by Bella Klaus
At the double doors, I placed a hand on the brass handle and pushed, but it wouldn’t budge. Magic pulsed at my fingertips, inviting me to push back. I snatched my hand away. The moment I shoved fire magic into that ward would be the moment Kresnik realized my secret and subjected me to a ritual to steal the rest of my magic.
“If the door is sealed by magic, we’ll try a side exit,” said Hades. “Failing that, you can always walk down into the Flame and up through one of their exits.”
I inclined my head and continued down to a ballroom of eighteen-foot-high arched windows that overlooked Hampstead Heath. The men I’d spotted earlier in the day stood around a roaring fire that danced and billowed in the wind.
The exit at the end of the ballroom was a fire door that only required me to press down on a metal bar to open it. I stepped out, and a blast of tree-scented air blew over my cloak. If the wind was this strong, what would it do to all of Hades’ particles?
“Are you alright?” I whispered.
“Quite cozy, actually.” His voice echoed within the confines of my hood.
I stumbled forward. “When did you sneak into my cloak?”
“The real question is how much of me is swirling around your delectable body?”
“Where are you?” I stopped walking and grabbed the cloak’s fastenings, ready to tear it off and let him drift into the wind.
“In the hood,” he said with a chuckle. “Is there someplace you’d prefer me to linger?”
I curled my hands into fists. “If you so much as venture an inch below my neck, I’ll—”
“Calm yourself, Innamorata.”
“Don’t call me that,” I snapped.
“Touchy,” he crooned.
I squeezed my eyes shut, exhaling one calming breath after another. This wasn’t going to work. Hades didn’t take me seriously. Not even when he depended on me to help him reform his body. My hand rose to the bridge of my nose, and I tried to puzzle out how much we really needed him.
Kresnik had lost control of my power, which meant that it was returning to me. Without the firestone encasing my heart, it was only a matter of time before I could return to being a phoenix. Once I had that magic, I could find a way to take control of Valentine and make him lead me to his heart, then we could warn the Supernatural Council of Kresnik’s resurrection.
There were probably a hundred things I’d missed out in this assessment, but Valentine and I could work through them as soon as I reunited his heart and body. I turned back toward the ballroom with my hands curled into fists. Hades needed to learn that I wasn’t his plaything. The only way I could convey that was by letting him know we didn’t need him.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“New demand,” I said. “No more sexual harassment. Verbal, physical, or gestural.”
“You’d let the realms collapse into each other over a few jokes?” he asked.
“Don’t gaslight me,” I said. “You’re the one who’s making our work together unbearable.”
Hades didn’t speak for several moments. Perhaps he was wondering if I was serious about calling off our association. I held my features in a mask of calm, my heart thrumming with trepidation. Everything I had said to myself earlier about being able to save Valentine had been true, but having the help of a being with immense knowledge, power, and the ability to slip in and out of spaces undetected could shorten the time it took to defeat Kresnik.
“Miss Griffin?” he asked.
“What?” I placed my hand on the door, ready to push it open.
“I agree to your terms.” His sullen tone implied that I was spoiling his fun.
“Then direct me to the ring.”
For someone with the weight of a faction of Hell on his shoulders, he seemed remarkably relaxed about his current state of helplessness. Maybe Hades was sick of ruling his part of Hell and missed the days of the Greek underworld, when there couldn’t have been more than a million souls.
I continued around the house, past the group of men burning wood on their pyre. “Am I going the right way?”
“Yes,” he replied in a monotone.
We headed toward a corner, where a line of trees formed a barrier between the mansion and its vast garden. “How far is it?”
“A few hundred feet.”
Up ahead, a side door opened, and Brother David stumbled out, heading toward us and staring out through unseeing eyes. He wore the same denim donkey jacket as usual, but food stains marred his white sweater. A thick rope of drool ran down one side of his face, catching on days’ old stubble.
I stepped back, placing a hand over my mouth. “Are you alright?”
Brother David walked past without sparing me a glance.
“Never mind that soulless thing,” said Hades. “What you need to concern yourself with are all the souls that will soon be trapped within corpses.”
“Did his spirit move onto the afterlife?” I continued around the mansion, glancing over my shoulder to find Brother David hurrying toward the fire.
“If he didn’t, the reapers would have caught up with him by now,” Hades muttered.
I turned a corner and stepped onto a paved walkway. Wooden benches sat between tall oak trees that had shed their foliage, leaving piles of leaves on the ground.
“A few more feet, and it’s on the right,” he said.
“Can you see it?”
“The ring calls to its master.” Hades directed me to stick my hands in a pile of damp leaves.
My fingers brushed against something metallic. I snatched it off the ground and rose to my feet.
There was nothing ring-like about the object, and it looked extremely uncomfortable with black stones around its band. A skull protruding from its front, grinning through diamond eyes and a set of sharp gemstone teeth. It wore a silver crown decorated with diamonds and more of those black stones, but even that looked gruesome.
“You had to wear that?”
“Hideous, isn’t it?” he said. “Put it in your pocket before someone snatches it from you and declares themself monarch of the Fifth Faction of Hell.”
