by Linsey Hall
Rage and desperation filled me with strength, and I kicked the door in, then strode inside, sword raised.
Chernobog was trying to grab Rowan, but she’d climbed onto the top of a heavy bookshelf. She’d always been spry, but this was impressive.
Her gaze darted to mine, clear and blue. “Bree!”
The joy in her voice almost made my heart explode.
She recognized me!
I glanced up. The conical ceiling indicated that we were at the top of the tower. I called upon my lightning, determined to kill Chernobog while Rowan was still in a lucid state. I didn’t need her helping him when I was trying to save her.
He was at least seven feet tall, and the snow that whipped around him foretold of dangerous powers. His power felt like ice rushing over my skin and sounded like the roar of a winter wind. It tasted of vomit and smelled like death. It nearly sent me to my knees.
The lightning crackled within me, strong and fierce. I called it from the heavens, urging Thor’s power to come to me. The bolt cracked out of the sky, piercing through the conical roof, which blasted apart, tiles flying everywhere. The white bolt hit Chernobog where he stood.
He stumbled, going to his knees.
His roar tore through the room as he stumbled to his feet. He swung his head like a bull, eyes blazing when they caught sight of me.
“I’m here to take my sister back.” How, though?
This guy was strong. He threw out his hand, a massive spear of black ice hurtling toward me. I lunged to the side, the ice grazing my waist and slicing deep. He powered up another, so fast I couldn’t get to my feet.
Ana lunged into the room, casting her protective shield over me. The black ice spear shattered against it, but Ana went to her knees, her shield dissipating.
That had never happened before.
Fear lanced me like acid through my veins.
It only got worse when Rowan leapt off the bookcase.
But the move didn’t look threatening. At least, not toward Chernobog.
“Shit. She’s enchanted again,” I said.
She ran to Chernobog’s side and grabbed his arm. He dug into his pocket, a move that made my stomach drop. He hurled a rock to the ground, and a gold cloud billowed up.
“No!” Ana lunged.
Chernobog dragged a willing—but cloudy-eyed—Rowan into the golden fog, stealing her away.
Fear like I’d never known chilled my heart. I leapt to my feet, sprinting after them.
“No!” Cade’s roar followed me. He must have come up the stairs after us. “Don’t!”
The one word held so much meaning.
Don’t go in there, or you’ll die.
Everyone knew that jumping through random heavenly transport portals was a death wish. No way Chernobog was going to a place that would be safe.
I didn’t care.
I was going to save Rowan, no matter what.
13
I leapt into the golden cloud, Cade’s words echoing in my ears. When I stumbled out on the other side, the air was vastly warmer.
Ana tripped out of the portal behind me, slamming into my back.
Of course she’d come. I didn’t want her to risk herself, but she was like me.
She’d come for Rowan. And me. No matter what.
And there was no way either of us could defeat Chernobog alone.
A bright moon shined on this new realm, highlighting the white marble columns that surrounded us. The smell of the sea hit my nose, and the breeze pulled my hair back from my face.
Eris’s realm. We were in Greece.
In the distance, Chernobog pulled Rowan along.
“There!” I sprinted after them.
Ana followed.
Figures marched out from behind the columns, warriors in Ancient Greek garb. Their stony faces met mine, and I realized that they were actually statues. Fabulously painted statues, and definitely not human.
Didn’t mean they couldn’t put the hurt on us, though.
I called on Thor’s power, drawing the lightning down from the sky. I gave it everything I had, a complex magical demand that had twenty spears of lightning striking toward the earth. The thunder deafened me, nearly sending me to my knees.
The lightning was no better, blinding me quickly. When it faded, all of the soldiers lay on the ground, cracked into a million pieces.
“Nice.” Ana raced ahead, and I followed, shaking my head to recover from the bright white light.
My lungs burned as we ran after them.
As much as I wanted to catch them, I liked that he ran from us. It meant he feared us. I was terrified we couldn’t beat him—but if he feared us?
