Styx (The Four Book 1)

by Layla Frost

  Michael turned his attention his way. “What?”

  “The rumors are spreading in hell, too. Whatever is going on has people scared. I don’t like competition.” Blank faced, he feigned a yawn. “Why else would I be here?”

  “Because we sent for you.”

  Levi snorted, rolling his eyes. “Dad’s human pet project is your problem. As long as I get my souls, I couldn’t care less. But my stream of souls is steadily dwindling. I had to send more demons up to make deals. I haven’t had to do that in decades.”

  “Dad is… not happy,” Michael told him, his voice low and secretive. “Promises were made to the worthy, and with their souls being stolen, it’s as if he’s breaking his word. He doesn’t like that.”

  “And I’ve got punks thinking there’s someone bigger and badder out there. Losing street cred, man. Not cool.”

  Michael opened his mouth, only to close it again. He shook his head before looking back at me. “There’s something coming. A threat to heaven, hell, and everything in between.”

  An image of Denny flashed in my head, and I knew I’d do anything the archangel asked if it meant protecting her.

  “Until we find the others,” Michael said, “it’s best if you stay up here.”

  Except that.

  My answer was immediate and firm. “No.”

  Michael looked startled. “But—”

  “No. Fumble no.”

  Levi chuckled. “I believe he’s going for a big, ol’ fuck no.”

  I nodded. “What he said. I’m needed on Earth. Especially if things get as bad as you say.”

  Frowning, Michael leaned back and sighed. “We’ll see what the angels find. But you’re outnumbered down there. Vulnerable.”

  “I don’t give a flying fun. It’s where I was made to be.”

  Despite my efforts not to think of Denny, there was something about the way Michael studied me that made me wonder if he knew. It was as though he was trying to see what I knew about her.

  About who she was.

  There was a hint of smile on his face as he stood. “I’ll be back.”

  When the door closed behind him, Levi spun his finger around. A small vortex grew, surrounding us. He stopped his motion and it quickly shrank.

  I looked around. “Where are we?”

  He gestured to the giant castle. “Disney World.”

  Spinning around to see the sprawling amusement park around us, I faced him again. “Why?”

  “Churros,” he said, like it was obvious.

  He began walking, drawing attention from the masses who moved out of his way. It was the first time I’d seen him on Earth, but the reactions weren’t what I’d expected. No one cowered. No one tried to attack, recognizing the ultimate evil. There was no fear at all.

  People smiled. They craned their necks for a better look. Blushing and laughing, they happily returned his greetings.

  He didn’t gain his followers through fear or force. Seduction and easy charm were all it took.

  Knowing his temper, fear probably kept them in line, though.

  Once he finished flirting with the woman at the stand, he handed me a churro. “So, how’s my girl?”

  My surge of jealousy faded when I saw his expression. His phrasing hadn’t been possessive or salacious.

  It was paternal, and his genuine concern was obvious.

  “She’s good.”

  A sinister grin spread across his face. “Her dad’s not.”

  That surprised me.

  “I wondered where he ended up,” I said.

  “When a messenger of God makes a request of you, technically obeying is not enough. The angels were more than happy to send him my way.”

  Knowing how much damage he’d caused Denny—and the uphill battle that was to come—he more than earned his eternity in hell.

  “Does she know yet?” he asked.

  “About me? Yes. Her? No.”

  “You need to tell her soon.”

  “I will.”

  Levi’s eyes went past me, his thoughts seemingly a million miles away. When he spoke, it was more to himself than me. “I’m looking forward to working with her.”

  I ate the sugary churro, remaining silent as my own thoughts drifted, landing where they always did.

  On Denny.

  “We better get back,” Levi said, walking a distance to throw his trash away. He picked up more garbage as he went, shaking his head. “What kind of monster litters? I’ll be seeing them soon.” With one last look around, his smile growing to a grin, Levi swirled his finger, creating another vortex. As it surrounded us, the view of the castle faded. “It really is the happiest place on Earth. You should take Denny.”