I put the ring away, trembling at the implication that I might be its temporary monarch.
“Satisfied?” he asked. “Now you may dangle that ring over me like a carrot to make me obey your every whim.”
“Alright,” I said, although something in his tone told me he considered this time away from Hell a vacation. I turned back toward the house, ready to get started on our quest. “Show me the first jar.”
“You’ve been sleeping above it for days,” he said.
“What do you mean?” I continued down the walkway.
“King Valentine dumped it on the bedside table. When you threw yourself off the bed, it fell on the floor and rolled beneath the bed, leaving a hairline crack for yours truly to slither out.”
“Oh.”
“So I have you to thank for my freedom,” he said, his voice smug.
I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth. Hades was a dick, but now that I had his ring as leverage, it decreased the chances that he would betray us at the last minute. As we rounded the corner, I turned toward the lawn, where the men standing around the fire burst into raucous cheers.
“Do you know what they’re doing?” I asked.
“Burning the failures,” he said. “I overheard Healer Calla tell one of those oafs that not all the people she’d injected with vampire blood rose after she’d shown them mercy.”
My steps faltered. “She killed them?”
“You are aware of the phrase ‘mercy killing’?”
“Yes, but…” I rubbed the back of my neck.
Regular vampire blood had healing qualities. I wasn’t sure how far they extended, but part of me had hoped that the people who had been injected might recover from their illnesses. It was one thing to inject dying people with preternatural vampire blood but another to kill them afterward.
I shook the confusion out of my head and continued down the walkw
ay. “Never mind.”
“Surprised?” he asked with a hint of amusement.
Hades probably thought I was being naive for thinking Healer Calla wouldn’t have murdered all those people. I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to stave off a headache. “Not really. I suppose you can’t make a vampire without killing the host.”
“I much prefer the traditional method,” he said with a chuckle.
My lips pressed into a thin line. Was he talking about vampires using Neutrals as surrogates to produce offspring or something else?
A pained roar filled the air, and I spun toward the lawn. Brother David crawled out from the crowd of men, coughing like he was about to eject his lungs. His companions crowded around him and patted him on the back.
I broke into a run and tore across the lawn. “What are you doing?”
The men straightened, and one of them stepped forward with a confident swagger. I recognized him from the day Valentine appeared outside the wards as one of the guards in donkey jackets. He wore his thinning strawberry-blond hair parted in the middle and grinned at me through gapped teeth.
“We don’t mean any harm. Dave here thought the ashes were edible, so we—”
“So you let him eat them?” I asked.
He shuffled on his feet, rubbing the back of his neck. “Dave’s immortal, isn’t he? Some of us just wanted to see how quickly he would heal.”
I glanced from him to the men on the other side of the fire, wondering what on earth made them think that rising from the ashes once gave a person eternal life. The real Brother David was dead and gone. “What the hell are you talking about—”
“Miss Griffin,” Hades hissed.
I clenched my teeth. It wasn’t like I was about to launch into a rant about Kresnik, but the warning was welcome. “Our Lord resurrected Brother David so he might fight in the upcoming war,” I said, trying to sound like someone who thought the sun shone out of the Light Lord’s ass. “Let’s not waste a warrior of the Flame on frivolous pursuits.”
“Nice,” said Hades.
The men glanced away, some of them slinking to the other side of the fire. I dropped to one knee and placed a hand on Brother David’s back. “Are you alright?”
He fell to the ground, clutching his belly.
A pair of men helped him to his feet. “I’ll take him to the infirmary.”
“See to it that you do,” I said.
“What was the point of that?” Hades said, sounding thoroughly unimpressed.
I waited for the men to help Brother David halfway across the lawn before moving the contents of my left pocket into my right and dropping to my knees. I reached into the edges of the pyre and scooped up a handful of ash.
“We’re going to need this,” I whispered. “When I empty out your bodily remains, I’ll replace it with this useless stuff, so no one can suspect what we’re doing.”
Chapter Seventeen
I strode away from the bonfire and its oppressive heat and crackle and pop. My heart wouldn’t stop trembling. That excuse of protecting Brother David from eating more ash had to work. I dipped my head, picked up my pace, and wished the ground didn’t sink under my feet with every step. Those men were probably watching me return to Kenwood House, wondering what on earth I would do with the ashes I confiscated.
The white building seemed a mile away, and the trees lining the pathway loomed toward me. Paranoia twisted my thoughts, making me feel like every one of the mansion’s symmetrical, multi-paneled windows had eyes that would report my actions back to Kresnik.
Nobody would guess what I was going to do, would they? Kresnik hadn’t even announced that he’d separated the ashes of the Demon King. As far as everyone knew, he was burned and gone.
The sun disappeared behind a dark cloud, casting the gardens in gloom. Even though the reaper cloak protected me from the brunt of the cold weather, a shiver trickled down my spine. I couldn’t tell if it was because of the change in weather, the hell ring in my pocket, or my upcoming mission.
Now, my next task was to replenish the ashes that had escaped from the jar beneath our bed and place it back on the table. There was another jar of ashes within Healer Calla’s room that I needed to empty, and Hades claimed to know the locations of the other jars.