Yeah, that was good.
I called upon Loki’s illusion power, commanding it to create a massive tiger. The beast prowled out from behind the columns ahead of Chernobog, then roared, sprinting for him.
Chernobog stopped dead in his tracks, then turned.
A vicious scowl crossed his face as he spotted us.
“Nowhere to go,” I shouted. “I control the tiger.”
He had no way to know it was an illusion. I made flames burst up on either side of us as the tiger prowled behind.
“What magic is this?” he roared.
“I am a Dragon God!” My voice reverberated over the land, so powerful it shocked even me. “I am all power.”
It wasn’t true, but the nature of my magic meant I sure had a ton of it.
From the brief faltering expression on his face, he seemed like he might’ve believed me. Right now, lots of power and all the power were pretty much the same.
I prowled closer, calling on the magic that I had inside me. If I was going to kill him, I needed to create the biggest lightning bolt in the history of time. But I didn’t want him to be holding on to Rowan, or she’d get some of the shock.
The magic gathered inside me as he hurled a black ice bolt at me. I called my shield from the ether, but the ice was so big that it collided with me and sent me flying onto my back. Pain flared.
Ana crouched over me, casting her protective shield. “I don’t know if this will work against him for long. Every hit is like a Mack truck.”
I scrambled to my feet, aching everywhere. Chernobog had Rowan’s arm gripped in his hand, and he was studying the flames that trapped us in a circle. If he tried to break through them, he’d realize they were just an illusion.
With every bit of strength I could muster, I called upon a lightning bolt. Fortunately, Rowan had stepped away from him. Her cooperation had convinced him, maybe.
Or maybe it was because he was holding out both hands, ready to shoot a massive and deadly ice bolt that required two hands. Considering that the one-handed attack had nearly killed me, I didn’t want to know about the two-handed attack.
I didn’t hesitate, sending the lightning down toward him. It cracked through the sky, the scent of ozone burning my nose, and sent him to his knees.
Pale and drawn, he shook his head. Clearly not dead.
Damn it.
Next to him, Rowan’s eyes turned blue.
Hope flared in my chest.
Her gaze darted to the large dagger sheathed at his side, then back to me.
I mouthed, “Wait.”
She nodded, tension clearly vibrating in her shoulders, but she got what I was trying to say.
“We can’t kill him alone.” I glanced at Ana, then nodded toward Rowan.
Beside me, she glowed with a pale white light. It was the same light as before, back in Chernobog’s realm, but it was spreading fast. So fast. It reached Chernobog in seconds. He turned white, gasping.
“You’re doing that!”
“Holy fates, I am.”
I called upon my lightning, wanting to add to the attack.
It crackled inside me. I reached toward the sky, harvesting every bit of energy that I could, until finally, it nearly burst out from the inside. I commanded it to hit Chernobog. The bolt shot down from the sky, striking him on top of
the head.
He crashed to the ground.
Rowan jumped, grabbing the blade at his waist and plunging it into his heart. His neck.
She went wild, hacking him apart as blood sprayed.
“Shit.” I raced for her. She was losing it.
Ana sprinted alongside, breath heaving. We stumbled to a halt by a blood-covered Rowan. The god was nothing but mincemeat from the waist up. She’d hit him so many times in the neck that his head was severed.
She looked up at us, panting.
Then her blue eyes clouded over.
Shit.
Ana lunged for her, throwing her to the ground. She sat on her chest. “Get the knife!”
I grabbed it out of Rowan’s hand, throwing it aside.
She thrashed like a wild thing, but Ana held her down, determination adding to her strength. “We’re not going to lose you now!”
I fumbled in my pocket and dug out the vial of antidote. It took everything I had to get the top off without spilling it. If we didn’t get this down her throat, we would lose her again.
I will not lose Rowan.
With the open vial clutched in my hand, I lunged for her, pinching open her cheeks and pouring the liquid down her throat. She coughed and sputtered, but I closed her mouth and pinched her nose until she swallowed.
