by Heloise Hull
In a sudden moment of hot clarity, I remembered another time, another death. Another person with Egyptian kohl rimming their eyes. “Cleopatra,” I breathed. My past life. She’d watched her lover die by a self-inflicted sword wound. No, I had. I had held Antony as he died. I could still feel his body go limp in my arms. The sphinx had the same, glassy eyes as Antony.
Coronis rubbed my back. “Are you okay? Ava?”
“I’m here,” I said, swallowing heavily.
“You’re safe,” she murmured with a fierce hug. “And whoever sent that creature to its death will pay.”
I broke away to see Aurick clean his blades and slick back his bloody, sweat-matted hair in the ultimate swoon-worthy gesture.
“You were amazing,” I told him.
“You sound surprised.”
“I just didn’t know you had that in you.”
“Yeah, well I almost died doing it so don’t get used to it.” He gave me a lopsided smile. “Do you think I could get that dinner now?”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Aurick stepped out of his room wearing the hell out of a black button down and slacks. His hair framed his face, and his smile looked capable of devastating small economies. I felt more capable of devastating a large bowl of pasta, but the way Aurick looked at me made me think anything was possible. Maybe I could devour two bowls.
Aurick bent down and brushed a kiss along my collarbone. “You look beautiful,” he murmured.
A warm shiver made me quake as he drew away. “You clean up well yourself.” I said, hooking my arm through his and waving goodbye to Nonna.
After Aurick slayed the sphinx, Nonna murmured a low, throaty spell that shrunk the beast’s body down to the size of a large house cat, and we buried her under a cypress tree. To make me feel better about her death, they told me stories about the way sphinxes, in true cat fashion, played with their prey before killing them. Had she won, she would have tortured us before eating my friends and taking me prisoner. It felt more imperative than ever to figure out the source of the attacks and if they were connected.
I was hoping Aurick would have some insight.
“Where are we going?” I asked. Living together was fairly awkward, especially with a shared bathroom. Somehow he managed to look put together while I raced to the bathroom every morning with bedhead and bad breath. With Nonna and Thessaly also living there, it effectively put to rest any romance at the villa. A night out was welcome, although the danger was never far from my mind.
“I have a little something planned.”
“Oh really? How mysterious.”
“I try.” He gave me another, softer kiss on the hollow of my cheek and revved up the Vespa. I slung my leg over, wearing sensible shoes and jeans that made my butt look amazing. Soon, the smell of the sea gave way to cypress as we bypassed the town.
“So, we’re not going to Marco’s tavern,” I shouted.
“Too obvious,” he called back.
I squeezed my arms tighter around his waist as my anticipation grew. I adored surprises. When they weren’t trying to kill me and kidnap my boys, of course.
The road went from dirt to black cobblestones back to dirt before I started to get suspicious. Only when the sacred grove came into view did I know exactly where we were headed.
“The cemetery? I told you I was into ghost hunting, but honestly, I’ve gotten most of that out of my system living here.”
“Will you let yourself be surprised?” Aurick laughed.
“Fine, fine.”
Aurick killed the engine at the entrance to the cemetery and lifted me off the Vespa. I held onto him tightly as he set me down, enjoying the flex of his muscles and his broad shoulders.
“Hello,” he said, our noses almost touching.
“Hello,” I breathed back.
A brawl crashed behind us and I jumped, my heart racing. Another attack?
The housewife and Knight came into view, arguing like snakes and mongooses.
“I told you it wasn’t time yet,” she declared. “Get back, you scoundrel.”
“They are right there, woman. Of course it’s time. Get the lute. Don’t tell me you dropped it,” the Knight groaned.
“I did not,” she said indignantly. “And if I had, woe is me, since you can’t even reach your toes!”
“Nag, nag, nag. It’s not as if I can lose weight. We’re ghosts. This is it, baby,” he patted his girth. “As it was, I recall a certain woman screaming at a bloodthirsty necromancer on my behalf, so don’t play the coy maiden now. It’s much too late for that.”
“I can change my mind whenever I want. It’s my prerogative and my afterlife, thank you.”
“Ah-hem,” Aurick coughed.
They both flowed to us, the housewife fussing at my hair while the Knight puffed out his chest and flourished his arm over what I now saw was a carefully prepared picnic. Orbs glowed around the tombstones and cassia incense tinted the air. Silver cloches covered trays set on a blanket.
“We’re not having Marco’s food?” I asked, one eyebrow raised.
Aurick simply smiled as the Knight began a hair-raising rendition of Can You Feel the Love Tonight on the lute. Who taught him that song was a question I didn’t want answered. Then, with all of the pomp and circumstance of a three star Michelin chef, Aurick lifted the cloche.
“Imo’s!” I laughed delightedly at the pizza box. “How did you get this?”
“I have St. Louis connections.”
“What’s under the other cloche?” I pointed.
“I also had Marco wrap up tonight’s special for those of us with their taste buds still intact,” he grinned smugly.
“You’re crazy,” I said through a mouthful of Provel cheese.
Aurick popped the cork on a bottle of prosecco, sending the cork to spiral into the sky. “What does that say about you?”
