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“I want to see,” she whispered. “Jagger told me Skye showed him amazing things by doing this.” She moved closer and slipped between Finn and the dais.
The eagle knight hesitated, and Jaden paused. Their energy was different. She knew on some level she made him uncomfortable. “I’m not going to bite you,” she said lightly. “Let’s do this.”
Finn slid his hands over her forearms and she smiled in wonder at the sight beneath their fingers. Light danced upon the dais, golden showers of energy that appeared luminescent against the dull gray. As their hands passed over the limestone, images and symbols appeared.
“It’s beautiful.” Jaden was in awe. “What do they mean?”
“It’s a story, a pictorial rendering of fact.” He paused as their hands continued to glide over the stone. “It tells of Azaiel’s fall and Toniella’s betrayal of her people.”
Long moments of silence passed as Jaden let Finn move her hands over the entire surface with exact precision. They passed over an etching of a tall man who was colored black and gold. “This is Azaiel,” Finn said, and he pointed toward a rendering of a woman. She had long, flowing blond hair, and the sun was held in her hands. “This is Toniella . . .”
He stilled, his hands held in midair, and Jaden glanced to the side sharply. “What’s wrong? What does it mean?”
“Everything makes so much more sense now,” he murmured.
“What? What the hell are you talking about?” She glanced down at the weird-shaped symbols next to the picture of Tonialla.
“She was a true daughter of the sun. Nanauatl’s daughter.”
The sun god himself? Jaden’s eyes widened as she continued to study the picture. She was shocked. Seriously surprised, and that was saying something. “Damn, that must have been like the best-kept secret ever. How could you not have known that?”
Finn shrugged his shoulders. “He’s a powerful entity. A god. For whatever reason, he hid her origin.” Finn studied the pictures for a few more seconds. “Maybe he was ashamed. I don’t know.”
“What happened to her?” Jaden was curious.
“They were both banished from this realm. It doesn’t say where, only that darkness would feed their souls for all eternity.”
“Well, we know where Azaiel ended up,” she murmured, her eyes not leaving the dais.
Finn pointed to another set of drawings. “Nanauatl is forever tied to this temple. I think there’s something he wants to keep hidden.”
“Toniella and her link to the portal,” Jaden answered. “No one knew it was she who tempted Azaiel from above. If he’d not told Skye, we never would have known . . .”
The eagle shifter nodded in agreement. “That would be my guess.” He continued to move their hands over the dais. Several more symbols followed in an intricate series, and Finn spoke quietly as he retraced their tragic story.
“Azaiel was of the highest order, one of the Seraphim, a powerful and true entity who served his god. And yet he was tempted by her beauty, by her charm, and he fell in love with her. He could not see what was inside her. He fled the upper realm to be with her and became one of the fallen. He brought his light to the people here, and he bestowed the power of the eagle on them, and when she asked him to create a portal that would . . .”
Finn stopped abruptly, and Jaden glanced back at him, her eyebrows furled in concern.
“What’s wrong? She wanted him to make a portal that would open the gates to hell. We know this.”
“No.” Finn shook his head, and she shivered at the dead tone of his voice. “There’s more.”
Jaden went still and glanced up at him. The eagle shifter was solemn, and his eyes reflected a bleakness that she felt deep in her gut. Christ, could nothing go as planned? Be easy? Was their path always going to be littered with crap?
“More? I’m almost afraid to ask.”
Finn let go of her hands and stepped down from the dais. His handsome face was tense. “No wonder Nanauatl wanted this place hidden.”
“What are you talking about? What could be worse than his little whore of a daughter cajoling a freaking angel into constructing a portal that can open up the depths of hell?”
She grabbed his hands once more. “I need to see.”
The symbols that were revealed beneath her fingers meant nothing to her. Frustrated, her voice rose. “Finn, what the hell does this shit mean?”
“It means the portal is the most powerful thing ever created.”
Julian’s voice drifted between them, and they both turned as he and Declan slipped into the chamber. His eyes were flat, the golden depths dark and somber. There was no expression, just a flicker of something she couldn’t really describe as his gaze lingered on the two of them.