“Mera?” shouted a deep voice from the right.
My heart jumped into my throat, and I tried not to yelp. I glanced into the distance to find a large figure racing toward me from the other side of the lawn and waving like a maniac.
“Wait up.” It was Racon, wearing a white t-shirt and his denim jacket tied around his waist. Sweat beaded his flushed face and plastered his red hair to his brow. He slowed to a jog. “Have you seen Roman?”
I shook my head. “Not since that last assessment. Have you?”
“Leman said he didn’t return to his room.” He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and swiped it across his face.
“Oh.” I dipped my head and stared down at my boots as we continued toward the door that led to the Flame.
Until I knew for sure what had happened to the so-called elite team, it wouldn’t be fair to speculate. Martika seemed like a nice girl, but so did most of the young people I’d met here. Unfortunately, everyone who had spent a significant amount of time in the Flame was under the impression that Kresnik was some kind of savior.
“Get rid of him,” Hades whispered. “You have things to do, jars to collect.”
I ignored the demon in my hood and glanced up at my teammate. Dark circles ringed his eyes, and his usually cheerful features lay slack with grief. It was no surprise, since there wasn’t a way to solve his particular dilemma. Even if he and Gail had different mothers, they were still the children of the combined entity that was Kresnik and Father Jude.
“Is Gail talking to you yet?” I asked.
“She says there’s nothing to discuss,” he muttered. “Even if we can’t be together like that, she’s still my best friend.”
“Right,” I replied, trying to puzzle out something to say. “She probably needs a bit more time to think things through.”
Butterflies crawled across the lining of my stomach, making me twitch. I’d dealt with breakups before. There was the one I thought I’d had with Valentine, then each time Beatrice was disappointed by the end of a relationship. If this had been any other situation, I might have something more helpful to say, but theirs was impossible to solve.
As we passed beneath the trees and continued along the walkway that ringed the house, a cold wind rustled from the branches above.
How would I react if I discovered I was related to Valentine? I pushed away that thought. Having him preternatural and under the control of Kresnik was bad enough without imagining other complications.
“Are you going to the morning briefing?” Racon asked.
“I thought I’d missed it.”
He paused by the door that led to the Flame. “They’re getting later and later each day. Our Lord is searching for an old enemy who fled to another realm.”
My head snapped up. “Did he say who?”
Racon shrugged. “Isn’t General Sargon keeping you up to date?” His brow furrowed. “He’s treating you alright? I don’t mean to intrude, but Coral says—”
I placed a hand on his arm. “Coral isn’t the biggest fan of vampires.”
With a nod, Racon reached for the handle and opened the door.
“Forget about the briefing,” Hades whispered in my ear. “While Kresnik is busy ranting at his followers, you can raid his office for my ashes.”
I stepped into the concrete stairwell, my insides thrumming with determination. Actually, that was a brilliant idea.
We descended the steps in silence and opened the door at the bottom. As soon as we stepped into the white hallway, Valentine’s smoky power approached, mingled with Kresnik’s sharp edges, along with something more ominous that reminded me of choking on cigarette and exhaust fumes.
My stomach clenched. I turned my head to fi
nd Valentine and Kresnik walking side by side, their large bodies taking up most of the hallway’s width.
“Damnit,” Hades hissed.
Valentine wore his usual black denim, this time with a round-necked jacket that buttoned up to his neck with button-down pockets at the front that gave his outfit a military feel. Beside him, Kresnik wore his usual white, looking like a male yoga instructor. His hair was still as red and flowing as before, showing no signs of returning to that of the blond sun god. I wondered if that was because Kresnik had used Father Jude’s body as a base.
Behind the pair was a group of figures wearing hooded cloaks following them in single file. I placed a hand over my throat. They were the source of the choking sensation.
My gaze skipped to Valentine, who I thought might growl the way he did the time Racon tried to shake my hand or rush to attack like he did the time when Racon stood at my side while Valentine was trying to get through the wards. His features remained still, although one of his brows lifted.
My throat dried, and I forced my features into a smile.
“There she is.” Kresnik spread his arms wide.
“See you later.” Racon swept into a deep bow before jogging down the hallway and leaving me alone with Kresnik, Valentine, and their followers.
Valentine’s gaze drifted to the disappearing man and then back to me, his expression unreadable. I glanced from Kresnik’s grinning features to Valentine’s neutral ones, now remembering that Racon was technically my brother as well as Gail’s. Hell, everyone here was some relative or another, including the fiend standing next to Valentine.
“Have you decided to attend our brunch briefing, my dear?” asked Kresnik.
I inclined my head into what I hoped looked like a gentle bow. “Yes, Father.”
“Good girl,” he said with a chuckle and turned to Valentine. “You certainly have her well-trained.”
Valentine also inclined his head. “The blood oath went as you commanded.”
My features froze as they approached. What the hell was this new development about?
Valentine placed an arm around my back, and dug his fingers into my waist. It was partially a warning for me to behave myself. Hades remained silent, which I guessed was because of Valentine’s vampire hearing, and I walked alongside the pair.