“I try not to dwell on things like that,” I said and accepted the crystal flute, wincing at a particularly high note from the Knight. Bubbles tickled my nose as I took my first sip. It was sharp and sweet all at once, much like the moment.
We sat down to pizza and bowls of lobster pasta, swimming in a creamy herb sauce with peas, tarragon, and fresh basil. Everything tasted divine.
Aurick topped off my glass. “How are you holding up?” he asked.
I shook my head back and forth in a so-so gesture. “It’s good to know the boys are protected with everyone’s combined magic, but I know it’s not a long-term solution.”
“No. I think you’ll have to send a message. Find the person responsible for these attacks.”
“You think it’s one person?”
“I think it’s very possible that someone is bank-rolling and coordinating the attacks, yes.”
I swallowed a bite of buttery lobster and considered my words for a moment. “You don’t think it has anything to do with Luca. Do you?”
“No, and only because the first attack happened while he was under my custody.”
“Right. When Coronis was knocked out and I was in St. Louis, too.”
“Yes. It would have been impossible to coordinate. And he seemed quite focused on his wife’s soul. I don’t think he’s that concerned with destroying or rising great empires. More with the earthly pleasures here and now.”
“So what do I do?”
“We, Ava. What do we do,” Aurick corrected. He gripped my hand once and gave me a reassuring smile. “We find the head of the snake and we cut it off.”
“Right.” I sighed deeply, resorting to pushing food around my plate. Was this curse going to hang over this life as well? What about the next one? Oh God, that was too much to consider. Would I have to get to know Rosemary, Marco, Coronis, and Nonna all over again? Would they still be alive?
“Do you think we ever met in one of my previous lives?” I asked suddenly.
“You mean, do I believe in souls finding each other again and again?”
I reddened. “I didn’t mean to imply we’re soulmate
s or something like that.”
Aurick’s eyes crinkled sexily as he smirked. “Can I tell you a story?”
I nodded and settled into a pillow as the housewife screeched at the Knight to leave us be and give us some space. I guess it was the thought that counted.
“The problem with immortality is simple. Our human brains can’t remember everything. Just like when we were alive, earlier memories are pushed out to make room for new ones. Under guided help, I’m sure I could recover them, but I prefer not to dwell on the past.”
“So you wouldn’t even remember if we’d met,” I said, thinking about how Coronis had forgotten Mak battling Ares.
“Probably not. I don’t even know if I’ve been in love. The closest thing I can recall wasn’t romantic in nature.”
I knitted the space between my eyes. “What do you mean?”
“During the nineteenth century, I flitted between courts offering my services. Basically, I tutored heirs to the throne, back when it was fashionable to have ‘exotics’ at court. There was one little boy in particular, so bright and keen to learn about the mysteries of the world. We would sit for hours discussing everything from the path of the sun to different bird songs. Because he was a minor son and not thought to inherit, he could slip away to show me his newest discoveries. Usually a leaf full of frog eggs or a working automaton from a traveling inventor.”
“He sounds adorable,” I said.
“He was. Alas, he grew into something I didn’t recognize, hardened by life on the fringe of royal power. I think it ruined him. Ultimate power was always in view, but just out of his grasp. I denounced him after the fifth time I had to bail him out of a dark situation before the press or, later on, his wife discovered his misdeeds.”
“Did you go to another court?”
“No, I was too devastated to start again.”
“What did you do, then?”
“That’s when I found the Council and another purpose. Keeping supernaturals safe.” He gave me a light smile. “How is it that every time I’m around you, I say something that I’ve never admitted before?”
“I guess I just have that sort of face.” I didn’t want to admit to Aurick how conflicted I felt. The Council did not seem life-saving to me. Bruno and all of the other members who stayed silent loomed in my memories.
Aurick suddenly lunged, scattering the pillows and silver cloches with his frenetic movement. My gasp caught in my throat as he crossed the distance and gripped the back of my neck. His kisses were insistent and hungry while his other hand slid up my back. Its path left goosebumps in its wake. His mouth was warm and inviting, and I suddenly found myself yanking on his arms to pull him on top of me, his weight deliciously heavy on my chest.
I roamed from his chest to his abs and around his back to his butt. Firm. Very firm. I felt his own dinner plate-sized hands tug at my hair as he sank into my lips. I let him shimmy up my shirt and trace lines down my stomach that made me shiver and gasp.
“You are so beautiful. Every inch,” he swore, continuing to trace imaginary lines with his tongue.
If it wasn’t for the loud clunking, as the Knight clearly fell on his ass and couldn’t get up, I don’t know where his tongue would have gone next. Instead, we broke apart at the interruption. The Knight continued to curse as Aurick stared into my eyes and gave me a soft smile. “I won’t forget this moment,” he swore, laughing.
I returned his smile, suddenly feeling shy. When was the last time I was that impulsive? Ever? While Jim wasn’t my first, he was only my second. In this lifetime, at least.
Aurick pressed a thumb to my lip. I seemed to have lost the ability to string words together, but Aurick handled it for me. He gave me a last, lingering kiss and gestured to our half-eaten dinner. “Shall we finish?”