  Before I could respond, we were back in Michael’s office.

  Levi plopped back on the couch, kicking his feet up to purposefully knock off the papers and magazines.

  Michael walked in a moment later. “We didn’t…” he started, trailing off as he stopped suddenly. He inhaled, his eyes shooting to Levi. “Really? You couldn’t wait another ten minutes for a churro.”

  “Nope.”

  Sighing, he shook his head. “Did you at least bring me a cream cheese pretzel?”

  Levi spun his finger. Reaching his hand into the small hole he formed, he pulled out a Mickey Mouse shaped pretzel before the vortex snapped closed. He tossed it to Michael, who caught it easily, grinning wide.

  “Thanks.” Sitting back at his desk, he tore into the snack as he spoke. “The angels had no luck, but there were areas too dangerous for them to go for fear of becoming trapped.”

  “I’ll send minions. If they don’t come back…” Levi shrugged.

  “Good. We need to find the others to prepare for what’s to come.”

  The door behind me opened and more angels walked in. After getting the only useful information I wanted, I sat on the couch next to Levi and tried to figure out how to get home.

  He leaned over and muttered, “Give them twenty minutes, and they’ll start bickering with their noses buried in rule books. As soon as they’re distracted, I’ll get you home to your girl.”

  A commotion started as more angels filled the room, each fighting for attention in order to announce the arrival of the archangel they served.

  “Make that ten minutes,” he amended with a smile. The room erupted in chaos, and he grinned, sitting on the edge of his seat. “You’re missing out on the fun.” Not looking away from the shitshow brewing in front of him, he touched my shoulder.

  The room faded to black, the sounds of shouting growing muffled.

  As fucking thrilled as I was to be getting back to Denny, I had a feeling what awaited me would be worse than what I’d just left behind.

  Denny

  The rhythm of things sucked.

  And it sucked hard.

  I loved my life. After getting away from my dad, I saw how much joy there was in the world. That feeling had multiplied by a million once I was in my grandma’s house and working for myself.

  But I missed Nate.

  No, I fucking missed him.

  He’d been gone for six days. Six long, companionless, sexless days and nights.

  I’d gotten ahead on my work. After multiple shopping trips—with Lula and alone—I’d made a dent in the money Grandma had stashed away.

  First, I’d upgraded my couch. Because if I was going to be snuggling up with a massive man, I needed one that was wider and deeper. And, because I was me, I’d covered it with sequin pillows that switched colors when I rubbed across them.

  Then I’d let Lula drag me to see the bedroom set she’d told me about. I hadn’t planned on getting it, but as soon as I saw it, I fell in love. I’d even paid for next day delivery. The black stained wood was carved into swirls and curves. It was beautifully creepy, like something out of a twisted fairytale.

  I’d also upped my dishes and cutlery game, so I’d been adulting all over the place.

  My house was beginning to look like a home, but it di
dn’t feel like one.

  Not without Nate.

  Stretching in bed after an awesome nap, I contemplated a vibrating therapy session to release some endorphins and cheer me up. I pulled the vibrator from the drawer of my new bedside table, but set it to the side when my phone buzzed.

  Juno: Surprise.

  “What?” I whispered to myself.

  Wondering if she was at my front door, I was about to get up when swirling smoke filled the corner of the room. Drifting up quickly, it dissipated, leaving a man in its place.

  “Miss me?” Nate held out his arms, grinning.

  Scrambling from the bed, I launched myself at him. “Yes! Where were you? I’m so glad you’re back. I’m so mad at you.”

  He chuckled, lifting me by my ass so I could wrap my legs around him. “I’m sorry, my little hellion.” He moved toward the bed and was about to sit when something caught his eye. They darkened, swirling black and gray like the smoke that’d surrounded him. “Did I interrupt something?”

  “Hey, it’s been six days. Like you didn’t… you know.”

