by Kate Martin
He smiled. “Only a fool would let you ascend without attempting to stop you. And you have attracted the attention of no fools.”
“Isn’t that the unfortunate truth.” A tail of hellfire licked at her heels from a nearby point. Tickled, she fed it, watching it burn more brightly, then sent it jumping back to its place. “You will keep them from me, I suspect?”
“Isn’t part of your ascension the tale people will tell?”
“It is,” she said, wondering what he was getting at.
Olin smiled and bowed. “I shall ensure you have a tale worth telling.”
He’d been faithful, she didn’t fear a betrayal, but this intrigued her.
She liked intrigue.
Stumbling ungracefully and bleeding from both arms, Kai made his way across the nine pointed star to her and Olin. Once close enough, Lillianna took him by the hand, and licked some of the blood from his wrist. “Are we ready, pet?”
“I’m finished scribing,” he said, too tired to care what she did. “Now you need to place the hearts at the points, and stand at the center. Once there, feed your blood to the labrynth and everything will begin.”
She glanced at the humans still cowering together. “They are at the center.”
“They won’t be for much longer. I’ll activate the last of my labrynths and they’ll be pulled into place.” He rubbed at his face in an exhausted gesture, smearing blood across his cheeks. “Once I do that, my work here is done. I have somewhere else I need to be.” His gaze flicked to the giant boulder that stood in the distance, glittering in the starlight.
“Caught him once again, did you?” Lillianna said.
“Yes.”
“Not going to lose him this time?”
“He’s my brother. I’ll make him understand.” Drawing back his arm, he clamped his hand over one of the many wounds to staunch the bleeding. All things considered, he was the very picture of pathetic. If Lillianna hadn’t seen him skipping along as he bled himself into the ground earlier, she would have thought him beaten and weak.
She nearly laughed at the realization. “Aiming to acquire his pity, are you?”
Kai smirked. “I know what I look like.”
Now she did laugh.
Olin shifted his weight, turning as though he had heard something. “You two should stop bantering and get to work. Every moment we waste while we are alone is another moment our enemies grow closer.”
Shrugging, Kai checked his wounds. “I’m ready when she is.”
“I have been ready for thousands of years. Do it.”
Without another word, Kai walked to the star of hellfire and knelt beside a labrynth scribed into the death-saturated ground. With a flick of his hand, he spattered blood along its lines. It lit up, illuminating his pale, blood-slicked flesh. The nine humans at the center of the star all cried out at once, pulled in opposite directions, wrenched from each other’s arms. Each landed at a different point, stuck there by a power they could not comprehend and could not fight. The children wailed, the men and women cried out, cursed.
Kai ignored them all, even the princess to his left who begged him for mercy. He turned instead to Lillianna, nodding once. “All prepared. Place the boxes, stand at the center, and offer your blood. The spell will do the rest.”
“Well done, Kai.” She said the words, but he had already started towards the boulder, focused on his next task and unconcerned with the remaining proceedings.
Olin ushered her forward with a hand on her lower back. “Go. There is no time to waste.”
Lillianna was both eager and hesitant—eager to fulfill her centuries-old dream, hesitant to believe it was actually coming true. Calling the boxes forth one by one from the pile where they sat hidden in the nearby trees, she placed them as instructed. Their pulses hammered in her chest, driving her. When the last took its place, she felt the circle of power complete, and gasped with the sudden driving force at her very center. No turning back.
She crossed the lines of the star and headed for the labrynth. At its edges, she drew the blade from her belt. Nine steps brought her to the center of the quiet spell. Her flesh split easily under the sharpness of the blade, and her blood spilled forth freely.
She heard the first drop hit the ground. Felt the second. And knew, without a doubt, the first moment she was no longer alone.
The first thing Alec felt was the terrific heat of hellfire. The first thing he saw was the flames. The first thing he heard was the screams. The field spread wide, reaching off into the horizon with only one side lined by a thick forest. No mountains loomed in the distance, and the sky was so clear stars could be seen glittering around the edges of the bright moon’s light. There was absolutely no way to miss the huge nine pointed star and labrynths scribed into the ground, with Lillianna at their center. She looked like a nightmare in the disguise of a dream, white and gold against the black of night and the red-orange of flames.
He checked each of the mortal faces surrounding her, feeling a guilt-filled relief when each proved too young or too old. Bri was nowhere to be seen.
“Where is he?”
Dorothea lowered herself ungracefully to the ground, fingers already bloody. “Where is who?”
“Bri! You tracked him here. Where is he?”
“He’s here, but I think the demon at the center of that spell should be your first worry. Now leave me to my work.” She began mumbling to herself, ignoring anything else Alec had to say.
He turned to the demon at his side instead. “Carma?”
“I’m sure he’s safe enough, Alec. Kai wants him alive.” Though she spoke to him, her gaze was fixed on Lillianna. “Stay here with Picadilly and guard Dorothea. Make sure she is able to complete her spell. I am going to speak to Lillianna.”
“Speak to her?”
“We are old friends, there is protocol to be followed.”