“Why do you think I was attacked this time instead of the boys?” I ventured as we finished our cold pizza and lobster. The prosecco bubbles had all fizzed away, but it was still delicious under the light of the moon in a sacred grove in Italy.
“If I had to make an educated guess… I would say they are trying to use you to get to your boys. I assume they want the boys to control them. Whoever has heard the prophecy about the She-Wolf believes your offspring can rise or destroy empires. There’s always the chance you were a target so that a power-hungry fool could try mating with you.”
“Ew.”
“Although, I would hedge my bets that they wouldn’t want to wait that long for a new pair of twins to grow up. Or risk mating with you and having a single child. That puts them behind nine months before they can try again.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better, Aurick!” I screeched.
“Sorry, I know. I know.”
I chewed on my bottom lip. “Who do you think is behind this?”
“It could be anyone who wants power.”
“That sort of reminds me… I think I figured something out in the Library of Alexandria. Something serious.”
“What is it?”
“Can I trust you?” I asked, holding his gaze.
Aurick’s eyes were genuinely hurt. “Ava, on my life. Yes.”
“It’s about the Council.”
“I never meant to mislead you before,” he said quickly.
“Good. Because I think they built the Arch to imprison an archon.”
Aurick’s jaw literally dropped to the blanket. It felt nice to shock him.
Before, he could recover, I barreled ahead and told him about my encounter in the bathroom. “And it gets worse.”
“Worse than an archon?”
“Yes. There’s also a dying god. He’s here. On Aradia. Thoth is sleeping under the basilica.”
For perhaps the first time in his long life, Aurick was literally speechless.
“So you see,” I told his frozen face, “it’s even more critical that we figure out who’s behind the attacks. What if other groups know about the archon or about the god? I can’t be the only one that heard him in a thousand years. If others know, they might try to free him for themselves, thinking they can control his powers, like the Council clearly does.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not sure exactly. All I know is that the archon is tethered there and you use his power with your bone dagger to astral jump. Those are my only pieces to the puzzle. To be completely frank, I don’t even have the picture on the box to tell me what the puzzle looks like, let alone enough pieces to solve it.”
Aurick rubbed his clean-shaven face with hand. “This… is a lot to process.”
“I know. There is one piece I think you can help me with.”
“Oh?”
“Why did the Council let me go? It has something to do with that blood sample they took. I’m certain.”
He moved uncomfortably.
“Aurick, help me. Why did the Council free me?”
“I’m not involved in their decision making,” he said, his voice as strained as a bad back. “But I would assume it’s because they’re waiting to see what else happens. They must know there’s something more to Aradia.”
“Like a dying god?”
“They don’t know about Thoth. Otherwise this place would be swarming with Council members and their agents.”
“We have that going for us, I guess.”
“But they’re clearly suspicious that something here triggered your powers. And they were right.”
“So I’m bait.” I stabbed a piece of lobster with my fork.
“They’re doing the best they can,” Aurick said gently. “They’re not evil.”
“Tell that to the fang marks in my neck.”
“Bruno didn’t feed on you. He merely opened up a vein in a very humane way.”
“Do you hear yourself?” My fury was rising, opening a wedge of discontent that threatened to topple my world. I stood up quickly and tried to take cleansing breaths. Inhale. Exhale. Aurick stood with me, which meant he towered a foot over me. Suddenly, I didn’t like it as much.
“They keep our world safe from the gods. Isn’t that what we both want?” He took my hands, but I whipped them out of his grip.
“Look,” he said, his voice a tad harder. “They’re guardians of our world. Sometimes that involves making difficult decisions.”
“So are you going to tell them about Thoth?” I asked.
Aurick’s jaw clenched. He worked it up and down like he was considering. “I don’t know. In my bones I trust them.”
“Tell me what they found with my blood, then, if they’re so trustworthy.”
“I can’t. I have no idea. I’m not a senior Council member.”
“So you’re low level management. Or perhaps just the assistant to the assistant,” I said, hearing how horrible the words were, but unable to stop them.
Or unwilling.
Aurick straightened his shirt and smoothed out the wrinkles. “Thank you for the evening, Ava, but it’s late. I think it’s time to head home.”
I winced. Somehow, this night had gone completely sideways and the air no longer smelled like prosecco and lobster. I could taste the decay of a graveyard on my tongue and it was bitter.
Shame and anger swirled through me, both fighting for supremacy of my feelings and actions. Anger won. I let him lead us back to the villa in silence. We said a curt goodnight, and I added to his retreating back, “I trusted you, so I would prefer that you don’t report back this information to the Council just yet.”
“It could destroy our world.”
“So could the Council invading Aradia,” I shot back. “What if they took Rosemary or Coronis next time? What if they triggered the dying god? What if,” I said slowly, enunciating every word, “that’s exactly what they want?”
Aurick’s face wasn’t hard to interpret. He was torn, and this time, when I screamed into my pillow, I almost missed the Transformers.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The bakery was warm and inviting. It enveloped me in sugar, and while it didn’t quite soothe all of my aches, it at least made them slightly more bearable. I hadn’t realized Thessaly had tagged along until she dropped from the door lintel as I walked in, casually tossing her cerulean hair over her shoulder.