  “Stroke my cock, picturing your tight pussy and the little giggle you give me when I make you come? I don’t think that’s allowed in heaven.”

  “Heaven?” I breathed, my mouth falling open.

  “Time passes differently there, so it only felt like hours to me. But even so,” he continued, grabbing the vibrator and tossing it across the room to the garbage, “not all of us are so sex-crazed that we can’t go a few days without.”

  “Six! Six days.” I shook my head as he sat on the edge of the bed with me straddling him. “And that’s not the important part. You were in heaven?”

  “If heaven was a Target—”

  “I knew it,” I whispered.

  He ignored me. “I was in their corporate office. Separate, but still part of it.”

  “How? Why?”

  “It’s a long story. When The Four were sent to Earth, we had help from the Devil’s minions. They’re basically powerless, and their one job is to follow orders. In our case, they acted as a go-between for us and the powers that be. They’re expendable, so if they died, it wouldn’t be a loss.”

  “That’s sad,” I muttered.

  “They’re soulless ass-biters. Levi uses them for target practice, as bowling pins, dartboards, or even the darts themselves. He’s had the same five holding up his TV for the last fifty years.”

  “Levi?”

  “The devil. Satan. Beelzebub.”

  “His name is Levi?” I waved away my own question. “That doesn’t matter. Why were you in heaven?”

  “When I got my memories back, I went looking for my minions. Only one, Andrew, was left. He’s been living in an underground bunker from the Cold War era. And, thanks to the wonder of the internet, he’s been wisely investing my money instead of just burying it.”

  “I thought they were mindless?”

  “Every once in a while, one comes through with a brain. Usually Levi squashes them, so he got lucky.”

  “That’s where the money came from?” I asked, imagining a blue, flying minion with an investment portfolio.

  “Yes, despite your accusations of thievery.”

  I rolled my eyes, not sharing I had also thought he was a gigolo for the elderly.

  “Andrew reached out to the heavens, but things have changed in the last few centuries. It took a while for him to reach the correct people, and when he did, I was summoned.”

  “Summoned? Up to heaven?” I gripped his shoulders. “The heaven?”

  “Yes, my little hellion. I went from being curled around your body in my personal heaven to being beamed up to heavenly bureaucracy. I was not quite as excited about it as you are.”

  “What did they say?” My stomach sank. “Do they want you to stay up there?”

  “They’d fucking die trying to make me,” he said with a growl, his grip on my hips squeezing.

  “What then?”

  “They wanted to know if I’ve been in touch with the others. When I told them where I’d been, caught in the space between, they tried to search for them.”

  “Are they invisible, too? Or…” I couldn’t bring myself to say it.

  “They aren’t dead. Created by the gods themselves, it would take a tremendous amount of power to kill even one of us, let alone three. That’s why I was forced out of my body to exist on a different plane.”

  “But they aren’t invisible?”

  “Not that the angels could find. Levi sent more of his minions through a wormhole to check.” Nate rubbed his chest, his mind miles away.

  I covered his hand with mine. “What’s wrong?”

  His focus snapped back to me, though he didn’t speak right away. After a moment, he seemed to have gathered his thoughts. The look on his face told me I wouldn’t like them.

  Dread filled me.

  “Everything, from hell to heaven, is built on balance. Good needs evil. High needs low. Happy needs sad. When The Four were created, our souls were split, shared with a partner in the world. Someone to fight alongside us. For all the bad we had to do, they would be our good.”

  My stomach clenched, jealousy rearing its ugly head. I blocked out the self-doubt that swirled around my brain, whispering echoes of the hateful insults I’d heard countless times. “Did the angels introduce you to yours?”

  “What?” His lowered brows lifted as realization dawned. “No, my little hellion, there is no one else.” He cupped my cheeks, his thumb under my jaw tipping my face up. “You’re my other half.”

  Supernatural soulmates.

  Lula was right.