Guilt streaked through me—this was not how I imagined our first moments together—but when her blue eyes popped open, recognition and joy flared in their depths.
Tears sprang to my own eyes. “Rowan!”
Ana and I collapsed on her, hugging her. Chernobog’s blood stuck to me, clogging my nose, but beneath it, I could smell Rowan.
“Your magic smells normal!” It hadn’t before—one of the reasons I hadn’t recognized her earlier. But now, I could smell the fresh scent of clover and taste honey on my tongue.
She squeezed tight. “Oh fates, I can’t believe you found me.”
Ana cried next to us, deep sobs that didn’t allow any words through. Tears poured from my own eyes now.
Finally, we were together again.
I jerked back, remembering where we were.
Next to us, Chernobog’s body was disappearing into the ground, being absorbed by the earth. A godly realm claiming one of its own?
Whatever the case… “We have to get out of here.”
Ana gasped and straightened. “Yeah. They could follow.”
“How the hell do we get out?” I asked.
“There’s a portal.” Rowan scrambled to her feet. She was so coated with blood that she looked like Carrie after the prom, but she was the best thing I’d seen in years. “Come on.”
She sprinted across the ground, and we followed. I kept my senses alert, trying to identify oncoming threats. Depending on how my friends did back at Chernobog’s castle, we might have two more Rebel Gods on our tail.
Fear and guilt streaked through me at the thought.
I’d left them. It’d been part of the plan—approved by everyone—but still, guilt reared its ugly head.
Don’t worry. My friends were strong. Cade was a damned god, and Cass was ridiculously powerful. Not to mention Caro, Ali, and Haris.
I had to have faith.
“There!” Rowan pointed to a glowing blue portal.
“Where does it go?”
“No idea!”
“Shit, really?” I stumbled to a stop in front of the portal.
“I only remember some things,” she said. “Depends on how foggy I was at the time something happened.”
“I’m so sorry for everything that’s happened to you.”
She looked me dead in the eye. “Not your fault. Not the time.”
I blinked. She was right. We needed to run for it. Rowan had always been the practical one.
Right now, I was so used to danger in my life—and so not used to her—that I wanted to focus on her instead of getting the hell out of here. I could happily sit down and have a chat, entirely forgetting about the Rebel Gods on our tail.
And that was really freaking dumb.
“Let’s go, then,” I said. “Because this is the most dangerous place we could be.”
At that, energy popped in the air. I turned, drawn by the sensation. Far in the distance, two figures stood.
Eris and Cocidius. Their power rolled toward us.
I turned back. “Go!”
Rowan leapt through the portal, and we followed, stumbling out onto a rocky cliff. The morning sun peeked over the horizon, illuminating the gleaming blue sea that surrounded the rock upon which we stood.
I turned, realizing that we were actually inside a large, ruined temple. The broken white columns speared toward the air.
“We’re on Despotiko Island. The entrance to Eris’s realm,” Ana said. “I was here with Cass.”
“And those gods are coming after us,” I said. “Run.”
We sprinted away from them, but I had no idea where we were going. There was nothing on this island. It was just a freaking rock.
“Should we jump into the sea?” Ana asked. “Maybe there’s a sea cave we can hide in.”
“I could use a bath,” Rowan said.
I laughed, forgetting how funny she was. If we could jump into the sea and find a sea cave, that would be ideal to hide in. But… “There could be sharks. And Rowan, you smell like a shark cookie right now.”
“Good point.”
But we couldn’t fight two gods. We’d barely managed to take out one. My heart thundered as the seconds ticked by. Fear chilled my skin. They were going to jump through that portal any minute now.
Fifty yards away, two figures appeared out of the blue.
Cass and Cade.
“Holy fates!” I sprinted toward them, Rowan and Ana racing to keep up.
“Who’s that?” Rowan asked.
“Our ride out of here,” Ana said. “We’re going home.”