Drawing power into the emptiness Carma had created so long ago, Alec regretted the leap of elation his heart took. He was using the power too often lately, dismissing it would become harder soon. “Your other old friend is here, though you’ve done well not acknowledging him. Will you be speaking with him too?”
Carma’s gaze flicked to the far left where Olin stood, dressed all in black and nearly invisible in the darkness, save his alabaster skin that glowed with power, his shape illuminated only when the flames shifted. “He and I will have our time, no doubt.”
She walked forward then, heading for the star and the demon at its center. She passed by the crying boy without so much as a glance.
Alec stepped closer to Dorothea, and felt Picadilly do the same on her other side. “How much time do you need?”
“All of it. This spell is complicated, and dismantling it completely will be impossible. The best I can do is remove one component and weaken it. I can only save one. Would you like to choose?”
“Just one?” Alec stared at the nine mortals bound to the spell, all crying in some manner or another. The children captured his attention. Both so young. The boy looked about Marc’s age, younger than Bri. So young they hadn’t really lived at all.
Only one? Gods. He did not want to choose.
She had never been much for screaming. Blood, yes. But screaming, no. It was far too noisy, too disruptive. Carma preferred the calm of the night as the backdrop for her own rituals and spells. Quite honestly, she preferred to collect her souls one on one. Lillianna had always been far more theatrical.
When she reached the edge of the star, Carma felt the power it exerted on the Mortal Realm. It twisted and pulled the air, grasping at the human souls given it, and anchoring to the demon at its core. It was a complex and complicated spell, one unlike anything she had ever felt before. Yet, as she toed the edge of its boundaries, it did not repel her.
Olin approached when she took her first step over the lines. He was exactly as she remembered, hard and cold and perfect. “What are you doing?”
Carma smiled at him, remembering when that smile ha
d gained her every wish and desire. “I wish to speak with our dear friend before she becomes something so far above us both that our invitations to her table will be revoked.”
True to form, he came so close that their bodies pressed together as he spoke. “You tried to stop her once before.”
“So I did.” The curve of his body had always fit so well with her own. “Do you really think I can stop her now?”
“You always did surprise me.”
“You always liked that about me. Willing to take the chance?”
He leaned closer, smelling of brimstone and fire. Carma remembered a time when he had smelled of rain and storms. “Go ahead. But I’ll be close behind. It’s my job to keep you from stopping her after all.”
“Oh, of that I have no doubt.” She stepped away, lamenting the loss, and crossed into the realm of the spell. Olin was up to something, of that she was certain. She had bet on his ambitions to let her through. Whatever it was he wanted, he either didn’t think she could stop him, or he felt she would usher it along. In order to know his plan, she had to play the game.
Lillianna was licking away the last of the blood from her wrist when Carma approached. The labrynth beneath her feet was alive with light and bathed her in shadows and shimmers. “I see my guard dog let you through. I might have to do something about that when I am a god.”
“Well, a god needs something to do, does she not?”
“I suppose so. A gift from you, in that case?”
“I have a far better gift for you, my dear friend.” She stood just outside the labrynth, not daring to cross its lines.
Lillianna closed her eyes and let her head fall back slightly, reveling in the power that surged beneath her. “And what would that be?”
“Wouldn’t you rather be surprised?” Carefully, slowly, so as not to draw attention to herself, Carma started the shift to her true form at her feet, letting the change crawl up her body. Her skin hardened and darkened, her hair turned red.
Opening her eyes, staring straight at her, all the sense of friendliness fell away. “No.” Outstretching her right hand, a bolt like an electric current shot from Lillianna’s hand and attached itself to the old king at the first of the star points. He crumbled, falling to his knees and clutching at his chest where his life essence was sucked away. Lillianna gasped, but stood taller, absorbing the power.
The entire density of the air changed. Carma felt the weight on her shoulders as if the realm physically struggled with the alteration of its balance. She had been in Haven the last time a god had been born, and the effects had gone unnoticed. This, she would never forget.
Slamming her hand to Lillianna’s stone-hard chest, Carma completed her transformation, the strength of her true form singing across every inch of her flesh. Her leathery wings stretched out behind her, a mark of freedom. Reaching for the innermost instinct she had as a demon, she let the power slide down her bronze-toned arm, and into Lillianna’s empty chest.
Lillianna’s face twisted, transforming partially, teeth sharpening, and eyes darkening around the edges like a moonless night. Her hold on the old man did not waver. “What are you doing?”
“Surely you recognize your own ability. Being the first, you originated it. Perhaps I can improve upon the skill.” Knowing exactly where to find the well within Lillianna, Carma dove in, and withdrew a single warm soul, taking it into her own body. It slid up her arm and dove into her chest. The pulse on the air was impossible to miss, as was the shock on Lillianna’s face as a portion of her power was stolen away. Carma was surprised she had managed to steal one so easily. The second would not be as simple. The trouble was, Lillianna was thousands of years old, and no one knew just how deep her well of souls really was. Draining her of them could take more time than they had.
While Lillianna’s hand on her own chest was expected, the pop as a soul was stolen from Carma’s well was not, despite having done it herself. It was like being turned inside out, then back again. “Is this the game we play, Carma? You think you can drain me before I ascend?”