  “It’s why I was able to go places with you,” he said. “Why you could hear me. Even though Halloween is a made-up holiday, the belief in magic is real and powerful. It lowered the veil between the planes, but it was our connection that freed me. You saved me.”

  Pride bloomed in me. “I did?”

  “You did, and I’ll never be able to repay you, but I’ll spend my life trying.” Nate’s eyes scanned my face. “Magicks only work with strict balance. Spells call for sacrifices because in order to gain anything, you must be willing to give something up. When Absolve cursed us, to keep the equilibrium, we’d landed in a place and time that would coincide with the one who could save us. With the other half of our souls.”

  “So Absolve knew you’d be back?”

  He shook his head. “Just because we’re in the right time and place doesn’t guarantee anything. You came to visit Eve a couple times, but I was so stuck in my self-loathing hopelessness, I never bothered to go see why your muffled laughter called to me.”

  It’s like what I’d told Lula.

  He’s the one I’m supposed to know. That feeling I’d had was about him, not my mom.

  “When you moved in, the pull was impossible to ignore. Had I stayed invisible, trapped to the one spot, you’d have never known I was here.” His fingertips skimmed across my cheeks as he moved them up to spear into my hair, fisting the strands. “It would’ve been a fate worse than the fires of hell to have you so close but never truly have you.”

  “But you didn’t know I was yours.”

  “I may not have known you were my mate, but I always knew you were mine.”

  I waited for him to kiss me, to take my mouth in the way that consumed my mind, making me forget everything else.

  But he didn’t.

  Instead, he released his hold on me completely, though he didn’t move me from his lap. “Of The Four, I’m the strongest. War, disease, hunger… they all depend on death. I could wipe out my siblings and most of heaven and hell, should I try. Because of this power, my other half would have to be just as strong. To have my back.” A brief yet insanely cocky smirk touched his lips. “To stand up to me. To do what we needed to do. Together.”

  I’d heard the apocalyptic bedtime story and knew the characters.

  Blood whooshed in my ears. My head swam, haziness pushing in. Surrounded by black, my vision blurred
.

  “What’re you saying?” I asked, my voice hoarse and pained.

  “My little—”

  “No, no.” I shook my head, torn between my love of the pet name and dread at the truth of it.

  “My love, it’s not the way the world has made it out to be.”

  Squeezing my eyes shut, my voice was flat and unemotional. “Am I Hades?”

  Haden.

  Haden freaking Underwood.

  Hades of the Underworld.

  He knew. He’d insisted on the name.

  He was right.

  Devil spawn and murderer.

  I shivered violently, my body racking. I’d been able to accept everything. I’d rolled with all that had been thrown at me. But the knowledge that he was right? That I was evil, sent from hell?

  I couldn’t accept that.

  Nate releasing his hold on me before made sense as I scurried off his lap without a fight. I nearly fell but straightened to stand on trembling legs.

  My already shaken world cracked, threatening to implode around me.

  “Am I Hades?” I asked again.

  “In a manner of speaking,” he said, his expression grim as he fed me an evasive answer.

  “Vague is the same as lying,” I shot back.

  “Then yes. In text and prophecy that spoke of us, you were Hades. But you aren’t—”

  “He was right,” I whispered. Looking anywhere but at Nate, my eyes landed on the clock. “I have to go.”

  “Denny, wait.”

  But I grabbed my phone before hauling ass from the room and down the stairs, stopping only to slip on my shoes and snag my purse before continuing out the door.

  No matter how fast I ran, I couldn’t escape the two things I wanted to.

  My memories.

  And myself.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Ashes to Ashes, Mr. Roboto Kicks Asses

  Denny

  “I’M SAILING AWAY,” I SANG dramatically, knocking back the rest of my shot.

  I’d given up using a mixer a few drinks before.

  Lula watched me carefully, her eyes filled with sympathy and anger.

  The sympathy was directed at me.

  The anger at a body in the ground.

  I almost wished it were switched. Sympathy made me even more uncomfortable than affection.