I couldn’t believe our luck.
Epilogue
Two days later, after Cass had used her transporter power to get us off Despotiko before the Rebel Gods caught us, I sat with Ana and Rowan at the back of the Whisky and Warlock. We were lined up on a bench against the wall. Mayhem floated by my head, a ham clutched in her mouth, and a pink cocktail called the Witch’s Rebellion sat on the table in front of me. Ana and Rowan had the same.
“I can’t believe this is our new life.” Rowan gazed around, eyes wide.
“Like it?” I took in the heavy logs in the ceiling and the ancient walls. The fire flickered warmly, and the sound of bagpipes filtered in from out on the street.
“Yeah.” She leaned against me, wrapping her arm around me. “I don’t care where we are. As long as we’re together.”
I leaned against her, and Ana did the same. My gaze drifted over the crowd in the small room where the Protectorate usually hung out after work. Caro, Ali, and Haris were leaning on the bar, while Jude and Hedy had a little corner table. Even Cass, Nix, and Del had shown up, saying that they liked the vibe of this place.
I secretly thought they just wanted to check on us, which was confirmed when Cass’s gaze roved over us and she smiled. I grinned back, nodding my thanks to her, then my gaze drifted on. It collided with Cade’s, who stepped through the door, his dark hair windblown and his cheeks ruddy.
He was so handsome I sighed.
“That’s really your boyfriend?” Rowan asked. “Because, meeeeow.”
“Not my boyfriend.” At least, we hadn’t talked about it.
Ana scoffed. “Whatever. He is.”
“Caro said he fought like a madman back at Chernobog’s realm. Took out all those demons in minutes,” Rowan said.
He had. Apparently my friends had fought Cocidius and Eris for a while, until the Rebel Gods had figured out that Chernobog had run for it with Rowan. At that point, they’d disappeared, too, coming after us. It’d been quick work for them to kill the rest of the demons, then race for the portal so they could come after us. If Cass hadn’t had the ability to telepor
t and we hadn’t found our way back to Earth, we’d be dead. Or captured by the Rebel Gods.
“So you’re not disappointed that we’re no longer in Death Valley?” I asked.
“Heck no. That life is done. This is better.” Her gaze shifted around, her wariness obvious. “Safer.”
“You don’t look like you feel safe.” My heart twisted.
Her lips pressed together, and she reached for my hand. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll get over it.”
“Five years.” It tortured me to think what she’d been through all that time, a captive.
On the other side of Rowan, Ana’s eyes glinted with tears. “We tried to find you.”
“I know. You never gave up.”
“How do you know?” Ana’s voice cracked.
“Because I wouldn’t have given up.”
I swallowed hard. I’d spent most of the last two days crying from joy or grief. Knowing what had happened to Rowan tore me apart.
“Don’t worry.” She squeezed my hand again, as if she could give me her strength. She’d always been the strong one. But oh, how I wished I could have taken her place. “Really. Because of the connection charm, I was enchanted out of my mind most of the time. It was a blessing.”
“So you don’t have terrible memories?” Ana asked.
She’d refused to talk about it until now. Maybe it was the Witch’s Rebellion that loosened her tongue, but I was terrified of what I’d hear. I stiffened my spine. I had to hear it, though. If she’d had to live it, I had to know. So I could get the bastards who’d taken her.
“I do have memories,” Rowan said. “But we’re going to use them to destroy the Rebel Gods.”
Dark satisfaction streaked through me.
“I mean it,” Rowan said. “I can find them. I have enough memory that we can take them out. And we have to. Because they’re after us.”
“For our power,” Ana said.
“Yes. They used mine to build the stronghold. But all along, their plan was to use me to kidnap you. They could only steal one of us five years ago, and it turned out to be me. And then I hunted you.” Her gaze turned dark. “I could have killed you.”
“You were under a deep enchantment. That black oil you were coated with made you…not yourself,” Ana said.