture.

“I wish I had known before he died. I would’ve been happy for both of you.” After setting down my bottle, I moved over to sit next to him. As I leaned against his chest, he wrapped his arm around me. For all his flaws, for all of the secrets he’d kept from me about our work, he was the only family I had left.

“I lost Owen. I can’t lose you, too,” he said. “When we get back to Haygrove—”

I pulled away from him. “I