The old king went quiet, and the current from Lillianna’s hand sought its next victim, latching onto his queen.
Somewhere, Carma thought she heard two hearts stop beating.
Within her own body, Carma felt seven souls, including the one stolen from her, enter her well. The added power strengthened her, and she pressed her hand tighter to Lillianna’s chest. Incensed, Lillianna growled and stole another soul in retaliation.
Lillianna hadn’t realized that Carma had initiated her seven-fold curse. Anytime Lillianna retaliated and took a soul from Carma, Carma’s power would automatically take back seven in return. All she needed to do was provoke the exchange.
They drew back and forth from one another. Lillianna stealing one soul and Carma stealing seven. One and seven, one and seven. Carma grew stronger with each attack, while she felt Lillianna weakening on the other side, even as Lillianna drew in the life forces of the human sacrifices. The old queen dropped, and this time Carma was certain—she heard two heart beats go silent.
Lillianna heard it as well. She paused in her tug of war as she transitioned to her true form, her body glittering obsidian glass, and as smooth as water-turned stone. “What was that?”
“What was what? Did you miss that I’m trying to kill you?”
“Not that, you wretch.” Her hands had turned to scaled claws that dug razor sharp nails into Carma’s flesh. “Trading souls back and forth is hardly going to kill me.”
“Are you sure?”
“It was something else. I know it.” She let her gaze wander, as though she would see the problem elsewhere. Carma sucked another soul from her chest. In blind anger, Lillianna did the same, and Carma once again felt seven return to her in the moments after.
It was then that Lillianna went still. Though her connection to her latest victim remained strong, she turned her attention to Carma and their gazes locked.
She’d felt it.
With a swift pull, Lillianna removed her hand from Carma’s chest and swiped her claws from shoulder to rib cage. Carma’s flesh was hard as bronze, but her black and silver blood began to run regardless.
Lillianna flinched seven times as her act was carried out repeatedly across her own chest. She snarled. “Seven-fold.”
Carma simply smiled. “So lovely that we carry these things with us from the white haven, isn’t it?”
“You tricked me.”
“Are you really so power drunk that you did not feel it?”
Nothing was said. They both stood, stock still, barely breathing, neither acting. Even in her true form, Lillianna had no defense and she knew it. To drive the point home, Carma stole another soul.
Lillianna drove her fingers back into Carma’s flesh, but hesitated, her blood ran free from her obsidian flesh, the silver streaks left over from her days in Haven shining in the moonlight.
“Fine,” she said after a long moment, all the thoughtless anger leaving her face. “I am nothing, if not up for a challenge. What kind of god would I be if I wasn’t?” She pressed closer, her lips brushing against Carma’s as she spoke. “See if you can drain me faster than I can ascend.”
She began drawing life from the next of the mortals. The power within her swelled even as Carma took the souls that gave her life one by one. When the life was extinguished from the ruling prince, that odd double heartbeat gave way once more. Lillianna staggered. “Olin! What is that?”
Carma heard him move, but used every bit of her self-control not to look away. She drew out souls, reaching into Lillianna’s bottomless well with no end in sight. Lillianna drained the fourth mortal, the energy crackling on the air, adding a thick weight that pressed down on them both.
When Olin called through the darkness to her, his voice carried an uncertainty Carma had never heard there before. “The hearts,” he said. “They are dead.”
“What do you mean dead?” Bright red lips curled back over pointed teeth. “Kai said
they would beat within me even when I had attained my godhead.”
Carma heard a latch flick open, and something thud to the ground. “Dead,” Olin said. “Useless. Not a beat to be heard.”
A pop on the air and the smell of lavender somehow permeated the smoke and death that surrounded everything. They all knew who it was.
“Tassos.” Lillianna spat his name. “What are you doing here?”
“Just curious.” His lilting voice carried the image of his lazy shrug and casual stance.
“And your curiosity happens to bring you here as the hearts you helped me procure fail and die?”
Laughter. “Oh, Lill. Sweet, sweet, arrogant, Lill. Don’t you know you should always make sure I’m sober before striking a deal with me?”
— CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT —
For what felt like the millionth time, Bri pressed his hands to the stone wall, feeling for any crack, any weakness, any sign of some door or other way out. For the millionth time, he found nothing. The labrynths were alive, but not active, and they failed to respond to his touch. Using blood had crossed his mind, but he had decided not to risk it. Besides, it made no sense for Kai to trap him in a place where his own blood could let him out. He returned to the wall where the words had been carved, tracing the letters and trying to imagine what Kai was thinking as he scratched them into the stone. His hand had been steady at first, but had grown less and less so as he neared the end. Excitement or anger? Or something else entirely? Bri was at a loss at how to guess his brother’s thoughts.
The ground shook and the lines on the walls glowed bright, then faded quickly. A footstep echoed behind him, then another.
“Hello, brother.”
At those words, Bri refused to turn around. “Why am I here, Kai?”
“I could say because you were stupid enough to fall into my trap.”
Not quite true. He had been stupid enough not to ask questions before doing what Dorothea asked of him. He had no doubt it had been her plan all along to land him here. “What’s the other possible answer?”